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Some 50 years ago, entrepreneurial women opened genteel tearooms across Atlanta. Now only Mary Mac’s maintains the yellow-at-the-edges but buttery-at- heart tradition. The recipes offered throughout the sprawling dining rooms are like grandma used to make; unfortunately, grandma’s hands aren’t as steady as they once were. But the meat-and-three comfort food crowd can still appreciate sweet ice tea, flaky fried catfish, juicy fried chicken, shrimp grits, okra, macaroni and cheese, whipped potatoes, cobbler and more. You’ll walk away licking greasy fingers and with a Southern drawl in your mouth.
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Open until 2 am most nights, the OK Cafe’s [name] belies genuinely good food. Matrons and mods crowd the vinyl booths of this retrofitted diner – especially at a premium weekend mornings and the wee hours – while weekday mornings are a power-tie tangle. Delicate and crispy, shaved fried onions are a standout starter, while a plate of southern-style vegetables including mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni and cheese and melt-in-your-mouth green beans is synergistic accompaniment to creamy, rich meatloaf and chicken potpie. All-American desserts such as apple pie and old-fashioned malted milkshakes round-out the round-up. Take-out is offered separately in self-pack cafeteria-style.
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A treasured tourist landmark and collegiate touchstone, the Varsity briskly serves busloads, literally, of visitors within its gleaming stainless steel structure. Changing little from the 1950s, the Varsity predates 'fast food’ technology but still delivers grill-to-gut busting grease 'gourmet’ in a matter of seconds from the fathoms-long counter. Elbow your way to the blunt counter staff for hamburgers, hot dogs, fried and onion rings heaped with accoutrements, best washed down by a famed 'frosted orange’ or ice cold Coca- Cola (Atlanta’s other culinary heritage).
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Located in Decatur – 20 minutes from Atlanta’s city centre and defiantly autonomous – Watershed is equally independently minded. It encloses small town charm in cinder block post-industrial chic. A venture of Southern cook Scott Peacock and local musicians the Indigo Girls’ Emily Sanders, Watershed is a converted garage applying serious culinary consideration to Southern staples such as buttermilk-soaked fried chicken, roasted pork and fig conserve sandwiches, cornmeal-friend vegetables and biscuits with sausage gravy. Hard to believe, there’s a wine for every occasion. Some people, meanwhile, drive from all directions just for the chocolate cake.
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