Your Guide to Athens, GA for Game-Day or a Getaway

This podcast was transcribed using Descript. Please forgive any typos or errors.

Brittany: Hi friends. Welcome to Life with Loverly. I'm your host, Brittany Sjogren. I'm excited to share my heart with you beyond the 15 seconds we get on Instagram, grab an ice coffee and let's do life together. 

Hi friends, happy Tuesday, Nichelle and I are here today to talk about Athens Georgia.

Nichelle: Go Dawgs. 

Brittany: I love that. So I am originally from Athens. Athens is the home of the University of Georgia. There's also a lot of other fun things that it's the home of. If you're into the music scene, the band REM is from Athens. My parents used to go watch their shows all the time when they were in college. And so there's a lot of really cool things about Athens and we thought it would be fun to just share some of my favorites.

We often get asked about people coming to Athens for maybe a college tour with their kids, and they're like, where should we stay? What should we eat? Is there anything to do? And so we thought it would be fun to talk about the beloved city of Athens, Georgia.

Nichelle: And who knew? I think just because we're from Georgia, you're from here, it's your hometown. It's so normal to you. I think I took for granted just being up the road how popular it is for tourists to come in. You get so many messages and I feel like it's not even seasonally, it's almost daily. 

Brittany: Which I thought was interesting. I guess I didn't really think about it, but a friend of mine, even who lives in Florida, They wanted to do like a girls trip, and they came to Athens for the weekend and did like all this fun stuff around Athens.

And I was kinda like, I guess I don't think about it cause I'm from here, but there are a lot of people who want to come here, and there are a lot of reasons to also come here. I guess I'll give a little bit of a backstory. So both of my parents went to the University of Georgia in the eighties, the early eighties.

And that's how they met. They actually, this is so cliche. They met in chemistry class.

Nichelle: Stop it Stop that. 

Brittany: They were lab partners and, flourished from their desk about that story. I know it's so funny. Their first date was on April Fools day on April 1st. And so my mom was like, I don't know.

This could either be like a joke or I'll be sitting here waiting all night. They probably wouldn't appreciate me telling this story on the podcast, but so on their first date, they lived in this dorm here called, O House, Oglethorpe House is the name of the dorm. It's still a dorm here. I think my mom lived on the seventh floor.

My dad lived on the ninth floor and so they like met at the elevator. For their first date, they were going to go to a movie or something and they like rode the elevator down. And the door opened to my dad's like current girl. He was like, dating. And so my mom was like, I'll let you handle this. And she just walked outside and waited for him. And I guess he was kinda like, yeah, like not going to work. So I'm sure that girl was like, wait, is this April fools? Anyway they obviously it worked out. They're still together happy as can be. It's just so funny. I'm like every April 1st, I always think about like their first date and just probably the shock that this girl saw when like my parents, she was probably being like, so in love, just like looking at each other and then she's like crying anyway.

So they met here at Georgia. They. Got married. My dad became the head women's tennis coach in 85. So like literally right out of college, he became the women's head coach. My parents got married and they he's been the head coach ever since then, which is crazy. Amazing. It's so awesome. Most of the time, like college coaches really travel around or move from city to city.

It's not very common that something. Days in this role for this amount of years, but when you're winning constantly, they don't want you going anywhere. Exactly. And not to brag on my dad. Actually I want to brag on my dad and he's going to be on the podcast in a few weeks. So you guys can hear a little bit more about him, but he is the most winningest coach in the country.

Women's day. It's crazy. I actually think in a few other sports as well, like a collection of sports, like he is the most winningest, which is a really fun fact. So he's been the coach forever. We have lived in Athens. I grew up doing everything UGA. Which I think is one reason why I didn't want to go to college here.

