Welcome to Rough Draft’s inaugural edition of Best New Restaurants!
I spent the last year dining at new restaurants across Metro Atlanta. After multiple visits to more than a dozen serious contenders, four restaurants and a pop-up, captured my attention again and again.
Restaurants in contention opened between Oct. 1, 2023, and Oct. 1, 2024. Like our coverage areas for Rough Draft, restaurants under consideration included those in the cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven, Tucker, Sandy Springs, and Dunwoody, along with restaurants in greater Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, and southern Cobb and southern Gwinnett counties.
Nearly four years after the pandemic began, 2024 proved a turning point for Atlanta restaurants. While established places finally settled into a recalibrated groove this year, new restaurants shed light on the emerging trends, service models, chefs, and cuisines Atlanta can look forward to in the future.
Our dining scene is thriving, with the 2024 award winners bringing something special to the table, including French-Caribbean dishes, Honduran street food, Scottish and Southern-inspired cuisine, Viet-Cajun barbecue, and Polish fare with a seasonal twist.
Introducing Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants of 2024!
— Beth McKibben, Senior Editor + Dining Editor
Bread & Butterfly
New ownership/new dinner launched October 2023
290 Elizabeth Street, Inman Park
You might be forgiven for sleeping on dinner at Bread & Butterfly since Chef Demetrius Brown and Brandon Blanchard took over the restaurant last year from Chef Billy Allin. The August 2023 transaction was so low key, that the change of ownership went mostly unnoticed for weeks. Brown and Blanchard retained the restaurant’s name and much of Allin’s French-leaning breakfast and brunch menu. But Brown launched a new dinner service three months later, expanding on the French-Caribbean dishes served at his pop-up, Heritage Supper Club.
Dinner at Bread & Butterfly continues Brown’s mission to spotlight the culinary depth and breadth of the African diaspora, including food traditions of enslaved Black people and nations in Africa and the Caribbean colonized by the French. Brown was born into a proud Trinidadian family, driving him to dig deeper into the roots of Afro-Caribbean cuisine.
Start with feathery soft plantain buns accompanied by Georgia cane syrup butter or a seasonal salad of local greens and ancient West African grains like fonio dressed with shallot vinaigrette. Brown’s take on djon-djon comprises rice, peas, and local and Haitian mushrooms tossed in herbaceous epis (sauce similar to sofrito.) Scallop étouffée comes served in a savory roux garnished with delicate Carolina Gold rice crisps, green onions, and parsley. Entrees like Poulet Colombo pull in flavors and ingredients from the eastern Caribbean, including brown mustard and coconut.
Wines range from buttery chardonnays to bold syrahs, while cocktails and nonalcoholic mixed drinks feature ingredients like sorrel syrup, plantain-infused rum, and fresh local herbs.
Despite being open for nearly a decade in Inman Park, Bread & Butterfly is new in all but name under Brown and Blanchard, and dinner here shouldn’t be missed.
La Glorieta Honduran Restaurant
Opened December 2023
4010 Lawrenceville Highway, Tucker
Owned and operated by brothers Nelson and Edgardo Flores and their families, La Glorieta brought Tucker a taste of Honduras when it opened on Lawrenceville Highway last December. What the small, counter-service spot lacks in square footage, La Glorieta more than makes up for on the menu.
Colonialism and ancient trade routes by land and sea infused the country’s Mesoamerican cuisine with flavors, ingredients, and dishes from Spain, the Caribbean, and Africa. While La Glorieta serves a few crossover dishes from neighboring Central American countries, Honduran specialties lie at the heart of the restaurant’s tight menu.
For many Hondurans, the main meal of the day is breakfast, and La Glorieta keeps it traditional with desayuno catracho (Honduran breakfast) comprised of eggs, beans, fried plantains, queso fresco, avocado, and tortillas. Baleadas – a popular Honduran street food often eaten on the go in the morning – come layered with refried beans, queso, and crema bundled in a lightly fried tortilla with the option to add scrambled eggs, avocado, chicken, or steak. During lunch, pollo chuco con pechuga sees fried green plantains crowned with shredded cabbage, tomatoes, pink sauce, pickled vegetables, chismol (pico de gallo), and fried chicken.
You can easily miss La Glorieta traveling down Lawrenceville Highway. Now that you know where to look, put this little gem on regular rotation when visiting Tucker.
Related Story: The 2024 Atlanta Michelin Guide
Nàdair
Opened May 2024
1123 Zonolite Road, Woodland Hills
Gunshow chef Kevin Gillespie pays tribute to his Scottish and Southern roots at Nàdair. Here, Gillespie returns to leading a kitchen and the cooking he became known for years ago at Woodfire Grill.
