Table Talk: Top 10 dining stories of 2025

Dec. 2 — Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the table. I want to kick things off with a bit of housekeeping before I dive into today’s “Family Meal.”

After spending a year dining at dozens of new restaurants across Atlanta, and weeks of debating the merits of each one, Sarra and I will finally reveal our picks for the best new restaurants of 2025 tomorrow morning. The list features 11 stellar metro Atlanta restaurants (and a chef collective) that kept capturing our attention this year.

Look for the Best New Restaurants of 2025 to publish on Rough Draft at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Dec. 3), which also includes the results of our Readers’ Choice awards. 

But before that big reveal drops in the morning, this evening’s newsletter features a look back at the top ten dining stories that really had Rough Draft readers buzzing in 2025. Plus, Chef Jack Kim shares his recipe for Danbi Seasonal Kitchen’s kabocha squash with miso glaze. 

Cheers!

🍸 Beth

The Top 10 Dining Stories of 2025

Photo by Rumi’s Kitchen-Sandy Springs

👀 As we prepare to say goodbye to another year, we’re looking back at ten stories that really had Rough Draft readers buzzing in 2025. 

Our most-read stories this year centered around big restaurant openings, budget-friendly menus, Your DeKalb Farmers Market, Michelin, and The Colonnade. 

10. Owner of Michelin Bib Gourmand Whoopsie’s opening an all-day cafe in East Lake

Earlier this year, Chef Hudson Rouse, owner of Rising Son and Pure Quill Superette, and co-owner of Whoopsie’s, announced plans to open an all-day cafe in East Lake next spring. Called Babygirl, the restaurant will take over the former Mix’d Up Burger space at Hosea & 2nd behind Gene’s and Poor Hendrix. Opening at 8 a.m. daily, the menu will skew vegetable-heavy and “health-conscious,” Rouse said, rather than the typical Southern breakfast fare found at Rising Son and Pure Quill. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a biscuit sandwich, carby blue plate specials, pasta, or burgers here. Along with a few desserts, coffee, and smoothies, expect cocktails, beer, and wine at Babygirl. 

9. As people scale back dining out, Atlanta restaurants roll out budget-friendly menus

In one of our most-read feature stories of 2025, Rough Draft contributor Laura Scholz spoke to a handful of Atlanta chefs and restaurateurs about how they were adjusting menus to rising food prices and cost of living. Across Atlanta this year, restaurants launched weekly specials, swapped finer-dining dishes for nostalgia-fueled plates, and offered budget-friendly tasting menus and meal deals in hopes of attracting price-conscious diners back to the dining room and boosting sluggish sales. 

8. Snackboxe Bistro owners to meld Lao, Thai, and Cambodian dishes at new Chamblee restaurant

The owners of Lao restaurant Snackboxe Bistro in Duluth recently opened Naga Bistro in Chamblee. Taking over the Wild Ginger Thai Cuisine space on Savoy Drive, Naga Bistro includes a full bar and serves a combination of traditional and fusion Lao, Thai, and Khmer (Cambodian) dishes. Fans of Wild Ginger were sad to read of its closure but quickly became excited by the plans Naga Bistro chef Thip Athakhanh had for her brother’s former restaurant space. 

7.Where to eat and drink like a local in downtown Atlanta

One of Rough Draft’s most popular dining guides this year explored restaurants in the heart of downtown Atlanta. The neighborhood is the center of tourism, conventions, and sports in Atlanta, home to events like MomoCon and Dragon Con, and games and concerts at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena.

6. NFA Burger opening at Avalon in Alpharetta and will include a bar

Any time we publish a story about gas station burger joint NFA Burger, the metrics needle goes off the charts. This story on NFA’s expansion to a full-service restaurant in Alpharetta was no different, shooting up to the top spot and staying there for days while our OTP readers took in the good news. With the OG still open and operating from a Dunwoody Chevron, the full-service location of NFA Burger opened earlier this spring at Avalon in Alpharetta. 

5. Rumi’s Kitchen in Sandy Springs temporarily closing ahead of big renovation

We have it on good authority that Rumi’s Kitchen will reopen in Sandy Springs in January 2026, after temporarily closing for a big interior and exterior redo. All will be revealed then. But the announcement of its months-long closure and renovation in March had people talking for weeks. We can’t wait to see this makeover, and for Rumi’s to return to Roswell Road.  

4. 2025 Michelin Guide to the American South drops and included these Atlanta restaurants

It should come as no surprise that the reveal of the inaugural Michelin Guide to the American South was one of our top stories of the year. But what made this story even more compelling was the scheduling snafu that announced the winners hours before the ceremony began in Greenville, SC. The leak was all anyone could talk about ahead of the awards. Little changed for Atlanta restaurants in the 2025 guide, save some notable additions to the recommended restaurants, Banshee’s shift from Bib Gourmand to a recommended restaurant, and Tiny Lou’s dropping off the list. Staplehouse also lost its star and was bumped to the recommended list, after the owners relocated its tasting menu to their new restaurant in Gay, GA.
3. These regulars are ‘the lifeblood’ of The Colonnade in Atlanta

Long live The Colonnade, and long live its many loyal regulars. As The Colonnade approaches its 100th birthday next year, Atlanta’s second-oldest restaurant is more popular than ever, thanks to new owners and a group of regulars who are part of its enduring legacy on Cheshire Bridge. For this installment of “The Regulars,” Laura Scholz spoke to two Colonnade loyalists about what the beloved restaurant and its family of patrons mean to them. 