I get that just cause I had the like UGA experience, my entire life of doing the football games, doing game day, doing downtown, like Athens, everything, which I so appreciated. But I think leaving to go to school elsewhere allowed me to appreciate when I came back and ultimately is what I think allowed me to really want to move here one day. So that was like a, when Chris and I were dating, I was like, so one day I'm going to want to live back in Athens and raise my family there. What are your thoughts? And he was like, as long as we don't have to go back to Massachusetts where I will be shoveling snow several months of the year, I don't mind.

I've just loved Athens. I grew up, my mom was a teacher here. We lived over on the east side. There's all different, like kind of areas of Athens too. And each of them has their own little like neighborhoods and restaurants. There's really so much to do. If you're get the opportunity or like chance to move here and raise a family, it is a great place to live and raise a family.

I know a lot of people who graduate. Ended up coming back to Athens because they loved their experience in college. And it's a small town, but it's also, it's not at the same time. So hard to explain. Cause it's one of the things that whenever after being here for awhile, I went to Robert and I was like, I want to move there.

I don't know what it is. Nothing about me ever thought about Athens as being like the goal. You know what I mean? And after being out here, it's so charming, but there is still so much to do. And I think you can agree with this. There's a need for more shopping for sure. Which they are working on.

They are, there's a lot of like really big stores that are coming. To this area that's just like right outside of Athens. So I think that will be really nice. There's a lot of, there's two really like big hospitals here. So there's a lot of like medical doctors and nurses that move here. Lots of jobs for that out here for Shaklee and then the university is huge.

So it's you're either. Doctor or you worked for the university are like the two, like main jobs in this area. So growing up, we always, I don't know. I just loved like doing all things, Athens and there's so much good food here. 

Nichelle: There is. That's one thing that I feel has been kept a secret.

Yes that's. Okay. So five points learning that I guess, terminology and what was included in five points in Athens. Almost like a middle ground. Like it's like the center. Yeah. It's I would say, yeah, it's the center of Athens. It's very close to the university. So it's, there's a lot of like students that kind of live right in this area, but there's also a lot of like residential neighborhood that kind of makes up the area of five points and five points is literally.

A like streets that meet, like to make five points. And it's funny, Atlanta, there's a five points in Atlanta. It's a little different though. Exactly. When I got older and realize what that five points was. I always thought it was just interesting to compare the two and I'm like, I like the Athens five points for sure.

Brittany: There's so many good restaurants. And the thing that I love about this area is that they're like walkability is so nice. There's a lot of areas in Athens, actually that like little neighborhoods that have great walkability restaurants, grocery stores depending on where you are, I would say like the university makes.

Like a huge portion of Athens and a lot of like students come in, from. August to may. It's like filled with a lot of students. And then the summer is actually like pretty quiet and happens. It is. We always joke. There's no traffic when the students are gone. And then you can always tell when the students are back in town, because it's like busy pluses in traffic, which it's so laughable, but it is so laughable to say traffic and Athens.

We had to sit at that red light for two lights. Oh my gosh. I'll text Chris sometimes when I'm on my way home. And I'm like, yeah, sorry. I'm just like sitting in some traffic. I'll be home in five minutes. It's very different than the traffic used to sit in. When you were living in Alpharetta.

Exactly. From Atlanta. I always feel like bad saying it, but it's just I'm literally just stopped at this light for two times. All right. So back to the food and restaurant topic, we want to share a few restaurants that I love. Some even that like nutshells tried out and has loved as well. And I feel like this could be a great resource bookmark this podcast for, if you come to Athens in the future, there will be lots of like good info on the food.

So let's start out in five points since we were just talking about five points. One restaurant that we absolutely love is called ex-pat and it's a newer restaurant, I would say, within the last five years. Changed their menu right. Like right after COVID to be more of like an Italian restaurant, which was like such a great move for them, because now I feel like they're one of the best Italian type restaurants in the area.

And you don't have many of those here to, there's a few chain restaurants that are Italian, but I feel like I really hardly ever eat at chain restaurants anymore. As for like dinner because of just the like great options we have. We're like local restaurants. So X pad has really good. All of their pasta is delicious.

