Speziato pizza (right), burrata (top left), fra diavolo (bottom left)
Photo by Morgan Evans
After nine years operating Stockyard Burgers & Bones in Vinings Jubilee, chef Scott Kinsey and his wife Alexis Kinsey have started a new chapter in the same space. They opened Cotto Modern Italian in late September, serving dinner nightly as well as weekend brunch.
“We have a very similar demographic in Vinings and thought Cotto would be great here,” Alexis Kinsey says.
Tuscan Ember cocktail (Bulleit bourbon, amaretto, apple liqueur, amaro, apple juice, and lemon)
Photo by Morgan Evans
As executive chef, Scott oversees the culinary direction for all the Kinseys’ restaurants, while leading Cotto Vinings’s kitchen each night. His menu features traditional Italian dishes, spanning antipasti, pasta, mains, and 10-inch wood-fired pizzas. Most items are designed for sharing. Early favorites include gnocchi, pollo saltimbocca, and cacio e pepe.
Behind the bar, Italian darlings like limoncello and spritzes sit alongside classics like old fashioneds and espresso martinis. One of the seasonal drinks, Fly Me to the Moon, mixes vodka, lemon, apricot, Italicus, and amaro for a smooth, refreshing option. Wine is also a focus, with 85 Italian offerings.
The Kinseys completely renovated the Stockyards space, relocating the bar and removing half walls to open up the dining room. They added arches and niches to bring an Italian touch, plus stucco wall coverings, neutral tones, and olive-green accents as a nod to the country’s olives. The restaurant seats 75 inside, plus 40 people on the open-air patio. Both reservations and walk-ins are accepted.
The road to dirty soda’s popularity is a meandering one. In the Southeast, many people first heard the term during the Covid-19 pandemic, after spending more time online. MomTok, the now-infamous viral chat group that included Taylor Frankie Paul and Whitney Leavitt, turned dirty soda into a personality trait. At the same time, singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo posted a photo of herself with a Swig cup, bringing further attention to the trend. Then in 2024, Hulu released the hit show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, in which participants drink soda as a religiously acceptable substitute for alcohol and coffee.
But dirty soda chain Swig was serving these fruit- and cream-laden concoctions for more than a decade before TikTok took it viral. Swig president Todd Smith says the company pioneered the beverage category. “We’ve been doing this successfully for 16 years,” he says. “We pride ourselves on inventive, creative drinks, and no matter who you are, you can find a drink you love at Swig.”
Now Atlantans can try it out for themselves. Starting October 1, Swig is open on Ashford-Dunwoody Road in Brookhaven. Primarily a drive-through-focused business, this location features a small lobby with a handful of tables. It serves fully customizable dirty sodas, water-based “Refreshers,” and energy drinks, as well as frozen hot chocolate, pretzel bites, and cookies. A grand opening celebration with complimentary drinks and mini chocolate chip cookies will welcome guests October 16-17.
Dirty sodas
Photo by Carly Cooper
The brand has grown to 175 locations across 17 states. Smith says he hopes to have more than 40 in metro Atlanta alone! Plans are already in the works for Woodstock, Kennesaw, Buford, Cumming, and Snellville.
Smith attributes some of the company’s success to the “day makers” who work the drive-through, looking each customer in the eye and offering a friendly, personalized experience a la Chick-fil-A. “Their job is to notice if they are celebrating something or need a pick-me-up,” he explains.
Wondering what to order? We taste-tested five Swig drinks to find out which ones are worth a sip.
The Founder
The Founder
The drink that started it all, The Founder is a mix of Diet Coke, fresh lime, sugar-free coconut syrup, and coconut cream. It’s refreshing without being too sweet. It still tastes like Diet Coke, just enhanced.
Best for: Diet Coke girlies
Beach Babe
Beach Babe
Photo by Carly Cooper
A tropical concoction with a Mountain Dew base, Beach Babe tastes like a tiki cocktail, sans alcohol. Raspberry, peach, and vanilla cream blend surprisingly well into the sugary soda, giving it a smooth finish.
Best for: Sunny days spent at the pool
Texas Tab
Texas Tab
Photo by Carly Cooper
The most popular drink after The Founder, Texas Tab is a good gateway drink. With Dr. Pepper, vanilla, and coconut cream, it’s root beer at its finest.
