Fresh Loaf

Just another night in Buckhead

City Councilman Kwanza Hall surprised his colleagues with a proposal yesterday to examine whether allowing Atlanta bars to close later would be a boon for the city’s nightlife and budget. From the AJC’s ubiquitous Eric Stirgus:

Hall introduced legislation Monday requesting the city study the revenue opportunities of expanding the hours to sell liquor from 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. City Council President Lisa Borders sent the legislation to the council’s Finance/Executive committee for further discussion. Hall wants a summary report by Jan. 30.

Hall said the sales tax money from extending the hours could fund public safety improvements. He said the city could enact the longer hours in areas of Atlanta where it’s more practical.

“I think we need to look at revenue,” said Hall, whose district includes portions of Castleberry Hill, Midtown and the Old Fourth Ward, where nightlife is more prevalent than other parts of the city. “Who knows how many millions of dollars we’ve lost?”

Some councilmembers weren’t pleased with Hall’s proposal. Councilman Howard Shook, who represents Buckhead neighborhoods that pushed for the earlier bar hours, said Hall’s idea would be “dead on arrival.” City Council President Lisa Borders called the idea “absolutely irresponsible.” Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell said the additional revenue wasn’t worth the potential headache.

But Hall’s been tweeting about the proposal nonstop and wants residents’ opinions, which is why we’ve created this high-tech “blog.” Comments will be printed and hand-delivered to the appropriate council committee by bowtie-wearing monkeys holding balloons. The event will be filmed. And if council lets bars stay open later, we’ll release the monkeys back into the wild. It’s up to you, people.

UPDATE: Hall elaborates on his proposal in the comments below.

(Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

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Party like it's 2004

Everything old is new again, right? That’s the logic behind this post — the first in a weekly series where we dig into our archives and revisit what Atlantans were talking about in, say, 2004.

So … mid-February, 2004: The city was mere weeks into the horror that was earlier bar-closing hours. How did crafty Atlantans adapt at the time? By setting up speakeasies, of course.

Now, five years after our drinking hours were rudely curtailed, is there much of an after-hours scene left? Honestly, I don’t know. Perhaps that’s because I’m five years older. Ugh.

Without further ado, here’s staff writer Scott Henry’s 2004 take on late, late, late-night parties.

Speakeasy street
Where the beat don’t stop until the break of dawn … and then some

It’s 5 o’clock Sunday morning, and though the icy wind is unforgiving as it slices through alleyways, the insistent thump of house music echoing up the back stairwell of this smoky downtown bunker signals that the party inside is just warming up.

There’s no one minding the door, so you’re free to wander past the DJ table, the handful of dancers, the busy cash bar, and head up the stairs, where clusters of urbanites sit chatting or simply chilling out with a cigarette.

“We usually get going about 4 a.m. and try to wrap up around 6:30,” says the party’s host, a casually dressed thirtysomething who calls himself “Fulfeel.” He’s been throwing late-nights for in-the-know Atlantans for several months now; ever since City Hall imposed earlier closing times for bars and nightclubs, he’s found demand for his after-hours soirees soar.

Continue reading “Speakeasy street” …

(Photo by Scott Henry)

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Pam: The bar tips are dwindling, but more people are coming out to drink. So what we might lack in quality we make up for in volume. Things are getting so bad [with the economy], it literally drives people to drink. They can’t afford to tip as they normally would, but regular customers tip the same. I have to give the biggest props to the Emory kids. They come in droves and still don’t know how to tip — but what they lack in substance they make up for in sheer numbers. It kind of all works out.

Phillip: My customers love me. They’re not going to let me down. They wouldn’t come in if they couldn’t tip. I take care of them, they take care of me. If you’re strange and we don’t know you, we kind of really don’t care. Well, we care, but we don’t know you. People are drinking. People want to forget about what they’re going through. So they have a few extra martinis and next thing you know they got a $40 check. And they’re like, “Oh this is Phillip, tack on an extra $10.” I listen to a lot of stories.

