The plates that define Atlanta: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Atlanta. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
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: American Deli, J.R. Crickets
Price: $10-16 for ten wings
Bone-in fried chicken, brined and breaded, served with sides at a Southern Black-owned dining room. Paschal's set the standard in the civil rights era.
Where: Paschal's, Busy Bee Cafe, Mary Mac's Tea Room
Price: $14-22
A Southern baked dessert of Georgia peaches under a biscuit or pie-dough crust, sometimes served with vanilla ice cream. Peak season is July to August.
Where: Mary Mac's Tea Room, Paschal's, Busy Bee Cafe
Price: $6-10
A Georgia barbecue stew of pulled pork, chicken, tomatoes, corn and lima beans, slow-simmered. Served alongside barbecue plates as the canonical side.
Where: Fox Bros Bar-B-Q, Heirloom Market BBQ, Community Q BBQ
Price: $5-8 a bowl, $3 as a side
A protein plus three Southern vegetable sides with cornbread or rolls. The canonical Black-owned restaurant lunch format across Atlanta.
Where: Busy Bee Cafe, Paschal's, Mary Mac's Tea Room
Price: $12-18
An Atlanta-invented soft drink poured over vanilla ice cream. The Varsity downtown serves Frosted Orange floats since 1928; the Coca-Cola museum the canonical version.
Where: The Varsity, Paschal's, Mary Mac's Tea Room
Price: $4-7
A steamed hot dog on a soft bun topped with chili, mustard and chopped raw onions. The Varsity has served the same version since 1928 at North Avenue downtown.
Where: The Varsity
Price: $3-5
Tabletop-grilled Korean barbecue and banchan, served at Doraville and Duluth strip-mall rooms along Buford Highway. Yet Tuh and Iron Age anchor the corridor.
Where: Yet Tuh, So Kong Dong Tofu House
Price: $25-45 per person
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.
History: 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.
Where to try it: American Deli, J.R. Crickets
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Bone-in fried chicken, brined and breaded, served with sides at a Southern Black-owned dining room. Paschal's set the standard in the civil rights era.
History: Atlanta's fried chicken tradition runs through Paschal's, founded in 1947 by brothers Robert and James Paschal on West Hunter Street and a key civil rights organising room where Martin Luther King Jr planned with the SCLC. Busy Bee Cafe opened in 1947 on Hunter Street and won a James Beard America's Classics Award in 2022. Mary Mac's Tea Room since 1945 still serves the cracker-crusted version with sides. The dish is the city's continuous thread from Reconstruction-era cooking to today.
Where to try it: Paschal's, Busy Bee Cafe, Mary Mac's Tea Room
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
A Southern baked dessert of Georgia peaches under a biscuit or pie-dough crust, sometimes served with vanilla ice cream. Peak season is July to August.
History: Georgia produces some of the country's finest peaches; the state has been called the Peach State since the late 1800s. Pearson Farm in Crawford County and Lane Southern Orchards have run since the 19th century. Peach cobbler became the canonical Georgia dessert at Sunday tables and meat-and-three counters across the state. Mary Mac's Tea Room and Paschal's both serve a version year-round, though peak peaches arrive in July and August.
Where to try it: Mary Mac's Tea Room, Paschal's, Busy Bee Cafe
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
A Georgia barbecue stew of pulled pork, chicken, tomatoes, corn and lima beans, slow-simmered. Served alongside barbecue plates as the canonical side.
History: Brunswick stew's origin is debated between Brunswick, Georgia (where a 1898 pot at the St Simons Island commemoration is celebrated) and Brunswick County, Virginia. The Georgia version is sweeter and tomato-led; Virginia's is leaner. Atlanta barbecue rooms like Fox Bros and Heirloom Market all run Brunswick stew alongside their pulled pork. The dish is the canonical side, not a starter; portion sizes scale with the plate.
Where to try it: Fox Bros Bar-B-Q, Heirloom Market BBQ, Community Q BBQ
Watch out for: None typical
A protein plus three Southern vegetable sides with cornbread or rolls. The canonical Black-owned restaurant lunch format across Atlanta.
History: The meat-and-three plate-lunch format runs across the South but Black-owned Atlanta restaurants codified the soul food version. Paschal's (1947) and Busy Bee Cafe (1947) on the West End ran the format through the civil rights movement. Mary Mac's Tea Room (1945) added the white-tablecloth version. Sides typically include collard greens, mac and cheese, candied yams, black-eyed peas and cornbread. Most rooms still serve lunch only and run cash-and-card under $15.
Where to try it: Busy Bee Cafe, Paschal's, Mary Mac's Tea Room
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Pork
An Atlanta-invented soft drink poured over vanilla ice cream. The Varsity downtown serves Frosted Orange floats since 1928; the Coca-Cola museum the canonical version.
History: Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta by pharmacist John Pemberton in 1886 and bought by Asa Candler in 1888. The company headquarters has anchored the city since. The Coca-Cola float, sometimes called a Black Cow, became a soda-fountain staple from the 1920s. The Varsity, founded 1928 at North Avenue downtown, runs Frosted Orange and Coca-Cola floats from a counter that has fed Atlanta for nearly a century. The Coca-Cola museum at Centennial Olympic Park completes the tour.
Where to try it: The Varsity, Paschal's, Mary Mac's Tea Room
Watch out for: Dairy
A steamed hot dog on a soft bun topped with chili, mustard and chopped raw onions. The Varsity has served the same version since 1928 at North Avenue downtown.
History: Frank Gordy founded The Varsity at North Avenue and Spring Street in downtown Atlanta in 1928. The chili dog, fried onion rings and Frosted Orange became Atlanta soda-fountain canon. Curb service was a fixture into the 2010s. The Varsity is among the largest drive-in restaurants in the world by daily volume; the chili dog is the canonical Atlanta sports-game pre-meal. Multiple satellite locations across the metro since the 1980s.
Where to try it: The Varsity
Watch out for: Gluten
Tabletop-grilled Korean barbecue and banchan, served at Doraville and Duluth strip-mall rooms along Buford Highway. Yet Tuh and Iron Age anchor the corridor.
History: Atlanta hosts the South's largest Korean population, concentrated north along Buford Highway and into Duluth's H Mart corridor. Korean immigration peaked in the 1990s after the Olympics drew international attention. Yet Tuh, opened in Doraville in 2008, runs the classic charcoal-grill tabletop format. Iron Age in Duluth franchised the AYCE banchan-heavy version. The corridor's depth makes Atlanta the strongest Korean food destination east of LA.
Where to try it: Yet Tuh, So Kong Dong Tofu House
Watch out for: Soy, Sesame, Gluten
Peak food season in Atlanta is year-round.
Local dining hours: lunch around 12:30, dinner from 19:30.
service is typically included; small extra is welcome but not expected.
If you only have one meal, eat Lemon pepper wings. It is the dish most associated with Atlanta.