Atlanta playwright Topher Payne's best day ever
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Atlanta playwright and screenwriter Topher Payne's idea of heaven includes hot soup, bookstores and tattoos.
Driving the news: Payne joins actors Amber Nash and Kevin Gillese in "Y'allmark" at 7 Stages in Little Five Points. The production, an improvised parody of TV holiday movies, runs Dec. 12-23.
Payne shared with Axios how he would spend his best day ever in Atlanta:
Rise and shine: Payne starts his perfect perfect day by sleeping in until 8am, then grabbing coffee from his favorite spot, Banjo Coffee in Avondale Estates.
Zoom in: Payne and his husband, who's gluten-free, head to Decatur's Hell Yeah Gluten Free bakery for a "sloppy, cheesy sausage and egg biscuit like you would buy at your favorite Texaco station."
- "They make their own Pop Tarts. They do an apple-pie Pop Tart that is out of this world," Payne told Axios.
Time to work: Payne then hunkers down for some uninterrupted writing time. He's working on a play about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live to tell the tale.
- "I love that when she was trying to come up with reliable money-making opportunities, this is where she landed," he added.
More family time: After lunch at his favorite spot Souper Jenny (he and his husband love the turkey chili), Payne takes his goddaughters to the Center for Puppetry Arts, followed by Eagle Eye Book Shop.
- "I love the way a bookstore smells," he said. "I love the way your blood pressure goes down when you go into a bookstore."
Get some ink: Payne later heads to Tucker for a tattoo session with Loki Shane Defriece at Diligent Lobotomy.
- "As a tattoo artist, the emphasis is on 'artist,'" Payne told Axios.
Dinner plans: To cap off the night, Payne and his husband grab gluten-free pizza at La Calavera.
- "We will have an extended, serious, married-folk conversation about the pile of meat that I would prefer to get on the pie," Payne said. "My husband, despite many other fine qualities, is very much a vegetables-on-pizza person."
The after-party: The evening ends at the Atlanta Eagle for karaoke and cocktails.
- Don't expect to hand them the mic, however.
- "We are excellent karaoke observers, and we are also those jerks that sing along with whatever your song is from our table," he said.