Cliff Harrison and Anne Quatrano Bacchanalia , Atlanta Monday, August 23, 7:00 pm Members $85 , guests $105

Kristin Eddy of the Atlanta Journal called her four-star review of Bacchanalia a "fan letter," for she had nothing but praise for this beautiful restaurant in a pretty old house in Buckhead, surrounded by herb gardens. Her best advice? Don't pass up the prix fixe, and "be very selective about sharing." She's hardly alone in her territorial impulses toward Anne Quatrano and Cliff Harrison's amazing little restaurant, a far cry from the hyper-designed, attitude-laden climes of Atlanta's more ordinary hotspots. At Bacchanalia, the calm and serenity are broken only by diners' manifest joy at the fabulous food on their plates. As Christiane Lauterbach wrote in the Wine Spectator, "We had to wait a long time for something like Bacchanalia to materialize." Quatrano, who comes from Connecticut, and Harrison, born and raised in Hawaii, met at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. They went their separate ways to apprentice (she to Zuni Café with Judy Rodgers, he to Kusuma Kuray in Hawaii), but they've been inseparable ever since. The pair moved to Manhattan in 1987. They cooked at Bimini Twist, Le Petit Ferm, and the Grolier Club, where they made their first Beard appearance. In 1992 they moved to Georgia to take over Quatrano's family property, Summerland Farm. There, Quatrano and Harrison grow their own organic herbs and greens for the restaurant; they keep a Jersey cow for cheese and butter; and they're working on an orchard. The critical response to the regional American fare (dishes like sautéed Georgia white shrimp with a salsa of tomatoes, garlic, shallots, and basil, or sautéed turbot with zipper pea stew) has been overwhelming. Writing in Atlanta magazine, Lauterbach called Bacchanalia "fresh and inventive." Bon Appétit lauded this "winning restaurant," and Elliott Mackle in Food & Wine gave Bacchanalia's "inventive" cuisine three stars. In his "Creative Loafing" column, Terrell Vermont wrote that "Bacchanalia continues to amaze our palates and soothe our souls," adding, "No possible nuances are over-looked, no perfectly ripe seasonal or fruit ignored when it comes to...executing mesmerizing combinations to produce the most satisfying edibles Atlanta has seen in a long, long time."