2. James Beard award-winning chef John Currence opens Big Bad Breakfast Nov. 4 in Atlanta

Southern food enthusiasts needed no introduction to Chef John Currence, or to his popular breakfast and brunch restaurant, Big Bad Breakfast. The Oxford, MS chef opened a location of Big Bad Breakfast last month in Buckhead, taking over the former Cultivate Food & Coffee space on Howell Mill Road. Currence, who also owns City Grocery, Boure, and Snackbar in Oxford, first opened Big Bad Breakfast in 2008, styling it after 1960s lunch counters and iconic New Orleans restaurants. Currence now has 26 locations of Big Bad Breakfast around the South, including the newest restaurant in Atlanta. 

1. Your DeKalb Farmers Market: a metro Atlanta go-to for ingredients since 1977

We kicked off 2025 with what would become our most-read dining story of the year on metro Atlanta institution Your DeKalb Farmers Market. It’s known as the home of Atlanta’s best ingredients and where local chefs like to shop. It’s also affectionately referred to as “the real United Nations.” Nearly half a century old, the market is a hallmark of metro Atlanta’s diversity and essence, and a sanctuary for shoppers who truly care about the food they consume. Your DeKalb Farmers Market feels both otherworldly and anachronistic in the best possible way, and it’s unlike anywhere else in metro Atlanta, Rough Draft Dining Reporter Sarra Sedghi wrote in January.

Celebrate the Holidays in Buckhead this weekend

SPONSORED BY LIVABLE BUCKHEAD

🎄This Sat., Dec. 6, Livable Buckhead hosts a day of free, festive fun around Buckhead Village District.

·Decorate wreaths that will add holiday cheer to all 43 Atlanta fire stations and police precincts. (Noon to 2 p.m.)

· Join the hot chocolate crawl in Buckhead Village District (4 to 7 p.m.). Sip hot chocolate or a cocktail and enjoy live music.

· Listen to holiday classics during the lighting of Buckhead’s tree in Charlie Loudermilk Park at 7:30 p.m.

✨ Join the festivities!

Roasted Kabocha Squash Recipe From
Danbi Seasonal Kitchen

Photo by Sarra Sedghi

🇯🇵 This week, we’re sharing a recipe for roasted kabocha squash with a miso glaze from Brookhaven restaurant Danbi Seasonal Kitchen.

Also known as danhobak, or Japanese pumpkin, kabocha squash is a winter squash with a dark green skin and a sweet, golden interior. Like other squashes, kabocha squash is native to Latin America. Portuguese traders introduced Japan to nihon kabocha in the 16th century. American traders brought seiyo kabocha, which has a sweeter taste and smoother rind, to Japan in 1863.

🍠 This vegetable is best enjoyed as a soup, stuffed, fried, or simply sliced and roasted. Danbi’s salty, fermented miso glaze adds contrast that accentuates the kabocha’s natural sweetness.

Danbi chef and owner Jack Kim recommends sourcing kabocha squash at H-Mart. Although the seasonings can be sourced elsewhere, Kim said he hasn’t encountered fresh kabocha squash in other stores. H-Mart has three metro Atlanta locations in Doraville, Duluth, and Riverdale.

Serves 6

📋 Ingredients

  • 1 whole kabocha squash
  • Avocado oil
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 cups white miso
  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 3 1/2 ounces mirin
  • 1/3 cup finely grated fresh ginger
  • 1 cup maple syrup

🥣 Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 Fahrenheit, or 400 Fahrenheit if using a convection oven or air fryer.
  2. Prepare the glaze: Combine miso, soy sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, mirin, ginger, and maple syrup in a saucepan. Whisk over low-medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until smooth, glossy, and slightly thickened. Do not boil. Remove from heat and keep warm.
  3. Prepare the squash: Halve the kabocha squash, remove the seeds, and cut flesh, with skin on, into 2 to 2.5 centimeter-thick wedges. Toss with avocado oil and salt until evenly coated. Arrange cut sides down on a parchment-lined sheet pan.
  4. Roast for 18 to 22 minutes, flipping halfway through, until tender and lightly caramelized. The surface should be golden brown and fork-tender.
  5. Serve immediately, either as a side dish or in a rice bowl.

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Beth McKibben serves as both Editor in Chief and Dining Editor for Rough Draft Atlanta. She was previously the editor of Eater Atlanta and has been covering food and drinks locally and nationally for over 14 years.