Our weekly tailgating guide steers you into the metropolitan heart of the South ahead of Georgia Tech's must-win Coastal Division romp with Virginia Tech for some sun, fun and a giant bee directing a marching band.

The Lowdown.
This isn't the bucolic small-town atmosphere you might expect from most college tailgates. Georgia Tech's is one of the very, very few major college football stadiums right in the dead center of a major city. You are quite literally tailgating right smack in the middle of downtown Atlanta. (That's not to say it doesn't have a certain charm -- where else can you get your drink on on a highway overpass without being mistaken for a hobo?) It's not your typical, grassy campus layout, but as one Yellow Jacket partisan tells it, that's all part of the charm:

Gameday manages to be both Southern with the food, the whiskey and the hospitality and nerdy with the tailgate locations including "the physics lot" and "behind the old reactor," a rickety old car with a loud horn careening around the field and the oldest on-campus stadium in college football -- a stadium that has seen more wins by the home team than any other in the history of the game. The sideline that Paul Johnson is walking up and down is the very same one that John Heisman and Bobby Dodd and William Alexander patrolled. Stop into the athletic museum and there's trophies from every one of the major bowls and a very recognizable giant crystal ball. It might be a bit offbeat compared to other gamedays in the South, but somebody has been doing something very right on that little patch of ground in the middle of Atlanta for a very long time.

If you're trying to tailgate on campus proper, the prime spots are on West Campus towards the gym or at the Coliseum parking lot. It's a bit of a haul to the stadium, and traffic afterwards is going to be gruesome, but parking on campus is recommended considering you're downtown. (And this is for locals only, mind: Don't even bother trying to set up your own tailgate as a visitor, or trying to drive to the game. Nearly every parking spot on campus requires a pass during gamedays. It's easier to take MARTA to the North Avenue stop and walk across the bridge to campus.)

What To Wear.
This may be an engineering school, but it's still the South. You'll find the requisite contingent of bow ties and popped collars, but as long as you show up wearing some gold on your person, you'll fit right in. And nobody executes this mandate quite like the Goldfellas:

Pregame Stops.
• The Varsity, 61 North Avenue. Legendary drive-in famous for chili dogs and frozen orange drinks and other artery-clogging goodness.
• Taco Mac, 933 Peachtree Street NE. Sports bar with a godzillion beer selections.
• Papi's Cuban Sandwiches, 216 Ponce de Leon Avenue. One of these will take the edge off your drankin' nicely, if need be.

Postgame Stops.
• Sweetwater Brewing Company, 195 Ottley Drive NE. Local outfit patronized by the college set.
• Atlanta Brewing Company, 2323 Defoor Hills Road NW. See above.
• If yummy local beer's not your thing (heathen), head to the Highlands area for a mixture of low key and high octane bars.  The drink prices are favorable and the atmospheres vary widely from bar to bar, all of which are in walking distance from one another.

What To Drink.
Our Yellow Jacket comrades all agree: "If it's whiskey, it's drunk at Georgia Tech." There are no other choices, really, when the "water of life" is right there in the fight song.

- - -
Many thanks to GT's own Nathan Fowler and Bird, Dane and Winfield at From The Rumble Seat.
Holly welcomes your adulation and veiled threats at nastinchka-at-yahoo, etc.