My list of restaurants near train stations for Atlanta is basically food courts in shopping malls. The itinerary might change within Atlanta depending on whether we arrive on time or not, and once it's decided how much time we need to store our luggage at hotels, if that is what everyone chooses to do. As of now, the lunch stop is at CNN Center/Phillips Arena, which is on the east-west MARTA Blue & Green Lines. We could also end up at The Mall at Peachtree Center (on the Red & Gold Lines). Other possibilities for lunch include Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody (Red Line), or Lenox Square or Phipps Plaza (both at the Lenox stop on the Gold Line). I'd like to leave Underground Atlanta (near Five Points, where all lines meet) for dinnertime, since it offers some more upscale places we might enjoy more instead of its usual food court fare.

Added section for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It qualifies for the list by virtue of its MARTA and SkyTrain stations. It's only a what-if scenario, as we don't expect to be at the airport at meal times -- but of course things can change due to unforseen circumstances. As with any of my airport restaurant lists, only those landside (pre-security) are shown; if you are flying to or from Atlanta there may be other places to eat beyond the security checkpoints and in the airside terminals.

I'm not doing the same for Memphis or New Orleans since their airports are not served by rail transportation.

A suggestion for Atlanta: The varsity. It serves hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. Here is the link. http://www.thevarsity.com/

It's close to marta too.

Certainly an idea to consider. Varsity has been featured on TV shows about the best hot dog stands in the country. They look to be on par with Sonic with the drive-in, but they do have a larger inside area as well. The place is a couple blocks west of the North Avenue station on the Gold & Red Lines.

It has seating for 800 and welcomes groups

Yeah but they haven't seen ours.

In the last update to the itinerary a few months ago, I made the luinch stop at the latter location, Peachtree Center since it has a larger choice of eateries and it's where we'll be close to 1 PM if we are on schedule.

Oh, and by the way. Bill Haithcoat has become a culinary expert in Atlanta, going out and dining in certain restaurants to see whether or not our group would be happy, taken care of, and not sent to the poor house. We'll elaborate further in a couple of days in this thread and then let you choose from a few -- Majority rules.

First, you may have noticed that I moved things around in order to keep our discussions along with the particular topic. For example, our talk about The Varsity was moved to this thread (see above) so we can deal with dining in Atlanta exclusively in this topic.

Now let's elaborate on what Bill H and I have discussed regarding the dinner opportunities in Atlanta that would fit our budgets and our needs. As mentioned earlier, Bill has not only suggested and done research on a few places, but he has dined at them as well to preview them for our purposes.

Let me say that it does not have to be necessary that we all eat in one place. I think there will be 12 or 13 of us, unless somebody else joins us or someone already on the guest list has to leave us before dinnertime. We could conceivably split into smaller groups dependent on personal food preferences and finances.

Continuing discussion on The Varsity, here is Bill's take along with my comments. The location of The Varsity in question is the flagship location of 6 stores located throughout the Atlanta and Athens areas. Bill likes the place. Across the freeway overpass from this one is Georgia Tech, hence its name. It would satisfy the need to keep our expenses down, but what we would get is fast food and the opportunity to dine at a nationally known landmark and have "Whaddya Have?" shouted at us. Note that it does attract a college crowd, which may not be a negative consideration given it is the summer break.

Moving to sitdown restaurants, the first one recommended was Ted's Montana Grill. The Ted is none other than Ted Turner. But despite the local ownership, this is a chain found throughout the country in 15 states. In the city of Atlanta, there are two locations. The Midtown location is a few blocks north of the Amtrak station. The Downtown place is in the several block stretch between Peachtree Center and Centennial Olympic Park. Between the two locations, I told Bill I would prefer the Downtown location, because it's walkable from two MARTA heavy rail stations. Midtown would necessitate us taking the same bus ride we would be taking to and from Amtrak, and it's not a time we're arriving or departing town. It would therefore only be beneficial to Bill, and the one person staying in a hotel close to Amtrak. Here's the menu for the Downtown location. I find it to be a bit on the pricey side. If you have taken Acela Express, been served Bison meat in First Class, and didn't feel disgusted by it, you'll be pleased to know that they specialize in Bison.

Next is Durango Steakhouse, which is a chain of just three restaurants. Two are on the east coast of Florida, and we have this one in Atlanta. It appears to be right downtown, walking distance from Five Points station. Here is their Atlanta dinner menu.. Again it's up there in price, but one can get a 10 ounce chopped steak for $17.

Bill reports that the Underground Atlanta attraction is not what it used to be. With my research for my webpage I discovered that only about half as many eateries exist as there used to be. The departure of World of Coca Cola to a new location near Centennial Olympic Park, coupled with the bad economy, has caused many of the businesses in this complex to be closed and even boarded up. There is therefore a sense of insecurity around there that didn't exist when more people would visit to eat and shop there. However, there are still several sitdown restaurants just outside the mall, a few of which Bill has visited.

He went to Scores sports bar. He was not impressed by this, and I don't think it would meet our needs to be in a noisy bar. He said that service was slow and the place appeared to be largely empty.

There is also a Johnny Rockets there, which many know as a national chain.... mainly hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken served in a diner-like setting. A Jamaican restaurant also did not impress Bill.

On a later visit to Underground, he did eat in a place called Georgia Peach. This place may just be the answer for us. In the medium range (cheaper than a traditional steakhouse but better than fast food), Bill reports that the staff was very friendly, and when he mentioned his intentions for eating there, they seemed very interested in meeting our needs (i.e. separate checks). They even took a tentative reservation for July 18th already for 14 people, which of course we can cancel or adjust if needed.

So I ask that you all thank Bill for his advance work in giving us this list of places to eat, and now we'd like your opinions as well.

Kevin,

First of course my thanks to Bill for all of his hard work in eating his way across Atlanta for us.

Personally I see nothing wrong with the Georgia Peach at all. There are more than a few things that I see on the menu that I would consider eating and I'm sure that my mom could also find things to eat.

I'd probably give a thumbs down to the Varsity, don't know that I need to be barked at. I may even be able to get that on Amtrak if I'm unlucky enough to get the wrong SA in the diner. And while it might not be quite as busy as the rest of the year, many colleges these days still have a moderate presence during the summer, so I would expect that there could still be a student crowd there.

I would also have no objections to either of the two steak houses should other's prefer them over the Peach.

Finally, just as an FYI, they also served that Bison meatloaf on the Empire Builder for about a year or so too.

The Durango steakhouse is my first choice. The Georgia peach would be 2nd.

I thought about it overnight to make sure I wasn't just having a knee-jerk reaction, but I'm thinking Georgia Peach myself. I already like fried okra, and the thought of having ranch to dip it in makes it sound even better to me, and wonder why I haven't tried that before at home. lol

I have to comment on The Varsity. I have been eating there since the 80's, and it is not a college packed type restaurant. Most of the customers are suburban types. The lines always look long, but move insanely quickly. It's decidedly southern, but 100% urban Atlanta. Even if we don't eat here as a group, I hope y'all get to experience it at some point. It's not the best food in the world, but it's an experience. Whattya have!!!??!!

The Georgia Peach sounds good to me. Fried Okra,yum. One of my favorites from before even I came to this country!