Busy Bee Cafe has been in business since the 1940s. This Atlanta institution on the edge of Vine City serves some of the city’s best fried chicken, alongside an assortment of other meat-and-three staples. Take the yardbird to the next level by ordering it smothered with pan gravy. It’s always packed here, so be prepared to rub elbows with fellow diners and even a few celebrities. In 2022, Busy Bee Cafe won an America’s Classics award from the James Beard Foundation.

BTJ Wings is located in the Walmart plaza in Vine City, a half mile west of the Benz. While the restaurant does offer other items like a Philly cheesesteak, burger, and even shrimp fried rice, the wings are the stars here. Wings come in garlic pepper, Cajun, extra hot, and lemon pepper.

Dat Fire Jerk Chicken at the corner of Larkin Street and Northside Drive has dubbed itself “Atlanta’s best jerk chicken.” By all accounts, and the daily lunch lines, that’s not hyperbole. The small restaurant (with no inside seating) serves up Jamaican-style jerk pork and chicken as well as curried goat, oxtails, and sides of cabbage salad and rice and peas. Dat Fire is three blocks from Mercedes-Benz Stadium. A second location is now open on Camp Creek Parkway.

Backed by the members of Southern rap quartet Nappy Roots, Atlantucky Brewing is where music, art, and beer merge in Castleberry Hill. The group first became interested in craft beer years ago with home brewing while on tour. Nappy Roots then began partnering with local Atlanta breweries to create their own beer, including with Monday Night Brewing and pale ale Front Porch and Kentucky Mud, a nitro chocolate milk stout with Arches Brewing in Hapeville. Now the group has their own brewery on Northside Drive where folks can drop in for beer, food from local pop-ups, and live music. Keep an eye out for appearances from Nappy Roots members Fish Scales, Skinny DeVille, B. Stille, and Ron Clutch who often pop by to greet people in the taproom.

Looking for some place to hang before and after a game? Restaurant 10, directly across from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, serves up typical game day fare with plenty of beer. The menu includes sliders, fish and chips, wings, and burgers. There’s even a kids menu here.

The sexy yet comfortably appointed cocktail den Parlor is open in Castleberry Hill, Wednesday through Saturday evenings. Parlor is fashioned after the room found in most 19th-century homes, where people gathered following dinner to chat and sip digestifs. Cocktails skew classic and lean toward smooth base spirits like cognac, rum, and brandy.

The bi-level, 350-seat No Mas! Cantina in Castleberry Hill serves Mexican restaurant standards like fish tacos, carnitas, enchiladas, fajitas, and margaritas on its menu with brunch on the weekends. There’s an artisan market and gift shop next door and folks can also grab Mexican-style breakfast dishes, desserts, and coffee at ADios Cafe inside the restaurant, too.

Bottle Rocket is a popular hangout with Castleberry Hill residents as well as Atlanta United and Falcons fans. The restaurant’s menu is clearly stated on the window outside: sushi, grill, comfort cocktails. Expect anything and everything on the menu here, including platters of fresh sushi, bowls of fried rice, burgers and fries, and even a steak and sushi combo. It’s all good.

Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member Kandi Burruss opened this Southern restaurant with her mother and aunts a few years ago. Begin with a sweet and sour “Momma Joyce’s” house coconut rum punch with banana liqueur, pineapple, and lime. Next, dig into the shrimp and grits (the appetizer version uses garlic cream; the entree is vodka cream), the balsamic-glazed ribeye, or the crème Anglaise French toast, which comes with whole battered chicken wings. OLG now has an East Point location and a stand inside State Farm Arena.

Carolina Panthers quarterback and Atlanta native Cam Newton opened this swanky Castleberry Hill cigar bar and restaurant in May. It features a dining room and bar, a humidor, a glass-enclosed wine room, and a speakeasy-like VIP lounge located behind moving bookshelves. The restaurant and bar offer dinner and cocktails starting at 5 p.m. Expect to feast on dishes like crispy sesame shrimp, a wild rice vegetable bowl, lamb chops, and lobster tails. Dress code.

Owned by personal chef Krishna Chapatwala, Wine Shoe is the total package for wine connoisseurs, offering over 150 bottles, curated pairing packages for special occasions, tastings, and classes under one roof. Expect to find a tight selection of Old and New World wines and boutique vintages here. 

Located just across the Gulch from the Benz, and easily accessed via the Nelson Street pedestrian bridge, Wild Leap brewery and distillery encompasses two levels at Centennial Yards South in what was the Norfolk Southern Railroad building. The ground floor includes multiple seating areas and a bar and opens to the “Canyon”, a below-street-level space created as a result of the 1923 construction of a raised pedestrian and automobile viaduct system above the rail yards. There’s patio space outside, too. A staircase in the taproom leads to the second floor offering more seating and another bar with a hidden entrance. Order everything from Wild Leap’s sours, IPAs, and lagers on draft to cocktails and slushies using its rum, gin, and vodka.

Take the Nelson Street pedestrian bridge over to this restaurant along Atlanta’s historic Hotel Row for a meal of classic Thai dishes and drinks. The opening of TydeTate Kitchen in 2023 marked two big milestones: it’s the first full-service restaurant for the Chattahoochee Food Works stall and the first restaurant to open along this revitalized stretch of Mitchell Street in a block of century-old storefronts. Owners and siblings Sai Untachantr and Bank Bhamaraniyama use many family recipes to create the dishes for TydeTate Kitchen, including for the basil chicken, chicken curry puffs, crispy basil tofu, Thai fried rice, ka nom jeeb, and pad Thai.