Buckhead Nightlife:Better than ever or the same or worse than before? (Atlanta: home, sales tax)

[Freeminds]

I wonder if half the people saying Buckhead nightlife is "stuffy" or "stuck up" are the main ones who look at you funny when walk in and you aren't wearing short short khaki pants, boat shoes, polo/button down, and sports shades with straps on them. That and/or if you happen to be a minority ( though, black bros exist too).

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

I wonder if half the people saying Buckhead nightlife is "stuffy" or "stuck up" are the main ones who look at you funny when walk in and you aren't wearing short short khaki pants, boat shoes, polo/button down, and sports shades with straps on them. That and/or if you happen to be a minority ( though, black bros exist too).

Buckhead used to have that image until the late ninetee'd when more black oriented clubs started opening.You would see blacks in white majority clubs but NO whites in the black clubs.Clubs were segregated for sure.At least now its a healthy mix of everybody not just outside but inside the clubs/bars as well.

[ATLTJL]

My favorite by far is Edgewood.

I have very limited experience with this....actually, a single experience. Based on that experience, I couldn't possibly agree with this statement less.

I went to what for all intents and purposes, SHOULD be a place I would enjoy very much: Sister Louisa's. From the moment we pulled up to when we left (5 minutes later), it could not have been a bigger disaster. First, parking is a mess. In all night life districts, parking is a challenge, but this area doesn't have it's s**t together at all. You've got legit lots charging way too much for the shabby little district it is, and nobody regulating the homeless people who pretend to own lots charging people money to park where they will get towed or on the street where it should be free.

So once we navigated that, we walked into Sister Louisas. Maybe it was a bad night, I don't know, but I've never seen a room full of more self-important douchebags in my entire life. Not in Buckhead, not in midtown, not in Los Angeles, not even in Las Vegas. I really couldn't believe how douchey the crowd was. I even saw a girl wearing a fake mustache. Like really, not just messing around. And then it's almost impossible to actually get a drink there. People just stand around, not really moving, and it's impossible to get around. What do they have, just 1 or 2 small bars?

Ugh, the place was terrible. Then we went to the Sound Room, which wasn't nearly as pretentious. It was, however, amazingly boring.

I don't know if I went out on a bad night or maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I found Edgewood to be a horrible place to go out. I like East Atlanta much better.

[DTL3000]

Originally Posted by afonega1

Yes EAV was around but not with as many places as their are now.
Not to mention Crecent Ave is bigger as well.
Edgewood Ave?We dont even need to mention what that was like.

I beg to differ about EAV. The Echo Lounge and the EARL were around back then along with quite a few others. If anything, EAV has declined a bit since the mid 2000's. Sure, some fancier establishments have opened but as far as an independent scene, I think it was better back in the day even if that makes me an aging hipster by pointing that out.

Crescent Avenue, again was pretty busy way before Buckhead was destroyed. It seemed to do fine even with the competition. I remember the big hubbub when Backstreet was closed. That seems like the turning point in the Atlanta party scene when things started going downhill all over.

Edgewood strikes me as overrated and it's still very sketchy in some parts. The same crowd predominant in Buckhead circa 2000 would probably be terrified of that area.

[DTL3000]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

It's true, Buckhead has a bunch of bars over there. It always did.

What you're failing to realize is that Buckhead used to also have a lot of bars in Buckhead Village....but what it REALLY had there were CLUBS. There's a difference, you know. If you want to just go out and have a few drinks in a chill environment, then yeah, bars are fine.

But if you want to go out and really party, Buckhead used to have actual clubs. You could go dance to disco at Bellbottoms. You could go hear some pretty decent dance music at Paradox or Uranus. You could go check out the dirty wet t-shirt contest Girls Gone Wild style flashing at Mako's or the sleazy dry humping at Bar Atlanta. You could go get your Latin on the Havana Club. You could go get crunk at Fluid. I can't remember the name of the reggae place, but you could go hear singer/songwriter type music at the Elbow Room or chill with a fishbowl on the roof at Lulu's Bait Shack. And you could do all this in about a 3 or 4 square block area, stumbling through the streets that had been cordoned off for cars and only allowed pedestrian traffic. And when it was all over, you could quite easily just catch one of the hundreds of cabs that were always around waiting to take drunk people home. If you wanted to do all of this on a random Tuesday or Wednesday night, there were generally enough college kids and conventioneers to keep the place at least mildly crowded. On weekends it was a madhouse.

It's definitely a shell of its former self.

Wish I could rep you bro. You summed up the old vibe perfectly.

This only makes me cling even more tightly to my crackpot conspiracy theory that it was nothing more than a land grab orchestrated by the powers-that-be for a developer buddy that blew up in their faces. Can you imagine the revenue the city lost from alcohol licenses and sales taxes in the 7+ years since Buckhead Village fell apart? And think of the damage to Atlanta's "reputation" amongst conventioneers.

[DTL3000]

Originally Posted by afonega1

Va-Hi is SOO stuffy.Not fun for me at all.Its like the Buckhead crowd moved there. Buckhead does has more bars and not clubs today.Did not think about that.But the crowd is cool.Not pretentious like it has been in the past.
My favorite by far is Edgewood.

