Art Of The Meal: Going To Seed
Cobb County’s Seed Kitchen & Bar offers homey sophistication, good food and terrific service.
Author: Krista Reese
Art Of The Meal: An Athens Winner
At Ted’s Most Best, an insouciant confidence in making really tasty, very healthy, modestly priced food – in this case, pizza.
Art of The Meal: Gu’s Bistro
At Gu’s Bistro, on Metro Atlanta’s Buford Highway, a Chinese restaurant that moves deliciously beyond buffet service.
H. Harper Station: Changing Trains
It’s all about creative cocktails and the foods that enhance them at this restaurant in a refurbished train station in Atlanta’s Reynoldstown.
Art Of The Meal: Playing Cleanup
Coastal Kitchen Seafood & Raw Bar on St. Simons Island is the perfect end-of-vacation stop for Sunday brunch.
Art Of The Meal: Escorpion
A contemporary Mexican tequila bar and cantina in Midtown from Riccardo Ullio hits all the right notes, especially for a large group.
2011 Silver Spoon Awards
Time again to look back on Georgia’s Year in Restaurants. (Cue appropriate musical accompaniment … say, a nice dirge or “Song of The Volga Boatman.”) Sure, the economy has made it another tough one, with more losses of former…
On The "Nappalachia" Trail
Here, in the pleasant 60-degree coolness of a “wine cave” set into the hillside, he shows off the high-tech instruments of his trade: enormous stainless steel tanks holding still-fragrant crushed grapes from the 13 acres of vines on the 197-acre…
Art of the Meal: Le Vigne
Le Vigne 501 Hightower Church Road, Dahlonega, 706.867.4060 www.montaluce.com/dining_at_montaluce.html Open for brunch, lunch and dinner. The website warns that it is often closed for private events. Call before going. Parking: Complimentary valet. Credit cards: All major. Dress code:…
Art Of The Meal: Food Truck Thursdays
Oh, these darn kids of today. Always starting something! If it’s not vegan barbecue, it’s a gourmet popsicle. Hearing about the latest trend – food trucks – my initial reaction was to shake my cane and shout, “Get your dang…
Art Of The Meal: Fine And Dine
Five & Ten 1653 South Lumpkin St., Athens 706.546.7300 www.fiveandten.com Athens is the SWEET LITTLE town where so many of us thought we were just hanging out, only to realize we’ve absorbed an education. Thus it’s the perfect spot for…
Art Of The Meal: Miller Union: Collective
Miller Union 999 Brady Ave. NW, Atlanta 678.733.8550 www.millerunion.com Parking: Complimentary valet. Reservations: Accepted, and usually necessary. Dress code: Artsy I have a theory about Miller Union, one of Atlanta’s best (and most celebrated) newer restaurants: If you love it,…
2011 Power Women
Mary Moore Founder and CEO The Cook’s Warehouse A Cook’s Warehouse now occupies the Ansley Mall space that once housed a Piccadilly. That just about encapsulates Atlanta’s culinary evolution. Where Atlantans once lined up for cafeteria fare, the gourmet…
Art Of The Meal: Dude, Where’s My DeLorean?
Local Three Kitchen & Bar 3290 Northside Parkway, Atlanta 404.968.2700 www.localthree.com Parking: Validated self-parking in nearby garage. Reservations: Recommended. Dress code: Anything The Dude would wear. My car is a time machine. It’s not the gull-winged DeLorean from Back to…
Art Of The Meal: The Buco Stops Here
Taverna Fiorentina 3324 Cobb Parkway SE, Atlanta, 770.272.9825 www.tavernafiorentina.com Reservations: Accepted; encouraged on Cobb Energy Center performance nights. Parking: In attached lot. Dress code: Anything goes, from tuxedos to blue jeans. We were on a tour of Italy, with five…
Art Of The Meal: Mayberry Meets Midtown
Home Grown GA 968 Memorial Drive, Atlanta 404.222.0455 www.homegrownga.com Open for breakfast and lunch. Credit cards: All major. Parking: In attached lot. Dress code: Work shirt and construction hat. Tattoos optional. Just about the time you’re about to get depressed…
Art Of The Meal: Social Skills
Tybee Island Social Club 1311 Butler Ave. Tybee Island 912.472.4044 www.tybeeislandsocialclub.com It’s still cold outside, but I’ve already detected Emily Dickinson’s winter afternoon “certain slant of light” – that earliest harbinger of the earth’s revolution, the one you can almost…
Art Of The Meal: Empire State South
Empire State South 999 Peachtree St., Atlanta 404.541.1105 www.empirestatesouth.com Reservations: Recommended. Parking: Complimentary valet. Dress code: Comfortably stylish. For months, foodies had been holding their collective breath (and expanded bellies), waiting for Hugh Acheson’s new spot to open in Atlanta.…
The Art Of Sausage Making
