Restaurants Something Different
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Alumni Cookie Dough
Price: $
Locations
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480 N. Thomas St. Athens, GA 30601. 762-400-2634
File Under: Ice Cream, Something Different. • Cookie dough specially formulated to be safe to eat raw, available in many flavors. Jittery Joe’s coffee, milkshakes (with cookie dough), ice cream sundaes and toppings. Some vegan, gluten-free and keto choices. You can also take its product home and bake it if you want some crunch.
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ARTini's Art Lounge
Price: $
Locations
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337 Prince Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-353-8530 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Bars. Features: Art classes, parking. • Local in-town paint-and-sip with beer and wine, plus nonalcoholic beverages if you need to concentrate on your sunset masterpiece. Open studio time if you don't want a structured class. To-go kits for private parties in your own space.
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Athens Cooks
Price: $$
Locations
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100 Prince Ave., Ste. 103 Athens, GA 30601. 706-623-3373
File Under: Something Different. Features: Catering, beer and wine. • Fancy cooking store retails plenty of goods for cheffing, baking and making cocktails as well as host gifts aplenty, but also does classes and serves breakfast and lunch. Charcuterie boards to go, housemade granola, coffee from 1000 Faces, beautiful soups and well-presented, tasty sandwiches.
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Bar Bruno
Price: $$$
Locations
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1664 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30606. 770-215-9100
File Under: Bars and Clubs, Something Different. Features: Full bar, outside seating. • ZZ & Simone's sister business is a bar first and foremost, with some eats on the side. Wine and aperitifs over beer and shots, plus bowls of olives, pretty desserts, fancy toasts and stuff like that to keep you going.
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Big City Bread Cafe
Price: $$
Locations
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393 N. Finley Street Athens, GA 30601. 706-353-0029 View Map
File Under: Bakeries, Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Beer and wine, catering, counter service, outside seating, delivery, Wi-Fi. Hours: Breakfast, lunch, Friday dinner • Longtime Athens favorite has a great patio popular with dogs and kids. Biscuits, French toast, continental breakfast, omelets, great sandwiches, quiche, soups, burgers (veggie and non), small but good selection of beer and wine. Baked goods galore, including for special order. Friday night dinners are a chance for the kitchen to play around with more elaborate offerings.
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The Café on Lumpkin
Price: $$
Locations
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1700 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-215-9240
File Under: Something Different. Features: Take-out, outside seating, beer and wine, catering, counter service. Hours: Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. • Breakfast until late afternoon, with pastries, burritos, sandwiches, good baked things; classic sandwiches, soups and salads at lunch; several different types of proper tea service (by reservation) with scones, clotted cream, tea sandwiches; and then snacks and light drinks in the early evening. Wide selection of teas. Gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options.
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Chuck’s Fish
Price: $$$
Locations
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220 W. Broad St. Athens, GA 30601. 706-395-6611
File Under: Something Different. Features: Catering, full bar, outside seating, reservations, take-out. Hours: Dinner. • Upscale place with an emphasis on Gulf seafood, including a large, well-executed sushi menu. Land animals, too. Signature cocktails with sake or Japanese whiskey as well as standards. Big for date night.
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Condor Chocolates
Price: $
Locations
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1658 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-850-4803
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160 E. Washington St. Athens, GA 30601. 706-521-8966
File Under: Coffee Houses, Something Different. Hours: Seven days. Features: Outside seating, Wi-Fi. • Locally-based small-batch chocolate shop offers truffles, chocolate bars, coffee bars and more, plus drinking chocolate, coffee, gelato, ice cream sandwiches, toffee, etc. Vegan options. Downtown location has big windows to watch the chocolate elves at work, or you can book a tour.
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The Crab Hut
Price: $$$
Locations
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1860 S. Barnett Shoals Road Athens, GA 30605. 706-850-0762
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1011 Park Dr. Watkinsville, GA 30677. 706-705-1381
File Under: Something Different. Features: Beer and wine, take-out. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Two locations of a Viet-Cajun fusion restaurant have different menus and identities. Both do tasty boil-in-bag seafood (crawfish, shrimp, mussels, crab legs and more) with plenty of spice as well as fried baskets, salmon and shrimp burgers, corn, hushpuppies, coleslaw and wings. The eastside location has a whole other menu of Vietnamese offerings: pho, bún, cóm and more.
