In the 1980s, Gallus operated on Cypress Street in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood, a flagship restaurant during the “golden age” of gay restaurants. It was a self-contained space for gay Atlantans that offered a bit of everything: A white tablecloth restaurant, an upstairs piano bar and a basement bar with hustlers.
“You could walk in the door of the Gallus and your entire life as a gay man specifically was sort of in this one restaurant. And then you’d go out the door and you would face discrimination, and you would face a world that didn’t accept who you were in a lot of cases,” said New York-based journalist Erik Piepenburg.
He dives into the history and impact of Gallus in his new book “Dining Out,” which tours gay restaurants around the U.S. and explores how they became safe spaces and epicenters of activism, just like gay bars.
Piepenburg will discuss Atlanta’s gay restaurants on Sept. 4 at Woofs Sports Bar with Ashley Nicole Dawson, a former Gallus employee, and Christina D’Angelo, a friend of Piepenburg’s who was around during Atlanta’s gay restaurant heyday.
In “Dining Out’s” introduction, Piepenburg defines a gay restaurant as one “where queer people open its doors and think: These are my people. That was my primary interest in identifying gay restaurants: Who’s eating there, not just who’s cooking or running the place.”
A gay restaurant has no cuisine that defines it, he said, and restaurant owners aren’t necessarily targeting gay customers. Rather, a part of town may see an influx of members of the gay community, and the restaurants become spaces to gather, talk, eat, laugh, cry and flirt.
Piepenburg’s interest in chronicling gay restaurants sparked in 2017 when Melrose Diner, his favorite diner in Chicago, closed. He realized how important the diner had been to him as a gay man and pitched a story about gay restaurants to his editor at The New York Times.
“It was that mix of my own personal loss of my favorite restaurant with just the understanding, ‘Oh I’m not alone,’” he said. “There are a lot of other LGBTQ people who had the same experience of either losing a restaurant that meant a lot or still going out to gay restaurants that mean a lot.”
Credit: Courtesy of Peter Larson
Credit: Courtesy of Peter Larson
What began as a New York Times article turned into a wealth of archives and oral histories Piepenburg collected from sources whose lives unfolded inside the gay restaurants in their communities.
Piepenburg found that while LGBTQ+ bars are often discussed, restaurants are easily overlooked. As more institutions closed he knew it was important to document the impact gay restaurants have had on communities for decades. They’re places of joy and celebration — an equalizer where the young and the old, the sober and the drunk, could gather with friends or dates, he said.
While the book‘s focus is often on what Piepenburg calls the golden age of gay dining from the ‘70s-’90s, some of the Atlanta restaurants he explores still exist, like the Colonnade with its reputation for catering to “the gays and the grays” or Su’s Chinese Cuisine, the latter of which Piepenburg and his partner stumbled upon late one night.
“It was the gayest restaurant you could possibly imagine,” he said. “Now, did it advertise itself as a gay restaurant? No, but that’s where people went because it was literally across the parking lot from (longtime gay bar) Atlanta Eagle.”
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin for the AJC
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin for the AJC
In “Dining Out,” Piepenburg documents a history that has for the most part just been covered in gay newspapers and the oral histories of the people who loved these restaurants.
Piepenburg sought to capture the triumphs, joy and laughter that permeated the restaurants, but also the painful years during the AIDS epidemic.
“Those AIDS years are just so important to not forget, and to remember that restaurants were full of joy, but they were also, you know, makeshift chapels,” he said.
While the golden age of gay restaurants may be over, in difficult times “gay restaurants can still be that one place in a community,” he said.
For younger generations, he hopes the book can demonstrate how important these spaces were and continue to be. More and more Piepenburg said he sees young queer people longing for a “third space,” one that doesn’t necessitate drinking and where you can have a conversation, cry and laugh in a way that bars don’t always allow.
“I hope that this book sort of is a little bit of a road map for how you can once again have queer restaurants in the ways that there were in the heyday,” Piepenburg said.
If You Go
“Dining Out” book talk with Erik Piepenburg, Ashley Nicole Dawson and Christina D’Angelo. 6-7 p.m. Thursday. Free to attend, 21 years and older. 494 Plasters Ave. NE, Atlanta. charisbooksandmore.com
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