Ponce City Market

Walking in from street level to Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall feels like stepping into updated history—only more fun, especially when you’re hungry. As one of Atlanta’s most iconic and important renovated landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this former Sears & Roebuck Co. distribution center is full of corporate offices, retail shops, and random experiences. But it’s the food and drink that keeps folks coming back.

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Biltong Bar

Valentine’s Day Cocktails (Fri., February 14 – Sun., February 16) – Join Biltong Bar – single and not – this Valentine’s weekend for cocktails including the Lone Wolf, a bright and warming combination of Japanese whiskey, lemon, fig, sherry and gingerbread, or the Tainted Love, a contemplative sipper of dark rum, bitter Campari, coffee and almond.

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Have an adult happy meal at Biltong Bar

We love everything Biltong Bar does (have you been to their Tiki Tuesday yet?) and they’ve rolled out a fun happy hour, happy meal that will remind you of your childhood favorites, but like, a million times better. Enjoy items like the BB Burger Junior topped with monterey jack, a fish sandwich with beer battered catfish and arugula, and crispy cauliflower nuggets. For a drink option, go for fun with the “root beer”paired with barrel-aged house amaro or a boozy shake with bourbon, creme de caco and biltong ice cream. Yes, yes, and yes! Happens 5pm-7pm daily and late night Tuesday through Saturday after 11pm, Buckhead location only. 

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Most people don’t expect a place selling South African beef jerky to become a great cocktail hangout, but ask beverage director Sean Gleason to make his favorite drink for you, and you’ll never look at Mai Tais with touristy disdain again. While you’re there, ask him when he’s bringing back the Dark Side — a dark rum, sherry, and imperial stout reduction masterpiece — and he’ll probably say “Soon!” or “In fall, maybe!” or “Tell Mike Jordan to f*ck off!” He’ll know who sent you.

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Biltong Bar #1. Beverage director Sean Gleason creates cocktails relying heavily on rum, scotch, rye whiskey, and bourbon as base spirits accented with French vermouth, amari, and sherry. The drinks complement the meaty menu here, which includes a selection of beef jerky, tandoori chicken wings, and a hot chicken sandwich. Every Tuesday evening, Biltong-Buckhead transforms into a tiki bar featuring food like pork short ribs, banh mi sliders, and crab rangoon paired with Mai Tais and fog cutters.

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A third location of South African restaurant Biltong Bar, known for its beef jerkies and boozy cocktails, opens this spring at Avalon in Alpharetta. The restaurant takes its name from biltong, a type of South African dried, cured meat.

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Beverage director Sean Gleason creates cocktails relying heavily on rum, scotch, rye whiskey, and bourbon as base spirits accented with French vermouth, amari, and sherry. The drinks complement the meaty menu here, which includes a selection of beef jerky, tandoori chicken wings, and a hot chicken sandwich. Every Tuesday evening, Biltong-Buckhead transforms into a tiki bar featuring food like pork short ribs, banh mi sliders, and crab rangoon paired with Mai Tais and fog cutters.

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Pumpkin season lives on at Biltong Bar’s Buckhead location, where beverage director Sean Gleason has crafted an artful play on fall called the Sleepy Hollow. Pumpkin syrup blends with tequila, mezcal, creme de cacao and trakal (a viscous Patagonian spirit made from apples, pears and berries) for a drink that evokes memories of a campfire.

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Beef jerky and booze — what more does one need? This stylish South African watering hole specializes in biltong (thinly sliced, air-dried beef.) The best way to enjoy biltong is shaved over the bar’s popcorn. The butter-soaked popcorn complements the lean meat, and a sprinkle of peri peri salt adds a burst of zest to the dish. Enjoy it with a pineapple daiquiri.

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The Ponce City Market location of Biltong Bar transforms into the Blitzen Room for the holidays. The nostalgia-themed pop-up includes vintage holiday decor and festive cocktails like a Chartreuse-laced hot chocolate and frozen egg nog to pair alongside its beef jerky selections and other South African pub fare. December 2 through December 26 during regular business hours.

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Blitzen Room at Biltong Bar. The Ponce City Market location of South African-inspired bar and restaurant Biltong Bar is celebrating the season with holiday pop-up Blitzen Room. Find vintage Christmas decor and seasonally-themed cocktails including the Chartreuse Hot Chocolate and Frozen Egg Nog. The Blitzen Room at Biltong Bar will be open Dec. 2-26, with hours from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.

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Beverage director Sean Gleason creates cocktails relying heavily on rum, scotch, rye whiskey, and bourbon as base spirits accented with French vermouth, amari, and sherry. The drinks complement the meaty menu here, which includes a selection of beef jerky, tandoori chicken wings, and a hot chicken sandwich. Every Tuesday evening, Biltong-Buckhead transforms into a tiki bar featuring food like pork short ribs, banh mi sliders, and crab rangoon paired with Mai Tais and fog cutters.

