"I've always wanted to say from the stage, 'Please welcome, tonight, my old friend Bob Dylan,'" music entrepreneur and impresario Michael Dorf said with a laugh during this past spring's introductory dinner for City Winery Atlanta.
This story originally appeared in the September/October 2016 edition of Living Intown Magazine.
For his combined winery, restaurant and music venue, Dorf has had many impressive guests in mind, including Prince, who played the City Winery locations in New York and Chicago before he passed away earlier this year.
If anyone could attract the likes of Dylan to City Winery Atlanta — which includes a 300-seat performing space, 120-seat restaurant and 140-seat patio — it’s someone with Dorf’s Rolodex.
>>RELATED: Watch Robin Meade perform at City Winery
Atlantans may not recognize Dorf’s name, but in the music industry, the Milwaukee native is best known for opening New York’s now-famed Knitting Factory at just age 23. Beginning in 1987, the Knitting Factory hosted shows spanning a broad spectrum of musical styles, including Sonic Youth, Cassandra Wilson, Yo La Tengo and the Lounge Lizards. The Indigo Girls even played their first New York show at the Lower East Side venue.
As the Knitting Factory enjoyed more success and Dorf produced other ventures (including such tribute shows as Carnegie Hall’s “The Music of David Bowie” earlier this year), he increasingly paired his love of music to a passion for wine and gourmet dining. Instead of dividing his loyalties, he cashed out of the Knitting Factory and, in 2008, founded City Winery, which he describes as “a Knitting Factory for grown-ups.” Atlanta is the latest city in a chain that includes New York, Chicago and Nashville.
“Our core concept is the same,” says transplanted Atlantan Greg Kitowicz, City Winery’s vice president of business and venue development. “What makes Atlanta specifically unique is we want to be the urban winery in every city we’re in, but we really absorb a lot of Atlanta and Southern culture. You see it in some of the food choices. We do a classic shrimp and grits. We’re paying homage to the South with a proper buttermilk fried chicken.”
Kitowicz describes City Winery’s massive two-story, 26,000-square-foot space as “rustic wine country meets the South.”
“A couple of spaces throughout the building [are made] with reclaimed wood from an old Southern barn,” he says. “Ponce City Market loaned us some of the original fixtures from the old Sears building.”
On the top level are the patio and restaurant. Chef Jeffrey McGar oversees a menu of such "openers" as risotto balls, and "headliners" like the lamb and beef burger.
Downstairs is the urban winery and live music room, which includes tables close enough to the stage to be in arm’s reach of the performers. “For the intimate concert venue, we’re in that sweet spot,” Kitowicz says. “We love Eddie’s Attic, but we’re bigger than that. But we’re not so big that we’re the Variety Playhouse. So we really fit that seated, 300-350- person niche in the marketplace.”
City Winery sells its house wine by the glass, as well as small and large carafes, with sauvignon blanc, merlot and riesling on tap. Other selections come from France, Italy, Austria, Oregon and elsewhere. In addition to the full bar, Kitowicz says that the Atlanta venue has a bonus, hidden bar that “you have to find to know about.”
Since opening in late June, performers have included alternative rock/folk artist Ani DiFranco, urban chanteuse Amel Larrieux, New Orleans treasure Aaron Neville and R&B’s Macy Gray.
Doors open two hours prior to show time to allow guests to finish their meals before the performance. Eating and drinking is allowed throughout, although City Winery encourages guests not to talk during the show. The space features low, atmospheric lighting and excellent sightlines, giving performances much more intimacy than a typical tour stop.
With Chastain closed for the season and seated dining not an option at Atlanta’s other major concert venues, City Winery offers a unique combination of music, fine wine and buttermilk fried chicken.
650 North Ave. 404-946-3791. Citywinery.com/Atlanta
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