Georgia restaurants win big despite several cuts in 2026 Michelin Guide

It wouldn’t be the Michelin Guide ceremony without a little drama.

This year, fewer Atlanta restaurants were added to the guide overall, and the inspectors’ knives seemed a little sharper as five restaurants were cut from the list. But the Peach State also felt like the night’s biggest winner by adding two new one-star restaurants: So. Fox and Uberto.

So. Fox and Uberto earn Michelin stars

Georgia now has 10 Michelin-starred restaurants. All eight previously starred Atlanta-area restaurants retained their distinctions: Atlas, Bacchanalia, Hayakawa. Lazy Betty, Mujo, O by Brush, Omakase Table, and Spring in Marietta.

The only other new restaurant to earn a star was Dakar NOLA in New Orleans, though its win was significant. Its chef, Serigne Mbaye, is the first Black chef to earn a Michelin Star in the American South.

For the team behind So. Fox in Virginia-Highland, the recognition came early in the restaurant’s life.

“We came in with zero expectations,” So. Fox chef Myles Moody told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “For us, being so new, we were even surprised by the invite.”

Moody and his wife and business partner, Rachael Pack, highlighted their community in Atlanta, which has shown the couple great support since they first opened Kinship Butcher & Sundry.

“I’m overjoyed. I have tears in my eyes,” Pack said. “This has always been the plan, but to happen so soon, it’s wild to us. Now, we get to go back to Virginia-Highland and take care of our community, which has been our ethos since day one.”

5 Atlanta-area restaurants dropped from Michelin Guide

Masterpiece, the legendary Sichuan restaurant in Duluth, was dropped from the guide entirely, after just two years with the Bib Gourmand distinction, given to restaurants found to serve high-quality food at moderate prices. And Superica and Table & Main were moved to the recommended restaurants list from the Bib Gourmand list.

Four establishments were dropped from the Michelin Guide’s list of recommended restaurants in Atlanta. One was not a surprise: Nadair was recommended in 2025, but closed earlier this year.

The others were a little more eye-opening: Gunshow, Marcel and the White Bull were all removed from the guide.

In the four years since the Michelin Guide came to Atlanta, this year saw the most restaurants cut — a firm reminder that these distinctions are not automatically renewed every year.

Summerland and Tipsy Thaiger earn Bib Gourmand distinction

Metro Atlanta saw two new restaurants win Bib Gourmand status at Wednesday night’s ceremony in Nashville — Summerland, chef Anne Quatrano’s new casual restaurant at the Upper West Market, and Tipsy Thaiger, the Thai cocktail bar in Roswell.

The distinction recognizes restaurants serving good food at a good value.

Superica and Table & Main were moved from the Bib Gourmand category to the recommended restaurants list.

Pink Lotus and Spring 2nd Branch join recommended list

Pink Lotus, the West Midtown Thai restaurant, and Spring 2nd Branch, the sister restaurant to one-star Spring in Marietta, were both added to the recommended list.

After all was said and done, the number of recommended restaurants in the metro Atlanta Michelin Guide remained the same at 42.

Uberto’s Ryan Smith recognized through Mindful Voices

Uberto chef Ryan Smith, who previously won a Michelin Star at Staplehouse, was also recognized with the new Mindful Voices distinction, highlighting him as an inspirational leader in the restaurant industry. He was one of two chefs in the region to receive the honor, which is also open to hoteliers and winemakers, according to a news release.

At Uberto, part of the World of Quercus in Gay, the restaurant sources ingredients from the property’s regenerative farm which runs on 100% solar energy, practices no-till cultivation, cover crops and rotational grazing, according to the Michelin website.

Inside the 2026 Michelin Guide Ceremony

I’ve attended the Michelin Guide ceremony every year since it came to Atlanta, and the event has a special atmosphere.

You can’t buy a ticket; the ceremony is invitation-only, so everyone there knows they’re attending for a good reason. And unlike food festivals or industry conventions, the event asks very little of the restaurant professionals in the crowd. They merely need to show up and celebrate.

The restaurant industry is tight-knit, so many of the attendees know one another. Kara Hidinger, who runs Staplehouse and Uberto alongside her husband, chef Ryan Smith, said the evening always feels like a reunion.

The ceremony is typically supported by sponsors and local tourism organizations, with an open bar and high-end touches like sparkling wine and caviar.

The Pinnacle in Nashville Yards was an impressive venue that elevated the event, and the production was emceed with relative smoothness by actor Charles Esten, the instantly recognizable star of the TV show “Nashville.”

There were a few awkward moments punctuating the night. The American South guide now holds 184 recommended restaurants, so the ceremony skipped past all the restaurants that retained that status.

More than 30 new restaurants were added to the recommended ranks and when representatives from those paraded forward for a round of applause, it looked like half the crowd had moved up onto the stage.

A comprehensive list of all the changes in the 2026 Michelin Guide was not released until Thursday morning, so it was difficult to immediately determined which restaurants had been left out.

The complications followed a bumpy regional debut last year. When the guide expanded across the Southeast, it incorporated six new states and metro Atlanta, leaving chefs elsewhere in Georgia scratching their heads.

Then, with the 2025 American South Michelin Guide ceremony partially spoiled by a leaked press release, Atlanta felt like a bit of an afterthought, with a handful of new restaurant recommendations but no surprising changes in the more selective categories.

But most blemishes were swept aside by the cascade of joy from the night’s big winners.

Smith, Uberto’s chef, first pointed to his team.