| Did a friend forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday. |  | | | By Henri Hollis | | Food & Dining Reporter | | | | | | | | | Hi, food friends, The fall is typically a very busy time in the food world, especially in the South. Lots of local produce is hitting its peak, restaurant patios become bearable again as temperatures drop and endless recipes are needed for tailgates, dinner parties, friendsgiving gatherings and Thanksgiving proper. Then, there’s the food festivals. The season kicks off this week with the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, which will feature plenty, including our own senior editor, Monti Carlo, serving as one of the host chefs. She will introduce and host AFWF’s first event called The Atlanta Standard: Thursday Tasting Tents presented by Goya Foods. The next few months will also see the return of Smorgasburg Atlanta, the Westside Fall Beer & Bourbon Fest, Gluten Freedom Fest ATL, Taste of Atlanta, Cabbagetown Chomp and Stomp, the Atlanta Chili Cookoff and a wide range of county fairs across the state. Every food festival is different, with its own strategies for how much to charge and what to include in a ticket. It made me curious — what is your favorite food festival, even if it’s not in Atlanta? What makes you more likely to pay for a ticket, and what makes a ticket feel worth it? If you’ve never been to a food festival — what’s kept you away? I’d love to hear your answers and, as always, feel free to drop me a line. Or say hi if you see any of the AJC Food team at an event this season! You can reach out to me directly at henri.hollis@ajc.com with tips, thoughts or questions for the AJC’s food and dining team. | Atlanta’s best fried chicken? It’s a tie. |  | | Daniela Cintron, editor at Discover Atlanta, center, reacts as she tastes a piece of fried chicken alongside Justin Brown, ATL50 expert panelist, during a contest to find Atlanta's best fried chicken, held on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, at the AJC office in Midtown. (Miguel Martinez/AJC) | | Who has the best fried chicken in Atlanta? We started with 12 semifinalists, asked Atlanta to help us narrow the field and brought the reader favorites to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s offices for a blind taste test with local food experts and journalists. We cast a wide net because Atlanta’s love of fried chicken isn’t limited to the iconic Southern style. Our contenders included Korean, Thai and Peruvian fried chicken alongside soul food institutions, Southern restaurants and Publix. Yes, Publix. Leaving it out of a fried chicken conversation felt … dishonest. Five restaurants survived the reader vote, and five chickens were ordered. But only four chickens made it to the judging table. How did we choose Atlanta’s best fried chicken? - We built our original list using restaurant reviews, reader recommendations and our own experience eating around Atlanta. Because our taste tests happen during business hours at the AJC’s Midtown office, restaurants also had to be open during our tasting window and available for pickup or delivery inside the Perimeter.
- Our 12 semifinalists were bb.q Chicken, Buttermilk Kitchen, CM Chicken, Harold’s Chicken & Ice Bar, K & K Soul Food, Las Brasas, Mary Mac’s Tea Room, Pelicana Chicken, Pink Lotus Thai Restaurant, Publix, South City Kitchen and The Busy Bee.
- Then we put the list on Instagram and asked readers to vote. They chose bb.q Chicken, Pelicana Chicken, Pink Lotus Thai Restaurant, Publix and The Busy Bee for the final round.
