As Easy As A.B.C.
October 1st, 2023
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Breakfast Club is in Atlanta! Isn’t that a nice surprise. The Breakfast Buddies went to Atlanta. Check out this spot’s website and we will share with you our experience.
When you get a chance to go on a nice weekend trip to a new city with some good people, be like Nike and Just Do It.
Atlanta Breakfast Club is an upscale bruncherie in downtown Atlanta. The location the Panclog reviewed was 249 Ivan Allen Jr. BLVD NW Atlanta, GA 30313.
Location/Environment: The downtown location is right across the street from the incredible Georgia Aquarium. This location features a small parking lot that is sometimes utilized for food trucks and local vendors. This is helpful as Atlanta Breakfast Club gets busy in a hurry. So, if you don’t have the time to wait, there may be something for you outside. The restaurant features an open kitchen next to the dining room.
Service: The service at the Atlanta Breakfast Club was lovely yet a bit restrained. Atlanta Breakfast Club has a few rules to expedite service. They would not allow for separate checks, all food had to be ordered at once, and no tap water (Only boxed water). All that being said, the server was nice, attentive, and really sold the specials well. Coffees were refilled regularly. And best yet, coffee to go were offered and delivered.
Menu/Selection: Atlanta Breakfast Club showcases a southern style kitchen. Feel free to dream about what you could have while you review their menu. They specialize in Biscuits, Chicken & Waffles, and Peaches. The crew did not get any pictures of the menu, but you’ll be able to enjoy some pictures of the cuisine.
Chicken & Black Pepper Gravy (Brentley)
On a recent trip to the so-so city of Atlanta, GA, the ATL, two of our number were feeling nostalgic for a terrific movie, “The Breakfast Club”. The other two in our number were way to young to truly appreciate the import of this John Hughes film. They may talk a good game but were they even alive when the movie came out. Barely, I am sure.
No, I am not going to rewatch it as I am concerned it will not hold up. Let me point you to “Sixteen Candles” and all its problematic characters and scenes, and you will understand why.
Four of us travelled to Atlanta, albeit one of our crew chose her own schedule, to have a fun weekend in a new to us city. In general, Atlanta is cool, but very expensive. Our first evening brought us to Truist Park, where Atlanta’s Major League Baseball Team plays. Truist is a name you should get familiar with if you visit Atlanta, as it seems the entire city is sponsored by it. The baseball game was a lot of fun and Atlanta’s ballpark is very nice. However, during pitching changes the park and fans do something that feels gross.
Vesta and I had an opportunity to visit Atlanta’s immersive James Webb Telescope video experience. It was very cool; the images were beautiful, and information provided was enlightening. I am glad we did it, but I would not spend that amount of money again. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, unless you are really into the astronomy thing.
The rest of our time was spent walking the city and surrounding communities. This was by far my favorite part because you get a sense of a city on the rise. Far behind where Kansas City is today, but you can see Atlanta has a target they want to hit. I hope they can remain focused and achieve where they want to be.
Before this clog turns into an online recipe, let’s talk about breakfast. Specifically, the Atlanta Breakfast Club. Atlanta has two locations for this restaurant, and we opted for the one directly adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium. It was within walking distance of our hotel and the aquarium which made it an easy choice. Plus, what a great name. The Atlanta Breakfast Club gets super busy, super-fast, so make your plans accordingly.
We arrived early and thankfully seated quickly. What can I say, papa was hungry. The menu is loaded with southern specialties cooked with an upper crust flair. Prior to ordering our main meal, we opted for a delicious, sweet, cinnamon roll well covered in icing. This cinnamon roll hit the spot and tickled my sweet tooth. Vesta makes a better one, but, nonetheless, I would highly recommend trying it.
With the cinnamon roll we obviously started directly into drinking coffee. The coffee was good but dipped into a highly bitter flavor as it cooled. I recommend getting the beverage topped off early and often. Heat is the secret for this nicely tasting brew as it grows more bitter the cooler it gets. You should avoid ordering a water. What you will receive is a pretentious bottle of water that is way more expensive than what you would want to pay. Perhaps tap water in Atlanta is not safe, I wouldn’t know, but I would choose to drink something from a free risky tap than the bottle we received.
