The Livingston you can visit this month is smaller than the one on the new owners' plans. A restaurant serves every day until 9. An ice cream counter has been open through football season. A cooking school has its October calendar posted, and the Thursday farmers market is in its final weeks. The amphitheater, the new homes and the steakhouse are plans that run 10 years out.
For Johnstone, that makes October easy to plan. The short list is open now, and the bigger changes are years away.
The same road, a longer history
Johnstone Drive sits a short way off Mannsdale Road, and county road data places both Mannsdale and Gluckstadt Road within about a mile of the subdivision. Our recent Westlake post looked east toward Gluckstadt. This one follows Mannsdale the other way, to the corner where it meets Highway 22.
That corner is the Town of Livingston, a planned development founded in 2014 east of Flora. The ground has more history than the buildings do. Livingston was the first county seat of Madison County, according to the Madison County Journal. Developer Todd Sandridge told the paper he hopes to build on that "generational history."
The Thursday market is in its last weeks
The Livingston Farmers Market meets at the corner of Hwy 463 and Hwy 22 on Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m., and its 2026 season is listed as May through October. That schedule comes from a national farmers market directory, which says times may vary. It's a helpful guide, but the Town hasn't published dates of its own.
From today, October 4, these Thursdays are left on the calendar:
- October 8
- October 15
- October 22
- October 29
After October, the plans get vaguer. In January, the new developers told the Madison County Journal they wanted to keep the market going during the fall. They didn't give dates. Treat any market after October as possible, not scheduled, until the market announces it.
A weeknight on the square right now
If you're at the market on a Thursday, you can stay for dinner. Martin's Livingston is at 106 Livingston Church Road, and its website lists hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Sunday, with online ordering. Martin's took over the space after The Gathering closed in 2024, along with the gas station. That makes it the square's most reliable dinner stop on any night of the week.
Dessert takes a bit more planning. Coach's Creamery at Livingston, at 1150 Old Cedars Lane, kicked off football season with a September 4 post. On August 22 the owner posted an apology for uneven hours since school started. She explained that scheduling around employees' school and extracurricular activities had been a challenge, and she offered free scoops to make up for it. A small shop staffed partly by teenagers is going to change its hours around the school year. Check its page before you promise anyone ice cream after a game.
Other businesses have been part of the square too. In September 2025, the Clarion Ledger listed The Noble Barber, Brook and Ivy Boutique, Plato Feliz Bar and Grill, The Briar Patch, Livingston Nutrition, Core Pilates and Livingston Chapel among the businesses operating there. That list is a year old, and we didn't find 2026 posts confirming current hours for most of them. A quick call before you go is a good idea.
October at The Farmer's Table
The fullest calendar on the square this month belongs to The Farmer's Table, Livingston's cooking school. Its class calendar lists ticketed classes on seven October dates.
| Date | Dish on the listing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Wed., Oct. 7 | Corn and black bean dip with fresh-fried tortilla chips | $79 |
| Fri., Oct. 9 | Apple cranberry and spinach salad | $109 |
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Arugula and roasted peach salad with Gorgonzola | $89 |
| Wed., Oct. 14 | Apple pecan salad with goat cheese | $79 |
| Thu., Oct. 15 | Bibb lettuce salad with caramelized apples | $89 |
| Fri., Oct. 16 | Lobster ravioli pasta class | $109 |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Mini breakfast quiche brunch | $89 |
The Thursday, October 15 class lines up with a market Thursday. You could shop the market in the late afternoon and stay for the class. When we checked, the Friday, October 16 class showed fewer seats left than the others. Prices run from $79 to $109 a person, which suits a date night or a dinner with out-of-town guests.
What the new owners have announced
Late in 2025, Sandridge and a partner bought the Town of Livingston, taking over the undeveloped land and the management. In January he described a plan that would change how the square feels.
"We want people to mix and mingle," Sandridge said.
The plan includes an amphitheater with a stage and a grassy bowl, big enough for large or small acts, where people could bring lawn chairs and blankets. It also calls for a more walkable Livingston Square, 74 single-family homes, and hoped-for restaurants including a steakhouse, an Italian restaurant and a coffee shop, plus salons and spas. Sandridge named Lost Rabbit in Madison and the Township in Ridgeland as models. In September 2025, the Clarion Ledger described the same plans as up to 74 cottages and 10 new commercial buildings with more than 100,000 square feet of space.
The timeline matters most. Sandridge told the Journal the plan looks out over 10 years. We found no signed restaurant tenant, building permit or construction start for any of it. The coffee shop on the wish list is still a hope, not a lease.
The plat the county approved in September
One county decision did come up this fall. At its September 21, 2026 meeting, the Madison County Board of Supervisors approved the preliminary plat for The Briars at Livingston on McMillon Road. The drawing the Board reviewed is labeled "PRELIMINARY PLAT" and "NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION."
The name sounds like Sandridge's housing plan, but the county records we reviewed don't connect The Briars to the 74 homes. We also found no county decision on an amphitheater or new commercial buildings at the Hwy 463 and Hwy 22 square in the Board's September agendas or the August planning and zoning minutes. The Board's September 21 quick notes are public, and the county's next planning and zoning meeting is listed for October 15.
For now, Livingston this month comes down to dinner at Martin's any night until 9, four Thursday markets through October 29, seven cooking classes between October 7 and 17, and a quick check on Coach's hours before dessert.
If Livingston's plans have you wondering what all this could mean for homes along the Mannsdale corridor, I'm happy to walk through what I'm watching for your street in Johnstone. You can start with Cindy Johnston's Instant Home Valuation and see where your home stands today, before anything at Livingston breaks ground.
