Want your #ATLUTD skin ➡️ /IR3Xkdb7K7- Atlanta United FC January 19, 2021 The security is not impressed with the celebrity clientele that shows up.Īn exterior shot of the famed dive bar, a rite of passage for Atlanta newcomers, and an institution for everyone else.The 5-Stripes partner with to be 1️⃣ of 2️⃣3️⃣ clubs worldwide with a custom skin There is no preferential treatment at the Clermont. A horseshoe-shaped bar surrounds the makeshift stage, where the dancers take turns performing in front of a mirror smudged by everything from lips to toes." "The wallpaper is original, smoke-stained, and peeling. You can remain just as you always were and still attract a crowd. And while the Clermont is unique to Atlanta, it represents something universal to so many people. What will that mean for the iconic spot? The lasting appeal of the Clermont is that it never changes. And the condemned hotel above the Clermont Lounge finally got bought by a boutique hotel group. There's the adaptive reuse project Ponce City Market. The section of town is one of the only areas untouched by gentrification. It has, at times, been a nice area and a seedy area. The neighborhood, Poncey-Highland, is a teenie, forgotten neighborhood between Inman Park and the Virginia Highlands. It's like that Hunter Thompson quote, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Barbie is beautiful and young and covered in tattoos. Blondie crushes beer cans with her boobs. The commonality is that all of these people - blue collar workers and hipsters and professionals and bartenders off their shifts - create an oddball crowd. A lot of people come by themselves to the bar. It's a subculture-within-a-subculture kind of thing. When the women are not on stage or feeding the jukebox quarters for their songs, they are often sitting at the bar, chatting with regulars. They like the dancers as people and friends. It's big and crowded and filled with Georgia Tech frat boys, but there is a true regular crowd. Musicians gave it a kitschy caché, and then well-known people, like Anthony Bourdain and Margaret Cho, popularized it further. The place is referenced in a lot of songs and music videos. ![]() Lots of bands got their start on a makeshift stage at the Clermont. There was a heyday, of course, with a real diversity of clientele and hot strippers dancing on the horseshoe bar in the 1980s. Mack was a shrewd business owner and saw it through several incarnations (burlesque club, strip bar, dive). The current ones, Tracey Brown and Kathi Martin, were willed the club in 2000 by their former boss, Mac, when they were bartending and managing the place. The Clermont opened in 1965 and has been through several owners. Had I known the scope and meatiness of the assignment - the toughest of my career - it would have been very intimidating. This was a project that I am happy I was naive enough to sign up for. That's what made capturing the place in photos and prose so difficult. When you are in a questionable or wild state of mind. You usually end up at the Clermont when you’ve already made a lot of bad decisions in an evening. There are 21-year-old girls here, but everyone knows Blondie, who is in her 60s. The average age for dancers is around 53. It's a crazy place that has not been touched. Same wallpaper since 1965, same wood paneling. ![]() It’s a crazy, awesome dive bar that never changes. Some of her insights are shared below.ĪTLANTA, Georgia – If you talk to the right people, you'll find out about the Clermont Lounge as soon as you get down to Atlanta. The author chatted with Fathom editorial director Jeralyn Gerba about the iconic destination. ![]() Fathom contributor Dana Hazels Seith spent three years gathering anecdotes, interviews, and stories from inside the club, and the fruits of her labor have culminated with the gorgeous coffee table book No Cameras: The Clermont Lounge. How's that for Americana? Real live girls, girls, girls, performing for everyday regulars and out-of-town-celebrities alike. The hallowed strip club has been operating out of the basement of the defunct Clermont Motor Hotel since the 1960s, and the strippers have (almost) been around that long, too. There are few American institutions as democratically divey, raunchy, and nostalgia-inducing as Clermont Lounge in Atlanta, Georgia. Images: Courtesy of Artem Nazarov / PC Press at Portfolio Center
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