June 2016
Features
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Stargazing in Atlanta: Your guide to the summer sky
Nothing beats an observatory if you want to get up close and personal with a celestial body. Or, find an open field, set up away from skyscrapers, and get to gazing.
Which fireworks should you buy this Fourth of July?
Expert Dan Peart from Phantom Fireworks has some advice on making it through the Fourth of July intact.
4 Georgia swimming holes where you can cool off this summer
You don’t have to drive very far from metro Atlanta to find great waterfalls and natural pools.
6 ways to get outside in Atlanta this summer
Pick your own berries, make a date to skate, fly a virtual fighter jet, and more.
Stop thinking of sweet tea as a Southern monolith
Inside the Frigidaire of the American consciousness, we have a full pitcher of sweet tea forever at the ready. It’s the ultimate symbol of Southern hospitality and authenticity, the official beverage of How We Do Things Down Here. But I believe this way of thinking does sweet tea, and the South, a disservice.
Inside the Buckhead tree house you can rent on Airbnb
Peter Bahouth’s Buckhead tree house is an ode to the rough-hewn hideout he had as a kid. But Bahouth’s tree house is built for grown-ups.
Five Atlanta sweets to beat the summer heat
Cool off with gelato, ice cream sandwiches, milkshakes, and more
What I’ve learned driving the Atlanta Ice Cream Truck for 11 years
The siren song—sounding like a tired jack-in-the-box that refuses to pop out—calls to the boy and his little sister. Clutching dollar bills, they run to its source: the Atlanta Ice Cream Truck.
The Farm Team: Inside the high-stakes world of junior competitive livestock shows
This is the first of four days of the Georgia Junior National Livestock Show—the state championship for students who raise and show pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats instead of shooting free throws or kicking field goals. While football might be Georgia’s weekend religion, agriculture is its everyday way of life—a $74 billion industry, the state’s largest.
After 50 years, is Colony Square finally ready to grow up?
Peachtree meets 14th Street has the potential, in the eyes of developers, to become the “Main and Main” intersection Atlanta lacks. These builders and their lending partners hope to capitalize on a construction boom to transform this former geographical afterthought into a combination of epicenter and living room—a beating heart where culture and commerce converge.
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The Connector
A drone’s eye view of Paradise Garden
Starting in the mid-’70s on a quiet street on the outskirts of Summerville, the late Howard Finster—a former Baptist minister and self-proclaimed “man of visions”—created 46,991 individually numbered outsider artworks dedicated to God on a four-acre compound dubbed Paradise Garden.
Candace Hill is the fastest girl alive
For Candace Hill, life is now divided into two eras: before the 10.98 and after the 10.98. Last June the Rockdale County high school junior ran a 100-meter sprint in Seattle in 10.98 seconds and became—officially—the fastest girl in the world.
It’s a great time to be a craft brewer—just not in Georgia
Despite their best efforts to update Depression-era laws initially designed to prohibit monopolies, brewers in Georgia still cannot sell their beer directly to customers. Instead they have to go through distributors.
HIV prevention pill stirs debate in Atlanta’s gay community
“A lot of gay men were uncomfortable with the growing availability of PrEP because they felt it would increase promiscuity,” says AIDS activist Michael Baker. In fact, almost as soon as Truvada was endorsed by the CDC for HIV prevention two years ago, stories appeared in national media about a “slut-shaming” backlash within the gay community against the drug’s users.
The Agenda
Rethink your definition of modern architecture during MA Design is Human Atlanta
When Modern Atlanta launched its home tour in 2007, it gave metro residents a chance to consider a design aesthetic outside of Craftsmans and Cape Cods. Since then the city has embraced contemporary architecture like never before.
How to attract butterflies to your yard
Use these tips from Chattahoochee Nature Center manager Lisa Cole to bring all the butterflies to your garden this summer.
Walker Evans photography exhibition opens at High Museum of Art
Students of history know that “the one percent” are not an invention of the recession. In the U.S., income inequality flourished at its highest level more than 80 years ago, just before the Great Depression, when Walker Evans was dispatched by the Farm Security Administration to document small-town life and the successes of the New Deal.
The Bite
Fresh on the Scene: Drift Fish House, Amer, Rising Son, and Hajime
Get the early word on four new Atlanta restaurants: Drift Fish House, Amer, Rising Son, and Hajime
Review: Bread & Butterfly is a sunny slice of Paris in Inman Park
It’s the all-day-and-night, something-for-everyone welcome that sets Bread & Butterfly apart and makes it settle in so snugly. I kept finding reasons to drop by, even if just to drink from the short and careful list of wines that’s very French and unusually well priced.
Technique: How to make perfect deviled eggs, from Twain’s Savannah Haseler
A perfect deviled egg is hard to get right, says Twain’s executive chef Savannah Haseler. It starts with a properly boiled egg.
Two Atlanta ciders worth sipping this summer
Is hard cider the new “it” drink in local craft brewing? Westside’s Urban Tree Cidery and Marietta’s Treehorn Cider are both worth trying this summer.
The Christiane Chronicles: Atlanta restaurants, filter your water
In cities like New York and Los Angeles, I’ve found municipal water is great right out of the tap. But in Atlanta? I can’t stand the foul flavor of our water, which restaurants often pour straight over a fistful of ice cubes.
Which food delivery apps actually deliver?
The next big thing in app technology: meal delivery. Six services have launched in Atlanta since last year. We went ahead and tested each one for you.
The Goods
Rise of Sneaker Culture brings cool kicks to the High Museum
This month at the High Museum, The Rise of Sneaker Culture (June 11 through August 14) features 155 kicks, from 19th-century running shoes to futuristic moon boots.
Destination: Serenbe, Georgia
Over the past 11 years, Serenbe, owned and operated by former Atlanta restaurateur Steve Nygren and his family, has reimagined sprawl. Houses are clustered into four hamlets spread among a thousand acres.
Room Envy: A fun—not formal—living room in Buckhead
Rosy hues don’t have to be relegated to little girls’ rooms. Interior designer Leigh Mowry of Olive Interiors was pondering a fun—and not formal—living room for Jeff and Jeannie Shaver’s Buckhead house when, kaboom!, she spotted these club chairs.
My Style: Rose Lane Leavell, wardrobe liaison and “band mom” to The Rolling Stones
On the heels of the Stones’ Latin American tour, Rose Lane Leavell, 67, chatted about her glam life as the “go-to girl backstage,” where she helps wrangle band members and assists with hair and makeup.
Blluemade patches a hole in the clothing market
Compliments from friends in the fashion industry made her realize she’d found a hole in the market, so Lampe and her husband, Alex Robins, created Blluemade, a line of versatile linen garments produced here by fashion incubator Factory Girls.
Local Find: Colter Atelier’s handmade cornhole boards
Over a round of beanbag toss at a Thanksgiving get-together in 2014, brothers-in-law Dwain Cox and Chris Jones decided they could elevate the humble lawn game, which is usually associated more with “frat party” than fine craftsmanship.
Miscellaneous
Editor’s Note: New perspectives
If you’ve been around the city for any length of time, and you’re involved in the business or nonprofit community, you’ve probably heard of Leadership Atlanta.
One Square Mile: The 12-year-old Atlanta fencer
Ryan Droutman is taking a breather. The fencer sits sweating in a red plastic lawn chair, mask tucked beneath his arm, foil lying across his lap, as he referees a bout between two classmates, one of whom is old enough to be his grandfather.
