Golden Hour

The bar is an oval in the middle of the room. Golden Hour was built around it, with an open kitchen and a custom wood-fired grill. The room seats 85, and about 45 more sit on a terraced patio. Gold link chains hang in curtains around a suspended shelf of bottles. Tall black-framed windows cut into dark brick.

The name is an hour. On summer evenings between eight and nine, the sun comes low over the River Arts District and through those windows.

Jacob Sessoms opened it on October 27, 2023, in a 1920s cereal factory that had sat abandoned. Hurricane Helene closed the restaurant, and the team hosted sold-out pop-up dinners until it reopened on March 1, 2025. Sessoms said then that he was looking forward to “getting back into the kitchen with our team.” Trout from Sunburst Farms goes on that grill now.

The Michelin Guide listed Golden Hour as Recommended in its first Southern selection, in November 2025. Its inspectors wrote that wood fire is the dominant feature of the kitchen.

The bar has a program of its own. The Negroni and the Old Fashioned both come barrel-aged. The Negroni keeps its three classic parts, gin, aperitivo and sweet vermouth, and lets the barrel do the rest. The Old Fashioned adds cherry, vanilla and orange to the bourbon. Here & Gon is tequila with tarragon, aloe, lime and egg white. Stay Golden is a saffron gin martini the menu insists on serving freezing cold, which is a reasonable thing to ask of a martini. Melon Dramatic, vodka with watermelon, aperitivo and lemon, is one of the seasonal drinks that rotate.

Take a stool at the racetrack and start with the Negroni.