It was a wonderfully weird final five, and we couldn’t have been happier about it. Chicken can cross more than one type of road on its way to crispy perfection. For our taste test, we had Southern, Korean and Thai styles. 🍗 Read more: What makes great fried chicken, and who has the best fried chicken in Atlanta? | | A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR ED VOYLES HYUNDAI | | | Building trust for over 70 years: The Ed Voyles Hyundai legacy | | |  | | Founded in 1952 by Air Force veteran Ed Voyles, Ed Voyles Automotive Group grew from a small used-car lot in East Point, Georgia, into one of the state’s most trusted automotive organizations. Built on integrity, hard work, and community service the Voyles name became synonymous with trust across generations of Georgia families. Today, Ed Voyles Hyundai operates from a state-of-the-art Marietta facility, continuing Mr. Voyles’ legacy of employee care and customer-first values—earning lifelong loyalty through exceptional service long after the first sale. Visit Ed Voyles Hyundai today! | | | | The Week's Essential Food and Dining Stories  | | Does Atlanta have too many options for fried chicken? | | | |  | | 6 Atlanta food pop-ups this week, featuring a pivot from fine dining to barbecue | | |  | | First look: Heritage Supper Club opens in Summerhill | | | |  | | Heritage will open in Summerhill, and more from metro Atlanta’s dining scene | | | | Dishes around Atlanta where peak-season squash stars |  | | Decatur's the Deer and the Dove celebrates seasonal shifts with a harvest plate that features the bounty of local gardens. This month, squash is the star. (Courtesy of Morgan Campisi of Campisi Collective) | | September in Georgia marks a sweet threshold for tender summer squashes. Two-tone Zephyr zucchini, crookneck and pattypan squash share market tables with the first heavy-bottomed heirloom winter varieties, like the prized North Georgia Candy Roaster. Whether roasted until soft and caramelized, pureed or peeled in fresh veggie ribbons, September’s abundant harvest offers the ultimate bridge between late-summer sun and early-autumn comfort. 📍 Harvest plate at the Deer and the Dove This offers the season’s best distilled onto one plate. Squash takes the lead two ways, with roasted Hickory Hill Farm’s Zephyr squash in “steak” form and a silky squash-miso cream, layered with Anson Mills’ farro verde and blistered Woodland Gardens lunchbox peppers. A watermelon vinegar gel cuts through with acid, while rooftop herbs and shaved Parmesan cheese finish it with an herbal, savory lift. 155 Sycamore St., Decatur. 404-748-4617, deerdove.com 📍 Summer squash at Bread & Butterfly Bread & Butterfly offers tender grill-charred planks of yellow squash and Hickory Hill Farm’s zephyr zucchini, piled over a smooth base of labneh, with dustings of aromatic and earthy za’atar and the citrus punch of tagine elevating late summer’s abundant crop. Chef Demetrius Brown spritzes fresh lemon for a brightening touch. 290 Elizabeth St. NE, Atlanta. 678-515-4536, bread-and-butterfly.com 📍 Hudson Valley duck at Lazy Betty Executive chef Ron Hsu showcases squash in full seasonal bloom, pairing lavender-scented duck with a blossom stuffed with house-made duck sausage, slow-confited in duck fat. The dish is anchored by a rich summer ragu featuring hand-scooped pearls of heirloom yellow and green zucchini, pickled caper blossoms and foraged button chanterelles simmered in duck jus. When baby zucchini come attached to the blossoms, they are scored, seared and added to the plate, giving the dish an extra layer of caramelized, field-fresh crunch. 999 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 470-851-1199, lazybettyatl.com 🥬 Read more: Here’s how 7 other local restaurants are celebrating the season. | Upcoming Events More From Food and Dining  | | Ground pork gets quick carnitas on the table in 15 minutes | | | |  | | 10 Georgia county and state fairs to check out this fall | | |  | | 3 things to know about Keisha Lance Bottoms’ plan to cut grocery costs | | | |  | | Waffle House rarely talks. A union push has it speaking out. | | | | Make chef David Rose’s sticky sriracha-honey BBQ ribs |  | | Chef David Rose adds a thin layer of BBQ sauce onto smoked ribs during the final stage of cooking, creating a glossy, caramelized finish with a perfect sticky glaze. (Courtesy of Kathryn McCrary) | | Atlanta chef David Rose’s sriracha-honey barbecue ribs combine smoked baby back ribs with a sticky, sweet-and-spicy glaze and his 2-2-1 method for cooking tender ribs at home. The five-hour recipe layers flavor at every step, from a dry rub spiked with za’atar and Chinese five-spice to cherry wood smoke, apple juice and honey, and a barbecue sauce with sriracha and rice wine vinegar. There’s a lot going on in that last sentence because there’s a lot going on with these ribs. Rose, an Atlanta chef, cookbook author and television personality, isn’t relying on the barbecue sauce to do all the work. The ribs pick up smoke during the first part of the cook, sweetness while they’re wrapped in butcher paper and heat and acidity only toward the end, when the sauce is brushed on twice to create a sticky glaze. The method itself is surprisingly straightforward. Rose uses the 2-2-1 method for baby back ribs: two hours smoked, two hours wrapped and one final hour unwrapped. He shared the technique with the AJC earlier this summer when we asked him how to smoke better ribs. This recipe takes that same method and gives it a much bolder flavor profile. 🍖 Get the full recipe, plus Rose’s expert tips for smoking tender, flavorful sriracha-honey BBQ ribs. |  Follow us on Instagram | | | |
