Buckhead, Atlanta's Belle
by Jeffrey Selin

The Los Angeles Times; Nov 26, 2000; pg. L.7

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DESTINATION: GEORGIA; Buckhead, Atlanta's Belle; Stately mansions and exclusive shops for the well-heeled impress by day, but this part of town becomes a raucous, rocking neighborhood at night.

It doesn't roll quite as trippingly off the tongue, but Buckhead is the Beverly Hills of the South-at least, by day.

Four miles north of downtown, bourgeois Buckhead boasts dazzling residential neighborhoods that put Tara to shame, the Georgia Governor's Mansion and two country clubs with waiting lists almost as long as Atlanta's heritage. Thick canopies of trees shade the streets, and carefully tended gardens show off their perennial colors with manicured precision. Business travelers flock here to the new skyline of high-rise offices, posh hotels and choice restaurants. After a hard day of mental hand-to-hand combat, they can retire to the elegant dining rooms, the sidewalk cafés or one of the soothing spas, where their every need will be catered to.

But by night, Buckhead takes on another personality. It's still home to inheritors of old family largesse and fine dining, but it also becomes Party Central of the South, where new money comes to rave till dawn. It's guaranteed to keep nearly any tourist intrigued, if slightly off-balance.

After a year in Maui, I recently ended up in Atlanta to finish some writing and regroup before going abroad for my next work- and travel-related adventure. When friends from Hawaii asked for the full tour of Atlanta's toniest neighborhood, I wanted to show off Buckhead's multiple personalities, so I set out to become familiar with the place I knew mostly from Tom Wolfe's 1998 novel, ''A Man in Full.'' I wanted to be a proper host (the South demands no less), and I was curious about how a posh metro hamlet maintains its heritage while providing hospitality. In Buckhead's case, the answer is, ''Nicely, thank you.''

As Rodeo Drive is to Beverly Hills and Broadway to Manhattan, so Peachtree Road is to Atlanta. Old-school Atlantans follow this maxim: Invest in Coca-Cola and property on Peachtree. Maybe that's why there are more than 100 roads in Atlanta called Peachtree. A dozen are in Buckhead. But there's only one Peachtree with six lanes surrounded by high-end hotels, shops, restaurants, pubs and office buildings, and that's the one I headed for on a crisp October Friday.

My route took me to the historical core of Buckhead, where Roswell, West Paces Ferry and Peachtree roads intersect. It was near this spot in 1838, as legend has it, that Henry Irby built a combination tavern and grocery store where he hung the head of a large buck killed in the nearby forest. Henry's own namesake, Irbyville, soon took the unglamorous hunting cabin appellative: Buckhead.

More than 160 years later, the spot is commemorated by statuary-a stately, anthropomorphized buck posed with a storybook on his lap, beheld by other woodland critters-in a grass and cobblestone sliver of a park between the busy streets.

For Epicureans, looking south down from here is a little like looking into Alice's Rabbit Hole. This area is dubbed ''Atlanta's Dining Room,'' and it's where many of Buckhead's 200 restaurants and bars are. (Generally, the west side has the restaurants and the east side has the bars and clubs.) There's plenty of construction visible too, especially high-rise condos and apartments, each trying to outdo neighboring digs that have already attracted such names as Elton John.

First, though, I wanted to see the old area of town, so I drove west for a mile on West Paces Ferry Road to take the whirlwind tour of the Governor's Mansion. The Atlanta History Center lies between the two points, so I stopped for insight into Atlanta's traditions.

The atmosphere is reminiscent of a library overseen by strict antiquarians. In its glass cases, you'll find permanent exhibits on Native Americans, the Civil War, the growth of
modern-day Atlanta, folk art and golf legend Bobby Jones.

Besides the museum, there is a backyard outdoor walking tour of the Tullie Smith Farmhouse, circa 1845, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Group tours take visitors past small fields of crops, the smokehouse, the barn and fenced-in sheep, and through the little farmhouse to see how farmers survived without modern luxuries.

The walking tour led to an archives building of historic documents. There was also the Swan House, a 1920s Italiante mansion designed by Atlanta's most beloved classical architect, Philip Trammell Shutze. Swan House is also home to Shutze's collection of Chinese, English and Continental pottery and porcelain, and American and English period furniture. Unfortunately, Swan House was closed for renovation for a month when I was there.

I walked the little dirt trail around some gardens, gazebos, and over a creek, then back to my truck. Just down the road, I pulled into the home of Gov. Roy Barnes. The governor was not to be seen, nor was the interior of the mansion. Tours, the guard said, are conducted 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. I returned the next week for a tour of the home, which contains an impressive collection of Federal period furnishings.

Equally impressive estates, villas and manors surround the Governor's Mansion, many hidden from view behind high walls or acres of forest. But what you can see is purely, wholly and delightfully Southern: sweeping porches supported by Ionic and Corinthian columns, classical porticos showing off high arches, wide buttresses and ivy-clad gates beside manicured lawns shaded by ancient oaks and elms. Some of the magnificent residential architecture was created by Philip Trammell Shutze and another noteworthy Atlantan architect, Neel [this the correct spelling] Reid.

