Ones to Watch: The new guard shaping Atlanta’s food scene in 2018

The Entertainer: Shannon Evans

Photograph by Ben Rollins

“It was hard for me to make friends when I got to Atlanta,” says Shannon Evans, who settled here in 2015 after graduating from Howard Univer­sity, working at World Bank in Washington, D.C., and then traveling the world. But in just a few years, her event space Studio No. 7 has become one of the most Instagrammed spots on the Westside—especially that Brooklyn-esque brick-walled outdoor patio with lights strung up just so. Evans rents the space for events that range from an intimate bridal shower to a ticketed five-course vegan dinner to a 225-person corporate party for Heineken. When it’s not booked, Evans uses Studio No. 7 for her Midnight Barbecue series, which is all about connecting like-minded friends. (Want to be invited? Go to shannonsevans.com/midnight-barbecue.) Despite her early worries, Evans has become one of Atlanta’s busiest social butterflies.