Car Wash—With a Cocktail: Auto Spa Bistro
Midtown’s Auto Spa Bistro amps up a mundane chore with a tiny but efficient restaurant, where patrons can sip cocktails while watching the suds roll off their cars or relax in purple snakeskin chairs that are more ultra lounge than waiting room.
Holistic Pet Shop OTP: Pit Stop for Pets
Tucked behind the historic Silos landmark in Crabapple, Pit Stop for Pets specializes in organic pet food and treats.
Cold-Press Juice: Rawesome Juicery
Chantel Jiroch’s Rawesome Juicery commands impressive lines at the historic Sweet Auburn Curb Market.
Ice Cream: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
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.
Expense Account Meal: Bone’s
Since 1979, Buckhead suits have filed into our city’s oldest steakhouse for deftly seared rib-eyes, polished waiters in starched whites, and a 20,000-bottle wine list that even has a magnum of the cult wine Screaming Eagle.
Indian Street Food: Chai Pani
Because it feels so hip and modern, it would be easy to assume that Meherwan and Molly Irani’s Indian restaurant in Decatur (an offshoot of their Asheville location) caters to Westerners. False.
Riding Gear: Horsetown
Even if you’re not buying, it’s worth a trip just to look at the cowboy boots.
Japanese Restaurant: Tomo
Once a quiet sushi bar in a Vinings strip mall and now a glittery mecca in the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Tomo is the one place to indulge in a multicourse omakase, which you must order five days in advance.
New Barbecue: The Pig & the Pearl
Amid the blandness of Atlantic Station dining, Todd Richards’s second restaurant (following the Shed at Glenwood) is a safe haven.
ITP Neighborhood Boutique: Squash Blossom
Opened in 1999, Squash Blossom is a standby in Decatur for a devoted clientele. Its shelves are stacked with the sort of boho-cool knits and doodads Decaturites swoon for, from Free People and Johnny Was to Toms.
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