Photograph courtesy of Chops Lobster Bar
Atlanta, thankfully, is no longer run by the good ol’ boys club, but Chops Lobster Bar’s rich mahogany interior makes anyone feel like an insider. Buckhead Life Restaurant Group founder I. Pano Karatassos launched Chops in 1989 on West Paces Ferry Road, intent on bringing Atlanta a world-class steak-and-seafood experience. More than 30 years later, a meal here is as timeless as an heirloom watch and as fresh as the Nova Scotia lobsters that are flown in daily.
Start your meal on the “surf” side with a Chops classic, the South African lobster tail; it comes ever-so-lightly breaded and served with lemon and a tangy honey-mustard dipping sauce. The Maryland crab cake, generously assembled with fresh-cracked lump crab, could easily be served shoreside. When it’s “turf” time, opt for a Chops mainstay, the filet mignon pepper steak, the rarer the better. It’s crusted with fragrant peppercorns and draped in a velvety au poivre sauce you’ll want to lick from the plate. Specialty cuts abound, too, and you can rarely go wrong: Chops’s steaks are fired in a custom-built, 1,700-degree oven that caramelizes the outside while leaving the interior meat mouthwateringly tender. For dessert, honor the memory of the now-shuttered Buckhead Diner, another Karatassos creation, with its James Beard–winning white-chocolate banana cream pie. A single bite confers entry among its devotees—an insider club we never want to leave. The restaurant expands on its cachet with two Atlanta area locations — one at Centennial Yards Downtown, scheduled to open in summer 2027, and another in Johns Creek set to open in 2028.
Photograph courtesy of Chops Lobster Bar
Photograph courtesy of Chops Lobster Bar
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This article appears in our October 2026 issue.
