There is an attitude among romantics to continuously watch the same romantic comedy (rom-com) every time a minor tragedy occurs.

With this sentiment at heart, the Technique is proud to present our top picks for comfort movies for the Valentine’s Day weekend.

These three movies each take existing plot formulas from the romantic comedy genre and add unique twists and premises to make for a refreshing while still familiar experience.

The ‘Teenager Finding Her Voice’ story: ‘Dumplin’’

This movie has everything: Dolly Parton music, drag queens and a message of self-acceptance. 

In this coming-of-age drama, Willowdean Dixen (Danielle MacDonald, “Patti-Cakes”) is an overweight teenage girl competing in her Texas town’s beauty pageant because “there’s nothing in the rules that says big girls need not apply.”

The development of the relationships between Millie and this ensemble cast of her friends and mentors takes center stage with a thoughtful romantic plot building throughout.

It is available to stream on Netflix.

Favorite Line: “I think you’re beautiful — to hell with anyone who has ever made you feel any less than that.”

If you enjoyed this movie you might also like: “The Duff,” “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” “Clueless,” “9 to 5.”

The ‘Workaholic Traveling’ story: ‘Falling for Figaro’

In “Falling for Figaro,” successful financial advisor, Millie Cantwell (Danielle MacDonald), quits her job to pursue her lifelong dream of opera singing. This movie follows her travels to the Scottish Highlands to train and compete in an opera competition.

It is a somewhat surprising premise, but this movie is refreshing in its authentic execution and homage to opera.Unlike many presentations of confidence in this trope, Millie is highly aware and capable; her confidence is not used as a punchline. 

This cleverness is countered well by the gruff awkwardness of her romantic interest played by Hugh Skinner (“Fleabag”). This movie is available on Hulu.

Favorite Line: “You spoiled brat. Do what you like.”

If you enjoyed this movie you might also like: “Leap Year,” “Set It Up,” ” Big Business,’’ “The Proposal,” ‘’When In Rome.”

The ‘Anti Rom-Com Rom Com’ story: ‘500 Days of Summer’

This classic sleeper hit romantic comedy film “500 Days of Summer” follows a man (Joseph Gordon Levitt, “10 Things I Hate About You”) retrospectively looking back on his relationship with Summer Finn (Zoey Deschanel, “New Girl”).

The film, and accordingly Summer, break the mold of many of the male-centered romantic comedies that were released in the late 2000s when this film was made, including the trope of the “manic pixie dream girl.”

The film openly points out the flaws of its characters and their perspectives and makes for a uniquely honest and cathartic watch. This movie is available on Hulu.

Favorite Line: “Because I wanted to.”

If You Enjoyed This Movie You Might Also Like: “Mr. Right,” ‘’The Big Sick,” “Plus One,” “I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore.”

Our Take: 3/5 Stars

“How I Met Your Father” came out to mixed to negative reviews in late January. The show, a spin-off of “How I Met Your Mother,” depicts a woman telling her children the story of how she met their father in a series of flashbacks. Like many sitcoms, the first few episodes show evidence of the creators stumbling to find what the show’s tone will be.

“How I Met Your Father” stars Hilary Duff (“Younger”) as a young Sophie; her character is a photographer in New York City, hopelessly romantic but also tired of the dating scene. Playing Sophie’s “will they won’t they’’ counterpart is Chris Lowell (“Promising Young Woman”) as Jesse, a former musician and current music teacher and Uber driver.

So far, Sophie’s role as naive over-optimist counters Jesse’s cynical moral compass, but as the show progresses, these characterizations will likely grow beyond these typical tropes of the genre.

In the pilot, Sophie meets Jesse in the first episode through a plot device many romantic comedy fans will recognize: the accidental phone switch (a la “Stuck In The Suburbs”).

They quickly befriend each other and bring with them their own respective friend groups that then combine. 

These quirky characters round out the ensemble, and their classic hang-out spot of the bar satisfies the last requirement for a sitcom about friendship. The show so far follows the antics of this group trying to make their way in the city.

