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