"Real Housewives of Atlanta" cast member Cynthia Bailey said her husband Peter Thomas' popular Bar One lounge on Memorial Drive is moving to a new location in the Fourth Ward.
The current incarnation in Grant Park off Memorial Drive will shut down at the end of the month.
Thomas earlier this years said he got caught up in a dispute between landlords, where one alleged he owed $100,000 in back rent when he said he paid but his rent checks were never transferred to the bank.
The Bar One landlords put the property up for sale in March. Bailey, in an interview Thursday, said they put a bid in but someone else purchased the land.
She also acknowledged that Grant Park neighbors weren't a big fan of the club. "We had a lot of problems," she said. "It's a residential neighborhood and people didn't like the music and cars. People were always complaining. The sad thing is Bar One had been doing extremely well. People loved it. It had become a tourist attraction."
Thomas, who spends a lot of time there and is a minor celebrity in his own right, has run Bar One for the past three years and "Real Housewives of Atlanta' regularly shot there, including a special reunion episode this past season where the guys got to spill tea on the ladies. All that free publicity never hurt his business.
He did find a new space in downtown Atlanta on Auburn Ave. but it may take two or three months to open. "The new place we have to totally gut and redo," she said. She said they both love the fact it's an historically black neighborhood with plenty of black business owners. "It's nice to be embraced," she said.
Last year, she also briefly moved her Bailey modeling agency to a space across the street from Bar One called Industry but faced permitting issues with Cabbagetown. That locale was shut down last November.
Fortunately, the Bailey Agency never fully left her Glenwood Park space at 924 Garrett St., where she has been for several years. She had been trying to sub-lease the space since she was still under a lease but just returned there instead.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Today (Saturday, Sept. 20), Bailey is holding an open call for bachelors, ages 28 to 50, to be part of a photo shoot for Ebony magazine. (She has been on the cover of that magazine a couple of times herself.)
She is hoping at least 100 men show up. Twenty will be selected to be included in the magazine.
You need to be at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel near the airport at 1900 Sullivan Road between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Winners will take part in a photo shoot on Sunday at the Bailey Agency.
"We're looking for some real men with real careers," she said, noting the age range. "This is a different kind of casting. Most of the time I'm seeking much younger models. This time, we aren't looking for models. We want regular folk: doctors, business owners, good looking men."
The shoot will end up in the February 2015 issue.
The judges will include a representative from Ebony magazine, Bailey and two other "Real Housewives" castmates: Kenya Moore (reprising her very first appearance on the show two years ago) and newbie/model/radio host Claudia Jordan, who has a recurring role on the show this season.
Bailey expects "Real Housewives of Atlanta" cameras to be there, if that interests you.
She declined to provide plot twists regarding her rocky relationship with NeNe Leakes. She also didn't comment about the new cast member and actress Demetria McKinney except she is helping McKinney cast for a music video. The show is set to return this fall for a seventh season, though an official date has not been set.
"All I can say is it's good to have new blood," she said.
She cannot believe she is now in her fifth season. In 2010, she arrived from New York and was getting ready to get hitched. She often looked like a deer in headlights. "I didn't know what I was getting myself into," she said.
But now she is clearly more comfortable in her role on the show as a successful businesswoman and wife who has occasional control issues with her husband. "It's amazing how people are still into the show year after year," she said. "I am actually having a good time. Peter and I always go through our ups and downs."
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