Atlanta’s 50 best restaurants list is changing. Here’s why.
Every time a publication releases a list of the best restaurants in a city, the same question inevitably follows:
How do you decide?
It’s a fair question, and one I’ve asked myself almost every day since I became senior editor of food & dining at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and inherited the ATL50 (previously known as the Atlanta 50).
Last year’s relaunch, led by my predecessor Ligaya Figueras and restaurant critic Henri Hollis, earned an Atlanta Press Club Award of Excellence for Food, Travel and Culture Journalism. It established a thoughtful foundation for recognizing Atlanta’s restaurants.
As I started planning this year’s ATL50, I kept asking myself how we could broaden the search for the restaurants that make Atlanta one of America’s great food cities. I found myself thinking about the restaurants that shaped me.
I’ve worked in restaurants in one form or another since my late teens, including my mother’s establishment in Roswell. I’ve been a busser, a server, a cook, a manager, a kitchen consultant and, even today, though most of my career is in food media, I still work as a special events chef.
Over the past 35 years, I’ve come to believe restaurants are among the most human businesses there are.
They become part of our biggest celebrations and our most ordinary days. They’re where we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, catch up with old friends, close business deals and grab a quick meal on a Tuesday because life gets busy. Some of our most meaningful memories happen around a restaurant table.
Every time we choose a restaurant, we’re placing our trust in the people behind it. We trust them with our time, our money and our health. In return, they share a piece of themselves.
Every plate reflects years of training, family traditions, cultural heritage and hard work. Behind every menu is someone who has sacrificed time with their family, worried about making payroll and poured themselves into creating something they hope you’ll love.
That’s why ATL50 matters so much to me.
Why We’re Changing the ATL50 Judging Process
My work with the James Beard Foundation — as a mentor to young chefs, helping to identify restaurants for its programming in Puerto Rico and now serving on its broadcast media awards committee — has shown me that the strongest judging processes become even stronger when people with diverse experiences have a seat at the table.
Few people know Atlanta’s restaurant scene better than our dining critic, Henri Hollis. For years, he’s covered this city with extraordinary integrity, curiosity and care, earning the trust of readers and restaurateurs alike.
As much as Henri and I know about food and restaurants, I believe something even more important: No two people can speak for an entire city.
That belief led to the biggest change you’ll see in ATL50 this year: We’ve expanded the judging panel from two voices to 12.
Who is on the ATL50 Expert Panel?
Henri and I will be joined by chefs, restaurant critics, journalists and trusted food experts whose backgrounds, experiences and areas of expertise are different from our own. Their role isn’t to replace editorial judgment. It’s to strengthen it by bringing perspectives Henri and I alone can’t provide.
Each member brings a different lens to Atlanta’s dining scene. Together, they’ll help us evaluate restaurants across neighborhoods, cuisines, service styles and price points while ensuring no single perspective defines ATL50.
Lead Judges
Monti Carlo — Senior editor of food & dining at the AJC, James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Awards Committee member, chef, cookbook author and three-time Telly Award-winning television host.
Henri Hollis — Restaurant critic for the AJC and co-recipient of the Atlanta Press Club Award of Excellence for the 2025 Atlanta 50 package.
Expert Judges
Henna Bakshi — Senior editor of Forbes Wine and former regional editor at Eater. She oversaw coverage of the South’s most exciting chefs and restaurants.
Justin Brown (@realfoodstalker) — Food influencer and columnist for the AJC whose reporting and social media coverage has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to Atlanta’s restaurants.
Blair Crosby — Food writer whose work has appeared in the AJC. Crosby is a recipe developer and hospitality professional specializing in restaurants, wine, travel and culinary culture.
Sam Flemming (@punkfoodie.atl) — Creator of Punk Foodie, known for documenting Atlanta’s pop-ups, chef residencies and emerging restaurant concepts and a columnist for the AJC.
Angela Hansberger — National food, spirits and travel journalist and a longtime restaurant critic whose work has appeared in the AJC, Atlanta Magazine, Bon Appétit and other publications.
Candy Hom (@soupbelly_atl) — Pop-up chef, freelance food writer for the AJC and creator of Soupbelly. She is recognized for spotlighting Atlanta’s Asian food culture and dining scene.
Su-Jit Lin — Food, travel and lifestyle journalist whose work has appeared in the AJC, Food & Wine, Southern Living, HuffPost, EatingWell, Serious Eats and numerous other national publications.
Lia Picard — Food writer and lifestyle journalist who has called Atlanta home for more than a decade. Picard’s work appears in the AJC, New York Times, Garden & Gun and Atlanta Magazine.
David Rose — Chef, TV personality, national brand ambassador, cookbook author and food writer for the AJC. He is also the host, creator and executive producer of the series “Cooking With Your Grandma.”
Olivia Wakim — Food & dining reporter for the AJC who covers Atlanta’s restaurant industry, breaking food news and the people shaping the city’s dining scene.
Why Readers Can Nominate Restaurants for ATL50
For the first time, I’m inviting readers to nominate restaurants for ATL50. Why? Because nobody knows a neighborhood better than the people who live there.
They know the Ethiopian restaurant everyone visits after church. The taqueria where workers line up before sunrise. The food truck that’s become part of the neighborhood. The places people recommend without ever checking whether they’ve made a “best of” list.
Reader nominations won’t determine ATL50, nor will they guarantee a restaurant a place on our evaluation list. What they will do is help us make sure we’re asking the right question before judging begins:
What restaurants deserve a closer look?
That’s where the real work begins.
What Makes a Restaurant Eligible for ATL50?
As I rebuilt the methodology, I found myself asking another question: What does “best” really mean?
For me, “best” isn’t defined by price, prestige or style of service. It’s defined by how well a restaurant delivers the experience it promises its guests.
A chef’s tasting menu shouldn’t be judged by the same standards as a neighborhood taqueria, and a taqueria shouldn’t be expected to deliver a white-tablecloth experience. Every restaurant should be evaluated against its own ambitions and whether it fulfills the promise it makes to the people who walk through its doors.
That philosophy also shaped what establishments qualify for ATL50.
A restaurant doesn’t have to be expensive or offer table service to be considered. It does have to provide a complete dining experience where food is the primary reason people visit. That means established food trucks, counter-service restaurants, bars with substantial food programs, recurring chef-driven pop-ups, and individual food hall vendors can all be considered alongside traditional full-service restaurants, provided they operate at least four days a week.
Beverage-first concepts, dessert-only businesses, markets and one-time food events are not eligible for consideration.
Nominate a Restaurant for ATL50
None of the changes we’re making are about creating the perfect list. There will never be a perfect list.
The changes are about building on a strong foundation with a process that draws on more perspectives from the people who know Atlanta’s restaurants best.
Somewhere in this city, there’s a chef without a marketing or PR team wondering if anyone will notice what they’ve spent years building.
I hope we do. And if you know a restaurant we shouldn’t miss, I’d love for you to tell us about it.
Restaurant nominations are open through 11:59 p.m. on Monday, July 6.