Welcome to the home of the Braves, Coca-Cola and Rhett and Scarlett. This bustling Georgia city has become a magnet for corporations and conventions, and I was in town to visit both last month. Not one to use downtime to hole up with room service and TV, I set out to see as much of this sprawling city as a lone woman safely could in three afternoons and evenings.
Atlanta is a city of sectors too large to be called neighborhoods, and it’s impossible to navigate between them without wheels. (Taxis will do, but you usually have to phone for them or board them at hotels as they almost never stop when flagged down.) The city’s busiest sectors are Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead, each with a distinct personality, so decide ahead of time if you want the ritzy trendiness of Buckhead, the vintage elegance of Midtown or the urban action of Downtown.
Day One: From Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, I took the Metro Shuttle to my hotel in “artsy” Midtown. The airport shuttle service is quick, efficient and cheap ($17 round trip) and serves virtually all of the city’s hotels. For this trip, mine was the Four Seasons, an opulent red-granite skyscraper with a pink marble lobby and courteous staff, a good choice if security and service are an issue because it offers loads of amenities, it’s in one of Atlanta’s safest neighborhoods and it is just a short walk from several major attractions and restaurants.
My meeting this day was at CNN Center, which is Downtown and a $6 cab ride from the hotel. CNN Center is the hub of Ted Turner’s news operation, which occupies just part of the campus that is home to the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, The Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), the Georgia Dome and Centennial Olympic Park.
From the outside, CNN Center looks like any modern skyscraper. Inside, the building is like a giant media amusement park. Here you can flirt with being part of the Fourth Estate by joining the audience of interactive “Talk Back Live,” which airs from the building’s atrium lobby at 3 p.m. weekdays, or by taking the 40-minute CNN tour, which starts with a walk through a metal detector and a ride up the world’s longest enclosed escalator (eight stories)..
Warning: You’ll see behind-the-scenes newsgathering and news shows in progress by walking down those eight flights of stairs, pausing every two floors or so to “observe.” Tours for the disabled need 24 hours notice.
Hungry? You can grab a bite at any of the more than a dozen fast food franchises that ring the atrium or have a more leisurely meal in Omni’s American Cafe.
From the CNN Center it’s about a mile hike to Underground Atlanta and the nearby Coca-Cola Museum, both tourist attractions that Atlantans largely ignore.
Underground Atlanta is built over what was Atlanta’s first commercial district. Its upper level is dotted with historical markers, a wall-fountain, benches and life-sized outdoor sculptures. But below street level, it’s nothing more than a dark, gimmicky shopping mall full of pushcart tchotchke vendors, casual eateries and storefront retailers. I walked through quickly but couldn’t resist stopping to sample a scoop of vanilla at Gorin’s Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt. Authentic cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde are also a snack option, but unlike its always-open New Orleans counterpart, this cafe keeps the mall’s hours.
A couple of blocks beyond Underground is the Coca-Cola Museum. The exterior looks like a Disney World attraction, and the inside is just as orchestrated, but there is some substance here.
Vending, bottling and advertising exhibits as well as several short films put Coke’s evolution into a corporate behemoth in historical context. But my favorite “exhibit” is the international tasting room. Here I sampled traditional Coke as well as Coca-Cola Co. products that reflect the tastes of the countries where they are marketed. For example, Lychee Mello is a lychee nut-flavored soft drink marketed in Thailand, Mezzo Mix (orange Coke) sells in Germany, Kin Cider (lemon-lime) rocks in Korea and Beverly (bitter-apertif) is sipped in Italy.
From there, I took MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) to the Peachtree Street station Downtown. However, by the time I got there it was a few minutes after 6 p.m. and the area was deserted except for a few street people (most stores close when the office workers go home), an uncomfortable situation for a solo woman.
I spotted Max Lager’s American Grill and Brewery nearby and headed there for dinner. This rowdy pub is housed in a renovated warehouse and specializes in woodfire-grilled meats, fresh-brewed boutique beer and camaraderie.
Day Two: My focus is Midtown. After a morning filled with meetings, the High Museum of Art is an uplifting stop. This modern, four-level museum just north of the hotel on Peachtree Street seems to be made of light, white enamel and oak.
Built in 1983, it houses the work of many famous names as well as up-and-coming artists. Don’t miss the Multiple Choices exhibit, an eclectic approach to display where you will find decorative art, photography, folk art and other disciplines arranged by theme rather than medium.
