this is me, doing my part to aid future travellers who google “downtown atlanta restaurants” for recommendations:

ended up heading over to a little place in west midtown (about a $10 cab ride from downtown) called The Food Studio. mmmmmmm, it was good. i had the appalacian cassoulet, which had duck, very tasty spicy sausage, beef, and black eyed peas. it was really yummy. they gave me this huge serving of it, too; i was sad to waste it, it was so tasty, but there wasn’t any way anyone could eat that much food. we had a wine to go along with dinner, seven sinners syrah (’02, i think), which not expensive but was pretty darn tasty. (i have to write this down so i can go look for it when i get home, and buy a bottle or two.) and then i had a glass of taylor’s 20 year tawny for dessert. oh, it was a yummy meal. the prices weren’t too shocking, and our server was really nice.

it’s in this little artists’ plaza, and the plaza also has a dance studio, some little shops, what looks like a ballroom, and they apparently also have a theatre. and the ambience is great; it’s evidently a converted old manufactory and so it’s all exposed brick and ductwork, with artwork of old machinery suspended around.

i really enjoyed it. i might, in fact, go back before i leave, if i end up confused about having nowhere to go.