Atoma

Atoma sits inside an old Wallingford house and doesn't pretend otherwise. The craftsman bones are still there — creaky floors, echoing acoustics, an open kitchen clattering away in full view. Groups toast with miniature martinis. Nobody whispers. It reads less like a restaurant than a dinner party that got serious about the food.

That food earns the room's confidence. The menu carries the usual sturgeon and beef tartare, but the real case for Atoma is what happens to vegetables here — dishes built with a level of care that puts most declared "PNW produce" restaurants to shame. The talk about local, seasonal ingredients is everywhere in this city. Atoma is one of the rare places that actually cooks like it means it.

The city's dining establishment has caught on fast. Two straight years on Robb Report's best-new-restaurant lists, back-to-back James Beard nods for Best New Restaurant, and now finalist and semifinalist recognition for the chef individually. That's a short runway to that kind of attention, and it tracks with what's on the plate.

Go for the vegetables. Stay for the noise, the martinis, and a house that never stopped feeling like one.