This had been a long time coming. I hadn't seen my friend Ian since he moved down to Atlanta with his family 4 years ago. Hotlanta is a ridiculously fun city so this was a no-brainer. I blazed through Georgia and made my arrival in the city, you guessed it, around midnight. My schedule is really out of wack and needs to change. Well, at least I'm having fun.
Ian was out so I made my first (believe it or not) Waffle House stop. I wasn't really all that hungry, but I was feenin for a waffle. I ordered a pecan waffle (pronounced pe-caan waaaffle) and I got a plain one. I was so tired, and ready to devour it, that I didn't care enough to send it back. It was delicious.
After my little distraction, I drove through downtown a little bit to scope out the nightlife. What a fantastic place to go out. People here know how to have fun. Maybe too much.
I strolled back to upscale Buckhead to meet superstar Ian C at his high-rise. It was a classic night of mixing it up and "sparking" conversations. We were up for way too long catching up and cracking jokes, and then we crashed throughout most of the morning.
The next day I pretty much dedicated to setting up and updating the blog. Ian had to go run some errands, buying me time, then we ordered chinese. After hanging out in the afternoon, he had to go to work, and I got back to updating for a while.
Dre, his brother, who lives on the south side of Atlanta in College Park, gave me a call and came over. He brought the drinks and we had a hilarious time pre-gaming in the apartment. Then we went out to explore the city.
Atlantic Station was the main attraction. We chased the modern skyline on the way to midtown, to this newly developed section of town, occupying an old steel mill site. A mulitplex and many trendy bars and clubs abounded. I saw more Bentleys and Ferraris than I ever had in Tysons Corner. Both the Minor boys told me of their constant run-ins with celebs, but the closest Dre and I got was to a fat guy in shades who really, really looked like Rick Ross. Also, the security guards rode what can be best described as tricycle segways.
Popular establishments we visited were club Dolce, Strip lounge, the Fox (channel) sports bar, and Grape, a wine bar franchise that Usher had invested in (that location closed). We walked by Twelve, a high-rise condo development where several A-listers reside. Afterwards, we walked towards downtown to take some pictures of the skyline.
By this point, we were having too much fun, so we went to drive by the Georgia Dome, and then we had some downtime at Dre's place in College Park. That was definitely a live place. There were many people with wild hair smoking weed in the street. We chopped it up for a while, then drove back to Buckhead to meet up Ian, and long story short, Dre cooked up the best homemade chicken wings I've ever had, and then we partied the entire rest of the night.
The next day, I bid adieu to the Minors and traversed the famous Peachtree St in Midtown for about 4 hours. Some of the notable places I visited and snapped were the Christian Science church, the Margaret Mitchell House, the Wimbish House, the Fox Theatre, the former (original) Club 112, the lounges Artistry and Tap, and of course, Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles. I also took pictures of the famous skyscrapers in the skyline and various sculptures along the way. I ended up walking for 3.5 hours and feeding two homeless guys. A pretty nice little Saturday. :)
Goes without saying I wanted to eat at the chicken and waffles place, but the line was so long that there were about 20 people waiting outside the restaurant, not counting the crowd inside in the lobby. So I had dinner at this swanky lounge, one of those that turns into a club at night, Shout. They're known for their tapas and sushi, for which they have a dedicated bamboo room with sushi chefs. I had some insanely tasty mahi-mahi and spinach. It came with a tomato-cilantro-yuca salsa. Yum. The decor was fabulous. Among its top drinks are a guave margarita, martinis (obviously), and their famous "banana hammock" drink. Oh yeah.
Interestingly enough, I had noticed a restaurant named Twist my first night in time. It was yellow and had squiggly letters in its name, just like Shout. I had put two and two together and found the theme: twist and shout! Sure enough, further research from the good citizens of Atlanta confirmed that they were indeed owned by the same company.
I really enjoyed the successful implementation of tasteful modern architecture mixing with the existing foliage and old housing. My time in Atlanta was wonderful, and I had a little too much fun; I don't think I'd survive too long there. Next stop: Tennessee!
*For all the pics from today and the entire trip, check http://picasaweb.google.com/cyprian.mendelius.
Champion.
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