Stone-ground white grits cooked slow with butter and cheese, topped with butter-braised Gulf shrimp, andouille sausage, scallion and a squeeze of lemon. A Charleston dish made Southern across Atlanta.
Shrimp and grits originated in Lowcountry South Carolina as a fisherman's breakfast (then called 'breakfast shrimp'), but Bill Neal of Chapel Hill canonised the modern restaurant version in 1985 by adding mushrooms and bacon. Atlanta chefs imported the dish through the 1990s and 2000s; Watershed in Decatur (closed) was an early signature. Today South City Kitchen Buckhead, Mary Mac's Tea Room and Atlanta Breakfast Club plate the reference Atlanta versions.
4 editor picks for Shrimp and grits in Atlanta, ranked by editorial score. All Atlanta signature dishes · Shrimp and grits across every city.
Mary Mac's Tea Room ★ 4.6
midtown · 224 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308
Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta opened 1945 and runs Southern Sunday dinner classics in a four-dining-room compound on Ponce de Leon, with the same recipes.
The Optimist ★ 4.5
west-midtown · 914 Howell Mill Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Ford Fry's Howell Mill Road seafood room in Atlanta opened 2012 in an old smokehouse, with a raw bar and wood-grill anchoring West Midtown dining.
South City Kitchen Buckhead ★ 4.4
buckhead · 3350 Peachtree Rd NE Suite 175, Atlanta, GA 30326
South City Kitchen's Buckhead room in Atlanta runs refined Southern cooking from the Fifth Group with shrimp and grits, buttermilk fried chicken and a she.
Atlanta Breakfast Club ★ 4.3
downtown · 249 Ivan Allen Jr Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30313
Atlanta Breakfast Club on Ivan Allen Jr Boulevard in downtown Atlanta runs all-day Southern breakfast: crispy chicken biscuits, chicken and waffles.