Atlanta Hawks Fans Can Now Grab B’s Cracklin’ Barbecue at Philips Arena

The revamped Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena) is set to open to the public at the start of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team’s regular season in October. The nearly $200 million dollar renovation includes six new restaurants, like the award-winning barbecue from Riverside’s B’s Cracklin’. The restaurant serves whole hog barbecue alongside South Carolina-style sides such as hash and rice—all of which have landed B’s on several “best of” barbecue lists around the country.

Bryan and Nikki Furman opened the second location of their popular Savannah smokehouse B’s Cracklin’ in the former Hottie Hawgs space in the northwest Atlanta neighborhood in 2016. The Furmans had just come off of rebuilding their original Savannah smokehouse following a devastating fire in 2015. The restaurant had only been open for nine months.

Now after reopening one restaurant, moving to Atlanta to open their second location, and winning Eater Atlanta’s restaurant of the year in 2017, the Furmans are adding a third B’s Cracklin’ location in Philips Arena. The stadium holds 17,000 people at full capacity.

“I can’t believe it. Still hasn’t sunk in,” Bryan Furman says of the new deal with Philips Arena. “My wife and friends have been asking me for the past week about how I feel. I can’t believe it.”

Furman says he’s still working out the details for the menu at the Philips Arena location. Fingers crossed for the hash and rice.

Joining B’s Cracklin’ at Philips is musician and “Real Housewife of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss-Tucker and a second location of her Castleberry Hill soul and Southern restaurant Old Lady Gang, Antico Pizza from restaurateur Giovanni DiPalma, musician Zac Brown’s Zac Brown’s Social Club, lemon pepper wet wings purveyor J.R. Crickets, and Rita’s Italian Ice.

• B’s Cracklin’ is Keeping Barbecue Old School in Atlanta [EATL]
• All B’s Cracklin’ coverage [EATL]
• Zac Brown’s Social Club Coming to Philips Arena [EATL]
• The Newest Snack at Philips Arena? Dry Roasted Crickets [EATL]

1 Philips Drive, Atlanta.