Their salads are really good. They also have amazing dessert. There's this like banana pudding, Klondike bar. Stop it right now. Is sinful banana pudding. It is sinful. We, one time got one to share and Chris was like, we're going to need another. Cause I can't share this so good. I love the Taglia TELI.

Pasta's really delicious. It's spicy, but all of the portions are really good too. It's not like overwhelming. But you don't leave there being like, okay, wish the portions was a little bit bigger. But another restaurant, I like a lot in five points is five and 10, which is one that's been around for a long time.

They do a really great brunch on the weekend. I would say with them, they do have smaller portions. So yeah. We'll want to like order a few options. That's one thing Chris and I have been like, I feel like I wish the portions were a little bit bigger, but the food is still really good. So I would still suggest going there places so cute.

It's in a, more of a historic house off of the main strip in, yeah, it's like right off Milledge avenue and, but it's so charming on the inside. They have a great wine list as well. Another great. When I don't think you've been there yet. Marker seven. It's like right in the center of five points. It's like our restaurant.

Yes. It's so busy all the time. So busy, they have an awesome patio, which is really fun in the summer to sit outside. It is seafood, but like more like pubs style. They have this AHI, tuna bruschetta. So good. Chris always gets the clam basket. He loves like clams and mussels and things like that.

Their Caesar salad is also really good and they've got lots of like fun drinks and do fun specials all throughout the week. We've recently stopped. Just going to earth fare for lunch because they have a hot bars. So good. I think because you and I both talked about whole foods having their hot bar and like how much we miss it, being away from that.

This is such a good replacement. Yes. So earth fair is a local grocery store. I think they have several of them around. Around the pandemic time they closed. And then this one went under new management and reopened, but it's still earth fare and they have a hot bar. They've got like a smoothie bar. So it's a great, they do like breakfast and lunch and dinner in the hot bar.

Sometimes it will be like, I don't know what we want and we'll just go get something from the hot bar. And it's always so good. Usually a little bit healthier. She to chicken, to salmon. There's so many different options. Yes. So if you're coming into town and maybe you're staying for a few days and you need to get groceries, you could pop over to earth fare and then get something from the hot bar and.

They also have like seating outside and inside that you can actually sit and eat lunch at my dad. So he works at the university, which is just like literally in walking distance from earth fare. So he always like eats, gets like the hot bar for lunch a lot of times. And then right next to earth, fair is like an Athens classic lunch spot ad drug.

So good. My dad used to take me there all the time when we were younger and it's like an old fashioned soda fountain and they do grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, like the crinkle fries. They do hand spun milkshakes. It feels like old fashioned, for sure. Like they're writing out the ticket.

Remember the cups that have that nineties wiggles graphic on it. Like they have that. So in ad drug as well. A, it's an actually like a pharmacy and there's a little post office, a cute little gift shop, but that's like a classic, hidden, great lunch spot. But you got to go a little early. It gets busy.

You may be lunch today. I know as we were talking about all these places where oh my gosh, which one are we doing? Good. Cafe at Lumpkin is also really. So good, fun and good. They have a really good breakfast burrito. That's got like egg tater, tot avocado bacon in it. And it's all wrap. So that's a great like breakfast option, but then they also have good lunch and lots of outdoor patio seed seating.

They do like fun, like cocktails. So that's a fun like Saturday, like brunch We've really enjoyed that spot. There's so many other like places you really can't go wrong in the five points area. Independent bakery has some, they make like fresh bread. A lot of restaurants actually use their bread in their restaurants, but you can go get.

You can get your bread there. They always have a line out the door waiting for bread. Another place that my mom and I actually went to brunch on mother's day. And we went to the pine, which I always forget about because of like where it's located, but it is very good. It's a bar, the food is really good.

They have an amazing wine list. Small plates top as you could share a lot. Oh, nice. But it's really good option as well. And they do brunch on the weekends and like lunch and dinner. So that's one of my mom is always let's go to the pine, let's go to the pine. We often do take out from sucker.

