2013 Best Restaurants in the South

What to Order

: Rabbit 3 Ways. Chef Edward Lee’s flagship restaurant is Louisville’s most sought-after reservation in town. And each plate showcases his ability to combine bold personality (something he’s developed a reputation for) with the best of the seasons. Go for the trio of Ridgecrest Rabbit (confit leg, rack of rabbit, rabbit sausage), served with his blueberry-jalapeño gnocchi, celery root, local beans, and nasturtium.

610 West Magnolia Avenue; 610magnolia.com

What to Order: No Menu Monday. On the last Monday of every month, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman go totally off script and create a multi-course $45 prix fixe menu. The theme changes each time, from a porcine ode to an all-vegetable rundown. No Menu also means diners aren’t told what they are eating when dishes arrive at the table, making each course a food lover’s guessing game: is that rhubarb in the ketchup? Black pepper and honey in the gelato? At the end, handwritten menus are passed out to decode the experience.

712 West Brookhaven Circle; andrewmichaelitaliankitchen.com

What to Order

: Chicken-Fried Steak. At a place named Barbecue Inn, you’d expect to order a lot of, well, barbecue. But the cooks at this 1946 Houston landmark know their way around a fryer. They turn out some mean yardbird, but it’s the superb chicken-fried steak that gets my vote: cooked-to-order, crispy, meaty, and shrouded in a cloak of country gravy.

116 West Crosstimbers Street; thebarbecueinn.com

What to Order: Rainbow Trout with Buttermilk Consommé and Watercress

1471 West Millers Cove Road; blackberryfarm.com

What to Order

: Fried Chicken and Waffles. Birch & Barley, known for its tremendous beer selection (the pride of place beer taps resemble a pipe organ), seemed an odd choice for brunch the first time I went. But that was before I understood the deft skills of pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac and her husband, chef Kyle Bailey. Her airy waffle supports his rich fried chicken, all pulled together with maple-chicken jus and buttered pecans. It eats like a food lover’s one-two punch. Pair it with a Cottonwood Frostbite Black IPA from North Carolina.

1337 14th Street. Northwest; birchandbarley.com

What to Order: Lamb Saddle. Chef Billy Allin, who really shines through his inventive work with produce and great meats, isn’t afraid to play around with flavors. The Middle Eastern-inspired saddle of lamb (big enough for two), served with cracked wheat, cucumber, and minted yogurt, manages to portray a global perspective without sacrificing his Southern sensibility.

155 Sycamore Street; cakesandalerestaurant.com

What to Order

: L.A. Burger. This corner pub in the Oakleigh Garden District of Mobile makes a limited number of L.A. Burgers (Lower Alabama, naturally) each day at lunch, and locals know to arrive early. The patty, a mix of ground beef and Conecuh sausage (Alabama’s unofficial state link), is so flipping good it’ll make you wonder why most places limit themselves to an all-beef burger.

916 Charleston Street; callaghansirishsocialclub.com

What to Order

: Kerala Railways Beef Curry. The banana leaf-wrapped parcel—beef curry perfumed with cinnamon bark atop yogurt rice—imparts a seesaw of flavor, alternating between deep spice and a cooling tartness. For her Kerala-style Indian restaurant, chef Asha Gomez takes the ingredients and flavors she found in her mother’s southern Indian kitchen (okra, green beans, beef, pork, curry leaves) and applies them to her current home in the American South.

1700 Northside Drive Northwest; cardamomhill.net

What to Order

: 7-to-11-Course Tasting Menu. This is dinner theater, plain and simple. In an austerely white dining space, Erik Anderson, a protégé of both Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and René Redzepi of Noma, delivers immaculate courses to diners at a U-shaped counter surrounding the open kitchen. With only 32 positions, the Catbird Seat is a hard table to snag (new spots open each day for reservations 30 days out). But for modernist cooking with real personality, there’s nothing like it. One particular amuse-bouche, called simply “Hot Chicken” in tribute to the city’s most recognized dish, showcases cayenne-scented fried chicken skins with dill salt and a puree of white Wonder Bread.

1711 Division Street, thecatbirdseatrestaurant.com

What to Order

: Steak Frites. In a city sharply divided by political leanings and agendas, the C.F. Folks' 11-seat Formica lunch counter offers delicious, non-partisan respite. Open since 1981, it’s a bit campy, has walls lined with decades-worth of cookbooks, and gives seats on a first-come, first-served basis. The daily specials span the globe (crab cakes, falafel, jerk chicken), but when I go, I keep my fingers crossed for the steak frites, expertly cooked and sauced with a classic bordelaise.