Nàdair offers a choice of a three-course or an ambitious six-course tasting menu; both include an amuse bouche and interludes of palate cleansers between dishes. Tastings start with lighter courses of Scottish cheese dumplings served with a wood-roasted Vidalia onion sauce, while peach-braised pork belly accompanies wood-grilled scallops. Delicate filets of North Georgia rainbow trout in a brown butter jus with a fried peanut crumb or Scottish red stag served as a duo of grilled loin and a meaty bon bon round out heavier courses. Dessert might include Gillespie’s riff on his grandmother’s banoffee pie or a decadent trifle of cake, seasonal fruit, and hand-made custard.
Wine lovers would be wise to order the pairings with their tasting, guided by Michelin award-winning sommelier Ashleigh McFadden. With the bar led by longtime Atlanta bartender Eric Simpkins, cocktails range from light and refreshing twists on the G&T and Gimlet to a black tea and malted milk-washed bourbon Old Fashioned.
The restaurant’s name comes from the Scots Gaelic phrase “dòigh nàdair,” or “the way of nature.” And while Gillespie showcases the best of what’s in season on the menu, the phrase also nods to how natural and in his element Gillespie is at Nàdair.
Related Story: Gene’s brings Viet-Cajun dishes and barbecue to East Lake
Gene’s
Opened July 2024
2371 Hosea L Williams Drive, East Lake
What began as a popular pop-up hosted at Kimball House, Bogg’s Social and Supply, and Poor Hendrix transformed into Gene’s the restaurant boasting lines out the door. Branded and named for owner Avery Cottrell’s pudgy orange and white cat, Gene’s combines barbecue cooked on a hot pink smoker with dishes inspired by the seafood shacks of Cottrell’s upbringing in southeast Louisiana. The vibe, music, and decor of flea market finds and collectibles at Gene’s melds the dive-bar energy of the Flora-Bama with the comfortable familiarity of your favorite roadside barbecue joint.
But don’t let Cottrell’s animated, yet down-to-earth personality fool you into thinking he doesn’t take his food seriously. Cottrell flexes with flavors in the sides, sandwiches, and smoked meat trays at Gene’s. Order a meat-and-three meal loaded with chili-brined chicken skewers, pulled sticky ribs caramelized in fish sauce, and tender brisket with sides of Vietnamese-style smashed cucumbers, beef tallow refried beans studded with brisket scraps, or Serrano pepper coleslaw. Potato salad comes dressed in green goddess sauce, and waffle fries are dusted with dehydrated Tabasco mash. Layered with vanilla wafers and Biscoff cookies, Gene’s banana pudding is based on a recipe from co-owner Matt Christison’s grandmother.
Christensen, one of the owners of Kimball House, isn’t the only member of the award-winning Decatur restaurant partnered in Gene’s — or contributing to the menu. Veteran Atlanta barman Miles Macquarrie created the cocktails, including a savory martini using Atlanta-produced Murrell’s Row Gin Gin, a rye Manhattan with apricot brandy, and a Bushwacker, Hurricane, and margarita served frozen from a slushie machine.
It’s hard not to get excited when you walk into Gene’s — or absorb Cottrell’s energy when he talks about his food and new restaurant. It all manifests into a damn good time in East Lake.
Related Story: Pierogi recipe from Beksa Lala
Beksa Lala
Launched November 2023
Burle’s Bar, 505 North Angier Avenue, Old Fourth Ward
Cooking has been a part of Basia Piechoczek’s life since childhood. She cooked alongside her Polish grandmother growing up, later finding work at restaurants in Jacksonville, Florida. But operating a pop-up restaurant wasn’t part of the plan when Piechoczek moved to Atlanta in 2020.
Last December, a longtime restaurant colleague reached out to Piechoczek, asking her to cook Polish dishes for a pop-up Christmas event at Burle’s Bar in the Old Fourth Ward. Taking inspiration from foods served during wigilia (Polish Christmas Eve vigil meal,) Piechoczek’s menu featured traditional dishes like pierogi and her grandmother’s tangy barszcz (beetroot soup) with wild mushroom-filled uszka (dumplings).
The success of the 2023 Christmas event led to Piechoczek launching Beksa Lala – a Polish food pop-up bearing her childhood nickname (crybaby) blending traditional dishes with modern takes on the Central European country’s cuisine.
In residence most Fridays and Saturdays at Burle’s Bar on the Eastside Beltline, Piechoczek posts up beside the patio, serving a delightfully playful menu of Polish favorites. Her pierogi come stuffed with creamy whipped potatoes and smoky farmer’s cheese. Smoked quail, Rycki Edam cheese, local mushrooms, and garlicky Polish pickles top toasted zapiekanapka (open-faced sandwich), while pickles and pork rinds garnish smoked deviled eggs. Expect seasonal dishes, too, including salads of local greens, edible flowers, and micro herbs and bigos (hunter’s stew) brimming with pork and beef kielbasa, mushrooms, and cabbage.
Piechoczek isn’t afraid to lean into her flavors, play with ingredients, and push boundaries to celebrate the foods of her Polish roots, making this pop-up one to visit and Piechoczek one to watch.