For traditional southern fare, you can try Mary Mac's tea room, which is a short cab ride from your hotel, or Pitty Pat's Porch, which is across the street from your hotel. The Varsity, a traditional drive-in, is a famous Atlanta landmark and is located in Midtown. You also may want to try Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles.

The other posters have given you some great suggestions.

One word of caution about Pitty Pat's Porch. We sent some clients over there to eat a few year's ago for dinner and they were very disappointed. I've since heard some other diners say the place is not what it used to be. But maybe it's improved since then.

Mary Mac's is a good idea. I'm also partial to the Southern cooking at the Colonnade, a restaurant in an old hotel on Cheshire Bridge Road. Fantastic fried chicken. They don't take credit cards but do have an ATM in the lobby.

I second the Varsity recommendation. Greasy food but what an atmosphere!

I haven't heard good things about PittyPats. It's right across the street from the Westin but it seems to be a tourist trap for conventioneers downtown.

Atlanta is also very much known for "New Southern" cooking. Some good choices would be South City Kitchen in Midtown or Horseradish Grill in Buckhead (near Chastain Park). You might also like Two Urban Licks (near the Carter Center) -it has a New Orleans influenced menu and great views of the Atlanta skyline.

Traditional Atlanta cooking is just good southern cuisine from fried chicken to fresh vegetables and sweet iced tea for lunch to biscuits, grits, country fried ham with red eye gravy, cat heads (biscuits covered in sausage gravy) for breakfast. For that type of meal, Mary Mac's can't be beat and it's not far from the Peachtree Plaza at all, east on Ponce de Leon. At the same time, the massive influx of immigrants over the past 10 to 15 years has made Atlanta one of the best places in the world for different ethnic restaurants. Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Latin American, African, and Middle East cuisine is everywhere.

However, one restaurant that is unique to Atlanta (and Athens) is the Varsity. It is also probably the oldest continuously open restaurant in Atlanta, having first opened in 1928. It is the world's largest drive-in and also has and indoor capacity to seat hundreds. If you like this sort of food, (chili dogs, hamburgers, fries, onion rings, fried fruit pies) it is one of the best of it's type in the U.S.. My favorite meal there is a chili-cheese steak with pimento (chili burger with melted pimento cheese), a toasted chicken salad sandwich on rye, an order of the best onion rings in the world, two P.C.'s (Pure Chocalate milk over shaved ice) and a fried peach pie. Not for the faint of heart or the delicate of stomach, but once you've had it, you'll want to go back. I've been going there since the mid-1950's and I still get the occasional "Varsity Attack". I live closer to Athens, GA than Atlanta, but you can't beat the original on North Avenue for the atmosphere, so I occasionally drive the 65 miles to get there. Just catch the MARTA train north from Peachtree Center station a few stops to North Avenue station and walk a couple of blocks.

P.S. Peachy's right about the Colonnade. The best leg of lamb I ever had in my life was there. It melted in my mouth. Good biscuits, too.

as good as mary macs is i wouldn't hesitate to visit the colonade on cheshire bridge also. as fro the cuisine that atlanta is most famous for i'd have to say that would be fried chicken or barbeque and both are found in abundance in the area.

Bbqman, congrats on becoming the Gainesville expert! Wonderful to have you on board with me and BrianO! Whenever we pass the Havana restaurant (which is often), I always think of you.

Bbqman. How long have you lived in Gainesville? My dad's family has lived there or in the mountains just north for over 200 years. During WWII my dad went into the army air corps and my mom moved to Atlanta to work at the Bell Bomber plant. (now Lockheed-Martin) They had planned on moving back after the war, but the Army Corps of Engineers took the family farm (about 700 acres) through eminate domain to build Lake Lanier. Only about 150 acres ended up under the lake and the remainder is now covered with $1 million + homes on the north end of the lake.

Brain fart. Make that imminent domain.