Chef exits Lazy Betty
- Aaron Phillips, chef and co-founder of Atlanta’s Michelin‑starred Lazy Betty, has left the restaurant while keeping ownership. (roughdraftatlanta.com) - Local reporting dated April 21 says Phillips departs day‑to‑day kitchen duties but remains an owner of the establishment. (roughdraftatlanta.com) - Chef movement like this often reshapes a restaurant’s direction, menu, and future critical attention. (roughdraftatlanta.com)
Aaron Phillips has left his day-to-day role at Lazy Betty, the Michelin-starred Atlanta restaurant he co-founded, while keeping his ownership stake. (roughdraftatlanta.com) Rough Draft Atlanta reported the change on April 21, 2026, and Phillips told the outlet he remains an owner even though he is no longer the executive chef. Lazy Betty’s website still lists Phillips and Ron Hsu as chef-partners. (roughdraftatlanta.com) (lazybettyatl.com) The restaurant’s public team page now names Austin Goetzman as executive chef, according to local follow-up reporting and the restaurant’s current staff listing. Phillips’s departure is from kitchen leadership, not from the ownership group. (hoodline.com) (lazybettyatl.com) That distinction matters at a Michelin restaurant because the people setting the menu, running service, and training the kitchen shape what diners experience every night. Michelin currently lists Lazy Betty as a one-star restaurant in Atlanta. (guide.michelin.com) Lazy Betty has been one of Atlanta’s most visible fine-dining restaurants since opening in 2019, first in Candler Park and later moving to Midtown at 999 Peachtree Street Northeast. The restaurant’s own materials say the move brought the team into the former Empire State South space. (resy.com) (fb101.com) Before this week, Phillips and Hsu were the pair most closely identified with the restaurant’s tasting-menu format and national profile. Eater Atlanta and Resy have both described Lazy Betty as a chef-partner project built around Hsu and Phillips after the restaurant earned one of Atlanta’s early Michelin stars. (atlanta.eater.com) (resy.com) Phillips’s background has been part of that story from the start. StarChefs says he worked at Le Bernardin in New York, later joined Hsu in Atlanta, and helped open Lazy Betty in 2019. (starchefs.com) For diners, the immediate question is whether the menu or service changes under new kitchen leadership. For Lazy Betty, the more immediate reality is simpler: the restaurant keeps its owners, but not the same chef at the stove. (roughdraftatlanta.com) (hoodline.com)
