The South's Best Food Towns 2019

Our readers are fiercely proud of our region’s small towns, and when it comes to the South’s Best survey, it is one of our most contested categories. This year, many of our previous food town winners made return appearances, but we were also pleasantly surprised to see some new tiny tastemaking towns make it into our top ten. St. Augustine, Florida, worked its way from the bottom to be our overall champion with their ever-burgeoning food scene anchored by restaurants like Preserved, which shows off the wealth of local ingredients in a modern way in the country’s oldest city. Last year’s winner, Oxford, Mississippi, dropped into second place, but not by much, a testament to its nationally acclaimed food community. And tiny towns like Kinston and Davidson demonstrate that it’s not how many restaurants make a dining scene, but how great they are at serving a community and a purpose. See which towns made the list, and which spot might take first place next year. Travel and Culture Editor Hannah Hayes tells you where to explore in each one.