On a clear morning the King and Queen towers rise over the Perimeter like a pair of crowned chess pieces, and somewhere in their shadow a family is buying sangak bread still warm from the oven, arguing gently in Farsi over which kabob to take home. The Persians in Atlanta did not arrive all at once or settle in one tidy enclave. They came in waves, mostly after 1979, and they spread north along the spine of GA 400 into Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Roswell and Alpharetta, building lives in medicine, engineering and small business until the suburbs of north Fulton quietly became one of the South’s most established Iranian-American communities.
The Place
Sandy Springs sits in northern Fulton County, just inside the I-285 Perimeter, the seventh most populous city in Georgia with about 108,000 residents counted in the 2020 census. For decades it was unincorporated suburb, voting overwhelmingly to become its own city only in 2005.
The area is defined by Perimeter Center, the office district anchored by the twin Concourse towers, and by Roswell Road, the long commercial artery that runs through the heart of the city. Push a little further north and you reach Dunwoody, Roswell and Alpharetta, the Avalon shops and the Johns Creek subdivisions.
This is affluent, white-collar Georgia: corporate headquarters, good public schools, leafy cul-de-sacs. It is exactly the kind of place that drew a generation of educated immigrants who arrived with degrees and meant to use them.
What ties the Persian story to this particular geography is Roswell Road itself. The road runs north out of Buckhead through Sandy Springs, and over the decades a string of Persian restaurants and grocers grew up along it, a low-key commercial spine for a community that never built a single visible quarter. The enclave here is culinary and social rather than residential, scattered across subdivisions but converging on a handful of kitchens.
How It Became Persian
The first arrivals
A handful of Iranians were already in Atlanta before the revolution. Some came as students in the 1960s and 1970s, drawn to the city’s universities, and a few simply stayed. Asad Nezani, who has lived in Atlanta since 1976, belongs to that earlier cohort, the people who put down roots before the great migration began.
One of the more remarkable family stories belongs to the Farokhi household. The father immigrated from Iran in the 1960s, earned a Ph.D. at Atlanta University, and spent more than forty years as a professor at Morris Brown College. His son Amir grew up in metro Atlanta and would go on to make a different kind of history.
The 1979 wave
The decisive change came with the 1979 Islamic Revolution. As the Shah fell and the Islamic Republic took hold, hundreds of thousands of Iranians left, many of them professionals, merchants and members of religious minorities who saw no future under the new order.
Atlanta was not the obvious first choice. Los Angeles, with its Persian heartland of Tehrangeles, drew far more, and other cohorts settled among the Iranians of San Diego on the California coast. But the South had something specific to offer: affordable housing, a booming Sun Belt economy and a quiet place to rebuild without much fuss. Mazi Mazloom, now a Marietta defense attorney, arrived in 1979, part of that first revolutionary wave.
Building the institutions
By the late 1980s the community was large enough to want a home of its own. In 1989 a group of Iranian-Americans founded the Persian Cultural Center of Atlanta, known to everyone simply as Kanoon, the Persian word for hearth or society.
Kanoon settled in Norcross, just off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, and became the steady centre of communal life: Persian language classes for children, music concerts, theatre, and above all the festivals. Its mission was plainly stated, to help Iranian-Americans and other Persian-speaking people integrate into mainstream American life while keeping their own traditions intact.
In 2013 the centre launched the Atlanta Persian Festival, an annual public event built around music, food and dance, designed to introduce Persian culture to the wider city. A younger affiliate, the Georgia Iranian Society Organization, grew up alongside it to serve students and young professionals.
Into the professions and the suburbs
The Atlanta Iranians followed a familiar arc. The first generation went into medicine, engineering, academia and business. They earned their footing, then moved their families up the GA 400 corridor into the best school districts they could find.
That is why the community today is so dispersed across north metro Atlanta rather than packed into one neighbourhood. You find Iranian families in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, in Brookhaven and East Cobb, in Roswell, Alpharetta and Johns Creek. The same north Fulton corridor has drawn other communities for the same reasons, from the Jewish families of Dunwoody to the Indians of Alpharetta and the Koreans of Johns Creek. Safiah Vafaeian works as a nurse practitioner in Brookhaven. Sepideh Kajbaf retired in East Cobb. Sheeva Joodaki is a software engineer in Roswell. The professions tell the story of the place.
A community that made history
In 2017 Amir Farokhi, the professor’s son, was elected to represent District 2 on the Atlanta City Council, becoming the first Iranian-American elected official in the South. He was joined on the council by Liliana Bakhtiari, and the two made local history as Iranian-Americans serving together on the city’s governing body. It was a long way from the lecture halls of Morris Brown.
The Landmarks
Kanoon, Persian Cultural Center of Atlanta, 3146 Reps Miller Road, Norcross. Founded in 1989, this is the communal hearth. It runs Persian School for children, hosts music and theatre, and stages the Nowruz celebrations that for years filled a downtown hotel ballroom. When the community needs to gather, it gathers here.
Rumi’s Kitchen, 6112 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Chef Ali Mesghali opened the original Rumi’s on Roswell Road in 2006 and moved it down the street to its present home in 2012. Named for the thirteenth-century poet, it became the breakout Persian restaurant of Atlanta, later expanding to Avalon in Alpharetta and Colony Square in Midtown.