“How I Met Your Father” has all the framework for a successful sitcom, and yet, it is missing the mark.

The at-times cringey humor is a symptom of the show’s underlying problem of underdevelopment. There are no inside jokes or comfortable rapport to walk in on.

Instead of viewing the dynamics and charm of a fully formed friend group that has known each other for years, the audience has the uncomfortable role of watching this group form.

Critics of the show in the YouTube comment section of clips from the show voice an opinion that the show is “pretty people failing to be relatable.”

However, most shows cast pretty people; the difference is that most shows also present these characters in a state of suspension of disbelief that allows audiences to forget that they are pretty. “How I Met Your Father” fails to do this task.

Instead of splitting the cast into relatable characters reacting to unrealistic circumstances (as seen in “the Office”) or having more eccentric characters in realistic circumstances (as seen in “New Girl”), each character has an uncomfortable balance of relatability and caricature that reminds the viewer how unrealistic this situation and dynamic is.

These flaws of underdevelopment are common to the first season of many successful series and can be resolved in time, but whether audiences will stick around to see this redirection remains to be seen.

The show’s predecessor, HIMYM, came out on a time of cable television; the act of changing the channel at 8:45 p.m. to watch the latest episode of a more popular series coming on at 9 p.m. would naturally lead viewers to give shows multiple tries. This practice allowed for sitcoms to find their footwork. With the interface of streaming and the plethora of options available, the expectation is higher for shows to be condensed and thought out.

The show earns three stars. It is a comfortable show to play while trying to study or when very tired, but it does not yet have the quality that would make it suitable to watch in groups, rewatch or quote. While “How I Met Your Father” has potential, the creators are so focused on it becoming a classic that they forget they first need to make it a comedy.

Fun, funny, engaging. Not many mainstream bands can boast featuring a cello in their bill of instruments or a music video filmed completely in reverse, but these qualities are exactly what set The Happy Fits apart. The indie pop band is coming to Atlanta in December on their current “What Could Be Better” tour, and last week, they took the time to sit for an interview with the Technique. 

The group formed when cellist Calvin Langman and guitarist Ross Monteith began performing covers together. This experience, according to Monteith, made the pair realize that they “hated doing covers.” Thankfully, this realization was not the end of their creative collaboration.

In the summer before their first semester at college, the pair began working out together and recording their own songs. In need of a drummer, the pair called on a friend of a friend, Luke Davis, for what they thought would be a one-time recording together. Soon after, they released their first EP, “Awfully Apeelin.” These songs took off on Spotify’s “Fresh Finds” playlist two weeks later, and it became clear to the trio that their musical careers together were just beginning. Five years and three albums later, the band is currently on their “What Could Be Better Tour.” Released in 2020, this album has a music video for each of its songs.

For one song, “No Instructions,” the group donned cowboy hats and rocked out on a ranch. Despite the polished final product, the group described the behind-the-scenes chaos of learning how to ride horses for the first time and sprinting away from hornets’ nests in between takes.  The Western scene had Langman and Davis riding on horses and Monteith, who is allergic to horses, on a toy pony; this pairing, in combination with the many improvised scenes of the friends goofing around, made for a perfectly wholesome and wholly accurate depiction of the group.

Other favorite music video memories for the group included their time reversed effect in the music video for “Go Dumb” (“Tenet” who?) and the catchy choreography of “She Wants Me To Be Loved.”

The group’s unique sound is the product of a varied listening library. Major influences include the Killers, Young the Giant and Vampire Weekend, but this list is too short to capture their expanding sound. In talking lyrics, Davis listed a line from Mitski’s “Nobody” as a recent favorite, and Langman cited Mama Cass’ “Make Your Own Kind of Music” as an enduring favorite.

With these unexpected influences, the band’s music is ever-changing but always compelling. Touching on themes that they feel and writing about what they want to, the Happy Fits have created a unique sound possibly as fun to sing along and dance to as it was to make.

