Long story short version: I was looking for a place new to me to visit a couple of Fridays ago, and the earlier that it opened for lunch, the better, since there were many things to do that afternoon. So I found a very popular hot dog place in Avondale Estates, a little town just east of Decatur that I had never, in all the years I’ve lived around this area, had reason to visit before. Skips opens at the agreeable hour of 10, serving up nicely-priced Vienna Beef dogs from underneath the requisite collection of Bears, Blackhawks and baseball memorabilia and banners. If their collection is not quite as wild and esoteric as the museum on the walls of Marietta’s Chicago Delights, it’s still enough to satisfy the homesick.
I mentioned to a co-worker that I was heading this way, and she urged me to try the onion rings, as she considered them the best in the city. She wasn’t far wrong! These were wonderfully tasty, beer-battered rings with a lot of flavor. I enjoyed one classic Chicago dog and one chili dog, and why anybody would want to accompany these with chips or fries is beyond me.
Leo Shababy Jr. and his father, Chicago natives, opened Skips in 1979, making it, I believe, the first restaurant in the Atlanta area to offer Vienna Beef dogs. The building is a strange Frankenstein amalgamation of several improvements and additions to what had been, in the 1950s, the first Dairy Queen in Dekalb County. Little of the old building remains apparent. Perhaps in between paying some attention to the Tudor design of Avondale Estates’ main commercial center, just down the road, and the holdover trend from that time of outdoor restrooms, restaurant design weirdos like us might find some curiosities here. People looking for really good onion rings to accompany the reliable Vienna Beef experience will find even more to enjoy.
You can see all the restaurants that we have visited for our blog on this map, with links back to the original blog posts. It’s terrific for anybody planning a road trip through the southeast!
Marie, Let's Eat! 
In your travels have you found any onion rings crusted with crumbs as opposed to batter? I love the ones with crumbs because they don’t seem to soak up as much fryer oil. I figured if they were anywhere in Atlanta/north Alabama area, you would know.
We were just at Pizza Palace in Knoxville yesterday. They fit the bill… and, as we were making several back-to-back stops, we didn’t order any!