Atlanta Magazine

Before Vincent “Pudgy” Richardson and brothers Kevin and Travis Denson helped turn Bankhead into a hip-hop landmark, they sold CDs and white tees out of a bread truck outfitted with 15-inch rims. How they got the bread truck, or why they chose that specific mode of transportation, only Kevin knows. But this mobile operation—the humble beginnings of Toe Jam Music—made a lot of business sense in spring 1998.

For their second outing, Ron Hsu and Co. turned to a more casual format and a more specific focus: In December, they launched Juniper Cafe, devoted loosely to the fare of Vietnam. Why this direction? It’s not just that Vietnamese is a favorite cuisine of his, Hsu told me—it also sits at the precise intersection of his Chinese roots and French training.

On the sunniest Deep South day, wisely planted under the dark green backdrop of a shady tree, a clump of coleus will shimmer with most all the pinks and greens and yellows of other flowers—without a single bloom.

Exuberant garden tostadas, beautiful beet poke, irresistible Indian street snacks—even vegan barbecue! Welcome to Atlanta magazine’s soulful celebration of food from the soil.

In the U.S., the burger is symbolic above all. Its fate stands in for bigger concerns about climate change adaptation: Will things change cosmetically—an electric truck that’s as powerful as one with a combustion engine, a burger that bleeds like the real thing—or more fundamentally?

From tomatoey hand-pulled Chinese noodles to fancy beet “poke” at the Four Seasons. Plus, of course: hot dogs.

West End led the way in serving practitioners of plant-based eating in Atlanta, connected to—but also distinct from—the contemporary popularity of vegetarian and vegan restaurants here today. In one way, the devotion of customers to these businesses helped the neighborhood circulate community dollars, which paved the way for such hot spots as Slutty Vegan.

Not long ago, a meat-averse person who found themselves at a barbecue restaurant would have been relegated to a pretty short menu of side dishes: mac and cheese, potato salad, green beans that might not be flavored with bacon. But, as palates have become more plant-forward, so too have ’cue joints—where veggies are now getting almost as much respect as their low-and-slow menu mates.

Gardeners and chefs, pumpkin whisperers and okra aficionados, taco technicians and pecan purveyors: meet Atlanta’s green giants.

Wherein we welcome mac and cheese to the veggie family—we’re still in the South, after all. Plus: Korean banchan, superbly spiced Ethiopian platters, and more.