July 22, 2025 ⢠44 mins
On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, speaks with Sarah Oak Kim, co-founder of Our Bar ATL, about the intersection of nightlife, culture, and community advocacy. Sarah discusses how Our Bar became a gathering place for meaningful change, offering insights into initiatives like Hug the Block, Narcan training, and community-driven events. From challenging misconceptions to addressing social issues head-on, Sarah shares how nightlife can truly be a catalyst for change.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There were no shelters available. When they dropped below freezing.
I want to say it was like two Christmases ago
and it just came out of nowhere. It was like
below five or something. The staff wanted to stay overnight
and let some people sleep over.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I get emotional thinking about it. It was so nice. But yeah,
we do what we can. But that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We cooked soup, A lot of the pop up chefs
came and brought food. Last minute people came home with
they went home and got their blankets, and we probably
housed like sixty something people that night. And I think
we bonded a lot that day at those moments.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They stay with me.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Here, everybody, Welcome to another episode of butter Nomic. Tommy
host Brandon Butler found the CEO of butter ETL And
today we got somebody special up in the podcast. Man,
we got somebody special in the building, the one the
only Miss Sarah O Kim. You gotta say the whole
thing like a tribe called quest Sarah, how you doing it?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thanks for having me, Brandon.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Thanks throwing up. It's always good to see you well.
The one of the friendliest people in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I know, really absolutely, that's a lot you know a
lot of people in Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's always it's always good. It's always good. So, Sarah, man,
I appreciate you pulling up.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Now.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
We were talking a little bit before we got on,
you know, I chat GBT everybody before we get on that,
you know, so I did look you up on Chat.
I said, write me a bio for Sarah, tell me
about there. So instead of instead of me asking you
to tell people you I asked Chat who you were.
And look, it came back with some stuff. Really so
you're ready get into that?
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Oh, like I hope not bad stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
No, No, it's all amazing stuff. Let's do this thing,
so it says Sarah Okim is a co founder and
co owner of Our Bar, a vibrant you know as
Shack says Vibrant, a vibrant bar and kitchen located on
Edgewood Avenue in southeast Atlanta's Old Fourth warf over seventeen
years of experience in Atlanta nightlife and hospitality industry, she
began her career as a bartender and has since become
(01:46):
a central figure in the city's bar and community scene.
Our Bar was established in twenty twenty by Kim and
her longtime collaborators Justin de Leon and I want to
say this correctly Sung Sung Ki Hyung. The trio who
previously worked together the Partner Store and later in film production,
transform their shared experiences to a community driven establishment. Kim
(02:06):
primarily oversees marketing and event programming in community outreach, organizing
a diverse array of events such as DJ nights, karaoke,
beat battles, and political forms. Beyond her hospitality role, she
is deeply involved in community advocacy. She has spearheaded initiatives
like voter registration drives in NARCAN training sessions for nightlife professionals.
One of her most notable projects is their annual Hugged
(02:27):
the Block event, which provides essential services including hot meals, showers, haircuts,
and clothing to unhoused and displaced individuals in Atlanta. In
addition to her work at ar Bar, she has been
active in the local civics scene as well. She's addressed
the City of Atlanta City Council regarding challenges faced by
small business owners and securing reliable off to do police support,
highlighting broader issues in the city's nightlife safety policies. She's
(02:50):
a professional in Atlanta's nightlife scene with background and you
can find more information own her at r barn All
over the city. The One, the Only Miss Sarah. Oh,
Kim Sarah, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I have blown away?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
That's what chat said.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I tried to test my chat to see what it
would say when you did it, if you did it
with our episode, and it did not say anything close
to that.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
You know, I got the I got the big get
on me because I got like the two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I was just about to ask you.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Got to have the two hundred dollar one. I'm stuck
in the twenty. I was wondering what the difference was too.
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I go up and down in it.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
When I have like a love stuff to do, I'll
be like, all right, I'll pay for this for like
a month. Then I go back to the twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh that's so sick. You've definitely stole me. I'm upgrading
as soon as I get out of here. That that
just blew my mind.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
But the prompts that I would have to even give
it to give me an answer like that, even at
the twenty dollars level.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
It's crazy. Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Well, I appreciate you pulling up. So let's start this
thing off. Man, tell us about Arbor. What is Arbor?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
HiT's a bar, HiT's a headache, But no, I love it.
It's it's a bar, kitchen and on Edgewood. It's owned
by the three of us that you mentioned. There's a
lot of profit sharing involved. I'm sure you know a
lot of the staff that's kind of been there from
the department story day. Yeah, I will say this, So
Hug the Block, even though I am a partner in it,
it is really led by dez Luky, who was our
(04:06):
kitchen manager but also a good friend of ours that
I met through doctor Dax, and he really spearheads a
lot of that and we just support him. But the
Hug the Block event does take place at at our
bar on Thanksgiving Eve every year, So now this will
be our sixth year.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Oh man, that's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I'm proud of that one.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Now, the name ar Bar is that because literally you
and your partners all kind of came together on that,
Like what's the history with that?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So from the very beginning, we used to tag our inbox,
and I've been very anal about how I tag it
and color code it, and we didn't know what to
name it as we were looking for stuff, so we
just kind of tagged it at our bar and made
it blue, so all the correspondence was blue. And then
we just kind of was like, when it was time
to make a name, were at least just call it arbar.
We've been calling at our bar and it just stuck
like that. I wish it had a cooler meaning, but
it's just it was a matter of convenience.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
People ask me the same thing about Butter all the time.
They're like, how'd you come the name Butter? And like,
I'm gonna be honest with you, Like, my last name
is Butler.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I did not name it after myself at all. Like
we were literally brainstorming names, and I'll e remember where
it came from. It just was one of the names
that pop up. I was like, you know what, I
like that memorable, and we ended up going with it,
and then I kind of like backed into the story,
but like you know what, yeah, Butter, you know you
when you churn butter, the cream rise to the top
and it goes well. So I say all that stuff,
but like the reality is, you know, it was just
the name. We brainstorm and it just kind of stuck,
(05:17):
you know.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So butter is one of my favorite facts, especially coming
from baking recently. I appreciate butter for what it is.
There's all kinds of butter, and butter is good for you.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
You know what. I bake a lot too, It's a hobby.
I always say, it's like my way to relax because
as an entrepreneur, you know, you got to figure everything
out right. And what I realized about baking was that's
like the one time for me I get to follow directions. Yes,
and because bacon is more science than art, Like that
thing says you need a cup of sugar. You need
a cup of sugar. Now cooking that's fat, yeah, but
(05:48):
like bacon is like, yo, if you gotta put this
thing on three fifty for an hour, you better put
it on three fifty four an hours. So for me,
it's always just relaxing to kind of like bake things
because I don't have to think about what happens next.
I get steps and directions and my life doesn't have
a lot of directions to it. I got to use figure.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Thorough is nice, No just checking it off a list,
and like I did all that, you know, yeah it
was good.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
So what were you seeing? Like what inspired y'all to
kind of open that space up? Especially on Edgewood?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I mean, if I go back to it, At that point,
I was managing trouble. He had gotten too some legal trouble.
No pun intended, but yeah, he had gotten into some
legal trouble, and I felt kind of I was just
kind of being waterboarded. I felt like a little bit
and I was a little frustrated. We were about to
go on tour and stuff. We had something really big
lined up with one of Kendrick's artists on the West Coast.
Tech had just jumped into manage him and stuff, and
I was just like, I mean, you keep getting in trouble.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Over stupid stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Am I allowed to cuss on here?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
You sure?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I was like, you're just getting in trouble over stupid stuff,
you know. And then my cousin had just got back
some he had got back from the military. He's a
merchant marine. He had a little bit of cash and
he liked being overseas. And visiting bars, and he was like,
you have a lot of experience justin obviously worked with
me at Department Store and a lot of other strip
clubs we worked at. He was like, let's do a bar.
My family wasn't into it. They're like, it's a lot
of hard work. But when Trouble kind of got into
(06:58):
that Trouble, I was like, Man, I need to hedge
my bed a little bit. You know, I'm giving Trouble
everything I have. And if it's not just any artist
that I've worked with, Abra or Dax, and it does
kind of fall into the hands of other people, no
matter how hard you work, it could kind of be
taken away from you. So I was like, what can
I do on the side that would essentially kind of
give me some insurance. Yeah, So we decided to open
(07:20):
the bar, and we looked at probably about forty something
locations and we saw the place on Edgewood and it
had just I guess it was like going through a
lawsuit battle or something. But the place had just opened
up for rent and one of my one of my
one of my vendors from Department Store was like, Hey,
I know this lady that owns the spot you should submit.
And I think we rowed her with our with our
(07:43):
business plan. It was it was probably about like sixty
something pages long. We had did all kinds of market
research and this is before CHATGYBT, so I was like,
this is you know, Yeah, we did it. Took us
a long time to compile it, and I was really
proud of it. And she did it was like an
easy She didn't even she didn't even like, oh give
me a second, let me find other tenants, potential tenants.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
She just kind of gave it to us right then
and there.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yeah, what was it?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Like?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
What do you think was so unique about the business
plan and the perspective.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think we were just very accurate we had, I
mean because we a lot of the models were copy
and paste from you know, what we did at department store,
but we wanted to kind of mature with it a
little bit. We didn't have food there. It was ran
by somebody else. Obviously I was the bartender than the GM,
but there was a lot of things that I would
have done differently. And we've always said to ourselves, even
back at Department Story days, like if we get our
own shit, we'd do it like this. You know, but
(08:26):
now we had a chance to actually do it, and
I've kind of put that all into writing. And Sung
is obviously way more advanced when it comes to writing,
so he was able to take my thoughts, my stream
of consciousness and turn it into something feasible. Justin was
able to go and do market research and average incomes
and cost you know, product costs and liquor costs, and
just kind of analyze everything to where every question that
maybe the landlord would have had for us was already
(08:47):
considered thought of and had a plan for.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Even Plan BS Plan c's are competitors.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I researched everybody within a twenty mile radius of our
bar and what specials they were having. I have a
stack of one hundred menus where I was comparing prices
of what they were selling.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How much is there Jamison, how much is their altos?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So we I just felt really confident going into it too,
And I think she kind of picked up on that.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
There's always like a certain energy when you walk into
that space. Really if it feels it feels comfortable, it
feels friendly, it feels like you at your homeboys house,
your homie's house, you know what I mean. Just kind
of kicking it, like yeah, like in a living room
like it, you know, And again what I say it
to me, it almost kind of reminds me of college
and a sense not like in a college town. Well,
I went to school in college towns. I went to
(09:28):
school in Statesborough. But I'm just saying, like it moment
when you went over your friend's apartment, y'all just kicking it,
you know what I mean. Some people were doing one thing,
some people were doing something else, and I don't know,
I just kind of feel like that, you know, friendly
energy in there, Like where did that kind of was
that something that you all built into with specifically or
that kind of like organically come about.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So a lot of us, even after Department Store, during
that time, a lot of us lived together.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
We you know, Jay Rob had a house, I lived there.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I've probably roomed roommated with a lot of people that
even work at the bar till this day. And I
think a lot of that just comes back from us
being at each other's houses and just kind of leave.
It's no leave all that stuff outside. It's just come
as you are. I think people kind of find their
own pockets on what they want to do and it's
just nobody's really worried about anybody else. Or that's kind
of what we're going for. At least it shouldn't be like, oh,
(10:11):
there's sections, there's bottles, all eyes are on you. There's
really no expectations there, and I kind of want to
keep it that way. It's it's a dive bar at
the end of the day. That's what we wanted. We
didn't want a nightclub. We didn't want something where you
had a dress code. It's just come as you are.
