Photograph by Tyler Snell
The Auld Alliance, a pact between Scotland and France, was forged in 1295. Centuries later, its spirit lives on in an unexpected place: McLemore Resort atop Lookout Mountain. There, Auld Alliance pays homage to that historic agreement through food with Scottish dishes shaped by French technique served against sweeping mountain views. Now the restaurant has debuted a menu that pushes the culinary fusion further.
The resort gets its name from Charles McLemore, a Scot who settled in the area in the 1700s. When Euan McGlashan, co-founder of Valor Hospitality, visited the area, he felt at home. “It looks like the Scottish highlands, so my heart was here,” McGlashan shared at an event introducing the new menu. When Valor Hospitality opened the hotel in 2024, a Scottish-meets-French restaurant was the perfect way to honor the Scottish heritage while also offering guests something familiar and refined. “There are only four Scottish-French restaurants in the world,” says McGlashan. “Three of them are in Scotland, so this is the only one in the United States.”
Photograph by Tyler Snell
The hotel stuns with its cliff-edge infinity pool and two golf courses, but the restaurant is destination-worthy, too. When you enter, two dry aging chambers as well as a glass-enclosed cooler containing locally-sourced produce set the stage for the meal to come. Within a stone and wood-accented dining room lined with floor-to-ceiling windows revealing the mountain vista, guests are treated to a meal that’s at once globally inspired and rooted in place.
The new menu is the product of three Scottish chefs who have classical French training: Matthew Gray, George Jardine, and Roy Brett. Each works across Valor Hospitality’s properties around the world, but teamed up for this joint effort. Christopher Cofiño serves as the restaurant’s chef de cuisine.
Photograph by Tyler Snell
While some bites, like the buffalo oyster, in which the mollusk is deep-fried and coated in a fiery buffalo sauce and served in the shell, lean into the Southern setting, others, like the foie gras and haggis pithier (a double-crusted puff pastry), let the Scottish flair shine. There are two must-try composed dishes: the whole lamb and the monkfish. The whole lamb is actually several components of tasty morsels like lamb shoulder baked in hay and rosemary, spicy merguez sausage, and lamb chop topped with Asher blue cheese. For seafood lovers, the meaty roasted monkfish delights with an au poivre crust drizzled with a savory chicken butter, rounded out by a fluffy creamed spinach purée.
Photograph by Tyler Snell
When it comes to drinks, sommelier Ruth Verijnikova is happy to make pairing suggestions from their regionally-focused list. But, there are cocktails that elevate the experience, like the Auld Fashioned, which swaps whiskey for scotch, enhanced with black walnut bitters and a charred rosemary garnish that adds a smoky depth.
Photograph by Tyler Snell
One new addition to the restaurant is a private tasting room. The candlelit alcove, where Scottish regalia adorns the hunter-green walls, creates a cozy space in which to sip Scotch, gins, and Champagne. For $89, guests can try five half-ounce pours.
