"For flat-out fabulous Dixie- style fare in Buckhead, the only choice is the Horseradish Grill," Jolee Edmonson declared in Sky magazine last year. At this warm, inviting restaurant, housed in a renovated barn on a quiet Atlanta street, David Berry turns out food that conjures up the gracious cordiality of the Old South, infused with the energy and vitality of the New. This is the real thing-rich, deeply flavorful, delectable Southern cooking. Berry is a bona-fide historian of foodstuffs found on the southern side of the Mason-Dixon line, and he's a stickler for authenticity. You won't find grilled Alaskan salmon or Chilean sea bass with Thai basil on his menu, but you will find terrific cornmeal dredged, pan-sautéed Georgia mountain trout, Berry's famous skillet-fried chicken, and his standout Low Country shrimp with grits. And then, of course, there are the fried green tomatoes, the feather-light biscuits (made the old-fashioned way, with lard and White Lily flour), and the not-to-be-missed-even-if-you're-full chess pie. Almost every ingredient is strictly local. In fact, some of it is from right out back: herbs and vegetables from the restaurant's beautiful organic garden find their way into nearly every dish. In the summer, Berry's guests can head out back to pick their own corn. The kitchen cooks it up, and it's delivered to the table fresh and sweet.

Berry's a Southerner from birth-born and raised in South Carolina-but he got his culinary training in Yankee territory, at the CIA. After graduation, he headed to Atlanta to work the stoves for the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, owners of such notable Southern eateries as Pano's & Paul's and NAVA. In 1994, he helped open Horseradish Grill, and that year, Esquire named it the region's Best New Restaurant. Two years later, Berry was named executive chef, and he immediately won acclaim for his refined, straightforward fare. "The Horseradish Grill is getting the reputation it wants-and deserves-as a beloved Atlanta treasure," The Atlanta Constitution proclaimed.

Lookin' for the kind of great regional cooking that can make a hungry foodie drive a hundred miles of bad road? No need to start travelin', sugar. Just come on down to the Beard House when Berry is in town.