August 2025
Features
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A short ode to Buc-ee’s
Depending on who you ask, Buc-ee’s can either sound like a road trip oasis or the ninth circle of hell. The enormous convenience stores began in Texas and have spread across the South. Georgia’s highways now boast two locations, with two more under construction.
3 Georgia destinations every arts and culture nerd should know about
Visit where Flannery O’Connor spent time writing at Andalusia Farm in Milledgeville, an important site of folk art that’s on the National Register of Historic Places, Pasaquan, and Ocmulgee Mounds, a National Historic Park.
3 Georgia havens that encapsulate luxury travel
Lounge and golf at Cloudland at McLemore Resort Lookout Mountain, experience true fine dining at World of Quercus, and live in a “European palace” at Sea Island.
Old memories and new finds on North Georgia’s Highway 5
The drive up Highway 5, past Canton and all the way to Blue Ridge, is still filled with whimsical, tasty, and unexpected finds—some old, some new, some timeless. Here are some of my favorites.
3 family adventures in Georgia that keep the kids in mind
As summer turns to fall, head to the apple orchards of North Georgia, kayak the Etowah River, or get up close and personal with turtles at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
3 outdoor wonderlands for Georgia adventure-seekers
Hike the eroded soil that makes up Providence Canyon, canoe the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and go fly fishing on the idyllic Soque River.
He was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most trusted leaders. So why haven’t you ever heard of J.T. Johnson?
He isn’t famous, though arguably he should be. “J.T. was a personal assistant to Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy,” says Andrew Young, “and he was a friend of mine.” Johnson was a leader of the Ground Crew, a sort of special forces unit within Dr. Martin Luther King’s organization the SCLC—the Southern Christian Leadership Council—and he ran operations in the streets of nearly every city where the movement played out.
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The Connector
Salsa dancing is taking over metro Atlanta
Ever since Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS released in January, salsa dancing has been given an unlikely footing across metro Atlanta and beyond. Longtime dance instructor Carrie Thomas says she never would have guessed that she would be teaching salsa outside of the city limits. And yet these days, students are flocking to her private salsa classes around Acworth, Dallas, Marietta, and Douglasville.
With new bars Pisces and Lore, Atlanta’s best pop-up party creators find permanent homes on Edgewood Avenue
In recent years, the street’s once-thriving bar and club scene has taken a hit. Now Atlanta’s well-known party producers aim to shift the fortunes of the struggling Edgewood Avenue. Pisces is a venture from DJ Ree de la Vega, known for her hugely popular outdoor summer dance party, Chaka Khan Hacienda. Down the street is Lore, opened by Jon Dean, Kimberly Turner, and Scott Lockhart.
At Ponce City Market, scan your eye to prove you’re a human
Inside a spare, warehouse-like store in Ponce City Market, World invites you to join the 12 million other people globally who have stepped up to the Orb, proffered an eye, and had their iris scanned in exchange for a World ID proving they are human—plus access to a cryptocurrency called WorldCoin.
How East Point built a velodrome that still spins with history
Tucked along a stretch of East Point’s Sumner Park, the Dick Lane Velodrome is a concrete time machine where neighborhood kids, adults, and elite athletes alike chase speed and strategy in thundering laps. The high-banked racetrack, a centuries-old invention, invites cyclists to push the limits of physics at breakneck speeds in a crucible of grit and centrifugal force.
Guaranteed income programs can help lift low-income Georgians—but improving mental health is a different story
Tatiana Marie’s mental outlook changed when she got involved with In Her Hands, a local nonprofit program, funded by the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund and GiveDirectly, that delivers a monthly guaranteed income for two to three years to Black women facing economic insecurity. The extra cash didn’t solve all of Tatiana’s problems, but it helped enormously.
The Bite
La Santa Tacos & Bar brings Mexico City street food flavors to Midtown
In the heart of Midtown, upscale flash collides with cultural warmth at La Santa Tacos & Bar. That’s the intention of the restaurant for partners Pablo Casas and Fernando Jimenez. La Santa is a tribute to an iconic club in Mexico City, where Jimenez hails from (Casas is from Colombia).
Our search for the best fried-fish sandwiches in Atlanta
This is the South, so it’s no surprise that the long-standing tradition of the Friday fish fry factors in to scoping out a pleasing combination of fish and bread. Platters are typically on the menu at many restaurants, so the option of a fried-fish sandwich can often be narrowed down to casting your sights on the right place, at the right time.
Review: Cafe Momentum Atlanta’s fine dining gives its interns a second chance
Cafe Momentum Atlanta, which opened downtown in March, puts investing in Atlanta’s youth at the forefront of dining out, while also delivering a memorable meal. The Atlanta outpost is the nonprofit organization’s third. The cafe’s motto, emblazoned in big letters on the dining room wall, is “Eat. Drink. Change Lives.”
3 metro Atlanta restaurants serving world-class Peruvian ceviche
When Atlanta summer heat rolls in like a steam engine, nothing hits quite like ceviche. The refreshing Latin American dish, raw seafood “cooked” in citrus juices, is cool, fresh, and zingy. If you want the real deal, look to Cuzco Peruvian Cuisine on Buford Highway, Tio Lucho’s in Poncey-Highland, or Little Tokyo in Alpharetta.
The Goods
Atlanta Ballet makes a bold move—selling its headquarters—to find financial stability in a postpandemic world
Not long after he had taken over as executive director at Atlanta Ballet in 2021, Tom West and his board of directors had to make one of the toughest decisions in the company’s history. Last August, they did something rather startling: They sold their headquarters—the Michael C. Carlos Dance Centre—for $8.3 million to Faropoint, a New Jersey real-estate investment firm.
Six summer reads from Georgia authors
A slew of Georgia authors have new books out this year, from a moving memoir by Erika J. Simpson to Stacey Abrams’s latest in the Avery Keene thriller series. Get your bookmarks ready for your next favorite read.
At Wanderstate Mercantile, shopping is an experience, not just a transaction
It’s a common complaint: Items in big-box stores, from furniture to clothing, lack the quality of years past. In a race for low prices and consumer convenience, today’s major retailers generally opt for cheaper materials and substandard labor practices to pump out cheap, overly abundant goods. Retailers like Stephanie Young, who owns Wanderstate Mercantile in Chamblee, want to change that.
Miscellaneous
A love letter to Oakland Cemetery
Oakland isn’t just a cemetery. It’s a stage, a wellness studio, and a sacred gathering space. Yes, it’s a place for mourning, but it’s also a place where joy lives on. I know I’ll keep returning to this cemetery—to run past the headstones, costumed and breathless, my dog Mya dragging me along.
Editor’s Journal: Road trip miracles and wonders
When my best friend and I kayaked on the Etowah for the first time, the driver who took us to the load-in spot warned us that we’d be encountering a Class 4 waterfall. He said when we reached it, we should go to the right side of the river and portage. I assumed that my friend, as a kayaking veteran, knew what portage meant. Well, no. She thought I would know.