Tammy: If someone is laid off, you’re not going to get as much. Folks are being good, but it’s tough. But I’m up because of football.  Football has definitely saved us. I love those tight ends, baby. You do a little extra now, be extra nice and work a little bit harder. You do what you got to do. You have to stay above it. Folks are getting laid off left and right, my family too. But thank god for football. If it wasn’t for football, we would be devastated.

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James Joyce, underground record keeper

A self-described librarian of rock, 33-year-old Joyce posts long-lost songs, photos, fliers and anecdotes from Atlanta’s underground music scene on his blog, Beyond Failure. He also has played with a bunch of Atlanta bands over the years — most recently with psych-funk collective Noot d’ Noot.

CL: How did you come up with the idea for Beyond Failure?

JJ: I’ve probably been in 20 bands or so. And I’m kind of by nature an archival person. I’m kind of a librarian.

That’s a rare combination for people in bands.

I think it’s because I’m a drummer. I’m just more systematic in the way I think and the way I organize myself. I’m more organized than a lot of my bandmates. Everyone has moved 100 times, and nobody has their old records, their old tapes, old flyers, old pictures. They started contacting me and asked if I had any of the old recordings, because theirs were all gone.

So I started digitizing all these old demo tapes, old records and seven-inches and stuff. And I started posting them up on this blog, rather than just emailing them to everybody.

Then I started posting stuff by bands I was friends with at that time, in the ’90s. I really like their music, and it’s really hard to find a lot of their stuff. Everything local is out of print. It’s good to just collect a lot of that stuff and make it available, for historical purposes. Because otherwise, you won’t be able to find it.

(Lots of links to long-lost recordings, after the jump.)

(more…)

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My colleague Mara Shalhoup wasn’t the only one who bristled upon reading a recent AJC story about Atlanta’s slumping nightlife scene.

Fulton Commissioner Robb Pitts, never one to shy away from sharing his opinion, also had a strong reaction to the AJC piece. Unlike Mara, who challenged the article’s central thesis, Pitts, in an open e-mail response, chastises the city for allowing a once-vibrant entertainment industry to dwindle – including the adult entertainment industry. Says Robb:

Atlanta has actually lost ground when it comes to adult entertainment, including the former Buckhead Entertainment District. While establishments like the Cheetah, Magic City and the former Gold Club are not for everyone, they are often magnets for convention traffic.

(more…)

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1. 10 films released in 2008 that were worse than Delgo (People love lists — see, you’re reading this one! — especially when they count down the worst of the worst.)

2. Year in review: A look back at the arts in Atlanta for 2008 (The only thing folks love as much as lists: heavy doses of nostalgia.)

3. Atlanta nightlife is DEAD (Um, not really. But the headline sure is catchy.)

4. Don’t Panic: Why is Israel bombing Gaza? (The over-simplified, bloggy answer: Bed-wetting)

5. Atlanta after an asteroid or nuke bomb … thanks, Google! (Is your neighborhood inside the mushroom cloud? Click to find out!)

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That’s what the AJC claims in a story posted today, quoting officials in the “hospitality industry.”

The article cites the shuttering of Buckhead Village and the death of downtown clubs as the reason why Atlanta lost its party-town status — as if the Buckhead bar scene was something to be proud of.

According to the story:

Moves to curtail hours and efforts to revitalize Buckhead with high-end development have effectively killed its party reputation. … [D]owntown, where most of the conventions take place, is missing the after-hours component.

But is Atlanta nightlife really that big of a downer? It seems to me that the Midtown clubs have picked up Buckhead’s slack, and that East Atlanta and the Highlands are alive and well. And when did people ever go downtown to party anyway? Clubs such as Karma and the Royal were always something of an exception. The canned Underground Atlanta scene has historically ebbed and flowed. And after Castleberry Hill became a decent, if not rowdy, party district, look what happened in that downtown ‘hood.

The story’s implication is that touristy nightlife is dead. My questions to you, tried-and-true Atlanta partiers, is this: Who cares if that sector of nightlife shrivels up and dies? If it does, perhaps our more authentic nightlife scene will have a better chance of survival.

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