Best for: First-timers
Strawberry Breeze
Strawberry Breeze
Photo by Carly Cooper
My favorite of the bunch, Strawberry Breeze uses a sparkling water base for a lower-calorie treat and adds sugar-free coconut, sugar-free vanilla, strawberry puree, frozen strawberry, and coconut cream. Creamy with chunks of fruit, it tastes like strawberry shortcake in a cup!
Best for: Diet-friendly dessert
Cabana Colada
Cabana Colada
Photo by Carly Cooper
Punch-in-the-face sweet, the Cabana Colada features Swig Energy for a caffeine boost. Add to that sugar-free pineapple, sugar-free coconut, mango puree, coconut cream, and ginger ale, and you’ve got a sparkly juice that takes a special palate to stomach.
Chef Linton Hopkins’ experience is as broad as it is deep. The James Beard Award-winning chef is known for his burgers (H&F Burger), his steaks (C. Ellet’s), his fried chicken (Hop’s), encouraging mixology (Holeman & Finch Public House), and fine dining (defunct Restaurant Eugene). Hopkins also ran The Buttery, a bakery and market that grew out of his wholesale operation, before closing in 2024. Its Manchester Street space “wasn’t the right location for it,” he says.
Come March or April, The Buttery is slated to reopen in a more prominent location: The former Brio Tuscan Grille on Peachtree Road in Buckhead. This time, it will offer café seating, a more concise set of offerings, and connect to a full-service bar and grill called Linton’s. Together, the two eateries will comprise 7,000 square feet and seat 300 guests.
A rendering of the bar at Linton’s
Courtesy of ASD | SKY
Linton’s
The direction of Linton’s is straightforward: simple dishes Hopkins enjoys eating. The restaurant will be structured around the staples of an American bar and grill: vegetables, rotisserie, pasta, pizza, meat, and drinks.
The rotisserie will be a major part of the kitchen, with room for 36 chickens at a time, dripping over potatoes and onions as they cook. Hopkins is also considering rotisserie pork bellies and loins, along with roasted cabbages and beets.
Linton’s will use Brio’s wood-burning stove to make pizzas. The dough will be naturally leavened, made with three flours, and fermented for 72 hours. Varieties include sesame seed and anchovies, nduja with hand-sliced pepperoni, and Sapelo clams. Both personal pizzas and 14-inch pies will be offered.
Linton’s will serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch. Brunch dishes will include pancakes with blueberry compote, waffles, eggs Benedict, and Vegemite on toast. Pasta will be made in house, with hand-cut gnocchi, tagliatelle, aglio e olio with garlic and Parmesan, and marinara.
The broader menu will include steaks, rack of ribs with Hopkins’ aunt’s barbecue sauce, Atlantic salmon, Arctic char, paillard, pork schnitzel, and entrée salads at lunch. In the dining room, an old-fashioned dessert cart will tempt diners with vanilla-poached pears, chocolate mousse with whipped cream, cakes, and pies.
A rendering of the patio
Courtesy of ASD | SKY
A large, double-sided bar will face both the dining room and the patio. The beverage program will feature 100 to 150 wines, primarily from the West Coast (Willamette Valley in particular), France, and Italy. Cocktails will follow the from-scratch approach of Holeman & Finch. Hopkins says bar staff will be able to excellently execute 100 classic cocktails, such as the Bee’s Knees and Bloody Marys, and five to seven original drinks and non-alcoholic offerings.
Beer will lean classic and concise: four drafts, one cask, and a handful of bottles and cans. Options will be a mix of local (Creature Comforts and Monday Night Brewing) with cider, Guinness, Miller High Life, and a New Orleans-style schooner. Espresso drinks and affogato will be available.
Like C. Ellet’s, Linton’s will incorporate TVs into the space, with Hopkins imagining guests watching a game over “a great plate of ribs.” The buildine features midcentury vaulted ceilings, two fireplaces, large windows, abundant natural light, and views of the greenery outside.
A rendering of The Buttery
Courtesy of ASD | SKY
The Buttery
Hopkins describes The Buttery 2.0 as a return to the role pastry and dough play in the kitchen. “As a chef I can’t think about cooking without dough and pastry around me,” he says. “I miss that in my soul.”
The new Buttery will have more seating, a better layout for guests, and a more focused menu. Unlike the original location, it will be retail only, not wholesale. It will also have the support of Linton’s full kitchen, which Hopkins says will help reduce waste.
