Twelve years married, and this room did it justice

An anniversary dinner has one job: make the evening feel unhurried and a little unreal. The Grey Hearth understands this in its bones.

We mentioned the occasion at booking and didn't think about it again — but the kitchen did. A glass of blanc de blancs appeared before the first course. The pacing left room to actually talk. And when dessert came with a candle and no singing, my wife declared it a perfect judgment call.

The food is Maya's department and everything she wrote holds; I'll only add that the duck course, shared across the table in the candlelight, is the single most romantic plate of food in Atlanta right now.

It's not cheap and the room is too dim to read the menu without your phone flashlight, which costs it half a point of pretension. But we walked out into the Westside night already planning year thirteen.