Nearly five decades in, La Grotta Ristorante Italiano remains one of Atlanta’s most enduring restaurants, serving Northern Italian staples from its longtime home beneath a Buckhead condo building. In January, chef Drew Van Leuvan stepped into the kitchen, bringing experience from The Deer and the Dove, Seven Lamps, One Midtown Kitchen, and Ecco—and taking up the task of sharpening the restaurant’s reputation without disrupting what’s made it last.
Atlanta:What’s it like joining such an established, iconic restaurant? Drew Van Leuvan: It’s the most unique restaurant I’ve ever worked at. Being in business for 47 years is remarkable. You have to be respectful of the history and clientele. My 25- to 30-year-old mind could never have handled working here. It’s too rigid. Being in my 50s now, I can use my knowledge and history to improve on the legacy. It’s that challenge that’s intriguing to me.
Atlanta:Why do you think La Grotta still holds its own in a crowded market? Van Leuvan: They try to keep the price point low compared to other restaurants. The food is very solid. The service is good. It’s family-owned, and the entire staff cares—they’ve all been here so long. It’s not like this “who’s who.” They built this niche, and it became a place people want to be part of.
Drew Van Leuvan has upped La Grotta’s game with dishes like slow-roasted lamb chops with braised artichokes
Courtesy of Drew Van Leuvan
Atlanta:How has the food evolved since you’ve been here? Van Leuvan: We updated the lamb from a simple lamb chop with veggies and pesto to a double lamb chop, slow roasted with artichokes braised in wine, vinegar, and aromatics, with a rosemary-Dijon vinaigrette. It’s more modern. We took the Bolognese from a simple mom-and-pop version to a rich sauce with considerably more depth. We’re curing beef brisket scraps like we would pancetta, grinding them, and then slow braising them in the sauce. We also introduced a beef Fiorentina, a 36-ounce classic Italian porterhouse, which is served with rosemary sea salt and a head of roasted garlic. In addition, the chicken, fish, and veal stocks are all made in-house now. Little things make a big difference!
Atlanta:What other changes do you have planned? Van Leuvan: Bread and pastry work are near to my soul. I want to put more of a refined restaurant touch on the pastries to help push the restaurant into the future. Look for new pastas as well.
Karin Slaughter’s ‘The Secrets We Hide’ hit shelves August 11, 2026. The bestselling author from Atlanta will sign copies August 16 at the Barnes and Noble in Buckhead.
Courtesy of Harper Collins
New York Times bestselling author and Atlanta native Karin Slaughter remembers her grandmother’s abusive marriage to her grandfather.
“It was something we never talked about,” Slaughter says. “ … We wouldn’t acknowledge it, and we all knew it was happening. Our silence never protected her. It only protected my grandfather.”
The memory of this family “conspiracy of silence” (as she calls it) shaped the way Slaughter wrote the latest murder victim in her new thriller, The Secrets We Hide, which hit shelves August 11. The book is the second in Slaughter’s North Falls series (launched last year) and picks up six weeks after the first book, We Are All Guilty Here, ends (on a cliffhanger, of course).
The murder victim in The Secrets We Hide, Allison Vickery, is a police detective herself. But in the opening prologue, she is at home, packing things to flee her abusive marriage with her teenage daughter. She is murdered in her kitchen with her own gun by someone she loves, but Slaughter doesn’t reveal who.
“The community, once she’s murdered, everyone says, ‘Well, I knew she was being abused,’” Slaughter says. “But of course, at the time when she was alive and she could have used the help, no one would acknowledge it.”
The protagonist in the North Falls series, Emmy Clifton, abruptly becomes sheriff after her father, the longtime sheriff, dies in the first book. Emmy is one of the few people in Vickery’s orbit that tries to help her leave her abusive relationship. But each time, Vickery goes back.
“This is quite common in abusive situations,” Slaughter says. “It usually takes about five to six times of leaving to actually have the leaving stick.”
Vickery’s pattern of return makes her a nuanced victim, the kind Slaughter enjoys unpacking.
“I like to write complicated victims,” she says.
Emmy’s estranged sister Jude, an FBI agent who returns home to North Falls in the first book, helps Emmy investigate Vickery’s death. Emmy and Jude’s relationship is tense and fraught with secrets. The cliffhanger at the end of We Are All Guilty Here reveals exactly why.
Their friction, plus the grief they are experiencing after the deaths of their mother and father, give the book that satisfying dysfunctional family baggage that Slaughter writes so well. Underneath the twists and turns of a whodunit thriller, Slaughter builds the strong undercurrent of family drama. The two unfurl simultaneously.
The new book deals with themes that often recur in Slaughter’s novels: womanhood, motherhood, secrets, guilt, forgiveness, cyclical trauma and the echoes of violence.
The Secrets We Hide is Slaughter’s 26th book in 26 years. With every new book, Slaughter says she tries to challenge herself in a new way. This year’s challenge, she says, was to wrestle with the genre cliché “it’s always the husband.”
“Playing around with that was a really interesting thing for me to do,” she says. “Leaning into tropes that maybe aren’t necessarily always true.”
Karin Slaughter’s 2026-released book ‘The Secrets We Hide’ is on tour August 8-16.
Courtesy of Harper Collins
As The Secrets We Hide has been hitting shelves around the globe this past week, Slaughter has been on national tour. It’s become an annual tradition of sorts to begin her tour near her hometown Atlanta. On August 8, she kicked off her tour at the Woodstock Arts Theatre with a sold-out crowd. She hit seven stops across seven states in the week that followed, ending at the Barnes & Noble in Buckhead on August 16.
Robert Thompson on the front porch of The Wren’s Nest in the West End
Photograph by Ben Rollins
A good front porch is personal but not entirely private. Carla Jeffries started using hers as a last resort to calm her baby. It was 2015, and she and her husband had recently moved to Inman Park; their front porch quickly became the place to take their son out of the house when he was restless. As so often happens on a porch, Jeffries, with a baby in her arms, began to meet her neighbors.
“The baby was like an open invite: One person after another stopped and asked about him,” she says. “But I loved it because it was passive socialization, and eventually it got our family involved in our community.”