Which is like a sushi and hibachi bar in five points, which is really good. Is that where you get your sushi? Normally I'm usually either there or chucks if we are picking up, it just depends if like Chuck's how busy they are, because they're also downtown. I think Chuck's is the best sushi in Athens. So we'll get to the downtown restaurants in a second.

So Kara is a great alternative and their sushi is really good too with their hibachi is really good. So that'd be a great option that you can go in and eat in there. But if you, we always just get it for takeout. So that's an option as well. So would farm cart be as you're like exiting five points area cause it's not really downtown either, right?

Yeah. It's more like closer to like Beechwood shopping area. Yeah. But there's this restaurant called farm cart. That is delicious. We get that for lunch a lot. They have these amazing sandwiches that are on this like Hawaiian buns. They do great breakfast too. Yeah. The biscuits are so good.

Their grits are great. You can eat there or you can pick it up and take it to go. Used to do the pickup all the time, like during the pandemic. And that was like, like a lifesaver. But eating there isn't as an option as well. It's so good there, they have a chicken sandwich called the stimulus chick, which we get a lot and it is so good that, and then the cheddar burger is unbelievable. Those two are my favorite, like lunch items. They only serve lunch during the week, I think like Tuesday to Friday. And then Saturday and Sunday, they do their breakfast menu. They don't do like any of the sandwiches. So just as a heads up, if you want to have that for lunch on the weekend, you can only do the brunch and they do close early because too, I think every day.

Yeah. So it's an earlier lunch. I'm trying to think. There's a restaurant in five points called El Barrio. I haven't been there to eat, but I have. I always see people like eating outside and they have a little putting green. It's very like family friendly outside spot. If you want to take your kids and have a margarita and your kids are like playing right there, they it's very family friendly.

I've heard that the food is okay, from pretty much everybody that I know who's gone there. People keep going back because of the ambience. And especially if you want to just get a drink and it's a great place to be on a Friday afternoon with your kids, let them run around. We went and it was really quiet and it happened to be good.

We've only been once, but it was, the food was good. I definitely wasn't like coming back being like, why have I way been there? Yes. It's Mexican slash TexMex. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. As we are, looking for more spots to take kids where we can tire them out, but also enjoy a good meal.

Kelly and Tito's is another great option for kids. They have a location, five points and over on the east side, they're five points location. I feel like they have indoor seating, but it's mostly outdoor. And it's like tight parking. But the food is so good. We always do KCTS or burritos.

Chris always gets the plantations, so it's like Cuban style. But the outside is like really fun for kids to play. They have this boat and. Th it's all like a bunch of rocks everywhere. So it's another easy place to sit at a picnic table and let your kids play. All right. So I feel like that's covered a lot of good food in five points.

You really can't go wrong with any of those options while I guess while we're in five points, one place that I would recommend staying is called Athens B and B. It's called an F a T H B N B. And it's a bed and breakfast and I believe they have 13 or 16 rooms. In side of the house. Yeah. They just added a few.

So I think 16 and it's three levels and each of the room is like a suite you would have at a hotel room. It's got king bed, private bath, and each of the rooms are stunning. The decor, the vibe of the rooms, like depending on you can based off availability, but also what your style is.

They cater breakfast every morning. They have two common spaces. So if you don't want to be in your room, watching TV, you can come out to one of their common areas or think they have a few more than just two, but two main ones at the front of that. But it's a great place to stay, especially if you're just coming for like a short trip.

I know they're probably like already booked out for like game days for the next, however long. So the location is so good. You can walk to the stadium from where they are walk to campus. So I would highly recommend. Booking there, we will leave their website and Instagram in the show notes so that you guys can check them out of your local.

But any of the restaurants that I just mentioned, if you stay at AF BNB, you would be able to walk. Oh yeah. So it's nice that you can just park get here and go walk to the different options for dinner. Yeah. And the service there has, they have said that it has been incredible people who have stayed there.

