Food History of Atlanta

Key eras

1886, Coca-Cola is born

On May 8, 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Stith Pemberton produced the syrup for Coca-Cola and carried a jug down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy on Marietta Street, where it sold for five cents a glass. Frank Robinson penned the script logo; Asa Candler bought the formula in 1888 and turned it into the city's signature export.

1928, the Varsity and Atlanta's drive-in era

Frank Gordy, a Georgia Tech dropout, opened the Varsity in 1928 at Hemphill and Luckie under the name The Yellow Jacket. It moved to 61 North Avenue and grew into the world's largest drive-in restaurant, codifying the chili dog, slaw dog, frosted orange and onion rings as Atlanta's working-class fast food vocabulary.

1940s, the Atlanta tea-room boom

Mary Mac MacKenzie opened Mary Mac's Tea Room near Ponce de Leon Avenue in 1945, one of sixteen tea rooms serving Southern home-cooking to women who couldn't lunch alone in regular restaurants. By 1962 Mary Mac's was one of Atlanta's first voluntarily desegregated dining rooms, and today it is the last of those sixteen still operating.

1947, soul food and the civil-rights kitchen

Brothers James and Robert Paschal opened Paschal's at 837 West Hunter Street in 1947, a fried-chicken-sandwich lunch counter that grew into a hotel and meeting hall. Through the 1950s and 1960s Paschal's hosted strategy sessions for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson and others, feeding the movement with fried chicken and cornbread.

1979, Buford Highway becomes the international corridor

Havana Sandwich Shop opened on Buford Highway in 1979, the first ethnic restaurant on what had been a strip of used-car lots. Through the 1980s and 1990s waves of immigrants from Mexico, Korea, Vietnam, China and Ethiopia transformed the seven-mile corridor into the South's most concentrated international food strip.

2000s, chef-driven new Southern era

Anne Quatrano's Bacchanalia reopened larger on the Westside in 1999. Steven Satterfield's Miller Union (2009) and Hugh Acheson's Empire State South (2010) followed, codifying a Southern-ingredient ethos that the New York Times called Atlanta's new sophisticated Southern sensibility. The Atlanta Beltline and Ponce City Market made these neighbourhoods food destinations.

2023, Atlanta's Michelin Guide debut

Michelin Guide Atlanta launched in October 2023 with one-star kitchens including Bacchanalia, Mujo, Lazy Betty, Hayakawa and Atlas. Bib Gourmands and Recommended listings recognised Buford Highway counters and chef-driven Westside rooms, formalising what locals had argued for a decade: Atlanta is a Michelin-level food city.

Immigrant influences

• African American: Built the foundations of Southern home cooking and soul food, anchored by Paschal's (1947), Busy Bee Cafe and Mary Mac's. Civil-rights kitchens fed the movement through the 1950s and 1960s.
• Mexican and Central American: Settled along Buford Highway from the 1980s onward; El Rey del Taco, El Senor Taco and Taqueria del Sol built the taqueria, pupuseria and birrieria tradition. Plaza Fiesta is the cultural anchor.
• Korean: Korean immigration grew from the 1970s; Duluth and Buford Highway became home to Hankook Tofu House, Honey Pig and So Kong Dong, the strongest Korean barbecue scene in the southeast.
• Vietnamese: Vietnamese refugees from the 1970s built the pho counters of Buford Highway: Pho Dai Loi, Lee's Bakery and Quoc Huong Banh Mi anchor the city's banh-mi and pho tradition, still affordable and authentic decades on.
• Ethiopian: Ethiopian families settled in Clarkston and along Buford Highway through the 1990s and 2000s; Desta Ethiopian Kitchen and Queen of Sheba anchor the largest Ethiopian dining scene in the southeast.
• Chinese: Chinese immigration concentrated along Buford Highway and Chamblee from the 1980s, with Canton House, Northern China Eatery and Gu's Dumplings building Atlanta's regional Chinese menu.

Signature innovations

• Coca-Cola (1886): John Pemberton's coca-leaf and kola-nut tonic at Jacobs' Pharmacy, sold for five cents a glass on May 8.
• The chili slaw dog (1928): Frank Gordy's Varsity codified the chili-with-slaw hot dog as Atlanta's working-class fast food.
• Civil-rights soul food: Paschal's fried-chicken sandwich and cornbread fed the strategy sessions that drove the 1960s movement.
• Buford Highway corridor (since 1979): seven miles of strip-mall counters and the South's most concentrated immigrant food strip.
• Modern Southern at Bacchanalia and Miller Union (2000s): the farm-to-Westside-table ethos that took Atlanta national.