The year 2014 ended as a banner one for Atlanta dining. Not only were there a ton of openings but some clear trend lines emerged:
Here come the food halls
Food halls in the great cities of Europe and America have traditionally been places to shop with maybe a few dining counters thrown into the mix. Today's new generation of food hall, built from the ground up, put the focus squarely on dining. Standalone restaurants flank a glorified food court, which give chefs an opportunity to indulge a passion for street food and rib stickers, and share it with an appreciative audience. The Krog St. Market is 85 percent there. The Luminary from chef Eli Kirshtein and Craft Izakaya from sushi maestro Jey Oh led the way. Now Todd Ginsberg has opened his two stalls — Yalla with Israeli falafel and salads, and Fred's Meat & Bread with deli sandwiches. Robert Owens has opened his third local Grand Champion BBQ, and Hop City Beer and Wine taps dozens of craft beers on premises. Look for Ponce City Market next spring with a fish camp from Anne Quatrano and a taqueria from Charleston's Sean Brock.
The ‘burbs as destination.
OK, that's been the headline on every trend report since Georgia 400 was built. But this new crop of suburban restaurants seem different — more interested in historic buildings in long-dormant town centers, more focused on bringing local, seasonal fare and decent booze to the neighborhood than trying to reproduce city glamour in strip malls. I'm thinking about places like Southbound in a gorgeous old building in downtown Chamblee (yep, it exists), which has a focus on local produce and an affordable, offbeat wine list every restaurant should emulate. Then there's The Bishop in Avondale Estates, where the good wine is on tap and the chicken smoked before getting fried. Its neighbor, Pallookaville, serves wacky corndogs and carnival fare that draws a far and wide customer base. Common Quarter brings the Unsukay (Local Three, Muss & Turner's) restaurant group's chilled out organo-bro vibe to East Cobb. Meanwhile, the Northside's suburban jewel, Canton Street in Roswell, ticked its cachet up another notch with the opening of Osteria Mattone, an Italian restaurant with a great wine list that serves as a citywide draw. Then there's Alpharetta's Avalon, that live/work/stuff-your-face community with more than a dozen new ventures, including a satellite of Charleston's Oak Steakhouse.
Ford Fry wins Atlanta
Restaurateur Ford Fry and his company, Rocket Farm Restaurants, have become a very big fish in a very big pond. He transformed Buckhead's restaurant topography with his one-two punch of King + Duke last year and St. Cecilia earlier this year, providing an updated, grill-fired take on high-volume, high-quality urban cooking. He opened his first of two Mexican restaurants, The El Felix, in Avalon and will soon follow with Superica in Krog Street Market. Add that to his JCT. Kitchen & Bar, No. 246 and the still-smashing Optimist. Rumors are he'd looking to open his next restaurant in Houston, in his home state of Texas.
Wine bars
The Millennial generation, bless their collective hearts, have discovered wine and are fueling a new generation of wine bars and wine-savvy dining and entertainment venues. Max's Wine Dive offers comfort food (fried chicken, mac and cheese) with fine selections of vino, while Vine and Tap serves more sophisticated fare and invited you to explore its award-winning wine list by order flights of three tastes at a time. Stem Wine Bar packs drinkers around a horseshoe bar in East Cobb, while even The Painted Pin, a bowling alley, offers great wines thanks to its owner Justin Amick, a certified sommelier.
Next-Gen Asian
Don't call any of this food fusion, but in today's melting-pot Atlanta, East/West lines are blurring like never before, with delicious results. Asha Gomez's Spice to Table makes Indian-inflected pastries, salads and quick lunch options. Sweet Hut, a popular Asian bakery on Buford highway, has opened a Midtown location for its Chinese snacks and pastries. Naan Stop, a purveyor of rolled Indian flatbread sandwiches, now has outlets in Buckhead and downtown. And Makan in downtown Decatur blends all kinds of Asian street cooking and home cooking on a creative menu.
Buckhead is back in business
Buckhead Atlanta feels kind of like a theme park for folks who consume, but it sure beats that big hole in the ground. It boasts some savvy chain operations, including picture-perfect French bistro Le Bilboquet and Atlanta's first Shake Shack, which wants to be the world's favorite burger.
Pizza, pizza, pizza
Less a trend than a paradigm shift, the pizzerias keep rolling out everywhere. Those extra-large deck-oven pizzas with their pepperoni and shaker cheese have given way to smaller wood-oven specimens with puffy crusts, gourmet toppings and Italian names that reference Naples. Campania in Alpharetta, Ribalta in Midtown, Varuni Napoli in Morningside, Thirteen Pies and Don Antonio by Starita… They just keep coming.
Westside wall-to-wall
Remember when the Westside had a charmingly torn fabric? Here was Bacchanalia, there was a noisy machine shop manned by two dudes in greasy coveralls. Now Howell Mill Road is almost strollable, a dense shopping and dining experience from Northside all the way to 14th street. Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand, Bartaco, Bellwoods Social House and Cooks & Soldiers have all opened this year. And good luck getting a table at some of these places.
Class of their own
There are some new restaurants that defy categorization. Perhaps that's because they are all such originals. Kimball House in Decatur has the best oysters and cocktails you could ever want as well as some pretty good food. Southern Living named it the South's best new restaurant of 2014. Polaris, high atop the Hyatt Regency downtown, spins a canny "Mad Men" set inside its blue orb and dishes out small plates from an open kitchen. The Pig and the Pearl is chef Todd Richards' kicky mix of barbecue and raw-bar seafood in Atlantic Station. Lusca serves crazy-fun charcuterie, Asian-style appetizers, wood-grilled fish and sushi on the year's most eclectic menu. Finally there are two end-of-year celebrity chef openings. The Cafe at Linton's inside the Atlanta Botanical Gardens is chef Linton Hopkins getting his veg on. Chef Marvin Woods, familiar from television, brings Asante, serving "coastal soul cuisine" downtown.
Banner year, right?
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