Planning a date night in Atlanta usually goes one of two ways. Either you book a table three weeks out and hope you both still feel like that restaurant when the night arrives, or you leave it open and spend the first forty minutes of the evening driving around, reading menus on a phone, and saying "I don't mind, you pick."
There is a third way, and it is downtown. CTR Food Works is the food hall inside the reimagined former CNN Center at 190 Marietta Street NW: eleven chef-driven kitchens, 500 seats, and the largest bar in Georgia in the middle of a 14-story atrium. You do not book anything. You show up, get a drink, and build the dinner as you go.
Here is how we would spend the evening.
Why a food hall works for a date
The hard part of a date is not the food. It is the format. A sit-down restaurant locks you into one menu, one table, and one pace, set by somebody else. If the conversation is great, you get the check right when you wanted another hour. If it is a first date that is not clicking, you are stuck there until the entrees clear.
A food hall hands the pace back to you. Order at a counter, food comes out in minutes, and you leave when you are ready. One drink and a shared plate can be the whole night. So can three courses from three different kitchens.
It also ends the oldest argument in dating. You want pasta, they want sushi, and nobody has to give in. You each order what you want and sit down at the same table.
Start at the bar
The CTR Bar anchors the atrium at the center of the hall, and it is the largest bar in Georgia. Make it the meeting point. If one of you is coming from work and the other from home, there is nothing to explain and no host stand to wait at. You say "the bar," and you find each other.
Start with a cocktail and do not order food yet. Sit for a minute, look around the room, and talk about what sounds good. Half the fun of a food hall date is deciding together.
First course: something to share
A date goes better when the first thing on the table is meant to be split.
Fuzzy's is the seafood raw bar on the cold side of the hall, and it is the natural opening move: fresh oysters, ceviche, and lobster rolls. Oysters and ceviche work well as a first stop before you move on to another counter, which is exactly how a date here should run.
If raw seafood is not your thing, The Sparrow does Szechuan dumplings and small plates made for sharing, and the SushiFlip side of Eggflip × SushiFlip makes sushi rolls fresh to order. Any of the three gives you something to pick at while you settle in.
The main event
Now walk a lap. Splitting up for five minutes to order from different counters is part of the appeal, and you each come back with something the other person will want to try.
For the classic date night order, go to Flora D'Italia. The pasta is made by hand in house and the Neapolitan-style pizza is fired over wood. Potato gnocchi for one of you and a Margherita or the hot honey pizza for the other covers the table nicely. Chicken Parmesan and eggplant Parmesan are both on the menu if the night calls for comfort food.
A few other ways to go:
- If you both like heat. The Sparrow cooks wok-fired noodles and stir-fried Szechuan specialties with bold flavor.
- If you want to try a little of everything. MiMi Taqueria builds tacos to mix and match, from pork carnitas with roasted pineapple to shrimp with jalapeño cream. Order a spread and trade.
- If you want something warm and slow-cooked. La Tropical serves mofongo, ropa vieja, and arroz con pollo from Chef Minelly Amador.
- If it is a casual night. Southern Belle Chicken Co. is chef Joey Ward's fried chicken counter, with flavors that run from classic Southern to gochujang hot honey.
Every kitchen is on the Food & Drinks page if you like to plan ahead. We would still suggest deciding once you are here.
Dessert for two
Do not skip this part. Dessert is where a food hall date pulls ahead of a regular dinner, because you get up, take a short walk together, and choose from a case instead of a list.
DessertBox is the bakery counter from chef Steven Ferdinand, working in the French pastry tradition. The Chocolate Trilogy layers chocolate cake with dark, milk, and white chocolate mousse, and it was more or less built for two forks. There are bonbons in dark chocolate, caramel, and milk chocolate sea salt, a creme brulee cheesecake, and gluten-free macarons you can box up and take with you.
If you are an ice cream couple, Morelli's has been making it in Atlanta since 2008. Salted Caramel is the favorite, and the rest of the flavor board changes by the day. The counter is cashless, so bring a card or your phone.
Take dessert back to the bar, order one more round, and stay a while. There is no table turn here, so nobody is waiting for your seats.
Add a walk, a game, or a show
Dinner is rarely the whole date, and this is where a downtown Atlanta address earns its keep. Centennial Olympic Park is about three minutes from the front door, which makes a walk before or after dinner the easiest add-on in the city.
If you have tickets, the timing is simple. State Farm Arena is about a five minute walk, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium is roughly ten. For a 7:30 start, arrive at 5:30, eat at 6, and walk over at 7. Our guide to restaurants near State Farm Arena lays out the full plan for concert and game nights.
The hall hosts its own events too. Check the calendar before you pick a night, since it can turn a plain Thursday into a real plan.
Pick the right night
- Sunday through Wednesday: 11 AM – 9 PM
- Thursday through Saturday: 11 AM – 10 PM
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the date nights, with the hall open until 10 PM. Arrive around 7 and you have three unhurried hours.
Sunday through Wednesday the hall closes at 9, so plan an earlier evening. That suits a weeknight date well: meet at 6, eat, share dessert, and still be home at a reasonable hour.
Getting here without the stress
Nothing sinks a date like circling for parking. The Center Parking Garage is directly across the street, with the Omni deck and the decks around Centennial Olympic Park as backups on event nights.
If you plan to have a couple of drinks, skip the car. The CNN Center / GWCC MARTA station is two blocks east, and ride-shares drop at the Marietta Street entrance.
For the bigger occasions
Double dates are easy here. With 500 seats, four or six people can walk in on a weekend and sit together, and everyone still orders exactly what they want.
For an anniversary party, an engagement celebration, or a rehearsal dinner, the hall books private spaces that scale from a reserved section up to a full buyout. Details and the inquiry form are on the Private Events page.
Make it this week
A good date night in Atlanta needs three things: a drink to start, food you both want, and no clock running on your table. One bar, eleven kitchens, and 500 seats in downtown Atlanta cover all three, with no reservation to make.
Get hours, parking, and directions, pick a night, and meet at the bar.