Business Posts - Late 2023

Hawkers loads senses with street food culture

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — A glow emanates through Hawkers’ indoor space, lighting pouring through red umbrellas that line the ceiling. Colorful, cartoonish comics cover the walls and newspaper images, the tables. The design is busy, cutting edge.

“For the price of a meal, we can transport you to the streets of Asia,” said Kaleb Harrell, Hawkers co-founder and CEO. “You can save the plane ticket and overnight flight.”

The energy is certainly reminiscent of that. It’s disruptive, pop music over the speakers — one-third of the business mantra immediately fulfilled. “Be disruptive. Always care. Never compromise.”

The second and third pieces show themselves later.

Hawkers, which launched in Florida, opened its newest location in Dunwoody April 24.

“We want to challenge the status quo on what restaurants look like in today’s environment,” Harrell said.

Hawkers, named after travelling food vendors, was started by Harrell and his best friends — Allen Lo, Wayne Yung and Kin Ho — with a love for travel and street food. They still have family in Asia and made sure to incorporate generations-old recipes for the Hawkers menu.

“I always got the local version of wherever I went,” Harrell said.

Street food, an Asian subculture

Harrell said street food, especially in Southeast Asia, is its own subculture for locals but also “adventurous tourists.”

He described it as a “sensory overload,” consisting of the sounds of ladles clicking against the wall, the smell of delicious food and smoke from the wood-burning grills, the neon lights.

“Everything around you is new and different, and you’re experiencing it with all five senses,” Harrell said.

Whenever they would get back to the states, Harrell said they “joked” about taking street food from Asia and making it approachable for the mainstream palate. But that’s exactly what they did, opening their first location on Mills Avenue in Orlando in 2011.

There’s a total of 14 locations now. Georgia had its Hawkers introduction on Atlanta’s Beltline in 2019, which is currently under renovation. Harrell hopes to reopen it by the end of the year.

With more locations, Harrell described the need to examine integrity.

“Maybe the way that we make our pork belly is not exactly how we did it when we started,” Harrell said. “But if we need to make it easier on the team, or more scalable, how do we do it in a way that’s even a better experience for the guests, rather than diluting what we’ve built?”

The menu, consisting of small plates, boasts all kinds of flavors, like Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese, and comes with a complimentary spice tray. While the

food may be the biggest focus, Harrell also made sure to emphasize Hawkers’ beverage program, which includes craft cocktails, beer, wine and sake.

A place for regulars

Sitting at a table feels like fast living, but also a place where you want to hang out for a while and be a regular. Harrell was attracted to Ashford Lane for a number of reasons, including the green space right outside the door where visitors can linger. Harrell said he didn’t want Hawkers to be somewhere patrons just grab a meal and go.

In just the first couple weeks of opening the newest location in Ashford Lane, some faces are now recurring, like a man and his dog Oreo. The patio is dog friendly, and general manager Samantha Benson said the staff are dog lovers.

“In fact, it’s a requirement,” Benson said. Soon, Hawkers will offer dog treats,

and the patio will have dog bowls.

Benson has been a part of the Hawkers team for four years. Dunwoody was her third opening, the most recent in Nashville. Benson was once a regular herself, frequenting an Orlando Hawkers for a year before hopping on board.

“It’s just a really cool concept — it’s uniqueness, the fact that they care about their people,” Benson said.

Each location has distinct features, she said, like Dunwoody’s arched walls. Hawkers has its own shop where all the furniture is made. The detail of the restaurant’s design harkens back to Harrell’s comments about the intention of each opening.

“We want to be contributors to the community and not just takers of it,” Harrell said.

Founded by Kaleb Harrell and three friends in 2010, Hawkers boasts street food culture with night vibes and small, authentic plates from different Asian countries as well as a comprehensive beverage menu, consisting of craft cocktails, beer, wine and sake.

Ashanti Bates, server, and Samantha Benson, general manager, stand together inside the restaurant.

PHOTOS BT AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

In late April, Ashford Lane saw the newest of 14 Hawkers locations.

Love Goga

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — It’s hard to do yoga’s Downward Facing Dog with a goat on your back or rise into Mountain Pose with a sloth hanging on your shoulders and a pig snuffling at your ankles.

But for people at Love GOGA in Milton, mixing cute, friendly farm animals with yoga is a recipe for increased mindfulness, health and selfcare.