Through the people she met, Jeffries joined the neighborhood association and later served as editor of The Advocator, the Inman Park newsletter. Sixteen years later, she is a regular at the neighborhood’s official monthly Porch Party (hosted by a rotating cast of residents) to meet neighbors beyond her block and catch up with friends who were once strangers on her porch.
Similar to any Southern city, Atlanta has piles of porches for hanging out. But look closely, and the threshold serves as an entryway into the city’s culture and history. Aesthetically, front porches reflect Atlanta’s architectural eras: Think pre–Civil War classical columns, ornate Victorian portals of the late 19th century, and 20th-century overhanging Craftsman roofs. Socially, they are quiet participants in Atlanta’s most significant moments. Take, for example, the porches where groups critical to the civil rights movement, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, met in Sweet Auburn in the 1960s. The “outdoor living room” is so synonymous with that neighborhood, a new mixed-use apartment development built on Auburn Avenue was named The Front Porch (with balconies).
As Atlanta grows more dense, front porches may seem nostalgic. City code doesn’t require a porch, and amid rapid development, new apartment buildings often substitute in rooftops, balconies, or nothing at all. Yet, throughout Atlanta, front porches have become more desirable for both old and new homes. The stats back that up: In 2024, the National Association of Home Builders reported that 67.2 percent of new homes were built with porches, up from 42 percent when reporting began in 1994. In the Southeast, that 2024 percentage jumps to 79 percent.
To find out why, “it’s only right to start with the oldest porch in Atlanta,” says David Mitchell, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, as he stands on the 1854 porch of the Lemuel Pratt Grant Mansion in Grant Park,now the center’s home. According to Mitchell, this is where the Grant family watched the city burn following the Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta. The porch is elevated several feet from the ground and still presides over the neighborhood. “This space is big and open, so it’s not only breezy but also meant to be used, almost like a faux room,” Mitchell says.
In the early South, raised porches were a necessary shelter from the summer’s heat and humidity. And like most places with shade, people were attracted to them as social spaces. Even after the advent of air-conditioning, Mitchell says porches remained a key part of single-family home construction in Atlanta. “People just needed a place to spill out, to smoke that cigarette, to be out in nature,” he says.
According to Mitchell, the late 20th century saw less front-porch construction, with more attention going to the backyard. “The porch’s biggest threat now isn’t air-conditioning. It’s how private our lives are. Today, we’d rather be on our phones than sit on the porch and talk to that weird neighbor with the three-legged dog about the weather.”
In the West End, Robert Thompson has seen renewed interest in porch sitting in his own community. He moved to the neighborhood in 1990, and after retiring from film production in 2011, he started a tour company, Insight Cultural Tourism, that focuses on the West End’s cultural history. (On his tours, Thompson makes regular stops at the porches of legacy residents, who speak to the groups about the neighborhood’s character.)
The West End also has a tradition of porch parties, which Thompson says became more formal during the pandemic. Porches were a natural buffer for social distancing while still allowing neighbors to congregate outside. “The porch party was a way for us to meet one another, and people wanted that connection then,” he says. “Attendance has grown and is usually very mixed, and this welcome diversity gathered in an intimate setting makes the community feel really special.”
Increasingly popular porchfests, like this one in Oakhurst, are held in many Atlanta neighborhoods with the front porch used as a stage
Photograph by Monique Davidson
Porch parties like the ones in the West End and Inman Park have become common among Atlanta’s neighborhood associations. Some have adopted their own symbols to display on signs hanging on each porch, such as the Grant Park sunburst or the East Atlanta Village dragon. Increasingly popular are “porchfests,” held in Oakhurst, Virginia-Highland, and elsewhere, which transform the front of homes into stages for live music.
This porch renaissance is reflected in Atlanta home building as well. Pam Sessions has built homes around Atlanta since 1985 with her husband, Don Donnelly, and their company Hedgewood Homes. They began to focus their efforts in town after the recession, and even though appraisers often don’t count the porch toward the total square footage, Sessions says that requests for them (as well as patios, perches, and rooftops) have increased, especially since 2020.
“I think the pandemic only heightened everyone’s want for a place outdoors where you could socialize,” Sessions says. “We now consider the porch in our design just as important as the living room.”
Thompson owns and operates Insight Cultural Tourism, a tour company that spotlights the West End’s cultural history, including its most iconic homes
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Home builders can also make porches more usable, adding kitchen elements for outdoor dining or a fireplace for the winter. “We’ve recently been installing sliding-glass walls into homes so they could open up completely to the front porch,” Sessions says. “It’s brought neighborliness back to design, because people are hungry for a space for real-life experiences, even if that’s just waving or seeing someone walking by.”
In Inman Park, the monthly porch parties take that “real-life” porch experience and concentrate it. As many as 40 people of all ages and demographics can be found spilling out into the front yard or inside the house. The only requirement for entry is that you arrive with something to eat or drink.
Jeffries brings her son, now 11, to the porch parties. Since her own porch’s first use as a baby refuge, it has lived several lives: as extra storage space for kid stuff, a place for her son to be loud with friends, and even as the backdrop for a firepit where neighbors often gather.
“It’s become our own third space,” Jeffries says. “You don’t realize it, but once you need it, a porch becomes the most valuable part of your home.”
Gorillaz sign merch at Criminal Records in Little Five Points. The iconic record store will celebrate 35 years this Saturday, Aug. 15 with a three-stage, free block party.
Photo by Robin Henson
Eric Levin knew Criminal Records had made it when legendary punk band The Meat Puppets played a 90-minute set in his Little Five Points parking lot just a few years after his store opened. As an Atlanta Police officer rolled by, he took in the scene, nodded, and left them to rock in peace. That was 1994. Now Criminal Records is conquering its 35th year.
To celebrate, the famous store will take over the for a free, all-day, all-ages block party Saturday featuring more than 30 bands across three stages at the store, in the newly revamped Findley Plaza and at Little 5 Pub. T.I.’s son Buddy Red (at 8:30 p.m.) and pop music clown Puddles Pity Party (at 6:30 p.m.) are just two highlights of the lineup.
Fans will toast to the anniversary with a special brew from Creature Comforts, Long Player, featuring the art of R. Land made special for the occasion.
Puddles Pity Party will play at Criminal Records’ 35-year anniversary block party on Saturday Aug. 15.
