Atlanta Restaurant Guide

Irby's Tavern occupies the corner of Peachtree Road and East Paces Ferry — the exact intersection where, in the mid-1800s, Henry Irby ran the tavern and grocery that gave Buckhead its name. The story, printed on the menu, runs that a hunter hung a buck's head on a post outside Irby's place, locals used it as a landmark, and the name stuck. The current tavern leans into that heritage as a sports bar with a menu that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution review described as "dressing up" standard bar fare. Burgers headline: the Bo Sharkley with Cajun seasoning and blue cheese crumbles, a fried-egg-and-avocado build with smashed avocado, tomatillo salsa, and bacon, and a Texas-toast version with caramelized onions, Swiss, and Irby's special sauce. Wings, sandwiches, and tavern plates fill out the rest. TVs are everywhere, the kitchen runs late — midnight Sunday through Thursday, 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday — and the room is locally owned rather than corporate. The Buckhead Village location matters: this stretch of East Paces Ferry has cycled through restaurants for decades, and Irby's is one of the few that frames itself by what Buckhead actually was before it became a luxury shopping district. The Tripadvisor and Yelp reviews — 154 entries on Yelp alone, with 172 photos — skew toward locals and game-day crowds rather than tourists, which keeps the room feeling like a tavern rather than a theme.