It's hard to imagine a restaurant having more of a banner first year than the Old Fourth Ward spot Staplehouse.

The restaurant, which opened in October 2015, was awarded three stars from the AJC in January and was named a James Beard Foundation Award finalist for Best New Restaurant earlier this year.

Staplehouse didn't take the award home , but the praise is still rolling in, this time from GQ. The restaurant was the top pick on the magazine's annual Best New Restaurants list.

Writer Brett Martin said his meal at Staplehouse was his "favorite meal in a new restaurant all year," adding, "All of it was both immaculate and soulful, a menu designed not to dazzle but to feed."

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Members of the conversion crew take a break as the main scoreboard is lowered to the floor to be worked on as the arena gets ready for the next concert at State Farm Arena, Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Atlanta. The crew was working on creating a stage for the Friday, Oct. 3 Maxwell concert. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com