Photo courtesy of Criminal Records
For Criminal Records’ 35-year anniversary Creature Comforts has created a limited-edition special brew called Long Player, featuring artwork by R. Land.
Artwork by R. Land
As Levin gears up for the festivities, he reflects on the store’s storied past. Levin first discovered Atlanta in 1991. He never expected Criminal Records would become one of the city’s biggest cultural institutions. Levin had been running a record store in Florida cheekily called Secret Service Records. Then the actual Secret Service shut him down. Afterwards a reporter joked he should call the store Criminal Records instead. The name stuck.
He had never been to Atlanta when he helped his brother move. Wandering around the city, he immediately connected with Little Five Point’s bohemian vibes. A visit to nearby Fellini’s sealed the deal.
“They were playing Sonic Youth very loudly at 2 a.m.,” he remembers. “I had never heard them play outside my headphones.”
Levin came back a week later and found Criminal’s first spot in Little Five, where Java Lords is now. It was not glamorous, he remembers. Levin lived in the back of the shop. The booming Atlanta hip-hop scene and the birth of grunge rock helped put the store on the map.
“I sold enough Nirvana CDs to keep me alive, but it was a struggle,” Levin says.
When 7 Stages took over the building in 1994, Levin pivoted to a spot with Junkman’s Daughter, an eclectic clothing and gift shop off Moreland Avenue, where he stayed until 2008.
“I remember the counter in the old location was so tall that it was so cool but also a little intimidating as a kid,” says Beth Binford, who visited the shop as a teen with her family and has now worked at Criminal for four years. “The store felt like a record store from a movie.”
Metal band Mastadon plays inside Criminal Records in Little Five Points.
Photo courtesy of Criminal Records
Eventually Criminal made its way back to Euclid Avenue. Despite the store’s reputation as a record destination, Levin’s early business was mostly selling CDs and comic books. Offering more than just music has always been part of Criminal’s DNA, differentiating it from other area record stores.
Akira B. has managed the comics section for Criminal for four years and thinks it’s one of the store’s more unique offerings.
“You get an entire experience and can really curate your vibe based on your interests,” they say. “Pair your movies with the soundtrack, find a comic based on the movie you’ve just seen, find a unique band shirt you wouldn’t find anywhere else, and explore the vast local comics [and] music scene we have.”
Over the years Criminal has also built a reputation for hosting intimate shows. Japanese band Boris played an epic, 35-minute song during a thunderstorm. Olivia Dean jammed once. Raine Hood, an employee at Criminal for three years, remembers how she got hooked on The Raconteurs after the band played inside the store.
“It was my first semester of college, and I completely ditched my first class and drove straight to the shop to get a wristband just so I could see Jack White in that setting,” she says. “It was amazing.”
Now Hood is on the other side of the counter and especially loves trading friendship bracelets with Taylor Swift fans who come in on record release days, and bonding with Laufey and Maisie Peters’ fans during listening parties.
But the biggest event the store has ever put on is Record Store Day (RSD), a celebration of record stores with limited vinyl releases that Levin co-founded. He and RSD’s other founders across the country conceived of the idea after Tower Records, an international chain, announced its closure in 2007. It was an auspicious time for record stores, but all the owners who helped launch RSD were successful. Like a sleeper radio hit, RSD took a few years to gain traction after it launched in 2008 on the third Saturday in April. But by 2010, it took off.
“Seth Meyers made a joke on SNL about RSD, and that just broke me,” Levin remembers. “I knew we had done it. Now we don’t have to send our press releases because the media comes to us.”
The Indigo Girls played inside Criminal Records in 2009 for Record Store Day.
Photo by Robin Henson
RSD has been a boon for the entire industry, according to Doyle Davis, the owner of Grimey’s in Nashville who considers Levin a mentor.
“It’s a massive shot in the arm financially but also the engagement with customers is off the charts,” he says. “To see their elation at scoring that treasure they waited hours in line for, to having hundreds of people thank you for just doing what you do. RSD — and good record stores in general — bonds the customer, the fan, with the culture in a way that streaming can never touch.”
Criminal has become more than just a store. It’s become an icon of Little Five and the city’s music scene.
When employee Chole Rhoden first came in, she didn’t even own a record player; she bought a Pink Floyd poster. She’s not alone.
“People wander in all of the time like I did the first time with no way to play a record, just a curiosity for music,” she says. “The store becomes a way for them to connect with others and an appropriate place to geek out about their favorite band [or] artist — it’s really wholesome. A lot of first timers gasp when they come in, they expect the store to be a lot smaller than it is, and then they realize just how important music is to so many.”
The Criminal Records block party is Saturday, Aug. 15, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The lineup for Criminal Records’ 35-year anniversary block party on Saturday Aug. 15. Headliners include Buddy Red and Puddles Pity Party.
The bar at Sargent, a new restaurant opening in the Old Fourth Ward from the team behind Lucian Books & Wine.
Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
When the team behind Lucian Books & Wine opens Sargent in Old Fourth Ward, the restaurant will not be a larger-format copy of its Buckhead sibling. Yes, the DNA is familiar: art as a starting point, books and wine as part of the experience, executive chef Jason Paolini in the kitchen, Jordan Smelt overseeing beverages, and Katie Barringer shaping retail and design. But Sargent is meant to move differently—less hushed destination, more everyday neighborhood brasserie; less hyper-seasonal tasting-style rhythm, more recognizable American classics executed with French technique.
Located along the Eastside Beltline, near 3 Parks Wine Shop and Forth hotel, Sargent opens August 18. Like Lucian, which takes its name from British painter Lucian Freud, Sargent is named for an artist: John Singer Sargent, the American portraitist known for his technical precision and expressive hand.
Oysters on the half shell
Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
This plays to the level of technique and fastidiousness in the food. Paolini describes the restaurant as an American brasserie centered on iconic American and French dishes.
“I want the menu to be recognizable and distinct,” he says, noting that the emphasis is less on novelty than sourcing, technique, and execution.
Whereas Lucian’s food is concise and highly rotational, Sargent’s menu will be roughly twice the size, with more seafood and a steadier set of staples. Meals will be structured more traditionally with starters and mains, instead of four or five courses. Expect bread service with chicken liver pate, a caviar sandwich, raw oysters, shrimp salad with toast, crab cake, and steak tartare to begin. There’s also roasted corn soup, chilled cucumber gazpacho, classic Caesar salad, and tomato and peach salad.
