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THERE ARE MANY lasting impressions from a visit to Trois, the mega restaurant from restaurateur Bob Amick's Concentrics Restaurants group. Inside the King & Spalding building in Midtown, the restaurant is all Atlanta — glamorous to a fault, but impressive nonetheless. (Take a video tour of Trois with John Kessler by clicking here.)

Amick is a man who has built a restaurant empire based on the kind of glitzy glam that Atlantans lap up like the latest vodka martini. The realm includes prepubescent pretties One Midtown Kitchen, Two Urban Licks, Piebar and Lobby at Twelve, the menu at which, until now, has been the most sophisticated of his ventures.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
The butter-poached Maine lobster is a standout dish, along with the braised beef oxtail, and potato gnocchi with quail eggs.
LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
Eddie Johnson (above) pours a martini at the bar.
LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
What would a modern French restaurant be without pastries? Trois has the lime and raspberry tart among its sweet treats.
LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
The mini-sandwich sliders are offered with either halibut (from left), coq au vin or beef short ribs.
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And at first glance, Trois can come off as yet another jittery juvenile in spite of its multi-million dollar price tag. My first visit I was foiled by the front door on 14th Street, thinking it looked more like the entrance to a barbershop. Not exactly the kind of lasting impression I was hoping for.

Later inside the women's bathroom it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to flush the kitschy toilet. Apparently I'm not alone: Sterile signs with green lettering direct you to "flush button on right," which sort of ruins the whole sexy European ambience the place seems to be going for.

Bathrooms and entryways are hardly all there is to Trois, however.

The first-floor bar, with its starlight-studded flooring and plush living room atmosphere, is as glam as it gets.

There's a sense of old Hollywood here, in the back lighting to the bar itself, in the candelabra and in the list of excellently crafted cocktails inspired by beverage man and co-owner Todd Rushing. It's especially in the restaurant's signature of gin mixed with mint-infused green tea (the description of which, on first glance, made me shudder, and not in a good way).

But somehow the drink manages to adopt all that works about the craze of modern martinis — it's not too sweet and has a refreshing finish of rosewater and lemon. Though it's a great aperitif, it's easy to leave for perusal of a smartly tiered wine selection (one of Rushing's calling cards).

Chef Jeremy Lieb, who arrived as executive chef after not much (but some) ado from Le Cirque Vegas, has taken Amick's pinup fantasy of a modern French restaurant and brought it into flattering focus, albeit with a few strokes of the airbrush.

Servers are only too happy to bring a glass of pink champagne and a tidy bowl of duck confit and barley with house-made potato chips for dipping.

The menu is coquettishly clever, with "before" dishes of artichoke Provençal and scallops with butter, garlic and tomatoes and a bowl of exquisite potato gnocchi with bright chervil and tiny quail eggs.

Snails come sans shell, which make them far less fun, but they are seasoned nicely with garlic, butter and tomatoes. Crisped sweetbreads are perfectly fried until they pop in your mouth.

Not everything in this modern French fairy tale has a happy ending — buckwheat crepes filled with duck confit are nothing but a rolled up mushy mess, and lobster "knuckles" (now that's an inviting term ...) taste as if they've been seasoned with a cheap Thousand Island dressing.

But Lieb's armor shines with oxtail, the meat rich and succulent from braising with red wine, port, Madeira and veal stock, though a duo of accompanying scallops would never be missed. Both are crowned with a fat quenelle of maple-scented butternut squash.

All of Lieb's dishes possess a clever modernity that impresses but never overreaches or intimidates, even in the portion of the menu dedicated to a few brasserie-style classics such as beef bourguignon and flounder Parisian.

It's imperative to save room for at least one of pastry chef Jonathan St. Hilaire's lovely creations — my vote goes to a precious Key lime tart with a smear of sour cream-and-lime mousse and sweet, icy raspberry sorbet. But for such a gifted pastry chef, it's a shame any portion of the dessert menu is laden with has-beens like warm chocolate "clafoutis" (aka molten chocolate cake).

Hilaire's so much better when he devotes his energy to a quince tartlet with sweet milk sorbet, a dash of sweet red wine reduction and a tart yogurt cream.

And Amick is so much better when he puts his efforts into a grown-up venue such as Trois. Now if only I could figure out how to flush the toilet ...