New stars
Dakar NOLA, So. Fox and Uberto win Michelin stars in the American South
· Written up · The Starred Bill
Three restaurants won their first MICHELIN star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide American South, revealed in Nashville on October 21, 2026: chef Serigne Mbaye’s Senegalese tasting-menu restaurant Dakar NOLA in New Orleans, So. Fox in Atlanta and Uberto Restaurant in Gay, Georgia. Michelin announced no promotions and no lost stars.
The three new stars, and what they cost
- In New Orleans, Dakar NOLA serves a tasting menu at $175 a person, with a wine pairing at $120, before tax and tip. Mbaye won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South in June.
- In Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland, So. Fox, from chef Myles Moody and sommelier Rachael Pack, cooks Southern-leaning food à la carte, with mains around $46.
- About 50 miles south of Atlanta, Uberto cooks from its own regenerative farm. Chef Ryan Smith, who held a star at Staplehouse, serves a tasting menu at $255, with wine pairing at $125. Atlanta News First reported it is the only Georgia restaurant outside metro Atlanta ever to win a star.
How many Michelin star restaurants are in the American South now?
The guide now has 22 starred restaurants on our count: ten in Georgia, four in Louisiana, four in South Carolina, three in Tennessee and one in North Carolina. Emeril’s in New Orleans is still the only two-star. Michelin also added 14 Bib Gourmands, for 59 in all. Every change, edition by edition, is on the MICHELIN Guide American South results page, and the city’s starred restaurants, with their prices, are on our New Orleans Michelin star restaurants page.
Sources
- New MICHELIN Starred Restaurants Shine Across the American South, Michelin, October 22, 2026.
- Georgia gains 2 new Michelin star restaurants, Atlanta News First, October 22, 2026.
- New Orleans chef wins top honor at James Beard Awards, Axios New Orleans, June 16, 2026.
Prices and the count of starred restaurants are from our own restaurant files.
Prices and counts are The Starred Bill’s own data on 3,920 starred restaurants: stars from each country’s latest MICHELIN Guide, menu prices from each restaurant’s own website or, where it publishes none, a recent review, recorded October 2026. US dollar figures use exchange rates from ExchangeRate-API (November 1, 2026).