The Happy Fits have worked hard to develop an eclectic, diverse following. Rans recommend listening to their latest single, “Cold Turkey,” This song has all the cathartic reverie of the chorus of “Mr. Brightside,” and a whistled outro that has the Andy Griffith show’s theme song shaking in its boots. 

With bright songs and upbeat lyrics, their Dec. 11 show at The Loft is sure to be the perfect way to celebrate the semester wrapping up. Tickets are $15.

A panorama of the Atlanta skyline, a couple’s parting embrace at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the smiling staff of the Silver Skillet are a few of the sights students will recognize and reconsider at the High Museum of Art’s newest photography exhibit.

“Picturing the South: 25 Years” opened last Friday. The exhibit celebrates the “Picturing the South” photography series’ anniversary and displays nearly 200 works from the series’ 16 artists. Since 1996, the series has supported photographers creating bodies of work inspired by the American South. This exhibition is the first time works from all of the series’ past and present commissioned artists are presented together.

The scale of this exhibit allows for each artist’s work and interpretation of the region to be displayed prominently.

According to Rand Suffolk, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director, this commission and exhibition series are “entirely unique among American museums for its longevity, commitment to place and diversity of artistic perspectives.”

The exhibit varies greatly in subjects, styles and tones, but throughout each body of work, the artists present visually the opposing forces that form the south. Some artists develop a playful comfort with their subjects and present harmonies arising from paradox.

One photographer, Mark Steinmetz, commented on his work capturing scenes from the airport, saying that he liked “the idea of a quiet interlude in a crowded place.” These black-and-white portraits invite the viewer to be still in a bustling setting, allowing for a closer look at often overlooked narratives.

Some works lean into the discomfort of the Southern landscape and highlight the inequality that exists in the region. Sheila Pree Bright’s 2020 works featured in the exhibit find their subjects in her home of Stone Mountain. These black-and-white landscapes focus on the majesty of the forestry and nature’s reclamation of itself over man’s historical interruption. Bright brings a mysterious tone to the sight of kudzu overtaking an old post, train tracks dividing the forest and a monument to the Confederacy cutting into the mountainside.

Richard Misrach’s 1998 works in the exhibit depict landscapes shaped by the active intervention of mankind along the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Misrach presents grandiose, vibrant industrial complexes centered in dilapidated scenes of nature. Misrach’s placement of the symbols of man in the foreground of these scenes makes a statement on the role of these industries in shaping human life and of the legacy they create. This presentation of this power and its manipulation simultaneously allures and repels, and Misrach himself likened his works to a “dysfunctional Disneyland.”

The legacy of the region complements the personal stories presented in the exhibit’s portraits of artifacts and people of the South. The exhibit has a lovely combination of both circumstances and their inhabitants that makes for a more intimate and moving experience of the narratives presented.

With this series’s longevity, there is a cathartic delight in viewing the exhibit as a time capsule of the many paradoxes and shared experiences of the South, but it is the exhibit’s attention to distinguishing these shared experiences that allow the viewer to gain a deeper look and a better knowledge of this life.

“Picturing the South: 25 Years” will be on display at the High through Feb. 6. More information and interviews with the artists of this exhibit are available on high.org.

At Saturday night’s Atlanta stop of the “Cheers! To A Tour” tour at Terminal West, neo-psychedelic band Fleece opened for Jukebox the Ghost with an exciting set. Before the show, the members of Fleece took the time to answer some questions and talk about their experiences as a group.

The members of Fleece met in college in 2014 and have been growing as friends and bandmates since. When talking about the evolving dynamic of the group, Matt Rogers (vocalist and keys) shared the group’s early focus on emotional check-ins to prioritize direct discussion of the emotions of the group. Now on tour, these check-ins have evolved to each member’s ability to informally “sense energy in the room in a way that feels very natural.”

This respect and attention that each member shows towards each other was evident on Saturday night in Jameson Daniel’s (guitar) quiet nodding and Ethan Soil’s (drums) focused gaze as they listened to their bandmate speak. Megan Ennenberg (bass/vocals) added that the most beautiful aspect of their group was its allowance for “figuring out who they are to the project and what they need specific to them,” and that this growth has allowed her to feel she does not have to “strain her volume to be heard.”