Consider the wondrous sausage biscuit: A thing of simple beauty, with browned bits of spiced pork between fresh-baked bread. Those of us who are old enough, and came from an agrarian background, remember when it was a part of a…
Art Of The Meal: Back To Burgers
Farm Burger 410B West Ponce de Leon Decatur 404.378.5077 www.farmburger.net Credit cards: All major. Reservations: Not accepted. Parking: In attached lot. Dress code: Anything you don’t mind dripping ketchup on. If, as the saying goes, “You are what you eat,”…
Georgia’s Charter Schools
“What,” says Ivy Prep’s school head Nina Gilbert, “are you doing?” On a tour of her impressive, college-oriented all-girl charter school, Gilbert has escorted a reporter to orderly but engaged classes, where students must raise their hands to acknowledge “100…
Art Of The Meal: It’s A Family Thing
Alfredo's Italian Restaurant 1989 Cheshire Bridge Road N.E., Atlanta 404.876.1380 Dinner served nightly. Credit cards: All major. Reservations: Recommended. Parking: In attached lot. Dress code: Comfortably stylish. www.alfredositalianrestaurant.com Most good restaurants have a kind of cinematic quality. They are places…
2010 Silver Spoon Awards
Double-dip, anyone? Didn’t think so. What once bought you a double-thick coat of chocolate on your vanilla Tastee-Freez cone now conjures the gaunt specter of another round of belt-tightening. For some restaurants, this year’s squeeze felt more like a tourniquet.…
Aerotropolis: Come Fly With Me
Aerotropolis: The name sounds like something Mad Men’s 1960s marketing whiz Don Draper might have invented for Walt Disney’s newest attraction. You can almost envision Don and Uncle Walt poring over the “futuristic” sketches for this airport-city, a sort of…
Art Of The Meal: Mountain Eatery
Appalachian Grill 3909 Steve Tate Road, Marble Hill 770.893.3389 Hours: Dinner, Tuesdays-Sundays. Credit cards: All major. Parking: Available in attached lot. Dress code: Upscale rustic: North Face fleece vests, Dockers, pearls. For all the cool splendor of a North Georgia…
Art Of The Meal: Cakes For What Ails You
Cakes & Ale 254 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue (until mid-to late October). Check website for updates on new location. Decatur, 404.377.7994 www.cakesandalerestaurant.com Reservations: Essential, especially on weekends. Credit cards: Accepted. Parking: On the street and in nearby garages Dress…
Art Of The Meal: An Heirloom Restaurant in Jasper
61 Main 49 South Main St., Jasper, 706.253.7289 Schedule: Breakfast, Monday-Friday; brunch, Saturday; lunch, Monday-Saturday; dinner, Thursday-Saturday and Monday. Closed Sunday. Credit cards: Accepted. Reservations: Recommended for dinner. Parking: On the street. Dress code: Casual. Jasper’s Main Street faces blue-ridged…
Art Of The Meal: Ridiculously Sublime
Carver's Country Kitchen 1118 W. Marietta St. NW (at Longley Ave.) Atlanta 404.794.4410 www.carverscountrykitchen.com When I first visited Carver’s Country Kitchen many years ago, the luncheonette was a small section of this grocery store in working-class Howell Station, west of…
Woodfire Grill: Smokin’
Woodfire Grill 1782 Cheshire Bridge Road, Atlanta 404.347.9055 Hours: Dinner only, Tuesdays-Saturdays. Parking: Complimentary valet. Dress code: Dressy casual. Reservations: You will need them, and further in advance than you think. I always root for the home team when I’m…
Art Of The Meal: Feeling Simpatico
Simpatico 25 N. Park Sq., NE (at Mill St.), Marietta 770-792-9086 or www.willieraes.net Hours: Dinner only, Tuesday-Saturday. Parking: Free on the square. Dress Code: Anything goes, but diners seem to prefer business casual. Walking through Marietta’s town square, you understand…
School Ties
On paper, it made good sense and looked fairly easy. In the fall of 2008, in the face of a collapsing economy, the state’s technical colleges faced dramatically increased enrollment from the newly unemployed seeking retraining – and dramatically lower…
Art of The Meal: Grist For The Mill
Grits Cafe 17 West Johnston St., Forsyth (478) 994-8325 www.gritscafe.com Parking: Free and usually plentiful, on the street. Credit cards: All major. Reservations: Accepted for parties of five or more. Dress code: Anything goes, but many patrons seem to enjoy…
Art Of The Meal: King’s Of Leon’s
Leon's Full Service Address: 131 East Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur Phone: 404.687.0500 www.leonsfullservice.com Reservations: Not accepted. Parking: You’re on your own – on the street or in public lots. Lunch Tuesday-Sunday, dinner nightly. Dress code: Blue jeans and age-appropriate…
Art of The Meal: Going Whole Hog