Va-Hi has always been too yuppie for me. At least Buckhead drew all sorts of people. Atlanta nightlife became extremely cliquey and fragmented after it was shut down. Hipsters and freaks went to EAV. Yuppies and frat/sorority folks went to Va-Hi. The Urban crowd went to midtown. Edgewood seems to be coming along as an interesting mix but the area surrounding it needs to change before more folks will be comfortable there. And I can imagine there are lots of self-important, irritating hipsters hanging there.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I have very limited experience with this....actually, a single experience. Based on that experience, I couldn't possibly agree with this statement less.

I went to what for all intents and purposes, SHOULD be a place I would enjoy very much: Sister Louisa's. From the moment we pulled up to when we left (5 minutes later), it could not have been a bigger disaster. First, parking is a mess. In all night life districts, parking is a challenge, but this area doesn't have it's s**t together at all. You've got legit lots charging way too much for the shabby little district it is, and nobody regulating the homeless people who pretend to own lots charging people money to park where they will get towed or on the street where it should be free.

So once we navigated that, we walked into Sister Louisas. Maybe it was a bad night, I don't know, but I've never seen a room full of more self-important douchebags in my entire life. Not in Buckhead, not in midtown, not in Los Angeles, not even in Las Vegas. I really couldn't believe how douchey the crowd was. I even saw a girl wearing a fake mustache. Like really, not just messing around. And then it's almost impossible to actually get a drink there. People just stand around, not really moving, and it's impossible to get around. What do they have, just 1 or 2 small bars?

Ugh, the place was terrible. Then we went to the Sound Room, which wasn't nearly as pretentious. It was, however, amazingly boring.

I don't know if I went out on a bad night or maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I found Edgewood to be a horrible place to go out. I like East Atlanta much better.

Yes.Sister Louisa's has become home of the DOUCHEBAGS!!I agree 100%.Its like it became popular and all the self important to themselves people came out.I went last weekend and it was packed with douches.My friends and I left after 20 minutes and went to Mother's.
I like Mother's but I hate the music.Dj sucks
Then we left for Speakeasy's.That was better as well as the music but a small crowd.

Sound Table(Sound Room) has some great D/J's most of the time,but when it does not,it is rather boring.
Noni's is my favorite but the dance floor is WAY to small.

Cafe Circa is nice also.Great life music but for some reason many whites will not go in there.Could be the music.Its more of a grown and sexy kind place.Its also more upscale than anything else around.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by DTL3000

Va-Hi has always been too yuppie for me. At least Buckhead drew all sorts of people. Atlanta nightlife became extremely cliquey and fragmented after it was shut down. Hipsters and freaks went to EAV. Yuppies and frat/sorority folks went to Va-Hi. The Urban crowd went to midtown. Edgewood seems to be coming along as an interesting mix but the area surrounding it needs to change before more folks will be comfortable there. And I can imagine there are lots of self-important, irritating hipsters hanging there.

I think Edgewood is cool but your right.The VA-Hi crowd would not be caught dead in that area.

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I have very limited experience with this....actually, a single experience. Based on that experience, I couldn't possibly agree with this statement less.

I went to what for all intents and purposes, SHOULD be a place I would enjoy very much: Sister Louisa's. From the moment we pulled up to when we left (5 minutes later), it could not have been a bigger disaster. First, parking is a mess. In all night life districts, parking is a challenge, but this area doesn't have it's s**t together at all. You've got legit lots charging way too much for the shabby little district it is, and nobody regulating the homeless people who pretend to own lots charging people money to park where they will get towed or on the street where it should be free.

So once we navigated that, we walked into Sister Louisas. Maybe it was a bad night, I don't know, but I've never seen a room full of more self-important douchebags in my entire life. Not in Buckhead, not in midtown, not in Los Angeles, not even in Las Vegas. I really couldn't believe how douchey the crowd was. I even saw a girl wearing a fake mustache. Like really, not just messing around. And then it's almost impossible to actually get a drink there. People just stand around, not really moving, and it's impossible to get around. What do they have, just 1 or 2 small bars?

Ugh, the place was terrible. Then we went to the Sound Room, which wasn't nearly as pretentious. It was, however, amazingly boring.

I don't know if I went out on a bad night or maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I found Edgewood to be a horrible place to go out. I like East Atlanta much better.

Yeah, but you think hipsters are douchey though. You would fit in better with the boat shoe and polo wearing Buckhead crowd.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by afonega1

Va-Hi is SOO stuffy.Not fun for me at all.Its like the Buckhead crowd moved there. Buckhead does has more bars and not clubs today.Did not think about that.But the crowd is cool.Not pretentious like it has been in the past.
My favorite by far is Edgewood.

I only go to Va-Hi now with friends for dinner but not to just hang out at the bars anymore. I was also never impressed with Blind Willie's as a blues joint. Too spoiled by Chicago blues I guess. I think Va-His best for going out for dinner and boutique shopping.

I haven't hung out Edgewood as for as clubs go.