Visiting Atlanta/Athens EOM

As far as Athens goes, 5 Point's bottle shop is great. And if you're looking for good bars downtown, Trappeze Pub and Treppenhaus are my personal favorites.

 

Terrapin is awesome. The brewery is open on Fridays from 5:30-7:30 and you pay $10 for a glass and 8 4oz pours, but they recently started capping the amount of people they let in so you'd probably want to get there a few minutes early. I'm not 100% sure what all beers will be out the weekend of the LSU game but they keep what they have on tap at the brewery pretty up to date on their website.

 

No bottle shares at Terrapin - they cannot allow any alcohol to be brought on premise. They used to allow a homebrew club to use their facilities for meetings, but the authorities put a stop to it. Depending on what's on tap, Terrapin can be hit or miss. Many times they just have their standard lineup on, so it's not all that great. Also, it gets stupidly crowded. I'm just not a fan of standing in a long assed line to get a pour of Hopsecutioner.

As for bars and bottle shops, check out both Five Points Locations. Trappeze Pub is a good place to eat downtown - the Double Pig is an awesome sandwich. Aromas in Five Points is my favorite bar in town. It's smaller than Trappeze (only 10-12 beers on at any given time), but it's more low key and away from the downtown crowds. They also have a decent, but limited, food menu.

Oh yeah, in Atlanta (Decatur to be exact), check out Brick Store Pub.

 

In Atlanta the Porter Beer bar and the Wrecking Bar brewpub are a 5 minute walk from each other in Little 5 Points. I would highly recommend them both . For bottle shops Greens and Hop City.

 

I'll be in the area next weekend. Are there any specific beers I should be looking for? We used to get Allagash in Texas, but I wouldn't mind picking some up. I have had a number of the Terrapins. Saw the Westbrook Gose in cans, but guessing that might be gone by the 21st.

From what I've been reading, Hop City is probably my best single stop bottle shop for bringing things home. Thanks.

 

You should also check out the brickstore pub in decatur while you are in atlanta. I live about 40 minutes away but might be able to do an in person trade depending on how busy that week is. I'm new to this area but moved from WI/MN so have a few goodies from up north including 2011 and 2012 vintages of all the following - BCBS, Central Waters (CW) Bourbon Barell Stout, CW Bourbon Barell, Barleywine, and probaly some Peruvian Morning as well. Might even have a few New Glarus brews but will have to check

 

Go to the Vortex in L5P in Atlanta for burgers, it's easily the best burger in town + 5 mins from Poncey Hlands and they regularly have good beer on tap. Decatur is a short MARTA ride from Little 5 pts and you could hit the Brickstore for brews, Leon's for brews / food, or walk down the hill to Taqueria Del Sol for some seriously badass fish tacos and a Sweetwater or equivalent.

I would def recommend the following itinerary. Head to L5P for lunch / beer at Vortex, hit porter then wrecking bar. Walk to MARTA station. Take eastbound train to Decatur. Go to Brickstore, Leons, Taqueria Del Sol then cap it off at Twain's billiards and brewpub. (They have hand shuffleboard tables and regulation billiards). Take cab home. Wake up, go to Athens and watch the Dawgs GATA.

 

You can go to the Clermont if ya want.. It's just an iconic disgusting dive of a strip club.

A short 40 steps from the Clermont is Greens on Ponce. They have a great bottle selection that you need to stop in and check.

 

Oh, and I'd suggest the Porter and hang out for a bit, depending on their draft list. Check out their bottle list if ya want some vintage stuff, and don't care to pay for it and split with friends.

Run over to Fox Bro's for some BBQ and they usually have some good draft stuff to roll with it, but it's not a place to go for the beer, just the food.


If ya roll over to the west side, hit up HopCity and check out the draft list for growlers, and roll over next door to 5 Season's.. They have some really good beers on tap there, and the food is really good as well.

 

One important thing to remember for Athens, open containers are illegal in the downtown area outside of bar railings. On campus they're legal. I've seen way too many people from out of town for games get fined because they didn't know.

 

Point of clarification: Open containers are not really legal on campus. The ordinance is never enforced on gameday because of the obvious logistical issues, but the same is not necessarily true for the rest of the year.

 

Just keep it in a koozie or cup.

Grab some Westbrook Gose and you can pound 'em all day from the can and still walk to the hedges on your own!

 

Open container is legal year round on campus (state property) for now:

http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/...7a0-9741-11e2-8a15-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=jqm

 

Thanks for the link. The bit that Chief Williamson says about who owns each road is the important part. For example, Jackson and Lumpkin are typically considered county roads, but you can walk through campus on those sidewalks with a handle of vodka on gameday with no problems. Sanford and East Campus are university roads, so things could be more permissible there on any given day. University Police have an unwritten policy that unless you are "sick, injured, or breaking shit," they aren't really interested in messing with you. For someone who doesn't know better, the best policy would be not to walk around with an open container unless its gameday or another special event (like the Aldean concert).

Disclaimer: I spent three years on patrol at the university last decade. I never cited anyone for open container, but I dealt with plenty of other alcohol related crimes. Also, I would advise against taking booze into Sanford Stadium. I can't tell you how many people we used to remove from the stadium for having alcohol. It's a first offense ejection if you get caught.

 

Adding to the Athens list:

Catch22 Gastropub
https://www.facebook.com/Catch22gastropub

Copper Creek Brewing Co
http://www.coppercreekathens.com/

Cali-N-Titos - CASH/CHECK only & byob (byob wristband fee $2 I believe)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cali-N-Titos/120455551300008