All Access

All-Access Weekly Digest

Standard

Atlanta

blue

A daily look at the most significant and interesting stories affecting Atlanta. Written by Kristal Dixon and Thomas Wheatley.

Axios Atlanta

Atlanta Alerts

Alert

Axios Atlanta Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

Atlanta Members

Membership

A mixed-use development blending old and new on the fast-growing West Marietta Street corridor in Howell Station is opening its doors (officially) tomorrow.

What's happening: Located near Terminal West and the King Plow Arts Center, the breezy Westside Paper development sits on 50-plus acres with industrial roots dating back decades to the Atlanta Paper Co.

The campus also sits along a future Beltline spur trail with connections to Westside Park and Downtown.  

Zoom in: Food and drink options include fried chicken sandwiches at Boxcar Betty's, Vietnamese seafood spot Girl Diver, a King of Pops walk-up bar, Elsewhere Brewing's second taproom and the self-explanatory Pancake Social.

Visitors can also check out agave and Mexican spirit-centric Ancestral Bottle Shop and Market and El Santo Gallo, the newest concept from Palo Santo chef Santiago Gomez.

📍 Stop by: The campus is located at 950 West Marietta Street.

Westside Paper opens for business

Elsewhere Brewing, El Santo Gallo and more now serving at West Marietta Street mixed-use campus

A photo of people sitting outside of a sleek mixed-use development on a sunny day

Land development

A mixed-use development blending old and new on the fast-growing West Marietta Street corridor in Howell Station is opening its doors (officially) tomorrow.What&#x27;s happening: Located near Terminal West and the King Plow Arts Center, the breezy Westside Paper development sits on 50-plus acres with industrial roots dating back decades to the Atlanta Paper Co.<ul><li>The campus also sits along a future Beltline spur trail with <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="connections" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/10/24/beltline-atlanta-new-trail-westside-trail" data-vars-content-id="4c15545f-d508-4e7b-b77f-a9d2ffec03c0" data-vars-headline="Westside Paper opens for business" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/10/24/beltline-atlanta-new-trail-westside-trail" target="_self">connections</a> to <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Westside Park" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2023/08/03/atlanta-mountain-biking-westside-park" data-vars-content-id="4c15545f-d508-4e7b-b77f-a9d2ffec03c0" data-vars-headline="Westside Paper opens for business" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2023/08/03/atlanta-mountain-biking-westside-park" target="_self">Westside Park</a> and Downtown. </li></ul>Zoom in: Food and drink options include fried chicken sandwiches at Boxcar Betty&#x27;s, Vietnamese seafood spot Girl Diver, a King of Pops walk-up bar, Elsewhere Brewing&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="second taproom" data-vars-click-url="https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/atlanta-restaurant-blog/elsewhere-greenhouse-is-a-go-in-the-westside-paper-development/WBQCMP4QSFHOJECT564GKL6CNM/" data-vars-content-id="4c15545f-d508-4e7b-b77f-a9d2ffec03c0" data-vars-headline="Westside Paper opens for business" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/atlanta-restaurant-blog/elsewhere-greenhouse-is-a-go-in-the-westside-paper-development/WBQCMP4QSFHOJECT564GKL6CNM/" target="_blank">second taproom</a> and the self-explanatory Pancake Social.<ul><li>Visitors can also check out agave and Mexican spirit-centric <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Ancestral Bottle Shop and Market" data-vars-click-url="https://www.instagram.com/ancestralbottleshop/" data-vars-content-id="4c15545f-d508-4e7b-b77f-a9d2ffec03c0" data-vars-headline="Westside Paper opens for business" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.instagram.com/ancestralbottleshop/" target="_blank">Ancestral Bottle Shop and Market</a> and El Santo Gallo, the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="newest concept" data-vars-click-url="https://atlanta.eater.com/2022/9/22/23348675/palo-santo-mexican-restaurant-rooftop-lounge-opens-west-marietta-street-king-plow-atlanta" data-vars-content-id="4c15545f-d508-4e7b-b77f-a9d2ffec03c0" data-vars-headline="Westside Paper opens for business" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://atlanta.eater.com/2022/9/22/23348675/palo-santo-mexican-restaurant-rooftop-lounge-opens-west-marietta-street-king-plow-atlanta" target="_blank">newest concept</a> from Palo Santo chef Santiago Gomez.</li></ul>📍 Stop by: The campus is located at 950 West Marietta Street.

Food and Drink

Things to Do

Development

A theater and absinthe-themed speakeasy from the minds behind the sorely missed Paris on Ponce and La Maison Rouge is coming to Underground Atlanta.

What's happening: Pigalle, a new concept from Skip Engelbrecht and Nicolette Valdespino, is joining fellow Ponce de Leon area exiles like MJQ and the Masquerade and taking over a 6,000-square-foot space at the subterranean mixed-use center.

Details: Valdespino will program Pigalle's Parisian theater and lounge space. Engelbrecht, who owns the fast-growing Fishmonger seafood restaurant brand, will oversee a speakeasy featuring a "33-foot bar, leopard wallpaper, and vibrant shades of blues and greens,” according to a statement.

