Atlanta’s Star Bar, a Little Five Points staple, to close after 35 years
After 35 years, Star Community Bar will be closing its doors at the end of the year.
The Little Five Points venue, a hub for underground music and live comedy, announced the news exclusively to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week. Red Light Café, a Virginia-Highland listening room known for its jazz and burlesque shows, will move into the building in January.
“The bar has been an impact to the live scene in Atlanta for 35 years, and we think that with the Red Light (Café) taking over, they’re going to lead it forward for another 20-30 years as an institution that supports live arts here,” said Luke Lewis, a co-owner of Star Bar.
Lewis, who, along with three others, acquired the business (located at 437 Moreland Ave. NE) in 2020, said the beloved venue faced significant financial difficulties and uncertainty over the past few years.
In 2019, it suddenly closed but reopened the following year. In 2022, Atlanta developer Third & Urban planned to demolish the bar for a mixed-use property, but terminated the contract after overwhelming community opposition.
Lewis said that bar struggled to navigate the live music landscape following the COVID-19 pandemic. He also mentioned that a slowdown for Georgia’s film industry also impacted the bar’s revenue. State spending on film and TV projects was roughly $2 billion for the last fiscal year, its lowest in a decade.
“That was a big hit to our bottom line as well,” Lewis noted. “A lot of our clientele was folks that worked in the movie industry, and they weren’t able to come in as frequently (because of) not having work.”
Star Community Bar, which has hosted concerts by acts like Mastodon, Killer Mike and Drive-By Truckers early in their careers, will officially close on Dec. 31. Red Light Café moves into the venue in early January, when the acquisition is expected to close (owners for both venues declined to share financial logistics behind the deal).
Red Light Café, located on Amsterdam Avenue in the Amsterdam Walk development, was forced to relocate because of Portman Holdings’ plans for the area, which includes apartment buildings.
“My husband and I met there in 1999 and got married eight years later,” said Ellen Chamberlain, who’s owned the cafe since 2012. “It means so much to so many people, and just having that entire history bulldozed is devastating.”
Chamberlain said she began conversations with Star Bar five months ago after scouting for a new location. Brothers Bill and Mark Hoover opened Red Light Café in 1992 as a “San Francisco-style coffee shop,” Chamberlain said. It has remained in its same location since then.
After taking over in 2012, Chamberlain and her husband Michael, who books talent, has helped transform the venue into a home for a variety of shows, including a weekly jazz night.
“We have so many college kids from all of the colleges, and they’re going out to see jazz and live music, and we just absolutely love that,” Ellen Chamberlain said. “Little Five Points seem like really the perfect place to be able to do these kind of activities.”
The Chamberlains said they’re working on merging some of Star Bar’s programming with their own. The cafe will also retain some of the bar’s staff after the transition. “The end goal is to bring all the wonderful stuff we’re doing and all the wonderful stuff they’re doing and just keep it all going,” Michael said.
For 23 years, Star Bar has hosted Rotknee Presents, Atlanta’s longest-running stand-up comedy show.
The event, held every Monday, will end when Star Bar closes. Red Light Café, which already has three Monday residencies, offered one night a month to the show’s organizer Rodney Leete, but he declined.
“Little Five Points has been my community since 1985,” Leete told the AJC via social media. “I’ve had a love affair with Atlanta’s dive bar communities and neighborhoods. Pretty sure I’ll land on my feet. In the meantime, 8 shows left! Honored to say, I’ve worked with some of the funniest folks this town has ever seen!”
Ellen said they don’t plan on making any changes to the structure of the building, but noted that “it’s gonna just be an evolving project over the years … and don’t worry, we are leaving the Elvis shrine alone. We know better.”
Red Light Café’s last day is also Dec. 31. Final celebration details for both locations and information on Red Light Café’s official reopening will be announced soon.
On Saturday, Star Bar will host its 35th anniversary party, including performances from RMBLR and Bad Spell.
“When we knew that this was the direction we had to go as the Star Bar, we had options to just sell it and see what happens,” Lewis said, thanking all of bar’s patrons for 35 years. “But with that, it would have just been whoever gets it does whatever they want, and we didn’t feel that kind of a sale (would’ve) kept the Star Bar and its legacy together moving forward.”
IF YOU GO
Star Bar 35th Anniversary Celebration
7 p.m. Saturday. $20. Star Community Bar, 437 Moreland Ave NE, Atlanta. 404-390-3062, starbaratl.bar.