1225 19th Street Northwest; cffolksrestaurant.com

What to Order

: Hamburger Fonfon or Trout Amandine. Chef Frank Stitt’s French bistro, with a boules court out back, ranks as my favorite local drop-in spot. I like to grab a seat at the bar, order the burger (a study in perfection, topped with rich Comté cheese) or the trout amandine in brown butter (crisp and tangy, bistro fare at its best), get a carafe of wine, and catch up on my own thoughts. If I’m really indulging, I add in a slice of coconut cake, splendid with it’s many creamy layers and encased in fresh coconut shavings.

2007 11th Avenue South; fonfonbham.com

What to Order: Belly Ham Pizza. Tandy Wilson gets a lot of credit for giving Nashville its current reputation as a food town. His inventive antipasti (bresaola with blueberries and pecorino; scrapple with pepper sauce), fresh pastas, and brilliant cocktail list (e.g., the Junior, a mix of moonshine, créme de violette, and Dr. Enuf soda) puts a progressive twist on Tennessee staples. The Belly Ham pizza, a simple showcase of house-cured ham with mozzarella, Grana Padano, oregano, and chile flakes, blows my mind every time.

1222 Fourth Avenue North; cityhousenashville.com

What to Order: Fried Livers with Pepper Jelly and Toast. Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski, revered as Louisiana’s pork kings, buy whole hogs and make use of every part they can. They’ve built a cult following around hogshead cheese, cracklins, trotters, fried pigs' ears, and every type of sausage possible. And I love it all. But I swoon for the fried livers. Sometimes chicken, sometimes rabbit, the rich and nutty nuggets come perched on toast, swathed in pepper jelly, and finished with shaved onion, fresh parsley, and mint.

930 Tchoupitoulas Street; cochonrestaurant.com

What to Order

: Oyster & Absinthe "Dome." Tory McPhail, this year’s winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: South, doesn’t shy away from tradition. But he has decidedly put his own mark on the menu of this NOLA institution. For example, try the bourbon-braised fig-and-foie gras beignets with a chicory coffee mist. The rich Oyster & Absinthe “Dome,” a medley of Gulf bivalves poached with bacon, artichokes, tarragon, absinthe, and cream under a pastry shell, masterfully combines the Crescent City tradition of fresh seafood and the town’s delicious cocktail history.

1403 Washington Avenue; commanderspalace.com

What to Order: Speckled Trout.

Michael Stoltzfus’s menu changes regularly, including the $23 prix fixe lunch (possibly the best deal in town). But on one visit, I fell hard for the speckled trout served with burst cherry tomatoes, perfectly cooked pattypan squash, and a fluttering of Brussels sprouts leaves, finished with delicate satsuma butter.

2800 Magazine Street; coquettenola.com

What to Order

: Jack Daniels Barrel-Smoked Quail. Subtly sweet, smoky, with an of-the-land essence, this fowl nests in truffle-Parmesan polenta.

100 South Side Square; cottonrowrestaurant.com

What to Order

: Cornish Hen. In a land of top-notch barbecue, Desiree Robinson’s appropriately named Cozy Corner is the stuff of legend. Everyone in town does pork (including Desiree), but here, the specialty is barbecued Cornish hen, a small bird with blistered skin and juicy drip-down-your-chin meat.

745 North Parkway; cozycornerbbq.com

What to Order

: Atlantic Beach Pie. Chef Bill Smith honorably carries the torch for this beloved destination restaurant, where he and his team continue to be the standard bearers for classics such as shrimp and grits and Hoppin’ John, and have arguably influenced just about every kitchen in the South. But it’s the Atlantic Beach Pie that causes eyes to roll back in heads each and every time. With its saltine cracker crust and lemony sweetened condensed milk filling, this throwback dessert borders on tacky in that made-every-year-by-Aunt Sue-for-the-family-reunion kind of way. Nothing short of delightful.

610 West Franklin Street.; crookscorner.com

Note: Get the recipe for Crook's Corners phenomenal Shrimp and Grits.

What to Order: Fried Green Tomato Plate. Taylor Bowen Ricketts certainly doesn’t bow to cliché, but her rendition of this Southern classic, served with comeback sauce (a tangy Mississippi staple akin to rémoulade), reminds you why folks across the nation rightfully associate fried green tomatoes with the South.