Persepolis Persian Cuisine and Shahrzad Market, 6435 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. One of the city’s oldest Persian establishments, Persepolis serves kabob koobideh and gheymeh in a plain, comfortable room. Next door, Shahrzad Market stocks the saffron, dried limes, sumac and bread that a Persian kitchen cannot do without.
Farsi Kitchen, 8540 Roswell Road, Atlanta. Further up Roswell Road in the 30350 ZIP, Farsi Kitchen plates chenjeh kabob of saffron-marinated sirloin and lamb chops, with a DJ on weekend nights. It is the busier, livelier face of the Roswell Road Persian strip.
Taaj Restaurant and Market, 6385 Spalding Drive, Peachtree Corners. Out in Gwinnett, Taaj is known for sangak bread baked fresh daily and served alongside traditional stews and dips. The attached market makes it a one-stop errand for families on the east side of the metro.
Persian Basket, 2100 Ray Moss Connector, Johns Creek. Anchoring the Iranian presence further north, Persian Basket pairs a restaurant with a grocery, building its menu around the staples of bread and yogurt and the long Persian tables of brunch, lunch and dinner.
Bibi Eatery, Ponce City Market, 675 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE, Atlanta. A younger, in-town counterpoint from the team behind Delbar, Bibi serves kabobs, rice plates and sandwiches inside the Ponce City Market food hall, carrying Persian cooking to a new generation of intown Atlantans.
Where They Came From
The Atlanta Iranians come overwhelmingly from the great post-1979 emigration. Many traced their origins to Tehran and Iran’s other large cities, the professional and merchant classes who had the education and means to leave when the revolution closed in.
The community is religiously mixed, reflecting Iran itself. The majority background is Muslim, but the diaspora here also includes Iranian Jews, Christians, Baha’is and Zoroastrians, minorities for whom departure was often less a choice than a necessity.
The American Community Survey estimated roughly 8,590 people of Iranian ancestry in metro Atlanta in 2019, with later counts nearing 9,400, though community leaders, as everywhere in the Iranian diaspora, believe the true figure is higher than the census captures. Statewide, Georgia’s Iranian population is counted in the tens of thousands.
Atlanta Today
The community today is mature and settled, two and three generations deep. Its children have grown up Georgian, attending the public schools of north Fulton and the universities of the state, while the Roswell Road restaurants and the Kanoon calendar keep the older traditions within easy reach.
Nowruz remains the great annual marker. The thirteen-day Persian New Year, some three thousand years old, has long filled ballrooms and festival grounds across the metro with music, the haft-seen table and dishes like sabzi polo mahi. The Atlanta City Council itself has hosted Nowruz observances, a measure of how far the community has come.
But 2026 was a subdued year. With war raging back in Iran and internet blackouts cutting families off from relatives in Tehran, the Persian Cultural Center cancelled its big downtown Nowruz celebration. As executive director Azadeh Vatanpour put it, it was difficult to hold loud music and DJs while the community was in mourning. Shahrzad Shafiei, who immigrated to Atlanta at age twelve, spoke of grieving for everything happening at home. Even in sorrow, the haft-seen was still set, the sabzi polo mahi still cooked. Renewal, after all, is the whole point of the holiday.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do most Persians in Atlanta live?
The Persians in Atlanta are spread across the affluent north metro rather than one enclave. The largest concentrations are in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, with substantial numbers in Roswell, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Brookhaven and East Cobb, generally following the GA 400 corridor north.
When did Iranians first settle in Atlanta?
A few Iranians arrived as students in the 1960s and 1970s, but the major migration followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when professionals and religious minorities left Iran in large numbers. Atlanta’s affordable housing and growing economy drew a steady share of them.
What is the Persian Cultural Center of Atlanta?
Founded in 1989 and known as Kanoon, it is the main cultural institution serving the Persians in Atlanta. Based in Norcross, it offers Persian language classes, music and theatre, and organises the Nowruz celebrations and the annual Atlanta Persian Festival, launched in 2013.
How many Iranians live in metro Atlanta?
The American Community Survey estimated about 8,590 people of Iranian ancestry in metro Atlanta in 2019, with later figures nearing 9,400. Community leaders believe the real number is higher, since census counts tend to undercount diaspora populations.
Where can I find Persian food in Atlanta?
The heart of Persian dining is Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, home to Rumi’s Kitchen, Persepolis and Farsi Kitchen, plus the Shahrzad grocery. Further out you will find Taaj in Peachtree Corners, Persian Basket in Johns Creek and Bibi at Ponce City Market.
Has the Iranian community shaped Atlanta’s public life?
Yes. In 2017 Amir Farokhi became the first Iranian-American elected official in the South when he joined the Atlanta City Council, later serving alongside fellow Iranian-American Liliana Bakhtiari. Their election marked a milestone for the Persians in Atlanta and the wider Southern diaspora.
If your family’s story passed through Atlanta, or any of the places Persians have made home in America, Atlas of Home can trace that journey. From the streets of Tehran to the Roswell Road kitchens of Sandy Springs, to wherever you are now.