Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants 2017

The Federal

Photograph by Heidi Geldhauser

Much of this stretch of Midtown has become a bland, corporate landscape, but the Federal is a place you want to linger. The reason goes beyond its antique mirrors and tufted leather banquettes; it’s also the morning-to-night menu that any proper European brasserie should offer. Plus steaks—chef Shaun Doty hails from Oklahoma, after all—hand-cut and cooked in cast iron. Doty became superstar chef Gunter Seeger’s right hand in the kitchen of the Dining Room in the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, and grew by leaps and bounds after letting loose on his own at the much-missed Shaun’s in Inman Park. After four years spent in the fast-casual business, Doty is back in the kitchen at the Federal, which he opened in November 2016 with longtime collaborator Lance Gummere. Doty’s now-classic Sardinian flatbread with greens has made its way here from Shaun’s, alongside coarse chopped liver bound with mayonnaise. It’s an all-around excellent expression of a bistro in a part of town that needs it.

Illustration by Valero Doval

Must-order: Pork schnitzel
More tender than any such cut of meat, pounded thin and fried, has a right to be, Doty’s schnitzel comes with marinated onions, peanuts (hat tip, Georgia), and a healthy handful of peppery Italian parsley.

1050 Crescent Avenue, 404-343-3857