Alton Brown—Food Network host, author, and variety-show star—doesn’t slow down much (he’s now working on a Good Eats reboot for 2018). When he occasionally hits the brakes, you can find him at home in Marietta, just north of Atlanta. “It’s still a small town—a real town,” Brown says. But the big city—Brown moved to Atlanta in high school—has its charms, too. Follow along with Brown on a dream day there.

6:45 a.m. “The perfect day—maybe my last day on earth—would have to include a Dough in the Box apple fritter.”

photo: Greg DuPree

9:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. “New York has the High Line. We have the BeltLine. It’s the walking path of Atlanta, and it’s lovely to watch all the art installations that are going up around it.”

12:00 p.m. “This is critical: If you’re going to come to Atlanta and have only one thing for lunch, you get a Ghetto Burger at Ann’s Snack Bar.” (1615 Memorial Drive; 404-687-9207)

1:30 p.m.–4:00 p.m. “Cover Books is literally a bookstore inside an art gallery. The books are so beautifully curated that you could spend hours there. If you need to pick up some original midcentury chairs and also some late-nineteenth-century anatomical charts, Brick+Mortar is your place.”

4:30 p.m. “Brash Coffee is housed in a shipping container. And although that sounds super hipster, its cortados are really solid—and they’re my jam.”

6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. “I love Little Trouble because it’s kind of sci-fi themed, and I always feel like I’m an extra in Blade Runner. They also make this great variation on a martini called Save Me Again.”

8:00 p.m. “I’m a huge fan of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I buy single tickets all the time.”

11:00 p.m. “Marcel is my favorite restaurant in town and has late-night service on weekends. It’s this cool French steak house–hangout that is completely unfussy but also completely elegant.”