Club sandwich
Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
Lunch offerings will include a burger, chicken paillard, and duck confit. Paolini is especially focused on the club sandwich, a dish he says, “sounds pretty basic but is one of the best sandwiches on the planet.” His version will include poached chicken breast, carefully sourced bacon and tomatoes, and lemon aioli. The goal, he says, is to make it iconic.
Dinner will bring pasta carbonara, roasted halibut, duck breast, roasted chicken, and prime rib. Dessert will include crème caramel, made in house.
“The menu is designed with the coziness in mind, not comfort food in a Southern sense, but food that feels familiar, satisfying, and carefully made,” Barringer says.
Roasted chicken
Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
The beverage program follows the same logic: expansive yet disciplined. At Lucian, wine is the star, with more than 400 bottles. At Sargent, wine will remain central, but the list will contain half as many bottles, with 12 to 14 wines by the glass. Smelt says the structure will remain familiar to Lucian guests, organized by grape variety and then region or country, with a heavy emphasis on Europe and the United States, alongside select options from Greece, South Africa, and Australia. Smelt is making a concerted effort to keep about half the wine list at $85 or less. A concise “Lunchtime Bottles” list will offer curated selections priced from $45 to $75.
The biggest beverage evolution is the spirits. Smelt calls Sargent a “fuller bar,” with rum, mezcal, tequila, cordials, and single malts joining the mix. Cocktails will be classic and direct: the martini from Lucian, a Manhattan, Tom Collins, and aperitif-style drinks.
“We don’t need to reinvent everything,” Smelt says. “They’re classics for a reason.”
That same balance—familiar but elevated, polished but approachable—carries into the look and feel of the space. Barringer says the team kept texture and layering top of mind, including two custom murals by local artist Tommy Taylor. The goal, she says, was to make the restaurant feel established from day one, “like the space has been here,” even though it’s in a new building.
The dining room
Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
Where Lucian occupies one intimate rectangular room, Sargent is longer, larger, and divided into distinct zones: an 18-seat bar, main dining room, private dining room for 18, outdoor seating, and retail area. In total, Sargent will seat about 165 guests. Floor-to-ceiling windows, a dog-friendly patio, and the steady movement of BeltLine foot traffic give off an energetic vibe.
“At Lucian, you’re coming in as an escape from the chaos outside,” Barringer says. “Here, we are playing into the vibrancy of the neighborhood.”
Books will also have a larger presence at Sargent. Barringer, who previously had a bookstore, is expanding Lucian’s retail model with nonfiction titles focused on art and design, food and wine, film and photography, biographies, music, and more. For her, the book component is not decorative; it is part of how the restaurant invites discovery.
The bookstore area at Sargent
Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
Music will help distinguish the two restaurants, too. Lucian’s soundtrack tends toward instrumental selections; at Sargent, Smelt is looking to jazz and international music to match the restaurant’s livelier setting.
For all the differences, Sargent is not a rejection of Lucian’s ethos. It is an expansion of it—more seats, more menu items, more cocktails, more books, more neighborhood rhythm. The throughline is care. Barringer says she hopes guests leave “inspired, energized, satisfied,” with a renewed appreciation for what technique can do to classic dishes.
“It’s the same approach to service,” she says. “Always doing the best version of what we can do. Not cutting any corners.”
National Association of Black Journalist’s president Errin Haines is an Atlanta native who got her start as a journalist in Georgia before rising the ranks to The Washington Post, Associated Press and nonprofit news organization The 19th.
Courtesy of Errin Haines
In 2006 the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) honored Atlanta native Errin Haines as its Emerging Journalist of the Year for covering the lasting legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. Twenty years later, she’s now president of the NABJ and presides over the organization’s 50th anniversary convention and career fair taking place Aug. 12 – 16 at the Marriott Marquis downtown. Atlanta hasn’t hosted the convention since 2005.
She launched her career in Atlanta interning at the historic Atlanta Daily World before catapulting her career to the Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, Washington Post and Associated Press. For the AP, Haines covered race, politics and culture across the nation.
In 2020, she left the AP to become a founding member of The 19th (named for the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote) a then new, nonprofit newsroom focused on the intersection of women, politics and policy.
She joined The 19th as its first editorial hire and sole reporter during the historic 2020 Democratic primary election cycle, which made history for having several candidates of color and six women. Since then, she’s become the publication’s editor-at-large.
She’s also a political contributor to MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and co-hosts the recently launched YouTube series Long Play: Winning the South with former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and Hillary Clinton’s former presidential campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri.
Surprisingly, the award-winning journalist says she never imagined leading NABJ.
Atlanta Magazine caught up with Haines to discuss her career and her big moment overseeing the 2026 NABJ convention.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
What got you interested in journalism?
When I was growing up, I was not allowed to watch television while we were eating dinner [unless it was the news]. So, because I wanted to watch television, I was like, ‘Yeah, put the news on.’
In our house, we were a WSB TV household, and that meant that at 6 o’clock every night, I was watching Monica Kaufman [now Monica Pearson] do the news. And the thing about that was, she was beautiful. and she wore glasses like me, and she was a dark-skinned Black woman like me. … So I was interested in her even before I was interested in journalism as a profession.
So how did you make the leap to journalism?
Fast forward, I’m in college and I need to figure out what I’m going to do with my life. I didn’t really know, but I was thinking about just kinda who I was and what I was good at. One: I was really nosy. And two: I liked to learn. So you put those two things together, and journalism starts to look like a possible career path.
But I had no idea how I was going to do that. I was at Oglethorpe by then, and my school newspaper wasn’t great. That wasn’t how I was going to get a whole bunch of experience. I knew I needed some experience, and so I just happened to be looking at an issue of Creative Loafing one day back when that was still printed, and there was an ad for a [monthly] meeting of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists.
What happened there?
From my very first meeting, when I introduced myself with ‘I’m a student and I’m trying to get my foot in the door in journalism,’ they embraced me. They took me in and said, “Yes, you’re going to make it. We’re going to help you.”