Back to the corner of West Paces Ferry and Peachtree, I wanted to peek at the art scene. Buckhead boasts more than 75 art galleries. I went two miles south on Peachtree, past restaurants and the strip malls until the downtown skyline came into view, to Bennett Street. This was a twisting little alley that locals say is the place for fine art.

One side of Bennett is home to wonderful antique shops and art galleries, such as the Bennett Street Gallery, the Stalls Bennett Street Antique Market and Parc Moceau Antiques. The other side of Bennett is like a futuristic landscape from a Terminator movie, where Georgia Power Co.'s two-story electric generators hummed and whizzed behind barbed wire and lipstick-red caution signs.

I went into Tula Art Center, one of Atlanta's first centers for artisans. With a hardwood floor and decorative spiral staircase, Tula is a sort of microcosm of galleries showcasing paintings and sculptures of different styles and eras. I perused sketches, sculptures and paintings from European, Bahamian, Latin American and Asian artists.

My next stop was one mile north of the West Paces Ferry and Peachtree roads intersection to Lenox Square. Once the grand estate of banker John K. Ottley, the property was bulldozed in 1959 for one of the Southeast's largest shopping malls. I would be picking up my friends at Hartsfield International Airport, 12 miles south of Buckhead, and taking them to the Lenox Square area.

This area of Peachtree also includes the luxury hotels: Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, Swissotel, JW Marriott at Lenox and Grand-Hyatt Atlanta, as well as a Holiday Inn, Embassy Suites and others.

I walked across Peachtree, where stretch limousines, Mercedeses and the like queued at a traffic light. I went north one block to the Ritz-Carlton. The front of the hotel faced Phipps Plaza, another mall, even more lavish than Lenox, with an ornate grand atrium and designer boutiques for ladies garments anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue. Between Phipps Plaza and the Ritz-Carlton, where Peachtree, Lenox Road and the Buckhead Loop connect in a junction of cement and traffic, a sign declared the area Henry Aaron Alexander Square, named for one of Atlanta's original sun-belt real estate developers.

Each of the hotels differed in flavor-the Swissotel, for instance, had an amazing art collection, while JW Marriott at Lenox had a cozier atmosphere and was connected to the mall. The Dining Room at the Ritz is one of Buckhead's highly rated establishments, rated five diamonds by AAA and No. 1 in Atlanta by Gourmet magazine. The menu, which suggests French and Thai influences, changes nightly. Without the time or the attire, I passed.

It was 7 p.m. on this typically crisp autumn evening, but a good two hours until the nightclubs opened. Among the early dinner options-not five-star, but still inviting: Nava, offering Southwestern cuisine; Chops steakhouse; The Cheesecake Factory, the World Bar; the John Harvard Brew House; the Atlanta Beer Garden; and a host of microbreweries, Irish pubs and upscale restaurants.

I went into the ESPN Zone, a two-story bar and restaurant with an artsy, sports-themed facade. The place was hopping. In the ''screening room,'' a 16-foot big screen was surrounded by a dozen smaller TVs flashing competitions of every kind. Upstairs is the ''sports arena'' full of interactive video games. I grabbed a seat at the bar and scanned the menu-typical sports bar fare with lots of stuff that's not good for you but makes you wish it were. After an appetizer of mixed deep-fried goodies and a grilled chicken sandwich, I was ready to cross over Peachtree to the clubs.

Though many of the clubs had entrances on Peachtree, ground zero is actually one block east on Bolling Way, as well as on the surrounding side streets. By midnight crowds virtually shut down traffic, and live music comes up hard against local decibel-level ordinances. The area attracts socialites, movie stars, musicians and athletic stars. Denzel Washington, Claudia Schiffer, Mick Jagger and Michael Jordan have been known to mingle with the rest.

More evidence of Buckhead's many faces: One club, Fuel, rolled out the red carpet. Next door a bar called Swingers boasted Wednesday night Jell-O wrestling. The Living Room had women in string- bikinis hanging from rope swings above the dance floor.

The night offered 31 flavors for nearly every party mood or music inclination. Bar after bar, back to back, live bands and DJs pumped club, house and rap music. Women were dressed to the nines, men marinated in cheap cologne. Seemingly every college student in Georgia was grinding, laughing, brawling, screaming.

Two of the clubs would satisfy my guests, I thought. The Havana Club, as its name suggests, is for cigar aficionados. It had a walk-in humidor and a smoking lounge replete with old-school wooden chairs. Past the smoking lounge was a large dance floor and a rocking samba band.

Across the street and several doors down was Tongue & Groove, a chic hot spot with wooden dance floors and a decor straight from the set of Beetlejuice, that is to say, very goth chic. Would-be patrons patiently lined up outside. Inside, it was standing room only in several rooms of high-backed velvet lounge chairs and large mirrors. "The later it gets, the crazier it gets," hollered a smiling cocktail waitress over the din of the hip-hop music, laughter and conversation.

Last call comes around 3:30, then doors close at 4 a.m. by city ordinance. That's when the party turns outside for cruising and dancing in the street under the watchful eyes of Atlanta's finest.

By 6 a.m., Bolling Way is deserted. The blitzkrieg of dancers disappears to their hotels and apartments. Peachtree begins to buzz with workers, breakfast customers and Starbucks regulars. The pace changes. But it slowly builds all day into night, jump starting at 9 and crank up all over again.