Flashback: A 2019 fire tore through the Paris on Ponce warehouse along the Beltline's Eastside Trail, displacing the market and La Maison Rouge event space.

The prime real estate is now part of Portman Holdings' plans for a mixed-use development (recently scaled back to not include The Local).

Of note: The doors open on Oct. 6 during one of Underground's First Fridays evening events featuring music, drinks and art.

Absinthe-themed speakeasy Pigalle comes to Underground Atlanta

The team behind Paris on Ponce blends a Parisian theater and hush-hush bar

A darkly lit Parisian-style speakasy with vintage satin chairs, chandelier and red, purple and deep blue tones.

A theater and absinthe-themed speakeasy from the minds behind the sorely missed Paris on Ponce and La Maison Rouge is coming to Underground Atlanta.What&#x27;s happening: <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Pigalle" data-vars-click-url="https://thepigalle.com/" data-vars-content-id="64285e61-ed93-4cfb-be27-5a68ad7dc709" data-vars-headline="Absinthe-themed speakeasy Pigalle comes to Underground Atlanta" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://thepigalle.com/" target="_blank">Pigalle</a>, a new concept from Skip Engelbrecht and Nicolette Valdespino, is joining fellow Ponce de Leon area exiles like MJQ and the Masquerade and taking over a 6,000-square-foot space at the subterranean mixed-use center.

Atlanta's biggest open street celebration returns this weekend for the first time since before the pandemic.

Driving the news: On Sunday, Atlanta Streets Alive (ASA) takes over Peachtree Street from South Downtown to Midtown for four hours of fun in the car-free, fresh air.

The event will also be held on Oct. 22 and Nov. 12.

By the numbers: Three miles. Thousands of people. Lots of wheels. But zero automobiles.

Details: Modeled after Bogotá, Colombia's popular ciclovía, the open street festival closes off roads to cars so that people have room to walk, bike, roll and just enjoy public space.

Along the way, you'll find games, music, vendors and art, including takeovers of vacant storefronts by artists like Floyd Hall & Elodie Le Breut, Mike Stasny and Karo Duro.

Catch up quick: The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition — now known as Propel ATL — launched ASA in 2010 in Downtown and Old Fourth Ward along Edgewood Avenue. Subsequent events on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, North Highland Avenue and Howell Mill Road drew tens of thousands of people.

The city's Department of Transportation this year took over the planning but the nonprofit remains involved. Earlier this year, the city hired local artist Romy Aura Maloon to manage the project.

Yes, but: What if you are driving to the other side of town and need to cross Peachtree?

Police will direct traffic to safely cut through the event, but your best bet is to find an alternate route.

The bottom line: If you spend most of your time exploring Atlanta sitting behind a steering wheel, ASA is a good time to pick up the finer details of the city while strolling, rolling or biking.

Check out the ASA website for an interactive map and more details

Atlanta Streets Alive returns after a four-year hiatus

Atlanta Streets Alive takes over Peachtree Street after four-year hiatus

People walk and bike at a street festival shaded by trees and closed to cars in a dense urban setting

Photo: Erik Voss/Courtesy of the City of Atlanta

Urban planning

Atlanta&#x27;s biggest open street celebration returns this weekend for the first time since before the pandemic.Driving the news: On Sunday, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Atlanta Streets Alive" data-vars-click-url="https://www.atlantastreetsalive.org/" data-vars-content-id="678b6664-1405-4d5d-995d-49dbd890a233" data-vars-headline="Atlanta Streets Alive returns after a four-year hiatus" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.atlantastreetsalive.org/" target="_blank">Atlanta Streets Alive</a> (ASA) takes over Peachtree Street from South Downtown to Midtown for four hours of fun in the car-free, fresh air.<ul><li>The event will also be held on Oct. 22 and Nov. 12.</li></ul>

Transit

A mammoth new City Hall research document sheds light on people, places and events that shaped LGBTQ+ history in Atlanta.

Why it matters: LGBTQ+ people organized for action on the AIDS crisis, shaped neighborhoods like Midtown, and made Atlanta a more inclusive and welcoming place — often risking persecution or prosecution.

Those moments, movements and achievements are worth remembering.

Zoom in: Produced by the city's department of planning and Historic Atlanta, the Atlanta LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement is intended to help people identify and document places for historic protection.

According to the authors of the 406-page report, "[t]o date, there has not been a property in Georgia listed in the National Register of Historic Places with a focus on LGBTQ+ significance."

Details: It's also a well-written document broken down by themes like social spaces, political activism, "neighborhoods and enclaves" and more.

You'll find rundowns and sidebars on the evolution of drag, LGBTQ-friendly and long-gone restaurants like Gallus, and Atlanta law enforcement's policing of sexuality.

Among the tidbits of information in the report:

The earliest documented performance by a female impersonator in Atlanta took place at the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Piedmont Park.

A gay-affirming religious institution called the Eucharist Catholic Church held its first service in 1946 in downtown's Winecoff Hotel, which later famously caught fire.

