Bone-in fried chicken wings dusted in lemon pepper seasoning, often glossed with butter or hot sauce. Atlanta's signature snack, a hip-hop fixture for two decades.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Lemon pepper wings emerged from Atlanta's Black-owned wing joints in the 1990s and went mainstream after a 2016 Donald Glover Atlanta TV episode in which a character orders 'lemon pepper wet'. The wet refers to butter-tossed wings finished with a hot sauce coat over the lemon pepper. American Deli, J.R. Crickets, and Atlanta hot wing standards built the format. Today the dish is a marker of Atlanta hip hop culture and on menus from corner takeout to Magic City strip club's famed chicken wings.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Use cheap supermarket lemon pepper, not gourmet. The Atlanta version uses the heavy-MSG dust; the high-end stuff misses the flavour entirely.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
American Deli on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta runs the city's canonical lemon pepper wings since 1989. Counter ordering; the order is wings and a side of fries.
Try: Lemon pepper wings
Tip: Order 'lemon pepper wet' to upgrade to butter-tossed; the canonical Atlanta order since the Donald Glover TV episode put the city on the map.
J.R. Crickets has run wings and burgers in Atlanta since 1981. The Walton Street downtown shop is the cult choice for after-work wings and beer; the Buckhead and Tucker locations later.
Try: Lemon pepper and hot wings
Tip: Wings and fries combo with a beer at the bar is the order. The hot-fire sauce is the upgrade for spice. Cash and card.
More cities are in research. Want lemon pepper wings covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.