We know the owner and the manager and they're so incredibly sweet, so welcoming, but the people who have stayed there after, we've started talking about it, they were in love. Yeah. Yeah. I think the concept is so great. Athens really doesn't have anything else like that. We have several hotels, but this is so much more boutique and personalized and.

I dunno, I would sometimes I'm like, I just want to go stay there. So that's the five points area and then getting into downtown. So if you were to come to Athens for. Maybe like a day or a half day. And you wanted something to do. I think going to downtown would be a great place to have a good food shop around.

There's several shops. I would say probably, I think anywhere from like 10 to 15 shops, different stores like boutiques, you guys know how much I love red dress. They actually have a brick and mortar store in downtown Athens on college avenue. And. They have some of the stuff that they have online.

And then some of the stuff is a little bit different, but that's like a really fun store to come and shop in. One of my other favorites is a Gora, which is like a vintage and designer handbag store, which is so fun. If you're ever looking for anything designer, Ari and her team like soar. Designer items and they've got them in the store.

She can also like source anything for you, but they have an unbelievable collection of Berkins, which is like a serious, crazy expensive handbag. But. Is like sh in the know about everything. I've gotten several bags from her and highly recommend the quality and just like our customer service, but it's really cool.

They just redesigned their store. They moved to a new store and it's brand new. And so they have such good inventory. They have clothes, it's all like designer pieces. That's actually the store that I got my Emerald ring that I wear all the time. Chris got it for me for Christmas. And she helped him. Get the ring and everything.

So she's got amazing jewelry as well. So that's a fun place. And then there's Harry's, which is a great women's clothing store. Harry's too is more home decor and children's clothing. Cheeky peach is another great, like local Athens boutique. She started her boutique here and then they have a second location in Buckhead and Atlanta, but.

Cute. Good. Like fun vibe. Outfits. I love love her stuff. There's just tons of shopping, right around the area. And then there's great restaurants downtown too. There's also several like event venues. So we always get a lot of concerts at the Georgia theater, the 41 40. So many memories of coming out to the 41.

Yes. So Athens is a great place to consider what concerts are coming here and then make like a weekend out of it. Or definitely like a day into the night. There's a lot of hotels right in downtown. If you wanted to just come here, come downtown, you could do everything you need to do.

They also have a new target downtown. They do. It's that new concept of that. Small target. That's like more the essentials. It's funny. We actually haven't even gotten into that one. We're like, does it, how does it show up on here? No, it doesn't. Yeah. So you can, if you need any essentials while you're downtown, you can stop into the little target.

They call it market. Yeah, pretty much. The food. It's really, it's definitely geared towards the college kid. That's living out there, which is perfect. And it's right across the street from downtown, like north campus is right across the street from downtown, which is also a really great place to grab a sandwich from somewhere right in downtown and walk across the street to north campus and sit on a blanket.

If it's a nice day there's, you'll always see people like steadying. Sunbathing out on north campus. It's also a beautiful area to just walk through my brother and his wife. They always like to if they're going on like a day date, they always go walk through north campus. Cause that's something they used to do, I guess when they were in school here.

So I think that's always really sweet, but there's tons of bars. I think this. Fact check me on this, but I'm pretty sure at one point in Athens, there were like over 90 bars within the downtown area. I believe that because there's like rooftops and then bars, like within bars, the street level is a bar, but then you go downstairs and it's like a whole separate type of bar and vibe, or there's a rooftop bar at certain places, which actually speaking of the Georgia theater, they have a great rooftop bar that they opened.

It's probably been like 10 years now, but that's a fun place to go before a concert. Or if you have a reservation somewhere, grab a drink there first, it does fill up pretty quickly. So I would say make that an earlier stop in your night, but it's beautiful. You can watch the sunset and it looks out over all of downtown, which is really pretty.

Let's see some other really good restaurants. Oh, a favorite classic that we absolutely love is last resort. I feel like that's just an Athens classic. It was funny. Cause Jen actually said she was like, we're going back there. Cause it's like she's memories from going there when she was in school. Yeah. We.

