In November, the Georgia Trust named the building a “place in peril” for 2020. What Ramey did not know at the time was that Historic Atlanta, a preservation advocacy organization, had been building a case for the bar to be landmarked since February.
“If we were closing for good, I’d have said we were closing for good,” he remarked. He said he signed a three-year lease on the space that happened to wrap up during the shutdown, making moving inevitable. Ramey maintained, though, that rumors circulating earlier this year that the bar was done for were always overblown. When the bar briefly resumed operation, bartender Kirby Morin said the staff was told that it “was going to be an uphill battle.” The Atlanta Eagle reopened in June for limited outdoor gatherings, then quickly closed again. Eagle shut down last May amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and the legendary San Francisco Eagle now features a “for sale” sign. “The Eagle was probably the most diverse melting pot of leather and kink communities in Atlanta,” said Neon the Glowgobear, a resident DJ there for the past six years.īut despite its importance to the leather community, the Atlanta Eagle wouldn’t have been the first casualty of COVID-19: The D.C. It’s home base for Onyx Southeast, a national leather organization for people of color. The Atlanta Eagle is equally intentional about including people of varied ages, body types, and racial identities. While Midtown power gays rub shoulders with east Atlanta queers on busy nights, young kinksters in their first harnesses flirt with old-school leathermen and leatherwomen. That’s one thing I’ve worked on the hardest.” His work is evident in the crowd, with kinksters across the gender spectrum present. “When I first took over the Eagle, there was a bit of a stigma situation,” he told them. Since it’s opening, the Atlanta Eagle has been Atlanta’s premiere Leather/Levi bar.Richard Ramey, its longtime proprietor, took this responsibility seriously, making it his mission to be more welcoming to women when he started running the bar 22 years ago. They know who they are, so say “Hello” – you won’t know where you will end up unless you try. Unknown is the hot dance floor, the men, the urgency of the moment, the men, being able to talk to someone and did I mention the men? Most of us have been burned out by the stand & model bars, always good to know of places like the Eagle where the men aren’t trying to impress everyone. Those who have never walked in the doors have no idea what it is really like. The Eagle opened the doors over 28 years ago and as the city around it, the changes are too many to list. They purchased the bar and returned it to its old glory. They did their best, but The Eagle was nearing an end. After the first owner lost his battle to a foe that has taken too many, his family took over.
Then it was reopened as the Atlanta Eagle. So with black paint cans in hand, it closed. 1987 the doors opened at 306 Ponce de Leon, Renegade’s Bar and Grille. The place was closed and a new location was found. The neighborhood had changed from gay biker bars to frat boy hang outs. The Eagle’s history began like so many others, in 1985 the writing was on the walls for the Texas Drilling Company.