The focus on communication plays well into the collaborative creativity in Fleece’s content. Soil, the mastermind behind much of the Fleece’s TikTok and YouTube content, shared that much of their comedic content (including the YouTube short “Quarf,” made after they were stranded in the desert that captures their essence better than any article could) is completely improvised and filmed within moments of its inception.

Fleece’s approach to songwriting is similarly improvisational in its conception and revision and benefits from each member’s extensive knowledge and love for music.

All the band members have loved music from a young age; Ennenberg shared a story her mother always tells of her playing a basic version of “Somewhere Over the Radio” by ear on her toy keyboard when she was a toddler after watching the “Wizard of Oz.” When asked about the music they listened to as children, the group’s answers varied from “Moulin Rouge” to Phil Collins’ “Tarzan” soundtrack. They joked about Roger’s listening to Adele’s “19” before it was cool, and his overall “That’s So Raven-esque ability to predict the future.”

The same banter between friends that endears every interviewer Fleece encounters continued in their onstage performance. The band was greeted with a curious and somewhat subdued audience as they began their set. But they rose to the occasion, energizing the audience with call and response vocalizations, goofy on-stage antics and lively sound.

Joking about the song “My Type,” Rogers explained the song’s inspiration and perspective of an f***boy. Their set was filled with similarly improvised, lighthearted humor, as the band played a selection from their latest album “Stunning and Atrocious.”

Alternative pop band Jukebox the Ghost was missing its guitarist, Tommy Siegel, as he recovered from COVID-19. This absence left pianist and vocalist Ben Thornwill and drummer and vocalist Jesse Kristin to lead their set. The pair joked on stage that buying a ticket to their show was a ticket to “come watch two men sit on stage for an hour and a half.”

Although there was a dip in energy in their performance compared to their energetic opener, the band played their greatest hits, such as “Girl” and “Jumpstarted.” These songs lent their set the built-in audience engagement of singing along to songs that they knew and loved. The crowd was delighted by these comfortable hits and cheered along to every song.

Overall, the joint performances made for a lovely night, clocking in at just over two hours from start to finish. It was not a raging concert to vehemently protest a year without concerts; rather, it was a night to quietly celebrate the possibility of going out with friends again.

Fall break is approaching, and this semester is already going by too fast. If you are looking for a study break, these four festivals happening near Tech are a perfect way to enjoy the season.

Elevate Art Festival

The Elevate Art Festival is a combined effort between venues, artists and businesses across the Atlanta community to, as described on their website, “ignite interest in cultural events and art.” The festival spans multiple weekends and different neighborhoods each week, with this weekend, Oct. 1-3, the festival will be making its stop in Midtown, focusing on the area’s unique cultural hubs.

With over 12 events featured that vary from pride to poetry to film, there is sure to be something for everyone. Events will be across Midtown with no singular home base; some of this weekend’s venues include the High, the Botanical Gardens, Poem 88 and Colony Square. Visit the festival’s website at elevateart.com to see the lineup of events taking place and pick a few to visit.

Atlanta Pizza Festival

Taking place right next to campus in Atlantic Station, this Pizza Festival is a travelling pizza event that is coming to Atlanta this year for the first time. This event will feature live music and entertainment, drinks, and, you guessed it, pizza. All chefs will be using a Neapolitan-style pizza oven, and there will be options for visitors with dietary restrictions.

The festival will be on October 2nd from 12-6 p.m. General admission tickets are $15 with all proceeds supporting Christopher Haven’s Atlanta. More information is available at atlpizzafestival.com.

Rev Fall Fest

Rev Coffee Roasters will be hosting a fall festival on Oct. 9 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at their Smyrna location. With a goal to “provide a venue for local artists to display and sell their talents and passions while at the same time inviting the community to observe and enjoy in a comfortable and entertaining environment,” according to their website, the coffee shop will be hosting live music, comedians and artists in the outdoor area surrounding their building. Rev will also be serving up their October secret menu items and hosting giveaways throughout the day. No tickets are required.