Grew up going there. That was like our special event dinner, like for everybody's birthday. We go to last resort. I had my bridal brunch at last resort. My dad and I used to go there for lunch all the time. When I would come back from college, if it was on like a weekday, like maybe I came back like a Thursday night on Fridays, we would go eat lunch at last resort.

I don't think they're currently doing lunch during the week. They used to. It was unbelievable. They had this fried green tomato sandwich. That was like next level. I don't think they do it anymore, but I know they do brunch. So that would be like a great brunch spot. They also carry Cecelia's cakes guys, if you have not had a Cecilia's cake, let me be the one to tell you, you have to Cecilia Villa vases, her cakes.

She's started this bakery in Athens, in the nineties. She has since passed away, but. Family. I'm not sure the entire story, but. She's still there carrying the secret recipe of her cakes and they are unbelievable. You can order them from her bakery. They also have cupcakes that they do. We always like our wedding cake was the Cecelia's cake.

Anytime somebody has a birthday, we get them a Cecelia's cake, but you can try just like cake by the slice at last resort. And even if you aren't eating there, you could still go in and get a piece of cake to go, which is nice as well. So highly recommended last year. They don't take reservations. So there is usually a wait, but they have extended some like outdoor seating moves pretty quickly and it is so worth it.

So it's worth the wait for sure. We always get the salmon and grits is one of my favorite meals. They're delicious. They also have. This Vidalia bacon salad dressing. That is so good. My mom has bought it in jars from them before. So funny. So highly recommend last resort. Another place that we love is Chuck's fish house.

So good guys. So good. The best sushi it's fresh. They fly it in from Destin. I think. Very often. I'm not sure if it's daily, but it's like very consistently and it's their sushi is unbelievable. They've got some great appetizers. They also have really good cocktails. The Greyhound is one of my favorite, if you like, like grapefruit and Bazell, that's an awesome cocktail to have.

And they've got a lot of indoor seating and outdoor seating there. Another one that I don't know if they're doing reservations right now. I think they sometimes do. So do you think it has to be a large party? Yeah. So that would be another one. I would go put your name in and then maybe go have a drink somewhere else.

South kitchen yet we've eaten there. Yes. That was really good. That was a good lunch. Yes. They also have, I feel like it turns into a bar like at night. Yeah. There's this really cool bar whenever you walk in. Yeah. And then, but they do like really. Their salads. Like it's a great lunch spot as well.

And then the national is also a really good restaurant that. I have only been two, actually a handful of times, but I would definitely go back. I don't even think Chris has been there yet. So that's another really good one. And then the last place I want to talk about in downtown, there are so many good spots downtown, so you really can't go wrong, but one kid-friendly spot is called Ted's most best.

It's mostly pizza and like Italian sub type place, but they have this large sandpit outside and it is. Like a babysitter for the kids, tons of outdoor seating, you order your pizza or whatever your food is, and then you, they bring it out to you, but the kids can just play in the sand and it is huge sandpit.

And all the parents are just like sitting around and the kids are playing. They come and eat their pizza, go back to playing. It's a great dinner spot. It'll be like an awesome summer spot to be able to take the kids. So that would be. A definite kid-friendly spot. And then Poloma park is another one that is kid-friendly, it's a bar at night, but I believe it's a restaurant and like day drinks kind of spot, but they have a great outdoor area as well.

So I feel like they're constantly coming up with new restaurants and making them a little bit more kid friendly in downtown, which is really nice. And there's also a lot of breweries in Athens. Yes. I always forget about that as Chris doesn't drink. And so we aren't really oh, let's go to a brewery this weekend.

What's the one that's on the corner over there where we were shooting yesterday. Creature comforts. Yeah. Yeah. There it's really fun. It used to be an old tire factory. Yes. It has a really cool vibe to it. Yeah. So it's got like the big doors that it like rolls up. And you can see like how they make all the beer and stuff like that.

