Virginia Highlands Atlanta
Perhaps the city's most quietly-hip and sought-after address, the largely residential Virginia-Highland area has been called Atlanta's answer to New Yorks SoHo and Los Angeles' Melrose Avenue. Built up in the 1920s as a lower-middle income neighborhood, the two-bedroom bungalows that pepper this tree-lined corner of the near east side now fetch a quarter-of-a-million dollars and more.
Virginia-Highland, more commonly referred to as "the Highlands," centers on the intersection of its namesake avenues, Virginia and North Highland, and concentrates its activity around three main hubs. Other than the few square blocks directly surrounding North Highlands intersections with Virginia, Amsterdam (a half-mile to the north), and Ponce de Leon (a half-mile south), the neighborhood has remained entirely residential. The Highlands' borders are pretty well defined as Ponce de Leon Avenue on the south, Briarcliff Road on the east, East Rock Springs on the north, and Monroe Avenue on the west. Most points are within easy walking distance of the Jimmy Carter Center in Inman Park, Emory University in Druid Hills, and Piedmont Park in Midtown.
Over the past 50 years, the prevailing atmosphere has gone from staunch middle class to economically-depressed to an avant-garde reclamation phase to a solid enclave of the in-town upwardly-mobile. Today, young professional couples live alongside the older entrenched crowd that smartly held onto their now-slumping, now-booming property over the years, with a strong gay showing thrown in the mix. Although not quite as extreme as the rarefied mansions of nearby Druid Hills (where the movie Driving Miss Daisy was filmed), the Highlands have assumed a certain snob appeal, and at least a modicum of the stern protective-ism that goes along with it.
High rents have banished the starving artist crowd to less demanding landlords downtown, and in their place have come a number of galleries, representing the city's best mix of modern and folk art in such establishments as the Eclectic Electric Gallery and Modern Primitive on Highland near Morningside. Although not as glitzy as Buckhead or Midtown, and thankfully so, shopping is a casual pleasure, and quirky boutiques like Metropolitan Deluxe, the Common Pond, and Providence Antiques draw a heavy window-gazing crowd throughout the week. Near the Virginia Avenue intersection, the dusty and deliberately quaint Highland Hardware is a familiar reminder of simpler days.
Young and middle-aged professionals mix easily with a mild influx of students from the nearby university in the Highlands' bars and restaurants. Again, much quieter and more casual than the scene in Buckhead and Midtown, a vibrant nightlife thrums through the laid back atmosphere at such taverns as Manuel's, a political relic from the days when City Hall was located nearby on Ponce, Dark Horse Tavern, whose three-story deck provides a nightly microcosm of the drinking crowds let-it-be attitude, and the newly-arrived Geko Lounge, a smart tequila bar that, despite itself, can't quite manage to force its Buckhead-ish, satin-shirt concept on Highland denizens, but peaceably persists nonetheless. A few blocks north of Ponce, Blind Willies Tavern showcases some of the city's best blues acts in an intimate cabaret setting, while, next door, stout-mad revelers pound out rousing Irish folk tunes on the wooden benches of Limerick Junction.
Reservations are a must most nights at local restaurants, and even on a Monday you're liable to have to wait for a table on the patio at Dish, the areas hippest fusion joint. Almost universally small and intimate, Highland eateries seem to set tables for two with greater frequency than for four. Your options are quite diverse, however, as highbrow places like seafood favorite Indigo Grill and contemporary Southern-influenced Harvest rub amicable shoulders with popular beer and brazier joints such as Taco Mac, Neighbors, and Moe's & Joe's. Given the largely-residential nature of the Highlands, there's not a whole lot to see and do outside of rubbing elbows with some of the friendliest diners and shoppers in town. One standout exception, however, is the Fernbank Natural History Museum. Just off Ponce de Leon on Clifton Road, this world-class museum features displays that chronicle the geographical and natural evolution of the Southeast, many hands-on exhibits for kids, an observatory, and an IMAX theater.
The Highlands would be a great place to set up camp during any visit to Atlanta for business or pleasure except for the dearth of public lodgings. Unless you can secure a spot at one of the neighborhoods scarce but universally charming bed and breakfasts, your best bet for greatest proximity is at one of the towering megaliths of nearby Midtown, or try the reasonable motels that surround Emory University a mile or so to the east.