HOME > Chowhound > Atlanta >


Something Southern in the Buckhead area

Hey ATL Chowhounds!
Ex-pat southerner here, are there any meat and three's, or amazing BBQ places in the Buckhead area?

  1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit)
  1. I don't know about Meat & 3's (not a huge patron of such places, I know, I'm a terrible Atlantan) - but Horseradish Grill is near Chastain Park in Buckhead and is really top-notch.

    3 Replies
    1. re: laurendlewis

      I haven't been to Horseradish Grill in forever- I remember thinking it was past its prime on the last visit. But that's likely several staff changes ago.

      Colonnade is the meat + 3 that comes to mind. There's also OK Cafe out by I-75 on W Paces. Even Holeman & Finch's veggies are very Southern, but that's kind of a different food and price-wise.

      Closest good BBQ will be DBA in Va Hi, Pig n Chik up Roswell Rd in Sandy Springs, or Community Q/Fox Bros if you're willing to travel further.

      1. re: ted

        Great suggestions!
        Note that Colonnade is only open for dinner now (right, Ted?)

    2. Sadly....this was not a very Chowhound trip, as work consumed most of the schedule.
      Dinners were at Pricci and Prime (the one in Lenox), and neither was overwhelming.
      A quick trip to the Varsity however, did cure all that ailed me, as I was able to get real southern sweet tea.

      7 Replies
      1. re: NWLarry

        shucks...I saw this too late. Two places you really should have tried are R Thomas (the down home bowl is fantastic). Not your typical southern fare, but the food is very good and uses a lot of traditional ingredients. Another would be Fat Matt's Rib Shack off Piedmont. Fantastic ribs and barbecue there.

        At least you got to hit the Varsity....good stuff.

        Fat Matt's Rib Shack
        1811 Piedmont Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

          1. re: ted

            Fat Matt's is usually very good. Honestly, from that picture, I don't see what looks so bad about it. That all looks pretty standard for a barbecue joint. It's not fine dining by any measure, but the ribs and chicken are awesome.

            1. re: tbradt

              So much residual grease that it turned the butcher paper practically into a window pane. That's because they par cook them either in the oven or by boiling them (a BBQ cardinal sin) then finish them on the grill (thus the burnt bone ends).

              There's no smoke ring. They don't cook low and slow to render the excess fat out and just leave moist meat without the gut wrenching aftereffects.

              The sandwich ought to be called a sloppy Joe, not BBQ. The meat isn't cooked well enough to stand on it's own, so they mince it to threads and drown it in sauce.

              Ribs take a lot of work. Even more so than a few years ago, there are a lot of people in town who put a lot of effort into cooking their ribs. That these guys turn out that nastiness and still get name-dropped in movies and referred by so many people is just wrong.

              I hunted through my photos and didn't find the perfect rib photo. A Google search turned up lots of pics of competition boxes for ribs:


              Most restaurants may not be putting as much care into it when they are making hundreds of pounds at a time, but anything would be an improvement over Fat Matt's.

              1. re: ted

                Agree. Fat Matt's is living on an undeserved reputation. Any place that boils their ribs should be ashamed of themselves. Fox Bro's and Harold's are my Q mainstays in the city. Freshaire when out and about south and Ball Ground when north.


                1. re: ted

                  And R. Thomas? I have few standards but one of them is never to eat in a place where there are birds in the room. Ick.