Aria
490 E. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. 404-233-7673, aria-atl.com. $$$-$$$$
When this small Buckhead restaurant opened in 2000, it seemed so brash and flashy, a place for rich 40-something baby boomers to throw around their new money. Now it has matured into the last intimate dining room in Atlanta, its fabrics thick and cosseting, its artwork (including the famous chandelier) coming off as tasteful rather than outré.
The food? Gerry Klaskala’s visually striking dishes strike a tone of quiet seasonality and luxurious charm. You go here to get those foods you crave for your birthday dinner.
Try an exquisite peekytoe crab salad, the nuggets of lump crab as big as actual toes, set on a bare puddle of herbaceous green oil and garnished with matchsticks of watermelon radish. Then move to sea scallops, huge and cooked to that magical temperature just past raw under their textbook-perfect brown sear. They arrive scattered over a painterly plate with sweet English peas and crisp asparagus in a veil of clingy butter sauce.
Kathryn King’s desserts include tart, true fruit sorbets and an intense devil’s food cake with caramelized white chocolate.
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