Canele from the The Buttery
Courtesy of Hopkins and Company
The former Buttery had “a bunch of cheese and meat,” Hopkins says. This version will not. Instead, it will function as a bakery, coffee shop, and café, with grab-and-go items such as chicken pot pie and rotisserie chicken, plus made-to-order sandwiches and salads.
Pastry will be central to the operation. EinKornelius, Hopkins’ 15-year-old dough starter, is expected to show up in pizza dough, burger buns, and croissants.
Soft serve is also planned with toppings like cracking caramel and chocolate shells, compotes made from seasonal fruit, and olive oil and sea salt.
At Lumier’s Chimney Cake in Peachtree Corners, the first thing that hits you is the smell: warm dough, vanilla, and cinnamon sugar drifting from the open kitchen. Behind the counter, the staff wraps strips of dough around cylindrical molds and bakes them to order, turning out golden, hollow pastries in five to seven minutes.
Owner Sahim Haraizeh calls it a “live show,” as customers watch as the cakes are filled, stacked, and finished with soft serve, fruit, chocolate, pistachio, and more. “When you smell it, you want to try it,” he says.
The finished cakes are built for the camera—tall, overflowing and customizable enough to suit any sweet tooth. Some arrive with soft serve swirled high above the warm pastry shell; others are layered with jams, creams, fruit, and candy-like toppings.
Lumier’s bills itself as the first and only dedicated chimney cake shop in Georgia. Haraizeh says the appeal was immediate when he first encountered the dessert in Europe two years ago. “It’s very attractive, and it tastes good,” he says. “You don’t see anything like this.”
Classic Chimney Cake dough
Courtesy of Lumier's
That novelty is central to Lumier’s draw. Chimney cakes, known in Hungarian as kürtőskalács, are a centuries-old Central and Eastern European pastry with roots often traced to Transylvania. Traditionally, sweet, yeasted dough is wrapped around a spit, rolled in sugar and baked as it rotates, creating a caramelized exterior and soft center. Once a festive pastry served at celebrations, chimney cake has become a popular street food at markets and fairs across Europe.
At Lumier’s, prices run from about $8.50 for a classic to around $15 for a platter meant for two, and with chimney cakes stretching 12 to 15 inches tall.
“They’re loaded,” Haraizeh says.
The most popular order is the Dubai Chocolate Chimney, while the Lumier’s Signature layers chocolate, fruit, vanilla soft serve, with more chocolate on top. Lumier’s also serves coffee, matcha, cold-pressed juices, and milkshakes. The 1,700-square-foot space features Wi-Fi and music, encouraging guests to linger.
Haraizeh and his cousins opened the first U.S. location in Washington, D.C. last year before bringing the concept to metro Atlanta. Additional Georgia locations are already planned, including one near Avalon in Alpharetta and another in Suwanee, with a Midtown location under negotiation.
Cafe interior at Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co. in Duluth
Photograph courtesy of Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co. Atlanta
The first people in the world to brew coffee were from the region that is now Yemen. Five-hundred years later, beans from coffee’s birthplace have arrived in Atlanta in a big way. Of the 100 or so Yemeni coffeehouses across the country, Atlanta has six, all of which have opened in the last five years. Yemeni coffee professionals say their culture is flourishing here because of the rich, nutty taste of their beans and specialty coffee enthusiasts’ insatiable desire to try coffees from origins that are new to them.
Coffee historians generally agree that the beverage’s roots can be traced to Ethiopia, where coffee plants were endemic. Fifteenth-century traders brought the plants across the Red Sea to Yemen, and the Yemenis first brewed them as a beverage. From Yemen’s port of Mokha (where the word mocha originated), coffee spread to the world. While coffee production scaled up in other regions, the industry in Yemen remained small. But today, Yemeni beans are sought for their rustic quality, boldness—and rarity. Importing coffee from Yemen has always been a challenge; the industry there is small, and with war recently intensifying in the region, transport has become even harder.
Local entrepreneur Hesham Abdulla opened Mokhaport in Tucker in 2021; he believes it was the first cafe in Georgia to specialize in Yemeni beans. The menu offers classic drinks like sanani (a comforting blend of Yemeni coffee, cardamom, and brown sugar), as well as traditional Middle Eastern snacks: fatira, a spiced pancake with spinach, or kaliat nahel, a whole-wheat bread stuffed with cheese.
