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Buttery yellow walls and copper pots, bright as a Tuscan afternoon, surround you in this converted bungalow. Antica Posta is not Italian as depicted in gangster films, but rather as imagined in the countryside. So pass around plates of appetisers alongside fresh bread drizzled in small-run olive oil or exemplary osso buco as an entrée. You’ll feel completely dislocated from Buckhead’s Bourbon St-like entertainment district mere blocks away. Just finding the right wine will guarantee this as one of those clichéd evening-long Italian dinners. Oh, and if you’re ever in San Casciano, Florence, Tuscany, there’s an Antica Posta there, too.
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Located on one block of renovated garage on the edge of the Inman Park enclave, Fritti, and its neighbouring parent trattoria Sotto Sotto, are as close to a Little Italy as Atlanta musters. While perpetually booked Sotto Sotto offers rustic robustness, Fritti more aggressively presents old-meets-new (world). Fritti specialises in fried appetisers and Neopolitan-style wood-fired pizza in a highly textural setting. Ingredients such as paper-thin pancetta and pineapple mingle with pungent cheeses the way the nouveau riche and fashion forward sit shoulder-to- shoulder. An extensive Italian wine list is shared by both restaurants.
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Located in a basement 'cave’ (you know, grotto) underneath some town homes, La Grotta offers four-diamond Northern Italian with welcoming flair. This is formal white tablecloth dining – jacket required – set in a bevy of banquette seating, but the staff makes old money and newly hip to the 'secret’ feel equally at ease. A patio facing a garden feels wonderful in the right season, but all year is sunny once you bite into any of the fresh pastas, quail, squid, veal or venison, among other offerings. La Grotta offers the kind of plentiful pleasing food that makes you want to find your own cave for hibernating.
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Forget those low-carb diets before you settle into this energetic dining room located in the upcoming Westside warehouse-loft district. Survey the board for the specials, then match a pasta and gooey sauce from a dozen offerings. Order at the counter and grab a seat amid urban pioneers at a sunlight-strewn table underneath decorative crockery and herb planters. What’s delivered is earthenware overflowing but soon empty as you sop up all remaining sauce with delicious bread. Service can be hurried and the room loud, but low prices and robust flavors negate all hassles.
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