Sweet Potato Cafe, Stone Mountain

Leaves of vegetables and herbs sprout from the ground near Sweet Potato Cafe, providing the cornucopia of ingredients that chef Karen Patton draws from as she constructs her seasonal, upscale dishes. The chef—who boast decades of baking experience and finesse with American Southern cuisine—plucks a daily crop from the onsite garden, bolstering the fresh harvest with organic ingredients, such as cage-free eggs and grass-fed beef, that are sourced from nearby sustainable farms. The verdant bounty yields a rotating menu of dishes, many of which star the sweet potato and its natural entourage of nutrients.

The chef tills her lush garden just beyond the eatery, which is housed inside a renovated, 1930s craftsman-style home. Rich, burnt-orange walls, dangling lights, and lustrous wooden floors and tables modernize the dwelling, and every third Saturday evening live jazz music enhances the historic ambiance.