Launched in 2017 by Milton resident Cathi Huff, Love GOGA has grown into a successful yoga and wellness business, with thousands of raving fans who sell out nearly every event the business holds each month.

Huff said everything started for Love GOGA when her kids left for college and she wanted to do something using her background in holistic health and her lifelong dream of owning a farm, where she could learn to ride horses.

So, Huff and her family bought a farm and started their animal family with a retired racehorse named Bronx, who once raced under the name “Atlantis Dream” and inspired their name for the property — the Atlantis Dream Farm. Since then, goats, dogs, cats, llamas, pigs and a herd of other animals have joined them there.

“We bought the property seven years ago, and Bronx moved to the backyard, then he started getting buddies,” Huff said.

From the very beginning, Love GOGA’s farm animal yoga classes and events blew up thanks to the internet and TV, leading to over 3,000 hits a week on their website and more than 125 people a week visiting the farm to do yoga.

Marketing Manager Danielle Bartling said Huff’s vision came to life in an organic, effortless way because people really seem to understand what she wanted to share.

“She just combined her love for animals and holistic wellness and mindfulness … it was just like alchemy, no one had really done it that way before,” Bartling said.

But Huff said the company’s true mission of wellness and health didn’t

Farm offers mindfulness with mix of animals, yoga

During Love GOGA farm animal yoga events, participants will be surrounded by fluffy, friendly animals who love to be held, photographed and petted. Goats, chickens, cows and llamas are all regulars at their events.

With sessions held at the Atlantis Dream Farm in Milton and special events held throughout North Georgia, there are countless opportunities to take part in Love GOGA’s farm animal yoga classes.

come into focus until therapists and private schools started calling, wanting to hire them for private events.

“We realized that it was more than just goat yoga,” she said. “The third

year is really when it became crystal clear to me that this was my purpose.”

Bartling said the sessions’ uniqueness draws people in, even people who practice yoga on a daily

and wellness

basis.

“We take people out of their routine; you’re not going to do farm animal yoga every single day, but you come out to Halcyon on a Saturday, you’re surrounded by animals … they’re silly, they’re so cute,” Bartling said. “The animals help ground you to the moment … you’re really just there with them.”

And, ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, people seem to need grounding more than ever, she said.

“People are starving for personal attention and self-care and compassion for themselves,” he said. “The goal for us is to get it to as many people as possible because it’s helped us so much.”

Today Huff and her staff have expanded their lineup to include a partnership with North Georgia Wildlife Park in Cleveland, Ga., and Halcyon in Forsyth County. Those events, GOGA in the Wild and Halcyon Farm Animal Yoga, are almost always fully booked.

These are bolstered by special programs, like an event they recently had with the City of Milton that featured a sloth, capybara and fennec fox.

To learn more about Love GOGA events and Mindful Seeds, the business’s “happiness project” that will begin teaching mindfulness at the farm in July, visit lovegoga.com/

Milton resident Cathi Huff founded Love GOGA farm animal yoga at her farm in 2017 after her kids went off to college. Since then, the company has grown into a wildly popular health

business, with fans throughout North Georgia.

PHOTOS BY LOVE GOGA/PROVIDED

Talk of the Table takes guests on wines of the world journey

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — In a cozy shop in The Collection at Forsyth, Amy Moreau invites guests to travel from Metro Atlanta to vineyards abroad with a unique repertoire of wine and a friendly experience.

While Moreau was doubtful about starting a business immediately following the Great Recession, she identified the need for a wine experience that is elevated and accessible to local residents and opened Talk of the Table in 2013.

“I was a stay-at-home mom for a very, very long time and went through a divorce, and during that process, knew that I was going to have to start working full time again,” Moreau said. “I had little kids, and I needed to be able to find something that was close by that I could manage my schedule.”

Moreau, who previously operated a small catering business, said she had liked wine before opening her shop, but it was a trip to a wine bar and a cheese shop in California that inspired her to conceive Talk of the Table.

A place like no other

Moreau’s boutique sells roughly 300 different wines, many sourced through distributors from small wineries. She said one of the shop’s core principles is offering customers a variety not available at other major retailers like Costco and Total Wine.

“There are so many wine producers out there, whether it’s in the United States or anywhere else, that make amazing wines that are not super expensive that don’t get a lot of representation,” Moreau said. “And the reason they don’t get a lot of representation is because they’re small, but I wanted to make a commitment that I was going to taste every single wine that I put in my store.”

