Phuong Le, owner of Atlanta Highway Seafood Market, had the idea to open a fresh fish market in North Georgia while working in a body shop in Gainesville.
Le, his wife Lily and brother Brian, have operated the restaurant since 2008.
“I used to work in a body shop at Milton Martin Toyota and Hayes Chrysler,” Le said. “We just wanted to provide seafood to the community. So we started it, me, my wife and one of the staff.”
Atlanta Highway Seafood Market was recently named 61 in a ranking of the top 100 seafood restaurants in the U.S. by Yelp.
“It's awesome to be even on that list. You know, I don't think there's a restaurant from Mississippi on it,” Le said.
They have also been ranked in the top ten restaurants in Gainesville on Trip Advisor for almost a decade. Southern Living ranked them as one of the South’s best catfish spots in 2020.
“We take a lot of pride in what we put out we always try to get the best product available,” Le said. “And we just take a lot of pride in what we cook with and what we sell.”
Le said they bring in fresh seafood almost every day of the week.
“We're bringing in a lot of fish. A lot of, wild-caught, domestic seafood. Our shrimp come out of Mississippi," Le said. "Oysters come out of Alabama. We get grouper and snapper, we get flown in halibut from Alaska and Carolina trout and flounders.”
If they do not have it in stock, they will order it fresh from the gulf.
On top of the fresh seafood, they also serve cooked seafood.
“We do a variety of cooked seafood: Etouffee, gumbos, New Orleans style po'boys, typical fried fish and grilled fish,” Le said.
Le, who is from Biloxi, MS, enjoys their Cajun cuisine the most.
“I like the gumbo, but we do the po'boy. We buy French bread from New Orleans. It's a Gambino bread,” Le said.
Janice Wiggins, who was at the restaurant Friday, said she and her husband don't mind taking a longer drive to enjoy the fresh cuisine.
“We drive over an hour to come here and have lunch,” Wiggins said. “We usually tie it in with a doctor's visit or something like that but - great food. We're having the fried catfish po'boy.”
Wiggins said she and her husband also typically take home food for later meals.
“We always take food home with us to put in the freezer,” Wiggins said.
Atlanta Highway Seafood Market is located on the corner of Atlanta Highway and Hazel Street. They are open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
