Iconic Atlanta Eats: From Chili Dogs to Buford Highway

Old-school counters and tea rooms

Atlanta's food story starts at a counter on North Avenue. Frank Gordy opened The Varsity in 1928, first under the name The Yellow Jacket, and the drive-in grew into a two-block landmark once known as the largest drive-in restaurant in the world. The routine has barely changed: a cashier calls out "What'll ya have?" and regulars answer with chili dogs, onion rings, fried pies and a Frosted Orange, a creamy shake blended with the house orange drink. The dining rooms seat more than 800 people, and they still fill up on game days.

Over on Ponce de Leon Avenue, Mary Mac's Tea Room has served Southern cooking since Mary MacKenzie opened it in 1945. Atlanta had 16 tea rooms that year, and Mary Mac's is the only one still operating. Expect fried chicken, fried okra, macaroni and cheese and warm bread, served in a string of homey dining rooms that have welcomed musicians, movie stars and visiting celebrities for decades.

Soul food with deep roots

West of downtown, two kitchens carry the city's soul food tradition. Brothers Robert and James Paschal started Paschal's in 1947 as a small sandwich shop, selling a fried chicken sandwich made from Robert's own recipe. The business grew into a beloved restaurant and community gathering place, and today it serves its famous chicken, collard greens and peach cobbler in Castleberry Hill, with outposts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Busy Bee Cafe opened the same year, when a self-taught cook named Lucy Jackson set up shop on what was then Hunter Street. Fried chicken has been the headliner ever since. The Gates family took over in 1981, and the chicken is brined before it hits the fryer, which helps explain the lunchtime lines in Vine City.

Lemon pepper wings and a world on Buford Highway

If one flavor says Atlanta, it is lemon pepper. Local wing shops turned the tangy, peppery seasoning into a citywide habit in the 1990s, and J.R. Crickets, open since 1982, became known for "lemon pepper wet," wings tossed in buffalo sauce and then dusted with lemon pepper. The order won national fame after it appeared in the TV series Atlanta, and the wing shop later added the name to its menu.

For global flavors, head northeast to Buford Highway. The corridor runs through Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville and Norcross and is lined with more than 1,000 immigrant-owned businesses: Korean barbecue, Vietnamese pho, Mexican taquerias, Chinese bakeries and much more. The sprawling Buford Highway Farmers Market is a destination of its own, with aisles of produce and spices and a seafood counter piled with fish on ice.

Food halls and a sweet finish

Ponce City Market shows how the city eats now. The giant brick building opened in 1926 as a Sears, Roebuck and Co. warehouse and store, and reopened in 2014 as a mixed-use hub with a busy central food hall, a rooftop amusement park and direct access to the Atlanta BeltLine. Grab a burger, Indian street food or a pastry, then walk it off on the trail.

No Atlanta meal is complete without something peachy. Georgia is the Peach State, and warm peach cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream turns up on menus across the city, from soul food kitchens to family supper tables. Summer, when fresh Georgia peaches arrive, is the best time to order it.

← Atlanta Dream: The WNBA's Rising Force in College ParkAtlanta Landmarks You Have to See →