Awards and culture
Hi, food friends.
It’s been an exciting week for the Atlanta restaurant scene, with two local James Beard Award finalists, plus another finalist with two metro-area restaurants. In addition to those national honors, our team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution received some local recognition: The Atlanta 50 was named a finalist for the Atlanta Press Club’s 2026 Awards of Excellence in the category of Food, Travel or Culture Journalism.
All told, the AJC had 14 finalists for this year’s Awards of Excellence. The Atlanta 50 will actually compete against another AJC piece, Danielle Charbonneau’s beautiful article about Vietnamese sisters hosting Thanksgiving feasts at a local senior center.
This week, I spoke with each of the James Beard Award finalists in town: Andres Loaiza, owner of Aria, which was a finalist for Outstanding Hospitality for a second year in a row; chef J. Trent Harris of Mujo, finalist for Best Chef: Southeast; and Meherwan Irani, chef and owner of the Chai Pani Group, a finalist alongside his wife, Molly, for Restaurateur of the Year.
All three finalists run very different restaurants, yet their talking points were remarkably similar. Each gave most of the credit to their teams and consistently turned the conversation toward the culture they’ve built at their establishments. They each said the key to their success has been hiring great people, appropriately compensating and rewarding those people, then trusting them enough to create a truly collaborative environment. All three restaurant leaders expressed care and appreciation for their employees and partners that I perceived as genuine.
Candidly, the Atlanta 50 is the first time I’ve ever even sniffed a professional award. It’s also one of the hardest projects I’ve ever undertaken, and still much of the credit goes to my former editor Ligaya Figueras. This first edition of the Atlanta 50 was a labor of love in every sense — a reflection of the care and reverence we have for the city’s restaurant scene.
As Ligaya basks in well-deserved retirement, our new editor, Monti Carlo, has picked up that same thread and run with it. She has brought the same care for restaurants, love of food and collaborative attitude to the AJC, paired with her digital savviness.
I love seeing Atlanta restaurants recognized on a national and global stage; there are plenty here that deserve it. What excites me even more when I speak to these successful, decorated restaurant people is hearing about the same cultural traits that I see growing at the AJC.
Do you have tips, thoughts or questions for the AJC’s food and dining team? Reach out to me at henri.hollis@ajc.com.
About the Author
Henri Hollis is a restaurant critic and food reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he covers Atlanta’s restaurants, chefs and dining culture. As part of the AJC’s Food & Dining team, he reviews new restaurants, reports on industry trends and explores metro Atlanta’s culinary scene through the neighborhoods and people that shape it.
