Table Talk: El Azteca at 45 + Oatmeal Cream Pies
Dec. 9 — Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the table.
All this week, Rough Draft is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sandy Springs cityhood with stories marking important milestones from its incorporation in 2005 to the present day.
🌯 Today, I’m sharing a story about one of the city’s oldest restaurants, El Azteca, which has been a staple on Roswell Road since 1981. Still owned and operated by the Macias family, Victor Macias explains why his parents chose to open their Mexican restaurant in Sandy Springs nearly 45 years ago and what it was like to watch the newly formed city grow up around it.
For “The Move,” I tell you why the jägerschnitzel at Avize (one of Rough Draft’s Best New Restaurants of 2025) has become a cold-weather standard for me at the Brady Avenue restaurant. Plus, The Daily’s pastry chef, Natalie Howells, offers you a recipe for her ginger-infused oatmeal cream pies.
Speaking of ginger and cookies, did you know that 13th century German monks in the city of Ulm were responsible for the invention of what would become gingerbread?
🍪 Called “lebkuchen,” monks combined nuts and honey with cinnamon, cloves, and anise, basing the dough recipe off of one enjoyed in the region since Roman times. To keep the dough from sticking to the oven, they baked the honey-infused mixture on communion wafers. Since the dough contained honey as the binding agent, rather than fatty butter (and was still high in calories), lebkuchen could be baked and stored for months. The cookies soon became part of the winter celebrations throughout Northern Europe, especially along spice trade routes. You can read more about lebkuchen from Atlas Obscura.
Cheers!
🍸 Beth
After Nearly 45 Years,
El Azteca Remains a Sandy Springs Staple
🇲🇽 El Azteca has been a staple in Sandy Springs for more than four decades. Victor Macias’s parents tethered themselves to the community more than 45 years ago, raising their children in Sandy Springs and opening the first El Azteca there, long before the Atlanta bedroom community became a city.
Sandy Springs is where it all began for El Azteca, today a local Mexican restaurant chain with three locations. It’s become a great source of family pride that the Roswell Road restaurant still exists, as Sandy Springs and its burgeoning dining scene grew up around it. (Now the seventh-largest city in Georgia, Sandy Springs and Atlanta combined account for two-thirds of the more than 20,000 restaurants in the state.)
Macias attended Spalding Drive Elementary and spent most of his childhood in Sandy Springs. His formative years unwittingly paralleled the then-fledgling city, which incorporated when Macias was in middle school.
🗣️ He remembers his parents talking about the incorporation of Sandy Springs and what it might mean for El Azteca. By 2005, when Sandy Springs became a city, El Azteca had been in business for nearly 25 years.
“I’ve seen Sandy Springs and the restaurant scene change so much. My parents chose Sandy Springs because there were hardly any restaurants when it opened in 1981. The community needed restaurants,” Macias said. “Back then, there weren’t as many Mexican restaurants as there are today, so El Azteca was a lot of people’s introduction to Mexican and Tex-Mex food in Sandy Springs.”
Macias’s father, Javier, moved to Atlanta from Chicago in the late 1970s to work at his uncle’s restaurant, El Toro, on Roswell Road. But in 1981, Javier and his wife decided to strike out on their own, opening El Azteca near present-day Rumi’s Kitchen, before taking over the property now home to Mellow Mushroom. In 2000, El Azteca moved again to its present location at the Lowe’s complex, a half mile south on Roswell Road.
The Macias family lived and worked in Sandy Springs for years, eventually moving to Johns Creek in the early 2000s. But El Azteca on Roswell Road served as the family’s anchor to Sandy Springs, even after the business expanded to multiple metro Atlanta locations.
“[Roswell Road] is where we see generations of families returning to dine. I’ve seen people’s kids and grandchildren grow up and bring their own families,” Macias said, who serves as El Azteca’s Director of Operations and owns the Perimeter Center location on Peachtree-Dunwoody Road. “We like to call El Azteca the Mexican ‘Cheers’ because we know our regulars’ names and their orders. We’re part of their lives.”
👨👩👧👧 Family drives everything behind El Azteca. It continues to be a family-owned and operated business, and where Macias and his sister learned the restaurant industry, working as food runners, servers, and hosts during high school. He watched his parents grow the family’s lone restaurant into 10 locations. They’ve since scaled back to just three locations in Buckhead, Perimeter Center, and the original Roswell Road restaurant.
Macias’s sister holds a degree in hospitality management. The plan had always been for her to take over the business. When she decided to prioritize raising a family, Macias stepped up to help his parents run the restaurants.
With a degree in business administration and marketing, Macias became a manager and shadowed El Azteca’s Director of Operations, a title he earned in 2016. His parents turned over the opening and ownership of the Perimeter Center El Azteca to Macias three years ago, where he built the restaurant from the ground up.
“Family-owned businesses don’t have as much support once founders get older or retire. Maybe their children don’t want to carry on the business, or they never had any children. So these businesses close after years in communities because there’s no one to keep them going,” Macias said. “My parents were lucky we grew up in the restaurants and wanted to keep being a part of them.”
🌮 As a second-generation owner overseeing the daily operations of all three of his family’s restaurants, Macias knows that for El Azteca to endure, it needs to evolve. He recently added new dishes like tortas and chiles rellenos to the menu. The bar features new non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails like a lychee margarita and Mexican Old Fashioned. Margaritas incorporate top-shelf tequilas, fresh juices, and agave syrup.
Macias also pared down the combination meal options from 30 to 10. That doesn’t mean, however, someone can’t come in and order the number 25.
“We have cooks who’ve been there for decades and can still make a number 25. I may not know what a 25 is, but someone in that restaurant does and will make it,” said Macias.