Daily at 1 p.m., Talk of the Table hosts Flights out Front, a sampler of four wines. Themed, educational tastings are Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 4 and 5:30 p.m.

“[Educational tastings are] where you come in, you taste through the wine, somebody leads the tasting, we talk about the grapes and how they’re grown and how they’re harvested and any interesting winemaking techniques that are used to make the wine,” Moreau said.

Tucked away in the back of the boutique is a tasting room with a table that seats 12 and a wall made of multicolored wine bottles. Here, customers can socialize and learn more about the wine they taste.

The shop also sells cheeses to pair with wines, salami, herbed almonds, gift bags and accessories, such as corkscrews

I wanted to make sure that when you came in to Talk of the Table…we could meet you at your level of knowledge about wine.”

AMY MOREAU

Talk of the Town founder

and decorative stoppers.

“I wanted to make sure that when you came in to Talk of the Table … whether you knew nothing about wine, or whether you had incredibly high preferences about wine, that we approached you in the same way, and we could meet you at your level of knowledge about wine,” Moreau said.

While many customers enjoy tasting in the boutique, Moreau also provides special event services; custom gift baskets; a wine club for customers to sample new blends each month; and international trips to the vineyards from which the wines originated.

for the Certified Specialist of Wine Exam offered by the Society of Wine Educators, a nonprofit that recognizes experts of the beverage.

Moreau said she also learns from experience. Trips to foreign vineyards and frequent visits from winery representatives allow her to disseminate what she has learned to customers.

She also said Forsyth County has been helpful in accommodating code changes. As a retail location, she said she was originally unable to allow tastings. That changed in 2012 when the code was revised to allow customer samplings under her packaged beer and wine license.

With her current licensure under the county and the Department of Agriculture, Moreau is allowed to offer tastings and food that is already cooked. Now, she is asking the County Commission to allow her to sell wine by the glass in addition to food.

Celebrating her 10th year of business, Moreau said running Talk of the Table has broadened her palate and appreciation of wine. In the beginning, she said she focused more on domestic wines, but now the shop has ventured into selections from Slovenia, Croatia, Lebanon, Hungary and Israel.

“Wine has been part of our history for thousands of years, and what I have learned is that it is not only an agricultural product, but part of our history in terms of food and medicine and culture,” Moreau said. “I have an immense appreciation for people that have continued to carry on that legacy.”

With a recent franchising underway, Moreau will open her second location in Sugar Hill in the coming weeks, where she hopes to continue her easygoing approach to the world of wine.

Talk of the Table is open MondaySaturday noon-7 p.m. and Sundays noon5 p.m. in Suite 218 at 410 Peachtree Parkway.

“Part of the mission of the store from the very beginning was to have a wine club,” Moreau said. “That community has become just an amazing group of people that are very, very, very connected.”

Recently, Moreau traveled to Spain to visit Casa Rojo Bodega y Viñedos and Yllera Bodegas y Viñedos, whose products are on her shelves.

A taste of business

When Moreau decided to pursue her own business in 2010, she attended formal classes to learn more about the specifics of wine. She said she is studying

SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Talk of the Table sells a variety of curated wines from small domestic and foreign vineyards June 13. Owner Amy Moreau said red blends are a best-seller at the shop, which offers special tasting events, custom gift baskets and a wine club.

AMY MOREAU/PROVIDED

Owner Amy Moreau opened Talk of the Table, a wine and cheese boutique on Peachtree Parkway, in 2013.

Local charity transforms lives with language lessons

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — When Roswell resident Diana Traslavina moved to the area from Colombia a year ago, she quickly learned that English was a necessity.

The native Spanish speaker came from Bogotá with her son to the United States in hopes of the “best life.” She came to Georgia to be with her sister, who speaks no English.

“Quickly, we clearly needed the language,” Traslavina said.

She said several people encouraged her to visit North Fulton Community Charities in Roswell to take the organization’s English as a second language course. The charity services around 10,000 people in Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Mountain Park and Roswell.

This year, the nonprofit celebrates 40 years of service through emergency assistance for housing, medical care and transportation, as well as a food pantry and thrift shop. It also runs education programs—namely, the English as a second language program.