And we wanted it cheap. We wanted it for people
of all especially nightlife industry folks. You get off work,
you've been dealing with people all day. I just want
(10:32):
to come and have a drink and maybe play some
cards or wait for my coworkers to get off and
meet me. And that's I think. It's very service industry driven,
like a shifty Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It's like a place where you know, the people that
work in the spaces kind of want to go hang out.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
We were compressed.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
I was talking to Cam from Holiday Bar, yeah, and
he was kind of telling me something similar where like,
you know, there are certain times like I think it's
on Thanksgiving to where he kind of you know, lits everybody. Everybody,
nobody's working, but he kind of cooks and he takes
care of everything. Is like, look for all the folks
that are getting off work and yeah, you know, are
working a day would have come here. They come here
and kind of hang out, and it kind of feels like, yeah,
(11:06):
it's an inviting space for people that are in those
industries and kind of moving around. But also again, you know,
if the folks also just hanging out want to come
kick it, you know, it's the space for us too.
When you know, a lot of times people talk about
this idea of like culture in Atlanta, you know, what's
what's your definition of culture?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I think it's ever changing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I think it's really about just what Atlanta is accepting
right now or what they're prioritizing. Even sometimes I think,
you know, it's it might be the rap scene, or
it might be something that's going on culturally. But I
think now we're gearing up for FIFA. I think right
now rap might not be doing what it's doing, but
we're I'm looking at comedians honestly, like a lot of
these influencers and some of these stand up comedians, even
(11:43):
like eighty five South coming from Atlanta. I feel like
that's kind of going to be the new wave. It
just depends on what the attention is on. Maybe it
doesn't always necessarily have to be a good thing, but
it is something that's very fluid, and there's a lot
of things that come into culture but staying kind of grassrooted,
and I guess, let me give you an example, like
places that kind of show up like these mega clubs
(12:04):
and they spend a million dollars on the decor and
they come up, they fall down as fast as they come.
But places like Blue Flame or Folly's that's kind of
been around a little hole in the wall, spots that
don't really press the issue and don't want to do
all this like show show voting. I think those places
Atlanta kind of sees through that and they can they
can detect when something's fake and they appreciate the general
(12:25):
or like the genuineness behind something, if that makes sense.
Like if you come in and you try to do
too much and you try to make it like a
Miami type establishment, it's not going to last.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And I think that's the culture that's making those decisions
that's kind of going to say what's here to go
and what's here to stay?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
No, absolutely, you know, one of my favorite authors is
Seth Godin. He talks about marketing and all this stuff,
and his definition of culture is the one that I've
always kind of embraced is, you know, people like us
through things like this.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
When I think about Atlanta, right, like what do people
like us in Atlanta? Do people like us in Atlanta?
You know, we'll we'll go to waffle house for breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, you know what I mean? People in Atlanta
you might go to the symphony orchestra to go see
an event. Then you might be at Maddie City or
Strokers at the event. Right, Like people like us in Atlanta.
We all love living pepper wings. So there's just these
things right when you kind of talk about culture that
(13:12):
you know, wherever you're from, Like, there's just certain things
that are just kind of like unsid and they kind
of go on. When you think about even the culture
of like a space like Edgewood, Like what does Edgewood
Because I mean you all also picked that space for
a unique reason in that area, for a unique reason,
And I mean Edgewood has a lot of different definitions.
There's a lot of things happening on Edgewood. I always tell
us you go down there at night, you know, go
down there about like eleven thirty, twelve o'clock, one am.
(13:35):
It's live down there. Like, what's kind of your definition
of Edgewood And why did you all pick that place
to kind of build our ball.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, obviously we were familiar with it from department store
and stuff, but it is a very special place. I
think there's a lot of history there. And to just
also insinuate like we're still very much guests there. A
lot of especially the unhoused population and a lot of
the block boys that's even up and down the block.
They're from there, you know, and we're guests and we
have to to that responsibility is not lost on me.
(14:04):
I think it's a matter of I don't know, it's
just something about that place. I feel like it is
kind of an underdog. A lot of people overlook it.
A lot of the neighbors and some of the businesses
and even city council might even look at it and
think of it as problematic, but I see it as
something very it's very charming. I think it's still very
family oriented. I think even if you talk to any
(14:24):
of the people that's from there, they have so many
stories about Grady Holmes and Pink City and kind of
what all that look like back then, and there's still
traces of it. But and I think the NPU and
even some of the neighbors that kind of give us
a lot of a hard time from the businesses, they
do their best to protect it and make sure that
some of these bigger gas stations, for example, don't come
in and you can't just open up shop. They vet
(14:44):
through a lot of these applicants and these businesses very carefully,
and I do I appreciate that. I don't think they're
just letting anybody in these big developments and stuff. I mean,
some do slip in there, obviously, but for the most part,
there is a conscious effort to preserve the history of
all Fourth Ward, especially on Edgewood, as it is a
lot going on over there.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah, and especially with you know, the World Cup coming
and Thief and all these things. Right like you know,
you know, a friend of mine always talks about, you know,
you're going to basically see the same amount of people
as seven Super Bowls and one Olympic, right, like come.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Here and the games are starting this month too, Like
some of those prelim games are at the Benz Stadium
right now, I've seen the schedule.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, absolutely, Like what I think, where do you think
that you know? Edge? Because I think one of the
things that I think Atlanta really needs is a real
defined nightlife district. And you know, like there's there's places
where it kind of moves around, but like you think
about like a New Orleans, right you tell everybody go
to Bourbon Street, Like I don't know if you can
tell everybody to go to Edgewood. You know, you can
tell some people to go out there, but like, where
do you think that Edgewood though, plays when the world
(15:42):
comes back to Atlanta, especially how it is now.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I think they're making efforts to clean it up right now.
I think at one point, especially during during a little
bit after the pandemic, we were very short staffed with APD,
and even the rookies, I don't think they wanted to
come to Edgewood A lot of them, didn't you know,
they were so understaffed. I don't you know, I don't
think it's fair to even expect to or three officers
to take on four thousand people potentially in the street.
I know cop City obviously was a big, you know,
(16:06):
big topic. But now that some of those training, some
of that training has kind of come to an end,
or not come to an end, that they've graduated, I
think a lot of these officers, I'm starting to see
an increased police presence. I think it starts with just
even having the manpower to.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Crowd control.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I think when you go to places like Bourbon Street,
they have certain things in place, like for instance, last call.
You know, they have these street sweepers that come and
they kind of push everybody out gently, Whereas before you
would see some of these APA officers.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
It's so combative and you've got three or four officers.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
They're screaming at you and like people are drunk already,
and you're honestly outnumbered, and they just don't really have
a good way of exiting people or even kind of
like showing them what the program is. It's changed, or
it's been so lawless that people are working on top
of cars, there's horses, there's all kinds of and there's
no control. But now I can see that they're making
an effort to take back some of that control now
(16:59):
that they have more manpower behind the police force, but
it is going to take some time. I think we
are very close in proximity to the Bend stadium and stuff,
but I don't know what's to take. I think it's
just I just think we have to make it that long,
you know, we just have to make it to next
year to see if we can get a piece of that.
But I think there will be money in the city.
I see the belt line already, you know, putting out
(17:20):
brands and stuff. But that's I don't pay a beltline
tax where I'm at. I think it's like maybe a
few businesses down where it ends. But do people from
that belt line exit by boulevard? Do they even make
it down to me?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Not really?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
That trolley that sits in front of our stop, like
nobody's riding that thing, But hopefully they will, Like I
don't know, I see them trying. I see everybody scrambling.
I see budgets being released where they do. They just
did like a couple billion dollars, like the largest grant
or the largest budget ever for city council. Where does
that go?
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I feel like belt line would definitely be a priority though,
and then maybe us we can get like the leftovers
of it.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Get more than just left over.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I think it's very unique too, though, because you have
the historical district that's there, you have the neighborhoods, and
then you have the businesses, and they're all kind of
kind they're all kind of at odds. They don't really
come to an agreement on anything, but we're going to
have to if we want to make this work. So
hopefully that you see some changes, there's more conversations happening.
I think Liliana is doing a great job. I know
Emir is probably leaving out this year, right hear, But
(18:19):
hopefully that some of this stuff can pick. I think
it just has to be consistency, and it just hasn't
been consistent enough to stick.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
One of the things you said a little while ago
was that you know, you all, can you consider yourself
to be like guests on Edgewook? Yeah, right, Like, what
are some of the things that you all have done
that really, you know, made the people in that community
feel welcomed at our bar and just and really appreciat
and support what you all are doing.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So, like I guess let's let's go back a little
bit too, like just a personal gripe of mine, right,
Like so many Asian business owners have come into black neighborhoods,
whether they're nail salons, whether they're little food marks and stuff,
and I feel like a lot of the Asians don't
feel like they are a part of that community. They
think they come and they set up shop and they
live somewhere totally different. I think it's black dollars that
kept food on a lot of these Asian households tables,
(19:15):
yet none of it goes back to that direct community.
And I've always had an issue with that. I don't
know if it's a language barrier. I don't know if
if it's because they're immigrants or whatever the excuse may be,
but I've always gone on my way to be conscious
of that. I want to hire within my community. I
want to do events for my direct community. I want
to help the people that I see every day. I
want to learn everybody's name, whether they're in house or not.
(19:36):
I want to write letters and show it for people
at court, whatever the case may be. If I can
help for somebody directly within our bars, like property, like
I will do that, you know, but I think that's
just something that hasn't happened and I just have an
issue with it. So I think just moving forward with knowing,
like what can I do to help my direct community first,
(19:56):
has always kind of put us at a put us
at an advantage or at least being excited did by
our community.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yeah, I mean, because it's important.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
I mean, yeah, to your point, like you know, it
was funny we were actually in here talking about you know,
things like property and taxes and like that stuff earlier.
And I think that's one thing that even it happens
a lot of times with police. And that's why I
think that, you know, what Atlanta is doing well. Again,
there's definitely some aspects of cops say that I don't
agree with. One of the things I think is important
in a city like Atlanta is we do have a
police force that represents the broader community. Yeah, right, because
(20:25):
what ends up happening in a lot of cities is
we're just being honest with ourselves. A lot of police
are ex military, you know, because they've had that structure
for so long. They come into a city, they police
that area. But then to your point, they live somewhere else,
and so it's almost like you're basically paying somebody to
come down here and bust your head, give you a
hard time, right, And then as soon as they're done,
they pack up and they go to Marietta, they go
(20:46):
to Alpharetta, right, And that's where they're actually spending their
tax dollars at, that's where they live at, that's where
their property taxes are being paid, and they just come
down here to kind of keep the peace right. And so, like,
I think it's important, you know, to definitely have people
that are you know, in that area, that are living
in that area. You know, Atlanta does a lot of
good work and making sure that police actually live in
some of these areas, are actually helping give them houses
(21:06):
and cars, right, because again, like it's it's it's hard
for you to sit here and harass somebody if you
live in that same neighborhood. Like I had a friend
of mine, I'm not going to say his name, but
I had a friend of mine who, you know, he
was coming home one night from being out and he
maybe had a couple of drinks and you know, but
the police live in his neighborhood, and so he ran
a stop sign and the policeman pulled him over. Well,
that policeman knows him, oh yeah, and that policeman has
(21:29):
a relationship with him. That's not just a random guy
getting stopped that night. So while that situation could have
went one way, because that policeman is in the neighborhood
and you see each other every day, he knows this person.
