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Business
Retail • Projects • Profiles
Fun & Games
The Painted Duck brings back
classic games, food to the Westside
By Grace Huseth
D uckpin bowling and vintage pub games are just two of the highlights
of Justin Amick and William Stallworth’s latest business, The Painted
Duck, located in the Stockyards development on the fast-growing
Westside.
The Painted Duck comes three years after the opening of The Painted Pin
in Buckhead, which has since garnered numerous “best of awards” for its mix of
games, food and social atmosphere.
This new boutique game venue includes 16 duckpin bowling lanes, Belgian
feather bowling lanes, indoor horseshoe pits, knuckleball, toad in the hole,
shuffleboard courts, basketball free throw, air hockey, snookball and more.
If you come hungry, Chef Thomas Collins is serving up cuisine he has dubbed
“backyard barfare” with shareable small plates, dips, sliders, sandwiches, salads and
skewered wood fired meats and proteins called “quills.” Trip Sandifer heads up the
beverage program, which focuses on signature and classic cocktails, artisanal wines
by the glass and local and craft beer.
“We are the first boutique in the country, that we are aware of, to bring back
this variation on traditional ten pin bowling,” said Amick. “In duckpin bowling,
the lanes are the exact same size and the same fundamental principles of bowling
rules apply, but the difference is smaller balls, smaller pins and three rolls per frame
instead of two. It’s much more of a precision game. I’d say traditional bowling is
more of a power game; duckpin bowling requires more finesse.”
The Painted Duck is part of Stockyard’s adaptive reuse of old warehouses on
Brady Avenue dating back to the early 1900s. The basement space, which Amick
describes as “cavernous ruins meets hunting lodge,” pays homage to the historical
building with original stone granite and brick throughout.
The centerpiece of the design is a 50-foot mural by one of Amick’s favorite
artists, Todd Murphy, which features hundreds of migrating ducks. “As they fly to
the gaming courtyard, the ducks become more three dimensional and abstract,”
Amick said. “They eventually fly off the canvas and convert to taxidermy — like
ducks flying overhead. It’s a theatrical backdrop complete with red curtains as if the
pins are on stage.
Amick said there is a secret attraction in The Painted Duck the public doesn’t
know about. “In a way it’s the final game in his collection, one of mystery requiring
some sleuth work,” he said. “We want it to be that fun, hidden element you either
have to organically know or inquire about.”
The Painted Duck is located at 976 Brady Avenue. For more information, visit
thepaintedduckatl.co
The Painted Duck owners, Justin Amick and William Stallworth, pictured below, inside their
new boutique game venue in the Stockyards Atlanta development. The giant duck mural
above the lanes is by local artist Todd Murphy.
20 February 2018 | DU
AtlantalNtownPaper.com