Going to be in A-T-L, Jawjah for a christening or something or other next weekend. Would love some recs and shit not to miss, since apparently there will be lots of downtime.

Definitely would like recs on
Breakfast joints
Lunch joints

I think we will be dragged around on Friday night and definitely Saturday night, but daytime activities are definitely welcome. I do not want to go to Underground Atlanta nor World of Coke. I'm okay with just wandering around killing time, anything arts/design related, whatever. I'm open. Hit me! (please)

I have class saturday afternoons

go to the clermont lounge, get your girl a lapppity dance from blondie
get some bbq

everyone says ria's bluebird for breakfast, I disagree.

Lunch, mary macs for southern, fox brothers for bbq

You are a lucky sonofabitch.

Ol' gar is open for business. A New Orleans trip literally fell through tonight for that weekend.

PM skaggit.

You will be picked up @ 11am and dropped off at whatever time you need to be.

Your state will be..............FAIL.

Seriously......

Why? It's great, but there are plenty of other options.

The Best Breakfast Joints in Atlanta, as Ranked by Drinky

1. Thumb's Up (more than one location, all good as far as I know, but all are cash only)
2. Sun in My Belly
3. Ria's Bluebird
4. Gato Bizco
5. Radial
6. Flying Biscuit (also more than one location, but the original one in Candler Park* is the best)

Nothing else worth ranking that I know of. Most of these are concentrated in pretty much the same area. You may want to check out The Majestic, but it's really the sort of place you should only go to at 4 in the morning.


Other places you should go:

The Brick Store. Finest drinking establishment in the metro area, as far as I'm concerned. Large assortment of draft beers including a rotating selection of Belgian, huge beer selection overall and good whiskey selection. Really good food, too. Afterwards (or beforehand) you could hit up Decatur CD which is my favorite record store around here, although as the name suggests they are more a CD than vinyl store. They do have vinyl, though.

The Vortex. Go to the one in Little Five Points. Great burger place. And while you're there, you can go to Criminal Records and Wax 'N Facts, two very good record stores. An optional eating choice in L5P is El Myr (burrito joint), just in case The Vortex is too crowded or you're not in the mood for burgers.

Fat Matt's or Fox Bros.. Good BBQ places. Fox Bros. is on the slightly higher priced side, I think. You could also try a personal favorite of mine, Rolling Bones, which was is a gas station converted into a BBQ joint and has a drive through!

Cafe Agora. This place is a trip. Great Turkish (Mediterranean) food, and most days the very, very friendly owner is there and happy to make recommendations. Be careful, though, prices aren't listed anywhere obvious, and just about everything costs about $12. It may seem like he's "giving" you a plate of appetizers (hummus, baba ghanoush, + other things, all awesome), but you'll be charged for it. It's worth it, though, I think. Best baklava I've ever had, not that I've had a lot. Another Mediterranean option is the Mediterranean Grill near Piedmont Park. They have a weekday special called the "Business Combo" or something that's only $6.50 and includes gyro meat, lamb, salad, rice, and a drink. Gets crowded, though, naturally.

Papi's. Awesome little Cuban place on Ponce. Pretty well-known and well-regarded around here.

Com Grill. Vietnamese place on Buford Highway that caters a little more to a Western palette. Much higher quality meat than you'll get at just about any other Vietnamese place (not that that's hard to pull off), and all of it is charcoal grilled. They don't do pho, but all of their rice and noodle dishes are great.

Mali. My favorite Thai place, and probably my favorite place to eat in the Virginia Highlands. If you like seafood, try the "seafood in a clay pot" (or something like that) soup.

Hankook Taqueria. Korean tacos! Really! And they're great. I'm not kidding, and this place has seriously blown up since it opened last October. I have not taken a single person here who didn't really, really like it, and I've taken quite a few people. This is close to where I work so, seriously, if you think you want to try it, let me know. (It's open for lunch only.)

I'm sure there's a lot more I'm forgetting, but that should be enough for now.

P'cheen has a great breakfast these days.

