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🍽️ Food & Drink

Atlanta for Food & Drink Lovers — 3 Days of Buford Highway, Hickory Smoke and Southern Plates

International grocery warehouses, Doraville dumplings, James Beard soul food, Texas-style brisket and Beltline beer gardens.

📍 Atlanta, United States 📅 3-day itinerary

Atlanta eats in two languages at once: pan-fried chicken and oxtails on the west side, immigrant kitchens strung for miles along Buford Highway. Three days cover grocery warehouses, hickory-smoked brisket, Beltline breweries and Krog Street cocktails.

Local Markets & Neighbourhood Food

09:00
🛒 Your DeKalb Farmers Market

A 140,000 sq ft warehouse in Decatur stocking produce, spices, cheese and live seafood tanks from more than 40 countries, with staff badges listing the languages each person speaks. Open 9am–9pm daily.

⏱ 2-3 hours 💶 Free entry; produce $1–4/lb
Cash or debit only — the market has never taken credit cards. There is an ATM inside the front doors.
12:00
🥟 Northern China Eatery, Doraville

A strip-mall dumpling house where the kitchen folds pork-and-chive jiaozi and Tianjin-style soup buns to order. Cumin lamb skewers and hand-pulled noodles anchor a menu built for Buford Highway's Chinese community.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 $12–20 per person
Ask for the pan-fried pork dumplings — twelve to a plate, crisped on one side only.
14:30
🌶️ Buford Highway Farmers Market

Despite the name this is a 100,000 sq ft international grocery, not a farm stand: aisles divided by Korean, Chinese, Latin American, Eastern European and Indian goods, plus a whole-fish counter and in-house bakery.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Free entry
17:00
🌮 El Rey del Taco

Mexico City-style tacos served on Buford Highway since 1998 — al pastor shaved straight off the trompo, plus lengua, cabeza and buche, all dressed at the salsa and radish bar. Open until 3am on Friday and Saturday.

⏱ 1.5 hours
The horchata is made in-house each morning; order it with cinnamon dusted on top.

Signature Dishes & Restaurants

10:00
🍳 Home Grown

A Memorial Drive diner in a former mechanic's shop, best known for the Comfy Chick: fried chicken breast on a house biscuit under sausage gravy. Stone-ground grits, fried green tomatoes and vegan plates round it out.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 $10–16
Weekend waits run 45 minutes — arrive before 9am, or come on a weekday when the counter is open.
13:00
🍗 Busy Bee Cafe

Open since 1947 near the Atlanta University Center and a James Beard America's Classics honouree, Busy Bee is built on pan-fried chicken, oxtails, candied yams and cornbread. Every plate comes with two sides and sweet tea.

⏱ 1 hour
15:00
🍖 Fox Bros Bar-B-Q

Texas-style brisket run by two Dallas-born brothers, smoked over hickory and oak in a converted building on DeKalb Avenue. The Frito pie topped with chopped brisket and Brunswick stew is the dish people queue for.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 $16–28
18:00
🥂 Miller Union

Steven Satterfield's Westside dining room, a James Beard Best Chef Southeast winner, builds its menu around Georgia farm deliveries. The farm egg baked in celery cream has stayed on since 2009. Dinner from 5:30pm, closed Sundays.

Reserve about four weeks ahead for Friday and Saturday; the bar seats are held for walk-ins.

Street Food, Bars & Food Culture

09:30
🍩 Sublime Doughnuts

A Georgia Tech-area bakery opened in 2008 by CIA-trained baker Kamal Grant, known for the A-Town cream-filled ring, the strawberries-and-cream doughnut and doughnut ice cream sandwiches. Doors open at 6:30am.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 $3–6 each
Daily specials sell out by mid-morning — the ice cream sandwiches are made to order all day.
12:30
🍜 Chattahoochee Food Works

A food hall of roughly 30 stalls inside a 1940s warehouse on the Westside, curated with Andrew Zimmern's team — Ethiopian, Filipino, Venezuelan arepas, Nashville hot chicken and a central bar under one roof, from 11am.

⏱ 1.5 hours
14:30
🍺 Monday Night Brewing, The Garage

Monday Night's sour and barrel-aged programme pours from a former auto shop directly on the Westside Beltline trail, with a large patio, cornhole boards and food trucks parked at the door. Taproom opens at noon.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 $7–9 a pour, flights around $14
17:30
🍸 Ticonderoga Club

A wood-panelled cocktail room tucked into the corner of Krog Street Market, named after the 1775 fort and built around the Ticonderoga Cup — a rum, cognac, sherry and rye punch served in a pewter mug alongside oysters.

The Cup is designed for sharing: order one between two, then work through the Madeira list.

📍 Route map

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