Written by Samantha Reardon, Johnny Gipson and Jewel Wicker
East Atlanta Village is a community with a chip on its shoulder. Its gritty streets and single-gear bicycle riders give it a recalcitrant charm comparable to none. For part III of our neighborhood guide series, we highlight a tight knit community of entrepreneurs and artists not-so-quietly tucked behind Moreland Avenue.
Check out the Google map above to follow our adventure.
Carson Bryce Trading Company
I really like making a unique display. I like the way my shop matches the diverse environment that it’s situated in. I just love the whole area, there’s such a sense of community.
Carson Bryce Trading Company owner Carla Foster said her desire for true happiness and freedom from corporate strain inspired her to open up her eclectic apothecary store.
“I always wanted a mom and pop shop with treasures. I got tired of working in corporate America, so I started to develop a bit of a following through festivals. I’ve had the business since 2010, but just recently opened up our physical shop last February.”
Foster explained the products at her shop as a mix between bath and body goods and antique objects. She takes pride in having “one of a kind” objects, and creates natural home goods like body butter and organic soap, while also selling women’s clothes and home décor.
Foster says she really tries to portray a strong French aesthetic with her shop, from its modest size, to the pleasant aroma that visitors are welcomed with.
“I really like making a unique display. I like the way my shop matches the diverse environment that it’s situated in. I just love the whole area, there’s such a sense of community.”
Go for: bath and body goods, antiques, natural products
Visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-Bryce-Trading-Company/190635130954696
Fluff and Em Florist
People thrive on the village lifestyle.
“People thrive on the village lifestyle.”
James Morgan Jr., owner of Fluff and Em Florist, believes that is why he’s been able to remain one of the cornerstone shops in EAV.
Operating out of EAV for the last sixteen years, Fluff and Em sets the example for tenured businesses.
“My mother showed me the power of flowers” Morgan said. “I would bring her dandelions and small flowers, and it always softened whatever struggles we were facing at the time. It kept me off the streets as well.”
Originally working out of his basement, Morgan expanded his business to EAV because he loved the tight knit community and saw great potential in the area. A current resident, Morgan says he can see the evolution right before his eyes.
“When we first came here, none of the local businesses here today were around. It was an area in transition with no stability. Shops never last very long around here, but we decided that nothing would overcome our dream.”
Go for: Wide array of flowers and plants, antiques, peace letters and interesting abstract wall art.
Visit their site at http://www.fluffandem.com/
Graveyard Tavern
Everything we do is for the village… We take pride in being an above average service bar. There’s great food, cheap beer, and lots of dancing.”
Graveyard Tavern is arguably the most well-known attraction in EAV. Boasting considerable size and a wide array of nightly events for every demographic, Graveyard is impossible to miss while passing through, both literally and figuratively.
If the eerie black hearse guarding its front doors isn’t intriguing enough, its unique interior set-up surely is. Situated as a restaurant with a full bar, couches and dance-floor, Graveyard blends every entity of nightlife into one. Guests can even go downstairs to its sister development, a venue named ‘The Basement’.
“Everything we do is for the village,” manager Drew Gillespie said. “We take pride in being an above average service bar. There’s great food, cheap beer, and lots of dancing.”
Live music is taken very seriously at the Graveyard, with events nearly every night featuring premiere DJs and bands from Atlanta’s music scene.
“Every week has a different event. From ‘Famous Fridays’ with Kid Cedek, to Industry Nights with Sofa King on the weekends, there’s always a house DJ. We have EDM and Full Metal nights as well.”
Graveyard attracts all walks of life with a high energy atmosphere, great food and live music nearly every night. Offering $5 pitchers, flavorful wings and handmade burgers, it almost feels wrong not to eat while there.
Go for: Unorthodox music mixes, cheap wings, and a raucous environment that can scratch that itch to party.
Visit their site at http://www.graveyardtavern.com/
The T-Shirt Lady
[My customers are] real diverse. All kind of people. You have the young kids that just come in, you have the soccer mom’s that come, you have the people from family reunions, you have the people that…rappers, artists.
For a woman who makes a living bringing other people’s ideas to life, T-Shirt Lady doesn’t seem to have a problem being the face of her brand. The owner, who prefers to be called T-Shirt Lady, has been designing shirts for a decade after quitting her job to be able to spend more time with her son.
The T-Shirt Lady moved to East Atlanta Village two years ago and she said her business has been received well by the diverse community because she has something to offer everyone.