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Biltong is South African beef jerky, which is served alongside other South African street food and rotating small and large plates, like shepherd’s pie and smoked trout, at Biltong Bar’s second location at the Shops at Buckhead. The original location at Ponce City Market was named one of the top 21 cocktail bars in the country by Thrillist, and you can expect the same craft beers and cocktails and biodynamic wines at this spot as well.

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The original Biltong Bar occupies a diminutive storefront in Ponce City Market’s food hall. When it opened in 2016 it became the first South African gastropub specializing in street food (or “beef jerky and booze” as staffers like to say), not just in Atlanta but, according to Anthony, in the world. The moody atmosphere, with its dark walls, rich leather seating and oversize Edison bulb light fixtures, became a haven for darn good food and arguably even better cocktails.

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“Beef jerky and booze” is the slogan at Biltong Bar, the South African-inspired restaurant from True Story Brands, the restaurant group behind concepts such as 10 Degrees South and Cape Dutch. And indeed, with a menu built around South African Street fare (including biltong, or beef jerky) and craft cocktails, the establishment remains true to its motto. After opening its flagship location inside Ponce City Market early 2016, Biltong Bar expanded in August 2018 with a second restaurant located in The Shops Buckhead Atlanta.

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After finding success in Ponce City Market, Biltong Bar opened a second, much larger location in Buckhead late last year that includes an expanded and whiskey-heavy bar menu. The cocktails here are meant to pair with the meaty menu and rely heavily on rum, scotch, rye whiskey, and bourbon as base spirits, accented by French vermouth, amari, and sherry.

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South African–inspired beef jerky bar Biltong uses fresh celery juice and toasted celery seeds to get max vegetal flavor for its Celery Sour. The celery mix is shaken with pineapple-infused gin, cucumber bitters and Greek yogurt, which does the emulsive work of egg whites but adds a tangier kick. “It takes a bit of convincing, because people are thrown off when they see all those ingredients in the same sentence,” says bar manager James Cramer. “But they come together in a way that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.”

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The first Biltong Bar “beef jerky and booze” concept opened in Ponce City Market in early 2016, introducing a rare taste of naturally cured, air-dried South African-style beef jerky (biltong) — plus selections of cheese and charcuterie, salads and sandwiches, with international beers, South African wines and signature cocktails. In its newest iteration, Biltong took over the sizable 6,500-square-foot Buckhead Avenue space that was originally occupied by American Food and Beverage.

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We love jerky. And we love cocktails. But outside of a belated wake memorializing the late Randy Savage, we never really thought to pair them together. Sean Gleason, on the other hand, thought about the pairing a lot. Biltong sells the delicious air-dried, charcuterie-ish, South African version of beef jerky, but in realizing that jerky makes you thirsty, Gleason had the good sense to pair it with a truly outstanding bar program.

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Biltong Bar, a South African restaurant, is officially open for business at The Shops Buckhead Atlanta. It’s the restaurant’s second location in Atlanta, with its first opening in early 2016 inside the Central Food Hall at Ponce City Market. The new 6,500-square-foot location is a substantially expanded version of its sibling, featuring a 30-seat bar along with a dining room and lounge area. The concept features South African street food, including gourmet jerky and savory pies, and South African wines and signature cocktails.

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A bar specializing in cocktails and beef jerky is quite frankly a must-stop. Named after South African snack, biltong (it’s basically dried meat), the bar features a nifty selection of house-invented libations along with classic remixes. They also proudly serve biodynamic wines and craft beers. For a unique liquor-free order, try one of the notable and on-trend zero proof elixirs. No one will ever know the difference except you and your non-existent next-day hangover.

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Well, well, well. If it isn’t 2018 creeping into our periphery and offering up even the smallest semblance of hope for a better new year and new beginnings. And though it’s no secret this year has been one hell of a roller coaster, we’ve always been optimists in ATL (c’mon, MARTA!). So it’s in that spirit of cheer that we’ve created a rundown of the best bars in the city… some old, some new, but all great places to bring your cousin Tevin from out of town who, for some unknown reason, still drinks Goldschläger. Ring in the new year at any of these places and ensure your holidays are anything but boring.

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After not having set foot in the US since Nelly had his cheek bandage on, choosing Atlanta as my reintroduction was a great idea! A few things drew me to Georgia – seeing one of my best friends who I hadn’t seen in 17 years, checking Solange and Afropunk Festival off my bucket list for 2017 and being around black people! Seriously, I just wanted to be around my people. If you live in a predominantly white city, you are nodding your head with the quickness right now! Anyways, based on what I ate, where I stayed and what fun things I did, here’s my weekend travel diary of Atlanta!

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