The ATL

Phallic ATL

This trip to ATL was primarily to see if I could live there since the CDC is headquartered there and they hire alot of my kind.

Short Answer: Yes.

Past Impressions
Back in 1996 I spent 8 months in Atlanta. I became very familiar with the path between Hartsfield airport and BellSouth downtown. At that time a good friend and native to Atlanta was living there and he was able to show me around town. I loved Atlanta then; the culture, the endless things to do and particularly the people, much more down to earth than Dallas. But after 10 years, how had the ATL changed?

Current Impressions
Its bigger, WAY bigger. While people compare it to Dallas, I object, it doesn't resemble Dallas in any way. It reminds me more of Houston, not just on population scale (circling 7 million metro) but on the sprawling 60 miles of city that you will traverse before actually leaving the city limits. You might want to allow 3 hours for that traversal since the traffic in ATL is comparable to midtown Manhattan, any day and any time of day it will be bad.

Although some natives object, I still feel Atlanta is a down-to-earth city. Everyone I came in contact with was helpful and friendly, with the exception of some coked-up circuit boy we met at HoeDowns (ATL's gay C/W bar), but drugged-up, bitter, bar people dont count for anything in the final analysis.

Its greener than I remember - everywhere, even Midtown, which is famously dense and urban, is also very green.

Its less diverse than I remembered. I specifically noticed the lack of Asian, Latin and Indian in the population, but maybe they hang out somewhere other than Midtown.

Dining
Dining out options are enormous and all that I tried were great. Instead of giving a low down on each I'm just going to recommend one.


Deb, Matt, Paula & Jim ramping up @ Einstein's Midtown
Einsteins
1077 Juniper St @ 12th
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.876.7925

Einsteins is a fantastic bar/resturant in Midtown with a spectacular patio. I liked this place because it was a mixed crowd; gay, straight, young, old, dressed-to-kill and uber-casual. Everyone seemed to having a great time. The drinks are killer and the food is even better. Definitely try the Artichoke dip, Calamari and Fried Green Tomatoes. At the bar they seem to have mastered the Mojito and Manhattan to everyone's delight, particularly me since I had 4 Manhattans, which is why I am sitting in Paula's lap :) lol

Nightlife
Nightlife options are almost staggering but again I going to recommend one.


Matt, Deb & Paula @ Red Chair
Red Chair
550-C Amsterdam Ave.
Atlanta, GA. 30306
404.870.0532

Sure I liked Einstein's, Hoe Downs (gay CW bar) and to a much lesser extent, Amsterdam (G&L dance club) but Red Chair was my favorite. Its more than the sleek curvy interior mainly accented in red and local artist's fare. Its the atmosphere and the fact that every night is a theme night. We went on Hip Hop night. Funny, I am not a hip hop fan but I really enjoyed myself because the big patio outside kept the music inside at a comfortable level. We were 4 of about 10 white people in a mainly Af.Am. crowd but noone gave us any 'you dont belong' looks.

I have to admit, you will find the most beautiful men in Atlanta here, beautiful black men.

Things To See

Georgia Aquarium
There are too many things to see in Atlanta but the one thing I will recommend if you only have time for one thing is the Georgia Aquarium, awesome!


Friends
Any trip is only as good as the people that you travel with and see along the way. So, thanks to

Paula
Who was crazy enough to hire me when I worked at Nortel and crazier to remain friends with me for these past 8 years. Paula and I travel so well together, we can spend hours and hours together, and more importantly we can be content going off to do our own separate things. If it werent for Paula I would not have met Deb

Deb
Who just recently relocated to ATL, is my female counterpart. We are so much alike in so many ways its almost scary; calm, cool and highly analytical. She was generous enough to put us up in her lovely home during our visit as well as toting us to and from Midtown twice a day. Thanks to my caffiene addicition, Deb also is quite familiar now with every Starbucks and Caribou in the greater metro area :)

Matt
Who I met in Dallas when he was a mere pup of 23 is now a handsome young man of 28. He is SO old, lol. Matt moved to ATL last year and much to my delight, he looks very, very happy now so I am happy for him. Matt was kind enough to navigate us through the many options of nightlife in the city.

You may already know Matt from his blog, My So Called Life

Sam
If you had the good fotune of reading Sam, The Honest Me before it was taken off the air, then you got a good eye full of some painfully honest blogging. I had never met Sam before this weekend but I had heard alot about him since Matt and Sam are roomies. He is smart, funny, sexy and surprisingly reserved in person.

You can see the rest of the Atlanta pics here Atlanta 9/2006


Atlanta
Einstein's
Red Chair
Georgia Aquarium