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Jan 18, 2008 :: What mirror, where? EARL bathroom, East Atlanta

Last night, a night on the town. Blake and I do a lot of cooking and watching Blockbuster mail-order movies and generally trying very hard not to spend money, but last night we had a wonderful excuse to make it a night out: free booze.

Ok, I'm kidding. That was only one reason. The real reason (and the reason for the free booze, coincidentally) was that my very talented friend Stephanie Richardson's work was on display at the grand re-opening of an already rather new pub in East Atlanta - the Graveyard Tavern. I'd ordinarily find it a bit strange that a bar that's only been open for 2 years needs a grand re-opening, but not all bars are this one. The slice of the East ATL strip the place occupies was, if I remember correctly, a former motorcycle parts shop filled to the ceiling with all manner of fascinating gears and epic dust. As a bar, it is as cavernous as its former life would have demanded - which is unfortunate, because nobody enjoys sitting at a bar feeling like they have their back to a dark, endless void. Besides that, the place felt cold and empty and the food wasn't very good. So, some re-vamping was certainly in order. Apparently, they did a bang-up job.

Last night, the place was packed in a manner I'd never imagined possible. I hope Stephanie sold some of her work (beautifully printed on canvas and reasonably priced). Blake and I left after about 40 minutes, claustrophobic and unable to get more than 10 feet from the bar in a crush of youngsters (I felt 1000 years old in the sea of kind of suburban-looking 20-somethings) begging for blueberry martinis and red bull and stoli. We walked around East Atlanta for a bit after that. To the awesome little mexican place Blake had visited eons ago (I love that he's been in town so long he's been to every restaurant, knows the name of nearly every bartender), and then over to one of our favorites, the EARL for a booth and Velvet Underground on the jukebox. I took the picture in the bathroom.

I love nights out on the town.