Where to Eat in April: Miller Union, Lucian, Grana, and More

Having Miller Union in Atlanta is good enough reason to dine there as often as possible, but this month, specifically on Sunday, April 23, you’ll want to be at the heralded restaurant home of Steven Satterfield. That’s the date of a cookbook signing, author talk and reception for Satterfield’s brand new book, Vegetable Revelations. Join Chef and co-author Andrea Slonecker as they share stories from the book, while enjoying recipes directly from its pages, wines from Division Wine Making Company, and craft cocktails made with Cathead Distillery. Attendees will also receive a signed copy of Vegetable Revelations. Doors open at 3 p.m., and the chat begins promptly at 3:45 — get your tickets here. 

Marcus Samuelsson has arrived in ATL, and his new Edgewood Avenue restaurant has already drawn a significant opening buzz despite being open less than 30 days. The award-winning chef, restaurateur, television star and author chose a particularly funky format for his neighborhood bar and grill — a wall embellished with retro roller skates, golden exposed brick exposed golden brick interior, and a private dining room designed to resemble a hip-hop recording studio, with vintage records and art. It’s open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner starting at 5 p.m., with brunch coming soon. In the meantime, stop in and enjoy brown sugar chicken wings, Old Bay crab cakes, jerk pork belly, wood-fired king salmon with coconut rice, and plenty more, which can also be enjoyed on the outdoor patio.

Call 470-890-1700 for reservations.

Now open and taking your lunch and dinner reservations, Oaxaca is a nature-inspired Mexican restaurant where aqua-blue-stained concrete floors and hanging basket lights offer a serene setup for a meal full of flavors straight from its namesake city. The restaurant imports its yellow, blue and white corn, and uses it in several recipes, from elote to triangular tetela de pato bites made with masa dough, then stuffed with duck confit, Oaxaca cheese, black beans and more. It stays solid, with entree plates like carne asada made with 18-ounce, bone-in rib eye, and woodfire-grilled branzino with black garlic. The wine selection includes Argentinean, Chilean and Spanish wines, and there are zero-proof cocktails and housemade aguas frescas.

We say we’re New Orleans rivals in Atlanta, but the truth is we love The Big Easy’s food, which is why news of this brand-new New Orleanean restaurant, which opened just two weeks ago, is a wonderful thing for our city. Inside you’ll find gumbo, catfish, lamb chops, and several crawfish dishes, including crawfish mac and cheese, crawfish pasta, and crawfish with Cajun rice. The Black-owned restaurant also serves fried platters of oysters, catfish, shrimp and more, along with po’ boys with the same crispy proteins. Don’t worry — there’s no need to associate with the Saints in order to go marching in.

See the menu at Djuans.com.

Chef Pat Pascarella honors his Neapolitan heritage and the robust “peasant cooking” of Calabria, Campania, and the rest of southern Italy at his Piedmont Heights trattoria. The region’s flavors are inspired by family meals Pascarella remembers enjoying as a child, and are highlighted in burrata, a variety of meatballs from pork to veal to beef, all covered in a heavy handed layering of chef-picked cheeses, plus thin-crust wood-oven pizzas like the “Drunk Uncle,” made with pomodoro, coppa, oregano, mozzarella. That automatic helping of extra cheese also shows up in housemade pastas such as cavatelli with bolognese, sage velouté and ricotta salata. Add in the lovely spring weather, and Grana’s spacious rooftop bar, and you’ve got yourself a reminder that you’re overdue for a visit. 

If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to hit the hybrid restaurant, wine bar and bookstore, your time has come. Lucian’s spring wine menu runs through the end of this month, and includes stellar selections from wineries like Vadin-Plateau in France’s Marne Valley, Domaine des Tourelles of Lebanon, and quite a few others worth your tasteful curiosity. There are also several spring wine events at Lucian to fill your calendar this month and next, such as a lunch and by-the-glass takeover with Alice Anderson of âmevive wine on April 15, and a Champagne dinner with Billecart-Salmon on April 26. RSVP for these and other spring wine events — including a May 3 wine dinner and book signing with Resy managing editor Jon Bonné, celebrating the release of his newest book, “The New French Wine,” through Resy. (Contact events coordinator Kelly Martin with any questions.)

Chef Ian Winslade has accumulated accolades aplenty at his grand and contemporary place of expert-driven dining experiences. This month, on April 20 to be exact, the restaurant celebrates its fifth year, and will see an exciting new menu from Chef Winslade just in time for the birthday party. You don’t have to wait that long to get started on yuzu tempura shrimp, chilled red king crab, seared black sea bass or other things currently being offered, but it might be worth visiting several times this month just as a reminder.  

Since 1968, Nino’s has welcomed fans of fresh-daily homemade pastas, classic Italian dishes and more into its warm, old-school-proper atmosphere of double-draped tablecloths, leather booths, brick walls and stucco archways. Here the menu features deep-flavored dishes like braised lamb rigatone with homemade lamb meatballs in stewed tomato sauce, linguine in Fra Diavolo sauce with two sauteed lobster tails, and Vitello alla Romano, which is layered with veal prosciutto and eggplant in white wine mushroom sauce. By the way, they’re open all seven days of the week, which you might’ve noticed is more rare than it used to be, and should give you even more options for which day you’ll reserve your seat. 

Opened in late March, The Creamy Spot is Atlanta’s first full-service, plant-based creamery. The Black-woman-owned shop operates from a pick-up window and offers vegan soft-serve, ice cream sandwiches, and other dairy-free frozen desserts, in seasonal flavors like Pecan Tan, Dough Boy (for cookie dough fans), and more. There are also popsicles from Greatest of All Pops, whose ingredients are sourced from local minority-owned farms. Look for milkshakes and rolled ice cream to be served in the coming weeks.

As the second location of this Charleston-based restaurant to open in Atlanta in the past year, The Daily seems to be taking its name almost literally — at least when it comes to expanding. It just celebrated its  first anniversary in West Midtown, and the buzz from Inman Park is big, thanks to this location’s in-house bakery, which produces sourdough breads and pastries for all ATL locations. (By “all,” we mean  there’s a forthcoming Northside Drive spot in Buckhead that broke ground recently.) Stop in from breakfast time to afternoon for a variety of dishes whose geographic inspirations spread from the south to the Middle East, with avocado toast, breakfast burritos, vegetable pitas, and more to go along with coffees, smoothies and seasonal lattes. Don’t be surprised if you’re back more than once per week.

No reservations. See the menu at The Daily’s website.