Eater is highlighting some of Atlanta’s oldest restaurants and food institutions through a series of photo essays, profiles, and personal stories. The restaurants featured are a mix of longtime familiar favorites and less well-known venerable establishments serving a wide variety of cuisines and communities in Atlanta and the surrounding metro area. These restaurants serve as the foundation of the Atlanta dining scene, and continue to stand the test of time.
Eats stands out among a sea of construction along Ponce de Leon Avenue where the borders of Midtown, Old Fourth Ward, and Virginia-Highland meet near the Eastside Beltline. As a modest, single-story building with stucco painted avocado green, Eats is squat in stature sitting in the shadow of Ponce City Market across the street and at least two construction sites which will eventually tower over the restaurant in the coming year.
Opened in 1993, Eats is a hold-out in Atlanta, a city where developers are known for snatching up properties at lightening speed, often razing historic or cherished buildings. Sometimes the decades-old businesses occupying those buildings are factored into future plans for these properties. But Eats hearkens back to a time when the city had some semblance of local character and wasn’t chock-full of bland mixed-use complexes dotting the landscape. It remains a restaurant staple in Atlanta serving uncomplicated, affordable food in an atmosphere which can only be described as charmingly old school. That Eats still exists at all on Ponce today comes down to the fact that owner Bob Hatcher ended up purchasing the building in 1998.
Eats
Hatcher bemoans the developments going up around the restaurant and wishes the city would focus on fixing existing infrastructure first before piling on new developments. Owning the building gives him breathing room to operate Eats the…
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