August 2023
Features
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Emory’s Georgia Coast Atlas allows anyone to visit the barrier islands virtually
Many of the dozen or so islands that make up the Georgia coast are notoriously inaccessible. Most, in fact, are reachable only by ferry or charter boat. Of course, that very remoteness has preserved 100 miles of relatively natural landscape, unmatched along the Eastern Seaboard. Now, researchers and students at Emory University’s departments of environmental sciences and history and its Center for Digital Scholarship (best known for its decades-long effort to document voyages of enslaved people) are creating an online portal, open to the public, that allows anyone to visit the islands virtually. The rapidly expanding Georgia Coast Atlas features flyover footage, video interviews, informative articles, historical documents, annotated maps, and other resources.
The staying power of the Gullah Geechee community
Once you’ve taken a left turn at Landing Road from Highway 99 southbound, roll down your car windows. As you drive east toward the Sapelo Island Visitors Center near Darien, you’ll pass beneath arching oak branches draped in long, lingering Spanish moss, and you’ll begin to notice a different kind of breeze—the rare sort of air that fills lungs with wistful history. But a fog of encroachment is making the future murky for the island’s Hog Hammock community.
Author Mary Kay Andrews’s guide to Tybee Island
Approaching Tybee Island on U.S. 80 from Savannah, you’ll see blinking signs that caution approaching drivers to slow their roll. And that’s a perfect metaphor for this throwback island’s communal consciousness. Slow down, and set your watch to Tybee Time. Ain’t nobody out here in a hurry.
Your guide to Georgia’s resort islands
What to do, what to eat, and where to stay on Jekyll Island, Sea Island, St. Simons Island, Little St. Simons Island, and Cumberland Island.
What to know about Georgia’s remote islands
A quick guide about Wassaw Island, Ossabaw Island, St. Catherines Island, Blackbeard Island, Wolf Island, and Little Raccoon Key
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The Connector
Atlanta’s first apartments, Baltimore Block, were built in 1885. Amazingly, they’re still standing.
Baltimore Block was home to socialites, bohemians, and at least one parakeet. Here’s what it looks like today.
Remembering the Iron Sheik
On American TV in the 1980s, the only Iranian who was a bigger star than Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri was Ayatollah Khomeini.
Ask Atlanta: What’s the status of the refurb of Spaghetti Junction’s abandoned Presidential Hotel?
At this point, it’s not just rundown. Not merely blighted, or even postapocalyptic. It’s like a 15-story set for one of the Saw movies—all bleak corridors, scary shadows, busted concrete, and bad graffiti. And unfortunately, the former Presidential Hotel serves as a sort of cylindrical front door for not just DeKalb County but all of ITP Atlanta, at least for anyone headed down from, say, Lilburn, Buford, or Charlotte. It’s been called one of the metro’s most visible buildings and one of its worst eyesores.
Inside the curious world of the Delta Surplus Sale
After its 1995 founding, the Delta Flight Museum started holding sales a few times a year in its circa-1940s hangars. “We’ve sold a lot of unique items over the years, including a pressurized DC-9 door, an aircraft lavatory, aircraft crew rest bunk beds, and even overhead bins,” says the museum’s director of operations.
The Bite
Atlanta’s top-shelf new cocktail spots
The 1970s are back, and not just the rampant inflation. (Hey-o!) Also, crucially: the vibes. And the booze. In 2021, Colony Square welcomed the groovy disco-era cocktail lounge JoJo’s Beloved, and this year it’s joined in Midtown by the Waiting Room. The latter is from the folks behind the restaurant Bon Ton; in fact, it’s above Bon Ton, a second-floor redoubt in the eye-catching pink building on Myrtle Street. Decorated in red and pink shag, and boasting DJs and live music—even a piano—the Waiting Room was designed to have a warm, grown-up feel.
What does it take for Atlanta’s independent restaurants to stay alive?
A wave of closures at the height of the pandemic made sense. But as diners have returned in droves to sit-down restaurants—a 2022 survey suggests that more people are eating out now than before the pandemic—independent eateries have continued to struggle. What are restaurants up against these days—and how can they survive?
Review: Omakase, y’all! Taking stock of Atlanta’s latest fancy sushi spots
In recent years, omakase around these parts has morphed into something more like a prix fixe dinner, featuring a tasting menu with sometimes as many as 22 courses. Atlanta now has at least three dedicated omakase restaurants, all within striking distance from one another on or near Howell Mill Road. More are on the way.
The Goods
The mini-trampoline is making a comeback, and Trampolean Fit is the most fun place to try this fitness craze
These days the mini-trampoline (also known as a rebounder) is making a comeback, and it’s not just for the legwarmers-and-sweatbands set. With many experts now citing resurfaced NASA research from 1980, which claimed that “the magnitude of the biochemical stimuli is greater with jumping on a trampoline than with running,” rebounding classes are on the rise.
These Atlanta shaving brands are on the cutting edge of grooming
Three local companies, from national brands to a start-up, are revolutionizing the daily ritual of shaving for both men and women.
An indigo revival in the South
Indigo—that iconic hue that is synonymous with denim everywhere—was the most valued natural dye of the ancient world, and also made the fortunes of many plantation owners in the Lowcountry in the 1700s. Now, the variety once grown in the South, Indigo suffruticosa, is being revived by artisans and farmers, from Athens to Ossabaw and Sapelo islands, to the suburbs of Atlanta.
Room Envy: A vibrant dining room in Decatur
To distinguish this builder-grade dining room in Decatur, interior designer Vinanti Chauhan used a few creative tricks for her friends and clients, Monika and Kunj Pathak.
Miscellaneous
A love letter to MC Lightfoot
I have been waiting at St. Cecilia for over an hour. It’s pouring outside, but that’s not the reason for Stanford Lightfoot’s tardiness—he forgot about our interview. But, hey, when you’re one of the busiest concert host–comedian–do-it-all entertainers in the city, it’s easy to get off schedule.
