He’s a James Beard Award winner and a Top Chef Master, but it was a 10-year stint as Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef that put Art Smith on the star map. The Art Smith Co. has restaurants in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, Calif., and now Atlanta, with the opening of the new Southern Art and Bourbon Bar in Buckhead.
The look: Smith took over the Au Pied de Cochon space in the InterContinental Hotel on Peachtree Road. The switch from Paris bistro to Southern chic is apparent from the lobby, where there's a table laden with pies and layer cakes, and whole artisan hams hang behind the charcuterie bar. In the dining room, a palette of pink, red and orange plays off a quirky but homey assortment of art and furnishings.
The scene: A hotel setting can present challenges for a restaurant, but it also provides a certain built-in energy. One weekday afternoon, the dining room was buzzing with a well-dressed business lunch crowd. One weekend evening, the Bourbon Bar was crowded with a mix of travelers and locals sipping classic cocktails and trying samplings of ham with refrigerator pickles and rolls.
The menu: Smith is a native of Jasper, Fla., near the Georgia border. That Southern heritage is expressed in biscuits, corn muffins and signature dishes, such as buttermilk fried chicken ($24) and chicken and dumplings soup ($8). But there's also the likes of a honey-lacquered half-duck with duck fat-basted root vegetables ($28) and a dry-aged New York strip steak with fries, arugula and Asher blue cheese butter ($34).
The drinks: The Bourbon Bar features about 70 small batch and select bourbons, plus pre-Prohibition-style classic cocktails and a bar menu of snacks served late. The draft beer list includes Bell's Two-Hearted Ale ($7). The restaurant's wine list is divided into categories such as crisp white, lush white, elegant red and meaty red.
The extras: The daily breakfast menu includes the SA Breakfast ($15) with two farm eggs, Anson Mill grits, Newsom's Kentucky Preacher Ham and red eye gravy. At lunch, look for sandwich boards, such as cornmeal-crusted catfish ($13) with fries or a salad, plus entrees and a daily meat and three special.
Dining out
Southern Art and Bourbon Bar, Buckhead
Breakfast: 6:30-10:30 a.m. Mondays-Fridays; 7:30-10:30 a.m. Saturdays-Sundays. Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Brunch: 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sundays. Dinner: 5-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 5-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Bourbon Bar: noon-2 a.m. daily. Ham bar: 3-11 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 3-9 p.m. Sundays.
Starters, $7-$15; entrees, $12-$34; sides, $6; desserts, $9. Lunch sandwiches and entrees, $10-$18. Breakfast, $7-$21.
3315 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta, 404-946-9070, www.southernart.com
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