The Atlanta Shopping Map

“Virtual treasure maps. Elite e-itineraries. Password-protected pushpins."

One of my favorite local flower shops.

“Virtual treasure maps. Elite e-itineraries. Password-protected pushpins. How the modern nomad aristocracy wanders the globe.”

This is how Town & Country’s “The Snob's Guide to Travel Google Docs” begins.

In a story written by Emilia Petrarca (who also gave us that article about The Real Real), the author details a chance encounter in Milan with an American Transplant who shared a meticulously detailed Google Map of the city she’d personally assembled.

“With one act of generosity, I was suddenly inside a whisper network that made Tripadvisor look basic and my own itineraries seem like amateur hour,” writes Petrarca.

The guide includes many a lovely watering hole.

“As it turned out, I got a digital pushpin chart not just to Milano but to every single place I could ever want or need to visit—in the entire world. Hotels on small islands I’d never heard of. Vintage shops on secret side streets. Restaurants better than the usual foodie favorites. The kind of if-you-know-you-know places shared only with confidants, lest they be spoiled. Among nomadic connoisseurs, the most prized guides do not bear the signatures of celebrities or even reflect the sensibilities of boldfaced bohemians. These hot docs are passed around like contraband, because they’ve been around for years, edited, revised, and updated like epic poems that are never finished.”

As I prepare to leave Atlanta, a city I have lived in for over ten years, I can think of no better parting gift than an insider’s Google Map of my own. True to reputation, this isn’t your typical list of see-and-be-seen spots (though to be fair, they’re on there).

My favorite local seafood shop and eatery.

I’ve pinged my favorite farmer’s market, the best hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place, a wine shop that will make you weep, the flower wholesaler run by the friendliest folks in town, the best place to buy French antiques, the Rich Mom market, the spot that passes out free champagne at 6, the best bakery, the zero-proof bottle shop, my favorite local designer’s boutique, where to take your parents dancing, where to get the best express facial, and of course, my favorite clothing stores. It’s an ever-growing, ever-evolving, living, breathing, thing.