Missed the festival but still want to try some Rev coffee? The last Friday of each month is Free Fridays, where visitors can get a free 16 ounces of drip-brew. More information is available on their Instagram @revcoffee.

Chalktoberfest

Every October, 75 chalk artists from around the world cover the streets of Downtown Marietta with their designs to compete in a chalk art competition. Surrounding the art, the sidewalks are lined with over 50 vendors including local restaurants, breweries, businesses and artisans.

In the center of it all, there is live music in Marietta Square Park with 9 bands rotating through the 2-day festival.

This year, Chalktoberfest will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 9 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 10. Admission is free. More details are available at chalktoberfest.com.

Our Take: 4 Stars

True crime podcasts and theatre references. New York in the fall and sweaters. Steve Martin and Martin Short. Selena Gomez and combat boots. Hulu’s new “Only Murders in the Building” excels in its clever pairings.

After a shocking and hilarious flash forward to an impending murder, the show begins with a sequence of introductions of its three main characters flashing back to two months earlier. Narrating their own strut through the Upper Westside of New York, each character is showcased with a theme song.

Charles Hagen Savage (Steve Martin, “Cheaper by the Dozen”) used to play a detective on TV, and now he can be found repeating his old catchline to the children of his fans. His narration, an excited ode to the safety of the city over the common-murder-podcast-setting the “boonies,” is set to a swinging, jazz number “Manhattan.”

After a man gives her an unwanted comment as she walks down the street, Mabel (Selena Gomez, “Wizards of Waverly Place”) details in her narration her study of true crime podcasts to prepare her for the dangers of the city and her fantasy of killing an intruder. Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” plays for this stylish young woman.

Oliver (Martin Short, “The Santa Clause 3”), unemployed off-off Broadway director, remarks on the city’s resilience in his opening narration. The song “Never Fully Dressed”, from Annie, plays as he theatrically over-glamorizes his nostalgia for the city. The façade Martin Short is famous for playing dissolves as the music fades into Clair De Lune, showing the sincerity this show can muster.

And after their individual introductions to the audience, these characters are unwillingly introduced to each other in the elevator, start off on the wrong foot, and part ways.

But, fortunately, after an alarm in the building goes off and the apartment must be evacuated, the three characters meet again in a restaurant. They realize they are each trying to listen to the same podcast and bond over a shared love of true crime podcasts. Then, when they realize the alarm was due to a mysterious death, they bond over their shared suspicion of this true crime.

“Only Murders in the Building” balances the drama of a true crime show with the humor of the character’s lack of investigative ability and absurd twists, such as guest stars Sting and Tina Fey. It shows a deep awareness, balancing parody with homages to podcasting. Most compellingly, the endearment and banter of friends that forms between these detectives feels honest and refreshing.

The visual aesthetic and attention to styling in the show is remarkable. The characters wear detective versions of the subtly 60s influenced trends (that are also appearing on Georgia Tech campus). For Gomez’s character this means big belt buckles on miniskirts, turtlenecks, stockings, and plaid pants. For the gentlemen, it’s button ups under sweaters and, yes, plaid pants. And the titular “Building” itself is quite stylish too, with the classic French architecture trends expected of an old New York apartment building.

“Only Murders In the Building” is funny and honest, but it loses a star for its at times disorganized pacing. Cliffhangers for one episode go unacknowledged while other plots are prioritized. This mixed focus might annoy viewers expecting a case-per-episode pace of a pure crime show like “NCIS,” but for fans looking for comedy and endearing characters, this show has lots to offer. It’s great for a group-watch with plenty of room for mystery theory discussion, but it’s also fun to watch alone to fully appreciate all the one-liners.

Watch “Only Murders In the Building” now on Hulu or save for a more festive watch when Georgia’s weather starts to realize what season it is.

Two new exhibits opened at the High Museum of Art last month. “Really Free! The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe” and “Gatecrashers: The Rise of Self Taught Artists in America,” feature over 100 pieces from American self-taught artists.