The 15-week course is offered three times a year, with classes twice a week. Students take a placement test and are placed by level, advancing to “proficient” in level five. The free classes require no personal identification, which helps keep the program accessible.

Traslavina said she started the program at a level three, although she joked she didn’t know any English going in. The program was intensive, but in three months she moved through to level five.

“I feel very, very proud of me to have known I can do that,” Traslavina said.

NFCC Executive Director Sandy Holiday said people who come to the United States without the English language creates unique barriers.

“They are the most challenged in our communities, because they don’t know how to advocate for themselves,” Holiday said.

The English learning program is full immersion, so the teacher only speaks in English. Students come from various countries, including India, Ukraine, Cameroon and Colombia. The students are placed in rotating groups to communicate with each other.

Without a shared language to rely on, the students speak to each other exclusively in English. Program manager

The best thing here is I can help other people.”

DIANA TRASLAVINA Front Desk Receptionist, NFCC

Wynona Kuehl said the format creates close bonds between the new North Fulton County residents.

“That really builds community,” Kuehl said. “By the last week, they all feel connected.”

The 15-week course serves about 200 students a session. Holiday said many students drop out of level three of the program because they have learned enough to “empower” themselves.

“They’re here to say teach me the language to communicate and take care of myself in my daily life, and that’s

pretty awesome,” Holiday said.

Language is not the only barrier faced by many clients, though. Holiday said a lot of people use multiple services from the nonprofit.

“It’s called a continuum because no matter where you enter that spectrum, you continue on it towards other services,” Holiday said.

Part of the continuum came into play when the nonprofit started looking for a new client services specialist in March. Holiday wanted to recruit internally, from one of their thousands of clients.

They’re here to say teach me the language to communicate and take care of myself in my daily life, and that’s pretty awesome.”

SANDY HOLIDAY NFCC Executive Director

“We should be employing our clients, we should walk the walk,” Holiday said.

As program manager for the English language classes, Kuehl recommended Traslavina, who had recently completed the language program for the company role.

After two interviews, Traslavina was hired at the nonprofit’s front desk. She said the position requires some administrative and computer work, but a lot of her job calls for interacting with people who come into the building.

“We need to learn what problems they have or how we can help,” Traslavina said.

People often come to the front desk in need of emergency services, and Traslavina is the one who helps them get started. She said the conversations have also been good practice for her English skills. In her months at the role, Traslavina said the job has “opened the doors” to her new life.

“The best thing here is I can help other people,” Traslavina said.

Holiday said there’s an added benefit to having a former client be the first face people see at North Fulton Community Charities.

“She’s looking at our work as a client,” Holiday said.

The executive director explained she often reaches out to former clients for advice and questions regarding everything from organizational decisions to newsletters. The nonprofit also has a former client on the board of directors, which Holiday plans to continue long term.

Power Rangers, Buffy stuntwoman launches eclectic Roswell brasserie

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — It isn’t often that your local barista is called on to fight vampires or fend off Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa with a few well-placed punches and flying kicks.

But at least with Sophia Crawford, owner of the Ground and Pound Coffee in west Roswell, you know it could happen if needed.

Crawford, a longtime Hollywood stuntwoman known for work on the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and many other action-packed roles, opened Ground and Pound on Holcomb Bridge Road in 2019, with a vision of the coffee shop becoming an artistic hub for the community.

Despite a few well-known hiccups caused during the COVID-19 pandemic, the coffee shop, casual eatery and bar has become an eclectic and well-loved staple for local pop-culture nerds, with regular themed trivia nights, costume contests, open mic nights and more.

“Our mission has always been focused on the community and creating events that engage the community and bring the community together,” Crawford said, during an interview with Appen Media July 18. “I get a lot from that satisfaction from that.”

As straightforward as that mission is today, Crawford, who was born and raised in London, explained that she could not have taken a more winding route to get there. She got the bug

As a young teen in London, Crawford actually started out working in coffee shops and brasseries, traditional places that served coffee, along with “beautiful wine and French food.”

And as an adventurous people person, Crawford ate it all up.

“I just liked the whole energy of the coffee shop and especially in England, this was in the ’80s. This was before Starbucks and everything, so the coffee was very traditional coffee,” she said. “But the energy was very much a gathering place.”

But at 19, when she was given the opportunity to become a coffee shop manager, Crawford said she felt pulled in multiple directions, with her home, interests and security on one hand, and a sense of adventure and opportunity on the other.