He just made sure he got home safely. Right, And
I think community, yeah, And that's community, right, And I
think that's so to your point, right, Like it's about
coming into these communities and not just extracting everything you
(21:50):
can from whatever whoever you are. You know, whatever you are, well, white, Black, Asian,
anything in between.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
And I think that's where people get a lot of
stuff wrong. Is they come in these communities, they see
the opportunity, they set up shop. They just extract and
take and take and taken. What I see you y'all
doing is is giving and doing things back, Like I said,
whether it's housing, community forums, from from you know, from
the Atlanta City Council or you know. I remember actually
we did a partnership when I'm the we're running for
city council.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Some of the mayor stuff, Yes, I think we did
the post one at large interview.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
There did you moderate them? You help moderate that, you know,
his birthday.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, And so it's actually important right to kind of
have those moments where again, it's not just about also
turning up, but it's also about giving those people an
opportunity to come in and showcase how the bar shows
up in different ways. And one of the things I
really love that y'all do is also like the NARCAN
training And in my life, where did that part come from?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, I mean, obviously, uh, we're in the night life
seeing you know, people party and people overdose. There's a
huge fatanyl problem right now or it's been. And uh
I partnered with the Atlanta harm Reduction Coalition age YEP
and Sarah she came and taught classes and then we
were like, man, this is so informative, and we were like, well,
(22:56):
let's see if we can as nightlife people, you're always
kind of like right there, first you see somebody passed out,
you see somebody overdose, and like you're it would be
how cool would it be if we could train three
hundred hospitality professionals from bars all over Atlanta? So that way,
on any given night, at any party, somebody might be
there that has already taken the class at Arbor.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
So we were able to hit that goal and we
trained three hundred people.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
We worked with the night life mayor at the time,
and did some stuff at city Hall as well too.
We did stop the bleed classes for any type of
shooting or just any type of trauma to you know,
kind of stop the bleed and stuff because a lot
of times the police response is not that not that fast,
and we've had to run to the firehouse a few
times and bang on their door as their first responder
(23:37):
squad for or their badasses though, so they were able
to bring the fire truck out. But there's been a
couple of times we witnessed some shootings and people are
bleeding out and they're right there at that light. Our
security is right there, you know, and we have turnkits,
we have everything. We'll gauze it, will you'll stuff it,
and then we'll run to the firehouse and try to
save a life. But I think a lot of hospitality
people are it should be it would behoove you to
(23:57):
be equipped in that sense, you know, especially because people
are overdose and everywhere off of everything.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Well that's important Again, it's important that you all are
again in that space because yeah, there are people they
probably wouldn't be here right now if Barba wasn't right there.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, we did get a couple of text messages and
it was definitely tear jerking. It was nice to know
that they were like, I had a Narcan on me.
So yeah, she dropped off maybe a thousand doses of
Narcan for us, and we passed them out on our
industry nights. People were welcome to grab as many as
they want, keep them in your car. They don't really expire.
I think they say like thirty something years, but it
can go beyond that. But people were just sharing them,
you know, and I feel like it's just I think
(24:29):
a question that came up was like can I get
in trouble for even having this on me? You know,
like is it incriminating if I get, you know, pulled
over by the police, Which is a valid question. But
I think the more you desensitize people to that and
just having it and it's just a norm, it's just
a part of my kit, my survival kit, keep it
in my car, you never know. I think it's now
the stigma has kind of gone away a little bit,
which is nice.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
You know, it does save lives.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Has it been hard to kind of balance all those
things that wants to be a safe space, to be
a cultural hub and still you still run the business
at the same time too.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, No, it's really expensive. You know a lot of
the stuff that we do, especially some of the stuff,
a lot of the charity work, and a lot of
the drives and especially Hugby Block. It does cost a
lot of money, but it's so well worth it. I
think our staff get a big, big kick out of it.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
They enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
You know, people that aren't even our staff, it's just
some of our regulars that are from that neighborhood want
to be involved. If you have a if you have
a group of people that want to do it, then
I think why would we not you know, do everything
we can. Like It's really about the customers, right, So
if this is stuff that interests them, and this is
stuff that they want to do and participate in, and
they're proud to talk about it and they're proud to
be a part of it, then why would I Why
would I combat that and do something totally different. It's
(25:32):
you know, you have to actively be listening and just
kind of like observe and see, like what do people
what do people really want to do if they if
they're given the opportunity and they had the way to
just show up and be a part of something and help,
I think most likely they will. You just have to
kind of like feed it to them a little bit.
You got to bring them to the water or whatever.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Yeah, bring some list, you have to bring, bring a
horse to the water, bring in something like that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
People to get the people where they're at.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
And that's and I feel like that's something I always
learned too. When I had this mentor, she was just like,
you know, when you call, you know, when you come
to me with something, you know, put it in a
yes or norm form, like so I could just answer
yes or no. So I would package everything and I'm okay, hey,
this happened, but I can do this yesterday, you know,
and just kind of present it to her in a
way that all she had to do was say yes
or no.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
So she just picks up.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
The phone, Hey, thinking about this damage control, whatever the
case may be. So I try to do that even
with the events, Like how could I just have people
show up and just either enjoy it or not. Yeah,
they don't have to really do any thinking. There's really
no homework or like less less work for them.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah. What would have been some of your favoritablest memorable
moments since you all been doing our bar? I know
a lot of amazing stuff's happens again, y'all do these
special events, everything from tofting classes and all kind of
stuff like karaoke Night's always fun like this some of
your favorite moments up there?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Man, I feel like on a weekly event level, I
guess I love karaoke. I think that's the I see
a lot of people's families come in on them. They're
like my mom's in town, my aunts in town, my
grandma's in town. People are coming to celebrate graduations. It's
probably the most like entry level, like effortless, great vibes.
Everybody knows everybody. Night is probably a Sunday. I like
the Spades tournament two on Wednesdays. I think that's always
(27:00):
just it feels like a family cookout type vibe. I
think some of the bigger events we've done, or just
like one offs would be like a field day where
we do just all kinds of like field day games.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's fair childlike a lot of child like play.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Some of the nonprofits stuff Hug the Block is obviously
up there, but we've done some other stuff too. When
it goes a few times, there were no shelters available.
When it dropped below freezing, I want to say, it
was like two Christmases ago and it just came out
of nowhere. It was like below it was like below
five or something. The staff wanted to stay overnight and
let some people sleep over. Yeah, yeah, that was probably.
Oh I get emotional thinking about it. It was so nice.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Oh it was good.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So yeah, we do what we can, but that that
was really cool. We cooked soup, a lot of the
pop up chips came and brought food. Last minute people
came home with they went home and got their blankets,
and we probably housed like sixty something people that night.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
And they were just spread out everywhere, but they were comfortable.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
We watched deaftm comedy, you know, they played cards, we drank,
we smoked, We we just had a ball, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And that and I think we bonded a lot that day.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Got to stay up with mister Mike and talk about
what his you know, you just kind of got to
learn people's stories. Yet we know their names, but we
don't really know their background and their stories. And a
lot of them are from the old fourth Ward Grady
Holmes and stuff, and they had they had some stories
for sure, but even those at those moments, they stay
with me.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I mean again, like it sounds like like none of
that was probably in the business plan.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
But there was a need there though, like the pandemic,
and that's where Dez came in. When we were because
we opened March first, and then the shutdown was March sixteenth.
Oh wow, so we did we didn't have nothing to
do after that point, but because we were I guess
we were deemed essential, but we had those strict curfews
and stuff, so we kind of was like what do
we do? And then at that point, you know, the
they would you know, at one point they would be
(28:43):
asking for a dollar, let me get some change, to
like do you have any water? So you you instantly
saw a shift in like what survival looked like at
that point because all the businesses were closed, so what
you know, their means of survival just got cut into
like it's there is none, So now you got people
asking for water. So Chef D was like, hey, we'll
meet at the bar. We'll stay have many feet apart,
(29:03):
and we'll just do an assembly line. And we made
a hundred brown bag lunches a day for like six
or seven months straight. Oh well, and we did that
and the bar wasn't open at that time, and this
is before the curfew, so we would do that and
at that point we just go on foot and just
pass it out and masked up Club Duff, you know,
temperature checks and all that. And at that point we
got to really know everybody, and that's when I think
we bonded the most with them. And then we you know,
(29:23):
slowly opened back up and stuff. And they're still there,
you know a lot of them. A lot of them
have passed away or have moved on and got housing,
but for the most part, the majority of them are
still there.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
It's the same people.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I had another group that we were talking to and
they kind of had a similar situation where they launched
their business. I think literally days before kind of the
pandemic came in. The world kind of shut down right
like at that moment, you know, were you even thinking
was it was like, you know, what do we we
might be in over our heads or we're just going
to lean into this. Like what do you remember most
about that time?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah, it was so scary.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
But then honestly too, when we were doing that, like
the black boys still doing what the black boys did,
even the businesses, but they would come and met with us,
you know, they'd come and just kind of be like, well, shit,
let me buy a shot. You know, I got ten bucks.
And they'd see me every day. So that's when the
community kind of it worked both ways. We were helping
the un housed, they were helping us, and they'd be like, well,
let me jump in, and they'd come in and was like, oh,
you want me to go down then down to the
big Head Park. I'll pass them out there. They knew
(30:15):
where the spots were that we didn't. So then our
you know, our footprint got got a little bit bigger
and we were able to like cover more ground and
feed more people. And I don't know, at that point,
we just kind of be And then a lot of
them ended up working for me when we did open
back up, so I'd hire them a security or bar
backs or a sound engineer, some of them have sound experience,
some of them are rappers, you know, so it just
kind of and they're still around to this day.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
I love them to death.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
That's cool. That's cool. So what does growth look like?
I mean again, do you all think about expanding? Is
it more impact? Is it a bigger location? Is another location?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Like?
Speaker 4 (30:46):
What does growth look like for our bar?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I feel like that's one thing I did learn is
that it's definitely not franchiseable. I think what makes our
bar special is the people that work there. Yeah, you know,
it is that family vibe that you talk about, whereas
people are kind of doing their own thing. But it's
like if we were to pop open in Miami, unless
the same people went and opened that place up, Like,
would it have the same magic.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
So it's you know, if you look at it from
a business sense, you know, there is no handbook, there
is no copy and paste where we could just pop up,
you know, thirty forty of them all across the nation.
I think it is a one and done type of situation,
which is which is said because you know you want,
you want. We went into it thinking like, oh my god,
we could do Miami. We could do Charlotte, we could
do all these places, but what it's turned into is
(31:25):
not really franchiseable.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Yeah, it's it's customer. But even with that though, I mean,
do you think this could exist? Just that's not always
going to ask myself because I get asked that question
about Butter all the time. Yeah, it's like, oh, would
you ever do a Butter La or a Butter NYC.
What happened to me is I've been when we launched Butter,
I end up having to go to Miami for a
family reunion, like literally at the launch party, like I
(31:47):
don't know, like on a Thursday, and that's Saturday. I
was in Miami and I was walking around in little
Haiti and I was looking I said, you know what, Yeah,
this would never work down here. And the reason why
I said it would never work is because Miami is
so diverse, Yeah, so many kinds of people. Atlanta is
still pretty binary in a lot of ways. Like it's
still pretty black and white in a lot of ways.
But I'm just thinking, like, you know, if Butter Miami's
(32:08):
not in Spanish and it's not doing all these things right,
and it's same thing about La, right, same thing right,
or even New York, so many different cultures. How do
you kind of like kind of stand up and say
this is the thing that like really leans in it
kind of represents. But I guess what I'm asking is like,
even if it's not in another city, do you think
there's anywhere else, Like if there was any where else
in Atlanta? Just dreaming for a second, like, do you
(32:29):
think there's anywhere else in Atlanta that arbar could have
a same similar kind of successful impact as it is.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I wouldn't even say it's successful really because it's like
it's so hard, Like I'm so sick of breaking even
you know, like I'm in year six. It's like the
overhead is crazy, security costs so much, like I have
the expenses of a nightclub in the sales of a restaurant,
you know, and it's like people have fun in between,
and that's worth it to me. To me, that is
that is some type of payback. But it's like, man,
I don't know, it's it's exhausting.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I look at some of these other businesses and I'm like,
how do they Like how is a thirty cruise? Like
you know, like all within this like Metro Atlanta area. Like,
I don't know how anybody has the time to even
open up another one, you know, or maybe it's like
a compound thing. It's like you open up the second
third name becomes easier. But it's like there's no way
that I could give it the same amount of attention
and detail and you know, like love that I give
(33:18):
our bar to anything else.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
It's completely all consuming.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, so maybe I'm doing it wrong, you know, is
really what that is. But it's like I don't think
I could do anything else and not give it my
complete all either. And that's with me having what thirty
something staff members and two other business partners that work
full time at it too, so like to even think
about opening anything else.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
What's one of the biggest misconceptions people have about running
a business, especially in a nightlife kind of bar like that.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I don't know, but I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
I feel like you need a lawyer for everything, and
nobody's told me that, you know, you know, being a
GM and stuff at the department store, it's like, oh,
scheduling conflicts, people late, you know, people smoking, just like
you know, oh, we might get a health inspection like
that might be the biggest thing. But just realizing that
like for every letter we get or just every even
like garnishment of wages for our previous employ like everything
is a lawyer and it's four hundred and sixty dollars
(34:20):
an hour.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
You know, it's like fuck, well.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
That's look, hey, look we're talking about this fotog that's
the beau the chat GPT too a little bit though.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I mean all this AI stuff. I mean you know again,
like what's gonna end up at what that is? It's
going to drive the cost of a lot of these
knowledge based businesses down ultimately zero. Like how does that
even play in because I know we were talking about
it offline? Where do you think that artificial intelligence plays
in this everything you're working on?
Speaker 1 (34:42):
So, like, I don't know, just from what I've been gathering,
it's like language and language out is probably like your
job's going to be replaced or like language in like
video or like image out your job anything like data
entry or very repetitive, your job is probably going to
be obsolete.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
But I do think that there.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Is like I think people will seek proof of humanity
moving forward. They'll probably look at something and want to
know if it's AR or not, and things like riffing
at a comedy show where they're engaging with the guests
in real time, like you know for sure that's not AI,
and that couldn't be prompted by AI. I think things
like that will be cherished and like of high value.
So things like at the bar, like just impromptu and
(35:17):
very spontaneous moments like live jazz performances or something, you know.
I think things like that will be very appreciated and
things and people will want to vet if something is
AI before they go into it too, you know. So
I think it will be some self correction there. But
I think experiences in a bar is very imprompt and
it can't be I mean, I could I could use
AI to help guide me to some experiences or just
(35:38):
help me kind of mold a run of show maybe even,
but some of the interactions that happen within that night.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
AI can't really help me with that yet.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
No, I mean, I mean, I don't think it'll be
a while, you know, for me, I really believe that
while it'll take away some of the more mundane, repetitive things,
the thing that's always going to exist.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Love that stuff though, is the humanity.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Element of I love the mundane things, you know, like
that's my thing. You just put me at a laptop
all day. I'll sit there and just like that.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
You know that.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Yeah, but that's superpower and I could use.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
My Yes it is, but I've I've gotten so comfortable
with that. I was so good at that, and I
felt like it kind of made me special a little bit.
But now I got something to do it for me,
So I have to focus elsewhere. So there's some pivoting
involved and a new learning curve that I have to
get over again, just like any other day.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
It's like anything else, right, but again, like my like
my old mentor told me, you know, it's not that's
not going to replace you, like a is not going
to replace people. It's the people that know how to
use those two was going to replace rights.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Like compt engineering, like leaning into it.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Early like you're doing is just it's also opening up
and it's helping you all again do more stuff, be
more efficient, you know, hopefully like helping you know, break
through some of those ways. So you all can you know,
just do more stuff and really kind of make the bar.
It's full potential, because again, I feel like you all
haven't really even hit like the full potential of what
you even want to do with it.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Definitely money wise, we haven't, you know, So I would
only hope that there's more to get from this, you
know than barely scraping by.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
What legacy do you hope our bar leads behind? Like
as time goes by, when all this is gone and
everybody remembers it, like, what legacy do you apart?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I think about that sometimes, especially when I do some
of these throwback posts or when we celebrate our anniversaries,
I go back and look at these videos and I'm
so proud of the fact that a lot of the
people that are in that first video from year one
at our first edge with awards or our first you
know what, that's probably a good event that I love
two edguit Awards where we give out superlatives and everybody
dresses up it's like our bomb and people look so nice.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
But those same people are are here at.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Year five in the same video and a different outfit
and still just as proud to be there, And that
to me is like so special. The fact that we
can retain the attention of there's so many bars in Atlanta.
There's so many places opening and closing that are offering
way better deals and way better of an experience. But
yet I still have retained the attention of these same
group of people like that are so loyal to me,
(37:50):
that would come and spend their six dollars on our
opisado day in and day out every day, bring their
kids to the kids events, Come volunteer, come donate blankets,
Like how cool is that?
Speaker 2 (37:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I never lose that. What was the question?
Speaker 4 (38:02):
I know about this legacy, like you want to leave me?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I hope people look back at that and they're just like, man,
you kind of like how they talk about department store
like you just had to be there? Yeah, you know,
And I think that's just like you just and it
just kind of leaves people with the feeling of fomo
or just some of those times when we were reminisce
about department store, like remember that, and it's like, oh fuck,
And it kind of brings you closer even as a group,
to feel like, oh dude, I do remember that. Holy fuck,
how do we get away with that? You know, it's
(38:26):
just like what were we thinking? But it's just like
anything else nostalgic. It kind of brings back those like
it takes you right back to where it was.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Look, because I think it's a special place. And you know,
I believe that in life, you're lucky if you get
at least one experience where you can kind of describe
it by you had to be there.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
I remember I used to work at a sports radio
station out here seven nine in the zone and there
was radio yeah loyal. Yeah, I've done all kind of stuff,
and we used to do all kind of crazy things,
like I remember one time we literally rented out a
house and made into a reality show. And this is
like in two thousand.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
And five, like real world types, real world type, you'll
live there.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
It We like lived there for a week. And you
know we were because we were streaming everything online and
we were trying to.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Find you have a confessional we did.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
We actually set up a confessional room. I love that
we got. We convinced the folks from Hooters to do
a photo shooting our back post, and we and we
and we and we live streamed it and we invited
get listeners up. It was. And the reason why I
talk about that, though, is because when I talk about
that time. It's funny I still know people, like even
some of the guys here at iHeart a couple And
(39:26):
that's how actually know some of these people is they
used to work there, and and like me and some
other friends, we'll get together sometimes we'll be like, man,
can you believe we used to get away with some
of this ship?
Speaker 5 (39:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (39:35):
And you know, but I always say like it was
just a time to where you had to be there,
Like there'll never be another experience like that, just had
to be there. And I kind of feel like that's
just saying about our bar, right. There's just there's a
lot of it to where you just had to be there.
It's it's it's it's a moment. It's special, and while
it's here, we're gonna just really enjoy it and kind
of sit in this moment because if you're lucky, you
(39:55):
get one, Like I've been lucky enough to have maybe two,
maybe three of those experiences, but if you're really lucky,
you just get one, right, And it sounds like this
might be one of those ones. I mean definitely department
store was probably one.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
As the hills like, yeah, yeah, I hope so too,
especially now that we're a little bit more mature.
Speaker 5 (40:09):
We have foods so people don't get as wasted.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
It's always good.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah we're not Yeah, we're not twenty three years old anymore.
So a lot of us, you know a lot of
them have kids, and it's like you spend so much
time with us at our bar, you know, like bring
your kids up here. I can't bring them on a
Sunday night or a Saturday night, but you could bring
them on a Sunday day from three to six and
we'll do some type of vision board party, or we'll
do like an Easter egg hunt, and we'll do some stuff.
Like it's important for me to meet them where they're at,
(40:34):
like their their mother's first, you know, or father's first,
and their patron's next. So if I could do something
that kind of like make them more proud or make
them love us a little bit more, especially share something
as special as their children with us by bringing them
by and us having a photo booth for them and
just you know, just any type of memory.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
I think we should share it together.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Absolutely, absolutely, even if.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
We don't make any money at the bar because none
of them drink, you know, like it's it's okay because
they come back any other day and they spend it
with us.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
And people need those people need those spaces and those
those escaps. For a minute, you know, if someone walked
into our bar, you know, for the first time tonight,
what would you want them to feel and experience?
Speaker 5 (41:09):
It's tonight to night's Friday? Oh what do I want?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I would like them to So like even the design
of the bar when I worked at Follies, I love
the fact that it was a square bar. Even as
a bartender, it made my life a lot easier. So
you know, when we built out our bar, I wanted
that square bar so that somebody sitting here and then
somebody over there could even share like let's say somebody
fell or somebody did something, or something funny happened. They
could kind of share eye contact and like have this
moment and they'll see them again and again and they
(41:33):
get closer and closer. And as a bartender, it's less
work for me. I can just kind of let them
kind of do and I can just assist, Oh you
do so and so like let me introduce you to
and it gives you.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
This like pit.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
So I would think that if they came on a
Friday night, that they would sit there, even if they
came alone, they might make eye contact with somebody else.
The bartender might assist with an introduction or something. That
they would see each other again on a Wednesday and
play spades. They might come back on a Sunday and
sing karaoke, and they would somehow end up being friends,
you know, And I think they just through just seeing
them passing by. I think people get more comfortable with
(42:03):
each other, sharing some of these moments that happen, like
these blooperish type things at a bar like they often do,
and just being able to connect in that way, and
leaving out of there thinking like, man, I had a ball,
Like I didn't have to spend that much money, nobody
was rude or obnoxious, Like everybody was really friendly, and
I kind of walked out of there like remembering some faces.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
So when I go back and seeing them again, I'd
be like, oh, yeah, you were the dude. Remember that
time so and so fell off the stage.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
You know, just whatever the case may be, which I've
seen happen like organically a lot, and it just makes
the bartender like not it doesn't make it so stiff
where you're just kind of sitting there looking around.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Absolutely absolutely, well, look there, this this has been good.
I appreciate you comme pulling up, yeah, sharing kind of
the experience, the stories our bar. Before we get out
of here, please tell people how they can get to
our bar, how they can find y'all, how they can
support y'all, how they can get signed up, give them
all the things.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
We're located on Edgewood.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
You'll see the big eight, this atl HO YEP sign
on the in our window.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
We're open six days a week. We're closed on Mondays.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
You can follow us at our bar at l oh
You are B A R A T L and Yeah, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.
Speaker 5 (43:08):
YouTube, Hey we'll look sir.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Thank you all again, it's one of my one of
my favorite spots. But again, y'all also doing amazing stuff
over there and just being a place that needs exist
in the community. And so while y'all have a good time,
y'all are definitely doing the work that needs to be
done over there.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
You still drink Jamis and orange.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
You know, I tried to go through a phase with it,
but that's why I came up there, because you know what,
you would.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Always make sure man he likes that stuff.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I was just trying to help y'all get rid of it.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
No, I appreciate it because we did. We had a
bunch of it. I was like, please, somebody come drink this.
I appreciate you, Thank.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
You, I appreciate you coming out. Man. With that said,
that's the pod. J'all we out. Peace. You've been listening
to button Nomics and I'm your host, Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback?
Want to be on the show. Send us an email
today at Hello at butteronomics dot com. Butter Nomics is
produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Casey Pegram, with
marketing support from Queen and Nikki. Music provided by mister Hanky.
(44:01):
If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and never
missed an episode, and be sure to follow us on
all our social platforms at butter dot at l. Listen
to better Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
There were no shelters available. When they dropped below freezing.
I want to say it was like two Christmases ago
and it just came out of nowhere. It was like
below five or something. The staff wanted to stay overnight
and let some people sleep over.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I get emotional thinking about it. It was so nice. But yeah,
we do what we can. But that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We cooked soup, A lot of the pop up chefs
came and brought food. Last minute people came home with
they went home and got their blankets, and we probably
housed like sixty something people that night. And I think
we bonded a lot that day at those moments.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They stay with me.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Here, everybody, Welcome to another episode of butter Nomic. Tommy
host Brandon Butler found the CEO of butter ETL And
today we got somebody special up in the podcast. Man,
we got somebody special in the building, the one the
only Miss Sarah O Kim. You gotta say the whole
thing like a tribe called quest Sarah, how you doing it?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thanks for having me, Brandon.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Thanks throwing up. It's always good to see you well.
The one of the friendliest people in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I know, really absolutely, that's a lot you know a
lot of people in Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's always it's always good. It's always good. So, Sarah, man,
I appreciate you pulling up.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Now.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
We were talking a little bit before we got on,
you know, I chat GBT everybody before we get on that,
you know, so I did look you up on Chat.
I said, write me a bio for Sarah, tell me
about there. So instead of instead of me asking you
to tell people you I asked Chat who you were.
And look, it came back with some stuff. Really so
you're ready get into that?
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Oh, like I hope not bad stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
No, No, it's all amazing stuff. Let's do this thing,
so it says Sarah Okim is a co founder and
co owner of Our Bar, a vibrant you know as
Shack says Vibrant, a vibrant bar and kitchen located on
Edgewood Avenue in southeast Atlanta's Old Fourth warf over seventeen
years of experience in Atlanta nightlife and hospitality industry, she
began her career as a bartender and has since become
(01:46):
a central figure in the city's bar and community scene.
Our Bar was established in twenty twenty by Kim and
her longtime collaborators Justin de Leon and I want to
say this correctly Sung Sung Ki Hyung. The trio who
previously worked together the Partner Store and later in film production,
transform their shared experiences to a community driven establishment. Kim
(02:06):
primarily oversees marketing and event programming in community outreach, organizing
a diverse array of events such as DJ nights, karaoke,
beat battles, and political forms. Beyond her hospitality role, she
is deeply involved in community advocacy. She has spearheaded initiatives
like voter registration drives in NARCAN training sessions for nightlife professionals.
One of her most notable projects is their annual Hugged
(02:27):
the Block event, which provides essential services including hot meals, showers, haircuts,
and clothing to unhoused and displaced individuals in Atlanta. In
addition to her work at ar Bar, she has been
active in the local civics scene as well. She's addressed
the City of Atlanta City Council regarding challenges faced by
small business owners and securing reliable off to do police support,
highlighting broader issues in the city's nightlife safety policies. She's
(02:50):
a professional in Atlanta's nightlife scene with background and you
can find more information own her at r barn All
over the city. The One, the Only Miss Sarah. Oh,
Kim Sarah, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I have blown away?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
That's what chat said.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I tried to test my chat to see what it
would say when you did it, if you did it
with our episode, and it did not say anything close
to that.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
You know, I got the I got the big get
on me because I got like the two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I was just about to ask you.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Got to have the two hundred dollar one. I'm stuck
in the twenty. I was wondering what the difference was too.
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I go up and down in it.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
When I have like a love stuff to do, I'll
be like, all right, I'll pay for this for like
a month. Then I go back to the twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh that's so sick. You've definitely stole me. I'm upgrading
as soon as I get out of here. That that
just blew my mind.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
But the prompts that I would have to even give
it to give me an answer like that, even at
the twenty dollars level.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
It's crazy. Thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Well, I appreciate you pulling up. So let's start this
thing off. Man, tell us about Arbor. What is Arbor?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
HiT's a bar, HiT's a headache, But no, I love it.
It's it's a bar, kitchen and on Edgewood. It's owned
by the three of us that you mentioned. There's a
lot of profit sharing involved. I'm sure you know a
lot of the staff that's kind of been there from
the department story day. Yeah, I will say this, So
Hug the Block, even though I am a partner in it,
it is really led by dez Luky, who was our
(04:06):
kitchen manager but also a good friend of ours that
I met through doctor Dax, and he really spearheads a
lot of that and we just support him. But the
Hug the Block event does take place at at our
bar on Thanksgiving Eve every year, So now this will
be our sixth year.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Oh man, that's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I'm proud of that one.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Now, the name ar Bar is that because literally you
and your partners all kind of came together on that,
Like what's the history with that?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So from the very beginning, we used to tag our inbox,
and I've been very anal about how I tag it
and color code it, and we didn't know what to
name it as we were looking for stuff, so we
just kind of tagged it at our bar and made
it blue, so all the correspondence was blue. And then
we just kind of was like, when it was time
to make a name, were at least just call it arbar.
We've been calling at our bar and it just stuck
like that. I wish it had a cooler meaning, but
it's just it was a matter of convenience.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
People ask me the same thing about Butter all the time.
They're like, how'd you come the name Butter? And like,
I'm gonna be honest with you, Like, my last name
is Butler.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I did not name it after myself at all. Like
we were literally brainstorming names, and I'll e remember where
it came from. It just was one of the names
that pop up. I was like, you know what, I
like that memorable, and we ended up going with it,
and then I kind of like backed into the story,
but like you know what, yeah, Butter, you know you
when you churn butter, the cream rise to the top
and it goes well. So I say all that stuff,
but like the reality is, you know, it was just
the name. We brainstorm and it just kind of stuck,
(05:17):
you know.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So butter is one of my favorite facts, especially coming
from baking recently. I appreciate butter for what it is.
There's all kinds of butter, and butter is good for you.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
You know what. I bake a lot too, It's a hobby.
I always say, it's like my way to relax because
as an entrepreneur, you know, you got to figure everything
out right. And what I realized about baking was that's
like the one time for me I get to follow directions. Yes,
and because bacon is more science than art, Like that
thing says you need a cup of sugar. You need
a cup of sugar. Now cooking that's fat, yeah, but
(05:48):
like bacon is like, yo, if you gotta put this
thing on three fifty for an hour, you better put
it on three fifty four an hours. So for me,
it's always just relaxing to kind of like bake things
because I don't have to think about what happens next.
I get steps and directions and my life doesn't have
a lot of directions to it. I got to use figure.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Thorough is nice, No just checking it off a list,
and like I did all that, you know, yeah it
was good.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
So what were you seeing? Like what inspired y'all to
kind of open that space up? Especially on Edgewood?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I mean, if I go back to it, At that point,
I was managing trouble. He had gotten too some legal trouble.
No pun intended, but yeah, he had gotten into some
legal trouble, and I felt kind of I was just
kind of being waterboarded. I felt like a little bit
and I was a little frustrated. We were about to
go on tour and stuff. We had something really big
lined up with one of Kendrick's artists on the West Coast.
Tech had just jumped into manage him and stuff, and
I was just like, I mean, you keep getting in trouble.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Over stupid stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Am I allowed to cuss on here?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
You sure?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I was like, you're just getting in trouble over stupid stuff,
you know. And then my cousin had just got back
some he had got back from the military. He's a
merchant marine. He had a little bit of cash and
he liked being overseas. And visiting bars, and he was like,
you have a lot of experience justin obviously worked with
me at Department Store and a lot of other strip
clubs we worked at. He was like, let's do a bar.
My family wasn't into it. They're like, it's a lot
of hard work. But when Trouble kind of got into
(06:58):
that Trouble, I was like, Man, I need to hedge
my bed a little bit. You know, I'm giving Trouble
everything I have. And if it's not just any artist
that I've worked with, Abra or Dax, and it does
kind of fall into the hands of other people, no
matter how hard you work, it could kind of be
taken away from you. So I was like, what can
I do on the side that would essentially kind of
give me some insurance. Yeah, So we decided to open
(07:20):
the bar, and we looked at probably about forty something
locations and we saw the place on Edgewood and it
had just I guess it was like going through a
lawsuit battle or something. But the place had just opened
up for rent and one of my one of my
one of my vendors from Department Store was like, Hey,
I know this lady that owns the spot you should submit.
And I think we rowed her with our with our
(07:43):
business plan. It was it was probably about like sixty
something pages long. We had did all kinds of market
research and this is before CHATGYBT, so I was like,
this is you know, Yeah, we did it. Took us
a long time to compile it, and I was really
proud of it. And she did it was like an
easy She didn't even she didn't even like, oh give
me a second, let me find other tenants, potential tenants.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
She just kind of gave it to us right then
and there.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yeah, what was it?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Like?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
What do you think was so unique about the business
plan and the perspective.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think we were just very accurate we had, I
mean because we a lot of the models were copy
and paste from you know, what we did at department store,
but we wanted to kind of mature with it a
little bit. We didn't have food there. It was ran
by somebody else. Obviously I was the bartender than the GM,
but there was a lot of things that I would
have done differently. And we've always said to ourselves, even
back at Department Story days, like if we get our
own shit, we'd do it like this. You know, but
(08:26):
now we had a chance to actually do it, and
I've kind of put that all into writing. And Sung
is obviously way more advanced when it comes to writing,
so he was able to take my thoughts, my stream
of consciousness and turn it into something feasible. Justin was
able to go and do market research and average incomes
and cost you know, product costs and liquor costs, and
just kind of analyze everything to where every question that
maybe the landlord would have had for us was already
(08:47):
considered thought of and had a plan for.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Even Plan BS Plan c's are competitors.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I researched everybody within a twenty mile radius of our
bar and what specials they were having. I have a
stack of one hundred menus where I was comparing prices
of what they were selling.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How much is there Jamison, how much is their altos?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So we I just felt really confident going into it too,
And I think she kind of picked up on that.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
There's always like a certain energy when you walk into
that space. Really if it feels it feels comfortable, it
feels friendly, it feels like you at your homeboys house,
your homie's house, you know what I mean. Just kind
of kicking it, like yeah, like in a living room
like it, you know, And again what I say it
to me, it almost kind of reminds me of college
and a sense not like in a college town. Well,
I went to school in college towns. I went to
(09:28):
school in Statesborough. But I'm just saying, like it moment
when you went over your friend's apartment, y'all just kicking it,
you know what I mean. Some people were doing one thing,
some people were doing something else, and I don't know,
I just kind of feel like that, you know, friendly
energy in there, Like where did that kind of was
that something that you all built into with specifically or
that kind of like organically come about.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So a lot of us, even after Department Store, during
that time, a lot of us lived together.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
We you know, Jay Rob had a house, I lived there.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I've probably roomed roommated with a lot of people that
even work at the bar till this day. And I
think a lot of that just comes back from us
being at each other's houses and just kind of leave.
It's no leave all that stuff outside. It's just come
as you are. I think people kind of find their
own pockets on what they want to do and it's
just nobody's really worried about anybody else. Or that's kind
of what we're going for. At least it shouldn't be like, oh,
(10:11):
there's sections, there's bottles, all eyes are on you. There's
really no expectations there, and I kind of want to
keep it that way. It's it's a dive bar at
the end of the day. That's what we wanted. We
didn't want a nightclub. We didn't want something where you
had a dress code. It's just come as you are.
And we wanted it cheap. We wanted it for people
of all especially nightlife industry folks. You get off work,
you've been dealing with people all day. I just want
(10:32):
to come and have a drink and maybe play some
cards or wait for my coworkers to get off and
meet me. And that's I think. It's very service industry driven,
like a shifty Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It's like a place where you know, the people that
work in the spaces kind of want to go hang out.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
We were compressed.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
I was talking to Cam from Holiday Bar, yeah, and
he was kind of telling me something similar where like,
you know, there are certain times like I think it's
on Thanksgiving to where he kind of you know, lits everybody. Everybody,
nobody's working, but he kind of cooks and he takes
care of everything. Is like, look for all the folks
that are getting off work and yeah, you know, are
working a day would have come here. They come here
and kind of hang out, and it kind of feels like, yeah,
(11:06):
it's an inviting space for people that are in those
industries and kind of moving around. But also again, you know,
if the folks also just hanging out want to come
kick it, you know, it's the space for us too.
When you know, a lot of times people talk about
this idea of like culture in Atlanta, you know, what's
what's your definition of culture?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I think it's ever changing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I think it's really about just what Atlanta is accepting
right now or what they're prioritizing. Even sometimes I think,
you know, it's it might be the rap scene, or
it might be something that's going on culturally. But I
think now we're gearing up for FIFA. I think right
now rap might not be doing what it's doing, but
we're I'm looking at comedians honestly, like a lot of
these influencers and some of these stand up comedians, even
(11:43):
like eighty five South coming from Atlanta. I feel like
that's kind of going to be the new wave. It
just depends on what the attention is on. Maybe it
doesn't always necessarily have to be a good thing, but
it is something that's very fluid, and there's a lot
of things that come into culture but staying kind of grassrooted,
and I guess, let me give you an example, like
places that kind of show up like these mega clubs
(12:04):
and they spend a million dollars on the decor and
they come up, they fall down as fast as they come.
But places like Blue Flame or Folly's that's kind of
been around a little hole in the wall, spots that
don't really press the issue and don't want to do
all this like show show voting. I think those places
Atlanta kind of sees through that and they can they
can detect when something's fake and they appreciate the general
(12:25):
or like the genuineness behind something, if that makes sense.
Like if you come in and you try to do
too much and you try to make it like a
Miami type establishment, it's not going to last.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And I think that's the culture that's making those decisions
that's kind of going to say what's here to go
and what's here to stay?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
No, absolutely, you know, one of my favorite authors is
Seth Godin. He talks about marketing and all this stuff,
and his definition of culture is the one that I've
always kind of embraced is, you know, people like us
through things like this.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
When I think about Atlanta, right, like what do people
like us in Atlanta? Do people like us in Atlanta?
You know, we'll we'll go to waffle house for breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, you know what I mean? People in Atlanta
you might go to the symphony orchestra to go see
an event. Then you might be at Maddie City or
Strokers at the event. Right, Like people like us in Atlanta.
We all love living pepper wings. So there's just these
things right when you kind of talk about culture that
(13:12):
you know, wherever you're from, Like, there's just certain things
that are just kind of like unsid and they kind
of go on. When you think about even the culture
of like a space like Edgewood, Like what does Edgewood
Because I mean you all also picked that space for
a unique reason in that area, for a unique reason,
And I mean Edgewood has a lot of different definitions.
There's a lot of things happening on Edgewood. I always tell
us you go down there at night, you know, go
down there about like eleven thirty, twelve o'clock, one am.
(13:35):
It's live down there. Like, what's kind of your definition
of Edgewood And why did you all pick that place
to kind of build our ball.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, obviously we were familiar with it from department store
and stuff, but it is a very special place. I
think there's a lot of history there. And to just
also insinuate like we're still very much guests there. A
lot of especially the unhoused population and a lot of
the block boys that's even up and down the block.
They're from there, you know, and we're guests and we
have to to that responsibility is not lost on me.
(14:04):
I think it's a matter of I don't know, it's
just something about that place. I feel like it is
kind of an underdog. A lot of people overlook it.
A lot of the neighbors and some of the businesses
and even city council might even look at it and
think of it as problematic, but I see it as
something very it's very charming. I think it's still very
family oriented. I think even if you talk to any
(14:24):
of the people that's from there, they have so many
stories about Grady Holmes and Pink City and kind of
what all that look like back then, and there's still
traces of it. But and I think the NPU and
even some of the neighbors that kind of give us
a lot of a hard time from the businesses, they
do their best to protect it and make sure that
some of these bigger gas stations, for example, don't come
in and you can't just open up shop. They vet
(14:44):
through a lot of these applicants and these businesses very carefully,
and I do I appreciate that. I don't think they're
just letting anybody in these big developments and stuff. I mean,
some do slip in there, obviously, but for the most part,
there is a conscious effort to preserve the history of
all Fourth Ward, especially on Edgewood, as it is a
lot going on over there.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah, and especially with you know, the World Cup coming
and Thief and all these things. Right like you know,
you know, a friend of mine always talks about, you know,
you're going to basically see the same amount of people
as seven Super Bowls and one Olympic, right, like come.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Here and the games are starting this month too, Like
some of those prelim games are at the Benz Stadium
right now, I've seen the schedule.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, absolutely, Like what I think, where do you think
that you know? Edge? Because I think one of the
things that I think Atlanta really needs is a real
defined nightlife district. And you know, like there's there's places
where it kind of moves around, but like you think
about like a New Orleans, right you tell everybody go
to Bourbon Street, Like I don't know if you can
tell everybody to go to Edgewood. You know, you can
tell some people to go out there, but like, where
do you think that Edgewood though, plays when the world
(15:42):
comes back to Atlanta, especially how it is now.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I think they're making efforts to clean it up right now.
I think at one point, especially during during a little
bit after the pandemic, we were very short staffed with APD,
and even the rookies, I don't think they wanted to
come to Edgewood A lot of them, didn't you know,
they were so understaffed. I don't you know, I don't
think it's fair to even expect to or three officers
to take on four thousand people potentially in the street.
I know cop City obviously was a big, you know,
(16:06):
big topic. But now that some of those training, some
of that training has kind of come to an end,
or not come to an end, that they've graduated, I
think a lot of these officers, I'm starting to see
an increased police presence. I think it starts with just
even having the manpower to.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Crowd control.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I think when you go to places like Bourbon Street,
they have certain things in place, like for instance, last call.
You know, they have these street sweepers that come and
they kind of push everybody out gently, Whereas before you
would see some of these APA officers.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
It's so combative and you've got three or four officers.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
They're screaming at you and like people are drunk already,
and you're honestly outnumbered, and they just don't really have
a good way of exiting people or even kind of
like showing them what the program is. It's changed, or
it's been so lawless that people are working on top
of cars, there's horses, there's all kinds of and there's
no control. But now I can see that they're making
an effort to take back some of that control now
(16:59):
that they have more manpower behind the police force, but
it is going to take some time. I think we
are very close in proximity to the Bend stadium and stuff,
but I don't know what's to take. I think it's
just I just think we have to make it that long,
you know, we just have to make it to next
year to see if we can get a piece of that.
But I think there will be money in the city.
I see the belt line already, you know, putting out
(17:20):
brands and stuff. But that's I don't pay a beltline
tax where I'm at. I think it's like maybe a
few businesses down where it ends. But do people from
that belt line exit by boulevard? Do they even make
it down to me?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Not really?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
That trolley that sits in front of our stop, like
nobody's riding that thing, But hopefully they will, Like I
don't know, I see them trying. I see everybody scrambling.
I see budgets being released where they do. They just
did like a couple billion dollars, like the largest grant
or the largest budget ever for city council. Where does
that go?
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I feel like belt line would definitely be a priority though,
and then maybe us we can get like the leftovers
of it.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Get more than just left over.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I think it's very unique too, though, because you have
the historical district that's there, you have the neighborhoods, and
then you have the businesses, and they're all kind of
kind they're all kind of at odds. They don't really
come to an agreement on anything, but we're going to
have to if we want to make this work. So
hopefully that you see some changes, there's more conversations happening.
I think Liliana is doing a great job. I know
Emir is probably leaving out this year, right hear, But
(18:19):
hopefully that some of this stuff can pick. I think
it just has to be consistency, and it just hasn't
been consistent enough to stick.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
One of the things you said a little while ago
was that you know, you all, can you consider yourself
to be like guests on Edgewook? Yeah, right, Like, what
are some of the things that you all have done
that really, you know, made the people in that community
feel welcomed at our bar and just and really appreciat
and support what you all are doing.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So, like I guess let's let's go back a little
bit too, like just a personal gripe of mine, right,
Like so many Asian business owners have come into black neighborhoods,
whether they're nail salons, whether they're little food marks and stuff,
and I feel like a lot of the Asians don't
feel like they are a part of that community. They
think they come and they set up shop and they
live somewhere totally different. I think it's black dollars that
kept food on a lot of these Asian households tables,
(19:15):
yet none of it goes back to that direct community.
And I've always had an issue with that. I don't
know if it's a language barrier. I don't know if
if it's because they're immigrants or whatever the excuse may be,
but I've always gone on my way to be conscious
of that. I want to hire within my community. I
want to do events for my direct community. I want
to help the people that I see every day. I
want to learn everybody's name, whether they're in house or not.
(19:36):
I want to write letters and show it for people
at court, whatever the case may be. If I can
help for somebody directly within our bars, like property, like
I will do that, you know, but I think that's
just something that hasn't happened and I just have an
issue with it. So I think just moving forward with knowing,
like what can I do to help my direct community first,
(19:56):
has always kind of put us at a put us
at an advantage or at least being excited did by
our community.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yeah, I mean, because it's important.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
I mean, yeah, to your point, like you know, it
was funny we were actually in here talking about you know,
things like property and taxes and like that stuff earlier.
And I think that's one thing that even it happens
a lot of times with police. And that's why I
think that, you know, what Atlanta is doing well. Again,
there's definitely some aspects of cops say that I don't
agree with. One of the things I think is important
in a city like Atlanta is we do have a
police force that represents the broader community. Yeah, right, because
(20:25):
what ends up happening in a lot of cities is
we're just being honest with ourselves. A lot of police
are ex military, you know, because they've had that structure
for so long. They come into a city, they police
that area. But then to your point, they live somewhere else,
and so it's almost like you're basically paying somebody to
come down here and bust your head, give you a
hard time, right, And then as soon as they're done,
they pack up and they go to Marietta, they go
(20:46):
to Alpharetta, right, And that's where they're actually spending their
tax dollars at, that's where they live at, that's where
their property taxes are being paid, and they just come
down here to kind of keep the peace right. And so, like,
I think it's important, you know, to definitely have people
that are you know, in that area, that are living
in that area. You know, Atlanta does a lot of
good work and making sure that police actually live in
some of these areas, are actually helping give them houses
(21:06):
and cars, right, because again, like it's it's it's hard
for you to sit here and harass somebody if you
live in that same neighborhood. Like I had a friend
of mine, I'm not going to say his name, but
I had a friend of mine who, you know, he
was coming home one night from being out and he
maybe had a couple of drinks and you know, but
the police live in his neighborhood, and so he ran
a stop sign and the policeman pulled him over. Well,
that policeman knows him, oh yeah, and that policeman has
(21:29):
a relationship with him. That's not just a random guy
getting stopped that night. So while that situation could have
went one way, because that policeman is in the neighborhood
and you see each other every day, he knows this person.
He just made sure he got home safely. Right, And
I think community, yeah, And that's community, right, And I
think that's so to your point, right, Like it's about
coming into these communities and not just extracting everything you
(21:50):
can from whatever whoever you are. You know, whatever you are, well, white, Black, Asian,
anything in between.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
And I think that's where people get a lot of
stuff wrong. Is they come in these communities, they see
the opportunity, they set up shop. They just extract and
take and take and taken. What I see you y'all
doing is is giving and doing things back, Like I said,
whether it's housing, community forums, from from you know, from
the Atlanta City Council or you know. I remember actually
we did a partnership when I'm the we're running for
city council.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Some of the mayor stuff, Yes, I think we did
the post one at large interview.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
There did you moderate them? You help moderate that, you know,
his birthday.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, And so it's actually important right to kind of
have those moments where again, it's not just about also
turning up, but it's also about giving those people an
opportunity to come in and showcase how the bar shows
up in different ways. And one of the things I
really love that y'all do is also like the NARCAN
training And in my life, where did that part come from?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, I mean, obviously, uh, we're in the night life
seeing you know, people party and people overdose. There's a
huge fatanyl problem right now or it's been. And uh
I partnered with the Atlanta harm Reduction Coalition age YEP
and Sarah she came and taught classes and then we
were like, man, this is so informative, and we were like, well,
(22:56):
let's see if we can as nightlife people, you're always
kind of like right there, first you see somebody passed out,
you see somebody overdose, and like you're it would be
how cool would it be if we could train three
hundred hospitality professionals from bars all over Atlanta? So that way,
on any given night, at any party, somebody might be
there that has already taken the class at Arbor.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
So we were able to hit that goal and we
trained three hundred people.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
We worked with the night life mayor at the time,
and did some stuff at city Hall as well too.
We did stop the bleed classes for any type of
shooting or just any type of trauma to you know,
kind of stop the bleed and stuff because a lot
of times the police response is not that not that fast,
and we've had to run to the firehouse a few
times and bang on their door as their first responder
(23:37):
squad for or their badasses though, so they were able
to bring the fire truck out. But there's been a
couple of times we witnessed some shootings and people are
bleeding out and they're right there at that light. Our
security is right there, you know, and we have turnkits,
we have everything. We'll gauze it, will you'll stuff it,
and then we'll run to the firehouse and try to
save a life. But I think a lot of hospitality
people are it should be it would behoove you to
(23:57):
be equipped in that sense, you know, especially because people
are overdose and everywhere off of everything.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Well that's important Again, it's important that you all are
again in that space because yeah, there are people they
probably wouldn't be here right now if Barba wasn't right there.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, we did get a couple of text messages and
it was definitely tear jerking. It was nice to know
that they were like, I had a Narcan on me.
So yeah, she dropped off maybe a thousand doses of
Narcan for us, and we passed them out on our
industry nights. People were welcome to grab as many as
they want, keep them in your car. They don't really expire.
I think they say like thirty something years, but it
can go beyond that. But people were just sharing them,
you know, and I feel like it's just I think
(24:29):
a question that came up was like can I get
in trouble for even having this on me? You know,
like is it incriminating if I get, you know, pulled
over by the police, Which is a valid question. But
I think the more you desensitize people to that and
just having it and it's just a norm, it's just
a part of my kit, my survival kit, keep it
in my car, you never know. I think it's now
the stigma has kind of gone away a little bit,
which is nice.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
You know, it does save lives.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Has it been hard to kind of balance all those
things that wants to be a safe space, to be
a cultural hub and still you still run the business
at the same time too.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, No, it's really expensive. You know a lot of
the stuff that we do, especially some of the stuff,
a lot of the charity work, and a lot of
the drives and especially Hugby Block. It does cost a
lot of money, but it's so well worth it. I
think our staff get a big, big kick out of it.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
They enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
You know, people that aren't even our staff, it's just
some of our regulars that are from that neighborhood want
to be involved. If you have a if you have
a group of people that want to do it, then
I think why would we not you know, do everything
we can. Like It's really about the customers, right, So
if this is stuff that interests them, and this is
stuff that they want to do and participate in, and
they're proud to talk about it and they're proud to
be a part of it, then why would I Why
would I combat that and do something totally different. It's
(25:32):
you know, you have to actively be listening and just
kind of like observe and see, like what do people
what do people really want to do if they if
they're given the opportunity and they had the way to
just show up and be a part of something and help,
I think most likely they will. You just have to
kind of like feed it to them a little bit.
You got to bring them to the water or whatever.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Yeah, bring some list, you have to bring, bring a
horse to the water, bring in something like that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
People to get the people where they're at.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
And that's and I feel like that's something I always
learned too. When I had this mentor, she was just like,
you know, when you call, you know, when you come
to me with something, you know, put it in a
yes or norm form, like so I could just answer
yes or no. So I would package everything and I'm okay, hey,
this happened, but I can do this yesterday, you know,
and just kind of present it to her in a
way that all she had to do was say yes
or no.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
So she just picks up.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
The phone, Hey, thinking about this damage control, whatever the
case may be. So I try to do that even
with the events, Like how could I just have people
show up and just either enjoy it or not. Yeah,
they don't have to really do any thinking. There's really
no homework or like less less work for them.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah. What would have been some of your favoritablest memorable
moments since you all been doing our bar? I know
a lot of amazing stuff's happens again, y'all do these
special events, everything from tofting classes and all kind of
stuff like karaoke Night's always fun like this some of
your favorite moments up there?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Man, I feel like on a weekly event level, I
guess I love karaoke. I think that's the I see
a lot of people's families come in on them. They're
like my mom's in town, my aunts in town, my
grandma's in town. People are coming to celebrate graduations. It's
probably the most like entry level, like effortless, great vibes.
Everybody knows everybody. Night is probably a Sunday. I like
the Spades tournament two on Wednesdays. I think that's always
(27:00):
just it feels like a family cookout type vibe. I
think some of the bigger events we've done, or just
like one offs would be like a field day where
we do just all kinds of like field day games.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's fair childlike a lot of child like play.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Some of the nonprofits stuff Hug the Block is obviously
up there, but we've done some other stuff too. When
it goes a few times, there were no shelters available.
When it dropped below freezing, I want to say, it
was like two Christmases ago and it just came out
of nowhere. It was like below it was like below
five or something. The staff wanted to stay overnight and
let some people sleep over. Yeah, yeah, that was probably.
Oh I get emotional thinking about it. It was so nice.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Oh it was good.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So yeah, we do what we can, but that that
was really cool. We cooked soup, a lot of the
pop up chips came and brought food. Last minute people
came home with they went home and got their blankets,
and we probably housed like sixty something people that night.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
And they were just spread out everywhere, but they were comfortable.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
We watched deaftm comedy, you know, they played cards, we drank,
we smoked, We we just had a ball, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And that and I think we bonded a lot that day.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Got to stay up with mister Mike and talk about
what his you know, you just kind of got to
learn people's stories. Yet we know their names, but we
don't really know their background and their stories. And a
lot of them are from the old fourth Ward Grady
Holmes and stuff, and they had they had some stories
for sure, but even those at those moments, they stay
with me.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I mean again, like it sounds like like none of
that was probably in the business plan.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
But there was a need there though, like the pandemic,
and that's where Dez came in. When we were because
we opened March first, and then the shutdown was March sixteenth.
Oh wow, so we did we didn't have nothing to
do after that point, but because we were I guess
we were deemed essential, but we had those strict curfews
and stuff, so we kind of was like what do
we do? And then at that point, you know, the
they would you know, at one point they would be
(28:43):
asking for a dollar, let me get some change, to
like do you have any water? So you you instantly
saw a shift in like what survival looked like at
that point because all the businesses were closed, so what
you know, their means of survival just got cut into
like it's there is none, So now you got people
asking for water. So Chef D was like, hey, we'll
meet at the bar. We'll stay have many feet apart,
(29:03):
and we'll just do an assembly line. And we made
a hundred brown bag lunches a day for like six
or seven months straight. Oh well, and we did that
and the bar wasn't open at that time, and this
is before the curfew, so we would do that and
at that point we just go on foot and just
pass it out and masked up Club Duff, you know,
temperature checks and all that. And at that point we
got to really know everybody, and that's when I think
we bonded the most with them. And then we you know,
(29:23):
slowly opened back up and stuff. And they're still there,
you know a lot of them. A lot of them
have passed away or have moved on and got housing,
but for the most part, the majority of them are
still there.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
It's the same people.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I had another group that we were talking to and
they kind of had a similar situation where they launched
their business. I think literally days before kind of the
pandemic came in. The world kind of shut down right
like at that moment, you know, were you even thinking
was it was like, you know, what do we we
might be in over our heads or we're just going
to lean into this. Like what do you remember most
about that time?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah, it was so scary.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
But then honestly too, when we were doing that, like
the black boys still doing what the black boys did,
even the businesses, but they would come and met with us,
you know, they'd come and just kind of be like, well, shit,
let me buy a shot. You know, I got ten bucks.
And they'd see me every day. So that's when the
community kind of it worked both ways. We were helping
the un housed, they were helping us, and they'd be like, well,
let me jump in, and they'd come in and was like, oh,
you want me to go down then down to the
big Head Park. I'll pass them out there. They knew
(30:15):
where the spots were that we didn't. So then our
you know, our footprint got got a little bit bigger
and we were able to like cover more ground and
feed more people. And I don't know, at that point,
we just kind of be And then a lot of
them ended up working for me when we did open
back up, so I'd hire them a security or bar
backs or a sound engineer, some of them have sound experience,
some of them are rappers, you know, so it just
kind of and they're still around to this day.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
I love them to death.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
That's cool. That's cool. So what does growth look like?
I mean again, do you all think about expanding? Is
it more impact? Is it a bigger location? Is another location?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Like?
Speaker 4 (30:46):
What does growth look like for our bar?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I feel like that's one thing I did learn is
that it's definitely not franchiseable. I think what makes our
bar special is the people that work there. Yeah, you know,
it is that family vibe that you talk about, whereas
people are kind of doing their own thing. But it's
like if we were to pop open in Miami, unless
the same people went and opened that place up, Like,
would it have the same magic.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
So it's you know, if you look at it from
a business sense, you know, there is no handbook, there
is no copy and paste where we could just pop up,
you know, thirty forty of them all across the nation.
I think it is a one and done type of situation,
which is which is said because you know you want,
you want. We went into it thinking like, oh my god,
we could do Miami. We could do Charlotte, we could
do all these places, but what it's turned into is
(31:25):
not really franchiseable.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Yeah, it's it's customer. But even with that though, I mean,
do you think this could exist? Just that's not always
going to ask myself because I get asked that question
about Butter all the time. Yeah, it's like, oh, would
you ever do a Butter La or a Butter NYC.
What happened to me is I've been when we launched Butter,
I end up having to go to Miami for a
family reunion, like literally at the launch party, like I
(31:47):
don't know, like on a Thursday, and that's Saturday. I
was in Miami and I was walking around in little
Haiti and I was looking I said, you know what, Yeah,
this would never work down here. And the reason why
I said it would never work is because Miami is
so diverse, Yeah, so many kinds of people. Atlanta is
still pretty binary in a lot of ways. Like it's
still pretty black and white in a lot of ways.
