Downtown Restaurants

Atlanta natives are hiding some secrets. Their beloved pimiento cheese, the pâté of the South, was invented in New York.[1] Can anyone prove that the first batch of fried green tomatoes was whipped up in Atlanta?[2] There are far more peanuts grown in Georgia than peaches[3], and frying was a West African innovation rather than a Southern one.[2] Traditional favorites still satisfy, but the Atlanta dining scene is enjoying more global influence than ever before. Buford Highway, which runs through the center of town, boasts 20 separate international communities.[4] As a result, you’re just as likely to find snow crab chawanmushi or mughlai paratha on the menu as shrimp and grits or fatback-fried catfish. Whatever you sink your teeth into, it will be served up with homey Southern hospitality.