“I thought to myself, I could do this. This is definitely a lovely opportunity. But it’s not what I want to do,” she said. “And I just felt the urge desperately to sort of just leave and travel the world.”

So instead of settling down, she and her sister got on a bus and began a sixmonth trip to India, Turkey, war-torn

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

Ground and Pound Coffee, at 8420 Holcomb Bridge Road in west Roswell, opened in 2019 with the intent of becoming an artistic hub for the community. It has since grown a following of loyal customers.

Ground and Pound Coffee is located at 8420 Holcomb Bridge Road and offers regular weekly events like trivia, open mike nights, musical acts, artist roundtables, costume contests and more.

For more information about their food, drinks and events, visit www. groundandpoundcoffee.com.

martial arts and breaking into the Hong Kong stunt scene.

“I lived there for five years. And, you know, I was absolutely determined to be the best fighter,” she said.

She has since been credited as one of the first Western women to be accepted into an Asian stunt crew.

After doing 30 films in Asia, Crawford left Hong Kong for Los Angeles in 1993, bringing a honed martial arts skillset and a tight resume of work abroad with her, which launched her success in the U.S. Ground and Pound

In Los Angeles, she was offered the role of stunt double for Amy Jo Johnson, who played the Pink Ranger in the hit 1994 “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” series and later served as Sarah Michelle Gellar’s stunt double for the first four seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Her career in Hollywood also features stunt work for Madonna, Fergie, and many other well-known names, and she eventually married stunt coordinator and Georgia native Jeff Pruitt, who she met while working on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Iran and beyond.

“It was probably one of the most inspiring, most incredible journeys of my life and changed everything for me. I was just like, ‘I can’t go home now … I got the bug,’” she said.

After traveling through 12 countries, Crawford made her way to Bangkok, Thailand and started teaching English to help pay bills.

It was in Thailand where she was first introduced the world of film production, after a modeling gig got her noticed by Central Casting and she began booking roles as an extra for American and Hong Kong films shooting in Bangkok.

Hong Kong

With that taste of movie magic igniting a spark in her, Crawford quickly relocated to Hong Kong where she could live and work as an English-expat, and where many of the world’s best action movies were being filmed.

“I just hopped on the plane and went to Hong Kong,” she said. I didn’t know anybody and started tearing pages out of the Yellow Pages, trying to find the film studios.”

As a petite woman, with strong Western features, Crawford said she was welcomed with open arms by the studios in Hong Kong and almost immediately started booking actual movie roles as the “Western villain” and opponent to the film’s female heroines.

But she quickly learned that to be an actor in Hong Kong during the 1980s, she would first need to learn how to fight.

“I had no training. I was not a martial artist,” she said. “I was a young upstart wanting to travel the world and essentially a backpacker looking for a dream.”

By mingling with the stunt crews and coordinators, hanging out where they hung out and living where they lived, Crawford dedicated herself to learning

But like any good thing, Crawford’s days of jump kicks and action sequences had to come to an end at some point.

“At a certain point, you understand that you don’t have the legs that you think you’ve got,” she said.

In 2018, when her family relocated to Georgia and Crawford returned to a love from her teenage years, opening a small coffee shop in Roswell, very much like the ones she worked at in London.

Since then, Crawford and her staff of actors and other artists have tried to instill that community feeling she fell in love with, into every event they host and drink they serve.

It’s definitely not fast food and they will never have a drive through window, but Crawford said that customers feel the energy Ground and Pound gives off and love it.

“I love to get to know my customers and see their kids grow up and hear about their lives,” she said. “We want people to come inside. We encourage them to come in.

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

Former Hollywood stuntwoman Sophia Crawford, owner of Ground and Pound Coffee in Roswell, mixes up an iced marsala chai during a hot day July 18.

SOPHIA CRAWFORD/PROVIDED

Former Hollywood stuntwoman Sophia Crawford, who owns and operates Ground and Pound Coffee in west Roswell, completes a jump kick during her time as a martial artist.

Sandy Springs wine shop shares craft with patrons

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Tucked away in a small plaza on Hilderbrand Drive in Sandy Springs, Beer and Wine Craft invites guests to step away from the traditional retail and tasting rooms and into the world of winemaking.

