As we prepare to say goodbye to another year, we’re looking back at ten stories that really had Rough Draft readers buzzing in 2025.
Our most-read food and dining stories this year centered around big restaurant openings, budget-friendly menus, Your DeKalb Farmers Market, Michelin, and The Colonnade’s loyal regulars.
10. Owner of Michelin Bib Gourmand Whoopsie’s opening an all-day cafe in East Lake
Earlier this year, Chef Hudson Rouse, owner of Rising Son and Pure Quill Superette, and co-owner of Whoopsie’s, announced plans to open an all-day cafe in East Lake. Called Babygirl, the restaurant will take over the former Mix’d Up Burger space at Hosea & 2nd behind Gene’s and Poor Hendrix. Opening at 8 a.m. daily, the menu will skew vegetable-heavy and “health-conscious,” Rouse said, rather than the typical Southern breakfast fare found at Rising Son and Pure Quill. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a biscuit sandwich, carby blue plate specials, pasta, or burgers here. Along with a few desserts, coffee, and smoothies, expect cocktails, beer, and wine at Babygirl.
9. As people scale back dining out, Atlanta restaurants roll out budget-friendly menus
In one of our most-read feature stories of 2025, Rough Draft contributor Laura Scholz spoke to a handful of Atlanta chefs and restaurateurs about how they were adjusting menus to rising food prices and cost of living. Across Atlanta this year, restaurants launched weekly specials, swapped finer-dining dishes for nostalgia-fueled plates, and offered budget-friendly tasting menus and meal deals in hopes of attracting price-conscious diners back to the dining room and boosting sluggish sales.
8. Snackboxe Bistro owners to meld Lao, Thai, and Cambodian dishes at new Chamblee restaurant
The owners of Lao restaurant Snackboxe Bistro in Duluth recently opened Naga Bistro in Chamblee. Taking over the Wild Ginger Thai Cuisine space on Savoy Drive, Naga Bistro includes a full bar and serves a combination of traditional and fusion Lao, Thai, and Khmer (Cambodian) dishes. Fans of Wild Ginger were sad to read of its closure but quickly became excited by the plans Naga Bistro chef Thip Athakhanh had for her brother’s former restaurant space.
7. Where to eat and drink like a local in downtown Atlanta
One of Rough Draft’s most popular dining guides this year explored restaurants in the heart of downtown Atlanta. The neighborhood is the center of tourism, conventions, and sports in Atlanta, home to events like MomoCon and Dragon Con, and games and concerts at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena. It will also be the hub of much of next year’s World Cup activity.
6. NFA Burger opening at Avalon in Alpharetta and will include a bar
Any time we publish a story about gas station burger joint NFA Burger, the metrics needle goes off the charts. This story on NFA’s expansion to a full-service restaurant in Alpharetta was no different, shooting up to the top spot and staying there for days while our OTP readers took in the good news. With the OG still open and operating from a Dunwoody Chevron, the full-service location of NFA Burger opened earlier this spring at Avalon in Alpharetta.
5. Rumi’s Kitchen in Sandy Springs temporarily closing ahead of big renovation
We have it on good authority that Rumi’s Kitchen will reopen in Sandy Springs in January 2026, after temporarily closing for a big interior and exterior redo. All will be revealed then. But the announcement of its months-long closure and renovation in March had people talking for weeks. We can’t wait to see this makeover, and for Rumi’s to return to Roswell Road.
4. 2025 Michelin Guide to the American South drops
It should come as no surprise that the reveal of the inaugural Michelin Guide to the American South was one of our top stories of the year. But what made this story even more compelling was the scheduling snafu that announced the winners hours before the ceremony began in Greenville, SC. The leak was all anyone could talk about ahead of the awards. Little changed for Atlanta restaurants in the 2025 guide, save some notable additions to the recommended restaurants, Banshee’s shift from Bib Gourmand to a recommended restaurant, and Tiny Lou’s dropping off the list. Staplehouse also lost its star and was bumped to the recommended list, after the owners relocated its tasting menu to their new restaurant in Gay, GA.
3. These regulars are ‘the lifeblood’ of The Colonnade in Atlanta
Long live The Colonnade, and long live its many loyal regulars. As The Colonnade approaches its 100th birthday next year, Atlanta’s second-oldest restaurant is more popular than ever, thanks to new owners and a group of regulars who are part of its enduring legacy on Cheshire Bridge. For this installment of “The Regulars,” Laura Scholz spoke to two Colonnade loyalists about what the beloved restaurant and its family of patrons mean to them.
2. James Beard award-winning chef John Currence opens Big Bad Breakfast
Southern food enthusiasts needed no introduction to Chef John Currence, or to his popular breakfast and brunch restaurant, Big Bad Breakfast. The Oxford, MS chef opened a location of Big Bad Breakfast last month in Buckhead, taking over the former Cultivate Food & Coffee space on Howell Mill Road. Currence, who also owns City Grocery, Boure, and Snackbar in Oxford, first opened Big Bad Breakfast in 2008, styling it after 1960s lunch counters and iconic New Orleans restaurants. Currence now has 26 locations of Big Bad Breakfast across the South, including the newest restaurant in Atlanta.
1. Your DeKalb Farmers Market: a metro Atlanta go-to for ingredients since 1977
We kicked off 2025 with what would become our most-read dining story of the year on metro Atlanta institution Your DeKalb Farmers Market (YDFM). It’s known as the home of Atlanta’s best ingredients, and where local chefs like to shop. YDFM is affectionately referred to as “the real United Nations.” Nearly half a century old, the market is a hallmark of metro Atlanta’s diversity and essence, and a sanctuary for shoppers who truly care about the food they consume. “Your DeKalb Farmers Market feels both otherworldly and anachronistic in the best possible way,” Rough Draft Dining Reporter Sarra Sedghi wrote in January. “It’s unlike anywhere else in metro Atlanta.”