Toco Hills Is Getting a Second Bookstore. Here's How Oak Grove's Weekend Errand Run Is Changing.

"I think we just keep doing what we've been doing," Rebekah Hagedorn told Atlanta News First in April. She owns Tall Tales Book Shop, and she had just learned that Barnes & Noble was taking the empty space in the same shopping center. She found out when a reporter came by to ask her about it.

Six months later, the chain's store locator lists the Toco Hills location at 2943-C North Druid Hills Road with a short status line: "Opening October 21st." For anyone in Oak Grove who drives LaVista Road for groceries, coffee, or a library book, the center is about to work differently. The bigger change runs deeper than one new tenant. Two everyday spots, a market and a coffee counter that had been around for decades, are becoming places designed for spending an afternoon. And the oldest business in the center is planning to stay exactly as it is.

What Changed, Address by Address

Most of the turnover is happening in two spots on the property.

Westside Market closed last December after about seven years at Toco Hills. Barnes & Noble's store there will cover 14,100 square feet. That's well under the chain's Buckhead store at 24,316 square feet and its Dunwoody store at 26,987, but it fits the smaller format the company now uses for new locations. The locator lists three features for this store: a café, toys and games, and vinyl. When the deal was first reported in March, the target was September. The October 21 date replaces that, though it's still a posted plan and not an opening that has happened.

The Coffee Counter That Opened in 1983

The other big handoff is at 2205 LaVista Road. Atlanta Coffee Roasters opened there in 1983 and closed this year when its owner retired, according to ToNeTo Atlanta. The business left because its owner retired, not because it was pushed out by a landlord or a lack of customers, and that matters for understanding this fall. Several of these changes come from long runs coming to a natural end.

Blue Donkey Coffee is taking over the space. Atlanta natives Ed Lane, David Lane, and William Rankin started the company in 2012 around craft iced coffee. They roast beans daily at their own Atlanta roastery, and the menu still centers on iced blends and cold brew. The company already runs shops in Buckhead, Grant Park, at Georgia Tech, and at Emory University, plus a seasonal stand at Piedmont Green Market in Piedmont Park. In late August, ToNeTo Atlanta reported that Blue Donkey was renovating about 1,600 square feet and planned to open before the end of 2026. A week later, What Now Atlanta wrote that it had asked the owners for an opening date and hadn't heard back. For now, "before year-end" is the best timeline available.

Launch Lab is next door, an indoor golf facility at Suite C of the same address. Its website still shows "Doors Open — September 2026" next to "Buildout In Progress." September is over, and no new date has been posted. Until the business announces one, assume it isn't open yet.

Put these together and the 2205 LaVista building is turning from a long-standing coffee stop into a coffee shop with an indoor golf facility next door. The empty Westside Market space is becoming a bookstore with a café, records, and a toy section. The center is gaining places where people stay for an hour or more.

The Business That Isn't Changing

Tall Tales Book Shop opened in August 1979, and it says it has always been at the Toco Hill shopping center. That's 47 years in the same spot. It has been there longer than the coffee shop that just closed, and about forty years longer than the grocery whose old space Barnes & Noble is taking.

Hagedorn told Atlanta News First that the new competition is real. She also said she believes the shop's steady customer base puts it in a good position to last. "We don't know the names of every single one of them, but we know a lot," she said. One of those customers, a member of the store's mystery book club, told the station she always stops in "to say hello or maybe to buy a book, because this is my cozy place." The station also introduced a shop regular with "an actual tail," Christopher "Kit" Marlowe, who spends many of his days wandering the shop and greeting customers.

The same report explains why another bookstore moving in isn't a surprise. Bookstores across the country have been growing again after decades of decline, and Barnes & Noble was expected to open 60 stores this year. The chain's newer stores also let local managers choose more of their own books and layout, so each store feels more like an independent shop. Toco Hills is about to have two bookstores in one parking lot, each built around a different idea of what a bookstore should be.

Tall Tales' October calendar shows the store carrying on as usual. It lists author events on October 2, October 4, and October 11, and a book club meeting on October 13. None of them are billed as a response to the new neighbor. It's a regular fall lineup.

Where the Rest of the Loop Already Settled

Some of the center's newer tenants have been around long enough to stop feeling new. Wild Heaven Beer and Fox Bros. opened their shared beer-and-barbecue spot at Toco Hills in October 2024, and its location page still lists regular hours and ongoing activities. Bobo Izakaya made Rough Draft Atlanta's list of Atlanta restaurants that opened in January 2026.

Go Greek Yogurt has a lease on the former LK Hair Studio unit. The opening timeline depends on which report you read. ToNeTo Atlanta said in early August that it would open "later this Fall." A week later, What Now Atlanta quoted the owners as expecting early 2027. Early 2027 is the safer bet, since it's newer and came straight from the owners.

The Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library is also a stop for many Oak Grove households, and it has its own October schedule:

• Tuesday, October 6, 10:15 to 11:15 a.m.: book discussion group
• Thursday, October 8, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.: "Jewelry with Gin Live!"

So in the first two weeks of October, the center has two book clubs, three author events, and a jewelry session, all before Barnes & Noble opens.

The Oak Grove End of LaVista

Farther out along LaVista Road, Oak Grove Market's own site still lists its shop at 2757 LaVista Road, open weekdays and Saturdays and closed Sundays. We found no reported openings or closings at that address this year. Toco Hills is where the changes are happening this fall, and the Oak Grove end of the road is staying the same.

Getting between the two may change more slowly than the stores do. A late-August neighborhood update said crews were extending the eastbound left-turn lane on LaVista at Clairmont Road and upgrading the signal at Shepherds Lane. It gave no completion date. Further out, Decide DeKalb approved $951,600 in March for right-of-way purchases and design on South Peachtree Creek Trail Segments 3 and 5. Segment 3 will run from Briarcliff Road near Cliff Valley Way toward I-85, and Segment 5 will follow Knob Hill Drive and Mount Mariah Road. The county's schedule calls for design and permitting in 2027, with construction starting in 2028 and finishing in 2029. For now, it's still a drive. By the end of the decade, walking or biking may be another way to get there.

What's Firm and What Isn't

Here's how the fall stands, sorted by how sure each date is:

1. Already open: Tall Tales Book Shop, Wild Heaven and Fox Bros., Bobo Izakaya, the library, and Oak Grove Market on LaVista.
2. Posted date: Barnes & Noble, listed for October 21.
3. Under construction, no date: Blue Donkey Coffee, aiming for before year-end, and Launch Lab, whose September target has passed.
4. Next year: Go Greek Yogurt, with the owners pointing to early 2027.

Barnes & Noble's October 21 date is the only firm one on the list. The rest of the center's fall comes from businesses that were already there: a bookstore marking 47 years, a library with a full October calendar, and a beer hall about to turn two.

If your Saturday route runs from LaVista to North Druid Hills, the team at Atlanta Turtle Group is keeping track of these openings too, and we're happy to tell you what we hear about Blue Donkey's timing or how the new bookstore weekends go. Let's Start a Conversation.