Chez Fonfon
Michelin Guide 2025: Pardis Stitt is the 2025 Michelin Guide American South Service Award winner.Chez Fonfon and Bottega both made the "Recommended" list. Congrats to Pardis, and to Frank and staff at Stitt Restaurants Group.
The Wall Street Journal features Chez Fonfon's Okra and Stewed Tomato Pirlau.
Highlands Bar and Grill, opened in 1982 and combines humble southern ingredients such as stone ground grits and country ham meet French sauces and braises, creating superb flavors and elegant balance. Highlands was an immediate success, and soon after, he opened Bottega (1988), Café Bottega (1990), and Chez Fonfon (2000)—all in Birmingham.
Chef Stitt and Highlands Bar and Grill have been the recipient of numerous James Beard Foundation accolades. Highlands Bar and Grill has been a finalist for James Beard Awards' Outstanding Restaurant for 10 consecutive years before winning the award Outstanding Restaurant in 2018. The same year, Pastry Chef, Dolester Miles won Outstanding Pastry Chef, after having been a finalist and semi-finalist for years. And as owner and chef of Highlands, Stitt was named a 2011 James Beard Foundation Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America Inductee. Stitt received the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2001, and was nominated in 2008 and 2009 for Outstanding Chef. He was a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef 2010 and 2011. Highlands Bar and Grill was a finalist (one of five restaurants) for James Beard Foundation Awards' Outstanding Restaurant every year for ten consecutive years, from 2009-2018. In 2018 Highlands Bar and Grill was named James Beard Foundation Awards Outstanding Restaurant! Also in 2018 Pastry Chef, Dolester Miles was named James Beard Foundation Awards Outstanding Pastry Chef, after having been a finalist and semi finalist for years.
Chef Stitt received an honor on October 2011 in a ceremony hosted by Esquire magazine in New York City. They were honoring chefs who made their annual Best New Restaurants list that will appear in their November issue, and they also inducted Frank Stitt and Tom Colicchio into Esquire's Restaurant Hall of Fame. Chef Stitt was inducted to commemorate his appearance on the magazine's first Best New Restaurants List and to celebrate the many remarkable accomplishments he has made since Highlands Bar and Grill opened. For about three decades, Esquire has published an annual list of the Best New Restaurants in America, and Highlands Bar and Grill appeared on their first list in November 1984.The festivities took place at Boulud Sud, Daniel Boulud's dazzling new place near Lincoln Center. All of this year's honorees -- chefs from all twenty Best New Restaurants -- attended and it was an inspiring evening. Previous chefs who've been inducted into Esquire's Restaurant Hall of Fame include: Danny Meyer, Alfred Portale, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. "To be included in Esquire's Best New Restaurant list in 1984 brought the first national attention to Highlands and paved the way for America to take notice of our cooking and dining experience," Stitt says. "To now be inducted -- along with Tom Colicchio, a culinary superstar and hero -- into the 2011 Hall of Fame, is one of the great honors of a lifetime. Esquire does America a great service for celebrating our diverse restaurants so here's a huge Southern thank you to John Mariani and Ryan D'Agostino. To be included with all of this year's best new restaurants along with some of the most respected chefs is just phenomenal."
2004 marked the release of Stitt’s first cookbook, Frank Stitt’s Southern Table, Recipe and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill (Artisan). The Southeastern Booksellers Association named Southern Table best cookbook of 2005, and it is now in its fifth printing. Stitt’s second cookbook, Bottega Favorita: A Southern Chef's Love Affair With Italian Food (Artisan), was released nationally in January 2009. Bottega Favorita showcases Stitt’s love of the Mediterranean and Italy.
In 2006 Stitt received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance. He has appeared on the “Martha Stewart Show”, PBS’s “Chefs A ‘Field”, and the CBS “Early Show”. His restaurants have been featured in The New York Times, Gourmet, Food Arts, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, and Newsweek.