America’s most unlikely gourmet hot spots

It’s suddenly become hard to name a U.S. city that doesn’t have great food, said Brett Martin in GQ. So we recently looked beyond the usual “Michelin-worthy taco trucks” and “locavore Popsicle stands” to identify the most unlikely purveyors of food that furthers the same culinary revolution. Good Filipino in Detroit? Of course you can now find that. We’re talking modernist cuisine in an Atlanta air terminal.

One Flew South Atlanta Located in Atlanta’s main airport in a corner of Terminal E, chef Duane Nutter’s upscale eatery offers culinary rewards never before found in such surroundings. Nutter makes a “deconstructed” fish chowder in which white miso stands in for cream and a large clamshell holds the remaining ingredients: celery, potato, and a cube of fatty salmon. oneflewsouthatl.com

The Modern Hotel and Bar Boise, Idaho This onetime Travelodge turned boutique hotel has embraced the cocktail revolution and encourages drinkers to be bold. Before tucking into the kitchen’s “ethereal” gnocchi, try the Cameron’s Kick—a concoction of scotch, Irish whiskey, lemon juice, and orgeat. 1314 W. Grove St., (208) 424-8244

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Flatiron Truck Los Angeles This popular food truck made the cut because its specialty is salad, “of all things.” Thinly sliced carrots and butter lettuce are tossed with mustard vinaigrette and topped with steak pieces that have been marinated in star anise, cooked sous vide, finished on the grill, and “sent off with a puff of shiitake-mushroom dust.” flatirontruck.com