Table 1280

“We’ve rented the room just for ourselves,” I wink. And our affable waiter plays along: “I’ll make sure no photographers get near your table.”

It’s Wednesday night, and Table 1280, the oddly brusque, modern brasserie at the Woodruff Arts Center, is completely empty — save for the three of us, our waiter, a bartender and chef Tracey Bloom and her staff. The dichotomy of more people in the kitchen than in the dining room is bewildering, and I say so to our waiter.

“It’s always like this when there’s no show at the Alliance,” he explains, “or if the museum is closed.” Unfazed, he seems almost relieved to have only our table to deal with.

So goes Atlanta’s on-again, off-again love affair with a restaurant that opened as part of the $124 million expansion of the High Museum in 2005. Two dining rooms brood with stark industrialism, boasting 16-foot ceilings and neon-esque original works by Spencer Finch and Alyson Shotz. And it’s just as well that we are alone, since the multimillion-dollar design has just about the worst acoustics of any dining room in the city. I’ve eaten here on many occasions when I couldn’t hear the waiter, so tonight’s bold silence is actually a comfort.

Décor has remained constant at Table 1280; who’s minding the kitchen hasn’t. Chef Shaun Doty of Shaun’s in Inman Park opened the restaurant. But his brassy spirit and unleashed creativity proved too much for the corporate pinnings of Restaurant Associates, who operate Table 1280 from afar. He left within a year to open Shaun’s.

Enter Todd Immel, who had proven his mettle at long-gone Oscar’s of College Park. Immel left in 2008 to work for Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison of Bacchanalia and Star Provisions.

That left Bloom, who had been Immel’s sous chef at Oscar’s and Table 1280, to step up to her Shirley MacLaine moment as chef de cuisine.

Bloom is a CIA Hyde Park graduate, and has worked for nearly everyone in Atlanta, from restaurateur Bob Amick to Buckhead Life, a dynamic that serves her well in the corporate environment of running a restaurant.

And while she’s made few creative changes to the modern American style Immel lent to the menu, her cooking is as solid as cooking gets. In a city that boasts very few female culinary stars, that’s actually saying something. Her training shows in every pristine bite; I just wish she’d let her hair down a little and show those corporate guys who’s boss.

Because while a salad of feathery arugula with perfectly poached tidbits of pear and shaved pecorino, as well as thinly sliced serrano ham blanketing sliced manchego cheese and heady marinated piquillo peppers taste sublime, they don’t exactly show a lot of personality. Bloom’s cooking is technically perfect — tiny rock shrimp, for instance, pop with flavor, and meld deliciously into cheddar-laced grits. She even makes an often awkward dish pretty, served stacked in a pristine white bowl with just the right amount of each ingredient.

Tile fish is a rarity; Bloom cooks it to a firm fleshiness while maintaining the fish’s flaky integrity. Strip loin gets the same dignified treatment, paired wonderfully — albeit conservatively — with black trumpet mushrooms and sides of salsify and sautéed spinach. She pushes the envelope a little with strozzapreti pasta. Served with a juicy, meaty duck ragu; tangy, chunky tomato sauce; porcini mushrooms and blanketed with shards of Parmesan, it is perhaps her best dish.

Desserts of tiny pots of lemon panna cotta and “budino” (chocolate pots de crème is chocolate pots de crème in Italian or English) are, like the rest of the menu, perfectly acceptable — just like the restaurant.

But I’d love to see how exciting Bloom’s cooking could be if she messed it up once in awhile.

Table 1280

Overall rating:

Food: Contemporary American

Service: Our waiter was affably wonderful

Price range: $$$

Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover

Hours of operation: Lunch Tuesday - Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner Tuesday - Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. (tapas lounge open until 9 p.m.), Thursday - Saturday 5 to 9 p.m. (lounge open until 10 p.m.). Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; lounge from 12:30 to 6 p.m.

Best dishes: Arugula salad with poached pears, rock shrimp with grits, serrano ham with manchego and piquillo peppers, strip loin, strozzapreti with duck ragu, lemon panna cotta

Vegetarian selections: Salads and sides of vegetables

Children: Yes

Parking: $12 at Woodruff Arts Center or on-street

Reservations: Yes

Wheelchair access: Yes

Smoking: No

Noise level: High when busy

Patio: Yes

Takeout: Yes

Address, telephone: 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., campus level of the Woodruff Arts Center, 404-897-1280

Web site: www.table1280.com

Pricing code: $$$$$ means more than $75; $$$$ means $75 and less; $$$ means $50 and less; $$ means $25 and less; $ means $15 and less. The price code represents a typical full-course meal for one excluding drinks.

Key to AJC ratings

Outstanding

Sets the standard for fine dining in the region.

Excellent

One of the best in the Atlanta area.

Very good

Merits a drive if you're looking for this kind of dining.

Good

A worthy addition to its neighborhood, but food may be hit and miss.

Fair

Food is more miss than hit.

Restaurants that do not meet these criteria may be rated Poor.

You can write your own review here .