Locavore. Sustainable. Organic. Tired buzzwords. Or are they? Whether or not we can come up with a new term for the kind of responsible cooking those three words embrace, Atlanta has chefs who truly try to maintain the integrity of the words’ meaning. And as we move into the season that brings us local strawberries, English peas and sugar snap peas, these five chefs are guaranteed to serve the season’s best.
Miller Union
999 Brady Ave., Atlanta. 678-733-8550, www.millerunion.com
Chef Steven Satterfield offers vegetables and meats that burst with flavor, and he has an eye and palate for seasonally fresh, local ingredients — prepared simply and honestly. He gets his products locally whenever possible and actually laments when he can’t. “If I can’t get the best in our region, then I go to a source that uses sustainable practices,” says the former Watershed sous chef. Partner Neal McCarthy warms the dining room with his British charm.
Dynamic Dish (not rated)
427 Edgewood Ave., Atlanta. 404-688-4344, www.dynamicdish.net
Chef-owner David Sweeney has garnered a lot of praise for his eco-friendly vegetarian restaurant on the edge of the Sweet Auburn district downtown. The kudos are well-deserved: He cooks with a kind of intensity that can come only from having fresh ingredients and knowing how to use them. The offerings can be limited, but what you get will be full of farm-to-table flavor. His Web site lets you know what to expect from the menu each week.
Abattoir
1170 Howell Mill Road, inside the White Provision complex, Atlanta. 404-892-3335, www.starprovisions.com
Chef-owner Anne Quatrano doesn’t get enough props for her dedication to using local and sustainable products, even though she has always embraced the responsibility of this kind of cooking in all of her and husband Clifford Harrison’s stellar restaurants. Quatrano and executive chef Joshua Hopkins offer some of the freshest dishes available at Abattoir — from the eggs produced on her Summerland Farm in Cartersville to fresh watermelon brought to the back door by farmers and friends. If we have an Alice Waters in Georgia, Quatrano is it.
Rosebud
1397 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta. 404-347-9747, www.rosebudatlanta.com
Chef-owner Ron Eyester does something few others can or will: He offers organic, local products at a price almost everyone can afford. The Morningside Farmers’ Market sets up shop in the parking lot next door to the restaurant, and Eyester has been a friend to its local farmers for years. It shows in his menu of Southern-inspired classics.
Restaurant Eugene
2277 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-355-0321, www.restaurant eugene.com
Restaurant Eugene is one of the finest restaurants not only in Atlanta, but in the Southeast. Chef-owner Linton Hopkins furthers his ideals — preserving Southern foodways and forwarding sustainable agriculture — by doing. He is a member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and founder of the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. And he was one of the first chefs in the city to list his local purveyors on the back of his menu, which always includes a refined, fresh take on whatever is in season.
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