Hey all!
In a few hours I'll be beginning an almost two week road trip through the South. I've been to most of these places before (since I grew up in North Carolina) but I'm excited to spend some more time and rediscover these Southern cities. Posting will be lite from me, but I hope to have a couple of posts from the road.
So, for all you Southern Feministing readers out there, I would love suggestions for places to visit in these cities: Asheville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston. I'm up for pretty much anything (particularly things off the beaten path), but as many of you know I have a particular interest in local feminist sex shops and queer bars. Suggestions welcome!
Happy Holidays everyone.
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From the title, I thought this would be an article about oral sex.
lol, that was my first thought too.
Haha. Glad I'm not the only one!
For ATL, My Sister's Closet in East Atlanta is a good, popular lesbian bar. Plus, it's right beside Mary's, a popular gay bar. For feminist lit, Charist in Little 5 Points (just down Moreland from East Atlanta) is a great stop. Outside of that, I usually take friends for BBQ at Daddy D'z, as it's the best in Georgia.
I 2nd this!
Also, go to the Vortex while you're in Little Five Points for kick ass food.
In my humble opinion an article written about "heading down south", would have been more interesting than an article about soon to be traveling down south, as I feel that there really isn't enough written about oral sex.
However, I am curious about the reference to "queer bars", as I had always thought that only meant male homosexual bars, and lesbian bars were simply called; "lesbian bars."
Are queer bars now gender neutral? I grew up on left coast where gay bars are increasing becoming coed, meaning they are frequented by both lesbians and homosexual male customers as well as bi-sexuals.
If clubs and bars are becoming places where we can all mingle, straight, bi, lesbian, and homosexual male, then that's great, and a sign of true progress. Please let us know if you find such establishments in the bible belt.
BTW I spent my formative years in Asheville, NC, and the place was definitely more liberal then, so I am curious as to what is it like now.
There are plenty of those places in the Bible Belt. When I lived in Macon (GA), the biggest clubs/bars catering to the GLBT crowd were for both gay men and lesbians. And as a bisexual woman, I never encountered any negativity, though I think some bi men did.
I second Charis in Little Five Points if you're looking for reading material. When I lived in Georgia, LFP altogether was a pretty good place to hang out, but when I was moving (2003), it was becoming more yuppie-ish.
Bi-men always receive a lot of negativity. For gay men, bi-men aren't gay enough, and for straight or bi-women, bi-men are either not manly enough or too much of an STD risk.
Not that I am at all bi or gay, just stating an observation.
Lot's of people identify as queer--men, women, etc. It's an umbrella term for people of many different gender identities and sexual orientations.
Whether or not the bars self-identify that way is a whole different story, but I used that term because I am open to different places that cater to many parts of the community.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! We will definitely check these places out, and maybe I'll post about where we went in each city.
Oh, and I totally had that pun in mind when I wrote the post title. Maybe a follow-up post about the other type of going down south some other day...
Thanks.
And please tell us what you discover down south.
I second Charis Bookstore in Little 5 Points in Atlanta. Also check out the feminist sex shop in ATL, Aphrodite's Toybox.
Also this isn't feminist-y at all but I LOVE Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville.
Aphrodite's Toy Box is a neat feminist sex shop in Atlanta/Decatur. 3040 N. Decatur Rd Decatur GA, 30030
Paris is a fun gay/lesbian club in Decatur. I've only been a few times though!
http://www.parisdecatur.com/
A great place on the web to start looking in Asheville is http://www.outinasheville.com/
If you know when you'll be going through Asheville, just let me know and I will send you any news on events or such that I know :) Have a great trip!
Oh I love Tupelo Honey too! I actually love all the restaurants I went to in Asheville - it has the best vegetarian food ever (and even if you're not veggie, I guarantee you'll love it). Rosetta's Kitchen, Laughing Seed Cafe and Mellow Mushroom (really yummy pizza) are all excellent places to eat.
If you enjoy Belgian beer, the Thirsty Monk is a great little bar. There's also this nifty community-owned cafe/bookstore called Firestorm Cafe - good if you're interested in sort of fringe/anarchisty/socialist stuff. For more mainstream books, I highly recommend Malaprop's - it's a community-owned bookstore/cafe, which features tons of recommendations from the staff.
Asheville's art scene is fantastic - I really loved Woolworth Walk, which is in the former Woolworth's building and features tons of local artists. I prefer it to some of the other art galleries because it's a lot more down-to-earth and not so pretentious - also you can probably afford to buy something.
Um...as you can tell I really really liked Asheville when we took a trip there earlier this year :p Sorry I don't have any sex shop/queer bar recs - but since it's a super artsy, liberal town I'm sure you'll find something :) I loved just wandering around the town and peeking in stores and art galleries - it's such a warm friendly town and I hated leaving.
I second Charis books in Atlanta and the other bars. There are also a ton of other great restaurants and bars in Atlanta that aren't specifically queer places, but are worth checking out: Manuel's Tavern on North Ave., The Brickstore Pub on the Decatur square, Raging Burrito on the Decatur square, The Vortex in Little Five Points (which is near Charis). All of these places are awesome, and I would take any visitor to them.
Outwrite Bookstore in Midtown, Atlanta n 10th and Piedmont is full of fun books and other items! Totally worth checking out! And then you can walk next door to the Flying Biscuit for some peach pancakes and cheesy grit goodness!
The Flying Biscuit is so yummy!
