Where to find the best peach desserts in Atlanta right now
I have a confession: I didn’t really “get” peaches until I moved to Georgia. Sure, I ate them, but I didn’t eagerly anticipate peach season. When I arrived in Atlanta in 2013, I quickly discovered that peaches are central to Georgia’s culinary identity.
Georgia is not the country’s top peach producer (that honor belongs to California), but the fruit remains a highlight of summer here thanks to local growers like Pearson Farm and the chefs who incorporate peaches into everything from savory dishes and cocktails to, my favorite, desserts.
Those sweet treats are what really speak to me. I’ve had a sweet tooth for as long as I can remember — at one point, there was video footage of toddler-aged me enthusiastically tearing into a Publix birthday cake. These days, I’m always on the lookout for the next great peach dessert and eagerly await the return of a few seasonal favorites. Here are five that stand out this summer — but hurry: Much like peach season, they’re fleeting.
5 must-try peach desserts
Peach empanadas at La Semilla
The dessert menu at La Semilla, a vegan restaurant in Reynoldstown, is short, but what’s on it is good — really good. The peach empanadas have become a perennial favorite at the Atlanta plant-based restaurant that sees the fried turnovers filled with Pearson Farm peaches served alongside candied pecans, house-made (vegan) ice cream, and an anise hyssop syrup.
780 Memorial Drive SE, Atlanta. 404-228-3090, lasemilla.kitchen
Peach galette at Little Tart
When peach season rolls around, my car goes on autopilot to get me to Atlanta bakery Little Tart for a peach galette. It’s a simple pastry in which a free-formed crust holds a fruit filling. Little Tart rotates fruit seasonally, but the peach version reigns supreme with the soft, floral-tinged fruit perfectly balanced with the crisp buttery crust. A dusting of sugar adds a snappy crunch. Get there as early as possible lest they sell out for the day and you miss out.
Multiple locations, littletartatl.com
Brioche buns with peaches from At Heart Panadería
If you want treats crafted by Teresa Finney, the soulful baker behind At Heart Panadería, you need to seek them out at the Reynoldstown Farmer’s Market on Sunday mornings. For peach season, she’s poached the stone fruit in a syrup made from its own juices before stuffing them into her tender brioche buns along with plum jam.
Reynoldstown Farmers Market, 100 Flat Shoals Ave. SE, Atlanta. atheartpanaderia.com
Peach marlow ice cream at Little Sparrow
I love Little Sparrow, less for the sophisticated French classics and more for the simple pleasures, like the thick-cut French fries and soft serve ice cream. It’s hard to make soft serve that’s smooth and creamy rather than icy, but they nail it. Their current seasonal creation riffs on the marlow, a marshmallow-based frozen dessert from the 1930s. Here, house-made marshmallows and macerated peaches hide among swirls of vanilla soft serve. A vanilla crumble tucked underneath adds a crunchy surprise.
1198 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. 404-355-2252, littlesparrowatl.com
Peach and pistachio Danish from Evergreen Butcher + Baker
Peaches and pistachios pair beautifully together, creating a sweet-earthy contrast, and the bakers at Evergreen put the duo to work in splendid fashion. Pistachios dot the perimeter of the thick Danish, which is filled with sweet peaches and vanilla bean pastry cream. The buttery Danish is pillowy and light, yet sturdy enough to hold the fruit and cream inside.
2011 Hosea L. Williams Drive NE, Atlanta. 404-996-2442, evergreenbutcherandbaker.com
Chef Spotlight: Maximilian Lucas of Witchsugar
When I arrived at Lucky Star on a recent Saturday evening for the Witchsugar pop-up by pastry chef Maximilian Lucas, I wasn’t prepared to walk into a party at 6 p.m. But bartenders were whipping up Mercer + Prince whiskey cocktails while DJ Thugz Bunni’s hip-hop set kept the room buzzing, creating the perfect soundtrack for Lucas’s playful desserts. As other guests nibbled on Lucky Star’s Taiwanese bites, I gleefully smashed into his Donkey Kong Country dessert: a banana that was actually banana mousse encased in a delicate white chocolate shell. Two chocolate barrels served with a miniature mallet drove home the nostalgia. It was immediately clear why Lucas’s dessert pop-ups routinely sell out.
Lucas got his start in Chicago, where he worked for nearly a decade before moving to Atlanta just before the pandemic. In the years since, he has had stints at Local Three and the now-closed LOA, but last year he decided to take his destiny into his own hands and launch his own consulting company. Now you’ll find his pastries at Lo Kee in west Midtown as well as at his roving pop-up events.
He’s become known for whimsical desserts with a trompe l’oeil quality, like the winter citrus dessert at Lo Kee. But for Lucas, pastry work is about more than creating something visually striking.
“Storytelling is at the heart of every dessert I make,” he said. “It’s pretty much taking something I really enjoy and finding a way to tell that story in a dessert.”
That Donkey Kong treat was a perfect example. The video game Donkey Kong Country came out in 1994, and when Lucas wanted to pay homage to it through dessert, the banana was the first piece that came to mind. Donkey Kong famously swings through a jungle and smashes barrels, so those elements had to be reflected too. Lucas translated them into a another component featuring matcha cake and Brazil nut praline.
“I wanted to bring earthy flavors to the dish as well,” Lucas said. “The caramel having green tea with brown rice brings the toasty, earthy flavor.”
What jumped out at me about Lucas’s desserts was a sense of whimsy that is becoming increasingly rare as restaurants move away from dedicated pastry chefs. He worries that as restaurants cut back on pastry programs and substitute lower-cost options, diners may come to see those shortcuts as acceptable.
“One of the reasons why I do the pop-ups is to remind people, ‘Hey, this is not made in a factory,’” he said. “Someone spent time putting this together, curating this, thinking of a story, thinking of something that will be interesting to see on the menu.”
If you want to try his desserts, you can find them at Lo Kee — the new menu dropped this month — or stay tuned for another Witchsugar pop-up this fall. Either way, his creations are a reminder that dessert can be much more than molten lava cake or crème brûlée.
“People are getting up, they’re getting dressed, they’re getting in their cars, and they’re coming to these pop-ups with the main goal of getting desserts, and that is saying something,” Lucas said. “It’s saying that there are still people interested in desserts and that if we set the tone with desserts made by amazingly talented pastry chefs, people will follow.”
Upcoming dessert events
PeachFest
Get your peach fix at PeachFest, taking place at Underground Atlanta on July 12 beginning at 4 p.m. (VIP ticket holders can enter at 3 p.m.). The all-inclusive event features peach-inspired bites and drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic.
4-7 p.m. July 12. $95-$130 per person. 50 Upper Alabama St., Atlanta. tastenetwork.com/events/peachfest
Peach Week
Pearson Farm’s Peach Week takes over Atlanta restaurants and cafes July 5-11. It’s an excuse to eat peach dishes for a good cause, with proceeds benefiting Piggy Bank, which helps small farmers raise heritage-breed pigs, and CURE Childhood Cancer. Participating spots include Little Tart, Miller Union, and Leon’s Full Service.
July 5-11. Multiple locations, pearsonfarm.com/pages/atlanta-peach-week