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Donderos' Kitchen
Price: $$
Locations
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590 N. Milledge Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-354-8688 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Catering, counter service, outside seating, delivery. Hours: Breakfast and lunch. • Something for everyone: brunchy-lunchy hot food made to order until 2 p.m., with lots of veggies; stuff in the fridge and freezer any other time, plus delivery meals and lots of weekly specials, ranging all over the world in influences. Holiday special orders. Walkers, bikers and bus riders get a 5% discount. Great with dietary restrictions.
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Earth Fare Café
Price: $$
Locations
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1689 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-353-2170 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Buffet, counter service, outside seating, Wi-Fi. • Hot bar inside grocery store includes veggie and vegan stuff, plus chicken, fish, soup and salad.
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The Expat
Price: $$$$
Locations
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1680 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-521-5041
File Under: Something Different, Bars, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Reservations, outside seating, take-out, full bar. Hours: Dinner. • Refined and intelligent restaurant with a beauteous bar has an Italian focus to its food, with anitpasti, burrata, housemade pasta (can be gluten-free), risotto and more. Offerings change regularly. Virgin cocktails made with as much love as the boozy ones, plus nice wines.
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The Farm Cart
Price: $$
Locations
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1074 Baxter St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-850-8150
File Under: Something Different. Features: Delivery, vegetarian friendly, outside seating, take-out, counter service, beer and wine. Hours: Breakfast and lunch. • Primarily biscuits, served all day, but not just traditional egg and cheese varieties. Nice ingredients like housemade pickles and jam. Lunch adds non-biscuit sandwiches and burgers plus specials. Baked goods in a case at the counter, good coffee.
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Figment Kombucha and People's Pantry
Price: $
Locations
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1085 Baxter St. Athens, GA 30677. 706-850-3339
File Under: Something Different. Features: Curbside pick-up, delivery, take-out. • The tasting room for Figment Kombucha features its small-batch drinks made with high-quality local ingredients, available on tap, canned or by the growler (half or full), plus a rotating selection of fermented goods, like ketchup, giardiniera and various krauts. Specific flavors change regularly. Get a kombucha float with housemade sorbet for a grown-up treat.
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Five & Ten
Price: $$$$
Locations
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1073 S. Milledge Ave. Athens, GA 30606. 706-546-7300 View Map
File Under: Something Different. Features: Full bar, reservations, catering, outside seating, take-out, vegetarian friendly. Hours: Dinner. • Celebrity chef Hugh Acheson's flagship restaurant, in a historic house on Milledge Avenue with a big covered porch. The menu is southern-ish but chef-driven and up to date, changing weekly depending on what’s in season. Wine list by James Beard nominee; unpretentious but smart cocktails; excellent after-dinner drinks. Look out for specials, including picnic stuff during football season.
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Girasoles
Price: $$$
Locations
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24 Greensboro Hwy. Watkinsville, GA 30677. 706-310-0410 View Map
File Under: Something Different. Features: Take-out. Hours: Dinner and Sunday brunch. • Mexican-accented fusion restaurant does a not inexpensive but very popular all-you-can-eat brunch (with waffle and omelet station), plus dinner with steaks, seafood, pasta, jambalaya, shrimp and grits, escargot, chicken in a roasted garlic mushroom cheese sauce and more along the same lines. Specials change weekly.
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The Globe
Price: $
Locations
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199 N. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30601. 706-353-4721 View Map
File Under: Bars and Clubs, Something Different. Hours: Lunch and dinner. Features: Outside seating, Wi-Fi, live music. • This Athens classic thoroughly renovated its inside without losing any of the charm and added a new menu focusing on UK pub fare with plenty of specials, nice salads and some spicy stuff. Huge beer selection, general literary atmosphere (poetry nights!) and lots of cool things to look at.
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Gusto
Price: $
Locations
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161 Alps Road Athens, GA 30606. 706-850-0855
File Under: Something Different. Features: Outside seating, drive-thru, take-out, counter service. Hours: Lunch and dinner, seven days. • Small Atlanta chain does build-your-own bowls, salads and wraps with a protein (chicken, shrimp, tofu, avocado), veggies and sauce, ready fast. Kids menu.
