May food and dining events in Atlanta

Best Dishes We Ate in April + May Dining Events

May 1 — It’s Thursday! Time for a little “Side Dish.”

For today’s Side Dish, we’re offering two recipes, including one for a broccoli kohlrabi salad using in-season vegetables from your local farmers market. We also have a roundup of 14 food festivals, dinners, and charity dining events to put on your calendar in May and news on the closure of Bar Vegan at Ponce City Market.

➕ Plus, get details on the openings of Sammy’s sandwich and coffee shop in Adair Park, and Redacted, a new underground bar in Summerhill. And we shout out the best dishes we ate in April from restaurants around Atlanta.

In case you missed it in your inbox on Tuesday evening, here’s a link to the latest edition of “Family Meal.” It features a recipe for a grilled kielbasa roll with sauerkraut, the Slow Food Atlanta restaurant award winners, and details on the best Monday supper clubs to check out each week.

Cheers from the Rough Draft dining team!

🍸 Beth and 🍰 Sarra

🏡 The Historic Druid Hills Home & Garden Tour is back May 2-4. We’re celebrating the personality of Frederick Law Olmsted’s remarkable neighborhood with seven must-see homes – each curated to reflect the owners’ unique style and passions. Grab your tickets today! SPONSOR MESSAGE

14 May Food and Dining Events

🍻 Summerhill brewery Halfway Crooks Beer will host Czech Beer Days throughout May, along with special events like trivia nights, family day in the beer garden, honky tonk music, and a Full Flower Moon Festival with food trucks. Keep an eye out for events on Instagram.

🌮 The Tacos and Tequila Fest heads to Piedmont Park on May 4 from 12-10 p.m., offering tacos from Atlanta food trucks, pop-ups, and restaurants, along with tequila cocktails and tastings. This is a 21+ event. Tickets start at $40.

🍸 Cocktails and Castoffs, a food-focused fundraiser featuring five of Atlanta’s top chefs, takes place on May 4 at Bread & Butterfly in Inman Park. The cocktail party and dinner benefit nonprofit DIG (Development in Gardening), which works to improve the lives of marginalized people in communities in Africa through regenerative agriculture. Look for cocktails from Tiffanie Barriere and dishes from chefs Demetrius Brown, Justin Dixon, Maximilian Hines, and Jon’nae “Jaye” Smith, and baker Erika Council. While dinner tickets are sold out, there is a waitlist, and cocktail party options are still available. Click here for more information.

🧑‍🍳 On May 4, Gunshow will host Chef Kevin Chrisman of Asheville’s Golden Hour for its next Hired Guns dinner at the Glenwood Park restaurant, owned by Chef Kevin Gillespie. The $300 ticket includes 10 courses from the visiting chef and the chefs at Gunshow. Click here for more information.

🍽️ Taste of Alpharetta returns to Park Plaza on May 8, from 5-10 p.m., with over 60 area restaurants, a beverage garden, live music, culinary competitions, and more. Admission is free, with food and beverages available for purchase. Click here for tickets.

💃🏾 The Atlanta Caribbean Carnival returns in May for another year of parades, parties, music, dancing, and plenty of food. A children’s carnival kicks off the festival month on May 10. Click here for more information.

🍜 Sweet Auburn BBQ in Poncey-Highland will host its inaugural Good Luck Smokeshow block party on May 14, starting at 5 p.m., which unites locally and nationally renowned Asian chefs and pitmasters. The $125 ticket price includes unlimited food and drinks from chefs like Nikko Cagalanan of Kultura in Charleston and Peter Nguyễn of Lê Madeline in Boston, and barbecue from Blood Bros. BBQ in Houston and Sweet Auburn BBQ. Look for dishes from local restaurants and pop-ups, including Soupbelly, Leftie Lee’s, So So Fed, and Chef Brian So of Spring, with cocktails by Minhwa Spirits. Proceeds benefit Asian American Voices for Education. Click here for tickets.

🇬🇷 The Marietta Greek Festival kicks off on May 16 at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church and runs through May 18. Expect plenty of Greek food, music, and dancing all three days. Tickets start at $5. Click here for more information.

🍷 L’Antoinette in Milton will host a wine drinking party on May 17, starting at 2 p.m. Expect four wines from Maison Lorgeril, highlighting the Languedoc and Roussillon regions of France, and food from Chef Jamie Adams. Tickets are $25 per person.

🥃 Atlanta will play host to the United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) World Class competition sponsored by Diageo, starting on May 18. Held at the Thompson hotel in Buckhead, 30 bartenders from around the country will compete for the title of U.S. Bartender of the Year. The winner will compete in the world competition this August in Toronto. To celebrate the competition in Atlanta this year, several restaurants and bars around town will serve specialty cocktails. Check out the list here.

🚴 Atlanta Streets Alive will shut down a stretch of road between Grant Park and West End and become a car-free zone on May 18, from 2-6 p.m. Restaurants and bars along the route will be open and serving inside, on the patio, on the street, or all three. Follow Atlanta Streets Alive on Instagram for updates.

😂 Southern National Chef Duane Nutter will celebrate the publication of his first cookbook, “Cutting Up in the Kitchen“, on May 22 with a multi-course dinner and a little stand-up comedy at his Summerhill restaurant. Tickets are $165 per person.