Roswell’s 967 Coffee Co. was founded in 2025 by three cousins who aimed to evoke a “modern-day majlis”—the room in a Yemeni home where guests are entertained and coffee flows freely. It’s open until midnight or later every day, and the night shift is its busiest, serving a need for a safe, sober community space for anyone.
“We want everyone to feel welcome, like they belong,” says Osama Almathil, one of 967’s co-owners. “Our goal is to showcase the culture in a beautiful place, welcoming people from all backgrounds.”
The rest of Atlanta’s Yemeni coffeehouses are locally owned franchises: ShibamCoffee Co. in Alpharetta, Haraz Coffee House in Midtown, and Arwa Yemeni Coffee and Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co., both inDuluth. Arwa originated in Richardson, Texas, but the rest of these brands have expanded across the country from Dearborn, Michigan—the first Arab-majority city in the United States. Like 967, all of their Atlanta locations are open late at night.
“We aren’t really catering to a morning, heading-to-work kind of crowd,” says Danish Dharani, a cofounder of Qamaria. “In my head, it’s a coffee shop second; it’s a space for people to enjoy first.”
Buford Highway mural at Pinetree Plaza by artist Leah Abucayan
Courtesy of Bluefoot Entertainment
When I lived in Atlanta in the late 1980s and early ’90s, I surfed the wake of Christiane Lauterbach, a now-retired restaurant critic for this magazine and other publications, famous for her keen palate and reviews that could gut a chef like a prison shiv. The cheesecake from one restaurant tasted like “old clothes,” Christiane wrote; the counter in another looked like “shellacked vomit.”
More important, Christiane wrote with curiosity and empathy about the restaurants of Buford Highway, Atlanta’s longtime on-ramp for new arrivals from other countries. Nativity is not the best measure of belonging, her reporting suggested. The true gauge is whether a person contributes to a place.
Born in Paris, France, she explored the immigrant-owned restaurants of Atlanta like a flaneur, luring readers to Buford Highway with reports of char siu bao and larb gai, barbacoa tacos and jjajangmyeon. After I moved to Oxford, Mississippi, to pursue a degree in Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, I began to write about food and culture. Christiane and I served together for a decade on a restaurant awards committee.
Between debates about our nation’s best pastry chef or bartender, Christiane encouraged me to think about restaurants owned by immigrants and their descendants as essential to the modern Southern story. They were, she believed, inheritors of the mom-and-pop spots across the region that fed country-to-city migrants in the years after World War II. In time, that insight became my angle of approach. A world bloomed into view.
More than three decades have passed since I left Georgia for Mississippi. I can’t now claim to know shape-shifting Atlanta and its kaleidoscopic exurbs as readers of this magazine do. But I still love your city. To renew my acquaintance, I return for Shiny Dimes at Kimball House, tartare on daikon chips at Ticonderoga Club, and body scrubs at Jeju Sauna. And I drive Buford Highway, the place of my awakening to a more expansive idea of home.
Carlo Gan preparing rolled pork roast at Kamayan ATL
This spring, I brought a 10-person crew to film a Buford Highway episode of TrueSouth, the SEC Network food-and-culture show I write and host. We focused on the six-mile stretch that runs north from the Benedit family’s Havana Sandwich Shop (serving Cuban sandwiches, black beans, and yellow rice since 1976) to the intersection with I-285 near the site of an old General Motors plant, the onetime economic engine of Doraville, where workers built Buick Skylarks and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes.
I couldn’t rely on Christiane this time. (She moved to Portland, Oregon, a few years back.) So, I listened to Emily Wu Pearson’s WABE reports on Atlanta immigrants and refugees, subscribed to Sophia Qureshi’s newsletter, 285 South, and reread issues of this magazine. I also followed restaurant writer and dumpling entrepreneur Candy Hom on Instagram (you should too; her handle is @soupbelly_atl) and read Down South + East, the new Atlanta-inspired cookbook by Ron Hsu, chef and founder of Lazy Betty.