“[My customers are] real diverse. All kind of people. You have the young kids that just come in, you have the soccer mom’s that come, you have the people from family reunions, you have the people that…rappers, artists.”
She said she enjoys the community in EAV more than the Jonesboro community in which her store previously resided because it encourages the growth of local businesses.
“Where my shop used to be they didn’t care. The fact that I was a local business, I was a small business, they [didn’t] support and keep [me there]. They’re more involved in keeping the businesses here. Especially if it’s a product that they want.”
T-Shirt Lady said her business started as a clothing store, but she decided to start designing shirts when her customers seemed to be more interested in shirts than pants. She said she taught herself to print after realizing how much business she was turning away because she didn’t make custom shirts.
T-Shirt Lady said her business is a healthy blend of creating designs for customers and implementing the ideas they bring into her store.
Go for: help bringing custom t-shirt designs to life
Visit their website at: Thttp://www.thetshirtlady.com/
The Gallery EAV
I decided to open up a gallery so that people could express themselves in different art forms. But not just art like on the wall. I mean rappers and musicians, dancers, anything that revolves around art.
T-Shirt Lady loved the EAV community so much that she decided to open a nonprofit art gallery right next door to The T-Shirt Lady last August.
Colorful paintings and brown masks from various artists line the brick walls in The Gallery EAV where art exhibits, community and private events are held.
T-Shirt Lady stresses that the art displayed at The Gallery aren’t just on the wall, however.
“I decided to open up a gallery so that people could express themselves in different art forms. But not just art like on the wall. I mean rappers and musicians, dancers, anything that revolves around art.”
The Gallery runs off of donations from visitors and a percentage of the art that is sold during exhibits. Still, T-Shirt Lady said she doesn’t specify a donation amount when promoting events in the community.
“Even if they put a dollar in, [it’s] the fact that they even gave and they know that this place exists and the artists are able to express themselves,” she said.
She said she is currently working to secure grants in order to hold more events.
Last month she held a Youth Day for the kids in the community with experts speaking on natural hair, veganism, skateboarding, guitar and more. T-Shirt Lady said she hopes to feature different people during each Youth Day in the future, but the concept will remain the same. The event is designed to expose local kids to lifestyles as diverse as the artists and visitors that frequent the space.
Go for: local art and performances, community fellowship and a place to host private events.
Visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheGalleryEAV
Hodgepodge Coffeehouse and Gallery
You can be on a conference call in the bistro and have a kid playing in the gallery and not even notice they’re there.
“Dude, let’s just open a coffee shop.”
This is the conclusion that co-owner Lynne Tanzer came to after years of frustrating jobs in retail, where she was told she was too nice to be in management.
Now, she co-owns and operates Hodgepodge Coffeehouse and Gallery, which is housed in a 70-year-old historical building just a few blocks away from the bustling EAV neighborhood.
And though Tanzer said that their space was more affordable than those in EAV or L5P, Hodgepodge makes it a goal to invest in local goods. Their coffee, for example, is from local coffee roasters Batdorf and Bronson.
Hodgepodge recently began incorporating pastries, cupcakes and sandwiches into their menu. But when it came to food, Tanzer explained the importance of making sure it, too, was locally sourced.
“We really wanted to make sure that we were roasting the meats here, and making everything here so that it was as fresh as it could possibly be. We weren’t going to do any buying from Cisco.”
Hodgepodge is also a haven for handmade local goods, which are situated throughout the space. Collections of paintings hang in the gallery and jewelry and candles stock the bistro, among others.
“We’ve got a little bit of a reputation as somewhere where you can get local and handmade.”
Tanzer, who was a former Georgia State student, attended on an exchange program from Atlanta’s sister city, Newcastle. She is a self-proclaimed artist and entrepreneur from a young age. She used to sell hand-painted “crappy picture frames from Ikea” in high school.
Customers at Hodgepodge come for different reasons, which is inherent in its namesake.
“You can be on a conference call in the bistro and have a kid playing in the gallery and not even notice they’re there,” Tanzer said. “It’s rad.”
Go for: Atlanta Zine Library (formerly housed at Mint Gallery), events like open mic and monthly art shows, wake-you-from-the-dead espresso and conversation with local, creative-minded people
Visit their website at http://www.hodgepodgecoffee.com/
East Atlanta Village Photo Gallery
Photos by: Raven Schley, Mike Eden Taylor Bush and Afi Cakpo
Layout and design by: Anna N. Yang
This is the first installment of a four part series. For the next installment, click below
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