From there, I met some other students that were active in the chapter, and one of them, who is still one of my friends to this day, mentioned to me that the Atlanta Daily World hires freelancers. Maybe I could go on over to Auburn Avenue and share my portfolio. Maybe they would have something for me to do, and I could get some stories that way. I think I went over there on a Monday or Tuesday, and introduced myself, showed them my stuff, and by Friday, [I had published] my first article.
How did working with the Associated Press change your life?
It was at the Atlanta Bureau. The very first week of this internship, they said, “Hey, we’re sending you to a press conference. President Bush is going to [speak] about this housing project that’s closing.” And I was like, “Okay, you guys are sending me to cover the president coming to Atlanta?” They were like, “Yes, goodbye.”
They put me right in the mix. … I wrote about so much covering HBCUs, Black life in the city, the civil rights community. I was fully a part of the newsroom. A lot of the stories I wrote made the national wire. A bunch of my stories ran in papers in Georgia that would then run across the country because Atlanta influenced everything, even back then. … My news judgment got a lot sharper.
Let’s leapfrog. You left the AP for The 19th. Why?
[The AP] was my dream job: to write about Black people for a national audience for the biggest news organization in the world. I was so happy to be doing that.
But, there was some frustration because by the time we get to 2019, I’m covering the 2020 primary. There’s six women running for President [Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, and Marianne Williamson] There’s a super diverse field … but I felt like every news organization that was covering race and gender was not [doing it] good enough. They were covering it like some kind of side issue.
… I’m sitting in this frustration when I get this DM from my now boss who was editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune at the time, Emily Ramshaw … I call her and she tells me she has this idea for a newsroom and it’s going to be focused on women and politics. I’m like “This sounds amazing. Can you raise some money so that I can quit my job and do this? Because this sounds exactly like what I want to do.”
A lot of people were like “wasn’t it risky leaving your job at AP to start The 19th?’ and I was like, no. For me, the risk was in not trying to do this because things have not changed in our profession in political journalism.
What happened?
We launched a week before the Iowa Caucus in 2020, and three months later, the pandemic happened. Obviously, we’re a newsroom covering politics. There is no campaign. Joe Biden was in the basement at that point. And I didn’t know what we were going to do. But, honestly, because we knew the pandemic was impacting all the people that we wrote for and about –women and people of color and queer people, we were like we’re going to write about the pandemic. Of course, we were thinking we were going to do it for a couple of months and then the country would be open again. Well, that obviously didn’t happen either.
But it was still good because talking to those people about how the pandemic was affecting their lives was absolutely political. So, by the time the campaign comes back around, we’re writing about that and how that’s impacting the election. … We started with five founders, and I was the first and only reporter for months before we kept growing. And now, we’re an organization of about 60, six years later. And this is my new dream job.
And now you’re NABJ President Errin Haines in a milestone year in your hometown.
To be here now, leading this organization of 4,000 strong, and welcoming them to the place that raised me, that shaped me, that really made me the person and the journalist that I am, it is just such a tremendous honor and a privilege.
What I want for every single person that comes here is that the spirit of what Atlanta is, and what we represent — the excellence, the swagger, the courage and the revolutionary spirit we have here — I want people to take that back with them to wherever they are.
KEVIN BLAIR HAS BEEN in banking for three decades, but when he joined Columbus-headquartered Synovus nine years ago, he discovered a new culture of doing business.
Blair leads by example, plugging into the Georgia community by serving on the boards of Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Historical Society, and Georgia Research Alliance.
Courtesy of Synovus
“Our people care so much about each other, and that transfers over into how we relate to our clients,” says the CEO, president, and chairman of the company founded in 1888 as the Columbus Bank and Trust Company. “We’re not perfect, but [the culture] feels different than anything I’ve ever seen.”
That sentiment is not just a proud leader talking. Synovus has won numerous Coalition Greenwich awards (considered the key designation for financial institutions), including 15 Best Bank Awards this year, earning top marks for ease of doing business, relationship management, customer service, and more. Here, we chat with the dynamic leader to learn more about what keeps him inspired and how he’s leading the company into the future.
Columbus may not be the first place that comes to mind for a banking headquarters. Why is it the right fit for Synovus?
We were born here in Columbus. We’re the 39th-largest bank in the United States and the largest that’s not headquartered in a major MSA (metropolitan statistical area). Most of the large banks have migrated to major MSAs. We didn’t just grow to our size based upon starting in a MSA that had outsized growth.
We’ve had to work harder because we have 55 markets that we serve. And although Atlanta is our largest market by size today, Columbus is the second largest, and Birmingham, Alabama, is the third largest. We’ve been able to leverage growth across all five states (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina) within our footprint over this 136-year timeframe.
Columbus fits because, number one, it gives you a cost advantage—the cost of living is less. Number two, the city kind of follows our values in terms of who we want to be and the family-based culture we have.
Synovus consistently ranks as a top bank by customer reputation. What sets it apart?
It starts with talent selection. People in our company share our purpose to help people reach their full potential. It’s part of the fabric of the people we attract—we have a very empathetic culture. Secondly, our turnover rates are low. We just don’t have a lot of attrition from our team members. Last year, our voluntary turnover was 11 percent, the lowest it’s been in over a decade. Clients don’t want to come into our branches and see a new face every week or have a new commercial relationship manager.
Also, everybody wants immediate gratification, and technology is enabling people to access their banking services 24/7 in the comfort of their home. I truly believe that it has to be high tech for self-service with things such as money movement, checking balances, and paying bills.
But when people have a problem, they want to deal with a real person who has empathy and expertise. Big banks are trying to move everything to technology with AI and robo-type activities, and the small guys don’t have the ability to provide the same capabilities and technology.
We talk about the Goldilocks principle—we are big enough to give you all the capabilities and functionality, but we’ve remained small enough and attuned to the fact that people want personal attention. I think that’s why our service scores are so high, and we stand out relative to our peers.
Georgia’s leadership continues to focus on rural development. How do you see Synovus playing a role?
Growth is all about access to capital. We deploy a lot of capital in the state of Georgia to ensure that businesses that want to relocate here have access. For example, there’s a new electric-based aircraft facility in Covington. When they were moving here, it was important to them to have a local bank, and we serve in that capacity.
