Order a plate of…
After filming wrapped in Juliette, Georgia, locals saw a business opportunity and turned the Whistle Stop Café set into a working eatery. You can order fried green tomatoes on a salad or a sandwich, or as an appetizer with house-made radish sauce. Just please honor the restaurant’s typed request: Don’t steal the menu as a souvenir.
Then order another
When Fannie Flagg was growing up, her great-aunt Bess Fortenberry ran the tiny Irondale Café just outside Birmingham, Alabama. The author used it as inspiration for her fictional restaurant. Today, the cooks at the First Avenue storefront estimate they fry between six hundred and eight hundred slices of green tomatoes each day.
Visit Senoia, Georgia
Golden camera plaques stud the sidewalks of this little community south of Atlanta to commemorate the TV shows and movies filmed here—most recently the Walking Dead series. Drive along Bridge Street to spot the Travis-McDaniel House, which appeared in Fried Green Tomatoes as the exterior of the Threadgoode family home. Just across the road, you’ll recognize the bridge and railroad, too.
Spot the train
The locomotive that powered the Crescent passenger line featured in the film is now undergoing restoration at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia. There’s also a new historic marker in downtown Auburn, Alabama, on the route the famous train traveled for forty-five years.
Host a screening
Get the popcorn ready. This fall, Universal Studios Home Entertainment rereleased a DVD of the film with deleted scenes and outtakes, so you can relive “Towanda!” again and again.