Despite stepping back from the day-to-day running of El Azteca, his father keeps a sharp eye on things. Macias is glad for his wise counsel, but finds his father open to new ideas for keeping El Azteca fresh and current.
“El Azteca still has the majority of the day-one recipes on the menu, and certain entrees have never changed. As I’ve taken over more, I’m focusing on keeping the original concept, but adding to it, making it more now,” he said.
In 2026, El Azteca will turn 45 on Roswell Road. Macias wants to make sure it survives in Sandy Springs for another 45. The family just resigned the lease, locking El Azteca in on Roswell Road for at least another decade.
🚩 With the Perimeter Center restaurant humming along, Macias can concentrate on shoring up the family’s flagship restaurant on Roswell Road, which includes some much-needed updating and a facelift.
“If we needed to leave that space, we would always find a way to be on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs,” said Macias of the future. “It’s our home base and reminds us of how far we’ve come. El Azteca would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for the people of Sandy Springs.”
Georgia Grown holiday gifts at Cook’s Warehouse
SPONSORED BY GEORGIA GROWN
🎁 Georgia Grown goodies make the best gifts!
Whether you’re looking for stocking stuffers or want to build your own beautiful gift basket, nothing says you’ve got great taste like a gift from our local, craft food makers!
➞ Stop by Cook’s Warehouse at Ansley Mall on Sat., Dec. 20, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for chef demonstrations, samples of delicious bites, and to meet the farmers!
The Move: Jägerschnitzel at Avize
🇩🇪🇦🇹 A German-Austrian breaded cutlet served with a dark mushroom gravy, jägerschnitzel (“hunter’s cutlet”) is typically made from veal or pork. At Avize on Brady Avenue, Chef Karl Gorline keeps most of the schnitzel’s traditional preparation intact, opting for chicken rather than pork or veal, and bringing in some seasonal and locally grown ingredients.
Gorline brines a bone-in chicken thigh to keep the dark meat moist and juicy, before pounding it down to a quarter-inch-thick cutlet. He then dredges the cutlet in a flour, egg, and seasoned breadcrumb mixture and fries the chicken until golden brown. The jägerschnitzel comes topped with a rich chanterelle mushroom-laden gravy, along with charred peaches, dollops of pickled mustard seeds, and fresh parsley for a bit of color.
❄️ Elevated, comforting, and paired with tartiflette (similar to scalloped potatoes; $14) and harissa-infused charred cabbage ($17), the jägerschnitzel ($35) at Avize has quickly become one of my go-to, cold-weather restaurant dishes in Atlanta.
The Daily’s Recipe for Oatmeal Cream Pies
🍪 This week, we’re sharing The Daily’s recipe for its oatmeal cream pies with an added holiday twist.
“This is my recipe for oatmeal cream pies. I loved Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies as a kid,” said Natalie Howells, The Daily’s pastry chef and bakery manager.
“It was always a treat when we could get them at the store. As I grew up, I thought that there had to be a way to recreate that great combo without all the extra [preservatives],” she explained of her recipe inspiration.
In addition to an entirely pronounceable ingredient list, Howells’ take on oatmeal cream pies includes cream cheese and ginger in the filling for a taste that’s balanced and sophisticated, yet nostalgic.
🧈 It’s especially important that the dairy products in this recipe are mixed in at room temperature. Otherwise, the texture of the cookies will be completely off.
“Butter should be barely soft, not melty. It should not look shiny or oily,” Howells said. “For the eggs, I typically pull them out 20 to 30 minutes prior to mixing. You can also crack them and have them in a bowl to help warm up quicker.”
If the mixed batter or filling are refrigerated or frozen, those will need to come to room temperature before proceeding.
📋 Cookie Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1.5 Tbsp vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 1/4 cups rolled oats
📋 Filling Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup candied ginger pieces (optional)
Note: if your powdered sugar seems lumpy or chunky, sift before adding.
🥣 Mix the batter
- Using the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla, and continue mixing. Scrape the side of the bowl well.
- Add all dry cookie ingredients except oats.
- Mix on speed 2 for 3 to 4 minutes, then lower speed to 1, and incorporate oats.
- Make sure that there are no butter pockets at the bottom of the bowl — if so, mix by hand to get everything incorporated.
- Using a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto parchment-lined sheet pans, about 6 to 8 per pan.
- Chill for at least 20 minutes. (See tips for freezing instructions)
♨️ Bake the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
- Place cookies in the middle of the rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 4 minutes, then rotate pans, giving them a gentle tap on the counter to help the cookies spread out a little if needed.
- Bake for an additional 4 to 5 minutes, or until the edges are just turning golden brown.
- Let cool completely before filling.
🥣 Make the filling
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and cream cheese on high until almost completely white, fluffy, and smooth.
- Add in vanilla and salt. Turn the mixer down to low and slowly add powdered sugar.
- Once all sugar is in, and you can’t see individual granules, turn the mixer back up to medium-high and mix until white, light and smooth.
- If using the candied ginger pieces, they would be folded in at this point.
Note: Keep an eye on the filling while mixing, as it can go from light and fluffy to soupy quite quickly. If that happens, remove filling from mixer and chill in a covered bowl until solid. If you are not using the filling that day, it can be made ahead of time and stored in your refrigerator covered for up to one week, or up to two months in the freezer. Let the filling come up to room temperature before rewhipping prior to piping into cookies.
Fill the cookies
- Pair up your cookies, then flip one of each over.
- Using a piping bag with an open tip, pipe a generous amount of filling into the center of the cookies that are flipped over.
- Top with the remaining cookies, pressing down gently to push the filling to the
edges of the cookie sandwich. - These cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to one day, or covered in the refrigerator for up to five days. If refrigerating, let come up to room temperature before serving.
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