The Atlanta Diner is a big silver and pink restaurant on North Druid Hills Road just south of Buford Highway and just north of the entrance ramps to I-85. Unlike almost everywhere else in Atlanta, the diner is open 24 hours. Whenever we’ve been there, it’s been echoingly empty, but I can only assume that must be busy at some point or it wouldn’t still be operating.
At first glance, the Atlanta Diner seems a respectable but unremarkable example of its kind: it has the usual array of 24-hour breakfast options (pancakes, French toast, omelets, etc.) in the usual price ranges ($4 to $7, depending on what you get and how much bacon you get with it) and most of the usual diner entrées, like moussaka and spanakopita, as well as burgers and spaghetti. The diner has more vegetarian options than many such places, as there’s a tasty grilled portabella burger and a veggie Reuben (just a standard veggie burger, but with sauerkraut, cheese, and dressing); both are served with fries for less than $7. My carnivorous partner likes their real corned-beef Reuben. There’s a case full of dryish looking pies and mammoth carrot cakes, but we haven’t tried them.
The interesting thing about the diner is that it seems to be genuinely pan-ethnic. While most diners in the US (...well, in the northeast, where I've been to a lot of diners...) tend to be run by Greeks who offer their own cuisine along with some American and Italian standbys, the Atlanta Diner clearly has roots which extend well beyond Europe. Spaghetti, moussaka, and bacon not withstanding, the waitresses often wear Muslim headscarves, and there's an unusually extensive array of North Indian or Pakistani offerings on the menu, too. These dishes are not strikingly authentic, but they're good; it's impossible to tell, when you're eating a curry and your companion is eating a Reuben, whether either of them is an example of the cook's native cuisine.
In its way, the Atlanta Diner turns out to be an example of both the good and the bad sides of Atlanta pan-ethnicism. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Jews (read: spanakopita, aloo gobi, and Reubens) coexisting peacefully is a wonderful sight; on the other hand, it would be nice if it were a little less grubby.