Atlanta rarely has a lull in restaurant openings, and this spring is no exception. Here's a peek at spring and beyond.

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Bob Amick is turning an old factory into a New Orleans-influenced restaurant/upscale grocery/juice and java bar.
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• New York City transplants: As we await the opening of super-chef and television jockey Tom Colicchio's Craft, inside the Mansion on Peachtree, Jeffrey Chodorow (the restaurateur/convicted felon who vowed to shadow New York Times critic Frank Bruni to every restaurant after Bruni hit hard in a review of his Kobe Club) is scheduled to open Maxim Prime, in conjunction with lad mag Maxim, inside the Glenn Hotel downtown today, March 20. Is MP an upscale Hooters? Well, maybe so. Maybe not: the meet-and-greet area is a mod interpretation of the Garden of Eden, with LED backlit cut-outs of leaves, and snakes and apples in every room. The lounge's backlit glass-topped bar is carved with the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues. (Apparently no one's let Chodorow in on that whole Georgia-being-in-the-Bible Belt thing.) The food? Steaks. Fresh shellfish. Sushi. Three words I've never seen combined before on an Atlanta restaurant's menu ... right. The kitchen will be run locally by Daniel Zoby, most recently of FAB and formerly at City Grill, which makes him no stranger to downtown. 110 Marietta Street N.W., inside the Glenn Hotel (no number or Web site yet).

As we go to press, Frenchman Jean-Georges Vongerichten has arrived at 14th Street with his renowned Spice Market inside the W Hotel in Midtown, with former Bluepointe and Posh chef Ian Winslade at the helm in the kitchen. Atlanta is the next stop on super-chef Vongerichten's company Culinary Concepts dynasty tour, which spans all of New York and most of the globe. Plans are in the works for more Spice Markets to open in 2008: Dubai, Istanbul, Miami or Barcelona are all possibilities for this high-end concept specializing in Asian street food. 188 14th Street (no number or Web site yet).

And yet another New York transplant, BLT Steak from chef Laurent Tourondel (BLT stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel) is set to open inside the W Atlanta Downtown later this year. The modern American steakhouse (with French inspiration, mais oui!) has operations in New York, Washington and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Atlantans can expect a streamlined menu that includes beefsteak tomatoes with grilled onion vinaigrette and Stilton cheese and Kobe strip steak, American Wagyu and prime Black Angus paired a la carte with sauces and sides like roasted tomatoes and hen of woods mushrooms. The restaurant is scheduled to open in December.

• Bob Amick is turning the old pipe fitting factory at 240 North Highland into Parish: Foods & Goods, a New Orleans-influenced restaurant/upscale grocery/juice and java bar. Birmingham designer Taylor Dawson, who also designed TAP, will help Amick restore the 1890s building, with plans to keep the original brick intact, as well as the slate roof. Scott Serpas of Two Urban Licks was slated as executive chef, but he has left Amick's Concentrics Hospitality group to open his own restaurant inside the Pavilion at Studioplex. Serpas' spot as yet has no name, no menu and no concept on paper yet, but that won't stop Serpas; he plans to "try" to open by the end of summer. Parish was slated for a January opening, but is now scheduled for April. It sports three concepts within one: Market at Parish sounds a little like Virginia-Highland's Belly, with grocery goods, fresh flowers, nibbles, meats and cheese available, as well as sandwiches and breakfast munchies. To-Go at Parish will offer home-cooked dinners and New Orleans style po' boys available to grab and go, inside the Market. The restaurant will be located on the second floor, serving New Orlenas-style classics with a modern touches to the tunes of live jazz piano. 240 North Highland, 404-681-4434, www.parishatl.com.

• And Fourth & Swift is still to open this spring, from chef Jay Swift, formerly of now-closed Rainwater in Alpharetta (and before that, chef of Midtown's South City Kitchen). It's slated to open in May in the Southern Dairies building at 621 North Ave. The menu will be chef-driven, with a local focus in an upscale tavern environment.

• Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene finally is slated to open Holeman & Finch Public House on March 21. Chef Tony Seichrist, who left the Farmhouse at Serenbe to take a culinary sabbatical in Italy, is chef. Former Eugene bartender Greg Best will run the bar, as well as partner with Hopkins and wife Gina, along with bartenders Andy Minchow and Regan Smith. The plan was for charcuterie to be the showcase, with housemade hams, sausage and salumi on the bill of fare, plus savory tarts and crispy chit'lins with mustard sauce and even Coke floats with cane sugar Coca-Cola. Can't wait to check it out.

• And the scheduled February opening of Cakes and Ale in Decatur has come and gone, but former Watershed sous chef Billy Allin and wife Kristin are still opening, we're just not sure when. A comfort pub grub spot with a menu that slants toward Allin's Italian grandmother's recipes of dishes like whole chicken poached in tomato sauce, as well as housemade pastas, the restaurant is touted by Allin as a "true neighborhood restaurant." In addition to small plates, shared plates and desserts, the wine program will be flexible, with 40 or more wines offered, many by the glass, carafe and bottle.

• Longtime restaurateur and leukemia survivor Tony LaRocco (of Fratelli de Napoli and the Tap Room) was scheduled to open Vita, a family-oriented, New York-style Italian restaurant, in the former Mick's location on Peachtree Road at Bennett Street on March 17. Big New York Italian-style is what to expect, with lots of old fashioned faves such as penne with escarole, white beans, garlic and oil, as well as a simple chicken parm sammie. 2110 Peachtree Road, 404-367-8482, www.vitaatl.com.

• Want more? 5 Seasons Brewery's third locale is still slated for the West Side. ... Paul Albrecht, of Paul's, along with his son, Patrick, are opening Vinings Social, in where else? Vinings... We're awaiting a reopening of Piebar. ... And a Southern locale of New England's famed lobster joint Legal Seafoods is scheduled for the Centennial Olympic Park area later this month. ... Second locations of Rolling Bones Barbecue and Nuevo Laredo Cantina are scheduled to open in a mixed-used development in Brookhaven.