We’ve also developed a lot of specialty banking units. For example, when you talk about infrastructure, we have an alternative energy vertical that deals with things like solar or small nuclear facilities. As we’re moving in the direction of non-fossil fuel-type opportunities—as battery manufacturers move here and solar becomes more adopted across the state—we’re there to provide expertise and capital.
We also focus a lot on community service. Our bankers and executives have to sit on very active boards and show that they’re not just spending their money in a market but spending their time and energy there too.
What future Synovus initiatives are you most excited about?
For the first time in my nine years here, we are adding more sales resources across all of our markets than we’ve ever had. We think there’s an inflection point in our industry where there’s a lot of disruption, with unhappy clients and unhappy team members. We have a model that [sales resources] want to join and can thrive in. We are opening up our expense growth plan for 2025, bringing in over 100 new FTEs (full-time equivalent employees) to generate outsized growth.
Also, we have spent a lot of time and energy on our technology to better leverage it to serve our clients’ needs. We’re really focused on what we can do to continue to improve the client experience. High tech needs “high touch.” You’ve got to keep developing the high-tech stuff, coupled with having great people.
How is Synovus helping boost consumer confidence in a volatile time?
Volatility is bad for consumers, it’s bad for the markets, and it’s bad for bankers because everybody wants certainty. I tell our bankers that this is a great time to reach out to clients and have conversations because we don’t have all the answers.
I don’t know everything that’s going to happen with tariffs and the impact it’s going to have on every industry, but we understand the current situation of that client. We can talk about what their goals and objectives are and how we can best help them if something were to change. Making sure our clients have the agility and resiliency to be able to roll with the punches is important.
What keeps you engaged and excited as a leader?
Growing up in the small town of Waynesboro, Virginia, my mother was a factory worker, and my father had odd jobs. I was the first in my household to go to college.
Helping people reach their full potential is very important to me because I’m a product of that. Our bank has the ability to help people—from a consumer who’s saving for their first home to a business that’s opening their first store. If our company can live up to our purpose, we can help change people’s lives.
A few members of Georgia State University’s esports team: Andres Zurman, Estefany Salmeron, Ben Hoal Nguyen, Hyunjin Kim.
Photography by Gregory Miller
Atlanta has cemented itself as one of the top sports cities in the nation. The Braves, Falcons, and Hawks have called it home for more than a half-century, and the city has hosted numerous major sporting events, from Super Bowls and Final Fours to the recent College Football Playoff National Championship. Atlanta is also the epicenter of a competitive sport you might not know: esports. Each year, Atlanta hosts some of the biggest gaming and electronic sports events in the world, including DreamHack, the world’s largest digital festival, which draws nearly 40,000 esports enthusiasts to the Georgia World Congress Center every November.
In addition, Georgia State University ranks among the top 10 college varsity esports programs in the country, with teams competing in a variety of games such as League of Legends and Overwatch 2. There are currently 15 esports athletes on scholarship at GSU, which has won three national championships in Smite, an online multiplayer battle game, since the program was founded in 2017.
“We were the first university in Georgia to offer any kind of varsity esports program,” says GSU Esports Program Coordinator Lucas Bailey. Esports at the collegiate level is still very young—the first program in the country was offered by Pennsylvania’s Robert Morris University in 2014. There are now more than 300 nationwide, says Bailey.
THE NEXT BIG THING
Brennen Dicker is the executive director of the Creative Media Industries Institute at Georgia State, where the university’s varsity esports program resides. His background is in film and television, but in 2016 he attended DreamHack for the first time. “I’d never seen anything like it before,” he says. “I’d been to plenty of live sporting events and even did some sports broadcasting in Chicago. But when I saw all these young people watching their favorite esports players on these giant screens, it dawned on me that this was going to be huge.”
The Brawlhalla World Championship at the Cobb Galleria.
Photography by Gregory Miller
As chair of the Atlanta Esports Alliance, a division of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, gaming industry veteran Todd Harris has had a front-row seat to watch the growth of esports over the past decade. “Atlanta is broadly recognized as the esports capital of the nation,” says Harris. In addition to hosting major gaming and esports events, the city is home to several global game publishers and esports team franchises, including the Atlanta FaZe and Ghost Gaming. Georgia was also one of the first states to recognize and support esports as sanctioned high school competitions.
“For years now, Atlanta has led in hosting large traditional sports events,” says Harris. “Now we’re leading in this new emerging area of esports. We’re super excited that these worlds are coming together.”
A GROWING INDUSTRY
According to the Georgia Game Developers Association (GGDA), there are currently 189 game companies employing more than 5,000 workers in Georgia. The gaming industry generates more than $550 million in annual gross revenue and has an overall statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. Meanwhile, the global gaming industry tops $200 billion, making it the largest entertainment industry in the world. “This is bigger than the film, television, and music industries combined,” says Harris.
Georgia State University esports team members Ben Hoal Nguyen, Estefany Salmeron, and Hyunjin Kim demonstrate competitive gaming during an esports match.
Photography by Gregory Miller
Andrew Greenberg, a veteran game developer and president of the GGDA, attributes much of Atlanta’s leadership in gaming and esports to the large presence of game developers, including Hi-Rez Studios and Ghost Launchpad, and esports production companies like Skillshot Media. “The state legislature was also very proactive when they included gaming in the Entertainment Industry Investment Act, which provides generous tax credits for video game development as well as film and television production,” Greenberg says.
In addition, Atlanta has long hosted huge events like Dragon Con and MomoCon, two of the world’s largest multimedia and pop culture conventions. It also boasts a strong technology infrastructure thanks to universities including GSU, Georgia Tech, Emory University, and SCAD.
“These schools had a lot of students who really wanted to participate in gaming and esports,” says Dicker. This interest led Harris and Greenberg to launch the Georgia Esports League (GEL) as a college esports property in 2017. The first GEL State Championship Finals were held in October of that year with college teams competing in Paladins and Brawlhalla, two popular games developed in Georgia. The University of Georgia took first place in both competitions while Kennesaw State University came in second.
Georgia’s Got Game
Esports and gaming have a huge impact on the state:
$550 million
is the annual gross revenue the gaming industry generates, with an overall statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.