“Really Free!” focuses on the art of Nellie Mae Rowe from the “playhouse,” her lively home in Vinings that she opened to visitors from the late 60s until her death in 1982. This exhibit is the first major presentation of her work since the “playhouse” closed, and invites the viewer to experience the essence of the “playhouse” alongside the splendor of her drawings. It is the first ever presentation to consider her art as a “radical act of self-expression and liberation in the post-civil-rights era South.”

Nellie Mae Rowe was an African American woman who married twice and worked as a domestic worker before considering herself “really free” to pursue her artwork following her husband’s death.

For the next 15 years, Rowe made a prolific number of dolls, drawings, and sculptures using found materials and brightly colored crayons.

The High’s exhibit presents Rowe’s exploration of her artistic and girlhood ambitions that were previously set aside in her life. Modern audiences might identify with this bold intersection in her piece “Real Girl,” a valentine in which she embeds a picture of herself, her signature, and the modifier “real girl” within a flourishing heart.

At the surface, these drawings are joyful, and though Rowe’s works do convey joy, this exhibit presents the underlying endurance it took for Rowe to pursue art. According to curator Katherine Jentleson, curating this exhibit led her to personally consider “the courage it took [for Rowe] to hold on to beauty before finally stepping into the role [of artist].”

“Gatecrashers” similarly focuses on self-taught artists but expands its focus to 12 American artists, including the works of John Kane, Horace Pippin, and Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses. This exhibit details the barriers that these artists faced in the mainstream art scene of their time and earned them the title of “gatecrashers.”

“As self-taught artists become increasingly visible within today’s art world, this exhibit takes audiences back to the moment when it all began,” Jentleson said.

The exhibit has a wide array of styles, techniques, and degrees of realism, but the self-taught status of the artists consistently lends the advantage of their unique perspectives to the exhibit. These are not the commissioned portraits of historical figures that have their place in a European exhibit. Instead, the subjects in “Gatecrashers” are what the artists saw in their everyday lives and approached with creativity. The exhibit shows “how the art world slowly became more inclusive of who qualified as ‘American’.”

On Sept. 14, there will be an in-person Inquiring Minds event for “Gatecrashers.” It is a small group conversation facilitated by museum educators.

Tickets to the High are $18 regular admission with group discounts available. The Second Sunday of each month is free admission, and members of the military get free admission and parking. More information is available at high.org.

Our Take: 4 Stars

Everyone who went through an Alt-J phase or even was aware of the alternative music scene in the mid 2010’s knows the YouTube video “how to write an Alt-J song.” This improvised parody formed when two guys were playing around with a broken keyboard’s loop feature in 2015. That video now has 12 million views, and those two guys now make up one half of the LGBTQ indie quartet, Fleece.

The humor and energy on display in this lighthearted parody translate well into Fleece’s music, and the band has earned a reputation for bombastic jazzy rock songs and energetic performances. In their earlier albums, they earned comparisons to a plethora of other bands like Radiohead, Tame Impala, the Pixies, and, of course, Alt-J. Plus, they have continued their goofy antics with videos like “my cat watches me dance” appearing on their YouTube channel.

Fleece released their long-awaited third album on Aug. 20. In this album, “Stunning and Atrocious,” the group draws on a slightly different tone than previous albums, taking on more fragile subject matters including the “vulnerability from road life, stage highs, loneliness, upheaval, and every eerily true cliché cited by bands throughout the years.” Even though they drew on their unique experience of being in a band as inspiration, the emotions that they pull on make these songs universally relevant and surprisingly cathartic. The band said they wanted the album to feel like an “auditory hug.”

The emotional expressions in “Stunning and Atrocious” are specific. One song “Bodies Lie” captures the experience and anger of being continually underestimated. Simple lyrics like “And if I chose to, I could burn you” capture a frustrating choice many must make when their talents and ability go unnoticed. At times, this song strays musically from the more serene tones of the album, but the departure in tone is perfectly fitted for the emotion expressed. For a more calming vibe, listen to the first song in the album, “All My Money.”