When it came time to film, I tapped my friend Jim Cobb, the retired University of Georgia history professor. He traced the initial growth of the Buford Highway corridor to the late 1940s, when Black and White workers flocked to that GM plant in search of union jobs. I made new friends, too, like Jack Halpern, whose company leases out storefronts in the 1958-vintage Pinetree Plaza, a strip mall on the Doraville stretch of Buford Highway. He spoke of the social and economic forces that transformed suburban places like Pinetree into sites of global aspiration. And he connected current Atlanta immigrants to his own past: His father immigrated to Atlanta from Poland one year before the Nazis rolled across the border.
When our show premieres in October, you’ll meet Grace Yu of PN Rice Cake House in Pinetree Plaza. She guided us through her small shop, stocked floor-to-ceiling with a mosaic of housemade Korean banchan in squat glass bottles. And Amormia “Mia” Orino and Carlo Gan of Kamayan ATL, a Filipino restaurant across the road in Asian Square, who fed us green beans blistered in coconut oil and rolled pork roast with skin as sweet and crunchy as peanut brittle. Mia talked through tears of the couple’s shared love for Atlanta and its people.
Jars of kimchi and other Korean delights at PN Rice Cake House
Courtesy of Pinetree Plaza
Lily Pabian of We Love Buford Highway with John T. Edge at Atlanta Chinatown courtyard
Courtesy of Bluefoot Entertainment
Young players in the Buford Highway Orchestra Project
Courtesy of Bluefoot Entertainment
Conductor Juana Alzaga
Courtesy of Bluefoot Entertainment
Everywhere our crew went, love abounded. So did hard work and big dreams. But a question nagged: Do those ideas Christiane taught still hold true?Or has the cruelty I see modeled by our nation’s current president rewritten the Buford Highway story? I got one answer to that thorny question while documenting the work of Lily Pabian, executive director of the advocacy nonprofit We Love Buford Highway, and Juana Alzaga, who leads the Buford Highway Orchestra Project, a free after-school program.
We were gathered in a conference room for a rehearsal of third, fourth, and fifth graders, most with roots in Mexico or Central America. In the vestibule, an older brother draped his sleeping little sister with his coat. A baby wailed in a basinet. A violinist burst through the door with a box of strawberry doughnuts. When Juana called the students to attention, parents in the back of the room pressed record on cell phone cameras. As the students drew bows across violins and cellos, their eyes shined with promise. As I watched and listened, thinking of the lessons in contributing and belonging the people of Buford Highway have taught Atlanta—and what I’ve learned in the process—my eyes shined with tears.
Beverage director Carter Culwell prepares espresso martinis.
Photo by Dustin Chambers
A little luck, a lot of lemongrass: That’s the recipe behind Some Luck, the forthcoming Thai street food bar from the Talat Market team. Opening in October beneath Otto’s in the former Highland Inn, the basement spot will serve small plates, batched cocktails, and Thai beer, with the easygoing energy Poncey-Highland is known for.
Founded by chef Parnass Savang and Rod Lassiter, the duo who created Michelin-recommended Talat Market in Summerhill, Some Luck is more casual than its sibling. Where Talat built its reputation on a tightly edited, frequently changing menu of Thai dishes rooted in seasonal Southern ingredients, Some Luck is meant to feel like the kind of place anyone can drop in on a whim.
“It’s a neighborhood place where people can come and get their favorite items every time,” general manager Ashley Botzis says. That means no reservations, a relatively static menu, and shareable small plates that can stand alone as a snack or add up to a full dinner. She believes the walkable area and surrounding eateries like Madeira Park and Big Softie make it easy for locals to spend a whole evening popping into multiple establishments on the same block.
Som Tum Thai (papaya salad)
Photo by Dustin Chambers
The bar’s name comes from Lassiter, who was born on 7/7/77 and has long considered himself lucky. “We’ve had some luck in getting this place open,” Botzis says.
Former Talat chef Josh Rhinehart will lead the kitchen with Savang designing the menu, while Lassiter oversees operations. The opening menu will resemble that previewed during a recent pop-up at Madeira Park, including offerings like papaya salad (both regular and vegan), boat noodles with beef, seafood pancake, shrimp toast, and a Thai-style riff on lemon pepper wings made with white pepper and lemongrass. There will also be fries dusted with Some Luck fry dust—a mix of lemongrass powder and chile powder—served with aioli, plus a nahm prik ong (pork dip) served with potato chips. Many of these items debuted at Talat Market at some point as well.
