Atlanta's only remaining four-star restaurant nails the elusive art of subtlety. The staff—informed, friendly but not chummy, and exactingly professional—guide you through the restaurant's five-course prix fixe menu, a celebration of the seasonal and a local reinterpretation of the American culinary revolution ignited in California. Go classic with foie gras au torchon styled with peach, honey, and brioche (paired with a Sauternes), and then move into gutsier territory with a salad of Flat Creek Lodge's nutty Georgia Red cheese tangled among pole beans, hazelnuts, flecks of country ham, and pickled shallots.

 

Bacchanalia is one of the most tongue-in-cheek spaces in the country for an upscale restaurant: How can you feel uneasy about the modern art and the starched linens when mustard-colored concrete blocks, reminiscent of a public high school cafeteria, form the walls? Tip for solo diners and couples: Eschew reservation wrangling by sitting at the small bar and ordering from the menu a la carte.

Photo by Alex Martinez