More than 300 Black-owned restaurants and food businesses call metro Atlanta home. While all serve delicious food, two made Thrillist’s list of their 30 favorite in the entire country.
“While it’s impossible to list the hundreds of businesses worthy of your support, we’ve curated 30 of our top picks in the restaurant category — serving up everything from half smokes to soul food to hot chicken,” Thrillist’s food staff wrote.
Both Atlanta restaurants are famous not only for their fried chicken, but also for being meeting places for civil rights leaders during the 60s.
Credit: Jim Galloway
Credit: Jim Galloway
Our winner of Best of Atlanta’s fried chicken poll the past two years, Busy Bee touts itself as “Atlanta’s Soul Food Kitchen Since 1947.” It was a meeting spot for civil rights leaders after opening on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and continues to stay busy, serving up fried chicken and other Southern staples. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. The dining room is closed, but you can place an order online for curbside or inside pickup. You can also get your food delivered via one of Atlanta’s food delivery services. For nearby orders of $10 or more, Busy Bee will bring your food personally.
“Recently, both Bernie Sanders and Killer Mike broke bread and fried chicken bones in political fellowship,” Thillist wrote. “Some would say BBC is “hot” again, but it’s had hot sauce ready for hungry guests and neighbors since icons of the Civil Rights Movement dined there for strategy sessions.”
810 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30314
(404) 525-9212
Paschal’s was the meeting place for some of the most notable entertainers, politicians and business people during the civil rights movement, its website states. Today, the walls of the soul food spot on Northside Drive are lined with black-and-white photos of influential people of the past and present, and the website includes a comprehensive timeline of Paschal’s history. Paschal’s is open 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day except Tuesday, when it’s closed.
"Not only was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a noted regular, but other iconic leaders dined there as well, including John Lewis, Andrew Young, Ralph David Abernathy, and Joseph Lowery,' Thrillist wrote. “The joint’s famous chicken, still battered up and fried with the Paschal brothers' famous 1947 recipe, should certainly be your go-to order, and the remainder of the hearty Southern eats on the menu — po’boys, shrimp and grits, andouille sausage-heavy gumbo — are equally worthy of praise.”
180 Northside Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30313
(404) 525-2023
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