Best of Atlanta 2014

Even if you’re not a fan, you can’t refute that The Walking Dead has become synonymous with Georgia. It’s undeniable—from the ubiquitous apocalyptic Atlanta skyline via Jackson Street to Senoia’s permanent association as the sickly-sweet town of Woodbury, the landscape has forever become associated with the undead. With all that pop culture fueling fans more rabid than a horde of walkers, Atlanta Movie Tours has capitalized on the filming locales in metro Atlanta and the surrounding countryside by offering two zombie filming tours.

Foreboding name aside, Terminus Wake Park allows those without boats—or boating friends—to wakeboard. Here wakeboarders are pulled by cables, rather than outboard engines. For the uninitiated, wakeboarding is like a hybrid of waterskiing and snowboarding.

With a little restaurant and bar housed in what is usually a waiting room littered with outdated magazines, a mundane chore suddenly becomes a leisure activity. And in the Bistro, the only reminder that you’re even at a car wash comes from the framed photos customers’ hot rods hung on the walls. Purple and white snakeskin chairs, a wall of plush violet velvet, and a granite bar stocked with bottles of liquor give off more of an ultralounge vibe.

Even if you’re not buying, it’s worth a trip just to look at the cowboy boots.

The casual pool player faces a challenge. There are pool halls in town where sharks hone their intimidating skills, and others where pool tables are an afterthought to the revelry. For players who fall in the middle, the Independent makes getting stuck behind the eight ball feel all right.

There’s nothing granola about the green offerings at this eco beauty store, which opened in May.

Neither rain nor snow nor time of day can keep the crowds from this Ohio-based creamery. Flavors like goat cheese with red cherries, brown butter–almond brittle, and sweet cream biscuits and peach jam are the velvety wonderlands we dream about.

You don’t need to know the backstory of how Cucinelli’s clothes are handmade in a restored Umbrian village to appreciate the workmanship and sumptuousness of the materials.

If you can put a piece of glass or marble on top of an industrial artifact, Martha Nicholson has turned it into a table—pigeon coops, sewing tables, gears, cogs.

For 15 years, Kathryn King has shown remarkable confidence and technique in one of Atlanta’s most consistent kitchens.