South Africans Shaping Atlanta's Food Culture Scene

Restaurateurs bringing their culture to the city

After a 16-year absence, South Africa is back at the 2026 FIFA World Cup — and this time, some of the matches are in Atlanta. For the South African community that has quietly built a home here, it is a moment of pride that feels both personal and long overdue.

Atlanta’s South African dining scene may be small, but it runs deep. The cuisine itself is hard to pin down — shaped by Zulu and Xhosa traditions, Cape Malay and Indian spices, Afrikaner and Portuguese influences, it is layered and vibrant. At the center of it all is the braai, South Africa’s beloved tradition of cooking meat over an open flame. More than a cooking method, it is a ritual of gathering, the kind that turns strangers into friends and friends into family.

Get to know some of the most prominent South Africans in Atlanta’s hospitality scene below. They share a belief that food is the most direct path to community — that a meal cooked with intention, served with warmth, and rooted in where you come from can make anyone feel at home. They have each built something in Atlanta that is distinctly their own, but the thread running through it all is the same: a deep pride in South African culture and a desire to share it with the city that took them in.

Justin Anthony
Owner of Yebo Beach Haus and True Story Brands

Before Justin Anthony opened some of Atlanta’s most recognizable South African restaurants, he was a professional soccer player. Signed to a local team in South Africa in the 1990s, he played across England and Sweden before landing in Atlanta in 1996. It was in England where the idea took shape — a South African pub became his refuge from homesickness, deepening a love for food and wine that would outlast his playing career. 

He partnered with his parents in 1998 to open 10 Degrees South in Buckhead, widely recognized as the first South African restaurant in the United States, and has spent the 30 years since building a hospitality portfolio — including Yebo Beach Haus in Buckhead and True Story Brands — rooted in what he describes as Modern American cuisine with South African influences. 

“Sharing culture around the table has a unique way of bringing people together, and I believe there is no better way to foster connection, understanding, and community than through a memorable meal shared with others,” says Anthony. Signature dishes like Bobotie Crepes and apricot-marinated Sosaties reflect a cuisine shaped by French, Portuguese, Malaysian, Indian, and Mediterranean traditions.

During the FIFA World Cup 2026

Anthony has long drawn parallels between Atlanta and Johannesburg — both cities built on warmth, hustle, and an entrepreneurial spirit — and with thousands of international fans enjoying the city this month, he’s hoping they experience more than just the matches.

“My hope is that the thousands of fans visiting Atlanta will have the opportunity to experience the incredible restaurants, rich culture, and genuine hospitality that make this city so special,” says Anthony. “I feel incredibly honored to serve as a bridge between them through food and wine.”

Yebo Beach Haus
Where: 56 E Andrews Dr NW

Alex Sher
Co-owner of 7^thHouse and Bovino After Dark 

Alex Sher only meant to stay a year. The South African-born arrived in Atlanta in 2006 on a gap year with no intention of putting down roots. Twenty years later, he’s still here.

“There’s something magnetic about Atlanta, especially for South Africans. It has a warmth and energy that feels familiar, and from the moment I arrived, it felt like home,” says Sher.

Hospitality is something Sher has always been drawn to. Back home, hosting people was considered a privilege and an honor — and it made sense that his next chapter would be a restaurant rooted in that same spirit.

“For me, having a restaurant is really the fulfillment of that idea. We get the opportunity to host people six days a week and welcome as many people as possible into our space. The ability to host somebody, feed them, and make them feel at home has always been one of the highest honors,” he says.

That philosophy extends to the food as well. Growing up in South Africa, meals were always local, fresh, and connected to the people producing them.

In 2023, Sher opened Bovino After Dark with former Gunshow chef Chris McCord. Tucked away in Atlanta’s West End, in the Westside neighborhood, it’s an intimate, rotating five-course experience with no menu — you show up, sit down, and let the kitchen take over. Sher hosts and pours, McCord cooks in front of you, and the result feels like the coolest dinner party you’ve ever been invited to. They followed it in 2025 with 7th House, a cozy eight-seat cocktail omakase pop-up in Adair Park, just minutes from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in South Atlanta.