The shop, which also includes the Sandy Springs Boutique Winery and Tasting Room, first opened in 1969 as Wine Art. Following decades of relocation around the Atlanta perimeter, head winemaker Joe Keenan bought the business in October 2012. From there, he dedicated it to teaching customers the art of vinification.

Keenan sold the shop in June to his wife Shanie Mattox, a graphic designer who makes most of the labels for the store. Together, the couple sell signature wines by the bottle and offer tastings, events and beer and winemaking classes.

Although Keenan’s interest in wine was sparked by a winemaking kit Mattox had gifted him, he is well-versed in millennia of wine history, which he warmly shares with customers at the beginning of his classes.

To Keenan, winemaking is a craft he has enjoyed for 16 years, and through

the shop, he shares that craft with the community.

“This is unique to Atlanta,” Keenan said. “This store here, there’s nothing like it.”

An artistic process

Beer and Wine Craft buys concentrated grape juice from a distributor. Customers can choose from more than 100 grape varieties, some grown in the Napa Valley in California; Tuscany, Italy; Bordeaux, France; the Barossa Valley in Australia; and the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

“We don’t bring in the grapes,” Keenan said. “I don’t ever want to bring in the grapes. Once you pick that grape, it is on its way downhill faster than you know. It’s got bad microbes in it that [causes it to spoil] real easy. It oxidizes real easy. Everything goes wrong with it.”

The juice is treated with sulfites, which are naturally occurring in grapes. It is then placed into a primary fermenter, where it stays for 15 days.

Keenan also ferments wine in his beloved Hungarian oak barrels, a process that lasts between two and three months.

While French, American and Hungarian oak barrels come from subspecies of the white oak tree, he said

the Hungarian barrels leave a perfect finish because of the size of the cellulose cells.

“This is an art, not a science,” he said. “You have to taste it on a regular basis.”

After the wine rests for the allotted time, it is fined and cleared, which involves stopping the fermentation process and adding sulfites and clearing agents. The wine is then transferred into a carboy, a large, clear jug.

The wine remains in the carboy for roughly two weeks before it is transferred to another carboy to remove unwanted sediment. The beverage is refined for two more weeks until it is siphoned into a third carboy. Then, it is ready to be bottled.

From start to finish, the process takes between six and eight weeks. Keenan said every 6 gallons of wine yields 30 bottles.

In the back of the shop, customers can also buy supplies to make their own beer. Here, there are kits complete with instructions, hops, spices, yeast and malt extract to create a variety of ales.

However, because the shop does not have a license for beer tasting, it only offers classes and sells supplies.

Beer and Wine Craft will host winemaking classes from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 16, Oct. 7, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2. Each class is $75 per person.

Beer making classes are set at the same time on Sept. 23, Nov. 11 and on an undetermined date in December. Beer classes are $55 per person.

Fruits of labor

After a decade of leading its wine production, Keenan has cemented Beer and Wine Craft as a Sandy Springs staple where customers can enjoy wines that cannot be found anywhere else.

“It’s just a really, really nice craft, and people enjoy it,” he said. “It takes less than two hours to make 30 bottles of it. It takes about half an hour to start it, half an hour to fine and clear it and about 45 minutes to bottle it.”

In addition to offering guests the opportunity to make their own batch, the shop keeps red, white and dessert wines stocked by the bottle and for tasting. Its standout selection is its private reserve, a Chianti-style blend that won Keenan a silver medal at the American Wine Society’s Commercial Wine Competition in 2022.

Beer and Wine Craft is open every day, with hours varying from late morning or noon to early evening. More information on tastings and classes can be found at beerandwinecraft.com.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Owner Shanie Mattox and head winemaker Joe Keenan operate Beer and Wine Craft at 203 Hilderbrand Drive in Sandy Springs. Keenan bought the business in 2012 before transferring ownership to Mattox, his wife, in June.

Kids get special treatment in mobile spa, just for them

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Decked out in robes, a small group of young girls and one boy lined up along a red carpet to enter the Spoiled Rotten Kids Spa Partybus, where makeovers awaited them.

Owner Khadija Bronson, a Johns Creek resident, helped them on, one by one, in front of a business off Crabapple Road in Roswell. Geared for ages 2 to 13, the bus travels around town and as far as the Lawrenceville area, usually for weekend birthday parties.

Bronson’s staff manned a pedicure station to one side of the bus and on the other, a table for manicures. A chair at the front is where Bronson added color to a girl’s eyelids — makeup is the kids’ favorite.

