Super Bowl's Super Restaurants

Atlanta will be buzzing this weekend, thanks to the Super Bowl. The town will be filled with  not only Patriots and Rams fans but with fans of the city's sparkling dining scene. Down home Southern cooking will have its' own battle against Nouvelle Southern cuisine.

A Southerner herself, Kim Severson wrote about this vibrant city in today's New York Times Food section. Atlanta, she writes, has always been a city about money. It's a thriving metropolis, not a sleepy Southern town and it attracts all sorts of workers from around the globe. There are immigrants from Mexico, India, South Korea and Vietnam. The influx feeds a mix of cuisines many of them represented along a stretch of road, Buford Highway. Two favorites are Yet Tuh where diners can feast on homey Korean grandma food such as bubbling pork soup and Food Terminal where diners can have a wide variety of Malaysian soups and barbecues. Next to it are a Chinese barbecue joint and a Viet-Cajun seafood restaurant along with a tofu house So Kong Dong that features Korean soups and barbecues. Atlantans also go mad for the heavily Cuban influenced seafood heavy Watchman's

Many of the city's biggest names in food have a presence here, Hugh Acheson,a Canadian born chef who adapted well to Atlanta has Georgians hooked on his coffee and fat squares of toast slathered with fresh local cow's milk cheese and jam at his Spiller Park. There is Anne Quatrano who brought  the farm to table movement to Atlanta  twenty-five years ago who now is bringing Gulf seafood to the area thanks to her second eatery W.H. Stiles Fish Camp. Atlanta is also a big breakfast town. Ms. Quatrano will open Pancake Social sometime soon but there are also much loved Java Jive, Highland Bakery and Homegrown, the last serving the ever popular pancakes and chili cheese grits. There is also the classic Waffle House. The original has been turned into a museum in nearby Avondale Estates. There is still traditional Southern food.For those who crave barbecue there is B's Cracklin Barbecue where pit master Bryan Furman turns out whole hog barbecue using heirloom breed hogs. Traditionalists will like The Busy Bee Cafe which has been around since the 1947 and has every kind of down home dish from fried chicken to peach cobbler.

People will be heading to Atlanta for the big game this weekend. They should take a break ad discover the city's vibrant restaurant scene. The town is chock full of amazing restaurants from traditional to exotic  a sure victory with food and restaurant lovers.