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Best place for nightlife

"Ponce de Leon Avenue. It's fun to go from MJQ, across the street to Model T's and see the bad drag queens, and then to the Clairmont Lounge. Also, the Laughing Skull Lounge in the Vortex on Peachtree has some wild, one-of-a-kind, way-out-there, memorable stuff going on! Check out the Lucky Yates show and the Dames Aflame show."

Best place to eat

"For breakfast I love the Majestic and Thumbs Up Diner. It's real food, not greasy food. I don't care what time of day it is, Thumbs Up will make me the best grilled chicken salad in America. Eats is also great because you can have a pasta day or a chicken day."

Best shopping

• Artist Grant Henry

"Atlanta has the greatest thrift shops. I got a new $400 Prada shirt for $19 from a thrift store here. You can get designer furniture, clothes, funky stuff and art. Check out Cathedral of St. Philip Thrift House on Piedmont and the Junior League's Nearly New Thrift Shop. The one that has the biggest influx of stuff is The Step Up Society on Ponce de Leon and Monroe. If they are getting a truckload they'll mark everything down to 99 cents."

Places to avoid

"Atlantic Station and anything outside the Perimeter. I can't cope with it. Atlanta has such soul, and I just don't find soul there."

Places you must see

"Sister Louisa's Art Gallery! Go to a coffee shop and you'll find people who have been in Atlanta forever and they'll tell you the things to do in their neighborhood. On Freedom Parkway you can ride a bicycle from downtown to Stone Mountain. Ride MARTA to the Inman Park station and walk around for three hours, where you can see old Victorian homes and bungalows. My favorite spot in Atlanta is Springvale Park in the middle of Inman Park. You can walk to some fabulous restaurants from there, like Fritti, Inman Perk, and The Albert."

FAT DAVE'S NEW YORK

• Cabbie/foodie Famous Fat Dave

Famous Fat Dave -- aka Dave Freedenberg -- is a pickle connoisseur. If you've ever wondered where you can get the best pickle in New York ... OK maybe you've never wondered, but Dave's got all the pickle particulars. He knows hot dogs, pizza slices, Belgian waffles, bagels and gelato. A New York cabbie turned foodie, Freedenberg knows his city and his cuisine. For $100 and up, you can experience more of New York than just Times Square on a Famous Fat Dave Food Tour. Pack an empty stomach and a huge appetite, as Dave divulges the perfect recipe for a trip to the Big Apple:

Best place to hear live music

"There is a place in Harlem on St. Nicholas Avenue called St. Nick's Pub. They play jazz all night long the way I imagine it used to be. Every time I've gone, it's been a jam session. It's the sort of place where some of the old timers dress and dance like Cab Calloway, and people get up on stage and sing or play their hearts out to about a dozen people at 2 a.m."

Best place for nightlife

"My favorite spot is called Anyway Café. They've got a couple out in Brooklyn -- one on Oriental Avenue (one of my favorite names for any street in New York) and another on Gravesend Neck Road (another favorite name) -- but I usually end up at the one on 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street (the nexus of the universe). It's a Russian place with some tasty crepes and caviar and good live music like accordions and jazz. They serve all flavors of infused vodkas like plum and lychee so it tastes like you are drinking a mixed drink, but you aren't."

Best place to eat

"This is like asking me which is my favorite family member. I really can't answer that because I love so many of them for so many different reasons. If I have to choose one, I'll say Guss' Pickles on the sidewalk on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side because I used to work there. I worked there so I could eat pickles free."

Best shopping

"My girlfriend does her shopping at the little boutiques on Spring Street and Prince Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in SoHo. But I kind of shut down when people start talking to me about shopping so I don't pay attention. If you are talking about shopping for food, go to Bleecker Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. In a street about a fifth of a mile long, you can get some of the best meats in town at Ottomanelli, some of the best Italian sausage in town at Faicco's, and some of the best cheese in the WORLD at Murray's Cheese (I used to work there too so I could eat the cheese). Also, there's a great bakery called Amy's Bread with sourdoughs for $1. There's a fishmonger called Lobster Place that makes its own sushi, and there are twin Italian pastry shops that have been there forever called Bruno and Rocco's." (Rocco's hand pipes their cannoli, Bruno does not.)