Restaurants in Bristol

Prosciutto's Pizzeria & Pub hosts a menu of New York–style pizza and Italian fare that earned the establishment Best Pizza and Best Italian Food from Citysearch in 2010. To complement the traditional pastas, white pizzas, and pies slathered in daily-made tomato sauce, a lengthy beer and wine list features craft beers, imported brews, and a wealth of red and white wines.

The family-friendly pub and pizzeria is divided in two: The kids side with video games and toys has seceded from an adult section that houses a nonsmoking bar lit by dangling icicle lights. Sports-casting TVs and athletic paraphernalia keep the vibe sporty for when the athletes return to claim their jerseys and balls. Thursday nights host cornhole tournaments outdoors on the patio, and live music energizes the air on Friday and Saturday nights.

Diners can take a trip around the US, with a glance at the menu at Alton's Kitchen & Cocktails, which borrows heavily from American regional fare. The kitchen stokes dreams of the Old West by gracing tables with lamb shanks from Colorado and salmon from Seattle, each teeming with tales of a life of train-hopping and hitchhiking east. Chunks of shellfish nestle into the New England–style lobster roll, and shrimp simmer in creole barbeque sauce, giving diners a taste of New Orleans.

A curved bar extends from exposed brick walls, which frame shiny dark wood floors. These floors match the tall, bistro-style tables and the high-manteled fireplace, which gleam beneath the light of cascading chandeliers, giving the room a refined, yet cozy feel. Diners can also find seating on an outdoor patio, where they can feel the breeze on their face, a sure sign that the moon is sneaking up behind them to steal their dessert.

The canvas ceiling ruffles slightly as a belly dancer twirls, creating a slight breeze with her upraised shawl. Lantern sconces cast shadows over the band while their hands pluck strings, pound drums, and blow raspberries. On the walls, ornate Middle Eastern patterns and silhouettes of onion domes surround the audience—their eyes flit to another dancer's fingers, now walking the edge of a golden sword. The spectacle has distracted them from the aromas at their table: scents of Syrian spices, housemade tahini sauce, and pomegranate molasses mingle in the air and only draw the diners back to their meals once the dancers have taken a bow.

These performances typify Friday and Saturday nights at Jerusalem Garden Cafe, a venue that strives for immersive authenticity. Incorporating cuisine from Istanbul, Lebanon, Cairo, and other locales, the menu whisks patrons away to the Mediterranean. Skewers of beef fillet and chicken breast depart the kitchen alongside lamb, salmon, and shrimp, whose seasonings build on the flavors of housemade hummus and baba ghanouj. Vegan and vegetarian options are also on hand to sate herbivorous appetites.

Owner Ronald LeBreton brings more than three decades of New England–area restaurant expertise to the menu at Joe Fish Casual Seafood. Diners sink teeth into haddock sandwiches, chargrilled mahi-mahi and salmon, or handmade crab cakes. Servers ferry plates of fresh seafood, steaks, and pasta to high-top bar tables or seats on the canopied outdoor patio.

Hailing from Germany, owner and chef Dieter Homburg rewards Asheville residents with a true taste of his homeland. According to the Mountain Xpress, his methods are scrupulous, and he brings “all the attention to detail, craft and freshness to sausage that his former countrymen in Germany might expect.” In the kitchen of The Bavarian Restaurant & Biergarten, Homburg—affectionately referred to as ‘Doc’—crafts nearly 150 pounds of sausages per week, each link cranked out with a medley of secret spices, Himalayan salt, fresh garlic, real cheddar cheese, and beer. A variety of schnitzels also pile onto plates. Sautéed wiener schnitzel comes with paprika lemon slices or crowned with münster cheese, mushrooms, and fried onions.

Pausing for sips of imported beers and wines, diners feast on hearty German plates inside a rustic dining room decorated by old beer mugs and tapestries. Guests can also get cozy outside in the 80-seat beer garden where two different species of docile bees pollinate malt and hops flowers.

The last of 11 children, Mark Tomczak has a passion for prepping and serving quality cuisine that began in elementary school, when he helped his mother feed his siblings during countless baking and cooking sessions. Mark initially embarked on a career path rooted in ceramic artistry at his studio, Muddy Creek Pottery. After stints as assistant and head chef at several restaurants, however, he combined his adoration of food with his sculptural skills to shape the neapolitan pies, pastas, and abundant eats of Fresh Wood Fired Pizza and Pasta.

Swapping his kiln for a handcrafted wood-fired pizza oven imported from Italy, Mark and his team bake pizzas and daily-made bread at temperatures of up to 800 degrees, the exact temperature of steam blowing out of a cartoon man's ears. Each hunk of handmade dough arrives adorned in organic ingredients culled at least once weekly from local farms, cooperatives, granaries, creameries, and the restaurant's own garden. Mark supplements his extensive pizza portions with pastas, lunchtime sandwiches, desserts made fresh daily, and a plentitude of gluten-free dining options.