Fu, where are you staying?

Indigo Midtown, I think.

Drinky: The Broad definitely loves Asian, and I've never eaten Korean (I'm sure that's a broad brush). Any rec's in that direction? We both love Mediterranean, so that's a good suggestion.

Aside from that taco place, the best Korean is all in the northeast metro area.

The best place that's the closest in is right where Buford Highway meets I-285 on its northeast arc. However, it might be kind of tough going it alone to any of those more authentic Korean places without any guidance. They may recommend stuff for you that they think is on the "safe" side, and you may like it. Galbi (pronounced sort of like "ky-bee") is a good typical starting point, Korean barbecued beef cooked at your table and eaten in lettuce wraps. Always good to have someone with you who's had it before, though, as service at all Korean places can be very spotty. That's a cultural thing as no one in Korea tips, and they aren't really accustomed to working for tips or bending over backwards for you service-wise.

Honestly the taco place I mentioned may make for a good intro. A bulgogi (beef) taco is a good sampling of a popular Korean marinating style, and some of the side dishes give you the opportunity to try some more traditional stuff. Also the burritos have kimchee in them, but I don't like them as much as the tacos.

nice, I stayed at the one in athens, its fucking sweeeeet.

I feel like I should know more about what's out there with the art/design stuff, but unfortunately I know very little. The High Museum is our one big art museum, and it's OK. There's some pretty decent stuff in the permanent collection, and the building itself is pretty cool. The big temporary exhibits tend to be on the lame side, though (a lot of Impressionism and the like). Right now I think it's Dali, who I hate.

I've never actually explored it, at least not since I was in college and it was a lot less refined, but there are supposed to be a lot of little galleries in Castleberry Hill. Not far from midtown, and it might be a reasonably good place to hang out. I don't really know.

There's a great coffee shop over here by my office, too, that I forgot to mention called Octane. There are a couple of small galleries right beside it, but nothing you could spend more than a few minutes in. There's a great beer store across the street from it called Hop City, and next door to that is the midtown location of Five Seasons Brewery, which, while supposedly not great in the food department, does make some good beer.

Thanks, Drank.

gotta 2nd Octane...that place is great.

if you're in midtown, you'll likely be able to go kill some time at piedmont park.

I vote Harold's for barbecue. Bonus: the Federal Prison is an architectural marvel.

I personally LOVE harolds but all the out of towners I've brought there hate it...they prefer fox bros.

Still haven't had Harold's. I need to.

Wonder why it's so hated by out-of-towners? I just read some reviews that were more examples of this.

probably because its a dump, its served to you on a lunch tray like in elementary school, and kinda resembles cat food.

not the big pieces of pulled pork that other places have.

its fucking awesome though...and the cornbread is top notch.

have you guys tried the monday night BBQ at p'cheen yet...voted #1 in ATL and #4 in the southeast.

holy shit its almost too good.

I haven't eaten at P'cheen since I lived over in that area, but I did have ribs there once. They were great, but I think I remember taking them off the menu not long after that.

Anyway, yeah, I'd like to head back over there sometime if I get the chance, but these days it's not likely.

the key at harold's is to order your meat "sliced inside"--then you get the slabs.

I'd be down for Fox Bros. though seeing as how I've NEVER BEEN THERE.

the sliced meat is way too dry...

you'd like fox bros yail...plus its the one bbq place where ordering wings is acceptable.

It does require some extra sauce but on a sandwich with pickles, it's fucking aces.

Yeah, I've seen shit on Fox Bros. and wanted to go there, just never made it in.

Those "barbecue in atlanta" specials on GPB are like the best food porn going.

Yail, are you still doing work in e.c? have you tried smokin j's yet?

good shit.

Yeah I'm still there a lot but no I haven't tried Smokin J's. I'll check it out though.

Marietta is like a whole new world of places to peep.

Shit, now that I look at where it is, I had no idea that's where they were. That's knowledge I could have used last winter because I was in that area everyday pretty much everyday.

well, I think they just opened up this year...call me if you go.