Leon's Full Service

Casual fare and upscale drinks in a renovated filling station
Popular plate: The warm chickpea salad with dried cherries, aged provolone, and basil was the first thing the chef put on the menu. It's been a hit since.

Talk of the town: Leon's, which opened in 2009, is owned by the guys behind the nearby beer heaven, Brick Store Pub.
Leon's is as much a place to drink as it is to eat. But that's not why they call it "full service": The space is actually in a renovated gas station in downtown Decatur. The interior is wood-and-concrete chic, and the central bar is horseshoe-shaped, filled with locals chatting away on steel stools.

The frites and dipping sauces (various mayos and ketchups) scream pub grub, but the other menu items are much more sophisticated, if casual: pan-roasted trout, chicken liver croquettes, housemade loukanika sausage. Drinks are a speakeasy throwback, made with single-barrel bourbon, absinthe, or cognac, and the ever-changing list of brews on draught is a beer-lovers dream.