Empire State South serves Southern cooking with an adventurous twist. This is no greasy diner with grease and butter laden beans, greens, and chicken. It’s gourmet, eclectic, and purposeful. The chefs clearly put a great deal of thought into individually crafting each dish to deliver full flavor. Because they have reinvented most Southern dishes, I highly recommend viewing the menus on their website before you go to make sure there’s something you want to try.

Empire State South Dining Area

The hostess station and waitstaff deliver a friendly greeting upon arrival. With your first steps into the restaurant, you’ll see an expansive bar area and a rustic table piled high with pastries, cookies, and cookbooks. Chef Hugh Acheson holds no secrets and recently published his own big and thick cookbook called A New Turn in the South - Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen. Sit in the main dining room, away from the bar, if you’re looking for a more relaxing, quiet spot.

Let’s start with breakfast. Empire State South offers a complex list of specialty coffees created by their own in-house coffee chef (how many restaurants have one of those?). Along with their house specialties, they’ll fix coffee for you any way you like, and even offer a Georgia iced coffee special for those unfortunate hot mornings.

Breakfast includes homemade pastries, bagels, biscuits and sandwiches, yogurt, oatmeal, grits (of course), potatoes, trout, cheese, and fruit. The brunch menu on the weekends includes the same, plus an expanded service with soups, salads, steak, fish, and pork belly. There’s not a lot of sweet, syrupy breakfasts here.

The lunch menu is very sophisticated and somewhat cryptic, with ingredients such as porchetta, croque monsieur, farro, chow chow, pullman, gaufrettes, and pork rillette. But along with the confusion, they pair the dishes with lots of fresh vegetables and greens like a salad with pickled apple, sides of onion jam, cranberry beans, brussel leaves with fennel and kohlrabi, and charred okra. For the less adventurous and those wanting take-out, their Grab and Go lunch consists of granola parfait, bagels, a chopped salad, and simple, rustic sandwiches like pimento cheese, chicken salad, egg salad, and country ham all for just $5 or $6.

•   Style: Adventurous Southern Cooking
•   Dress: Casual to party casual
•   Atmosphere: Comfortable, romantic, sophisticated
•   Price Range: Dinner entrees range from $18 to $34
•   Great For: Breakfast, hearty lunch, special dinners
•   Specialties: Uniquely prepared meats, greens, coffee bar, lunch-to-go
•   Kids: Would probably have a hard time finding something to eat for lunch or dinner
•   Vegetarian options: Good for breakfast and lunch, limited for dinner

Dinner at Empire State South is, again, sophisticated, from the decor to the waitstaff and menu. The dark, smoky blue walls, padded wall benches, and dark wood molding say authentic, rustic, up-to-date Southern elegance. The simplistic pen and ink drawings on the menus are utterly charming. Again here, with the attention to detail in presentation of the decor and food, right down to the business cards, Empire State South has pulled together a complete experience of Southern gourmet. I was impressed that the waiter offered to validate our parking stub before we even thought about it.

Some of the dinner food we sampled was delicious, but I must admit it was amongst some confusion as to what we were ordering. I am not the most sophisticated person in Atlanta, but I am a college graduate, speak three languages, and have travelled around the world and as a well-read adult, I really struggled with this menu and can’t understand why a chef would have to confuse his patrons with every other line. We wondered if bread would be complementary as we saw many other tables with baskets of bread and small jars, but realized only later that it was the “In Jars” appetizer, which is a selection of relishes and spreads and still does not mention bread on the menu.

Empire State South Nice Inside View

We did order the cheese plate and it was delectable, the onion relish being a highlight. Our vegetarian was very confused, and looking for something light and still wanting bread, ordered the sweetbreads first course and ended up with veal and a lentil side dish. She outsourced the veal to another in the group (yum!) and, having had no idea the lentils were coming, was glad to see them and ate them instead. The spiced hot-pepper lentils were one of the most delicious dishes she has ever tasted and definitely the best lentil dish ever. Unfortunately, the sweet and sour eggplant (too acidic) and steak tartare (not what we expected) were disappointing. Each to his own, the couple next to us ordered the steak tartare and gobbled it down. Our evening meal was well timed and very relaxing.

Empire State South Break Fast Items

If you live and work downtown or are coming from Hotel Midtown and are able to walk to Empire State South, that’s wonderful. If you’re coming into the city from the outskirts, finding the restaurant could be a confusing adventure before you even reach the confusing menu. With an address on 999 Peachtree in Midtown, the face of the restaurant is on 10th, set back from the street with no door in sight.

Empire State South Front View

The front door is located in the courtyard to the east of the building. If you are lucky to catch sight of the front window signage and pull into the Hotel Midtown’s front entrance, you may still wonder where to go. Pull right past the hotel into the parking deck and find yourself a spot. Bring your ticket for validation; parking is complementary up to 3 hours.

Empire State South Stunning Bar View

Hours:       Breakfast 7 am to 10 am   Monday-Friday
       Lunch 11 am to 3 pm   Monday-Friday
       Dinner 5:30 pm to 10 pm   Sunday-Thursday
       Dinner 5:30 pm to 11 pm   Friday & Saturday
       Brunch 10:30 am to 3 pm   Saturday & Sunday (Coffee Bar opens at 8 am)

Free parking.

999 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30309
404-541-1105
http://www.empirestatesouth.com