Atlanta | United States
Atlanta is probably one of the greatest cities you haven’t visited yet.
It is a city to be lived in, which can make it an atypical tourist destination. It has an incredible music and food scene, blending Southern culture with a large immigrant population in a city of over 5 million people. Nowhere is this more evident than the corridor of restaurants and shops that is Buford Highway, which you should really visit if you are planning a stop in the city.
I moved to Atlanta in 2004 to attend Agnes Scott College, where I subsequently made many life-long friends and met the love of my life. This city has defined much of who I am today and the values that I hold dear. As such, it is one of my favorite American cities. It has a perfect blend of metropolitan and southern culture.
Decatur
I spent four years living at Agnes Scott College, a small women’s liberal arts school in the heart of Decatur (which is actually not pictured on this map as it’s further east down Ponce De Leon Ave). When I wasn’t cramming for Biology exams, we would take advantage of the neighborhood’s great food and local music scene.
Eat
As a college student, we were always strapped for cash. Thankfully, we found the Dekalb Farmers Market early in our Atlanta days. Originally a produce stand in the 70s, the Dekalb Farmers Market is now a huge indoor market with food and staff from across the globe. We spent every weekend there stocking up on French pastries, by the pound buffet lunch, and produce we couldn’t pronounce. We’d walk the long aisles exploring the produce section for cheap fruits or vegetables we never knew existed and trying to guess the countries of the flags that line the markets interior and staff’s nametags.
I spent the last year of college bartending at a tiny restaurant that no longer exists, likely in part because of my very beginner efforts at making Manhattans. Sometimes before a shift, I’d go to the Brick Store on Decatur’s main square and order a cheese plate and one of their craft beers. It was the pace to be on a Friday night, tucked back with a beer in the warm wooden corners of an institution that’s still going strong 10 years later.
What I wish had been around when I was in college was Chai Pani. During a recent reunion with college friends, we were arguing about where to eat in a neighborhood we all knew and loved. It thankfully ended at Chai Pani, which has incredible, reasonable priced Indian Street food in an open, bright space. While it’s a newer establishment, it’s been added to our list of favorites.
Explore
Like all college students, we thought we were on the cutting edge of the music scene and were always on the lookout for a new band. Thankfully, Atlanta helped us believe this narrative with incredibly and intimate shows ever week. We found that most of the venues across the city were small and affordable, hosting some really talented artists. In Decatur, we would regularly head to Java Monkey for local artists and organic coffee. Once we were of drinking age, we’d grab a table and glass of wine and listen to talented acoustic acts at Eddie’s Attic.
Poncey-Highland
My last year of university, I spent a semester working as an intern for the Carter Center, President Jimmy Carter’s international non-profit focused on supporting democracy and improving health outcomes around the world. Me and my 30 fellow interns spent a lot of time exploring the neighborhood surrounding the Carter Center, Poncey-Highland. This neighborhood is divided in half by Freedom Parkway and is a mix of history, funk, and recently, gentrification.
Eat
I lived in Decatur and my fellow intern turned boyfriend (now husband) lived in the Old Fourth Ward. We’d meet in the middle for most of our dates in Candler Park, a small East Atlanta neighborhood close to a large park, MARTA stop, and several cool, locally owned businesses. Born and raised in Europe, his first time trying pancakes was at the counter of Gato Bizco. Like I told him 10 years ago, I’d recommend ordering all the pancake options (sweet potato, pecan, blueberry, plain, and chocolate chip). We spent hours talking and reading and enjoying a good coffee at Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party, surrounded by used books whose sales fund girls’ scholarships in India.
Explore
We would get off work on Friday night, get a slice of pizza at Fellini’s, and plan our night sitting on the patio while we watched the city drive by after a long week of work. Our weekends usually involved dancing to live DJs in the crowded, high-energy MJQ or catching an indie band at the neighboring Drunken Unicorn. Once we were sufficiently sweaty, with tired feet and ears, we would hop across the street to the historic, 24-hour Majestic Diner for all-night breakfast.
Renoyldstown
Since I’ve become an adult (read: got a regular paying job and bills), I’ve returned to Atlanta again and again to reconnect with friends and the memories from my earlier years there. One of my closest friends lived in Renoyldstown and we’d often stay with her and her little family during our visits. I loved her home, which had a yard and porch and neighbors she knew and was still within walking distance of coffee shops and parks and little corner stores.
Eat
We loved walking up the street to ParkGrounds for a coffee while watching the dogs run around in the back or eating breakfast tacos at Muchacho’s on the wide patio in the early summer sun. It wasn’t a neighborhood I knew well in college, but over our visits, is one I really came to love.
Anytime I am in the South, I crave the breakfast that was my youth: biscuits and gravy, sausage and hash, and lots of pancakes. Ria’s Bluebird always delivered and we’d spend a lot of weekend morning’s there. If I ever needed a place to work while I was in town, I’d go to Octane Coffee Bar, a zen-like coffee shop with coffee in the morning and beer in the evening. I’m partial to the Westside location since it was the first and where I spent most of my college days cramming for exams over spiced chai lattes.
Explore
When the weather was nice, we would explore the ever expanding BeltLine, a relatively new addition to Atlanta. At some point, it will be a 22-mile multi-use trail that circles the city’s downtown built on a disrepaired train line. We would head from my friend’s home, find the closest King of Pop’s popsicle cart, and walk along the Beltline to see weird and wonderful murals, listen to local musicians, and generally discuss how much our lives, and this city, has changed in the past ten years.
