Kathy, I've found Atlanta to be wonderfully vegetarian friendly, but
fat-free or low-fat has to be negotiated.
Someone wrote last year about the offerings in Buckhead and Sandy Springs
north of Atlanta, so I'll mention some to the east.
Before that, though, in downtown (in the basement of the public library!)
is Delectables, which is reasonable and has food worthy of its name. The
food is almost too good to say it is served cafeteria style, yet it is.
It's popular among locals.
Between the Candler Park and Inman Park MARTA stations (on the East line)
is the Little Five Points community, which has a variety of good places to
find vegetarian offerings, as well as Sevananda, a natural foods store.
Just walk around and look at the menus to see what appeals. (The area is a
throwback to the 60s.)
In Decatur (further out on the East line) are more good places, and there's
a fun festival coming up next weekend if you're still in town.
Beyond Decatur is the DeKalb International Farmers Market, which has
ready-to-eat food as well as just about every ingredient you can imagine
plus a good bakery, too. A bus probably runs from either the Decatur or
Avondale station to the market, which is on East Ponce de Leon. I love to
go there (it's a huge indoor market) just to wander around and look at the
interesting vegetables and fruits.
If you can get to Briarcliff and LaVista (probably from the Lindbergh
station on the North line), you will find a new Whole Foods store full of
ready-to-eat foods as well as a nice selection of organic fruits and
veggies and other goodies.
Diagonally across the street and maybe a couple of buildings down is my
current favorite, the Broadway Cafe, which serves "Gourmet Vegetarian."
They have an amazing menu that includes more than 50 vegan options and
about as many vegetarian options that have eggs or dairy products. Very few
items are low fat, however.
Across Briarcliff from the Broadway Cafe is one of the best Thai
restaurants in town, Thai Chili. Nicola's (on LaVista around the corner
from the Broadway Cafe) has outstanding Middle Eastern food, but is open
only in the evenings.
Atlanta is full of good ethnic eateries--you can probably find whatever
cuisine you most like somewhere in the city, but even in the best places
the quality is not always consistent.
If you're into Southern cooking, there are a few good places (I probably
like the Colonnade in Atlanta the best, and one of our vegetarian daughters
prefers Our Way in Decatur near Agnes Scott College)--just be sure to ask
if meat has been cooked with the vegetables you want to order.
Yum! I waited until after supper to write this--otherwise I'd be headed out
the door for more good food. Enjoy!
Bette