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Hook and Reel
Price: $$$
Locations
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3640 Atlanta Hwy. Athens, GA 30606. 706-850-2010
File Under: Something Different. Features: Catering, curbside pick-up, delivery, full bar. Hours: Lunch and dinner.
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Journey Juice
Price: $
Locations
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1428 Prince Ave. Athens, GA 30606. 706-850-0707 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Delivery, curbside pick-up. Hours: Seven days. • Raw, organic, cold-pressed and unpasteurized fruit and vegetable juices that are also delicious and pre-packaged for easy transporting.
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The Juicy Crab
thejuicycrab.com/restaurant/athens-ga
Price: $$$
Locations
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2361 W. Broad St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-850-6173
File Under: Something Different. Features: Delivery, take-out. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Viet-Cajun boil-in-bag seafood, with plenty of spice, as part of a national chain. Also: fried stuff, wings, crab (of course), southern desserts.
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Kelly's Jamaican Food
Price: $$
Locations
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1583 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30605. 706-208-0000 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Beer, catering, counter service, outside seating. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Hefty portions of jerk chicken, oxtail, curry goat, barbecue ribs, salmon, spicy cabbage, spicy squash, rice and peas, fried plantains, mac and cheese, patties, super-sweet tea and cornbread, served with good cheer.
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The Lark Winespace
Price: $$
Locations
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493 Prince Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-850-5455
File Under: Something Different. Features: Wine, Outside Seating. Hours: Seven days. • The Expat’s Krista Slater's wine store and tasting room. Come taste before you buy (half or full pours, cool stuff described in an accessible and smart way), and have a snack while you're at it (tinned seafood, nuts, cheese, charcuterie, toasts and Condor chocolates). Food pop-ups sometimes.
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Lumberjaxe
Price: $$
Locations
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510 N. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30601. 706-995-7405
File Under: Bars and Clubs. • Yup, you can drink and throw axes at targets. Also: TVs, games like giant Jenga and handcrafted wood tables. Local craft beer and wine.
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Mai Kai Kava Lounge
Price: $
Locations
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1035 Baxter St. Athens, GA 30606 . 706-850-1813
File Under: Something Different. Features: Take-out, snacks. Hours: Seven days. • The only kava bar in Athens serves a nonalcoholic beverage that's made to chill you out. Also has board games, video games and pool so you can hang out. It offers traditional kava (in several varieties), kava by the growler, herbal tea made from kava, boba and kava mixed into cocktails, plus the promise of no hangovers.
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Mannaweenta
Price: $$
Locations
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1055 Gaines School Road Athens GA 30605. 706-850-8422
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Take-out, delivery. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Athens' only Ethiopian restaurant feels like you're being hosted in someone's home. Beef, for sure, but also loads of vegan choices, all served with chewy, pancake-like injera bread. Ethiopian tea and coffee, plus cookies.
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Mediterranean Grill
Price: $$
Locations
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1591 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30605. 706-543-5000 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Counter service, catering, delivery, take-out. Hours: Lunch and dinner, seven days. • Grilled meats and veggies (lamb, chicken, kufta, gyros) and tons of vegetarian choices, like falafel, salads, dolmas, hummus and tabbouleh, all of which can be mixed and matched into good combos. Kids meals and business lunch specials. Baklava and other desserts.
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The National
Price: $$$$
Locations
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232 W. Hancock Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-549-3450 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Bars, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Reservations, catering, curbside pick-up, outside seating, Wi-Fi, full bar. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • This place always pleases, whether for date night or an upscale lunch. The menu is Spanish/Mediterranean-inspired, with lots of vegetables (try the "power lunch") and high-quality ingredients. Roasted chicken with za'atar, Portuguese custard tarts, pizzettes and a lot more. Great wine list and cocktails. Hosts occasional pop-ups from small operations.
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Pauley's Original Crepe Bar
Price: $$
Locations
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134 E. Clayton St. Athens, GA 30601. 706-549-0034 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly, Bars. Features: Outside seating, Wi-Fi. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Crepe-based restaurant by day (with savory and sweet options, plus non-pancake-based foods) turns into a busy bar by night with beer, wine and vodka-heavy cocktails.
