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How Our Restaurants Define Us

Which restaurants are necessary for the locals?  Which for the Tourists?  Are there restaurants that are so important that they help draw people to Atlanta?  With the plan to save Paschal’s these questions have come to the for.  Every city has restaurants that help give it identity.  Could you imagine L.A. without Spaggo?  Chicago without Ed Debevic’s?  New York without the Carnegie Deli?

I think there are restaurants which are their own positive externalities.  In other words, even if you never eat there, your experience of Atlanta is enhanced because a given restaurant is there.

Perhaps the clearest example has to be TheVarsity.  Even if you’re vegan and never eat there, you should be glad it’s around.  It’s a cheap place to eat for college students, a place for Coca Cola and Bell South executives to slum, and sits on North Ave., one of Atlanta’s traditional lines of racial demarcation.  As the world’s largest drive in, it’s a tourist destination for aficianados of the 50s and 60s car culture.  It’s also a defining element of Atlanta.  For those who say that there is absolutely nothing Southern in Atlanta, this is at least on piece that makes it clear that Atlanta is the king of southern cities.

Mary Macs may also be such a place.  The Buckhead equivalent may be the The Buckhead Diner.  Each one of these places is part of the local fabric of the community and draws tourists as well.  They are institutions which help support the neighborhood.

So, how do we preserve these institutions and keep them in good shape?  Should there be a preservation arm of the Georgia Restaurant Council?  Does government have a role here or should we let a restaurant that can’t make it just die off, even if it’s a defining part of the community?

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 7th, 2004 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Looking at the Past. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.