Over the past decade, Chef Robert Butts has aligned himself with some of Atlanta’s most iconic modern Southern restaurants, including Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours, 4th and Swift, Saltyard, and Urban Foodie. Butts’ hard work has made him a power player on the city’s dining scene, evidenced by his many culinary projects, both in progress and in the works.
Butts recently came on board as the executive chef and co-owner of Auburn Angel in Sweet Auburn, partnering with founder Asa Fain and Chef Tregaye Fraser in the restaurant.
Fain reached out to Butts about a partnership this past fall. Butts agreed that partnering with Fain just made sense. The two had worked together before when Butts was at Blackbird Kitchen and Bar in downtown Atlanta. Auburn Angel, located along Soul Food Row in Sweet Auburn, hit home for the Atlanta native, whose cooking style blends Southern ingredients and French techniques, something he studied while living in the south of France for a year and a half.
Both chefs work alongside each other at Auburn Angel, with Butts overseeing regular service and Fraser handling the restaurant’s catering and events business. Fraser, the host of cooking show “Tregaye’s Way” on Oprah’s OWN network, brings a wealth of experience from her catering background to Auburn Angel.
Since joining Auburn Angel, which opened in April 2024, Butts has refreshed the dinner menu, giving it a more Southern feel. When the new dinner menu launches on Feb. 7, diners can expect dishes like short rib foie gras dumplings with a pepper drop sorghum glaze served with a citrus, beet, and green tomato salad and cast-iron trout accompanied by gobi cabbage and Sea Island peas with a collard green velouté (sauce). Saturday and Sunday brunch service begins Feb. 8.
Another new addition to Auburn Angel sees Fraser offering Thursday “Grazing Hour,” from 4 to 7 p.m., featuring a spread of grazing boards, smoked meats, and an oyster service. Breakfast is in the works, too.
Butts calls Auburn Angel a “collective,” a restaurant that benefits from the expertise of its ownership trio.
Butts’ enthusiasm for cooking and working with other chefs, however, means he refuses to tie himself down to one venture.
Butts is part of two local chef collectives: Stolen Goods, led by Breaker Breaker chef Maximilian Hines, and The New South dinner series, which he founded with chefs Demetrius Brown (Bread & Butterfly), Rodney Smith, and Jaye Smith. Both cohorts allow Butts to collaborate with a diverse array of Atlanta chefs, including Gary Caldwell (Marcus Bar & Grille), Justin Dixon (Humble Mumble), India Johnson (Sauce Queen), and pastry chef Claudia Martinez.
Collaborations and pop-up chef collectives like Stolen Goods and The New South dinner series are growing in popularity in Atlanta. These dinners offer an entirely different experience for patrons and creative freedom in the kitchen not typically offered to chefs in a restaurant setting.
“Being over a restaurant is cool, but you’ve still got to watch what you do because you still have to work for your clientele,” Butts said. “Sometimes you can’t voice yourself as you want to [on the menu.] Chefs feel a bit freer or like they can be themselves more when they do these collaborations and pop-ups.”
Gary Caldwell, executive chef at Marcus Bar & Grille, and a member of The New South collective, recalled the invitation from Butts to attend the July 2024 Stolen Goods dinner at Bread & Butterfly.
“The energy, the creativity, the community — it had me hooked,” Caldwell said. “That’s when I heard about The New South dinner series, and without hesitation, I was all in.”
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The New South chefs hosted their first dinner at Bread & Butterfly in September. Caldwell said the dinner went beyond feeding people. Each chef cooking that night told their story through food by reinventing childhood memories or creating their dream dish. It was inspiring for Caldwell as a chef.
Watching Atlanta’s dining culture grow, while also being part of that growth, is extremely rewarding for Butts. His culinary voice, he said, will help shape the city’s restaurant scene. It’s a monumental achievement for the Atlanta native, who is grateful for the connection to an extensive network of chefs.
“I really love the networking aspect of [the chef collective dinners],” Butts said. “I get to meet all of these new people and work with them, learn with them, talk with them, hang out with them, go to dinner with them, and grow with them.”
Butts said it’s important to foster the next generation of Atlanta chefs and plans to feature pop-up nights on Mondays and Tuesdays at Auburn Angel. And the restaurant will host a few of The New South dinners. Butts also wants to increase his appearances at food festivals in 2025 to make more connections with chefs and continue working on some new projects he’ll disclose later this year.
In the meantime, Butts will roll out his new dinner menu at Auburn Angel, which features dishes using many ingredients from Georgia farms. As a member of Georgia Grown, Butts frequently procures ingredients from and collaborates with local farms like the West Georgia Co-Op, Springer Mountain Farms, Hudson Pecans, Ula Farms, Chantel Farms, and Finch Creek Farms.
“We have a lot of resources [in Georgia], and a lot of times, we don’t utilize those as much or talk about [those resources] much,” he said. “Right now, there’s some beautiful ingredients from the state that we as chefs use [for dishes] that don’t get noticed by the public.”
Auburn Angel, 302 Auburn Ave., Sweet Auburn. Open for dinner Wednesday – Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. The new dinner menu drops Feb. 7. Open for weekend brunch, Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Open Thursday for Grazing Hour, 4 to 7 p.m.