Spring is a time for new flavors. Green garlic. Bamboo shoots. Just-dug potatoes. Lamb.
So we figured spring would be a perfect time to look at new restaurants that are making an impact on dining in Atlanta. Specifically, we wanted to find the dishes at these restaurants that might earn the designation of “new classic.”
Think about the old classics. Twenty years ago every restaurant had its special calling card, that signature plate that someone at your table just had to order. Pano’s & Paul’s had its deep-fried lobster tails. Buckhead Diner, its warm potato chips with blue cheese. Bacchanalia, its crisp-fried, creamy-centered crab fritter.
Come to think of it, Buckhead Diner and Bacchanalia still serve those dishes. That’s the thing about classics: Restaurants can never, ever take them off the menu.
What are some others? Just think through the years of good eating you’ve done, and they will pop into your mind, a vision of desire, a memory to make your mouth water. Maybe the banana-peanut butter tart at Rathbun’s (still there), the seafood risotto at Sotto Sotto (still there), the lobster martini at Aria (still there). As Aria chef Gerry Klaskala likes to ask, do you go to a concert to hear a band’s latest album or the one you fell in love with?
Yet, lately it has gotten harder to find those gotta-have dishes. As much we may love the food at Cakes & Ale, it can be tough to know what’s going to be on the menu from day to day. When restaurants cook with the seasons and the market, as all the best ones do these days, they don’t want any baggage in their larders, or on their menus.
Better Half, one of our favorite new restaurants, keeps only one item on its slim menu from week to week — that handkerchief pasta that chef Zach Meloy made for his wife, Cristina, on their first date. It’s a good dish, but not the reason this restaurant is so appealing.
So, what are the dishes that deserve the moniker new classic? We’ve got a few ideas. For this list we’ve tried to either stick to restaurants that have opened in the past couple of years or find dishes at more established places that maybe haven’t gotten the love they deserve.
We think these are all worth the excursion from any part of town. See if you agree.