In “Stunning and Atrocious,” the group stays true to the reputation of musical complexity they have earned in their careers. The instrumentation carefully conveys the emotions in their songs with lyricism that supports rather than masks the role that the instrumentation plays.

With Fleece’s at times haunting tones and vocals, certain songs in this album are reminiscent of Mother Mother’s “O My Heart,” but this comparison falls short as the production of “Stunning and Atrocious” production has an ethereal, sensitive quality to it that is not often found in the indie folk genre. Fleece’s fans continue to celebrate the band and their bending and exploration of genre norms.

When asked what they looked forward to most about touring again, Fleece said, “Waffle House. Being idiots in every state. Getting abs. Eating healthy. Also, shows are sick to play. Lol.”

Fleece is about to begin a North American tour with Jukebox the Ghost that will last from September to November. The band will be performing in Atlanta at Terminal West on Saturday Oct 4. Tickets are $22.

Around Tech’s campus, nobody does pizza like Shaq. Aside from the iconic Papa John’s, Tech has a variety of pizza options nearby. From late night study sessions to a night out with friends, there’s always an occasion for pizza. Here are a few places within a quarter mile of campus worth trying in your first year:

Rocky Mountain Pizza

Rocky’s pizza is a familiar, comfort pizza. They serve up one-of-a-kind specialty pizzas (Wing Pizza?! Enough said!) with plenty of cheese on a softer, slightly chewy crust; pizzas come by the slice and up to 16 inch whole pizzas.

Pizza isn’t the only food that Rocky’s offers either — the special for this month is Graci’s Waffle Fries, topped with Cajun spices, chicken, queso, pesto, mushrooms, bacon and feta cheese. As they advertise on their website, Rocky’s has a mission to “create uplifting experiences for our community by being the place to hang out, have good food, cheap drinks, and a great time”, and since they opened in 1996, they’ve been doing just that. Rocky’s is a great place to watch an Atlanta United Game or hang out for a fun night out with friends. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 PM is trivia night, with prizes for the top three teams. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

And bonus points: you’ll recognize their building’s distinct design in the 2013 film “The Internship,” starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.

Distance from campus: 144.4 feet

Antico-pizza Napoletano

Down the street from Rocky Mountain Pizza Company is Antico. Serving up pizzas from their wood fired brick oven, Antico offers an authentic Napoletana experience. There is a focused selection of pizzas available, combining fresh ingredients in simple ways that let the ingredients speak for themselves. Note that pizza is not sold by the slice here, so be ready to share with friends or be eating leftovers for a while (not a chore by any stretch). Antico offers communal seating, occasional opera music playing in the background and some beautiful murals to enhance your dining experience. Located in Atlanta’s Little Italy, Antico is one of the four restaurants owned by Giovanni Di Palma in this stretch on Hemphill Avenue. If you’re hungry for dessert, gelato is available at Caffe Antico a few steps away. Antico is also a celebrity favorite, with the likes of Paul Rudd and Drew Barrymore having been known to stop in when they’re shooting movies in Atlanta.

Distance from campus: 1056 feet

Atwood’s Pizza Cafe

Tucked away in the ground level of the Biltmore Hotel is the serene Atwood’s Pizza Café. Atwood’s offers a refreshing take on typical pizza with their Neapolitan-style pizza, and each pizza is cooked to order. The crust is always hefty enough to support its toppings and keep its satisfying crunch. There’s plenty of high-end toppings and oil finishes to choose from, with vegan and gluten free options available.

Pizzas are served up to 10’’ ­— perfect to serve one or even to split with anyone special you meet this year.

Located just beyond Tech Square, Atwood’s location suits its variety of menu options — you can grab a bite for lunch before class in Scheller or stop for dinner after a walk.

Atwood’s has been a change of pace with its casual and relaxing atmosphere.

Distance from campus: 242.8 feet

Honorable Mentions farther from campus: Fellini’s, Goodfella’s, Vinny’s, Nancy’s Chicago Pizza, Little Azio