FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024 | maconmagazine.com 57
Grand
FROM TOP
A salad at
Bacchanalia.
Co-owner and
decorated chef
Anne Quatrano.
The airy
Westside dining
room. Photos by
Andrew Thomas
Lee and courtesy
of Bacchanalia.
More Michelin day trip
re commendations
Bacchanalia
Want to experience a staple of Atlanta's fine-dining?
Bacchanalia will be a treat. It's stood the test of
time as an anchor to explore the trendy Westside
neighborhood. Co-owner and award-winning chef
Anne Quatrano has been a pioneer since opening
in 1993 – for the city's fine dining culture, for female
chefs, and for the now-popular local food movement,
sourcing from her family's farm.
She tells me the Michelin achievement felt
unbelievable, but it makes her think of "a long line
of very talented people who have worked with us
over the past 30 years. It's a culmination of a lot
of people and talent and years of trying to do the
best we can."
The James Beard Award winner is proud of the
entire culinary community, too. "I've cooked in a lot
of cities – San Francisco, Boston, Nantucket, New
York City. This is the first city I've cooked in where
I feel a real camaraderie. I feel like the restaurants
– the chefs – have a really strong community here.
I don't feel like anybody's going to hold back for a
source or an ingredient. I want everyone in the city
to be their best. That's a mutual feeling. And that's
slightly unusual. It's normally very competitive, but I
still want them to be their best."
Her signature flavor? She tells me that she loves
acid and the punch of vinegar, but their goal at
Bacchanalia is to hit all the taste profiles in the
mouth simultaneously – "When everything fires at
the same time and the flavors pop."
