>> Best UnderRated Thing About Atlanta

Best UnderRated Thing About Atlanta

Creative Loafing has been presenting Atlanta's Best People, Places and Events since 1972. These are some of the past winners for this category:

Best Underrated Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2019
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Giving Kitchen (Featured)

Best Underrated Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2019
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

The trees

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2016
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Atlanta Beltline Inc (Featured)

www.beltline.org

Best reason to say, "It's lit!" BOA Award Winner

Year » 2016
Type of Award » Consumer Culture
Picked By » Critics

Lindbergh Candle Co.

Founded in 2015 by a local husband-and-wife team, LINDBERGH CANDLE CO. is an eco-friendly hand-poured candle line featuring small-batch candles made with U.S.-grown all natural soy wax, fine fragrances, and cotton-core wicks. Their online shop (they went on a summer hiatus and will reopen in September) stocks mason jar candles, reed diffusers, travel tins, gift sets, and more in scents like Cabin and December Morning. Bonus: 10 percent of all proceeds are donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Available online and at Citizen Supply, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave. 678-705-9145. www.lindberghcandleco.com. less...

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2015
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Food

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2014
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Atlanta Rollergirls

www.atlantarollergirls.com

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2013
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Atlanta Rollergirls

www.atlantarollergirls.com

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2012
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Food scene

Underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2011
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Food and dining

Best political theater BOA Award Winner

Year » 2011
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

State Senate

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2010
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Restaurant scene

Runner-up: Music scene and venues

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Restaurants

Best underrated thing about Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2009
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Restaurants

Runner-up
Dance

Best Flower in Atlanta's Lapel BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Fox Theatre (Featured)

Best Reason Atlanta Should Secede From Georgia BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

A blue city in a red state

Best Underrated Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Restaurants

Best Place to See What Atlanta was Like Before Humans Trashed It BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Fernbank Forest

Best Reason Atlanta Shouldn't Secede BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

We need water

Best Reason Atlanta Shouldn't Secede BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

We need more water

Best Underrated Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Best Flower in Atlanta's Lapel BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Dogwood blossom

Best Unique Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Abundance of trees

www.treesatlanta.org

Best Reason Atlanta Should Secede From Georgia BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Liquor laws and various other human rights infringements

Best Unwelcome Tourist BOA Award Winner

Year » 2008
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Fulton Cotton Mill Loft Apartments

Best Sign That Atlanta Isn't Turning Into Houston BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Trees

Best Underrated Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Trees

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't Like the Rest of Georgia BOA Award Winner

Traffic

Best Hype About Atlanta That Isn't Actually True BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

The City Too Busy to Hate

Aside from Coca-Cola bottling tap water and then selling it for a buck a bottle, the biggest con job perpetrated in Atlanta in the last 50 years is our reputation as &#148;THE CITY TOO BUSY TO HATE.&#148; Almost 40 years after the Civil Rights Movement effectively ended with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Atlanta remains a city divided by race in both politics and culture, echoed most recently when the crisis at Grady Memorial Hospital devolved into racial jockeying for position. While the city has had black mayors and black police chiefs since 1974, the money largely remains in lily-white Buckhead. The racial divide both defines and handicaps Atlanta as we wait for a visionary leader who will teach us to build bridges. less...

Best Thing About Atlanta That We Don't Get Credit for Having BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

There's Culture in Atlanta

Yes, Virginia, THERE&#146;S CULTURE IN ATLANTA. Sure, it&#146;s not a New York City or San Francisco or Chicago, where finding &#147;culture&#148; is a matter of walking a couple blocks or catching a quick train. But Atlanta teems with artistic vision of all varieties if you&#146;re willing to go find it. It has Lenny&#146;s and Eyedrum, the Fay Gold Gallery and the Decatur Social Club. There are thriving arts, music and literary scenes. There&#146;s theater, opera, art cinema, major-league sports, quirky shops and cutting-edge restaurants. Atlanta is not only a city with culture, it is a city with soul. It is a city of tradition that constantly reinvents itself. less...

Best Quirk About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Traffic

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't Like the Rest of Georgia BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Buford Highway

BUFORD HIGHWAY is Atlanta&#146;s Chinatown. It&#146;s also our Koreatown, our Vietnamtown, our Mexicotown and many more. To some, Buford Highway is just a shopping and restaurant district &#151; a place to get a bowl of pho on a Friday night, or a place to pick up stalks of fresh lemongrass for a Thai recipe you&#146;re making at home. Buford Highway&#146;s much more than food and shopping, though. It&#146;s the living, breathing fulfillment of Atlanta&#146;s oft-stated desire to be an international city instead of just a provincial capital. less...

Best Underrated Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Trees

Best Quirk About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Booze and Bottomless Dancers

We don&#146;t have a harbor, casinos or a pleasant climate in the summer. But Atlanta still ranks as a major convention destination, in large part because it&#146;s one of the few cities in the country whose strip clubs feature BOOZE AND BOTTOMLESS DANCERS. Even residents who aren&#146;t patrons of the ecdysiastic arts appreciate the importance of the convention trade to the city&#146;s economy. And for those who do partake in the occasional table dance, you already know what a bummer it would be if that G-string never came off. Or if you had to drink wheatgrass milk all night long instead of your customary Courvoisier-and-Red-Bull shooters. less...

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't Turning Into Houston (or L.A., New York, or D.C.) BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Our Destiny is in Our Hands

L.A. has earthquakes and wildfires. New York and D.C. have terrorism. Houston and Florida have hurricanes. For a large city and commercial hub, Atlanta is remarkably safe from external mortal threats. The biggest threat to Atlanta is itself. It means OUR DESTINY IS IN OUR HANDS. All the things we bitch about (traffic, sprawl, crime, filthy air, etc.) are our own doing &#151; the result of decades of electing state and local politicians who are better at bickering than leading. Believe it or not, that&#146;s good news. L.A. can&#146;t make earthquakes go away. But we can stop doing stupid shit. less...

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't Like the Rest of Georgia BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Traffic

Best Quirk About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2007
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Traffic

Best Sign That Atlanta Isn't Turning Into Houston BOA Award Winner

Trees

Best Old Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Fox Theatre

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't Like the Rest of Georgia BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Pride Week

In a state where there was going to be a special session of the friggin&#146; Legislature to reinstitute a ban on gay marriage &#151; a practice that was already illegal to start with &#151; PRIDE WEEK symbolizes why Atlanta often feels like an oasis surrounded by a moat (the Perimeter). Venturing outside the moat can give you a case of cultural whiplash. Whoa! What was that? A Confederate flag? Pride week &#151; one of the most colorful, outrageous and unifying events of the year &#151; couldn&#146;t take place anywhere in the Southeast but Atlanta. As a city, Atlanta is a gumbo of cultures and ethnicities and, yes, sexual preferences. People who live here expect diversity and embrace it. less...

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't like L.A. BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Or are we...?

Maybe we should start with the things that are similar. Smog. Check. Traffic. Double-check. Self-absorbed stars. Check. L.A. is surrounded by ocean and desert, but political junkies describe Atlanta as a blue island surrounded by an ocean of red. So a check for that one, too &#151; kind of. Rodeo Drive, Lenox Square. Check. Endless sprawl. Check. Hispanic laborers. Check (the one difference is that L.A. Latinos already have plenty of political power, while Atlanta Latinos are about to get power). Hollywood studios, hip-hop studios. Check. Malibu, Duluth. Check. Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson. Check. Mel Gibson, Dallas Austin. Check. Courtney, Whitney. Check. Kobe Bryant, Michael Vick. Check. OK. Enough already. Yes, come to think of it, we have become L.A. ... with more rain. less...

Best Old Thing About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Oakland Cemetery

It&#146;s tough to find much of anything in Atlanta older than OAKLAND CEMETERY, and arguably no place in this city wears its age more gracefully. Founded as a six-acre graveyard in 1850, Oakland exploded in size and, um, popularity as a result of the Civil War. Today, it serves as the final resting place for Bobby Jones, Margaret Mitchell, Maynard Jackson and 70,000 of the famous and obscure, including legions of unknown Confederate soldiers. But you needn&#146;t be a history buff or a goth geek to appreciate the cemetery&#146;s collection of ornate mausoleums and endless cobblestone paths. In fact, Oakland is quite living-friendly; it&#146;s open every day of the year to provide a cheerfully morbid spot for a picnic or a stroll. less...

Best Quirk About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Traffic

Best Sign Atlanta Isn't Like L.A. BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Trees

Best Quirk About Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2006
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Most Adults Who Live in Atlanta ain't From Around Here

Hang out in Atlanta long enough and you&#146;ll discover that MOST ADULTS WHO LIVE IN ATLANTA AIN&#146;T FROM AROUND HERE. Just ask around. Atlanta sucks up folks from parts of the Southeast that suck. But it&#146;s not just Southerners moving in; plenty of newfangled carpetbaggers came down during the dot-com era and that crazy international event called the Olympics. More are now flooding in from scores of other nations. In 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Atlanta&#146;s metro population at 2.9 million. By 2005, it had swelled to 5.1 million. And well more than half the people who live in DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties weren&#146;t even born in Georgia. Should you run into a native, avoid asking about Atlanta back in the day. You&#146;ll only get stories that begin with, &#147;I remember when ... .&#148; less...

Best Reason to Leave Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2005
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Traffic

Best Reason To Leave Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2005
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Gentrification

No, this isn&#146;t a misprint. In the midst of intown&#146;s renaissance, GENTRIFICATION has wreaked severe side effects. Rampant development has burdened Atlanta&#146;s already strained sewage system. An overabundance of condos and strip malls has created architectural homogeny. An influx of people &#151; and a dearth of public transit &#151; has made getting around town a real pain. And skyrocketing property values and taxes are changing the face of the city, literally. Homeowners who&#146;ve been forced out by rising taxes are predominantly longtime, low-income, African-Americans. And it&#146;s now become difficult for first-time homebuyers to afford even the most modest digs. less...

Best Reason to Leave Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Traffic

Best Reason to Leave Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2004
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Readers

Traffic

Best Reason to Leave Atlanta BOA Award Winner

Year » 2004
Type of Award » Cityscape
Picked By » Critics

Shitty Drivers

Some of the best reasons to leave this city are also the most obvious - sprawl, heat, the DMV office on Moreland. But after careful consideration, we've decided that if anything is going to chase us out, it's SHITTY DRIVERS. And yeah, yeah, it's never you; it's always the other guy. But listen: It is you - if you've tailgated for no other reason than to be a jerk. It's you if you've cut someone off on I-85. And it's "definitely" you if you've made a turn without using your freakin' "blinker". That is why we had 317,817 wrecks in Georgia in 2002, up 44 percent from 12 years ago. less...