Key points:
- The Michelin reveal ceremony for the 2026 Guide to the American South takes place Oct. 21 in Nashville.
- Launched in 2025, the regional guide folds in the previous Atlanta guide, and will again in 2026.
- The 2025 guide currently includes 63 Atlanta and metro Atlanta restaurants.
Michelin announced the date and location for the 2026 Guide to the American South reveal ceremony. This year’s ceremony takes place on Oct. 21 in Nashville at The Pinnacle theater.
“Last year marked a momentous year for the American South as we proudly introduced the very first U.S. regional selection of restaurants to travelers both near and far,” Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guide, said in a press release. “As our anonymous Inspectors prepare the restaurant selection for 2026, Nashville stood out as a fitting backdrop for the ceremony thanks to its vibrant entertainment culture, local food influences and shining culinary talent.”
The regional dining guide includes Atlanta and metro Atlanta, along with restaurants in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. The guide does not currently include restaurants outside of metro Atlanta.
The exclusion of certain Southern states and the rest of Georgia comes down to restrictions in the tourism partnership between Travel South USA and Michelin. The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, which helped bring the Michelin guide to the city in 2023 and the metro area in 2024, joined the partnership to produce last year’s guide.
“This is only the beginning of our story with the American South region, and as the Michelin Guide looks to the future, we observe very often the extension of its geographical scope within a state or a region over time,” Michelin told Rough Draft in 2025 about plans to expand the guide.
The 2025 American South guide includes 63 Atlanta and metro Atlanta restaurants.
The organization confirmed this week that the 2026 American South guide will again feature restaurants from Atlanta, metro Atlanta, and the aforementioned states above. They declined to comment, however, on further expansion into Georgia or other Southern states for 2026.
“The Michelin Guide is always out in the field evaluating exciting new destinations. We look forward to expanding coverage and discovering new restaurants in new areas, but we don’t have any news to share about new Guide destinations in North America at this time,” a statement provided to Rough Draft reads.
Related story:
• 2025 Michelin Guide to the American South
• 2026 James Beard Awards finalists from Atlanta
Very little change in 2025
Prior to 2025, Michelin listed more than 55 restaurants in its guide to Atlanta. Very little changed last year with the launch of the American South guide, including further expansion into metro Atlanta and the city’s southern suburbs.
Tiny Lou’s dropped off the list. Banshee shifted from Bib Gourmand to recommended in 2025, joining 41 other Atlanta recommended restaurants. The rest of Atlanta’s Bib Gourmands retained the designation. Eight new restaurants earned recommendations from Michelin, including Staplehouse, which lost its star after Chef Ryan Smith and Kara Hidinger relocated the tasting menu to their new restaurant in Gay, GA. Atlas, Lazy Betty, Bacchanalia, Hayakawa, Mujō, O by Brush, Omakase Table, and Spring all maintained one star.
Premature press release
Michelin officials are likely hoping this year’s ceremony in Nashville won’t be quite as anticlimactic as last year’s reveal in Greenville, home to the French tire company’s North American headquarters.
The 2025 Guide to the American South was unceremoniously leaked as a press release hours before the big announcement on Nov. 3. An email-scheduling snafu was to blame. Most people in attendance for the reveal laughed off the premature timing of the press release. Michelin preceded as planned with the ceremony that evening.
Rough Draft hopes to report live from the Michelin ceremony in October, pending press credentials.
