The Best Places in Poncey-Highland

The wine list has a dedicated section for aged Madeira, which tells you something about the seriousness of the operation. This moody Poncey-Highland wine bar holds a Michelin selection and landed on Bon Appétit's best new bars list, but the kitchen pulls its own weight with snacks, shareable plates, and evening mains that feel seasonal without being precious. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the back label.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Wine Enthusiast Top 50 New Restaurants
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A secret door hidden in a bookshelf is how you get to the table, which tells you everything about the mood here. Georgia Boy is a reservation-only tasting menu restaurant tucked inside Southern Belle, where dinner starts in a library with drinks and snacks until you find the chef's favorite book on the shelf. The cooking runs from playful to genuinely strange, and the room seems designed to make you feel like a child who stumbled into the right wardrobe.

1. Eater Most Innovative Chef · Joey Ward
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The Infatuation #6 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Atlanta

Half fish market, half seafood counter, Fishmonger seats guests at a communal table or window stools and takes orders from the back. The menu stays compact: oysters, crudos, sandwiches, soups, and whatever the boat brought in that day. The blackened grouper sandwich on a buttered seeded bun with pickled peppers and Florida sauce has become the house staple for good reason. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Bon Appétit best new restaurant pick.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Esquire #13 · The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Arnaldo Castillo

A neon sign reading "Bless Your Heart" anchors the bar, which tells you exactly the kind of contemporary Southern restaurant this is. The menu leans hard into local vegetables and whatever the season is doing, with dishes that manage to be creative without being precious about it. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod, and the Michelin Guide has taken notice too. Date-night crowd, candlelit tables, the works.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Joey Ward

The rooftop radio tower sign still blinks over Ponce de Leon, and the Clermont Lounge still does its thing in the basement, which means this 94-room boutique hotel exists, rather perfectly, as the respectable middle of a very Atlanta sandwich. The red-brick building has been around forever and renovated thoroughly, with a restaurant by a celebrated local chef and a Michelin Key to its name.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A 1929 brick building on Ponce de Leon, now a boutique hotel where a sleek modern addition tucks in beside the original without much fuss. The basement once housed a storied gathering place in Atlanta's LGBTQ+ history, and the hotel wears that legacy with genuine intention. Rooms are compact and well considered, with plump bedding and luggage stashed in cubbies under the bed. The second-floor terrace and lobby sunroom give you somewhere to land after a day in Midtown.

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Meherwan Irani and Molly Irani - Chai Pani Restaurant Group

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Claudia Martinez
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East

1. AAA Approved

Colette is a Poncey-Highland bakery where the order counter sits right in front of the open kitchen, so you can watch the bakers knead dough while you wait behind a weekend line of stroller-pushing locals. The case runs from brioche tarts to sour cream-iced cinnamon rolls the size of a toddler's head, plus savory scones made with shishito peppers. It's a counter-service pastry stop, so wear whatever you rolled out of bed in.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bakeries In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta
2. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants