A serene getaway and festive pop-ups
A pastoral escape from the frenzied city grind
If hourlong Atlanta commutes for work or play become too much, the highly aesthetic, sustainable and walkable planned community of Serenbe, located just south of Atlanta, offers a serene retreat from the bustle of city life.
“Since we moved to Serenbe we do a lot more entertaining,” said Clinton Rice, who moved there with his husband, Michael Mock, from Buckhead in 2021. “We have made a lot more friends here than we even ever did in Buckhead,” Rice added. “My blood pressure goes down when I get to that exit and you come through farm country and see cows and horses,” Mock said of the commute home from his work in town.
Serenbe is an anomaly — a place with an appealing, small-town vibe but also prosperous enough to feature a restaurant, the Hill, with a $42 pork chop on the menu and neighbors like former “Oprah” executive producer Sheri Salata, who is now the chair of Serenbe’s Art Farm Film Council.
This experiment in new urbanism, created by Steve Nygren in 2004, is compressed enough to make socializing easy: Just hop in a golf cart or walk across the street for dinner or cocktails at a friend’s.
That ease of life is what has made the community so appealing to Rice and Mock, who both work in banking, and their feisty Frenchie Rose (“She’s going to bark at you” warned Rice).
Their four-story townhouse-style home on Selborne Lane in Serenbe’s original hamlet is what Ralph Lauren might have dreamed up if he’d been raised in the Lowcountry instead of the Bronx.
Ways to get your festive feels a little closer to home
From live performances to light displays, ice skating to holiday markets, there’s no shortage of holiday things to do around Atlanta. One can’t-miss event — Atlanta Christkindl Market.
The smells of hot mulled wine, melted raclette cheese and grilled bratwurst will waft over crowds as they wander festive holiday booths selling artisan gifts, ornaments and goodies.
Inspired by traditional holiday markets in Germany, Atlanta Christkindl Market has been a holiday tradition since 2016. Ordinarily located in Buckhead, this year’s market has been moved to downtown Lawrenceville to accommodate larger crowds and more vendor booths.
Another time-honored tradition for this time of year is “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights” at Atlanta Botanical Garden. Meander through the garden grounds, where 2 million lights illuminate trees, sculptures and themed displays.
The garden’s centerpiece attraction, “Nature’s Wonders,” is a lush forest of music-synchronized lights. The 529 strings, some as long as 64 feet, hang like curtains from a gridded web affixed high in the canopy. Music moves fluidly between orchestral epics (such as Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”) to Hollywood hits (like the “Mission: Impossible” theme song) to sultry jazz tunes.
Other attractions include a toy train village, a Christmas tree made of more than 500 poinsettias and fire pits to roast s’mores.
New era dawning for a troubled Atlanta airport food court
Change is coming to the Atlanta airport’s Concourse C food court, which has been run by a company millions of dollars in debt to the city.
Atlanta-based Global Concessions, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, has sold leases for nine of its restaurants to St. Louis-based OHM Concession Group, a new entrant to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The group will take over the entire Concourse C food court and restaurants in Concourses B and F, including Jekyll Island Seafood Co., the Coffee Beanery and Blue Moon Brewhouse.
The $8.25 million transaction enabled OHM to buy into major leases at the world’s busiest airport through a bankruptcy court auction. It will also make the city whole for the millions in past-due rent that accrued over years.
“We’re a growing company in the industry, and Atlanta Hartsfield is the busiest airport in the world. Everybody wants to be there,” President and CEO of OHM Concession Group Milan Patel told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview.
‘Lost World’ of Minnie Evans on view at High Museum
Though her work trafficked in the fantastical and visionary, self-taught artist Minnie Evans was grounded in the day-to-day reality of her Southern hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina.
That fact is one of the many insights into Evans’ life and work tackled in an important retrospective at the High Museum — “The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans,” the first major exhibition of her work in 30 years.
The exhibition comes at a time of renewed interest in women visionary artists, including Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint and British spiritualist artist Georgiana Houghton. At the heart of this interest is an examination of where the artistic impulse comes from and how it is either explained or — in some cases, with self-taught and women artists ― diminished.
In an unprecedented win for the High Museum, the exhibition leaves in April and travels to New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, where, in 1975, Evans was among the first Black artists to have a solo exhibition there.
From early drawings done in her favorite medium of Crayola crayons to later collage works that explode with color and detail like a garden bursting into exquisite bloom, the more than 100 works in “The Lost World” show an artist endlessly inspired, growing and driven to create works of delicious excess and strangeness.
🎨 Explore how Evans was influenced by religion, mythology, B-grade movies and her environment
More than 20 pop-up bars worth the trip this holiday season
Every year, more restaurants and bars transform their spaces into holiday pop-up bars with over-the-top decor and festive cocktails. It would take the whole holiday season to work through each one, but here are a few to get you started over Thanksgiving weekend.
Agave Bandido
Maya SpeakTiki, the upstairs speakeasy at Agave Bandido in Dunwoody’s High Street development, will transform into the Reindeer Room with festive cocktails, lights and tropical holiday decor.
Through Jan. 3. 120 High St., Dunwoody. 678-750-0557, agavebandido.com
BeetleCat
Descend into BeetleCat’s downstairs space, the Den, for a holiday wonderland in Inman Park featuring tinsel, lights, disco balls and themed cocktails like the Christmas on Cape Cod with citrus vodka, cranberry, rosemary and sparkling wine.
Through Dec. 31. 299 N. Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta. 678-732-0360, beetlecatatl.com
Hobnob Neighborhood Tavern — Halcyon
For those who won’t make it to the mountains (or don’t know how to ski), the roof of this Halcyon eatery will transform into a ski chalet pop-up bar with apres-ski-inspired cocktails and food like tableside s’mores. Live entertainment will play every Friday and Saturday.
Through Dec. 31. 6690 Town Square, Alpharetta. 470-448-4572, hobnobatlanta.com
The Blind Pig Parlour Bar
This Buckhead bar is once again transforming into the Blind Elf for the holiday season, complete with maximalist decorations and festive food and drinks like braised short rib sliders, roasted butternut squash flatbread and a Polar Express martini.
Through Jan. 3. 128 E. Andrews Drive, Atlanta. 678-705-7697, theblindpigparlourbar.com
