Gilbert's Cafe and Bar owners say a restaurant named "10th and Piedmont" will open in December in the space once occupied by Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse in the heart of the gayborhood.
Located next door to the former Outwrite space, the gay-friendly Gilbert's has been working on the expansion since early this year. It's December opening was first reported by the Midtown Patch just days after news that a new restaurant named "10" is opening in the former Five Napkin Burger space. So "10" will be located across the street from "10th and Piedmont" — a number developers are apparently hoping has the magic touch, at least much more so than five (Five Napkin only stayed open for about a year.)
Gay-owned Traders in East Atlanta Village announced on Facebook that today is its last day of business.
Owner Shawn Ergle posted Facebook this afternoon the locally-owned furniture and home decor store was closing down today.
The launch of a new visiting author series highlights a 2012 spring season ripe with events featuring both local and out-of-town LGBT authors.
With the closing of Outwrite earlier this year, local bookstores and businesses are working to fill the void. On March 22, Brushstrokes will begin its new author signings with Mixx Atlanta (both of which are near each other in Ansley Mall) with an appearance by Totally Tyler and his book “Your Boyfriend & Other Guys I’ve Kissed: The Tails of Totally Tyler.” Tyler, a former Atlantan whose blog about his dating life caught on, has now published a book about his experiences. Tyler remembers his years living here by Madonna albums. “I moved here in 1998, when ‘Ray of Light’ came out, and moved in 2008,” he says. “I was living alone in Midtown, the gay mecca of Atlanta, and I started writing about my bad dates.”
“Your Boyfriend & Other Guys I’ve Kissed” covers the year 2005 and Tyler says the next chapter will cover the following year of his dating escapades. According to Tyler, the first book is PG-13, the second R and the next in the series “risqué.” He says he’s changed the name of some of his “dates” but the encounters are all true.
Author signing part of new Brushstrokes author events
Philip Rafshoon, who owned Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse for 18 years before it went out of business on Jan. 26 and was forced to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, writes in a blog on CNN today that, "Our community must learn the value of supporting our own LGBT resources."
In his column, Rafshoon also writes of Outwrite's importance in LGBT Atlanta and Georgia: