The Quest for the Holy Grain - Best Beer Bars
Georgia

 

 

Hudson Grille
120 Marietta St NW
Atlanta, GA
(404) 221-0102

Here are a couple of reasons to go to the Hudson Grille.
a) You are in Atlanta.
b) You're staying at the Glenn Hotel.
c) You want a beer.
There are no other reasons to go to the Hudson Grille.
The beer list has 49 beers on it, including a mighty fine selection of local Georgia beers, but they are probably out of the one you want.
In fairness, you are probably asking for a popular beer and who plans to have another keg on hand?
Selling out of a popular beer?
Chance in a million, I tell you.
I managed to have a fine-mini session with Ballast Point's Sculpin IPA.
It was flawless except for the time I was brought something that wasn't a Sculpin. In fairness, the waiter said the bartender apologized and said the error was his. That comforted me because I was worried that I meant to say Sculpin but said something else by mistake and now blamed the server.
Did I say service was slow?
In fairness I may just be saying that because we wanted another beer.
And the food! Have I mentioned the food? There is a reason for that.
In fairness it was some of the most indifferently prepared pub food I have ever consumed.
Look, let's be fair to the place, it is a decent place to get a Sculpin draft on the East Coast.
There, I said it.

 

 

 

 

Taco Mac
Various locations in metro Atlanta , Georgia and Chattanooga , Tennessee

Taco Mac is a cross between a decent beer bar and a McDonalds. Founded by two guys from Buffalo who know something about chicken wings, it's a family-friendly place with a big enough beer selection to keep at least the casual drinker happy. There's a bunch of Taco Macs - 26 in the metro Atlanta area and one in Chattanooga (sadly, there are none in Savannah ). I've dined and drank in several, including most recently the Woodstock Taco Mac in the northern Atlanta suburbs. Here you'll find plenty of trucker dads, soccer moms, and nine-year olds. The food is typical chain family stuff, and, yes, the wings are tasty. Beers change frequently; Woodstock Mac had 50 on tap and 437 in the bottle when I was there. That's about what you'd find in a decent beer store, but don't go there looking for, say, Lagunitas' latest Zappa release. Even so, with several hundred beers at each location (and a slightly different list at each) you'll enjoy filling your Passport Club card while the family downs affordable burgers and fries. And wings of course.