This Atlanta restaurant is rich in flavor … and history

ATLANTA - Restaurants around the world are navigating unprecedented challenges right now, due to the ongoing pandemic — but Atlanta’s Paschal’s Restaurant and Bar has been overcoming adversity since day one.

"In the first week of opening the restaurant, their oven broke," said current director of operations Zane Major while laughing.

Brothers James and Robert Paschal first opened the restaurant in 1947; they survived the broken oven and quickly became famous for their fried chicken. The brothers ended up growing into a larger space, adding jazz club La Carrousel in 1960 and a 120-room Motor Hotel in 1967. The original site sits at the corner of what is now known as Martin Luther King Junior Drive and Paschal Avenue; an appropriate intersection, given that the Paschal brothers often intersected with the civil rights leader. 

"He was a big patron for us. One thing that we provided Dr. King was private meeting space. So, he would eat at the restaurant and he would also use the conference rooms and the suites in the hotel," Major says. "For the restaurant at that time, it really was about a place and space for individuals, but also someplace that someone could go and they knew they'd be safe. One of the big things was after a protest, people could come to Paschal's and contact their loved ones, or if they were looking for someone, they could say, this is going to be home base."

Today, Paschal’s is located a few blocks from that original site at 180 Northside Drive Southwest in Castleberry Hill. But inside, photographs honor the restaurant’s place in the civil rights movement, and the food honors the vision of the Paschal brothers. 

"I have been assured that it tastes the same," answers Major when asked if the fried chicken has changed since the 1940s.

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And after a summer during which protests over racial injustice once again happened right outside their door, owners say being that safe space for the community remains a key ingredient in the restaurant’s continuing legacy.

To learn more about Paschal’s Restaurant and Bar, and to check out the menu, click here. Due to the pandemic, the restaurant’s main dining room remains closed, but orders for take-out and delivery may be placed online. 

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