There has always been destination dining in Atlanta, whether it’s for a chili cheese dog from a car hop at The Varsity, fried green tomatoes at Mary Mac’s Tea Room or the finer pleasures of glazed veal sweetbreads with Georgia pecans at Bacchanalia. But over the past few years I have watched my hometown experience a gastroculture boom, with young talent migrating to the city to embrace the quirks of southern fare and veterans of long-respected dining establishments creating the sort of places where they’d like to hang out on a night off. Taking full advantage of the bounty of nearby farming communities, they’re revisiting their roots, geeking out over breaking down whole animals and riffing on cocktail classics. There has never been a more exciting time for eating and drinking in ATL.
Catherine Faller of Domaine Weinbach, a W&S Top 100 Winery for 2013, speaks out on biodynamic winegrowing in Alsace.
Most restaurant rankings focus on food and atmosphere. For us, at W&S, that’s not enough. We also want to be assured there’s going to be something good to drink. A mixologist worthy of her title; a wine list proffering bottles we rarely see—or better yet, have never heard of—and a staff to guide us through them. Certainly the food has to be good, but wine and spirits are an integral part of the equation. So after dining around town with a close eye on what’s in our glasses, we present you with the most exciting new openings of the last 12 months, the places you’ll want to be dining—and drinking well—in 2013.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve assessed some 12,000 wines with our
blind tasting panels. Here are the 100 wineries that stood out from
the crowd—not just for making a single great wine but for a range of
compelling wines, bottles that made strong connections with our
tasters and our critics. Follow this link for information on who they
are and what they do well; you’ll also be able to create your own
list of favorites that you can annotate with tasting notes.
