Restaurant of the Month
Each month in 2026, we’re spotlighting a standout restaurant from across the South. These editor-picked establishments reflect exceptional dining, thoughtful design, and a distinctive influence on community, culminating in December with the selection of our Restaurant of the Year.
Two weeks after the opening of So. Fox, the seasonally focused restaurant at the center of Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland neighborhood, I paid my first of four visits. And I took particular care to bring little to no expectations to the table.
I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe the early buzz. Much of it seemed to be based on experiences from preview dinners in the last week of June, before the doors opened to the public. Too often, when new restaurants arrive in Atlanta, they receive a certain type of hype that usually reveals itself to be overblown.
With So. Fox that ain’t the case.
Open Season
I remember being immediately put at ease by my initial introduction: the soft simplicity of the restaurant’s design. The color palette, with its blended beiges, creams, and khakis, gives the space a sense of calm that sets the tone for its approach to service, delivered by an easygoing staff (also dressed in light tan hues). The front of house is overseen by Rachael Pack, sommelier and partner in business and life with chef Myles Moody, her husband, who runs the kitchen.
The airy and bright interior of So. Fox.
Credit: Dave Crawford
After being seated and taking Pack’s recommendation for a starter beverage—a sparkling orange wine by California winemaker Carboniste called The Crab—I realized this experience was going to be levels higher than what I might have anticipated.
So. Fox religiously adheres to a menu of the moment, which means after only four months open the restaurant has already removed some of its best dishes and drinks, like the tomato martini and roast chicken.
The tomato martini, clarified and dotted with tomato oil, was one of the most delicious cocktails I’ve had, expressing the flavor of a perfectly ripe nightshade. Only available during peak tomato season, it has since been replaced with a martini that features lime leaf and scuppernong whey vodka.
The seasonal tomato martini.
Credit: Dave Crawford
The whole roast chicken wasn’t available on either my third or fourth visits, which is unfortunate because it’s a runaway hit. It’s exceptionally juicy with crispy skin, and is served with Vidalias on a large platter over a gorgeous mustard jus (which you’ll certainly want to consume with a slice or two of their crusty house sourdough).
This may be the biggest drawback of being so new and excellent while staying true to switching out dishes to capture ingredients at their very peak: sometimes the absolute best thing is there for a great time, not a long time.
Fall Reset
I’ve also run through the menu’s snacks section. It includes dishes like the standout ham plate—a clear example of what happens when the owners of a brilliant butcher shop (Kinship Butcher & Sundry, next door to So. Fox) can use high-quality meats sourced for the shop in their restaurant. It also includes the spaghetti squash, whose sunflower seed topping accentuates the crisp crunch of the cold strips of the fall vegetable, arranged in a lovely spiral.
I’ve fallen for the complexity of flavors in their latest entree too: chestnut flour dumplings in a chestnut-mushroom broth topped with shaved blackened chestnuts. The dish is earthy, nutty, and gentle; the dumplings’ texture made for warm, comforting bites that turned the dish into what tasted and felt like a family affair.
The Chestnut Dumplings.
Credit: Dave Crawford
What So. Fox nails is something that most restaurants will never be able to re-create, because it requires something beyond talent, great taste, and an operational understanding of how a restaurant should run. It requires love. Not even the most talented chefs and sommeliers can duplicate the relationship Pack and Moody have with their community, city, craft, and each other.
Just after the conclusion of the 2026 American South Michelin Guide ceremony, where Moody was called to the stage to receive a Michelin star on behalf of So. Fox after less than four months of serving guests, I spoke with the couple.
They showed me photographs of a tradition they’ve had since working together at the heralded restaurant Aska in Brooklyn, New York. The two would touch the tip of each other’s index fingers whenever possible to steal a moment between Moody’s work on the line and Pack’s duties as a general manager.
That love can be felt, tasted, and shared in the dining experience, and makes the inspiration for the restaurant’s quirky name—an abbreviated version of “Southern Fox,” a nickname for Georgia’s famously sweet muscadine grape—such a proper salute to what Pack and Moody have created together.
“I keep getting flashbacks to holding and squeezing his hand, being like, one day we will do something where we get to do this together, and it is honestly just surreal.”
Read the original article on Southern Living
Dining and Cooking