Food has quietly become the reason many travellers book a hotel, not just something they do between excursions. A new wave of luxury properties across the US and Canada is leaning into that, building entire experiences around local ingredients, regional history and chef-led theatre. Here's what's on the menu at five of them.

In Atlanta's Buckhead neighbourhood, The St. Regis pairs its Forbes Five-Star rating with a restaurant that has both a Michelin Star and walls hung with Picasso and Francis Bacon. Atlas serves a fine-dining tasting menu in an intimate room, while Astor Court pours an Atlanta-themed afternoon tea. The real showstopper is the 40,000-square-foot Pool Piazza, now dressed in a custom paisley design from Italian fashion house ETRO, with a poolside café serving Italian-inspired dishes.

Across town, The Ritz-Carlton Atlanta has a claim to food history: in 1999 it became the first hotel in the brand to launch a locally rooted restaurant concept, then called Atlanta Grill. That steakhouse, now AG, still serves the 'Original from 1999' salad — Asher blue cheese, grapes, pecans and malt vinaigrette — alongside grilled steaks and seafood. The kitchen runs a chef's table, The Distillery is a dedicated mixology room, and The Hideout is a private booth built for lunches that run long.

North of the border, W Toronto blurs the line between dining and nightlife. TONO by Akira Back plates Nikkei cuisine — the Japanese-Peruvian hybrid — while the Living Room hosts live entertainment and TOKI Listening Bar pairs cocktails with a serious vinyl collection, plugging guests into the city's creative scene.

In Nashville, chef José Andrés has rolled out four concepts at W Nashville: Mediterranean mezze at Zaytinya, oysters and ceviche at Bar Mar, tacos and agave cocktails on the Butterly rooftop, and poolside bites at Glowbird on the WET Deck. It's a rare case of one celebrated chef anchoring an entire hotel's food programme.

Finally, JW Marriott Reston Station in northern Virginia builds its identity around local sourcing. The Simon Restaurant honours Reston's 1960s founder Robert E Simon, with an open kitchen turning dinner into performance — duck à la presse carved tableside, plus a dry-aged tomahawk from Roseda Farms built for two. The Schar Bar pours spirits from Smith Bowman Distillery, Virginia's first post-Prohibition distillery.

Why does this matter if you're planning a trip? Because these properties treat meals as the headline act, not an add-on. If you're the kind of traveller who plans a city break around where you're eating dinner — and wants the story behind what's on the plate — hotels like these deliver it without leaving the building.