Where is ATL's Nightlife? : ALL OVER (Atlanta, Lakeview: high crime, organic, to live in)

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by Atlanta-Native

What was your demographic?

I'm gay.

[Atlanta-Native]

Originally Posted by JMatl

I'm gay.

That makes sense.

[Smocaine]

Originally Posted by David1502

Many of the posters here are too young to remember the Buckhead party district of the 1990's - It is an interesting story to see how the greed of the bar owners led to its demise. First, in the early 1990's, there were several bars in the area east of Peachtree and south of E. Paces Ferry Rd. - Bolling Way was the heart of it and it is where the present ultra high end The Shops of Buckhead Atlanta are today. The demographic of the customers were primarily white, post college twenty and thirty somethings from UGA and other SEC schools. However, the bars were busy about three nights a week - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It reflected the times of the early 90's with a lot of big haired bleached blonds looking for a sugar daddy!

During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, it was party central with a big video screen set up. Dick's Last Resort was in business there at that time, but it went out of business because the wait staff's rudeness wasn't appealing here. East Village Grill was a restaurant/bar located in a former fire station and had a roof top bar to overlook the whole party district. One weekend, there were carnival rides set up which furthered the circus atmosphere of the district.

However, the bar owner's greed led to the ending of the whole district - At some time in the late 90's, the bar owners felt like they weren't making enough money from just the weekend crowd. They were paying high rent because they were in Buckhead, yet because of the nature of Metro Atlanta, they didn't have a neighborhood crowd who stopped by their bars during week-nights (line Cheer's Bar of TV fame) since a lot of their customers lived in the suburbs and were working out at the gym on week nights. So, the bar owners began advertising on V-103 and other urban radio stations promoting Sunday night. They also tried to get folks who worked in bars and strip joints because they wanted to get beyond the post college crowd they had on the weekends. Yes, they were successful, in that they began to get blacks on Sunday nights and week nights, but they also were frequenting the bars on the weekends, too.

As time went on, there were nine murders in this bar district over a two year period, the most high profile involved NFL player Ray Lewis. There were police barricades set up in the middle of Bolling Way. The wealthy residents who live west of Peachtree were very upset that there were murders in their neighborhood and began to do research to see who owned the real estate. They found out that one man, a Buckhead resident, owned almost all of the buildings that the bars were in, so they pressured him to not renew the leases of the bars. He succumbed to their pressure and the bars were forced to go out of business so that a new "Rodeo Drive of the South" could be built in their place. The AJC did an article called "Last Call" about the closing night of these bars and the end of the party district.

There hasn't been a walkable party district in Metro Atlanta like that location and era since. What there has been to a certain extent has moved north - Canton St. in Roswell has had an Alive after 5 on Thursday nights and now Downtown Alpharetta has become a very high-end destination with a lot of restaurants and people walking around.

However, for many of the posters here, they wouldn't have liked the Buckhead bar district of the early 1990's because it wasn't a diverse scene, but it reflected the time of Metro Atlanta and it's doubtful that another walkable district like that is coming on the horizon anytime soon. Now, you see more subdued, family friendly walkable areas like Avalon, Canton St. and downtown Alpharetta and then individual bars geographically isolated.

Thank you for this post. That former Buckhead you describe is the EXACT thing whose absence I am talking about. The obtuse people on this forum think ratchet lounges for faux-rich black people scattered around the city are a perfect replacement for a sort of carnival bar district like you describe but it's just such an insane argument to make.


"But Smocaine, more than zero young white people go out in Atlanta on weekends! That means your point is invalid as that is the highest possible standard to hold the nightlife of one of the largest metro areas in the US to! You're poor, stupid, and racist if you think the bar is higher than that!" Ugh this is such a stupid thread. Anyway, great post.

[Datdudebrah]

Originally Posted by Smocaine

"But Smocaine, more than zero young white people go out in Atlanta on weekends! That means your point is invalid as that is the highest possible standard to hold the nightlife of one of the largest metro areas in the US to! You're poor, stupid, and racist if you think the bar is higher than that!" Ugh this is such a stupid thread. Anyway, great post.

