There has never been a better time to be a music lover in Atlanta. And for those who also love dining out, the proliferation of listening rooms and weekly events such as vinyl nights at coffee shops combine the experiences of dining, drinking, and listening to music in a communal space.
Music-oriented restaurants and bars aren’t a new phenomenon. Listening rooms, for example, date back to 1920s Japan with jazz kissas, which are still around to this day. These jazz cafes encourage listening to music played via vinyl recording or high-fidelity audio system rather than as background noise. There is minimal conversation between patrons, who sip everything from coffee and tea to beer and cocktails.
Bars and restaurants that center music as part of the experience have increased in popularity across the United States in recent years. In Atlanta, these new third spaces now include The Frisky Whisker at Underground Atlanta, Stereo in Inman Park, Commune in Avondale Estates, Propaganda in Smyrna, Echo Room at Westside Motor Lounge, and The Bassment below Apt4B restaurant in Buckhead.
More music-driven restaurants and bars like Pisces on Edgewood Avenue and the Vinyl Room at Block and Drum in Chamblee are expected to open by the end of 2024.
The nuances of music listening
“Most people go through life without ever getting to truly experience crystal clear high sound,” said Ernesto Cardenas, a musician, DJ, and audio engineer who opened The Frisky Whisker with Jennifer Bronzel in October 2023.
The Underground Atlanta spot consists of an art space, a cat cafe home to over two dozen felines, and a Hi-Fi sound gallery offering DJ sets and weekly Thursday night vinyl listening parties. The Frisky Whisker serves cold brew, tea, flavored water, and kombucha and will eventually include a full bar and a vegetarian food menu.
Cardenas said he and Bronzel want to provide people the opportunity to really hear the music they’re listening to, including every nuance within chord progressions, vocals, and musical arrangements.
Some longtime Miles Davis fans recently attended one of The Frisky Whisker’s jazz nights dedicated to playing music by the legendary trumpeter and composer. Afterwards, they told Cardenas they had never heard a Miles Davis album played so clearly. It was like he was in the room with them.
That’s the point, said Cardenas. High-fidelity sound spaces like The Frisky Whisker tailor the music-listening experience as close to a recording’s original sound as possible.
Related link: Atlanta DJ Ree de la Vega opening music-driven restaurant Pisces in The Sound Table space
Dance, dine, drink, listen
Atlanta DJ and events promoter Ree de la Vega will add restaurateur to her resume when she opens Pisces on Edgewood Avenue later this year. The music-driven dining and drinking establishment will take over the space once home to The Sound Table.
While the first floor will be mainly for drinks and dancing to DJs, the second floor at Pisces will offer a place for people to dine on tacos and street food from Vice Taco and listen to vinyl records.
De La Vega ties the proliferation of sound-focused spaces like Pisces and others to the rise of Atlanta DJ culture and the DIY, pop-up, and underground music communities.
“There has never been such a wide variety of genres that you could experience in one night in Atlanta,” she said of the city’s thriving underground nightlife scene.
On any given night, people will find DJs spinning or listening parties hosted in shared spaces, like Criminal Records, Banshee, and Stereo, the Inman Park coffee shop and listening bar from the team behind LLoyd’s and Victory Sandwich Shop. One of its owners, Caleb Wheelus, is also a DJ and often mans two turntables at Stereo in the evenings.
On the first and third Friday of every month, the High Museum hosts High Frequency and Jazz Fridays. A soundtrack curated live by DJs like de La Vega transforms the atrium and galleries of the Midtown art museum into one of Atlanta’s hottest clubs with dancing, cocktails, and guided tours of the exhibits.
Related link: Inside listening room and wine bar Commune ATL in Avondale Estates
A music and dining cocoon
The listening experience at most of Atlanta’s newest music-driven restaurants and bars comes down to hardware. Sometimes the trademark turntables are supplanted by horn speakers, tube mixers, stereo amps, and in many cases, vintage equipment that specialists and enthusiasts tinkered with to bring the aging sound equipment into the 21st century.
Then there are places like Commune in Avondale Estates, manufactured with sound in mind. Think of the space as a modern-day cathedral, meant to capture and keep sound inside like a cocoon.
“We were able to build from the ground up and hire an acoustic designer to add layers of rock wall and angle the walls and just make sure the layout was super conducive to listening,” said Commune co-owner Zopi Kristjanson.
Kristjanson opened Commune earlier this year with her friend and former musical partner Chris Devoe, a longtime Atlanta music producer and DJ.
Another hallmark of good sound is giving noise a limit. Soft surfaces like quilts and drapery, as well as acoustic panels, absorb renegade volume.
“The more dead a room is, the clearer the sound,” Kristjanson added. “Think about being in a bar where there’s glass and brick and tile everywhere, and people constantly have to talk more, and the whole energy gets so frenetic.”
Deadening a space like Commune results in an environment where all sorts of sound — a DJ’s vinyl set, a live jazz trio, or even a playlist saved to a smartphone — can flourish without seeming garbled or overwhelming listeners’ ears.
Wine, overseen by Atlanta sommelier and musician Steven Grubbs, and a seasonal food menu serving everything from tomato and peach salad and oysters to entrees of flounder and lamb merguez enhance the overall experience at Commune.
Related link: Stereo brings a coffee shop and listening bar to DeKalb Avenue
Shared listening experiences
In January, Caleb Wheelus and his Victory Brands partner, Ian Jones, rebranded Victory Coffee and Calamity beside LLoyd’s Restaurant and Lounge to Stereo. The shop opens daily for coffee and biscuit sandwiches. But five nights a week, Stereo becomes a Hi-Fi listening bar serving cocktails and light bites.
Wheelus lined the shelves with records from his extensive collection, which serves as the backbone for music played nightly by him and other DJs at Stereo. He plans to launch a listening library soon, giving people with amazing record collections a chance to share their music with others at Stereo.
“There’s definitely some people who are prolific collectors [with] pretty impressive collections that are just really kind of something special,” Wheelus said.
Stereo also hosts record day pop-ups where people buy and sell vinyls, enjoy some coffee, and bond over their shared love of music.
Upcoming venues, like Pisces, prove that musical third spaces are anything but one-dimensional, while established spots throughout Atlanta continue to solidify their identities.
“DJ culture has grown so much in the past 10 years [in Atlanta],” de la Vega noted. “Everyone can participate and enjoy it, and everyone loves music, so I think the fact that there are more DJs [and] more people into music [creates] more opportunity for these types of spaces.”
Beth McKibben contributed to this story.
