September 2017
Features
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Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants 2017
What the restaurants on this list have in common aren’t starched white linens; it’s the pure, unwavering focus on food. It may not be traditional fine dining, but it’s some of the finest dining you can do in the city right now.
American Cathedral: The story behind Mercedes-Benz Stadium
The opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium will mark a rite of passage not just for the Falcons or Blank, but for Atlanta itself. NFL stadiums—new NFL stadiums, that is, with gleaming features and staggering budgets—have become the sine qua non for the cities that claim a franchise. Want to host a Super Bowl? Build a new stadium. Want to ensure your home team doesn’t decamp to another city? Build a new stadium.
Consumers want antibiotic-free chicken. Can companies and farmers afford it?
Antibiotics don’t just fight infections; they also fatten chickens. In an excerpt from her new book, Big Chicken, Atlanta journalist Maryn McKenna explores how consumer demand is forcing huge companies, such as Perdue and Chick-fil-A, to go antibiotic-free.
6 questions with Big Chicken author Maryn McKenna
“The big question for chicken—and for any meat that goes antibiotic-free—is a question that faces all of food production: Is better, safer food going to be something that only well-off people can afford? That hangs over all of these transformations of food systems,” Maryn McKenna says.
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The Connector
Don’t Miss List: Our top 5 Atlanta event picks for September
Bruno Mars, Future, Mumford & Sons, and Blink-182 at Music Midtown, Dragon Con, and the Decatur Book Festival.
Can a public art festival change the way residents and developers see Buford Highway?
In 2016 Monica Campana, the cofounder and executive director of Atlanta street art festival Living Walls, and Marian Liou, the founder of We Love BuHi, a social media love letter to Buford Highway, met while applying for fellowships at downtown’s Center for Civic Innovation. Soon after, they decided to partner and bring Living Walls to Buford Highway.
What we learned from Gucci Mane’s new autobiography
In The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, published this month, the 37-year-old Atlanta trap rap crossover act revisits his rise to rap stardom; his struggle with a codeine cocktail called “lean;” and becoming a mentor to Future and Migos.
How Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School is trying to keep its student body diverse
ANCS’s diversity that was such a point of pride had become a victim of gentrification. In 2014, the school instituted a plan to boost the enrollment of students living on low incomes. “Diverse by design,” as the effort is called, has gained traction among charter schools across the nation, as the effort is called, has gained traction among charter schools across the nation, as more and more seek to assemble a student body of different socioeconomic statuses and racial backgrounds.
The Bite
Fresh on the Scene: Upbeet, Monsoon Masala Kitchen and Sweets, The Canteen
The Westside has a new health-focused, fast-casual restaurant, Buford Highway gets a Bangladeshi newcomer, and you have to try Midtown’s new micro food hall, The Canteen
People watching at Dragon Con? Grab a Mai Tai at Trader Vic’s
Atlanta is home to one of just two Trader Vic’s left in the country (there used to be 26), and this location has shaken up more than 45,000 Mai Tais since opening in 1976. Sip among cosplay witches and superheroes; the bar is a major Dragon Con hangout.
How Richland Rum helped revitalize a small Georgia town
In 2007 fate came knocking at the door of Dutch-born rum connoisseur Erik Vonk in a most unassuming form: a gray-haired man in a pickup truck.
The Christiane Chronicles: Can we please use our inside voices at restaurants?
Quiet dining rooms are pretty much out of vogue. How many times have you crossed the threshold of a restaurant only to be assaulted by a racket resembling that of a colony of monkeys at the zoo?
Home for Dinner: Ford Fry, chef and mega-restaurateur
Ford Fry is the closest thing Atlanta has to a restaurant magnate. The chef may not actually be cooking at his restaurants anymore—he’s essentially the businessman now—but at home in Roswell, he mans the grill.
The Goods
These gem-inspired colors are what you need in your fall wardrobe
Sumptuous velvets, silks, and chiffons in gem-inspired colors from striking amethyst to glittering black diamond rocked the fall runways.
Your guide to fall fashion 2017
More is more this fall with over-the-top textures, throwback silhouettes, and bold prints. Featuring looks from Stuart Weitzman, Abbey Glass, Tory Burch, Sid Mashburn, and more.
Miscellaneous
Editor’s Note: 101 issues later, Atlanta magazine welcomes a new editor-in-chief
The September issue marks my final issue as editor-in-chief of Atlanta magazine. Betsy Riley, who’s been with the magazine for 15 years, most recently as editor of our quarterly HOME magazine, will be taking over for me, and I can’t wait to see what she has in store.
This was Atlanta’s Empire Building circa 1900
Thought to be named after the insurance firm that bankrolled its construction, the Empire was a risky work environment.
