Table Talk: Readers’ Choice: Best New Restaurants
Oct. 21 — Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the table!
In today’s “Family Meal”, I’m discussing how the Rough Draft dining team is working to compile the Best New Restaurants of 2025. This year, we’re also giving readers a chance to weigh in on the new restaurants they think deserve top marks for 2025.
➕ Plus, I tell you why Zen Tea in Chamblee is my go-to alternative to a coffee shop. And Rough Draft Dining Reporter Sarra Sedghi shares a recipe for the French onion soup at McKendrick’s Steak House in Dunwoody.
Cheers!
🍸 Beth
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How to Vote for Atlanta’s
Best New Restaurants of 2025
🏆 Not only is it Michelin season again, but we’re fast approaching Best New Restaurants season in Atlanta. It’s the time of year when publications like Rough Draft present awards to new restaurants bringing something special to the local food scene.
New restaurants often reflect our present-day communities and show us where Atlanta’s food scene is headed, whether that’s fresh perspectives on familiar cuisines or spotlighting underrepresented cultures on menus. Some new restaurants look to shake up traditional service models, like fast casual and fine dining, becoming food and operations trendsetters.
🍝 Sarra and I have spent the last year dining at dozens of new restaurants across Metro Atlanta. To compile our list, final decisions are based on specific criteria, such as creative use of ingredients, consistency of food and service over multiple visits, and unique characteristics like zero-waste practices or clever beverage programs setting some new restaurants apart from others.
While we’re currently working to finalize the 2025 list, we want to also give readers a chance to weigh in on the new restaurants they believe deserve top marks for 2025.
👉 Enter Rough Draft’s Readers’ Choice Awards. Participation is as simple as filling out a form to vote for your favorite new restaurant.
Just like Rough Draft’s 2025 list, new restaurants in contention for Readers’ Choice opened between Oct. 1, 2024, and Oct. 1, 2025. New restaurants must reside within Rough Draft’s major coverage areas, including the cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven, Tucker, Sandy Springs, and Dunwoody. We’ve provided space to fill in your favorite restaurant for each city category, along with a space for new restaurants residing in adjacent communities within greater Metro Atlanta. (Think Roswell, Decatur, Marietta, Jonesboro, Duluth, Peachtree City, etc.)
📅 We’ll collect reader responses through Nov. 21 and announce the Rough Draft and Readers’ Choice winners during the first week of December. Click here to vote for the Best New Restaurants of 2025.
Need a refresher on the restaurant openings from the past year? Check out each month’s major restaurant openings below.
Hilltop Bottle Shop Satisfies Sandy Springs Community
SPONSORED BY HILLTOP BOTTLE SHOP
🍾 Located at 7277 Roswell Road, Hilltop Bottle Shop offers an unmatched selection of curated wines, rare whiskeys, and a wide range of beers—from everyday sips to local favorites.
🛒 Guests can shop in-store or online with delivery available. Hilltop also hosts tastings led by knowledgeable beverage partners alongside the Hilltop staff and features a growing party goods section. Keeping it local, Owner Brian Hicks and partner David Abes of DASH Hospitality Group grew up and live in the Sandy Springs/Dunwoody community.
🤝 The team provides quality customer service and options for the entire community.
The Move: Tea and Cream at Zen Tea
🫖 When I need to unwind with a cup of tea (not in my house), I invariably end up at Zen Tea in Chamblee. Here, I can sip tea and indulge in a scone or two while quietly reading or working. Tea houses like Zen are nice alternatives to coffee shops, which sometimes are too noisy and distracting for me.
At Zen, I can pop in for a cup of almond oolong or White Silk Earl Grey and a scone without much trouble. (Better still, Zen Tea is an easy walk from the Chamblee MARTA station.) But the real move at Zen is the tea and cream for one ($19), which comes with a 16-ounce pot of tea and three seasonal scones accompanied by lemon curd, preserves, honey, and fresh clotted cream. For scones, I’m team cream on bottom, jam or lemon curd on top.
🌿 With more than 150 teas to choose from at Zen, it can feel overwhelming. But don’t fret. Zen staff members are happy to answer questions, and the menu breaks down teas into categories, including specific blends and decaf versus caffeinated. Take note, most of the seating is outside on the covered patio.
Recipe: French Onion Soup
From McKendrick’s Steak House
🧅 This week, we’re sharing a French onion soup recipe from McKendrick’s Steak House in Dunwoody. The French onion soup is one of McKendrick’s most popular appetizers.
“French Onion Soup has always been a steakhouse classic,” said Anthony Casiello, operating partner of McKendrick’s. “Its origins go back to France, where workers made it with simple ingredients–caramelized onions and rich broth–for something hearty and satisfying.”
You can source most of the ingredients at a grocery store, but McKendrick’s executive chef Brent Ross recommends going to a local farmers market, or places like Buford Highway Farmers Market or Your Dekalb Farmers Market. And you can also use whatever bread you have at home instead of purchasing a baguette.
🍲 While McKendrick’s makes the veal jus in-house, you can find jus at grocery stores or farmers markets. “However, you can also substitute beef stock fortified with beef bouillon, or add a little extra wine and let it reduce to intensify the flavor,” Ross said.
If you’ve never made French onion soup before, Ross has one rule: Be patient when caramelizing those onions. “It takes time to develop the flavors, and that is where the magic happens,” he said.
Yields around 3 quarts (8 to 10 servings)
📋 Ingredients
- 1/4 lb unsalted butter
- 3 lbs onions, julienned (yellow preferably)
- 1 cup red wine, such as Burgundy or Cabernet
- 1/4 gallon veal jus
- 1/2 gallon chicken stock
- 1/2 Tbsp Dried thyme
- 1/2 Tbsp Kosher salt
- 1/4 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup port wine
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 baguette
- Shredded gruyere cheese
- Sliced Swiss cheese
🥣 Directions
- Preheat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add butter and onions. Sauté until well caramelized.
- Add red wine and cook until almost dry, reduced about 3/4 of its size.
- Add in the jus and stock. Bring to a simmer.
- Add salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf and cook for 15 minutes.
- Add port. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
- While soup is cooking, slice baguette into 1/4-inch thick slices to make croutons. Cook baguette slices at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until golden brown, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Portion soup into an oven-safe bowl or dish. Place two croutons on top of soup, building a raft for the cheese.
- Place two slices of Swiss cheese on top of croutons. Top with a few ounces of shredded gruyere.
- Transfer bowl(s) to oven. Broil until cheese is golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool before serving.
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