Fine dining in North Georgia mountains

Situated on five acres of land adjacent to Innsbruck Golf Club in Helen, Valhalla Resort Hotel seeks to bring a new level of luxe to the mountains with its all-suite rooms, full-service spa, golf course, and, of course, fine dining. It opens in July.

The hotel will offer a variety of gastronomic experiences – candlelit dinners in its Caledonia dining room, al fresco supping on its rooftop, private dinners in its wine cellar and 24-hour room service.

Food operations will be overseen by executive chef Dean Hill, most recently executive chef at Potomac Point Winery in Stafford County, Virginia. Trained at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts in Pittsburgh, Hill has seen stints at 5-star, 5-diamond Colorado resort The Broadmoor Resort, The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco and the Marcus Whitman Hotel in Walla Walla, Washington.

Hill will bring his penchant for farm-to-table fare to Valhalla where he and his team will call on local and regionally sourced ingredients to serve up contemporary Southern bites for lunch, dinner and brunch.

Although menus are in the final stages of development, lunch in the main dining room will include starters along the lines of chorizostuffed mushrooms, Vidalia onion rings and fried green tomatoes. Expect wedge, Caesar and steak salads, plus a handful of sandwiches and entrees, such as beer-battered fish and chips. Dinner offerings include vegetarian options like wild mushroom tortellini, as well as fish and seafood, and meat offerings, including oven-roasted rack of lamb.

Brunch will see creative touches to Southern favorites like Georgia peach-stuffed brioche French toast with a graham cracker crust and charred peach chutney and a chicken and waffles spin featuring sweet potato pancakes.

Construction of the boutique hotel is expected to be completed in mid-June. It will celebrate its grand opening July 21-23 with a number of weekend specials.