“We want people to feel like they’re walking into somebody’s home, not just a restaurant. We want it to feel like they’re returning to see family. That’s a big reason why my mother still works at the front door. Hospitality has always been deeply personal to us,” says Sher.

At both Bovino and 7th House, the team works closely with local farmers and producers, sourcing the best ingredients possible — a direct extension of how Sher grew up eating. “Everything we do is centered around the South African philosophy of ‘Ubuntu.’ At its core, it’s about community and human connection — the idea that ‘I am because we are.'” 

Through Sausage World, they’ve also introduced guests to traditional South African products like boerewors, a staple at celebrations back home. “Food is one of the easiest ways to bring people together, and that’s really what Ubuntu is all about.”

During the FIFA World Cup 2026

With South Africa back on the international stage after 16 years, Sher sees the World Cup as more than just soccer. “It’s about community, culture, and bringing people together — which ties directly back to Ubuntu. That’s what makes this moment feel so special.” He hopes visiting fans venture beyond the expected and discover the full breadth of Atlanta’s food culture — from celebrated restaurants to the lesser-traveled neighborhoods that make the city unique. “More than anything, I hope everyone who visits gets to experience the warmth and Southern hospitality we have here. I hope they leave feeling welcomed, well-fed, and excited to come back.”

“Atlanta is still, in my opinion, the greatest city in the world. It’s been my home for the last 20 years, and I’m proud to share it with visitors from around the globe,” he says.

Bovino After Dark
Where: 1000 White St SW

7th House
Where: 565 Northside Dr SW

Julia Kesler Imerman
Owner of Daily Chew

Julia grew up between worlds. Born in South Africa, she moved to Atlanta with her family in 1997, spent time in New York and back in South Africa for college, then returned to Atlanta for good in 2016 — drawn back, she’ll tell you simply, by family.

She founded Daily Chew in 2021, building on Stop Think Chew, her original catering and meal prep brand that continues today as a line of prepared foods and provisions. From the start, the concept has been personal: South African and Jewish flavors, made with Georgia-grown ingredients, working directly with farmers and artisans across the state to bring thoughtful, delicious food to the table.

Food has been part of Julia’s life since childhood. She grew up cooking alongside her grandmother and father, and those early flavors remain a constant thread in her work. Her greatest culinary influence is her grandmother, Annette Kesler, a Cape Town-based food writer and editor who spent 31 years in the industry and authored cookbooks of her own. That legacy shows up in everything Julia does — a deep respect for ingredients, a commitment to cooking with intention, and a belief that food is one of the most direct ways to build community.

South Africa’s culinary identity is anything but simple. It is a cuisine shaped by Cape Malay, Portuguese, Indian, and indigenous African traditions, and Julia deliberately leans into that complexity. “South Africa very much informs my culinary journey — both from global flavors and just the idea of fresh, bright food that doesn’t make you feel too heavy,” she says. 

Daily Chew is, at its core, a community space. She models Daily Chew after a Cape Town cafe: vibrant, approachable, and rooted in the kind of cooking that brings people to the table rather than impressing them from a distance. The menu reflects all three pillars of her identity — South African, Jewish, and deeply rooted in Georgia. Peri-peri chicken, built on a housemade marinade from the Portuguese bird’s eye pepper that has become a South African staple and anchors the savory side. Their signature boerewors — a traditional Afrikaans farmer’s sausage, with “boer” meaning farmer and “wors” meaning sausage in Afrikaans — is made exclusively for Daily Chew by Stone Mountain Cattle Company, a fellow South African, using local beef. The decision to keep it all-beef nods to her Jewish background, making it one dish that quietly tells her whole story. Beyond the proteins, South African spices and flavor profiles run throughout the menu.

During the FIFA World Cup 2026

With South Africa playing in the World Cup for the first time in 16 years, Julia is throwing a full braai — South African barbecue, boerewors, beer, South African wines, and music — at Daily Chew to rally around the team on game days. “South Africans are about a good time,” she says. “That’s in our core.” For Julia, the World Cup arriving in her adopted hometown feels like a welcome collision of two worlds she has always carried with her.

Daily Chew
Where: 2127 Liddell Dr NE

Discover more of the South African culture in Atlanta.