Pickleball courts at the newly opened Painted Pickle. | Heidi Harris The venue hopes to become a new take on a country club Ready to play with your food? Dining and gaming combo restaurants are a growing trend in Atlanta — think Your 3rd Spot, Puttshack, Revery: VR Bar — and now there’s a new player joining the fray. The Painted Pickle, a pickleball restaurant and bar, is now open at Armour Yards. It comes from the same group behind bowling venues the Painted Pin in Buckhead and the Painted Duck in West Midtown. Justin Amick, CEO and President of Painted Hospitality, says this venue is a new t ..read more

Spiller Park Coffee’s Hotel Row location interior | Spiller Park Coffee Spiller Park Coffee’s home run location maintains Hotel Row’s integrity “If I could pick a word to describe what this location feels like to me, it’s just very sweet,” says Dale Donchey, founder of Spiller Park Coffee. It’s opening day at Spiller Park Coffee’s new Mitchell Street outpost, and Donchey radiates earnestness. “It’s like the old days, I’m running drinks,” he says excitedly, a mug in his hand. And it’s a beautiful day for the occasion — the weather is mild and partially sunny, hours away from the eclipse. Inside ..read more

Selection of entrees available from Riki’s Kitchen | Ruki’s Kitchen Expect the stall in late 2024 Ali Lemma’s Ethiopian pop-up Ruki’s Kitchen will get a permanent home at Switchman Hall, the Peoplestown food hall opening in the Terminal South mixed-use development in late 2024, according to a press release. Ruki’s Kitchen will offer four entree plate combinations, with steak, chicken, salmon tibs, and vegetable options. Lemma left the corporate world to found Ruki’s Kitchen in 2021, and started a residency at East Atlanta Village’s Qommunity Food Hall in 2022. In 2023, Ruki’s Kitchen received ..read more

Roasted local mushrooms from Sweetsong Restaurant | Natalie Siegman Atlanta chefs are putting the fun in fungi At the Atlanta Mushroom Festival, chef Carla Fears prepares a meatless steak, demonstrating a dish she cooks at her busy pop-up Gourmet Street Foods. Plating each piece, she says, “cooking with mushrooms is easy. I could do them stuffed, sauteed, pickled, or in confit. But lion’s mane thrown in a pan with some sauce? This feeds everyone.” Servers pass samples around the room. Fears’s lion’s mane steak is juicy and tender and tastes like a high-end filet. Tomatoes, capers, and marjoram ..read more

Affogato at The Reading Room in Decatur | The Reading Room There’s a coffee cocktail for everyone at these Atlanta hotspots. Espresso martinis are having a moment. But coffee cocktails — and not necessarily of the vodka variety — are here to stay. From widely recognized libations like the White Russian and Irish coffee to the lesser-known, tropical-tasting Roman Holiday, coffee cocktails can be enhanced with other spirits and aperitifs like tequila, rum, gin, rye whiskey, and amaro to create drinks like the espresso Negroni, the coffee Boulevardier (a riff on the classic Negroni), and the cara ..read more

Sarra Sedghi Featuring a delightfully sloppy salad, corn bread with whipped goat cheese, and gimmicks that seriously delivered Eater Atlanta’s editor and contributors spend every week dining at multiple restaurants and pop-ups in search of the next great bite or cocktail. Some meals and drinks are definitely better than others and deserve a shoutout. Below are the best dishes Eater’s editor ate in March. Half chicken Milanesa from Dive Wine Bar Sarra Sedghi Half chicken Milanesa Dive Wine’s March 4 pop-up at Talat Market was full of gems, but Mikel Burkhart’s (Samwich) ultra-crispy half-chicke ..read more

Damsel’s lobster cones, served in a swan vessel. | Hunter Reynolds Art Deco and the Jazz Age get a modern twist that appeals to all five senses Damsel, Dave Green’s (The Select) two-story cabaret restaurant and supper club, is now open at The Works. Damsel’s menu is structured like a playbill, and thoughtfully highlights vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options right in its center — several of these options are already listed among the hors d’oeuvres on the adjacent page, but anyone following a special diet will appreciate the extra emphasis. Standout dishes include the lobster cones, which ..read more

Clams in black bean sauce at Oriental Pearl | Susie Chow All the classics from barbecued meats to stir-fried greens and whole steamed fish Just as the culinary landscape of the United States varies from the deep-fried comforts of the South to the fresh, seafood-centric dishes of the Pacific Northwest, Chinese cuisine showcases a vast diversity of cooking styles across the country. One of the better known styles is Cantonese cuisine, originating from China’s southern Guangdong Province. Renowned for its understated elegance, the hallmark of Cantonese cooking lies in its emphasis on fresh ingred ..read more

Marcel dining room | Marcel The accusations against leadership at the restaurant include alleged racism, sexual harassment, and safety violations An anonymous individual has posted a detailed online manifesto accusing Westside steakhouse Marcel and its parent company Ford Fry’s Rocket Farm Restaurants of several serious transgressions that allegedly took place at the restaurant. The website, which is not attributed to a specific person or group, detailed these allegations, which range from accusations of racism toward nonwhite staff members, inadequate pay for workers, sexual harassment, and c ..read more

Aviva by Kameel Plus, a Beltline street food spot will reopen after two years Aviva By Kameel, a healthy, fast-casual Middle Eastern restaurant, will open its third location in the redeveloped Buckhead Landing shopping center at 3330 Piedmont Road. Other tenants in the development, which hopes to launch a 55,000-square-foot Publix later this year, include Piu Bello, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, and Burtons Grill & Bar. Aviva By Kameel first opened in The Hub at Peachtree Center in 2012, and opened a second location at the Collective at Coda food hall in Midtown in 2020. Founded by Kameel S ..read more