There isn’t much that the Alps and Atlanta have in common. The Alps span eight different European countries, the mountains providing ample room for skiing, hiking, climbing, and rafting through cerulean lakes. Atlanta, hilly at best, makes up for what it lacks in gondolas with prolific contributions to hip hop. But the two different worlds come together in Avize, an Alpine-inspired fine dining restaurant in the West Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta.
Ever since the Silk Road, new ingredients and techniques have transformed traditional dishes into something unexpected. Fusion cuisine is nothing new, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get right. Avize stands out not by creating one meeting point between the Alps and Atlanta, but creating a whole bunch of them—the menu, where traditional items like foie gras and venison are paired with local seasonal produce, to the a deep rolodex of European wine producers, to the OutKast playing on soundsystem. Everything is thoughtful and appropriately cooler than a polar bear’s toenails.
Recent media argues fine dining isn’t for the faint of heart. But Chef Karl Gorline, who cut his fine dining teeth in New Orleans and Atlanta, walks the owner-operator tightrope with a great attitude. His business partner and Avize’s Sommelier, Taurean Philpott, oversees the guest experience. It’s grounded in equal parts comfort and excitement, another crossroads. Guests feel at-home and cared for through the service, and transported somewhere else entirely through the menu.
It’s not just the lemon pepper wet frog legs that weave together something familiar and accessible with something entirely new. Operationally, Avize is breaking new ground in the fine dining space. Once the fine dining operation was humming along, Gorline and Philpott expanded to open adjacent Bar Avize, a more casual bar-style concept. At Bar Avize, handheld POS devices ensure servers can serve more guests, faster. The bar concept has become 35% of Avize’s total revenue, helping to sustain innovation on the fine dining side.
Then there’s the kitchen display system at Avize’s expo station. It ensures Avize’s team can deliver courses efficiently, with minimal back-and-forth, working in-sync with the fine dining POS. It ladders up to a better guest experience. “The ability to connect the dots without actually having to physically tell everyone what to do is magnitudes above what we were doing before,” says Gorline.
The Alpine elevation and Atlanta cool take on a literal form in Truffles, Avize’s stuffed mountain goat mascot. Truffles stands on a banquette in the middle of the dining room. He sports Nike Jordans on each hoof, in homage of one goat from another. He’s surprising (even to Philpott, who originally suggested a tree) and iconic (he’s featured in many fan Instagram photos). He’s a bold testament to what Avize has accomplished in the Atlanta fine dining space, as we look toward all the innovative and exciting things to come.