As a New Orleans native, I can name a few great places in NOLA:
First of all, stay AWAY from Bourbon st.
Its dirty, and its nothing but a bunch of drunk annoying tourists, if you are going to the quarter at night, I would highly recommend sticking to Frenchmen st. for entertainment. Its a great street that has many jazz venues, my favorite being Snug Harbor. They have great food and great performances and they aren't too expensive. If you are interested in seeing what other music events are going on go to NOLADIY.ORG
Queer bar wise, they JUST opened this great girl bar (the only girl bar in the city) on lower decatur st. called "Ruby Fruit Jungle" they have a great dance floor and djs, cheap cover, great bar.
If you do feel the need to venture to Bourbon st. Go to the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann those bars include "The Pub", which have a great drag king show on tuesday nights (Midnight,$3)and there is also the "Oz", which has a great dance floor. Down st ann past Bourbon there is also another bar called "Good Friends" New Orleans has a great queer community.
If you are in the mood for really good creole food, I would highly recommend a resteraunt on lower decatur called "Coops" they have some really rare dishes, their menu even has duck, rabbit, and squirrel.
If you aren't in the mood for creole, there is another good italian place not too far from coops, its called "Angeli on Decatur" and they have GREAT italian sandwiches.
This is all that comes to mind right now.
I hope you enjoy New Orleans!
I second (and third) all the great recommendations for Atlanta!
I want to add a great place to eat- Cafe Sunflower- yum.
IF its still there (in atlanta), The Masquerade was one the original "Goth" bars. while not specifically gay/lesbian/queer/whatever, it IS Goth and Goth has lots and lots of GLBT...
Asheville is a great place to just wander around in on foot, downtown. I walked around there in July, just being transsexual as fuck, and loved it.
I've lived in Atlanta, and I grew up close to Savannah, yet I know nothing about these places, except to second what others have already said about Little Five Points already.
I live in Charleston, and I don't know of any feminist sex stores around here, but if someone posts a suggestion I will definitely check it out.
As for queer bars, The Chart is this nice little new place in North Charleston that I found kind of on accident. Living in downtown Charleston makes North Charleston kind of seem like the middle of nowhere, but the neighborhood it's in (Park Circle) is the new trendy part of town, so you should grab a taxi and check it out. Downtown, there is Pantheon (dance bar) and Dudley's (next to Pantheon, actually, though I've never gone in). Vickery's is also a great bar, though they're not advertised as a queer bar, there is a significant GBLT crowd there. (out of the three I've been to, Vickery's is my favorite place. I am a bit partial since I used to both live and work and go to school in the neighborhood, and I'd spend most of my free time there.) Also, if you're looking for a dive, the Recovery Room (on King St. under the overpass) is my new favorite place to go. The tater-tachos are amazing. It's not a very pretty bar, but the crowd that gathers there is really friendly.
Wherever you go, make sure you try the Firefly Sweet Tea vodka. It's local and delicious with just water and a bit of lemon juice.
I'm more of a foodie, so I know the restaurants a bit more than the bars. Briefly: Slightly North of Broad (East Bay St., downtown), The Red Drum Gastropub (in Mt. Pleasant), Basil (King St., downtown) are great places to have a nice dinner. Juanita Greenberg's (King St.) has my favorite margarita as well as a pretty good lunch menu. And I second the nomination for Mellow Mushroom (we have one here as well, on King St.), though D'Allessandro's (way up on St. Philip) has great pizza as well (two completely different places, imho). For coffee, I like Kudu (Vanderhorst St., off of King St. just past Marion Sq.)
Hope it helps. :)
i'm in charleston too! loooove the pantheon, d'allessandro's and kudu. one of the co-owners of the chart, becky, is featured here: http://charleston.skirt.com/node/25363
Glad to hear you're coming to Asheville!
First of all, there's a great local blogging community. You can see our bloggers at BlogAsheville: http://www.blogasheville.blogspot.com
Like others have said, just wandering around downtown is a great way to discover Asheville. While the Chamber of Commerce here adopted the motto "Asheville - Any Way You Like It", a suitable alternative would be "Asheville - Ten Thousand Lesbians Can't Be Wrong".
Bars? Hairspray and Scandals are the stalwarts but other options are Scully's, Smokey's, Tressa's.
Give me a shout when you're in town, and I'll show you around!
I can't believe none of the people who've talked about Asheville have mentioned Salsa's! I've been away for two and a half years, and I still miss it like crazy.
For breakfast, try Sunny Point Café. Veg and ethical meat friendly, and they grow a lot of their own herbs and produce.
The three best bookstores in town are Malaprop's, Downtown Books & News, and Reader's Corner (the latter two sell mostly used books and have super friendly cats).
There used to be a wonderful feminist sex toy store and art gallery in downtown Asheville, right around the corner from the Mellow Mushroom, but I don't know whether it's still open...
Hi Miriam
The "wonderful feminist toy store and art gallery in downtown Asheville" referred to in the comments (above) was called Ineffable Woman. It lasted about a year and was run by an RN named Angela, but it went out of business. My shop is an attempt to revive what she did only do it with a better business plan and merchandise mix. The big question I have is how far I can go with the toys.
If in your travels through the South you find a feminist toy store that has "made it" please let me know - I'd love to talk to the owner(s).
Thanks!
Lisa
I recommend Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company. It's not particularly feminist, but the pizza and beer are good and the price is right. Will any Feministers be at Donna the Buffalo at the Orange Peel Weds/Thurs?