Free in the evening? Choose a spot to dine or just relax on Crescent Avenue, Midtown’s “Restaurant Row,” which parallels Peachtree Street from 14th Street to 10th. Here you’ll find exotic cocktails and live jazz at the Martini Club, chic nouvelle Southern cuisine at South City Kitchen or burgers at Front Page News. Afterwards, stroll north to the Woodruff Arts Center (adjacent to the High) and catch a play or the Atlanta Symphony.
Day Three: With the day’s meetings out of the way, I decided to devise my own speed-walking tour of a few more Midtown spots — the newly renovated Margaret Mitchell House, Piedmont Park, Colony Square and the Ansley Inn, a gracious B&B; I’d then travel to Buckhead for dinner.
The Margaret Mitchell House includes “The Dump,” Mitchell’s nickname for the apartment where she lived with her husband, John Marsh, from 1925-32 and wrote the bulk of “Gone With the Wind” on a rickety Remington typewriter. There is an introductory video, then a tour of the memorabilia-filled flat, which was untouched by arson fires that twice destroyed the second and third floors of the 1913 mansion-turned-apartment-building. One of the blazes closed the structure just days before the 1996 Summer Olympics until May 1997.
On the way back to the hotel, it’s a short detour to Piedmont Park, a 185-acre urban oasis criss-crossed with jogging paths and home to the Atlanta Botanical Garden and loads of summer festivals. The nearby Ansley Inn is a classy bed and breakfast in the Ansley Park neighborhood, one of Atlanta’s oldest and most prestigious neighborhoods. It was spruced up for the Olympics and now has 22 guest rooms, all furnished with antiques and equipped with cable and whirlpools. The beautifully landscaped Tudor-style mansion was built in 1907 and drips with genteel Southern hospitality.
At Peachtree and 14th is Colony Square, a complex that houses the Sheraton Colony Square Hotel, offices, residences, shops and restaurants, including a branch of Chicago’s Corner Bakery.
With just a few hours left to explore, I took off for Buckhead, three miles from the Four Seasons, but a distance that translates into an $18 cab ride. This area looks like any upscale suburb, with its trendy shops, luxury hotels, glitzy nightspots and more than 200 restaurants. I stopped for dinner at the Kudzu Cafe, named for the aggressive vine that threatens most of the South’s countryside. Kudzu serves updated Southern cuisine as well as such Old South favorites as fried green tomatoes, greens and Moon pies, but there’s no peach cobbler, and you won’t get to rub elbows with many Atlantans here.
For that you need to detour to the Flying Biscuit Cafe in historic Candler Park near the Little Five Points neighborhood. It’s one of the city’s “in” breakfast spots — Sunday mornings the wait can be two hours or more. Here you can order breakfast all day and sample light-as-air biscuits as well as innovative vegetarian fare, grilled turkey meat loaf with horseradish cream sauce and “pudge,” a heavenly concoction of red-skinned potatoes mashed with sun-dried tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil. Now that’s new Southern cookin’.
IF YOU GO
– GETTING THERE
There are numerous non-stop flights between O’Hare and Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. The flight takes about two hours, and fares run as low as $100 round trip.
– GETTING AROUND
This is a sprawling, traffic-clogged city that is difficult to navigate without a car and often tedious with one. Opt for taxis or, if there are stops near your point of departure and destination, use MARTA, the city’s light rail system, a bargain at $1.50 a ride.
– DINING
Because I was traveling alone, I chose restaurants with bustle. At the South City Kitchen (1144 Crescent Ave. NE; 404-873-7358), entrees can be pricey, but I made a meal out of a couple of appetizers, a fabulous bread basket and a bowl of chicken posole for about $25. Max Lager’s (320 Peachtree St.; 404-525-4400) is the liveliest dinner spot I visited. Here, a salad, a wood-fired pizza and a 10-oz. microbrew can be had for under $13. At the Kudzu Cafe (3215 Peachtree Rd. NE; 404 262-0661), the seafood ravioli appetizer, crab cakes and dessert will set you back about $30, while the grilled turkey meatloaf and pudge at the Flying Biscuit Cafe (1655 McClendon Ave. NE; 404-687-8888; www.flyingbiscuit.com) goes for a frugal $7.95.
– LODGING
Atlanta offers a wide range of accommodations, most at big-city prices. I stayed at the upper-bracket ($230-$290 a night) Four Seasons in Midtown (75 14th St. NE; 404-881-9898), but rates at the classy Ansley Inn a few blocks away (253 15th St.; 404-872-9000; www.ansleyinn.com) start at $99 including full Southern breakfast.
– INFORMATION
The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau: 404-521-6600 (acvb@atlanta.com).
