Cross-posted in Travel.
Any reccos for restaurants and even good bars.
Reach out to Michael Bowden directly
I assume you will be in town for the Super Bowl, but where will you be staying and are you looking for anything in particular?
If you will be staying in town, I’ll throw out a few initial ideas. For casual drinking and dining, the Krog Street Market food hall is excellent. Two of the restaurants, Ticonderoga Club and Watchman’s Seafood and Spirits, have excellent spirits programs and very good food. Hop City has a wide selection of beers on tap you can drink while wandering the food stalls, as well as a decent retail wine selection. My favorite of the food stalls is Fred’s Meat and Bread, with an excellent burger and decent cheesesteaks.
Staying in the downtown/Midtown area, Cook and Soldiers specializes in very good Basque inspired small plates and is one of my favorites. Another good small plates/grazing spot is Barcelona in Inman Park. Thinking of Inman Park, there is a fairly new pretty good spirits-oriented bar across the street, good cheap casual food at Victory Sandwich up the street, and good French at Bread and Butterfly.
I had a very good meal recently at Donetto recently, but Bocca Lupo’s exceptional pastas probably makes it the best bet for Italian.
We have at least two world class beer bars in Atlanta with The Porter in Little Five Points and Brick Street Pub in Decatur. Wrecking Bar in L5P is a very good brewpub as well.
This is just a starting point and I can add more suggestions with more information.
Is it true there are strip clubs with good food?
The Cheetah, which is probably the most upscale strip club in Atlanta, has what they call a fine dining restaurant called Alluvia by the main stage: Menu - The Cheetah Lounge Atlanta. I’ve never tried it so I can’t report on the quality.
There is also the Clermont Lounge, with the new restaurant Tiny Lou’s upstairs. Really depends on what you are looking for in a strip club, as that is one not designed for oogling at the strippers as much as being amazed what they still are willing to do in their 60’s. Blondie will still crush beer cans and knock you off your barstool with her womanhood if you are not firmly seated.
A unique experience you can watch on an old Anthony Bourdain episode of the Layover.
Varasano’s in terminal A at Atlanta airport is pretty amazing, and has better slices than anyplace in LA.
Marcel’s is a French steakhouse. It’s got a very good wine list and the Somm is great. The side dishes are superb. The steaks are cooked over wood and finished off French style in an iron skillet. The best I’ve had in Atlanta.
If you like sleazy tattooed strippers, then The Cheetah is the place for you. Otherwise I’d stay clear of that joint.
+1 for Cooks and Soldiers. If you are in that area (just west of midtown) you can also look at The Optimist (seafood/raw bar) or Miller Union (upscale southern).
On the other side of town (east of midtown/downtown) you can’t go wrong with Two Urban Licks (casual southern). Also on that side of town I highly suggest Highland Bakery for breakfast, although parking is a complete pain in the butt.
Atlanta is very compartmentalized in regards to the small areas that lay outside the downtown proper area of the city and each small area has its own unique feel. If you know where you are staying I can get you more dialed in.
Also in regards to where the actual stadium is and downtown in general, there is a complete desert of decent dining in the immediate area around the stadium, aquarium, and world of coca-cola. White Oak Kitchen is a few blocks to the east, but still probably worth an Uber. I’d also draw a hardline at the stadium and not venture due west of Northside Dr. as it becomes a VERY rough area VERY quickly. When I was working on the new stadium our offices were two blocks away and were consistently were able to hear gunshots, had attempted break ins, and were on a first name basis with our beat cop. Also, if you are in the area of the stadium you have to go to the Elliot Street Pub. It is a complete dive, but a great place to get a cheap beer and a shot near the stadium.
Thanks everyone for the replies. Just as some feedback I agree with much of the above.
We obligated late and the prime few foodie spots that I wanted to go to, including Gun Show and Miller Union were booked.
In general the town was a zoo and getting in or around was tough. My opinion is very limited, as we were only on the ground for 48 hours. The town indeed seems spread out with stuff sprinkled in different suburban areas. So some outlying stuff was just not practical to get to without a car. Maybe had I had that pastrami sandwich, my team would have won though!
We had dinner at KR Steakbar, as my wife is an acquaintance of Keven Rathbun from way back, and we were staying up near Buckhead. Overall it was very good, not great. The drinks were good and the wine list was pretty good (though kind of expensive). We did have one thing there, the Snake River Farms Wagyu rib cap, which they call spinalis, that was fantastic. They dip the steak in olive oil, dust it with salt and some porcini dust and grill it over really hot wood. It was $75 but delicious.
We both were really surprised at the lack of dining and moreso bars in the downtown area, especially around the venue. There are a ton of attractions right there by the stadium, with it the Star Faarm Arena, Centennial Park, College Football hall of fame, aquarium, World of Coke, etc, and almost nothing right there to go to eat/drink. Before the game we called Smoke Ring to get lunch and they said there were tables, but neglected to tell us that there was a $30 cover to wal in and all we wanted was lunch. Elliot Street was a complete zoo and most of it was closed for a private party. After the game, even the Dantannas which is right there in the complex closed down. All of the hotels weren’t letting non-guests into their bars. So we literally couldn’t find a place for drinks after the game. That area desperately needs a restaurant/bar complex like L.A. Live or CityWalk.
Luckily the food at the stadium is pretty decent and definitely inexpensive for a venue. The crowds inside the game were actually way more manageable than around town.
Pinging to see if there are any more weekend lunch recs for buckhead and or aquarium coca cola area. Thanks!