For beer, taco Mac is a chain and its hard to drive far without hitting one. It's bar food, mostly not great, But they are known for their buffalo wings, they are very very good. The main reason to go there, however, because the average store has about 90 beers on tap and close to 200 in the bottle. They have a club called Brewniversity, Where you get credit for every unique beer you drink. If you're going to be in Atlanta long it's a great way to force yourself to sample a different beer every time you visit there. I've been doing the club since July 2007 and I have about 260 beers on my list right now. Also since someone mentioned five points, the Porter is a phenomenal beer bar/restaurant. In Alpharetta and another in Sandy Springs I believe, is a restaurant/brewery called five seasons which is excellent as well. They have a very extensive and unique menu many times focusing on local fresh ingredients. But they also go off the map a little and do things like an antelope patty melt, or frog legs. They make their own beer and have several on tap and I've never had a bad one. There are other new breweries in town like Monday night, jailhouse which is south of the city, and red hare.
Something else to mention about taco Mac, there is a Speakeasy sort of bar below the taco Mac on Roswell Road in the Prado shopping center. Officially it doesn't have a name, at least that it advertises, but it is known as the Fred. Fred is their main beer guy for the stores, and at the Fred you can find a selection of some really unique beer that you won't find anywhere else. You are supposed to have to show your tokamak membership card to get into the Fred, but I've heard that they have loosened up on that as of late. Although, it's not easy to find. When you're out the taco Mac at the Prado, you have to walk around the side and go around the back below to find an unmarked door good luck. The hidden aspect makes it kind of fun and cool, they open after 5 o'clock.
