What's New: An Online Update for Frommer's Atlanta

Folks continue to arrive in Atlanta expecting to find the southern hospitality and slow paced, speech drawling graciousness for which Southerners have become known in the past century or so. And while much of that does still exist in pockets of the city and surrounding region, today's Atlanta is a bustling progressive city that thrives on its reputation for being an international melting pot.

Atlanta channels all of its energy into offering some of the country's top entertainment venues, fine dining, professional and college sports, and shopping. It is also one of the largest convention cities in the country. There is always something new on the horizon here in terms of construction and development. From a huge aquarium slated to open this fall to several new arts and entertainment facilities. Here's a smattering of some recent additions to Atlanta, as well as a rundown of upcoming changes.

Accommodations

The newly renovated Radisson Hotel Atlanta - Windy Hill (tel. 770/272-9441; www.radisson.com) offers a contemporary décor and design, an intimate atmosphere, innovative technology and personalized service. Their signature aspect is the new Mondo Mocha Café.

Atlanta will welcome a new boutique hotel, The Glenn Hotel, in the heart of Downtown in late 2005. Located on the corners of Spring and Marietta streets, the new hotel will feature 110 guest rooms with 16-one and two-bedroom suites and more than 1,500 square feet of meeting space. The ground floor will contain a 140-seat destination restaurant and underground bar.

Legacy Property Group has finalized plans for building a hotel and 75,000 square feet of restaurants and shops near the new Georgia Aquarium. Construction of the hotel will begin in June with renovations to a three-story garage the company owns next to the aquarium. It is set to open in 2006 with 108 hotel suites, 22,000 square feet of retail space and 500 public parking spaces.

Dining

The dining scene in Atlanta is an ever-evolving beast, with well-loved chefs changing restaurants faster than you can twirl your stainless chopsticks. Anne Moriarta was recently crowned executive chef at City Grill (tel. 404/524-2489). The first-ever female executive chef at this Atlanta tradition, her simple yet elegant menu features the fine ingredients of the current season.

Nikolai's Roof (tel. 404/221-6362; www.nikoliasroof.com) announced this year that Herve Pennequin has returned as sommelier after a lengthy hiatus, during which he worked in Los Angeles and New York. Also, the Roof's jazz bar and lounge, A Point of View, will feature a mix of jazz and standards of Kingsized each Friday night from 8 p.m. until midnight.

Nightlife

Adding to Atlanta's popular nightlife scene and staying open now until 4 a.m., Underground Atlanta (tel. 404/523-2311; www.underground-atlanta.com) opened eight new clubs including at the new Kenney's Alley including Koco's, Island Oasis, Latin Sol, Irish Bread, Future, Jamaica Jamaica, Alley Cat, and Charlie Brown's Cabaret.

Shopping

In mid-February, Barneys New York (tel. 404/262-0992; www.barneys.com) opened one of its two first mall-based CO-OP stores in a 7,000 square-foot space at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead. The new store offers young, urban, eccentric clothes and features unique architectural elements such as vintage refrigerators, recycled wood, surplus airline and bus equipment and much more.

Also at Phipps Plaza, Nordstrom in March opened a new 135,000-square-foot "boutique-y" retail location in the former Lord & Taylor space in Phipps Plaza. The top two floors of the store contain shopping departments, while the bottom floor houses offices and the customer service department. The store differs from the Mall of Georgia location in that it will sell women's shoes by Michael Kors and Vera Wang and clothing by Escada and Burberry Prorsum.

Sightseeing

This fall, the Georgia Aquarium (www.georgiaaquarium.org), at five million gallons and 400,000-square-feet, will be among the largest and most elaborate in the nation with more than 50,000 freshwater and saltwater fish and mammals. The facility will house a banquet room with the capacity to seat 1,200 for dinner and more than 12,000 for a reception, all with an excellent view of the aquarium. A $200 million contribution by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus has helped to underwrite what promises to be one of Atlanta's most popular attractions, bringing an estimated two million visitors in its first year of operation.

The Woodruff Arts Center and the High Museum of Art (tel. 404/733-HIGH; www.high.org) have broken ground on a $130 million project that will create a world-class cultural destination. The expansion project adds 177,000 square feet to the museum, more than doubling the size of the facility built by Richard Meier. Designed by Renzo Piano, the expansion will include two new galleries and an administration building for the High, a dormitory and sculpture studio for the Atlanta College of Art, an open-air piazza, Table 1280 restaurant and a five-level parking garage. Andrew Wyeth's: Memory and Magic will christen the November 2005 opening, featuring works that have never been publicly exhibited. In 2006, the High will begin a three-year partnership with the Musee de Louvre in Paris that will bring hundreds of works to Atlanta that have never been seen outside of the Louvre.

After seven months of renovations, Theatrical Outfit moved into its new $5 million dollar home at 84 Luckie Street in historic downtown. The 200-seat amphitheater, Balzer Theatre at Herren's (tel. 404/577-5257; www.theatricaloutfit.org) opened in January. After almost eight years since its closing, the Herren building remains historically significant to the city of Atlanta. It retains the original 1912 exterior and is remembered as a place where civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., gathered during the '60s and the location where the "Save the Fox Theatre" campaigned was launched.

Home of Braves baseball, Turner Field (tel. 404/522-7630; www.atlantabraves.com) just unveiled results of a $12 million expansion, including new video and information boards, including a high-definition video screen--the largest and tallest video display in any stadium in the world. Other improvements include an LED ribbon to feature animations and information, a restaurant above the Chop House named Top of the Chop, a concession stand facelift, renovations of the 755 Club and electronic signs to direct fans to parking and exit routes.