And creature comforts is a nationwide brand now. So if you're familiar with it, you could actually come to their brewery and they've got great outdoor space as well. So that's a fun, a lot of people like do weddings here and they will go to creature comforts on the wedding. Grooms we'll go there or like the groomsmen and all that.

We'll go there on the day of the wedding or whatnot. So that's a fun kind of stopping spot. If you are coming to a wedding and needs something to do during the day, going to creature, comforts is always fun. Oh yeah. So there is a very specific place that you truly enjoy. And I know you guys go with every weekend, almost usually.

Every weekend. It's a must. It is my other status. I still haven't been, I thought we got takeout one time. Didn't we, when Chris brought home mama's boy, take out one time. 

Nichelle: I know we talked about it. Doesn't stand out. My memory. Yeah. Okay mark. My words, I'm saying it on this podcast, we will do it.

Brittany: Mama's boy is one of the best breakfast spots in Athens. Anytime we go and I like post about it. I always get messages from people being like I miss mama's boy the most about graduating from UGA and being gone. They have two locations right now they're in the process of building a third, which I think will be open later this summer.

And it is hands down the best we eat there, usually every Saturday. So Shay and I go to this workout and then we meet the guys and the kids and do like our family of. We do breakfast there usually Saturday mornings and it is so good. I always get the veggie scrambler, which is like veggies and eggs and goat cheese.

It's so good. And then their cheese grits are unbelievable. Their biscuits are really great and fluffy their pancakes. If you've never been, you have to try their giant cinnamon roll, which is like an appetizer enough. It's big enough to feed like the whole table. Oh, wow. It is my in-laws whenever they come, they always want the Georgia peach French toast.

I think it's a French toast or is it a waffle? I'm not sure it's but it's like peaches all over it and it is like my father-in-law's I can't wait to come back to mama's boy, I want the peaches with my breakfast, but it's so good. It's so family friendly. They also do take out, which is great. Cause sometimes on Sunday after church, we'll call ahead, swing by pick it up and take it home.

And it's a great like brunch to have as well. If you come to Athens, you have to go to mama's boy. It's literally, I could talk about it for hours because it's so good. And right across the street from mama's boy is Molly's coffee with. We love Molly's yes. Coffee is like a whole other thing, which I think is it's so cool out here.

So Starbucks there's I said one earlier, but there's really two and I don't really there's the one that's inside of three or four. There's actually four. Okay. Just shows you how much we enjoyed the other coffee. Yes. Love Starbucks, but there are some other local coffee shops that are actually really good.

And the key is they have drive-throughs. Yes. So jittery Joe's is a coffee shop. That's been in Athens for years. They have great coffee. It's very strong. They've got several locations in the Athens Watkinsville area, but they have a few of their locations have drive-throughs, which I think is. So smart.

I've always liked. My mom has always wanted to open a coffee shop and I'm like, if we do, we have to make it. So it has a drive-through. So that's like the people just driving and quickly grabbing their coffee have, can utilize it as well. 

I so appreciate those that have the places where people can come in and sit down and study, hangout, whatever, but yeah, we're usually in a rush. Yeah. So we do jittery Joes, and then Molly's they have a drive-through as well. They have a lavender honey latte. That I always get. And it's so funny. I feel like they know exactly who I am as soon as I get to the drive-thru. Cause they're like welcome mollies.

And I'm like, hi, can I have a 16 ounce iced lavender honey oat milk latte? And you can just hear them in the bowl.

They know, so we love them and they've got their drive-through, but they also have an inside, a lot of like people study inside. Next to where a big like apartment complex is, or they're in a great location. But they all have their, you love their chai. 

Nichelle: I love their chai, love the lavender honey latte. I love the fact that we see Molly almost every time we get it. 

Brittany: Yes. So actual Molly is like also behind the counter making the coffee. And so I love chatting with her and just she's always what do you guys have to today? We actually tell her like, oh, we're on the way to a photo shoot.

