Atlanta food halls and markets: Ponce City, Krog Street and Sweet Auburn

Atlanta's best way to taste many kinds of cooking in one trip is a food hall or a market. The city has two big modern food halls on the BeltLine, a historic municipal market near downtown and a vast international market in Decatur. They are different places with different purposes, and treating them as one list leads to a wasted afternoon. Here is what each offers, when to go and how to plan a visit. Hours change, so check each market's own page before you go.

What is Ponce City Market?

Ponce City Market occupies the former Sears, Roebuck regional building on Ponce de Leon Avenue at the edge of Old Fourth Ward. It opened as a mixed-use development in 2014, and it holds a large central food hall with many stalls, plus shops, offices, apartments and a rooftop attraction. The food hall offers everything from pastries and gelato to burgers, tacos and a wood-oven restaurant. It sits right on the Eastside BeltLine trail, so many visitors arrive on foot or by bike. It is busy at weekends, so weekday lunches are calmer.

What is Krog Street Market?

Krog Street Market is in Inman Park. It is smaller than Ponce City, with a hall of stalls and a few full-service restaurants, a bottle shop and a bakery. Regulars treat it as a neighborhood meeting place, and it also sits beside the BeltLine. Tables fill in the evening, and a group will often have to claim seating before ordering. Walking the trail between Krog Street and Ponce City Market makes an easy outing, with murals and parks along the way.

What is Sweet Auburn Curb Market?

Sweet Auburn Curb Market, officially the Municipal Market of Atlanta, grew from a farmers market set up after the Great Fire of 1917 on land the fire had cleared. A permanent brick and concrete building opened on May 1, 1924. The name Curb Market has a painful history: Black vendors were once required to do business from the curb until segregation ended in the 1960s. Today the city owns the building, a nonprofit runs the market and individual vendors sublet stalls. It sells produce, meat, seafood, baked goods and flowers, and it has lunch counters serving Southern and international food. It is a place to understand Atlanta's history as well as to eat.

If you go, allow time to walk the aisles before you decide what to eat, because the lunch counters sit among the produce stands and the choices are not obvious from the door. Ask the vendors about the items they are proudest of, and look for seasonal produce from Georgia farms. The market sits within a short walk of the historic sites on Auburn Avenue, so it pairs well with a morning at the national park museums and a lunch before an afternoon on the BeltLine.

What is Your DeKalb Farmers Market?

Your DeKalb Farmers Market, on East Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur, is a very large warehouse that sells produce, meat, fish, cheese, bread and international groceries from many countries. It has a hot food counter and a restaurant. Some areas are cash only, so bring a little cash. It is a good stop for a picnic, a spice haul or a lunch in a very large, very busy hall.

When should you go?

Weekdays at lunch are easiest at every market. Evenings and weekends bring crowds, and the BeltLine halls can be loud and packed on a Saturday night. Sweet Auburn Curb Market suits a weekday or a Saturday morning visit, and some stalls close in the afternoon. Your DeKalb Farmers Market is busiest on weekends and before holidays, so shop early in the day.

Seasons matter too. In July and August the heat sends people into the air-conditioned halls, and the lines at the ice cream and gelato counters are long. In spring and fall the BeltLine itself is the draw, and the outdoor tables fill. Around the holidays, Sweet Auburn Curb Market and Your DeKalb Farmers Market are busy with people shopping for the table, so expect long lines at the butcher and fish counters. If you want the quietest visit, go on a weekday morning outside school holidays.

How do you plan a group visit?

Decide in advance whether you will eat together or separately. At a food hall, one person finds a table while others order. Agree on a meeting point and a time. Ask whether stalls take cards, whether they close early and whether they offer seating. For a group of eight or more, a full-service restaurant on the same site is often easier and may take a booking. Bring ID if you will drink alcohol.

How do you get there and park?

Ponce City Market and Krog Street Market both have paid parking decks and lots, which fill on busy nights, and both are reachable by BeltLine trail, rideshare and some bus routes. Sweet Auburn Curb Market is near downtown streetcar and MARTA stops. Your DeKalb Farmers Market has a large lot, which can be crowded on weekends. Check current fees and routes.

What about children, allergies and dietary needs?

Food halls suit families because each person picks what they like and there is room to move. For allergies, speak to the person at the stall and ask what shares a fryer or a grill. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free choices are common, but ask about cross-contact each time.

How do you keep track of what you tasted in Atlanta's food halls?

A food hall invites six small meals in one visit, and by the time you are home you remember the gelato and nothing else. Mosey is a food app for finding, rating and sharing places to eat, and it rates by the dish, so the taco, the pastry and the Sweet Auburn lunch counter plate each get their own score.

Tag your ratings with Group Dining or Good Portions, build a list for the BeltLine and share its invite link with your group so everyone adds what they ate. Following friends brings their favorite stalls into your view before you plan the next visit.

Rate your favorite food hall dish in the Mosey app.

More guides to read next:

• Buford Highway: Atlanta's International Corridor food guide
• Best brunch in Atlanta, Georgia (2026): where, when and how to go
• Best restaurants near me in Atlanta: a neighborhood guide (2026)

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