Photo courtesy of Kimball House

How to Spend a Perfect 72 Hours Eating Your Way Through Atlanta

By Mike Jordan, an Atlanta-based food and culture journalist, Resy’s former Southeast editor, U.S. South academy chair for 50 Best Restaurants, and winner of the James Beard Foundation’s 2024 Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award.

Updated: May 20, 2026

No matter where you are in the world, you’ve likely heard of Atlanta. You might possibly have touched down in the city, albeit briefly, in your travels in and outside the U.S. Many millions of people have connected through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and lots of them have even ventured north into the actual city limits to find out what all the hype is about. Well, we hope you’re hungry and can make time to find out why there’s no place in the world like ATL, especially when it comes to eating well and good.

This big Southern town is quite sprawling, so you’ll want to prepare yourself for commutes that mandate at least some time in a vehicle, but there are also new and exceptional places to experience the best food and drink Atlanta has to offer within a walkable radius, which is exactly how we’ll get started with your Thursday arrival in the capital of Georgia. Check out the itinerary below, as well as our Hit List for Atlanta, and take to Resy to put yourself in position for a positively amazing visit that’ll take you up, down and all around Peachtree Street.

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An Appetite For Adventure

Friday: A Central City Tasting Tour

Photo courtesy of Elise

Elise Woodruff Arts Center

High Culinary Art for Lunch

Assuming you took our advice and doubled back at Bar ANA to be properly caffeinated and carbo-hydrated, you’re now ready to kick things into true weekend gear. Start in the heart of the city with serious culinary art at Elise, the latest restaurant from Lyla Lila chef Craig Richards, located within the Woodruff Arts Center complex among the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Blending Richards’ proficiency for Italian cuisine and French cooking techniques, the elegant space, bursting with natural light and bright color, offers casual elegance from attentive service to the composition of lunch dishes. We suggest beginning with carrot and coriander soup with crème fraîche, followed by salad Niçoise or steelhead trout with fregola and haricots vert. ATL Fridays don’t get off to a much more symphonic start than this.

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GiGi’s Italian Kitchen Candler Park

GiGi's Italian Kitchen pasta — Photo courtesy of GiGi’s Italian Kitchen

Premier Handmade Pasta

Keep the Italian Atlantan energy going at this intimate cafe whose handmade pasta made it a wildly popular pop-up before opening a full-time space in 2022 and immediately becoming a local culinary darling. The checkered tablecloths, giant drip candles, and surrounding greenery give it undeniable romantic quality, as do the sharable plates. Start off with ultra-sexy beef carpaccio with especially rich and savory Vacche Rosse Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, then proceed to hand-cut tagliatelle or whatever your pleasure. Drift even further into Friday through a wide selection of amari, a classic Negroni, or one of 21 wines by the glass, including a reserve list of upscale Italian pours. And while you could opt out of the locally famous tiramisù or pistachio gelato to save room for later shenanigans, it’s Friday isn’t it?

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Ticonderoga Club Old 4th Ward

Ticonderoga Club space — Photo courtesy of Ticonderoga Club

Cocktails & Camaraderie

Without the need for a sprawling space, this celebrated Krog Street Market restaurant and bar continues to build a reputation in and far beyond Atlanta’s borders for its outstanding food, drink and hospitality. The clubhouse-styled space, surrounded by wood paneling, multicolored string lights, and quirky wall adornments such as a painted portrait of rapper The Notorious B.I.G., welcome all to the experience just as warmly as the congenial staff. The menu changes seasonally but certain items are perennial, from the legendary mussels (whose broth is good enough to be a separate zero-proof cocktail), to the Chuck Wagon steak (bring several friends) and the eponymous house cocktail made with aged rum, Cognac, cream sherry, pineapple, lemon, and mint.

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Moonlight Old Fourth Ward

End at the Top

This rooftop bar, located at the top of Forth, one of Atlanta’s newest and coolest hotel properties, has one of the most inspired views of the Atlanta skyline thanks to surrounding windows that capture the bright lights just beyond the glass. The motif — brown leather couches meshing with peach and bronze accents, is decidedly 1970s, but still feels futuristic. They offer premium Kaviari Kristal caviar by the ounce or bump among other late-night snacks, along with closeout cocktails like the slightly jolting Moonshadow, which mixes bourbon, Jamaican rum, port reduction syrup, red eye bitters, and coffee beans. It’s a great place to end a beautiful night while looking forward to another big day of well-deserved ATL decadence ahead.

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Mike Jordan is an Atlanta-based food and culture journalist with bylines in The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Bon Appetit, National Geographic, Southern Living, and others. He is Resy’s former Southeast editor and served as founding editor of Thrillist Atlanta, digital program director at Atlanta radio station WVEE-FM, and senior editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is chairman of the Atlanta Press Club. the U.S. South academy chair for 50 Best Restaurants, and winner of the James Beard Foundation’s 2024 Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, for which he was a finalist in 2023. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.