Georgia is the first state
with comprehensive esports offerings across two-year and four-year universities, women’s colleges, and HBCUs.
5,000+
students have graduated from Georgia universities with cyber or gaming degrees.
A national esports pioneer
Georgia was one of the first states to sanction esports as a varsity high school sport and is the first state to have a Department of Education-certified esports standard.
12,000+
jobs in Georgia are directly or indirectly related to digital entertainment.
HISTORY OF GAMING
Esports has its origins in the original Atari video games of the 1970s, such as Pong, Tank, and Combat. “I remember our family getting our first Pong game, and it was fascinating,” says Dicker. “My friends and I lived at the video arcade just pouring quarters into video games.”
In 1980, Atari hosted the first Space Invaders Championship in New York City, attracting around 10,000 players. This competition is widely viewed as the precursor to today’s esports mega-competitions. “It showed that a lot of people would come together to watch organized video game competitions,” says Dicker.
Video games got more and more sophisticated throughout the ’80s and ’90s as computer speeds and capabilities advanced. When the internet and streaming came along in the 2000s, players could compete virtually without any physical boundaries. Ever-faster internet connections and platforms devoted to live-streaming esports like Twitch also played a part in ushering in the esports boom we’ve seen over the past two decades.
According to Bailey, esports really started taking off in the 2010s with online games like League of Legends and Overwatch. “These games were designed and formatted from the ground up to be played against others in esports competition,” he says. “Competitive esports teams, at both the professional and college levels, have naturally grown out of this.”
Not surprisingly, esports and gaming are dominated by young people. “Current estimates are that 85 percent of U.S. teens play video games and four in 10 consider themselves gamers,” says Bailey. “They not only enjoy playing games, but they also like watching really good players.” This is no different from traditional sports like tennis and golf. “People who play these sports like to watch the absolute best compete,” says Bailey.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
The career path for an aspiring young esports player is very different from most other athletes. “With esports, it’s much easier to compete directly against the world’s top players as an amateur and move your way up the ranking ladder,” Bailey explains. “If you’re that talented, you’re probably getting noticed, scouted, and recruited by professional teams before graduating high school.”
Most of GSU’s varsity esports players fall into one of two camps. “Most of them just enjoy playing,” says Bailey. “They’re very talented, but not at the level it takes to be a professional. And then there are others who want to make esports a career, but not necessarily as a player.”
Dicker compares the number of talented young gamers who become pros to the number of young basketball players who make it to the NBA. “It’s a tiny percentage and a very short career for those who do make it due to burnout and physical strain, especially repetitive strain injuries,” he says. “But there are a lot of other esports career paths these students can pursue.”
Harris tells students that while the chances of going pro and making big bucks as a gamer are very low, there are plenty of other career opportunities in esports. “There are a whole bunch of jobs supporting every LeBron James or Trae Young,” he says, referencing NBA superstars. These include coaches, agents, commentators, producers, referees, game designers, content creators, social media managers, and influencers. “We host events that help our students get experience in all aspects of esports so they can make connections that launch them into the job market,” says Bailey.
Greenberg believes that esports have paved the way for some students to pursue careers in IT, cybersecurity, game development, and other tech fields that otherwise may not have caught their attention. “Esports and game development go hand in hand,” he says. “Most of the people making games love playing them, and many players want to develop games. The growth trajectory is almost limitless.”
Meanwhile, most of the players who do make it to the pros probably don’t fit the common stereotype of a gamer. “These are real athletes,” says Dicker. “You have to be in great condition to play these games for eight to 10 hours a day.”
An esports competitor plays during DreamHack Atlanta, one of the city’s largest gaming and digital entertainment events.
Courtesy of DreamHack Atlanta
Esports Fans watch professional esports teams compete onstage during the ESL Challenger Atlanta tournament.
Courtesy DreamHack
GAMING FOR GOOD
Harris has a vision and passion for esports that he calls “gaming for good.” “When done right, gaming and esports can help develop valuable skills and character traits in young people,” he says. “In the same way parents might send their kid to basketball camp knowing they probably won’t play in the NBA, parents can get kids involved in organized esports to help develop their discipline, social, communication, and emotional skills.”
“This [esports) is bigger than the film, television, and music industries combined.”
—Todd Harris
Georgia can lead the way forward in esports in two ways, says Harris: “First, by continuing to develop the esports ecosystem we’ve built, from middle school through high school, college, and professional.” The second way revolves around the business and economic model of esports.
Harris explains: “With traditional sports, the revenue model is something like 40 percent corporate sponsorships, 40 percent media and broadcast rights, and 20 percent tickets and merchandise. But most esports content is viewed for free, so broadcast isn’t part of the equation. This means we need some of the great corporations headquartered in Georgia to help sponsor and underwrite esports competitions.”
“Our goal,” says Greenberg, “is to make sure that Georgia remains a leader in what I believe will be the media of the 21st century.”
Grayson became the No. 1-ranked team in the High School Football America poll two weeks ago and has not relinquished the position.
Photo courtesy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Jason Getz
The annual Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic starts Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium where the Grayson Rams will take on the North Gwinnett Bulldogs as the marquee matchup at 8 p.m. just after Lanier and South Gwinnett open the day’s action at 5 p.m.
The highest-ranked team going into preseason, sitting at No. 7 overall is, unsurprisingly, Buford, defending champs in 6A, the state’s highest classification. The Wolves went 15-0 last season en route to the championship. Buford has won 14 state titles this century, and is bringing another powerhouse team under coach Bryant Appling to play in their spanking new stadium.
Buford High School is the highest-ranked Atlanta team in the Top 25 preseason rankings at No. 7 overall. They are defending champs in 6A, the state’s highest classification.
Lily McGregor Photography
Buford won in the Buford vs. Carrollton 2025 state finals game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. This year they are the highest ranked Georgia team in the MaxPreps Top 25 at No. 7.
Photo by David McGregor
Buford’s schedule is punishing, including games against top teams from North Carolina and Florida, as well as a September visit to the No. 13-ranked preseason team, Grayson High of Loganville.
The Grayson Rams have a new coach, Greg Carswell, who takes over after they were soundly beaten in the 6A quarterfinals by Carrollton High last season. Grayson, the 2024 champs, is led by a defense that features a pair of top prospects headed to play at Nebraska, as well as UGA-inbound Waylon Wooten, a 300-pound defensive lineman.
