Owner-chef Marla Adams has put together a menu that's decidedly anti-haute cuisine, full of excellent interpretations of comfy, everyday provincial dishes. The crowd is full of loyal locals, and the French farmhouse ambience matches the fare.

Start off with the mussel appetizer, and don't let the offbeat combination of ingredients scare you off. Bivalves are Adams's specialty, and this unusual dish, steamed mussels with white wine, strawberries, and serrano peppers, is excellent. The restaurant has some of the best mussels in town. A long-time favorite entree--grilled lamb loin chops with red-wine reduction and shoestring potatoes--is kept on the menu by popular demand. Ditto the grilled Portobello tortellini in brown butter sauce and the beef tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce and spicy onion rings. The best dessert in the house is the chocolate bread pudding with banana ice cream.

Most of the selections from the reasonably priced wine list are available by the glass, part of Adams's strategy to encourage customers to sample different wines. There are special prix-fixe dinners held each season, the most famous of which is at New Year's and is a re-creation of the food and wine from the book Babette's Feast, for which the restaurant is named. Babette's is a great place to stop after a visit to the Carter Center, which is just around the corner.