EAV featured in Creative Loafing

East Atlanta: The Epitome Of Cool – And A Neighborhood's Neighborhood, Too

BY REBECCA FORD

Sure, it's got tree-lined streets and a few stunning Victorians, a vociferous neighborhood association and an active Baptist church. But a picket-fenced utopia East Atlanta ain't.

Thank God.

East Atlanta isn't trying to be Mayberry. Hell, it isn't even trying to be Virginia-Highland. And though it draws the tired analogy of being Little Five Points' younger sister, that's just a watered-down way of saying East Atlanta still has the soul that commercialization sucked out of Little Five.

From the beef carpaccio and white Cosmo cocktails at Iris to the bowls of boiled peanuts and 16-ounce cans of Busch at the Earl, from the drag-queen karaoke near the corner of Flat Shoals and Glenwood to the stately brick homes lining the intersection of Flat Shoals and Ormewood, it's all about marching to your own beat in East Atlanta - or at least being friends with a drummer.