I'm still trying to understand where exactly you're going that you don't see people out in Atlanta?
I was in Inman Park last night and literally every place was completely packed at 10 PM on a Tuesday.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by Datdudebrah

I'm still trying to understand where exactly you're going that you don't see people out in Atlanta?
I was in Inman Park last night and literally every place was completely packed at 10 PM on a Tuesday.

Was it that nice area along N Highland? Or that pocket at Krog St Market? It had to have been one of those.

Because, see, this is IMO the main problem with Atlanta. It's so many of these awesome little lively pockets, that are mostly all so disconnected from each other, both distance wise and lack of transit connection wise.

Oakhurst is a nice spot, (around the intersection of East Lake and Oakview), and so is historic Vinings around where Orient Express is, both with activity at night, both ITP, but it's like completely different worlds apart.

Seattle is a collection of a bunch of different neighborhoods too, but it feels a little bit more like one place. If you're doing some late night bar hopping, there's at least a good chance it's going down in Belltown or Capitol Hill. But in Atlanta that could be, like, anywhere, from Buckhead to Decatur. It's so spread out.

[Datdudebrah]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Was it that nice area along N Highland? Or that pocket at Krog St Market? It had to have been one of those.

Because, see, this is IMO the main problem with Atlanta. It's so many of these awesome little lively pockets, that are mostly all so disconnected from each other, both distance wise and lack of transit connection wise.

Oakhurst is a nice spot, (around the intersection of East Lake and Oakview), and so is historic Vinings around where Orient Express is, both with activity at night, both ITP, but it's like completely different worlds apart.

Seattle is a collection of a bunch of different neighborhoods too, but it feels a little bit more like one place. If you're doing some late night bar hopping, there's at least a good chance it's going down in Belltown or Capitol Hill. But in Atlanta that could be, like, anywhere, from Buckhead to Decatur. It's so spread out.

N Highland and Krog St. Market are a 10 min walk apart at most with places in between. I wouldn't really call that disconnected. Really the whole stretch from Edgewood to Inman Park is a big concentration of bars & restaurants that's filling in.

Of course we can have more, but its not like nothing's going on here. The streetcar east extension is going to connect the whole section too.

[Smocaine]

Originally Posted by Datdudebrah

I'm still trying to understand where exactly you're going that you don't see people out in Atlanta?
I was in Inman Park last night and literally every place was completely packed at 10 PM on a Tuesday.

Me: Atlanta doesn't have a vibrant nightlife, a random active spot here or there doesn't change that, considering the size of the metro region.


City Data: But there's a random active spot.


Me:


Inman Park would be a reasonably impressive area for a metro like, say, Kansas City. Or Omaha. It's a literal joke that Inman Park is the best you can come up with for Atlanta.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by Smocaine

Inman Park would be a reasonably impressive area for a metro like, say, Kansas City. Or Omaha. It's a literal joke that Inman Park is the best you can come up with for Atlanta.

And it's sad, because Inman Park really is a great area along that commercial stretch, it's a fantastic spot with great vibes, but I completely agree with this general sentiment.

You could completely fix Atlanta and then some, by adding nothing new at all, but just compacting everything inside I-285, into the area that's inside the Beltline.

It's completely a spread-out-ness problem. Atlanta is like a region that's a collection of tiny cities, more than it's a city.

[Datdudebrah]

Originally Posted by Smocaine

Inman Park would be a reasonably impressive area for a metro like, say, Kansas City. Or Omaha. It's a literal joke that Inman Park is the best you can come up with for Atlanta.

I mean I just went out there for dinner not as some this is the best I can come up for Atlanta thing. Saw a lot more than zero white people out there too.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by Datdudebrah

I mean I just went out there for dinner not as some this is the best I can come up for Atlanta thing. Saw a lot more than zero white people out there too.

He can't be reasoned with. He would rather whine and complain, he obviously enjoys being miserable.