#Stripes club in atlanta full

#Stripes club in atlanta full

In the early 2000s, he worked there full time and lived upstairs in the hotel. “But I think that the change has been at a level where there’s a good balance, a good mix of keeping the character of the neighborhood with all of the smaller businesses.”Ītlanta native Sean Vinson, 45, works security part-time at the Clermont Lounge. “It’s certainly changed,” says hotel manager Alan Rae about the neighborhood. Still, it was the pair’s second rooftop visit. The rooftop – an Instagrammer’s delight with neon signs and skyline views – is a little “bougie,” Valdez said, compared with the no-frills, no-photos lounge.

It’s nice to see it revitalized, Valdez said, but it’s also a prime example of what’s happening in the hotel’s Poncey-Highland neighborhood – and across the city – where upscale development is driving up housing prices. They’re fans of the Clermont Lounge and feel a little torn about the building’s transformation. However, the lounge will be open later than usual and for the first time on a Sunday.Ītlanta’s redevelopment inspires mixed feelings.Ĭhris Sinon and Arielle Valdez, a 20-something couple, were having drinks on Hotel Clermont’s rooftop on a Saturday evening. The hotel is closed to the public through Super Bowl weekend for a slate of ticketed events including rooftop DJ sets hosted by Jermaine Dupri and DJ Mars and a celebrity game night presented by rapper T.I. The lounge continues to lease space in the building, and the businesses are owned and operated independently. But it’s something that can’t be replicated anywhere else, and that’s a bonus. Keeping the lounge in place cost more than $1 million, Welker estimates. “They bought it and fought to keep us ‘cause nobody wanted to finance it with an adult entertainment club in the basement,” says Martin. “They like us, we love them,” says Martin, who started out as a bartender at the Clermont Lounge 40 years ago.

She wasn’t sure who would buy the shuttered hotel or whether the buyers would keep the club. Martin, the lounge owner, is happy with the change. “We like hotels that have personality, and this really had what I always called the street cred, the street credibility, of being authentic Atlanta and having the lounge in it,” said Philip Welker, a principal at Oliver Hospitality. Robert De Niro, Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Lawrence, Jon Hamm and Pink have all been in. ‘Cause it’s down to earth.”Ĭelebrities are drawn by its atmosphere – and the strict no-cameras policy. “So I think that’s why a lot of people like to come in. “There’s not really anybody that’s any better than anybody else when they come in,” says Kathi Martin, the lounge’s co-owner. The most remarkable development of the past two decades, decorwise, is the recent remodel of the restrooms, previously a challenge for the public-facilities sensitive. All but the bald chain-smoker will probably want a shower at the end of the evening. Smoke permeates everything, seeping into hair and clothes. The dancers choose their own songs on the jukebox. “We’re a family,” says Katlyn, 22, who works at the lounge with her mom, both as servers. Another dancer, Cassy, 54, who specializes in lighting her boobs on fire, has ties to the lounge dating back to the ’80s. Blondie is not the oldest Clermont dancer. “When I saw that duct-taped bar, I was like, damn, there are some survivors in here.”īlondie has been a dancer at the lounge for 40 years.

Duct tape, my favorite repair tool,” Mahaffey said. Mahaffey, who had never been to the lounge before, warmed up to the place immediately. Jimmy Mahaffey, who’s in his 50s, hit the new hotel’s rooftop bar and the basement on a recent Saturday evening with his girlfriend, who visited the strip club in the ’90s, before she moved to suburban Atlanta. But the lounge carried on, drawing all ages and walks of life. In 2009, the hotel was closed by the health department. By the ’70s and ‘80s, the building and the corridor along Ponce de Leon Avenue were frequented by drug addicts and prostitutes. Several nightclubs occupied the basement space before the Clermont Lounge was born in 1965. The building started as the Bonaventure Arms Apartments in 1924 and became the extended-stay Clermont Hotel in 1939. Dancers at Atlanta's Clermont Lounge range in age from 22 to 72.