It didn’t win our Best of Atlanta poll this year, but an Atlanta restaurant has the best burger in Georgia, according to the Daily Meal.
“If you can’t find a burger you want to eat at Atlanta’s The Vortex Bar and Grill, well, you just may not like burgers,” the Daily Meal wrote.
Readers voted The Vortex third in our May/June poll for the best burger in Atlanta. “It’s good to be bad,” its website states. How bad? Instead of telling customers they couldn’t smoke inside, The Vortex became a 21 and older restaurant. Even though The Vortex is now smoke-free — by request of the customers — the restaurant still bans “the little buggers.”
When creating the first T-shirt for The Vortex, Michael Benoit, his brother, Hank, and his sister, Suzanne, included this definition on the breast pocket:
vor·tex noun (vȯr-ˌteks) plural: vor·tex·es or vor·ti·ces
- Any whirling mass in which a force of suction operates.
- A place, activity, situation or way of life regarded as irresistibly engulfing.
- A state of affairs likened to a whirlpool into which one is irresistibly drawn.
- A terrestrial energy point said to enhance spiritual healing and foster psychic enhancement.
- A doorway or portal into an alternative dimension.
- The coolest bar in the galaxy.
The Vortex has more than 20 burgers on its menu.
There is the Freaky Tiki — a luau for your mouth — which is topped with grilled ham, pineapple salsa, bacon and jack cheese.
Or maybe the Fat Elvis is more your style. That’s a burger “slathered with a King-sized helpin’ of smooth peanut butter, topped with bacon and fried plantains.”
If you aren’t that adventurous, opt for the Plain Ol’ Hamburger. That’s a “no frills, no nonsense” burger cooked to your preferred temperature and topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion and dill pickle slices.