The menu will include one large-format dish: khao mun gai, the Thai chicken-and-rice staple, that feeds two. Botzis estimates two people might order three to six small plates, while a group of four to six could make its way through nearly the entire menu, doubling up on favorites.
Surfer on Acid pineapple cocktail
Photo by Dustin Chambers
On the drinks side, beverage director Carter Culwell, who oversees the program at Talat, is keeping the focus on cocktails. The bar will offer about 10, many batched in advance to keep service efficient, including a tamarind highball made with Madeira, mezcal, and bubbles, and a banana espresso martini finished with coconut foam. Cocktail names will highlight key flavors and appear alongside their Thai names. The wine list will be intentionally concise: three approachable, European, by-the-glass options, plus a very small by-the-bottle list with a few $100 to $150 selections for a swankier night out. Beer will play a larger role, with Thai labels such as Singha on draft and Leo and Chang by the bottle, plus local, easy-drinking, and nonalcoholic options.
The Some Luck space is meant to feel like a choose-your-own-adventure basement bar. Guests enter through a stairwell off North Highland Avenue, descend to glass-paned doors, and arrive in a small lobby before deciding where to settle. To the right, a darker lounge with booths, tables, and a six-seat bar will serve as the main dining room. Straight ahead, the main bar will feature an L-shaped counter with 16 stools, as well as drink rails and a few high-tops. The design boasts restored black-and-white checkerboard tile in the lobby and main bar, dark green walls, walnut accents, and stadium seats from the former Olympic stadium arranged around small lobby tables. The result, Botzis says, is intended to feel both nostalgic and relaxed—a place with Thai street food flair, neighborhood-bar ease, and, true to its name, a little luck on its side.
Chef Daniele Furfaro is getting ready to introduce a more refined version of his family’s Italian cooking to Alpharetta. Come October, he and his wife Bella are opening Osteria Bella at Halcyon, taking over the former Butcher & Brew space.
In the meantime, the Furfaros are changing the name of their other restaurant, Mezza Luna, to Trattoria Bella later this month. Furfaro says the change is designed to more clearly connect the Marietta restaurant with the new Osteria Bella in Alpharetta. (The Smyrna Mezza Luna operates under separate ownership.)
“We’re going to bring the same passion and the warmth of the family and high quality,” Furfaro said. “Restaurants in Italy are elegant. We’re going to make Osteria Bella chic.”
Chicken piccata
Courtesy of Osteria Bella
Born in Calabria in southern Italy, Furfaro attended culinary school there before moving to Georgia with Bella in 2014. The couple became part-owners of Mezza Luna in 2020, then took full ownership in 2023. At the Marietta restaurant, Daniele leads the kitchen while Bella oversees the front of house. Once Osteria Bella opens, Daniele will spend much of his time in Alpharetta working with chef Peter Guertin (Atlas, Bread & Butterfly), while chef Juan Gonzales continues to lead the Marietta kitchen.
Osteria Bella, however, will not be a straight copy of Trattoria Bella. Furfaro describes the Marietta restaurant as more family-oriented, serving a broader menu for lunch and dinner, including familiar Italian-American dishes such as chicken Parmesan, veal Parmesan and fettuccine alfredo. In Alpharetta, he plans to make the menu a little smaller, sleeker and more traditionally Italian.
“Alpharetta is more of a young crowd,” he said. “We’ll have more upscale, sophisticated dishes.”
Black squid ink spaghetti
Courtesy of Osteria Bella
About 30 percent of the menu will differ from that at Trattoria Bella, with a tighter lineup, more refined plating and what Furfaro calls a “100 percent Italian menu.” Pastas will be made in house at both restaurants. At Osteria Bella, dishes may include squid-ink tagliatelle with seafood, paccheri with slow-braised duck ragù, and branzino with lemon-butter sauce, capers, and cherry tomatoes. Furfaro also plans to offer specials such as sea bass, lobster, short rib, lamb chops, and veal chops.
Desserts will be made in house, too. While some of the classics may overlap with Trattoria Bella, Furfaro said the presentations will be different. The beverage program will also get its own identity, with a 100 percent Italian wine list, including reserve bottles. There will be a seasonal cocktail menu as well as classics, and after-dinner pours like grappa, amaro and limoncello.
