Press

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. - If you’re a regular Good Day Atlanta viewer — and we sure hope you are! — you’ve probably seen us gobbling down the delicious French and Mediterranean-inspired cuisine served at The Select Restaurant + Bar. And even though we’ve featured the Sandy Springs restaurant a few times since it opened in 2019, we couldn’t resist scheduling another visit when we heard about the Valentine’s Day transformation inside.

In previous years, Atlanta patios came alive in the spring. But after two years of enduring the Covid-19 pandemic, restaurants are keeping patios open year-round to facilitate diners eager for fresh air. Even when the weather isn’t optimal, many metro restaurants have installed awnings, heat lamps, and other features to keep out the rain and cold. Here’s where to go to stay warm this winter.

When public health officials recommended socially distanced outdoor dining as the safest way to eat at restaurants during the pandemic, food and drink establishments responded by expanding the footprint of their patios and plopping picnic tables in their parking lots. Right now, sweltering summer days have been replaced with cool fall nights — a fabulous time for outdoor dining. But what will happen when it gets cold?

It feels like we’ve been in quarantine for a lot longer than nine months, but with the Covid-19 pandemic still raging, many of us will be dining in for the holidays this year. If you don’t want to shop, chop, steam, sear, and bake, these restaurants have you covered with their holiday takeout options.

The Select Restaurant + Bar was created to honor the timeless brasserie, Le Select in Paris, France, where artists and literary giants including Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Picasso gathered. Both restaurants were created as a place for people to enjoy fabulous food and drinks, where they felt comfortable expressing their individuality and uniqueness. The Select is acclaimed mainly for Chef Jason Hall’s Contemporary Continental Cuisine featuring a French influence and Mediterranean dishes popular in Spain, the French Riviera, and Italy.

With interiors that are as jaw-dropping and instagrammable as their food, The Select has been a new welcome gem to Atlanta that’s perfect for cocktails, date night, or just to catch up with friends. And something new to look forward to at The Select? Their expansive brunch menu–from the fried oyster polenta to the eggs benedict to their cinnamon roll, it’s all so dang good.

Tradition has taken a back seat this Thanksgiving for many. Some of the large family gatherings and even Friendsgiving celebrations have been sidelined by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. For those who are not interested in putting together even an individual homecooked meal, several restaurants have the holiday dining covered.

Despite all the uncertainty that accompanies dining out in a pandemic, many restaurant owners are forging ahead with dine-in service and attempting to do so in as safe an environment as possible. One of those restaurant owners is Dave Green of The Select in Sandy Springs, who has reopened his restaurant for dine-in service, takeout, and patio service, with the restaurant filled at about 50% capacity.

April 27 was the first day that restaurants in Georgia were permitted to offer on-premise dining after weeks of closing their dining rooms due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the past few weeks, people hungry for — or simply curious about — a full-service experience have stepped inside restaurants to encounter dining rooms emptied of up to three-quarters of the tables and chairs or rearranged to enable social distancing. But the coronavirus and the implications of social distancing are far more sweeping on the restaurant industry than simply changing up the seating configuration.

We spent the morning at The Select Restaurant and Bar in Sandy Springs, getting a look at the safety measures and guidelines in place now that the restaurant is once again open for dine-in service.

This design aesthetic also creates a sense of immersion. Partway through the pandemic, owner Dave Green added a Christmas-tree installation at the bar of his Sandy Springs restaurant the Select.