Walk the stretch of Bull Street between 22nd and 41st on a Tuesday evening this August and you will pass a wood-fired seafood spot cooking behind glass, a shuttered storefront waiting on a neon sign, and a cafe serving biscuits in a building that used to smell like something else entirely. None of it reads as new construction. All of it is old brick with new names on the lease.
That is the actual story of this corridor right now, and it is a different story than "Midtown is booming." The addresses are not multiplying. They are changing hands, in a pattern specific enough that if you know what used to occupy a storefront, you can often guess who is running it now.
Two Buildings, One Story
Start with 2401 Bull Street. For years this was Back in the Day Bakery, one of the shops credited with helping pull the Starland District out of its slow decline in the first place. The bakery closed, and the space did not sit empty for long. Flora & Fauna, a cafe and supper club, took it over. By day it runs a seasonal breakfast and lunch menu from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., locally sourced, built around Southern comfort staples. By night, Wednesday through Sunday, the same room turns into a reservation-only supper club. The business's own description of the move calls it taking over the hallowed grounds of the former bakery, which tells you the new owners understood exactly what they were stepping into.
One block up, at 2400 Bull Street, the same pattern is mid-motion instead of finished. That building, redeveloped into a mixed-use complex between 2020 and 2022, currently holds Sola Salon, F45 Training, Brochu's Family Tradition, and Garden Square. Its newest vacancy was Lite Foot Company, a zero-waste refill shop that closed and left a gap in the storefront lineup. This past June, the Savannah Historic Preservation Commission approved a sign petition for the space's next tenant: Leopold's Ice Cream, looking to open its fourth location, joining the flagship downtown, the Whitemarsh Island shop, and the airport kiosk. The sign is aluminum channel letters with enclosed neon illumination, a little under 30 square feet, and as of this writing no one has announced a date for the shop to actually open its doors. The petition just cleared the commission on a consent agenda.
Here is what those two addresses have in common. Neither business built anything. Both walked into a room that already had a story, and both are now writing the next chapter of that specific room rather than starting a new one somewhere raw.
| Address | Who was there before | Who's there now | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2401 Bull St | Back in the Day Bakery | Flora & Fauna | Open, running day and night service |
| 2400 Bull St | Lite Foot Company | Leopold's Ice Cream | Sign approved, opening date not yet announced |
| 2218 Bull St | (previous tenant not part of current reporting) | Fishbar | Open since December 2025 |
The Same Names, Moving Down the Street
Fishbar, at 2218 Bull Street, adds a second layer to this. The restaurant opened in December 2025, built around an open kitchen with a charcoal smoker, a dry-ager, and a custom wood-fueled grill, serving small plates with a Mediterranean lean and a few Dominican and Central American flavors mixed in. It won Savannah Magazine's Best New Restaurant honor in the publication's 2026 Best of Savannah results.
The person behind it is Anthony Debreceny, whose first Savannah restaurant was Collins Quarter back in 2014 and who also owns Ukiyo, the Asian fusion spot a short walk down the same corridor. That is not a coincidence of geography. It is the same operator, the same neighborhood, a new concept in a new room. If you have eaten at Ukiyo, you already know something about who is cooking at Fishbar, because it is largely the same people who decided Bull Street was worth a second bet.
This is the part that a generic "new restaurants in Savannah" roundup misses. The corridor is not absorbing a wave of outside investment. It is being built out by a small number of operators who already know the street, recycling both buildings and relationships. Growth here looks less like expansion and more like a group of people who trust each other taking turns.
What Hasn't Moved
None of this churn touches Habersham Village, the four-building shopping stretch on Habersham Street that has anchored Midtown for more than 30 years. Red and White grocery is still there, one of the few remaining independent supermarkets in the city. Bay Camera Company and Habersham Beverage are still across from it, alongside a Rite Aid. None of these businesses are new, and none of them are trying to be.
Habersham Beverage won Best Liquor/Package Store in Savannah Magazine's 2026 Best of Savannah awards, edging out Johnnie Ganem's Wine & Package Shop. That is not a headline anyone writes a story about, because nothing changed. But it is worth sitting with for a second. The corridor's most talked-about news this year is all turnover: new tenants in old rooms, a chef moving from one concept to the next. Habersham Village's news is that nothing moved and the judges noticed anyway. Two blocks apart, two entirely different definitions of what counts as a good year.
The One Thing That Doesn't Fit
Not everything on this stretch has been a smooth handoff. Over the summer, Starland District business owners dealt with a string of break-ins, enough that Savannah Police held two separate meetings with owners to talk through what was happening. Whitney Shephard, who owns Green Truck Pub, described the mood among business owners plainly:
"Are we going to be next, or who's going to be next?"
Savannah Police Chief Lenny Gunther told owners the department would keep its focus on the area even after an arrest was made in one of the burglaries. Mayor Van Johnson said investigators were looking into whether the same suspect was connected to other commercial break-ins nearby, and that police had increased patrols in the corridor's commercial stretches while reviewing surveillance footage.
What stands out about this, even as an unwelcome disruption, is that it followed the same pattern as everything else on this street. The second police meeting specifically brought together brand new business owners with people who had been on the corridor for years, so the newcomers and the long-timers could compare notes directly. Even when something goes wrong here, the corridor's response runs through its existing relationships rather than around them.
What This Adds Up To
If you live near Bull Street, none of this requires you to do anything. But it does answer a question you might not have known you were asking: why does this stretch feel busier every year without feeling like it is being demolished and rebuilt? The answer is that it isn't. The buildings are the same. The people cooking, pouring, and selling ice cream are frequently the same people from a few doors down, trying a new idea in a room with history attached to it. The corridor's growth is really its own small network taking turns, while a handful of unglamorous storefronts up the street keep doing exactly what they have always done, well enough to win an award nobody had to campaign for.
That is a different kind of neighborhood story than the one most sites tell about Midtown. It is not about arrival. It is about succession, and about a street that seems to know its own cast of characters well enough to keep handing them the keys.
If you are keeping an eye on what's next for this stretch of Bull Street, or you are curious what any of this means for property values or timing nearby, Marjorie Wester knows this corridor block by block and is always glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