117 Main Street; deltabistro.com

What to Order: Porterhouse Steak. Grilled in the back room of a dilapidated grocery store, it’s this mammoth piece of meat swimming in a pool of sultry butter that made the Doe’s name.

502 Nelson Street; doeseatplace.com

• Featured in Off the Eaten Path

What to Order

: Spicy Lamb Meatballs Pizza. Alon Shaya, one of the Crescent City’s newest golden boys, produces some serious pies at Domenica, such as the Spicy Lamb Meatballs, disks of spiced ground lamb atop tomatoes, ricotta, rapini, and mint.

123 Baronne Street; domenicarestaurant.com

What to Order

: Gumbo Z’Herbes. Leah Chase only serves this green gumbo once a year, on Holy Thursday, as a traditional Easter meal. It combines nine different greens (always an odd number for good luck), such as collards, Swiss chard, cabbage, even carrot tops, all ground finely. As Miss Leah likes to say, “If you eat [my gumbo z’herbes] you will acquire a new friend for every kind of green I have in the pot—and we hope one of them’s rich.”

2301 Orleans Avenue; dookychaserestaurant.com

What to Order: Grilled Chorizo Meatloaf. Under the guidance of Brian Somershield, a Frank Stitt acolyte, this kitchen turns out thoughtful interpretations of modern Mexican fare, such as the grilled meatloaf, made with a robust chorizo, served atop Cotija cheese-mashed potatoes, and crowned with ranchero, a piquant tomato-based sauce spiced with chiles.

2211 Second Avenue North; elbarriobirmingham.com

What to Order

: Pimento Cheese with Bacon Marmalade

999 Peachtree Street Northeast, Suite 140; empirestatesouth.com

What to Order

: Chicken Fried Pork Cheeks with Sour Cherries & Cucumber

240 Market Street; fearrington.com

What to Order

: Coddled Sea Island Farm Egg

232 Meeting Street; eatatfig.com

What to Order

: Boiled Peanut Hummus

1073 South Milledge Avenue; fiveandten.com

What to Order

: Jumbo Royal Reds. You’d be forgiven for scratching your head on this pick. The Flora-Bama, a beachfront dive bar that straddles the Florida-Alabama line, is better known for its annual mullet toss (the fish, not the hairstyle) than its culinary prowess. But the royal red shrimp, an oversize deepwater Gulf variety with a sweetness and firmness similar to lobster, is about the best I’ve ever had. Maybe it’s because the shrimp comes from the waters just offshore. Or because the kitchen doesn’t do much of anything to it (a simple boil, and then served with melted butter). But this shrimp is the perfect expression of the Gulf.

17401 Perdido Key Drive; florabama.com

What to Order

: Seared Sea Scallops with Crawfish Tails served with artichokes, fingerling potatoes, corn, and andouille

1728 Soniat Street; gautreausrestaurant.com

What to Order

: Crawfish. Located on a private island off the coast of Georgia, accentuated with touches like gold-and-crystal chandeliers, The Cloister is swank. On its menu, described as “Refined Southern,” you can expect to find dishes like the simply named Crawfish, an elegant preparation of crawfish étoufée atop a Georgian grits soufflé with pickled hominy. Think: Old-World refinement meets New-South expression.

100 Cloister Drive; seaisland.com

What to Order:

Pastrami Sandwich

Emory Point, 1540 Avenue Place, Suite B-230; thegeneralmuir.com

What to Order:

Wood Roasted Clams with house-made chorizo sausage, sweet peppers, and onions

4 Cannon Street; thegrocerycharleston.com

What to Order:

Korean Spicy Pork Sandwich, smoked shoulder dressed in gochujang (sweet chile paste) with kimchi on a sweet potato bun

2243 Akers Mill Road; heirloommarketbbq.com

What to Order: Stone-Ground Baked Grits with country ham, mushrooms, fresh thyme, and Parmesan

2011 11th Avenue South; highlandsbarandgrill.com

What to Order:

Red Eye Pizza. Simple yet decadent, this pizza arrives piled with chunks of pork belly around a soft-cooked egg on sugo (a tomato-pork sauce) and Taleggio cheese with fragrant celery leaves scattered like confetti. But you really can’t go wrong with any of the menu: wood-fired pizzas, drippingly messy neckbone gravy poutine (fries studded with cheese curd), and earthy cauliflower roasted with brown butter. Even a simple romaine salad feels like an indulgence with its rich pecorino vinaigrette and generous scattering of fried chicken skins instead of croutons. At this unlikely East Memphis spot, surrounded by office buildings, strip malls, and chain restaurants, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman demonstrate their low-key prowess of merging classic technique and pitch-perfect ingredients. They continually prove that a glorious meal has nothing to do with a tufted dining room and a hefty tab.