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Rashe's Cuisine
Price: $$☆ Expanded Listing!
Locations
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585 Vine St., Ste. 3 Athens, GA 30601. 706-850-4164
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Catering, take-out, delivery. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • From meaty Jamaican food (oxtail, goat) to vegan plates, Rashe's covers it all: roti, coco bread, plantains, vegan and regular mac and cheese, fancy chocolates made in a collab with Condor. Take-out and delivery only at the moment. Food truck, too.
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The Rook and Pawn
Price: $$
Locations
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294 W. Washington St. Athens, GA 30601. 706-543-5040
File Under: Bars and Clubs, Something Different. Features: Full bar, counter service, outside seating, take-out, delivery. Hours: Lunch and dinner, seven days. • Board-game café with plenty of food: hot and cold sandwiches, pizza made with pita, salads, cheese plates, bowls of salty and sweet snacks, kids menu, coffees. Games for rent or purchase, and drinks soft and hard.
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The Royal Peasant
Price: $$
Locations
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1675 S. Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30606. 706-549-7920 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Bars. Features: Full bar, outside seating. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • English pub with a bitty kitchen does legit British food: housemade crisps, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, curries. Also, good burgers (lamb and beef). Soccer on the telly. U.K. beers, dry ciders, craft brews, wine, whiskey and cocktails.
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Seabear Oyster Bar
Price: $$$
Locations
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297 Prince Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-850-4367 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Bars. Features: Full bar, catering, outside seating, take-out. Hours: Dinner. • Longtime hip oyster bar, with a great selection that changes frequently. Also fun takes on seafood and more: scallop fried rice, scallion pancake, lobster roll, grilled cheese. Beer, wine, absinthe, sake, serious cocktails and frozen Negronis. Hire its mobile unit to shuck at your party.
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The Table Bistro
Price: $$
Locations
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1075 Baxter St., B102 Athens, GA 30606. 706-395-6599
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Counter service, outside seating, take-out, catering. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Fresh flavors, low salt cooking and lots of vegetables in dishes like pasta with creamy basil arugula pesto or coconut macademia crusted fish at this restaurant tucked away on Baxter. Gluten-free and dairy-free options.
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Tapped Athens
Price: $$
Locations
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297 Prince Ave., Ste. 19 Athens, GA 30601. 404-538-4369
File Under: Something Different, Bars. Features: Wine. Hours: Tue–Sat. • Wine bar with 24 selections on tap, served from an Enomatic in various sizes or buy a bottle. Regular tasting events. Biscuits on the first Saturday of the month; snackies to accompany wine.
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Taste of India
Price: $$$
Locations
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1040 Gaines School Road Athens, GA 30605. 706-559-0000 View Map
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Beer and wine, delivery, catering, outside seating, take-out, vegetarian friendly. Hours: Lunch and dinner. • Big menu of Indian standards, from samosas and pakoras to poori, chat, tandoori and many vegetarian and vegan options. Get your entree made with veggies, paneer, tofu, chicken, lamb, goat, fish or shrimp. Lassis, chai and Indian tea, wine and beer.
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Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe
Price: $$
Locations
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227 Prince Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-247-7619
File Under: Something Different, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Beer and wine, catering, counter service, delivery, outside seating, take-out. Hours: Lunch and dinner, seven days. • Mediterranean quick-service franchise does gyros, entree-size salads and "feasts" (grilled veggies or protein, salad, side). Soups, baklava, daily specials, family take-home meals, hummus and spicy pimento cheese, too.
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White Tiger
Price: $$
Locations
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217 Hiawassee Ave. Athens, GA 30601. 706-353-6847 View Map
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64 N. Main St. Watkinsville, GA 30677. 706-705-6115
File Under: Something Different, Downhome and BBQ, Vegetarian Friendly. Features: Catering, counter service, delivery, take-out, art, outside seating, table service, full bar (Watkinsville). Hours: Lunch and dinner, weekend brunch (Watkinsville). • Original location is in an old-timey grocery with high ceilings and a ton of outside seating under fairy lights. BYOB. New candy-colored "Deluxe" edition is in Watkinsville with cocktails, beer, wine and dance party bathrooms. Both serve amazing cheeseburgers, pork and tofu barbecue and excellent veggie sides.
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