Carrollton, the team that beat Grayson before losing to Buford in the 6A title game last winter, brings back another strong team that is ranked 20th nationally. The Trojans, under coach Joey King, are 65-7 over the last five seasons and have made three of the last four championship games—but lost each time. They will be out to change that in 2026 and feature one of nation’s best quarterbacks, Christian “CJ” Cypher, just a sophomore but already committed to the University of Miami.
Carrollton High School’s football team is one of four teams in the preseason Top 25. The Trojans, under coach Joey King, are 65-7 over the last five seasons and have made three of the last four championship games—but lost each time.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Creekside High of Fairburn, southwest of Atlanta, are the lone team from the lower classifications to crack the rankings, at No. 22. They won the 4A title in 2025 in a 42-39 thriller over Benedictine in the rare close game for coach Maurice Dixon’s Seminoles. Creekside was 15-0 and outscored their opponents by an unthinkable 845-125. They have players committed to Alabama, Auburn and Clemson, as well as edge rusher Tavarre Terrell, who is headed to Georgia State.
Georgia’s great rival in prep football, Florida, leads MaxPreps Top 25 with five schools. California has four, including the preseason number one team in America, titan St. John Bosco of Bellflower.
Creekside High is the lone team from the lower classifications to crack the MaxPrep preseason Top 25 rankings, sitting at No. 22.
IQue Media Group
California leads MaxPreps Top 25 with five schools, including the preseason number one team in America, titan St. John Bosco of Bellflower, plus Santa Margarita, Centennial, Mater Dei and Sierra Canyon. Georgia’s great rival in prep football, Florida, has four teams, including St. Thomas Aquinas, IMG Academy, Carol City and American Heritage.
Another great season of prep pigskin begins!
Tickets to any of the local games—which are being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Kell High School in Marietta, Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell and Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium—can be purchased at Go Fan here.
Adam Jackson is a fifth generation Atlantan who launched Adam J’s Grilled Cheese from a shipping container in Pittsburgh Yards.
Photo courtesy of Adam J's Grilled Cheese.
Amid the shipping containers at Pittsburgh Yards, it’s impossible to miss the bright red one. It belongs to Adam J’s Grilled Cheese and, even in this summer heat, you’re likely to see lunchgoers lined up, drawn in by the promise of buttery, gooey sandwiches. For Adam Jackson, the shipping container represents years of experimentation and determination as he sets out to carve out his place in the community.
Jackson, a fifth-generation Atlantan and one of eight siblings, hadn’t planned on becoming a grilled cheese perfectionist. After his brother’s death, he found solace in baking his family’s biscuit recipe, taught to him by his mother.
“I enjoyed the process,” he says. “I started making them for friends and neighbors, and that slowed me down.”
Adam J’s grilled cheese sandwiches, served from a red shipping container in Pittsburgh Yards, are made on locally baked sourdough bread with a three-cheese blend that includes mozzarella, smoked gouda, and white cheddar. A classic sandwich costs only $5.
Photo by Lia Picard
With the help of his siblings, he founded Butterly Biscuits, which he sold at the Grant Park Farmers Market. Jackson never found a permanent home for his biscuit business, but he wanted to stay in the food industry, so he turned to sandwiches, with their broad appeal.
Years of selling sandwiches from a food truck at Dragon Con and Georgia Tech football games proved that his grilled cheese sandwiches had staying power. After finding the right blend of cheeses to perfect the “pull,” Jackson was ready to go all-in. He found a permanent home for Adam J’s with a shipping container in Pittsburgh Yards, just off the recently opened Southside trail of the BeltLine.
“It was a lot to get this container here, just a lot of sacrifices, money and all that,” he says. “But I saw the vision of the Southside.”
His neighbors in the shipping container courtyard include the coffee shop Urban Grind, Coffyn Pyes, which sells savory hand-pies, and the plant shop Pink Pothos.
The key to a perfect grilled cheese, Jackson says, is a blend of aged white cheddar, mozzarella, and smoked gouda on locally baked sourdough. He found a way to toast the bread to a deep golden crisp without charring it, while the cheese stays molten enough to deliver the dramatic pull customers love. He still leans on local partnerships, sourcing much of his produce from South Atlanta Farms.
Adam J’s grilled cheese sandwiches are ooey-gooey and made of a three-cheese blend that includes white cheddar, mozzarella, and smoked gouda.
Photo courtesy of Adam J's Grilled Cheese.
“It’s funny, as soon as people taste it, it’s like ‘Is it better than my mom’s? Is it better than my grandma’s?’ It’s meant a lot to me to create an experience with the grilled cheese,” Jackson says.
Beyond the classic, he offers sandwiches including chicken parmesan with house-made tomato sauce and a jerk chicken grilled cheese that levels up the spice and quickly sells out. The truffle mushroom grilled cheese is his mother’s favorite. A classic sandwich costs $5 while the others are $10; they all include a side of chips and a pickle.
The shipping container is more than just a means to make money. For Jackson, it’s a chance to create a gathering place in an area he says is in need of good food.
Adam J’s Grilled Cheese serves sandwiches from this red shipping container in Pittsburgh Yards along the BeltLine in Atlanta.
Photo courtesy of Adam J's Grilled Cheese.
“I want to bring gourmet to a community that hasn’t seen gourmet in years, and we all deserve that,” Jackson says. “Everybody wants something nice, so my thing is to bring that to the community, something they can be proud of.”
Even though it’s a shipping container, he’s still managed to make it a vibe. Between a playlist that shuffles R&B and jazz, affordable sandwiches, and a prime BeltLine location, Jackson hopes Adam J’s becomes the kind of neighborhood gathering place where people come as much for the atmosphere as the grilled cheese.
Nearly five decades in, La Grotta Ristorante Italiano remains one of Atlanta’s most enduring restaurants, serving Northern Italian staples from its longtime home beneath a Buckhead condo building. In January, chef Drew Van Leuvan stepped into the kitchen, bringing experience from The Deer and the Dove, Seven Lamps, One Midtown Kitchen, and Ecco—and taking up the task of sharpening the restaurant’s reputation without disrupting what’s made it last.
