Photograph by Anitra Isler
Atlanta’s pop-up bar scene adds a creative spark that stokes the city’s drinking culture. The operators of these short-term concepts take over existing food and drink spaces for the night—or several nights—with their own cocktail menus and aesthetics, building devoted followings, often without any intention of permanence.
O’Boyce’s Pub, a pop-up inspired by creator Kieran Seitz’s Irish family, operated out of Little Bear in Summerhill last year. Seitz sourced coveted, traditional spirits such as poitín, a centuries-old Irish moonshine, during his residency. “I’m hoping that when O’Boyce’s is fully grown [as a brick-and-mortar operation], we can focus on smaller Irish distilleries as a specialty,” Seitz says of his future bartending plans. Until then, he can be found around town, most recently at Poor Hendrix in East Lake.
Tim Willard has created several pop-up concepts, including Loire Bar, which showcased Loire Valley wines at Larakin, and The Prez, a traveling cocktail-forward bar with live jazz and global food that continues to make the rounds. He says Loire Bar and Dive Wine (another one of his former pop-ups) helped him create the wine menu for Madeira Park—the award-winning wine bar in Poncey-Highland where he’s now beverage director and partner. “[Before Dive Wine], I’d been lamenting about the fact that Atlanta didn’t have a wine bar, and my wife was like, ‘Do something about it,’” Willard says. “I’ve always liked the idea of dive bars, and I’ve thought dive bars should and could have cool wine lists.”
Anitra Isler
Photograph by Darcy Darmody
With Girl Bar, cofounder Haley Herebia says her goal was to create a platform that showcased the skills and concepts of women in Atlanta’s craft cocktail space. “We invite different bartenders to collaborate on each event to promote their work, ideas, and techniques,” she says. “We also collaborate with femme DJs and chefs in an effort to throw one giant ‘girl power’ celebration.”
Herebia’s quirky pop-ups are held every few months at Banshee, a bar and restaurant in East Atlanta, with drink inspirations ranging from Christmas in Japan to Charli XCX’s Brat album. She says starting a pop-up bar allowed her to risk following her bartending dreams. “I was tired of waiting for somebody to tell me that it was okay [to open my own bar]. I had a feeling that all these other girls were feeling the same way,” she says.
Women’s sports bar Jolene Jolene found its permanent home at the former Argonaut space in Kirkwood after developing a pop-up following at Pullman Yards. Its funding came through Kickstarter. “It started out of necessity, because there’s so much going on, [with] teams and players I want to watch, and there was nowhere to watch them,” says founder Chelsea Fishman.
Kailonn Cooksey operates Duo Lingo ATL, a pop-up bar with cocktails inspired by his travels around the globe. After a memorable trip to Jamaica, his first installment focused on the West Indies and its long spice legacy, prompting the creation of a rum drink with grilled peaches, saffron, and turmeric. Showing up most recently at Smorgasburg, the Saturday food-vendor market in South Downtown, Duo Lingo gives Cooksey a low-risk way to test projects. “Creative bartenders need to be encouraged more to do pop-ups,” he says. “It’s a way to prove to people that your idea works.”
This article appears in our July 2026 issue.