But I'm just thinking, like, you know, if Butter Miami's
(32:08):
not in Spanish and it's not doing all these things right,
and it's same thing about La, right, same thing right,
or even New York, so many different cultures. How do
you kind of like kind of stand up and say
this is the thing that like really leans in it
kind of represents. But I guess what I'm asking is like,
even if it's not in another city, do you think
there's anywhere else, Like if there was any where else
in Atlanta? Just dreaming for a second, like, do you
(32:29):
think there's anywhere else in Atlanta that arbar could have
a same similar kind of successful impact as it is.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I wouldn't even say it's successful really because it's like
it's so hard, Like I'm so sick of breaking even
you know, like I'm in year six. It's like the
overhead is crazy, security costs so much, like I have
the expenses of a nightclub in the sales of a restaurant,
you know, and it's like people have fun in between,
and that's worth it to me. To me, that is
that is some type of payback. But it's like, man,
I don't know, it's it's exhausting.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I look at some of these other businesses and I'm like,
how do they Like how is a thirty cruise? Like
you know, like all within this like Metro Atlanta area. Like,
I don't know how anybody has the time to even
open up another one, you know, or maybe it's like
a compound thing. It's like you open up the second
third name becomes easier. But it's like there's no way
that I could give it the same amount of attention
and detail and you know, like love that I give
(33:18):
our bar to anything else.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
It's completely all consuming.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, so maybe I'm doing it wrong, you know, is
really what that is. But it's like I don't think
I could do anything else and not give it my
complete all either. And that's with me having what thirty
something staff members and two other business partners that work
full time at it too, so like to even think
about opening anything else.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
What's one of the biggest misconceptions people have about running
a business, especially in a nightlife kind of bar like that.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I don't know, but I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
I feel like you need a lawyer for everything, and
nobody's told me that, you know, you know, being a
GM and stuff at the department store, it's like, oh,
scheduling conflicts, people late, you know, people smoking, just like
you know, oh, we might get a health inspection like
that might be the biggest thing. But just realizing that
like for every letter we get or just every even
like garnishment of wages for our previous employ like everything
is a lawyer and it's four hundred and sixty dollars
(34:20):
an hour.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
You know, it's like fuck, well.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
That's look, hey, look we're talking about this fotog that's
the beau the chat GPT too a little bit though.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I mean all this AI stuff. I mean you know again,
like what's gonna end up at what that is? It's
going to drive the cost of a lot of these
knowledge based businesses down ultimately zero. Like how does that
even play in because I know we were talking about
it offline? Where do you think that artificial intelligence plays
in this everything you're working on?
Speaker 1 (34:42):
So, like, I don't know, just from what I've been gathering,
it's like language and language out is probably like your
job's going to be replaced or like language in like
video or like image out your job anything like data
entry or very repetitive, your job is probably going to
be obsolete.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
But I do think that there.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Is like I think people will seek proof of humanity
moving forward. They'll probably look at something and want to
know if it's AR or not, and things like riffing
at a comedy show where they're engaging with the guests
in real time, like you know for sure that's not AI,
and that couldn't be prompted by AI. I think things
like that will be cherished and like of high value.
So things like at the bar, like just impromptu and
(35:17):
very spontaneous moments like live jazz performances or something, you know.
I think things like that will be very appreciated and
things and people will want to vet if something is
AI before they go into it too, you know. So
I think it will be some self correction there. But
I think experiences in a bar is very imprompt and
it can't be I mean, I could I could use
AI to help guide me to some experiences or just
(35:38):
help me kind of mold a run of show maybe even,
but some of the interactions that happen within that night.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
AI can't really help me with that yet.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
No, I mean, I mean, I don't think it'll be
a while, you know, for me, I really believe that
while it'll take away some of the more mundane, repetitive things,
the thing that's always going to exist.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Love that stuff though, is the humanity.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Element of I love the mundane things, you know, like
that's my thing. You just put me at a laptop
all day. I'll sit there and just like that.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
You know that.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Yeah, but that's superpower and I could use.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
My Yes it is, but I've I've gotten so comfortable
with that. I was so good at that, and I
felt like it kind of made me special a little bit.
But now I got something to do it for me,
So I have to focus elsewhere. So there's some pivoting
involved and a new learning curve that I have to
get over again, just like any other day.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
It's like anything else, right, but again, like my like
my old mentor told me, you know, it's not that's
not going to replace you, like a is not going
to replace people. It's the people that know how to
use those two was going to replace rights.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Like compt engineering, like leaning into it.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Early like you're doing is just it's also opening up
and it's helping you all again do more stuff, be
more efficient, you know, hopefully like helping you know, break
through some of those ways. So you all can you know,
just do more stuff and really kind of make the bar.
It's full potential, because again, I feel like you all
haven't really even hit like the full potential of what
you even want to do with it.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Definitely money wise, we haven't, you know, So I would
only hope that there's more to get from this, you
know than barely scraping by.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
What legacy do you hope our bar leads behind? Like
as time goes by, when all this is gone and
everybody remembers it, like, what legacy do you apart?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I think about that sometimes, especially when I do some
of these throwback posts or when we celebrate our anniversaries,
I go back and look at these videos and I'm
so proud of the fact that a lot of the
people that are in that first video from year one
at our first edge with awards or our first you
know what, that's probably a good event that I love
two edguit Awards where we give out superlatives and everybody
dresses up it's like our bomb and people look so nice.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
But those same people are are here at.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Year five in the same video and a different outfit
and still just as proud to be there, And that
to me is like so special. The fact that we
can retain the attention of there's so many bars in Atlanta.
There's so many places opening and closing that are offering
way better deals and way better of an experience. But
yet I still have retained the attention of these same
group of people like that are so loyal to me,
(37:50):
that would come and spend their six dollars on our
opisado day in and day out every day, bring their
kids to the kids events, Come volunteer, come donate blankets,
Like how cool is that?
Speaker 2 (37:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I never lose that. What was the question?
Speaker 4 (38:02):
I know about this legacy, like you want to leave me?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
I hope people look back at that and they're just like, man,
you kind of like how they talk about department store
like you just had to be there? Yeah, you know,
And I think that's just like you just and it
just kind of leaves people with the feeling of fomo
or just some of those times when we were reminisce
about department store, like remember that, and it's like, oh fuck,
And it kind of brings you closer even as a group,
to feel like, oh dude, I do remember that. Holy fuck,
how do we get away with that? You know, it's
(38:26):
just like what were we thinking? But it's just like
anything else nostalgic. It kind of brings back those like
it takes you right back to where it was.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Look, because I think it's a special place. And you know,
I believe that in life, you're lucky if you get
at least one experience where you can kind of describe
it by you had to be there.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
I remember I used to work at a sports radio
station out here seven nine in the zone and there
was radio yeah loyal. Yeah, I've done all kind of stuff,
and we used to do all kind of crazy things,
like I remember one time we literally rented out a
house and made into a reality show. And this is
like in two thousand.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
And five, like real world types, real world type, you'll
live there.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
It We like lived there for a week. And you
know we were because we were streaming everything online and
we were trying to.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Find you have a confessional we did.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
We actually set up a confessional room. I love that
we got. We convinced the folks from Hooters to do
a photo shooting our back post, and we and we
and we and we live streamed it and we invited
get listeners up. It was. And the reason why I
talk about that, though, is because when I talk about
that time. It's funny I still know people, like even
some of the guys here at iHeart a couple And
(39:26):
that's how actually know some of these people is they
used to work there, and and like me and some
other friends, we'll get together sometimes we'll be like, man,
can you believe we used to get away with some
of this ship?
Speaker 5 (39:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (39:35):
And you know, but I always say like it was
just a time to where you had to be there,
Like there'll never be another experience like that, just had
to be there. And I kind of feel like that's
just saying about our bar, right. There's just there's a
lot of it to where you just had to be there.
It's it's it's it's a moment. It's special, and while
it's here, we're gonna just really enjoy it and kind
of sit in this moment because if you're lucky, you
(39:55):
get one, Like I've been lucky enough to have maybe two,
maybe three of those experiences, but if you're really lucky,
you just get one, right, And it sounds like this
might be one of those ones. I mean definitely department
store was probably one.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
As the hills like, yeah, yeah, I hope so too,
especially now that we're a little bit more mature.
Speaker 5 (40:09):
We have foods so people don't get as wasted.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
It's always good.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah we're not Yeah, we're not twenty three years old anymore.
So a lot of us, you know a lot of
them have kids, and it's like you spend so much
time with us at our bar, you know, like bring
your kids up here. I can't bring them on a
Sunday night or a Saturday night, but you could bring
them on a Sunday day from three to six and
we'll do some type of vision board party, or we'll
do like an Easter egg hunt, and we'll do some stuff.
Like it's important for me to meet them where they're at,
(40:34):
like their their mother's first, you know, or father's first,
and their patron's next. So if I could do something
that kind of like make them more proud or make
them love us a little bit more, especially share something
as special as their children with us by bringing them
by and us having a photo booth for them and
just you know, just any type of memory.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
I think we should share it together.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Absolutely, absolutely, even if.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
We don't make any money at the bar because none
of them drink, you know, like it's it's okay because
they come back any other day and they spend it
with us.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
And people need those people need those spaces and those
those escaps. For a minute, you know, if someone walked
into our bar, you know, for the first time tonight,
what would you want them to feel and experience?
Speaker 5 (41:09):
It's tonight to night's Friday? Oh what do I want?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I would like them to So like even the design
of the bar when I worked at Follies, I love
the fact that it was a square bar. Even as
a bartender, it made my life a lot easier. So
you know, when we built out our bar, I wanted
that square bar so that somebody sitting here and then
somebody over there could even share like let's say somebody
fell or somebody did something, or something funny happened. They
could kind of share eye contact and like have this
moment and they'll see them again and again and they
(41:33):
get closer and closer. And as a bartender, it's less
work for me. I can just kind of let them
kind of do and I can just assist, Oh you
do so and so like let me introduce you to
and it gives you.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
This like pit.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
So I would think that if they came on a
Friday night, that they would sit there, even if they
came alone, they might make eye contact with somebody else.
The bartender might assist with an introduction or something. That
they would see each other again on a Wednesday and
play spades. They might come back on a Sunday and
sing karaoke, and they would somehow end up being friends,
you know, And I think they just through just seeing
them passing by. I think people get more comfortable with
(42:03):
each other, sharing some of these moments that happen, like
these blooperish type things at a bar like they often do,
and just being able to connect in that way, and
leaving out of there thinking like, man, I had a ball,
Like I didn't have to spend that much money, nobody
was rude or obnoxious, Like everybody was really friendly, and
I kind of walked out of there like remembering some faces.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
So when I go back and seeing them again, I'd
be like, oh, yeah, you were the dude. Remember that
time so and so fell off the stage.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
You know, just whatever the case may be, which I've
seen happen like organically a lot, and it just makes
the bartender like not it doesn't make it so stiff
where you're just kind of sitting there looking around.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Absolutely absolutely, well, look there, this this has been good.
I appreciate you comme pulling up, yeah, sharing kind of
the experience, the stories our bar. Before we get out
of here, please tell people how they can get to
our bar, how they can find y'all, how they can
support y'all, how they can get signed up, give them
all the things.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
We're located on Edgewood.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
You'll see the big eight, this atl HO YEP sign
on the in our window.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
We're open six days a week. We're closed on Mondays.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
You can follow us at our bar at l oh
You are B A R A T L and Yeah, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.
Speaker 5 (43:08):
YouTube, Hey we'll look sir.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Thank you all again, it's one of my one of
my favorite spots. But again, y'all also doing amazing stuff
over there and just being a place that needs exist
in the community. And so while y'all have a good time,
y'all are definitely doing the work that needs to be
done over there.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
You still drink Jamis and orange.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
You know, I tried to go through a phase with it,
but that's why I came up there, because you know what,
you would.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Always make sure man he likes that stuff.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I was just trying to help y'all get rid of it.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
No, I appreciate it because we did. We had a
bunch of it. I was like, please, somebody come drink this.
I appreciate you, Thank.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
You, I appreciate you coming out. Man. With that said,
that's the pod. J'all we out. Peace. You've been listening
to button Nomics and I'm your host, Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback?
Want to be on the show. Send us an email
today at Hello at butteronomics dot com. Butter Nomics is
produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by Casey Pegram, with
marketing support from Queen and Nikki. Music provided by mister Hanky.
(44:01):
If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and never
missed an episode, and be sure to follow us on
all our social platforms at butter dot at l. Listen
to better Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Brandon Butler
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