Or we are doing X, Y, Z. And it's okay, she's always so interested. I know I love her. So that's fun. And I love supporting local. Everybody, grab a Starbucks. And sometimes I'm on the way the airport, the only easiest route is to get a Starbucks and I get it. Usually if I have the choice, I'm like, okay, it's going to be the same distance.

Let me just go to Molly's or to Jittery Joe's. There's another coffee shop downtown that we've had a few times. We don't really go there a ton just because of like where it is, but it's called a thousand faces coffee, and that's a really good, I felt like their coffee was so good. It's like all hand done.

You can tell they like put love in every single cup. It takes I would say a little bit longer, but it's so delicious. I feel like their ingredients. More fresh. Their syrups are made in house. You can see, they have these like big, like pillars in there where they do like their nitro coffee and stuff like that.

So you can see some behind the scenes of what's going on.

I'm excited to try their ice coffee. Cause I think we had it when it was cold. So we ended up getting half. When we went, so I'm excited. We need to try they're on staff. We do, they have this really great big sign on the side of their building that says coffee down.

So we're always like, oh, that's a fun photo spot for the amount of, yes, the coffee we drink, might as well get our photo, buy coffee sign. In that same area is back downtown, but there's this like large event venue called the classic center and they do a lot of like shows and concerts and it's also like a convention center.

So if you ever have to like, come to that, For a convention or something, it's probably going to be at the classic center. And so some of these things we're talking about is all like right located, like right there. And then wrapping this episode up there. A few things. I feel like if you coming here for maybe a football game, I feel like that's one of the most popular reasons people flood Athens during the fall or for football games, but there's basketball games throughout the year baseball games. I always see like a ton of people coming in time for baseball games, tennis matches. So there's always like some type of huge. Event going on. And they're always very family friendly, which is great.

So a lot of people come into town for that, but if you wanted to do something, in addition, we have a botanical gardens. Like state botanical gardens is here and it is beautiful at, especially in the winter, they do lights in the botanical garden that you guys went there a couple of times and it was awesome, but they also have a really great playground there for kids, a lot to do.

If, and if you just like strolling through the botanical gardens, it's beautiful. We have a little kind of like a mini zoo it's called. Memorial the Memorial zoo and right next to it is a park that just like recently, maybe within the last 10 years or so had like their playground is like updated it's right on a little lake.

I grew up going to this park all the time. Like my mom. I would take my brother and I, and my cousin would take her three kids and we would all meet up there probably five days a week. And we would run around the lake, feed the ducks, feed the turtles, play on the playground. It was a great way to just get some energy out.

But then the little zoo it's really cute. It's like very small. There's probably 10 animals total, but it's a fun. Place to like, if you needed like an hour or two to kill, this would be like a great, like family-friendly place to go. It's there's no cost to go to it. You can just walk through and move along.

So that's really fun. And there are also some other, like really great parks around. Athens and like lots of trails people. There's a lot of running community. There's like a lot of trails and things like that. But I feel like depending on the type of trip to Athens, you're wanting to have, you really could do a lot of different things.

Yeah. As we're sitting here, I'm like, okay, so you could spend a whole day just in the downtown area doing this. And I know I'm not even like scratching the surface with what all amazing restaurants there are. All the like options of things to do. But these are just the first things that like stick out to me when people ask, Hey, I'm coming to Athens, what should I do?

I would say, this is the shortlist that runs through my head. And I say shortlist, but I think we're like 40 minutes into this podcast. We didn't think that it would go this long, but there's a Athens is so great. Like I said, we. Love living here. So happy to be back to raise our kids here.

There's lots of great community and tons of things for them to do so truly, if you're ever thinking about moving to this area, it's so much fun. There's a lot going on. Hopefully this episode has been helpful. If you have any questions about places, specifically, feel free to email us or comment, and we can answer any questions that you might.

Until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. I can't wait to continue these conversations with you over on Instagram. Make sure to follow along at life with cleverly until next time.