November 2023
Features
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Is Atlanta ready to love Georgia Tech basketball again?
New Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Damon Stoudamire thinks so—and aims to prove it by doing what his recent predecessors could not: winning with consistency.
The Fox Brothers redefined Atlanta barbecue—and it all started with a humble backyard cookout
It’s hard to impress a couple of guys from Texas when it comes to barbecue. Not long after they moved to Atlanta, more than 20 years ago, when they cooked just for friends, Justin and Jonathan Fox did what Texans do and started trying local barbecue places. They liked one or two, but overall, they were underwhelmed.
A field guide to Atlanta barbecue
The 28-country metro area has at least 350 barbecue eateries—not just stand-alone restaurants, but food trucks and pop-ups and kiosks and lots of places doing things that don’t fit the standard definition of Southern barbecue. It isn’t just chopped pork anymore.
The 12 Best Barbecue Restaurants in Metro Atlanta
Why 12 best barbecue restaurants? Because 10 wasn’t enough. Barbecue is coming into its own in Atlanta. Here are our favorites, in no particular order.
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The Connector
What life is like on a Stockbridge Christmas tree farm
When Susie Grant went to the National Christmas Tree Association convention in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1986, she was one of the few female farmers there. She ran a small farm in Mississippi at the time. In the exhibit hall, she met a father and son from Stockbridge, who were demonstrating a revolutionary tree trimmer they had invented. “I just walked by and started talking about the trimmer,” says Susie. She and the son, Allen Grant, have been together ever since. Today they own Yule Forest in Stockbridge, and Christmas trees remain an inextricable part of their lives.
How WERD became the first Black-owned radio station in the U.S.
From Black-owned financial institutions and restaurants to Ebenezer Baptist Church, the NAACP, and the legendary Royal Peacock nightclub, Atlanta’s Black history makers have always made their way to Auburn Avenue. So it should be no surprise that, tucked away in a small brick building on that iconic street, is the site of the first Black-owned radio station in the United States, WERD.
The New Brownies’ Book celebrates Black children and families with joy, creativity, and love
“Designed for all children, but especially for ours.” Thus read the inscription on the front page of the Brownies’ Book, a children’s periodical dreamt up by former Atlanta University professor W.E.B. Du Bois and read in homes across the country from 1920 to 1921. Now, Emory professor Dr. Karida L. Brown and her husband, artist Charly Palmer, have created a new iteration with a lusciously updated design that remains true to Du Bois’s original concept.
Perfection pays when you’re detailing cars—or Air Force One
“I started detailing cars full-time in 2003, but I got tired after a few years and decided to stop,” says Yasir Waqaar. “As soon as I quit, I had old clients begging me to come back to work on their cars. So I realized detailing must be my calling.”
5 Reasons to love Vinings
With its northwest location near Buckhead, the Battery Atlanta, and the Silver Comet Trail, Vinings feels both intown-ish and suburban, a combination that attracts people young and old to its leafy neighborhoods. The Chattahoochee River provides one boundary, while I-285 and I-75 provide others.
The Bite
Review: Southern National is an adventure in haute Southern cuisine
My heart always beats faster in a restaurant when I see something I have never seen before. It isn’t as if I’ve never spotted a chef expediting his own food at the kitchen pass, checking that everything on each plate is how and where it should be, moving a little sprig of greenery by a sixteenth of an inch or calling for his crew to redo an entire dish. But a chef, let alone one who is the size of a giant, standing in the dining room at a long table and quietly fixing all that needs fixing in plain view of his customers is pretty much new to me.
How Atlantans celebrate Diwali
Known as the “Festival of Lights,” Diwali is a time when worshippers light clay lamps to celebrate the inner glow that repels spiritual darkness. Celebrations are rooted in traditions of oral storytelling and joyful revelry, including mounds of decadent treats, festive finery, and fireworks. For many, it represents their faith in the goodness of humanity.
The verdict on 3 new Atlanta restaurants: Breaker Breaker, Grana Dunwoody, and Alta Toro
The BeltLine gets a seafood shack, Grana’s Neapolitan pizza and pasta comes to Dunwoody, and a Midtown restaurant serves pan-Latin eats in an exciting atmosphere.
The Goods
Rainy Day Revival in Little Five Points is full of the unexpected
In the market for a warthog head to mount on your wall? How about a vintage gremlin doll? Or a century-old vibrator? At Rainy Day Revival, an oddities shop in Little Five Points, these are just a few of the strange items artfully displayed throughout the store, which is like an antique shop on steroids.
Welcome to Plazadrome: Videodrome and Plaza Theatre’s partnership is building a new community of film lovers
Movie theaters have famously struggled to get a streaming-obsessed audience out of their Cloud sofas and back into the multiplex—with the exception of Atlanta’s historic Plaza Theatre. Working alongside another bastion of Atlanta film culture, Videodrome, the Plaza has become a buzzing nexus of cinema since owner Chris Escobar took over in 2017. With the launch of “Plazadrome” collaborations in 2018, the film synergy has been off the charts.
Miscellaneous
A love letter to K-pop in Atlanta
I’m strolling through Centennial Olympic Park on a warm spring day, rocking a crop top for the first time—at age 42. It’s black with the word MANIAC scrawled in thin, neon pink font. As I soak up the sun, I pass many others in the same shirt. The K-pop group Stray Kids is in town for their “Maniac” world tour, and Atlanta is overrun by STAYs—the official name for Stray Kids fans like me.