707 West Brookhaven Circle; hogandhominy.com

What to Order:

Poached Farm Egg and Duck Liver with griddled bacon, johnny cakes, and sorghum syrup

2277 Peachtree Road Northeast; holeman-finch.com

What to Order:

Shrimp & Grits

207 Rutledge Avenue; hominygrill.com

What to Order: Hot and Hot Tomato Salad. This namesake salad, a wobbly tower of fresh heirloom tomatoes, bacon, and fried okra pods atop a pile of field peas, epitomizes Chris Hastings' efforts to showcase Alabama’s bounty: grown, caught, or foraged.

2180 11th Court South; hotandhotfishclub.com

What to Order: Pokeweed Fritters with Pimiento Cheese or Fried Chicken Skins with Hot Sauce, Honey, and Lemon Thyme

76 Queen Street, Charleston; huskrestaurant.com
37 Rutledge Street, Nashville; husknashville.com

What to Order: Raw Oysters. Located in an old commissary, the Indian Pass Raw Bar is quite possibly the best seafood shack in existence: live music, a constant crowd, and oysters straight from the waters of the Apalachicola Bay.

8391 C-30A; 850/227-1670

• Featured in Off the Eaten Path

What to Order

: Organic Milk-Fed Pork Chop with Grilled Peaches, Bourbon Jus, and Potato Purée

309 Middle Street; theinnatlittlewashington.com

What to Order: Pan De Recapte Con Anchoa, traditional Catalan toasted bread with peppers, tomatoes, and salt-cured Spanish anchovies

480 Seventh Street Northwest; jaleo.com

What to Order

: Ale-8-One Braised Pork Belly

120 West Second Street; jagp.info

What to Order

: Spicy Kettle Corn with Lardo

61 Locust Street; knifeandforknc.com

What to Order: Multi-course Tasting Menu ($135). Lest you think fine dining is dead (there’s no denying that casual restaurants have experienced a major resurgence), just pay a visit to Komi, an homage to modern Greek fare. With its bare tables and youthful staff, it might not appear like the white-tableclothed temples of yore. But pay attention and you’ll see that the service is exquisite (the staff moves with graceful ease without acting overly familiar), the wine list is full of interesting bottles (and the young sommelier can speak to the qualities of all of them), and the food arrives with orchestrated precision. And each bite (after beautiful bite) tastes like your new favorite dish. That is, until the next dish arrives.

1509 17th Street Northwest; komirestaurant.com

What to Order

: Seafood Hotpot with lobster dumplings, wild shrimp, blue crab, Bogue Sound clams, spring rain noodles, fresh lime leaf, and pea greens in a shellfish broth

423 West Franklin Street; lanternrestaurant.com

What to Order

: Fried Chicken, smeared with an arbol chile paste and brined, fried, then splashed with a house-made vinegar made from morita and habanero peppers

2821 Central Avenue; thelittledonkey.com

What to Order: $45 Prix Fixe Menu. Johnny Monis’ jewel box of a restaurant delivers fiery Thai flavors that tend to just get hotter with each of the seven courses. They don’t take reservations, so get there early (by 5 p.m.) and expect to wait in line—it can stretch down the block.

1511 17th Street Northwest; littleserow.com

What to Order: Sapelo Island Clams Casino Pizza

1520 Woodland Street; lockelandtable.com

What to Order: Bone Marrow Bread Pudding

479B King Street; themacintoshcharleston.com

What to Order

: Fried Chicken and Fried Whiting

1068 Morrison Drive; 843/577-9583

What to Order

: Redneck Taco. Patrick Martin’s tongue-in-cheek name for this menu staple demonstrates his playful nature. But if loving this dish makes me a redneck, so be it: It’s the perfect marriage of a griddled hoecake, pulled smoked pork, tangy coleslaw, and his tomato-vinegar sauce.

7238 Nolensville Road; martinsbbqjoint.com

What to Order

: A Taco, Tortilla Soup, and an Agua Fresca

732 McFerrin Avenue; 615/543-6271

What to Order: Huevo Diablo. At this Spanish-inspired cantina, in the heart of downtown Durham’s revival, Matt Kelly masterfully blends the flavors of the South and Spain. His Huevo Diablo (deviled egg) arrives neatly halved, wrapped in chorizo, and piled high with a satiny egg filling, the seeming culinary offspring of a demure Southern mama and a swarthy Spanish father. But don’t stop there. Put simply, Matt’s food is mind-blowingly good. Bowls of Manila clams and boiled peanuts surrender to a sherry-laced, garlicky broth. Meaty pork ribs, lacquered in Espellette pepper jelly, seem just the thing you’d eat at a barbecue joint in Basque Country. Luckily, his tapas-style menu encourages sharing.