Creme brûlée cheesecake
Courtesy of Osteria Bella
Osteria Bella will open for dinner first, with lunch service possible in the future. Furfaro also plans to offer a reservation-only chef’s menu—five courses that change every few months—in addition to the private dinners and themed events that have become part of the family’s following in Marietta.
The Osteria Bella space will undergo a major shift. The Furfaros plan to soften the industrial setting with modern Italian décor, warm lighting, and elegant details, like glassware from Italy. The restaurant will seat about 150 people inside, with room for another 50 on the patio.
The patio
Courtesy of Osteria Bella
Furfaro said he wants the finished restaurant to feel like something diners might seek out in Midtown or Buckhead, but with the hospitality that has defined his family’s first restaurant. Construction is expected to begin soon. When it debuts in October, Osteria Bella will add another Southern Italian option to Halcyon’s dining lineup and give the Furfaros a bigger stage for the food, wine, and family-style hospitality that started in Calabria and found an audience in the Atlanta suburbs.
The Atlanta Food & Wine Festival returns September 10-13 with four days of tasting tents, chef appearances, and cooking demonstrations, plus two new events devoted to burgers and fried chicken. Now in its 16th year, the festival is using its expanded schedule to showcase Atlanta’s mix of Southern staples, international influences, and neighborhood favorites.
New this year are two taste-around events devoted to dishes with especially loyal followings: burgers and fried chicken. On Saturday, September 12, Ford Fry hosts Stacked: The Burger Social, a night of creative patties, condiments, toppings, and chef riffs on a classic. Participating chefs include Billy Kramer of NFA Burger and Jonathan and Justin Fox of Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q, with tickets priced at $125 for general admission and $155 for early access.
For Fry, the event is a chance to showcase Atlanta’s burger depth in one place. “Atlanta truly has a ton of fantastic burgers, so I jumped at the offer to do it,” he says. “I’m most excited to try Che Butter Jonez, as I keep hearing such good things!”
Another first for the festival is Southern Fried: A Fried Chicken Affair, hosted by Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member, restaurateur, and cookbook author Kelli Potter. Held September 13, the tasting event stretches beyond traditional Southern fried chicken, pairing buttermilk-brined and Nashville hot styles with Korean, Japanese, and other global interpretations. Joshua Denning of Tandoori Pizza & Wing Co. and Theo Mantzikos of Guys’ Fries are among the participating chefs. As with the Burger Social, tickets cost $125 for general admission and $155 for early access.
Wine glasses at the 2025 festival
Courtesy of Rafterman
Beyond the two new marquee tastings, the festival’s expanded Tasting Tents remain the easiest way to see how broadly Atlanta’s dining scene has grown. And, they’re now spread across all four days at The Home Depot Backyard. Each day has its own host and theme, starting Thursday with The Atlanta Standard hosted by Monti Carlo, author of Spanglish and senior editor for food and dining at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The lineup includes Emily James of Miss Conduck and Leonard Yu of Omakase Table.
Friday’s Tasting Tents shift to Flavors of Atlanta, hosted by Andrew Zimmern, with chefs such as Ali Lemma of Ruki’s Kitchen and Vicky Yankomut of Nom Station. On Saturday, caterer Shawn Osbey hosts The Southern Spread, featuring Duane Nutter of Southern National and Cyrei Daniel of Sweet Me Good.
“Atlanta knows how to eat, drink and have a good time, and that’s what makes this festival so much fun,” Osbey says. “You’ve got amazing chefs, great food and people coming together from all over the city.”
On Sunday, Kardea Brown, host of Food Network’s Delicious Miss Brown, leads The Homecoming, a daytime tasting tent that nods to reunion-style cookouts and comfort-driven cooking. Ronald Hsu of Lazy Betty and Rochelle Blackman of A Piece of Me to You are among those appearing.
Chef Scott Conant chats with a guest at the 2025 festival.
Courtesy of Rafterman
Single-day tasting tent tickets range from $135 to $205, depending on day and access level. Multi-day passes are available, and tickets may be sold at the door if events have not sold out. All events are limited to guests ages 21 and older.
Also returning is Whiskey & Fire, the festival’s smoke-and-spirit event, held Saturday, September 12, at Guardian Works. Now in its second year, the tasting features wood-fired bites, barbecue, live-fire cooking, and whiskey pours.
If you like to try different foods and drinks and can’t always make it to every new spot when it opens, the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival offers a concentrated way to sample the city’s current dining scene in one take.
