TV Restaurants

What Happened to Revival Southern Food After Food Paradise? (Decatur, GA)

Food Paradise, Season 9 Decatur, Georgia Closed 2023

Current status

Closed

As of October 2026, Revival Southern Food has closed — confirmed via ajc.com, January 14, 2023.

What the source shows: AJC and Decaturish reported the restaurant's abrupt closure in January 2023; Yelp's listing, updated February 2026, still shows the restaurant as closed, and Google Places lists the business as permanently closed. How we decide a status →

What happened after Food Paradise?

In the Season 9 episode 'Iconic Eats', the show featured Revival, a Decatur restaurant from chef Kevin Gillespie built around modern Southern comfort food served from a house on Church Street in downtown Decatur. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's restaurant blog, Revival closed abruptly on January 14, 2023, ending its run as a fixture of the Decatur dining scene. Decaturish reported that Gillespie described a break-in and theft of the restaurant's safe around the start of 2023 as one factor in the closure, and said afterward that he intended to look for a new location and hoped to reopen the Revival brand within about a year.

No successor restaurant using the Revival name has been reported at the Church Street address. Yelp's listing for the Church Street address, updated February 2026, continues to show the restaurant as closed, and Google Places lists the business as permanently closed.

The episode Food Paradise, Season 9

Episode 11
Air date not confirmed
Title: Iconic Eats · What was featured: chef Kevin Gillespie's modern Southern comfort food
How Food Paradise restaurants have fared: 27% closed →

Also in Season 9 Food Paradise

Season 9: 70 of 100 still open · 6 renamed, moved or under new owners

All 13 Season 9 episodes →

Nearest open restaurants By distance from 129 Church St

  • The Deer and The Dove

    Decatur, GA 0.2 mi away

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  • No. 246

    Decatur, GA 0.3 mi away

    Food Paradise

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  • Sun in My Belly

    Atlanta, GA 1.4 mi away

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  • University Inn at Emory

    Atlanta, GA 1.9 mi away

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  • Urban Pie (Urban Pie Bar & Pizzeria)

    Atlanta, GA 2.1 mi away

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  • The General Muir

    Atlanta, GA 2.8 mi away

    Best Thing I Ever Ate · Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

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All 146 TV restaurants in Georgia →

Before you go: Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources we checked 3 references

  1. ajc.com https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/atlanta-restaurant-blog/revival-closed-in-decatur/3LHBC2ESJRD75NEHYAC6IAV4EE/
  2. decaturish.com https://www.decaturish.com/business/update-kevin-gillespie-s-revival-restaurant-closes-in-decatur-may-reopen-in-new-location/article_ca593915-ddb3-52c9-a857-f83a7236bf03.html
  3. Yelp https://www.yelp.com/biz/revival-decatur
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Record fp-0628 · checked by Cal Marchetti.