109 West Chapel Hill Street; mateotapas.com

What to Order

: Berkshire Pork, from Adam Musick of Appalachian Heritage Foods, Virginia, with Butterbean Chow Chow, Pole Beans, and Oyster Mushrooms

2 Unity Alley; mccradysrestaurant.com

What to Order: Crispy Sweet and Spicy Pork Belly. Chef Michael Schwartz is a Miami revolutionary. And the food at his flagship restaurant, opened in 2007, is so memorable I have inflicted serious travel hurdles on myself simply to eat there. No joke. I have regularly planned Miami layovers just long enough to grab a quick bite (yes, that means an unnecessary trip through MIA security). Once, en route from Key West to Naples, I drove 40 minutes out of my way at 10 p.m., in a blustering thunderstorm, to catch the kitchen before it closed. And that pork belly is a dish I catch myself going back to over and over again. Beautifully glazed, topped with kimchi, crushed peanuts, and fresh pea shoots, it perfectly balances sweet and savory, crispy and unctuous, fresh and fermented.

130 Northeast 40th Street; michaelsgenuine.com

What to Order

: Miso Smothered Chicken or Organic Pork Burger. At chef Edward Lee’s newest restaurant, located inside Louisville’s Actors Theatre, he thoughtfully layers the Korean flavors of his childhood with his reverence of Southern food. His take on traditional smothered chicken, served with buttery Carolina rice, gets added depth from miso. His four-napkin pork burger comes piled with kimchi and cracklins.

316 West Main Street; actorstheatre.org/milkwood

What to Order

: Seasonal Vegetable Plate or Country Captain.

999 Brady Avenue; millerunion.com

What to Order

: Barbecue chicken. Miss Myra’s does a lot of things superbly. But at the top of that list is barbecue chicken, smoked over wood coals and finished with a dip in white barbecue sauce, a mayonnaise-based concoction that reigns over other sauces in the northern parts of Alabama. Don’t skip the meringue-topped banana pudding.

3278 Cahaba Heights Road; 205/967-6004

What to Order

: Fresh Tagliatelle Pasta in a ragu of braised chicken, pancetta, pearl onions, picholine olives, and Grana Padano cheese.

2713 Culver Road, ollieirene.com

What to Order: Whole Georgia White Shrimp a la Plancha, “Sopping” Toast, Arbol Chile, and Lime

914 Howell Mill Road; theoptimistrestaurant.com

What to Order: Oyster Sliders. At chef Mike Lata’s high temple of Neptune’s bounty, these sliders are the perfect spicy-sweet, crispy, tender combo: fried oysters are tucked inside Hawaiian rolls, topped with cabbage, pickled carrots, homemade Sriracha hot sauce, cilantro, and jalapenos.

544 King Street; eattheordinary.com

What to Order: Tasting Menu. Justin Yu’s Houston hot spot is a champion of casual dining. Guests retrieve their own silverware and cooks double as waitstaff. But his tasting menus inspire. He has elicited tears of rapture with his deceptively simple beet salad, dressed with lemon blossom vinegar, quinoa, and almonds.

1302 Nance Street; oxhearthouston.com

What to Order

: Smothered Catfish or Whole Grilled Fish. The latest project from the team behind Cochon and Herbsaint (Donald Link, Stephen Stryjewski, and Ryan Prewitt), this open-fire emporium in the New Orleans Warehouse District was inspired by a trip to Uruguay, where every restaurant, farmhouse, and even rest stop seems to have a wood-burning parrilla.

800 Magazine Street; pecherestaurant.com

What to Order

: The Daily Special. This little house on Bay Street in my hometown might be the very first restaurant I ever frequented. The procedure was simple: You entered the home (hallways covered in family photos), fixed your plate of comfort food (fried chicken, pork chops, creamed corn, butter beans) off the make-shift serving counter at the kitchen entryway, sat at one of the folding tables scattered throughout the house (at whatever seat was available), and left your money in the basket by the door (making your own change). I’ve never seen another place like it. And happily, the experience remains the same today.

512 Bay Street; 601/656-3478