Five & Ten Opens on Milledge Avenue in Athens

What's the new Five & Ten like?

It has more seating, an espresso bar and a porch for dining. There are several small dining rooms, each nicely appointed, and a large bar. The colors are lovely, the flowers in every room are beautiful.

There's a larger main kitchen, a separate pastry kitchen and lots and lots of storage. Owner and chef Hugh Acheson, who has become nationally--and even internationally--known through his appearances on Top Chef, his A New Turn in the South cookbook, has an office there as well.

The only thing that hasn't changed? The food is still thoughtful and delicious.

And now, there's lunch as well as dinner. The tartine menu includes coffee cured salmon, country ham peaches, swordfish, pork belly confit, Sweet Grass Dairy's Greenhill cheese with baby head lettuce, shaved apples and spiced pecan butter.

The restaurant is having a "soft opening." There's a sign out front announcing that they are opening. People are drifting in, word is circulating around town, and soon the reservation list will be full again.

The old Five & Ten space on Lumpkin will soon have another Hugh Acheson restaurant in it, according to a story in the Athens Banner Herald. This one will likelybe a Mexican place, and the chef will be Whitney Otawka, who was at Farm 255.