Creative Loafing Finds Atlanta Nightlife Gold in Downtown

March 9,2010

From Creative Loafing
By Scott Henry and Thomas Wheatley

Atlanta nightlife gold
An after-hours scene on Edgewood and Auburn avenues finally arrives

Fifteen years ago, fresh out of New York film school and in search of a place to live in Atlanta, Karl Injex moved with his girlfriend into an apartment above an old Jamaican bakery on Edgewood Avenue. He loved the gritty, intown neighborhood but soon learned that very little happened there after dark – of a legal variety, anyway.

"Back then, all the energy was going into Castleberry; that's where the arts community was focused," says Injex, a DJ who's a partner in SoundTable, a new, two-story restaurant and bar opening later this month across the street from his former apartment. Comparing Castleberry Hill to Brooklyn's hippest 'hood, he explains: "That was our sort of Williamsburg. Edgewood was kind of like the stepchild, like Red Hook."

As recently as five years ago, the first glimmers of real investment in Edgewood Avenue had only just appearred, in the form of Rolling Bones BBQ near the Downtown Connector, and the Javaology coffee shop – now replaced by Danneman's – at Boulevard.

But after decades of neglect on Edgewood, the street linking downtown to Inman Park has become a destination for savvy diners – drawn by word-of-mouth to Dynamic Dish and others – and is gradually cultivating a nightlife scene that already packs impressive variety into a few historic blocks. >>more