Andy and I spent four days in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend! I had been many times for work but it was the first time Andy had ever been and I was so excited to show him all my favorite spots. Turns out, most of those happened to be restaurants…
Where we Stayed:
The first two nights we stayed in an Airbnb because the price was super reasonable. The location was perfect and the space was nice, clean and had free parking. The third night we stayed at an AC Marriott in Buckhead using a free night I get every year with my Marriottt credit card.
What we Did:
Day 1
We landed around 1pm in Atlanta, grabbed our rental car and headed straight to lunch. I had read about a donut brunch and I knew we had to check it out. It was called Bettlecat and it was in a super cute area with lots of restaurants and shops.
Andy ordered (and loved) the donut burger.
After brunch, we wandered around the area a little and then decided to check into our Airbnb. We decided coffee was necessary and went to a cat cafe I had read about called Happy Tabby. If you don’t like cats, you should definitely skip this, but it was a lot of fun and so relaxing. You basically pay a fee to go into the cat room and a drink is included. It was $8 each for an hour, which was plenty of time. We drank iced coffees and watched cute cats run around. Definitely not a bad way to spend an hour on a travel day.
Since it had been a few hours since we ate anything, we went to The Optimist for their Oyster Happy Hour. Oysters were $1 and their drinks were super reasonable too. They had a really cool outdoor space where you could eat/drink and they even had a few mini-golf holes.
After happy hour, we headed to Tomo in Buckhead (a fancy area of Atlanta with shopping and restaurants) where we had some pretty good sushi. This had been one of my favorite places during past trips, but I didn’t find it to be quite as amazing this time around.
After dinner, we did a little shopping at a TJMaxx and Nordstrom Rack nearby. Even though we have these stores at home, they have slightly different things so I like to take a look! I found a really cute black dress and Andy found two great pairs of pants.
We debated going to a comedy show but decided to call it a night and watch Netflix at our Airbnb instead. We always bring our firestick on vacation so we can watch Netflix at the hotel/Airbnb.
Day 2
We woke up in search of coffee, because coffee is everything 🙂
We found a place called Condessa coffee. The coffee was very good and we shared prosciutto with honey on sourdough.
After coffee we drove over to the Krog Street Market. Most of the stalls weren’t open but it was nice to walk through and we made a note to come visit the next day.
We had passed a donut shop (Revolution donuts) on our way to the market and stopped there on the way back to the car. The donut holes were far superior to the actual donuts!
We drove to the Decatur area, parked and walked around. It was a cute area but not a lot was open at the time due to a book fair. We got back in the car and drove to Milton’s, which is about 45 minutes from Atlanta. It was a really nice restaurant and we were able to sit outside on their beautiful patio. The food was good and it was nice little change of pace from the city. After eating, we went outside to take a few pictures and then we headed back to Atlanta.
Our next stop was one of my favorite places we went to while in Atlanta, the Ponce City Market. It’s in the old Sears building and is filled with a ton of little restaurants/food stands and a bunch of stores. The coolest part is the roof. You do have to pay $10/person to go up there but I think it’s worth it if you’ve never been. There is a bar/restaurant, mini-golf and some carnival games you can buy tickets for. We played ring toss, skee-ball and a basketball game and then sat and had a few drinks while enjoying the gorgeous view.
We decided we wanted to go to the Braves game so we went to the ballpark to see if we could buy tickets. We underestimated the popularity of the game but we were able to park and buy tickets. The stadium was really nice but it was incredibly hot up in general admission 🙂 I loved that we were able to buy $20 tickets on the day of the game…that doesn’t really happen at Fenway.
We had a great time but left early to make our dinner reservations at Sotto Sotto. This is one of my favorite Italian places. They let you order half sizes of the pastas so you can try several. I highly recommend the papardelle with duck ragu, it’s amazing.
Day 3
After checking out of our Airbnb we of course went in search of coffee. We went to Aurora because it was in Little Five Points, which was an area Andy was super into (read: craft beer bars).
We then went to the Krog Street Market for pastries! I had perhaps the best chocolate croissant ever, you have to try it!
Our next stop was the Atlanta Zoo. Andy wasn’t super into the idea but he ended up having a great time. This is one of only 4 zoos in the US with pandas. All of the animals were super active and we were able to see baby apes, so it was a win for me. It really is a beautiful zoo and one you should definitely visit if you are in Atlanta.
After the zoo we had a great lunch at Eight Sushi. I actually ended up liking this restaurant better than Tomo (the fancy sushi place we went to on our first night). We started with gyoza (pork dumplings) and they were excellent. For our meal we got the salmon, yellowtail and escolar nigiri. They all came with interesting toppings and were all fantastic. We also got the explosion roll, which was very good!
After lunch we went back to the Little Five Points neighborhood and went to a bar that had a great selection of craft beer for Andy. After breaking for a drink, we went to the Krog Street Market for fried chicken and more beer (for Andy).
At that point, we checked into our hotel and went out for bad Thai food! The AC Marriott in Buckhead is very nice if that’s the neighborhood you want to be in.
Day 4
We woke up on our last morning in Atlanta, checked out and went in search of coffee. After coffee, we drove around Buckhead a little and then headed to another cat cafe. We hadn’t meant to go to both during the trip, it just worked out that way. We liked Java Cats even more because they had kittens. All of the cats are up for adoption and so many have been placed into forever homes.
After leaving the cat cafe, we decided it was time for fried chicken. I’m telling you, don’t go to Atlanta without going to Hattie B’s. It may have been the best fried chicken I ever had. We went for mild spicy and it was still pretty hot but so so good!
The last thing we did before heading to the airport was to drive around some of the fanciest neighborhoods in Atlanta. I love driving by huge houses and imaging what it would be like to live in them!
We had a great time in Atlanta and I definitely recommend visiting!!