Arbattoir 1170 Howell Mill Road Atlanta, GA 30318-8636 404.892.3335 www.starprovisions.com Parking: Free in nearby garage. Dress code: Anything from your best jeans and jewelry to business suits. Adventurous meat eaters and lovers of fine liquors are finding themselves with full…
Art Of The Meal: When Pigs Fly
Southern Soul Barbecue 2020 Demere Road St. Simons Island 912.638.7685 The Georgia coast is a worthy destination any time of year, but especially in fall and winter, after the salt marshes take on a beautiful gold glow – just one…
Cultural Downshift
By now, businesspeople have become all too familiar with Georgia’s most distressing employment statistics: A half-million people out of work. Statewide unemployment at 10.2 percent. In the state’s most adversely affected area, the metro Dalton area, where carpet and textile…
Art Of The Meal: Home Sweet Home
Sushi House Hayakawa 5979 Buford Highway, Atlanta 770.986.0010 www.atlantasushibar.com Reservations: Recommended. (Lines form on busy evenings.) Parking: In shopping center lot. Dress code: Stylish casual. Atlanta’s sushi restaurants always seem too … something. Too flashy, too homey, too hip, too…
2009 Silver Spoon Awards
The first to suffer, the last to recover – restaurants are leading economic indicators for both the worst of our current fiscal crisis, and, many hope, the way out of it. As businesses around the state begin to regain their…
A Sea Change
Sea Island, the luxury resort that has been a second home to generations of well-heeled Georgians, is completing its metamorphosis. Unlike Shakespeare’s “sea change, into something rich and strange,” Sea Island’s transfiguration is rich, but also comfortingly familiar. Despite the…
Livingston, I presume?
Even as Atlanta’s business community continues to reel from the economic downturn, the city’s downtown restaurants seem to be pushing their chips to the center of the table and announcing, “All in.” Some already had planned renovations – or lush…
Social Register
How now, Howell Mill? Atlanta’s once pocked and remote industrial thoroughfare seemed an edgy choice for elegant Bacchanalia when it moved there from its safe and serene Buckhead manse a decade ago. Today Howell Mill, invaded by artsy urban homesteaders,…
Shorty’s: A New Favorite
I take great pride in (and, of course, full credit for) successful restaurant recommendations. One of the great joys of this job is helping people find their new favorite place to eat, requiring as much intuition as restaurant knowledge, as…
Meals With A Mission
When the going gets tough, the tough go dining. In Macon, an innovative model of “social entrepreneurship” offers the chance to do good by eating well. Looking to create jobs by matching local businesses’ needs with trained workers, Goodwill Industries…
Chef Lee’s Peking Palace
It was love at first sight: Rising like a mirage out of the suburban sprawl of Columbus’ Bradley Park Drive, Chef Lee’s Peking Palace II is a grand, old-school monument to Chinese food – and the American dream. Lee’s is…
Fine Finger Food
Oh, our economic woes: As if we’re all not depressed enough, try visiting a once-thriving restaurant and finding tumbleweeds blowing through it. Especially now, everybody is looking for good food at the right price, but also something that doesn’t feel…
Dim Sum At Oriental Pearl
How do I love dim sum? Let me count the ways: I love the depth and breadth and speed of it. I love the excitement and hustle and low cost of it. But most of all, of course, when it…
2009 Power Women
Michelle Nunn Atlanta President/CEO Points of Light Institute Co-Founder Hands On Network In 1989, a group of friends met in an Ansley Park condo to found a new kind of volunteer organization, matching helping hands with worthy causes. Hands On…
Barking Up The Right Tree
In these tough times, opening any restaurant is an act of courage. However, Dogwood partners Scott Black and Chef Shane Touhy and are not only birthing a new baby, but also breathing new life into two once-tired institutions: Southern food,…
Resort Fare With Flair
So it’s January, and a whole new year – complete with new pounds, new exercise resolutions and a serious new case of cabin fever. What to do? A weekend getaway to the northwest Georgia mountains might seem counterintuitive (somewhere ……
4th & Swift: Southern Accent
After hearing and reading about 4th & Swift, I excitedly added it to my “must try soon!” list. It has so many intriguing features: A cool-looking interior, carved from the engine room of the reclaimed Southern Dairies building, in the…
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