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Editor’s Notes
Funk and Elegance
Down here on Foundry Street across Broad
from where Flagpole is now, there was a little
gallery next door to Tyrone’s, (old Chame
leon). Image Gallery was run by Ed Lambert,
who filled the tiny space with beautiful things:
jewelry, tapestries, exotic toys, treasures from
around the world. There was no ocher place
in Athens like it at the time, and 1 always
headed to Image when I needed to buy a gift,
especially at Christmastime.
Invariably, it seemed, when Christmas Eve
rolled around and we finally closed up shop at
the Observer,! would lock the front door and
hurry through town in the gathering chilly
darkness to ease inside the bright confines of
Image With a clarity of purpose enhanced by
the looming of the last minute I lost myself to
the pleasurably concentrated task of finding
gifts for those 1 loved. Image never let me
down.
Image was swept away by fire, but its spirit
has proliferated throughout downtown Ath
ens as if borne on the breeze. The small world
of exquisite creations I used to find at Image
is now reflected in at least a dozen shops where
the owner’s touch is very much evident and
the owners themselves are usually a lively part
of the stored personality.
Do as I say, not as I do. There's too much
now to leave it until the last minute. Anyway,
shopowners are finally wising up and realizing
they don’t have to stay open late on Christ
mas Eve. Well be there at the last minute,
but they can say what time that will be.
Though of course it is not by far the only
place, downtown Athens is a quite incredible
area for shopping, perhaps taken for granted
by those of us who frequent the neighborhood
and unknown to some who shop only at the
mall.
The downtown shopping areas has, more
over, recently been through a swirl of expan
sions and moves that have brought it to an
even richer level of offerings that outshines
even Atlanta's Little Five Points.
Take Frontier, for instance. Always a trea
sure trove, Frontier has expanded both back
and up, adding some furniture and furnishings
as well as a cat and is now able to accommo
date even more of the charming items that
make you want to spend the afternoon brows
ing. This enlargement has been accomplished
while maintaining the intimacy and warmth
of the original space
Or take The Junkman s Daughter s Brother
(please, before they take my daughter).
They’ve turned a funky little shop into a Finky
big department store. I voted against the move
in their customer poll, but they ignored me
and did it anyway, and it works like
gang busters
While they were moving out, Big Shot
Records was moving in, and now Big Shot has
a lot more room than they had down on Col
lege Square.
Helix — devastated by a caved-in soggy
ceiling — has come back with a coolly elegant
decor that sliows just what can be done with
those handsome old downtown interiors. Spi
ral moved out of their upstairs space into the
old Lee’s Wigs space nexr to Helix for a dra
matic one-two punch to your pocket book that
you can’t resist.
Dragon's Lair has opened a gift gallery of
art upstairs on College Square where Spiral
was, and it’s about time for this great idea.
Clothing Warehouse on up toward the
Bluebird on Clayton has opened, featuring
vintage and old jeans and overalls, and fur
ther down on Clayton, across College, The
Tin Man has an interesting assortment of
clothing, accessories and obfeis d’eueme, which
I think means good stuff- At the lower edge of
downtown the Music Exchange has moved in
from the Turtle’s/Blockbusters node to provide
new and used music equipment and supplies
The downtown shopping area has been
going through this kind of evolution where
shops start small, get going and rhen when a
larger space opens up, go for it and expand
and keep on growing. Food and drink have
accompanied the retail growth Le Rendes
Vous serves incredibly good pasta salads and
quiches for reasonable rates, Leaf & Ladle pro
duces gourmet soups and salads with baked
potatoes and muffins in the old Schlocsky’s
location, and the Clayton Street Deli has kept
some of the bookish warmth at the old Talk
ing Leaves location.
To brace you for the shopping or to un
wind afterward, the Engine Room bar is a
friendly retreat down on Washington below
the Morton and just before Jittery Joe’s, an
other downtown success story. Back on
Clayton the Du gout Sports Bar is newly ar
rived and offers both food and drink along with
the game of the minute And you can wind
up your long day's shopping by dropping in at
the High Hat, the cool new blues club also
right, there on Clayton, yet another example
of the comfortable feeling possible in the
downtown interiors.
All this growth and change has occurred
downtown since summer, enriching an area
already blessed with stores, shops, restaurants
and bars too numerous to mention here. And
the salient feature in the whole cornucopia of
goods and services is the hands-on, owner-
driven personality that makes each place dif
ferent, surprising and charming in its own way.
1 simply can't wait 'til the last minute any
more.
Pete McCommons
Editor, Flagpole Magazine
Dear lord as l enter trtis mall, guide my footsteps, my eye and my hand, to the best
things for me Let me find that which will save labor Lord, and that which will make me
more attractive and stylish Though the heathen say *Hip today, gone tomorrow' I shall not
listen to their scoffing, but. with your guidance, will find the latest thing m its most flattering
incarnation Lead me not into the dmmg area, for they have hidden the water fountains so
that we sheep flock for moisture, then slay our wallets and diets with their greasy, awk
ward food Let me find those things Lord, which are most meet for our family, neither more
things nor less than we ought Please guide me past those things which will cost a lot and
serve only, m the final judgment, to reduce the room in our closets Bless my coupons, lord,
and make them powerful — let them match my needs, fit the specials Lead me to the
double and triple coupon days For sweatshirts and Sears, candy bars and kitchen ma
chines Amen
(V>°
AV Vi
Call And Order
Yours Today!
O 1992 The
Chocolate Chip
Great American Cookie Company
Georgia Square Mall
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Now Serving Athens
• Ample seating & parking
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And what made us the best is
our food and morgaritos,
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David Oates