RuPaul got his "dragucation" watching performers at the Midtown club Illusions' Monday Night Madness events.

Of note: The phrase "no longer extant" appears roughly 200 times in the document, a reminder that so much of the city's history is no longer standing.

City Hall does a deep dive into Atlanta's LGBTQ+ history

Everything you thought you know — and lots you didn't — about RuPaul, activist movements and policing sexuality

A black and white photo of a young RuPaul wearing sunglasses and a shirt with the words "Punk dog" while holding a flare and cigarette

A young RuPaul in 1979 in Atlanta. Photo: Tom Hill/Getty Images

LGBTQ

A mammoth new City Hall research document sheds light on people, places and events that shaped LGBTQ+ history in Atlanta.Why it matters: LGBTQ+ people organized for action on the AIDS crisis, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="shaped" data-vars-click-url="https://www.midtownatl.com/about/news-center/post/queer-midtown-how-atlanta-became-an-epicenter-of-gay-life" data-vars-content-id="8e8b36df-06c3-480e-972d-770729e62ed8" data-vars-headline="City Hall does a deep dive into Atlanta&#x27;s LGBTQ+ history" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.midtownatl.com/about/news-center/post/queer-midtown-how-atlanta-became-an-epicenter-of-gay-life" target="_blank">shaped</a> neighborhoods like Midtown, and made Atlanta a more inclusive and welcoming place — often risking persecution or prosecution.<ul><li>Those moments, movements and achievements are worth remembering.</li></ul>

Culture

Halloween is serious business for Lance Allen, Home Depot's go-to guy for ghosts, tombstones, inflatable cauldrons and animatronic witches.

Why it matters: Halloween shoppers are expected to spend $12.2 billion this year on Halloween, up from $10.6 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation's 2023 season survey.

Nearly $4 billion of that spending will go toward life-sized LED-lit caskets, ridiculously tall skeletons and other Halloween decorations that Home Depot proudly displays.

Catch up quick: Home Depot's breakout success of the store's 12-foot-tall skeletons and Halloween's ability to keep customers walking through the door leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas have made the holiday an important sales event for the Atlanta-based company.

How it works: You might not know what costume you'll wear in 2024, but Allen, the Atlanta-based company's senior merchant of decorative holiday, more or less knows what Halloween items Home Depot will carry in stores and online.

The eight-member holiday decorations team dreams up the concepts and works with manufacturers starting 18 months out.

Members spend a significant amount of time visiting haunted houses, watching movies ranging from Disney to horror, keeping tabs on neighborhood trick-or-treaters' costumes, and taking walks through spooky spots.

What he's saying: "I hate to say how many cemeteries I've walked around the country everywhere I travel," Allen told Axios. "It's always, 'Hey, I gotta go walk through that cemetery, see what great tombstones they have and get some inspiration there.'"

Yes, but: People make 8% of Halloween purchases at home improvement stores, the NRF says.

That means big box store execs like Allen need to offer a range of items that can register and resonate with as many people as possible to compete with discount and Halloween-dedicated specialty stores.

"We want to make sure we have something for everybody that walks through our doors," Allen said. "So you might find something really scary, and then you might find some happier, Disney-type items for the typical home decorator that's going for the trick-or-treaters."

State of play: Despite the demand, 2023 is slated to be the last Halloween that the giant-sized $300 "Skelly" —  which people are leaving up year-round — is available, Allen said earlier this summer.

Zoom in: Home Depot doesn't give specific sales numbers but Allen told Axios that interest in Halloween decor has skyrocketed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, people are decorating earlier and earlier, which means popular items are flying off the shelves before October arrives.

In 2022, the store increased its outdoor Halloween decorations supplies by 104% year over year to 245, according to retail data firm DataWeave cited by Retail Dive.

How Home Depot picks out its Halloween decor

A team of executives pulls inspiration from haunted houses, movies, trick or treaters' costumes and  cemetery walks

A photo of a Halloween decoration floor display at Home Depot. That includes a skeleton Grim Reaper and a tall character from A Nightmare before Christmas.

Act fast to get your giraffe-sized Jack Skellington. Photo: Thomas Wheatley/Axios

Halloween

Halloween is serious business for Lance Allen, Home Depot&#x27;s go-to guy for ghosts, tombstones, inflatable cauldrons and animatronic witches.Why it matters: Halloween shoppers are expected to spend $12.2 billion this year on Halloween, up from $10.6 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="2023 season survey" data-vars-click-url="https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/halloween" data-vars-content-id="a9233637-6bcf-465d-8227-04f985d52fc1" data-vars-headline="How Home Depot picks out its Halloween decor" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/halloween" target="_blank">2023 season survey</a>.

Thomas Wheatley

Featured stories

Westside Paper opens for business

City Hall does a deep dive into Atlanta's LGBTQ+ history

How Home Depot picks out its Halloween decor

Atlanta Streets Alive returns after a four-year hiatus

Absinthe-themed speakeasy Pigalle comes to Underground Atlanta