10 Things That Make Atlanta The Most Amazing City To Live!

Atlanta is so much more than Coca-Cola, Waffle House and The Varsity, and here are 10 things that really make Atlanta so amazing.

1. The Beltline, and other parks.

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One thing you might not know about Atlanta, is that it’s loaded with amazing parks, from the large Piedmont Park, to Freedom Park, to many other great parks that dot the city. And the newest addition to the park landscape in Atlanta is the Beltline, an old train track line converted to walking and biking trails. Named the “Year’s Best Environmental-Rehabilitation Project in the World” by the International Real Estate Foundation, the Beltline is bustling with walkers, runners, and cyclists riding around the city.

2. The food.

From anything Ford Fry is doing to The General Muir, Empire State South to Miller Union, and delicious Kerala Indian food from Spice to Table, to so many other places all over Atlanta, there is NO shortage of delicious food being cooked up by amazing chefs. Also, there are many new restaurants opening up at two new developments (Krog Street Market and Ponce City Market.) You can live here for five years and barely touch the surface on the good food in this city.

3. The farmers markets.

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There are so many great farmers markets in every little cool pocket of Atlanta, including the Freedom, Grant Park, Peachtree Rd, Marietta, Decatur, Smyrna, the East Atlanta Village Farmers Markets, and many more. There are lots of great local farms and businesses for Atlantans to support. While we're talking farmers markets, let's include Your Dekalb Farmers Market and the Buford Highway Farmers Market, two very large and wonderful wonderlands of meats, produce and the like from all over the world. You could spend a half a day in Your Dekalb Farmers Market alone!

4. The craft beer.

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There’s the most recognized Atlanta brewer, Sweetwater Brewing, and many others like Monday Night, Red Brick, Red Hare, Orpheus, Wrecking Bar, Wild Heaven, BlueTarp, Three Taverns and Eventide, just to name a few. And there’s no shortage of places to enjoy local craft beer including Brick Store Pub and The Porter Beer Bar, two of the best beer pubs in the country.

5. Buford Highway.

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This amazing wonderland of culture and food is chock-full of authentic ethnic foods like Vietnamese pho like Pho Dai Loi #2, Korean BBQ, Mexican taco joints like El Veloz, even a really great crawfish and seafood joint boiling delicious, spicy crawfish (The Crawfish Shack.)

6. The cocktails.

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The standard-bearers have been Holeman & Finch and H. Harper Station, but there are also really delicious and innovative cocktails being made at The Pinewood, Kimball House, Paper Plane, Miso Izakaya, and Leon’s Full Service. There are countless other good cocktail spots, including speakeasies like Eleanor’s, Prohibition and GA Chapter Room, hidden underneath the Taco Mac at Prado.

7. The underground supper clubs.

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There’s many great underground supper clubs, where meals are being had by lots of strangers making new friends and eating great food. There’s Hush Dinner Club, Dinner Lab, Twelve, HomeSpun, Society 414, Jarrett Stieber’s eatmespeakme, and PushStart (which is now a brick and mortar restaurant called Better Half.)

8. The people.

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One sighting of Baton Bob, and you'll see just a glimpse of what makes Atlanta people so great. Friendly, outgoing, always helpful and ready at any chance to dance. People around Atlanta are a great melting pot of awesome. Also, you just may find yourself eating next to food icon Alton Brown, who lives in Atlanta.

9. The art.

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Atlanta has great artists like Blackcattips, Evereman, R. Land, Catlanta, and cool projects like FAFATL (“Free Art Friday”, where art is hidden all over Atlanta for folks to find and keep), ICE (the Indie Craft Experience) #WELOVEATL, Living Walls (a city-wide graffiti project that features artists from all over the country.) (The above is Blackcattips.)

10. The community spirit.

A great example is how Atlanta stood with local chef Ryan Hidinger as he battled stage four Gallbladder Cancer, and supported him and his wife starting a restaurant (which is now open and AMAZING, (STAPLEHOUSE)) and the charity they created providing grants to restaurant workers who experience hardships (The Giving Kitchen.) Atlantans support their own with reckless abandon, and it really shows the community spirit so well.