🐅 Brew at the Zoo returns to Grant Park on May 24, featuring 30 breweries and cider producers from around the state. Expect live music, yard games, and opportunities to stroll through the zoo to see the animals at this 21+ event. Tickets start at $60. Doors open to the general public at 5:30 p.m.

🛞 Meals on Wheels Atlanta will host its Taste 2025 benefit on May 30 at 1705West on Commerce Drive in Berkeley Park. Expect live music, a Tastemakers awards ceremony, and food from 15 restaurants, food pop-ups, and food trucks, along with cocktails and other beverages. Auction items include experiences and dinners from Avize, Southern Belle, Georgia Boy, Heirloom Market BBQ, and Little Tart Bakeshop. Click here for more information and tickets.

New Decatur Patio Alert!

👏 After closing for a few weeks to upgrade the current restroom, add a second restroom, and renovate the front patio, Smileys Burger Club reopened on East Howard Avenue after a ribbon-cutting yesterday. The patio now features more seating and a much-needed roof, providing shelter from the sun and the rain. Looks great, fellas!

➡️ Read more about Smileys in this opening story from July 2024.

Step inside history at this year’s Druid Hills Home & Garden Tour!

SPONSORED BY DRUID HILLS CIVIC ASSOCIATION

🏡 The Historic Druid Hills Home & Garden Tour is back on May 2-4!

This year, we celebrate the personality of Frederick Law Olmsted’s remarkable neighborhood, showcasing seven must-see homes and his woodland, Deepdene Park. Each home has been carefully renovated and curated to reflect the unique style and passions of its owners.

➡ Fabulous art and rare antiques, mint vintage cars and rare baseball memorabilia, pristine gardens and meticulous renovations — this tour has something for everyone — grab your tickets today!

Bar Vegan closes at Ponce City Market on May 5

⛔ Bar Vegan, a cocktail bar and restaurant founded by Pinky Cole and her Slutty Vegan partners, will close on May 5 after four years at Ponce City Market, according to an announcement on Instagram.

“In March of 2021, a handful of entrepreneurs – commonly from the Atlanta University Center – combined vision, style, culinary arts, and an idea, and molded it into a multi-million dollar scalable business,” the announcement read. “This past month, April 2024, [sic] the decision was made to close the location that created the hookahless blueprint, for there to be similar vegan bars across the country, BarVegan Atlanta.”

The closure of Bar Vegan comes on the heels of the closures of Slutty Vegan in Duluth and on the campuses of Georgia Tech and Spelman earlier this spring. The closures were part of a restructuring of the Atlanta-based vegan restaurant chain founded by Cole in 2018.

➡️ Read the full story here.

The best dishes we ate in April

🍴As dining reporters, part of our job is to eat at restaurants for stories we report and guides we produce. Every Tuesday, Beth spotlights a best dish from one of these restaurant excursions for her column “The Move” in our “Family Meal” newsletter. Sarra rounds up her favorite dishes at the end of each month.

😋 Our best bites from April dining ranged from a green tea castella filled with buttercream at Bread Museum and a vegetable-heavy quinoa salad from Tio Lucho’s (pictured) to decadent French onion dip topped with caviar at Tiny Lou’s and a good, old-fashioned Southern food spread at Magnolia Room.

➡️ Read Beth’s picks here and Sarra’s picks here.

Sammy’s sandwich and coffee shop opens in Adair Park

🥪 Located at Abrams Fixtures on Northside Drive, Sammy’s opens early in the morning for breakfast sandwiches and coffee, before shifting to lunchtime sandwich options in the afternoon. And while the sandwich shop is only open until 3 p.m. on weekdays, owners Jason Furst and Chef Sam Pinner plan to expand those hours into the evening, and maybe add weekend brunch. Cocktails are also in the works, as is providing space for chefs to pop up during off days at the sandwich shop.

Redacted brings an underground bar to Summerhill

🤩 Nearly seven years after its announcement, Redacted Basement Drink Parlor opened in Summerhill. Designed as a neighborhood bar – Summerhill’s first true bar – Redacted offers cocktails, wine, and local beer with charcuterie plates five nights a week.

Expect cheekily named spins on classic drinks (Not Your Sister’s Amaretto Sour, Downstairs Old Fashioned) as well as in-house trademarks, like the F’N Froot Loop Milk Punch, a clarified milk punch featuring cachaça, Earl Grey syrup, and a fancy toothpick lined with colorful pieces of cereal. The mezcal-based Judy Tuesdays comes mixed with lime, Luxardo cherries, agave, pineapple, and blood orange.

⤵️ Located below street level on Georgia Avenue, the atmosphere at the underground cocktail bar is comfortable without inviting rowdiness, a starkly different vibe from other venues where owners Judy Ho and Jake Karmin (Hand-in-Hand Pub, Euclid Avenue Yacht Club) learned the ways of bar management.

At the Market + Two Recipes

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKETS

🥕 It’s veggie time! Rough Draft Atlanta and Community Farmers Markets are partnering to give you two tasty recipes using ingredients from your local farmers market. This week, we’ve got a yummy broccoli salad and carrot and grits recipe. Check them out here.

😮 Underground bar in Summerhill