King + Duke Is One of Esquire's Best New Restaurants

Esquire's list of the Best New Restaurants 2013 is out, and Ford Fry's newest Atlanta spot, King + Duke, is one of them. The slideshow, which has "distilled what's important and innovative and fun right now," gives the number one spot to Betony in New York City; last year, Atlanta restaurant The Optimist— also owned by Ford Fry— took home this honor. Here's what Esquire's John Mariani has to say about Buckhead's King + Duke, helmed by hot chef Joe Schafer:

Last year, chef Ford Fry's The Optimist was Esquire's Restaurant of the Year. He must be in what they call the zone: Fry's new place, King + Duke, is his second-straight can't-miss spot. Where The Optimist celebrates great seafood, King + Duke (named after two grifters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) is all about chef de cuisine Joe Schafer and Fry cooking over a hickory-wood fire on a twenty-four-foot hearth. The roasted carrots and beets with sheep's-milk feta transport you to a field (in a good way). The fire torches a candy crust on succulent lamb belly served with sheep's-milk feta, and sweet fire-roasted lobster is heightened simply by baby bok choy, garlic, and chiles. Even pastry chef Chrysta Poulos works the fire, grilling the sugariest of Georgia peaches to accompany a quivering dark-chocolate panna cotta.

Also, King + Duke serves thirty-two beers. So the place pretty much made this list before we even sat down.