For my main breakfast course, I opted for the Chicken and Black Pepper Gravy – Dirty. You take two split biscuits, slide a small piece of fried chicken breast in the middle, and smother it in gravy. In my case, I had it dirty, which include adding some scrambled eggs and bacon to the mix. Each of the individual components were terrific. While I prefer sausage in this type of meal, the chicken did not disappoint. It had a nice crispy breading and the chicken was tender and juicy. The eggs were light and fluffy and performed an admiral job of binding the knife and fork sandwich together. The bacon could have been a bit crispier for me, given this was a stacked breakfast, rather than bacon lying loosely on the plate.
Given the opportunity, I would definitely return and order the item again. Next time though, I would order it dirty and please, and make the gravy portion obscene.
One last note, the Georgia Aquarium is amazing. I would return to Atlanta for just a day visit to hang out in the aquarium the entire time. There is tremendous variety of species and each of the sections were beautiful. My two favorite area included the mini-reef aquarium filled with coral, anemones, and brightly colorful reef fish. The main event of course is the football field sized aquarium that has a few whale sharks in it, amongst other large sharks and fishes. I was honestly awe struck.
Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Chicken & Waffles (Jared)
What brought the Panclog crew to Atlanta? My darling bride has a favorite podcast. And this podcast rarely does live shows. So whenever they do announce one, we look at each other and start planning a trip. In 2022, we travelled to Chicago to see their show at the infamous Patio Theatre. This live show was at the Atlanta Symphony Hall. The podcast is the quite funny Popcast.
My bride and I decided to invite Brent & Vesta to our sabbatical to the South. We found some nice brews, shopping, and water creatures. Our first night in Atlanta, we traversed out to the boonies to go to a Braves game. I have dreams of visiting all 30 MLB stadiums, so this was a must. The only note I’ll add on this trip is to all MLB owners. Please have your stadiums closer to the downtown. Thanks!
Another beautiful spot we went to in the ATL was Ponce City Market. This market featured a nice food hall, local shops, and even games on the roof. We had some nice times here and would surely recommend it.
The Atlanta Breakfast Club was right across the street from our hotel. This was quite exciting when I first discovered this spot when doing research of where I wanted to go in this new city. We first walked past the breakfast club on a Saturday morning and they were super duper busy. We tried some fresh squeezed juice from a vendor in the parking lot and found another spot for a quick bite as the wait was a bit longer than we wanted at the time.
We then knew we had to plan our visit a bit better. We knew we were going to the aquarium the next morning, so we decided to have our fill of southern food before seeing some seals, beluga whales, and even whale sharks! We were seated immediately on arrival to the breakfast club. Our server was delightful. She welcomed us and inquired if we have been to the Atlanta Breakfast Club before. We had not, so she listed out the rules. All meals on one ticket, the whole order put in at one time, and that everything on the menu is good. I was easily persuaded to try the special a Bacon Egg & Cheese Chicken & Waffle smothered in Gravy, a coffee, and cinnamon roll.
My meal was downright delicious. I chose my eggs to be prepared over-easy. Cause if my plate is already going to be messy with gravy why not make it messier. The chicken was great. Nice and moist and well seasoned. The Waffle wasn’t your run-of-the-mill waffle that is too crunchy and tough. It was nice and soft. The gravy was nice and peppery. My bride makes better Gravy. but that isn’t a knock on Atlanta Breakfast Club. That is me pointing out how lucky I am.
The only negatives I have on this establishment were the lack of glasses of water and the overall price range. The latter may be more of an Atlanta standard than an ABC one, but it should still be noted. The lack of tap water caused us to accidentally order bottled water for $4.
I truly recommend the Georgia Aquarium if you have a moment. There are some amazing seals that will put a smile on your face, there are some whale sharks that will challenge how big you really are, and some beluga whales that are just adorable.
Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Chicken & Waffles: $21.95
Coffee: $4.25
Cinnamon Roll: $5
Bottled Water: $4
For my random song of the post, I’d like to share one of my favorite funny people and their amazing music as well. Don’t Tell The Boys by Petey.
Overall: Atlanta Breakfast Club is a great breakfast restaurant that should be visited if you are staying in downtown Atlanta. It can get a bit pricey, so prepare ahead.
Grade:
Brent: B
Jared: A-
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