The husband-and-wife team of Johnny and Sarah Courtney said they named their Wallingford restaurant Atoma after the word for “invisible.” The Courtneys came up with the name during a 35-hour drive from Baja back to Seattle. Not quite a year-and-half since opening, Atoma has been very visible, amassing local and national recognition.

Add James Beard Award Finalist for Best New Restaurant in the country. Atoma is one of three local restaurants selected James Beard Finalists in separate categories, the James Beard Foundation announced Wednesday.

Archipelago in Columbia City is a finalist for Outstanding Hospitality. Jay Blackinton of Houlme on Orcas Island was selected as a finalist for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific (AK, HI, OR, WA).

Winners will be revealed June 16.

The James Beard nod is the latest for Atoma. Since opening in November 2023, the restaurant has been recognized as one of the 25 best restaurants in Seattle by The New York Times, Eater’s Best New Restaurants (nationally) 2024, Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America, and Ten Best New Restaurants in America by Robb Report.

“It is a wild amount of pressure to open a restaurant. It has been especially a lot of pressure with the accolades and everything,” Sarah Courtney says. “A lot of restaurants come out strong out of the gate. Next thing you know, you are struggling in year three. We don’t want to be that. We are constantly striving. We are trying to improve incrementally. For example, we change one or two things on our menu every week. Those incremental changes will help us evolve. We try really hard to cut out all the noise and we believe in what we are doing and what the team is doing.”

Continuity in staffing has been key to Atoma’s success, Courtney says. Of the original 12 team members (13 if you count Wine Director Amish Patel, who arrived a month after opening) 10 are still with the restaurant (11 counting Patel).

“We’ve been very luck in that way,” Courtney says. “We started with 12 people. It’s funny to think that we started with such a slim team. It has evolved this restaurant. Part of what Johnny and I are so proud of is that we evolved as a restaurant. How we take care of ourselves has been a huge part of that success. “We are all a little shocked how quickly everything has come together.”