Sunday, September 14, 2008 | News, Sports, A+E, Food, Life, In this Issue..., Style, Nightlife
The SP 100

Presenting the fourth annual SP 100: The Sunday Paper staff’s thoroughly researched, hotly debated and extremely opinionated list of Atlanta’s finest entertainers, restaurants, philanthropists, nightspots and more.

Jon Rou/Emory University Photo
Atlanta’s a hotbed of smart college students, like these smiling Emory grads.


Courtesy of the Georgia Department of Economic Development
Phipps Plaza in Buckhead is a prime spot for people-watching.


Sunday Paper Archives
Decatur Square

DECATUR SQUARE

WHY: Whether you’re enjoying the sounds of the Morgan Rowe Band on a Friday evening as part of Concerts on the Square or grooving to a Blue Sky Concert featuring Diane Durrett during a Wednesday lunch hour, this intimate quad is the highlight of Decatur’s quaint little movie set of a downtown. With the Old Courthouse on the Square providing a link to the city’s past and a plethora of chic and funky spots for shopping, dining, coffee and entertainment within strolling distance, Decatur’s living room is so inviting, you’ll never want to leave.
WHERE: West Ponce de Leon Avenue at Clairemont Avenue. 
www.decatur-ga.com.

THE GOLD-DIGGERS AT PHIPPS

WHY: We love Phipps Plaza, of course, for such stores as Nordstrom, Brookstone, Juicy Couture...we could go on. But we especially enjoy watching those ladies of a certain age who prowl the Buckhead shopping Mecca for their next ex-husbands. Any weekend brunch at the Tavern at Phipps, or any afternoon at the Starbucks kiosk, you’ll find them: Donatella Versace ringers complete with unnatural tans and the kind of tautness that says “‘Work’ is the thing you have done.”
WHERE: 3500 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-262-0992. www.phippsplaza.com.

OUR CITY OF IMMIGRANTS

WHY: Between buying your groceries, catching a movie or going to the doctor, there’s an excellent chance you’ll run into someone who ain’t from around here, including Cubans,  Somalis, Ethiopians, Afghans, Iraqis, Georgians (the former Soviet kind), Indians, Turks, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Germans, Egyptians, Moroccans, Czechs, Russians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Nigerians—the list goes on. If you’re lucky, they’ll invite you over for dinner.
WHERE: Just take a look around.

FISHING IN LULLWATER PARK

WHY: There’s just something so Huck Finn about fishing. At Lullwater Park, veteran casters line up alongside Yuppie neophytes to haul in some frightfully enormous catfish, bream and redbreasts. In fact, given the pond’s proximity to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, maybe there is something odd about the size of those fish. 
WHERE: Just north of Clifton Road’s intersection with Haygood Drive on the campus of Emory University.

COLLEGE STUDENTS

WHY: From Morehouse College and Spelman College in the southwest to Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and the Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta in downtown and Midtown to Emory University and Oglethorpe University in the northeast, the metro area boasts its fair share of institutions of higher learning. These schools contribute lots of smart, attractive young people between the ages of 18 and 25 to our cityscape, which reflects well on Atlanta—and provides some nice scenery, to boot.
WHERE: Just about anywhere inside the Perimeter.