Stylish Elise seamlessly blends into Atlanta’s fine art mecca

At Elise, the new fine-dining restaurant from chef-owner Craig Richards of Lyla Lila, the popular gazpacho dish appears full of symbolism.

Circular drops of olive oil on the gazpacho’s surface stretch into oblong shapes and swirl together as your server pours the chilled soup into a bowl. Are they an allusion to the melting clocks painted by surrealist master Salvador Dali, whose work sits in the neighboring High Museum of Art? Is the dollop of parmigiana ice cream at the center of the bowl a commentary on Italian classicism reimagined through a lens of American decadence?

Well... No. At least, the dish wasn’t conceived with any of those questions in mind.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Richards seemed surprised when I asked about the gazpacho’s colors; he hadn’t considered how the dish’s green and red dichotomy mirrored the restaurant’s decor. The presentation was just a happy coincidence.

That’s the true beauty of Elise; it’s artful, stylish and sophisticated without pretension. Like the art that surrounds it, the food seems effortlessly layered with nuance, and it’s up to the audience (and, ahem, cultural critics) to interpret it.

The atmosphere at Elise feels both timeless and modern. A relatively minimal renovation from the original Table 1280 space honors the glass and steel jewel-box design by renowned architect Renzo Piano. In the red room, sumptuous curtains are color-matched to the lush carpet and velvet banquettes. In the green room, a monumental abstract painting by Tommy Taylor occupies nearly an entire wall; Richards described how it seems to fill the room with a glow, an apt description that I immediately knew I needed to steal for this review.

Most of the food matches the quality of the atmosphere. Symbolic or not, the gazpacho is excellent and the parmigiana ice cream elevates the simple soup into something more satisfying and luxurious. A vegan dish of charred Persian cucumbers is undergirded with a spicy, rich pistachio-chile butter that made me consider licking the plate. Snapper and tuna tartare could rival some of Atlanta’s best bites of sushi; the plush tuna and the lean snapper, sourced from the same waters, beautifully compliment each other.

The menu at Elise is intentionally vague, meant to inspire conversation between guests and servers, according to Richards. It’s worth asking questions about what you might order because the kitchen uses some unexpected techniques, and many dishes eclipse $40.

In another case, one of the kitchen’s inventive techniques produced a fabulous payoff. The New York strip was one of the best steaks I’ve had in recent memory, with incredible depth akin to a piece of dry-aged beef. Richards later explained that all three steaks offered at Elise are cold-smoked overnight, imbuing the fresh, bone-in cuts of high-quality beef with an extra dimension of flavor before they’re seared to order. When the steaks cost $80-$90 each, the smoking technique feels like a necessary value-add.

The one piece of the experience that keeps Elise from reaching its full potential is the service, which Richards said is a work in progress. The hiccups I experienced were relatively minor: a long delay between courses one night, a misplaced martini the next. A meal for two at Elise can easily run into multiple hundreds of dollars, and near-perfect service should be expected. Elise is Richards’ first solo project and he acknowledged that there would be learning curve.

But there are few places more comfortable to endure a delay. Even with a few imperfections, the stylish, sophisticated, self-assured restaurant is a triumph. In Elise, the Woodruff Arts Center has found a beautiful and refined dining partner worthy of its cultural cache.