Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours

Twisted Soul is the first restaurant from an Atlanta chef who built a name fusing soul food with international technique, and the menu still runs on that premise. Crispy fried chicken comes with a sweet potato chutney instead of the usual honey. Oxtails get a hoisin glaze. The mac and cheese, which could coast on nostalgia alone, arrives topped with candied pecans and crispy bacon instead of playing it safe. None of it reads like gimmick stacking — the combinations hold together because the kitchen understands both traditions it's pulling from, not just one.

The bar earns equal billing. A tequila-based matcha and pineapple cocktail sits comfortably next to a well-stocked shelf of spirits, and the drinks program has the range to match the food's ambition rather than trail behind it as an afterthought.

The recognition backs up what's on the plate: consecutive Michelin selections, a James Beard semifinalist nod for Best Chef in the Southeast, and another for cocktail service. That's a kitchen and bar operating at the same level, which is rarer than it should be.

This is a Westside restaurant that treats fusion as a discipline, not a marketing word. It delivers.