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When Floataway Café turned 10 last year, chef-owners Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison celebrated by making a couple of major decisions about their second child. Floataway, a perennial favorite with foodies, had experienced mixed success with the public and critics. Though the couple had won the James Beard award for best chefs in the southeast in 2003 and, even more important, Bacchanalia is considered by most to be one of the best restaurants in the country, Floataway seemed to be the red-headed stepchild of this restaurant family.

Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
Desserts, such as this lemon pudding cake, and cocktails bear the mark of a staff devoted to the kitchen's slow food style.
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
Among the wood-fired pizzas is this fennel sausage pie.
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
A private booth at the renovated Floataway.
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While the streamlined menu of farm-fresh ingredients brought together in a just-this-side of southern France and Italy persuasion has always wowed, it was hard to get comfortable with Floataway's surroundings. The rigid chairs felt awkward at best; the lighting was so low it was difficult to read the menu; the ambience, though soulfully sophisticated, came off chilly, lacking the warmth associated with the kitchen's brand of down-to-earth cooking.

"It seemed like it needed something," said Quatrano, "something fresh."

They could have opened another restaurant to add to their successful stable that includes Bacchanalia, Quinones at Bacchanalia, Star Provisions and Floataway. Instead, Atlanta's most famous chefs decided to completely renovate this little restaurant that could. In doing so, they've created a new restaurant.

Providence smiled on the effort when the graphic arts studio next door moved out, leaving the space for lease, and allowing Quatrano and Harrison to expand.

Early last fall, they unveiled the almost half-million dollar results: a brand new jewel box of a bar area bathed in cool green tea and robin's egg blue colors has been created with the new space. It serves almost as a foyer for the newly minted dining room beyond its border, bathed in earth tones with a center family-style table enhanced with a massive chandelier made simply of sinewy, yet oh-so-elegant, sticks.

Designer Dominick Coyne's new rooms give the feel of a breezy beach house mingled with the mountains; the shiny chrome bar is crowned with vases of fresh, long stemmed flowers and wicker chairs (though still difficult to maneuver) add to the relaxed mood.

Add to these major changes minor touch ups in the original dining areas – new lighting over the tables and partitions and flowing sheers that exude a private room feel.

The outcome is that Floataway Café, once denounced for its cold shoulder, will charm your socks off. This little duckling has emerged as an elegant, sophisticated swan.

The renovation marks a new beginning for Quatrano and Harrison as chefs as well: though Harrison's presence is almost always felt behind the scenes, for the first time the couple is stepping aside to give their chef de cuisine, Drew Belline, full credit in the kitchen. "We want Drew to be more of a partner," Quatrano said.

Belline has been in Floataway's kitchen as chef de cuisine since 2006. He also worked for the couple at Bacchanalia and Quinones at Bacchanalia, so the official transfer of power is hardly noticeable, especially since Quatrano admits that Belline has been designing the menu with little input from her or Harrison for some time. Having worked for so long under their tutelage, his style is similarly simple, and he is as devoted to fresh, seasonal ingredients as they are.

And of course, the food was never an issue anyway. The pizzas, wood-fired and crisp-crusted, are the best in the city. Local, seasonal ingredients such as lady apples and north Georgia mountain trout are a given. The cheese selection, harvested from Star Provisions ample larder, is among the finest in Atlanta. Desserts and cocktails bear the mark of a staff devoted to the kitchen's slow food style.

There are always fresh oysters, from beausoleil to fat, juicy East Coast Chincoteague, tasting as if they had been caught and shucked five minutes ago, served with a plucky mignonette and a sturdy cocktail sauce. The wood-grilled chicken livers, served on a rosemary skewer, will alter all former opinions of what chicken livers taste like (whether that opinion was good or bad). A simple salad of Ellijay apples with endive, sweet walnuts and shards of Montgomery Dairy's clothbound cheddar is the epitome of what a salad should be: fresh, crisp and familiar, yet different.

The house-cured salumi (finocchiona, bresaola, sausicon sec) are mere feathers in a cap crowned with jewels of velvety kobe short ribs, braised and boldened in a savory reduction with potato puree or veal and ricotta meatballs, luxurious in a broth laced with Parmesan and accented with chick peas, Italian borlotti beans and Belline's incredibly succulent braised local greens (which can also come as a side dish).

The staff will guide you if you need it, but seem smart enough to know just how much interference to run. And while Belline's larger courses of fish and meat are enticing, my favorite thing to do at Floataway is indulge in smaller appetizers of oysters, pizza with fennel sausage, a salad to share and perhaps a plate of creamy cauliflower risotto before moving on to dessert, which shouldn't be skipped.

Do skip the restaurant's signature dessert offering – the gateaux Victoire of chocolate cake and chantilly cream is a nice gesture, but ultimately offerings of warm lemon pudding cake served with preserved lemons and a drizzle of mint syrup, as well as a tangerine custard tart laced with honey are far more interesting and satisfying.

And isn't satisfaction the ultimate outcome? Floataway's fresh new start only makes it all the more enjoyable.