The Busy Bee

This guide to The Busy Bee soul food diner in Atlanta follows founder Lucy Jackson, a self-taught cook who opened its doors in 1947 and named the place after a bee she spotted on a sign during a trip to California. It traces the story of a hungry missionary turned away elsewhere and sent here instead, and the diner's path through four owners across eight decades, from Jackson to Milton Gates in 1981 and his daughter Tracy Gates since 1987. Photographs of past customers, including rapper Ludacris, cover nearly every inch of the walls around you.