June 2018
Features
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The Big Disconnect: What happened to Google Fiber in Atlanta?
It’s been more than three years since Google Fiber frenzy took hold of the Atlanta area. Google promised to change everything for folks fed up with unreliable internet connections, abysmal customer service, and expensive monthly bills. But a different reality took hold: Google ran wires, but didn’t start service; Google tried to work with local governments, but couldn’t work out deals; and ultimately Google couldn’t find value in rolling out its service. One thing is indisputable: most Google Fiber hopefuls are now fed up.
The Rise of Georgia Beer: Everything you need to know about our craft brew scene
Georgia beer is on the rise. For you hop lovers and lovers of local beer in general, we heard your questions—and answered them. From the easy stuff (how is beer made?) to the hard (what is the future of Georgia beer?) here’s your guide on how to navigate our frothy landscape.
Georgia’s Vanishing Coast: With stronger storms, higher tides, and rising sea levels, how high will the water go?
On the Georgia coast, which spans 100 miles between Savannah and St. Marys, two things have become apparent during the last decade: Climate change is coming, and it’s already here. If the last decade’s increased tidal flooding initiated a conversation about the changing sea, the hurricane double-header of 2016 and 2017 added a couple of exclamation points. But while the effects of storms will be more severe with climate change, Georgia’s vulnerability to them isn’t new.
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The Connector
Don’t Miss List: Our top 5 Atlanta event picks for June
Bill Clinton and James Patterson wrote a new book, and the former president is coming to Cobb Energy Centre to discuss it. Also don’t miss Horizon Theatre’s production of Freaky Friday, Big Boi at the Tabernacle, and your chance to rock out at Oakland Cemetery.
The Tao of Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh comes to the High Museum
Atlanta’s High Museum of Art is the first museum to bring the 200-plus–artifact Exploring a Classic, an interactive exhibition of original sketches, ephemera, and merchandise from the Hundred Acre Wood, across the pond from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Rey Martinez, Gwinnett’s first Hispanic mayor, talks discrimination, diversity, and supporting Trump
Rey Martinez, the gregarious owner of Rey’s Cuban Café, won a seat on the Loganville City Council in 2010 and in 2015 was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity. In 2016, Martinez became a vocal leader of Hispanics for Trump, and in November, he won the nonpartisan, part-time Loganville mayor’s seat in an overwhelming victory.
Clark Ashton has a metal-art museum in his Decatur yard: The Mechanical Riverfront Kingdom on Druid Hill
In 1990, Clark Ashton quit his day job as an electronic technician to devote his life to building a metal-art museum in the front and back yards of his Decatur home. The Augusta native dubbed it the Mechanical Riverfront Kingdom on Druid Hill.
Street Saviors: How Atlanta is helping—not jailing—the homeless, mentally ill, and addicted
Robby Ivy is “care navigator” for Atlanta’s Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative, a program has created an unlikely alliance between police officers and criminal justice activists. Together, they’re trying to answer a key question: Can helping the addicted, mentally ill, and homeless instead of hauling them to jail make Atlanta safer?
Flashback: The Southern photographs that inspired the Food Stamp Act
In the summer of 1967, four doctors and Georgia photographer Al Clayton toured the rural South and Atlanta to document the shacks the country’s poor called home and the meager diets they consumed. Struck by the group’s testimony later that year, Congress would go on to pass the Food Stamp Act.
With Start:ME, Emory looks to connect Atlanta’s minority communities with startup know-how
“Entrepreneur accelerator” START:ME focuses on small-business owners in communities like Clarkston, East Lake, and Atlanta’s Southside. The Emory University Goizueta Business School’s 14-week program aims to give entrepreneurs the skills, networks, and seed capital to develop scalable business.
The Bite
Review: At Mary Hoopa’s, Louisiana shack-style fried chicken and oysters get a modern twist
Healthier than a fry house and way more ambitious than a neighborhood diner, Mary Hoopa’s allows One Eared Stag’s Robert Phalen to ease into his new gig as an interpreter of traditions—one who knows how to roll with the times.
The Christiane Chronicles: A love-hate relationship with barstools and a healthy appreciation for gravy
It doesn’t matter if there’s an upholstered seat on your farm-style or artsy modern stools; I need something with armrests and a comfortable back. Plus, my favorite kinds of gravy and where to indulge on them in Atlanta.
An ode to Atlanta’s strip-mall restaurants
In this age of fancified food halls and cheffy fast-casual concepts, the ignoble strip mall has new competition—which makes now a good time to remind ourselves that some of Atlanta’s most enduring and endearing restaurants call the strip mall home.
Get your tiki on at these 3 Atlanta bars
Tiki, the Polynesian-inspired aesthetic, which first sprung to life as a sort of postwar escapism in the mid-century, is in the throes of a modern resurgence—and few Atlantans know it as thoroughly as Paul Senft, a Georgia Tech administrator by day and self-described tiki historian by night. Here’s where Senft likes to drink in Atlanta, including Bon Ton, Trader Vic’s, and SOS Tiki.
From foreclosed property to flourishing farm: Urban Sprout Farms grows in Lakewood
A few blocks south of the Lakewood amphitheater at the end of a dead-end street, something unexpected is sprouting: rows upon rows of certified organic kale and collards and beets (and, come summer, tomatoes and eggplants and okra).
The Goods
Creature Studio brings Atlanta’s best beauty creatives together under one roof
A new salon concept in Inman Park provides a workplace for stylists, photographers, nail artists, wellness gurus, and other creatives to share. Creature Studio is the brainchild of hair stylist (and three-time Best of Atlanta winner for hair color) Jenn Jones and her husband, photographer Raymond McCrea Jones (who sometimes shoots for this magazine).
Beach, please! 14 stylish finds to take to the coast
This season’s coastal finds are all about bold stripes, earthy accessories, and playful patterns.
Room Envy: This all-season porch in Decatur is a rustic retreat
Year-round, Tammy and Christopher Weiser and their two boys head to this porch addition, since it’s able to accommodate all seasons with a fireplace, ceiling fan, and relaxing swinging bed. Interior designer Kate Hayes, who supervised the remodel, offers advice on designing an outdoor space.
It’s summer! Stay active with the 3 best outdoor fitness classes in Atlanta
Enjoy summer’s fresh air and extended daylight with the city’s best outdoor fitness classes, including High Country Outfitters’s SUP Yoga, Ponce City Market’s Shed Sweat Series, and Avalon’s AvalOM.