She also offers chocolate facials and a fashion show. After their makeovers, the group was set to walk on a minirunway, wearing tutus, boas and other accessories hanging above the door. In down times, her young clients have access to an outside patio attached to the truck, bordered by a white picket fence.

In the average salon, pedicure chairs will swallow a small kid. But on the bus, all the furniture is sized for children — little tables, little chairs, little bowls.

“I just wanted to do something that was more kid-friendly, like something on their level — not too grown,” Bronson said.

One girl, who had just gotten her makeup and nails done, said she loved how “pretty” the bus was. Its aesthetic, glitz and glam and very pink, is as

loud as the pop music playing over the speakers.

Featured on “The Tyra Banks Show,” Bronson said her business was the first of its kind in the country when it hit ground in 2008. She once operated three storefronts, in Washington, D.C., and in Maryland, but decided to go mobile, finding it a better business route.

“Most people like for us to come to them, and then they can still have the experience at their house,” Bronson said. “... We’re more like a party/babysitter because the kids come on the bus, the parents are inside.”

The business is a full-circle moment for Bronson. She recalled being in 8th and 9th grade, dipping pencil tips in nail polish to paint designs.

“It’s crazy how it came about, to this,” Bronson said. “I didn’t grow up wanting to do this job, but I love it.”

She said her business is one where you have to love kids, and have patience, for when a girl cries when she accidentally messes up her nails, which happened earlier that day. For Bronson, it’s all worth it, especially when she sees children smiling and becoming more secure in themselves.

“They come out here and break out of their shell,” Bronson said.

PHOTOS BY AMBER

Spoiled Rotten Kids Spa owner Khadijah Bronson helps a line of children in robes onto the bus for makeovers.

Splatter Studio sparks creativity

Business encourages patrons to immerse themselves in art

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — What makes art, art? Is art just paint on a canvas, clay on a wheel, or a moment in time frozen by an expertly snapped picture?

For the folks at The Splatter Studio in Sandy Springs, art goes beyond any form or medium, becoming a full-body experience that can inspire talent, emotion and creativity in even the least artistic of us.

Opened in 2020 by Howard Krinsky, owner of the Atlanta-based art supply store Binders, The Splatter Studio offers customers a chance to become Jackson Pollock for an hour or two by creating personal artworks in a riotous frenzy of paint.

Jenna Rees, chief brand officer for The Splatter Studio, said the business’s mission of being a “contemporary action painting experience” pays tribute to the Abstract Expressionism period in art history, where artists like Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Lee Krasner and others started experimenting with non-objective paintings, made through new techniques.

“Instead of just a traditional brush, they were using sticks and brooms, and whatever they could find,” Rees said. “It was a full body experience, experimental, and the paintings were totally nonobjective.”

Today, customers at The Splatter Studio are encouraged to immerse themselves fully in the process of making art, in whatever way feels right to them.

“It’s very therapeutic for people, a lot of people say that it’s kind of like unofficial art therapy,” Rees said. “Action painting is all about experiencing the process of art making and not really being too attached to like the end result. It’s not about coming in here and being an exceptional artist or creating a work of art that is necessarily going to make you famous.”

With admission to a “splatter session,” customers are given a protective poncho or Tyvek suit, goggles, paint sticks, brushes, paint blasters (squirt guns made from a foam material) and squirt bottles, along with a colorful panoply of paints, then set loose on a 16- by 20-inch canvas.

The reckless abandon and heights that past customers have gone to create their art, can be seen in the layers of paint coating nearly every wall in The Splatter Studio, all the way up to its lofty rafters.

Some customers, even people who have never shown any interest in the arts, find something inside them that has to come out when they step up to the canvas. And Rees said they are glad to be the ones sparking that creation.

It’s very therapeutic for people, a lot of people say that it’s kind of like unofficial art therapy.”

JENNA

REES Chief brand officer for The Splatter Studio

“It’s typically the people that say, ‘Oh, I’ve never even done anything like this before’ that come out with something really interesting,” she said.

Beyond the basic session, which costs $45 on weekdays and $65 on the weekends, The Splatter Studio offers a host of other classes, parties and experiences at their locations in Sandy Springs and Virginia Highlands.

“We just recently launched some new products at our Virginia Highlands location that are coming soon to Sandy Springs, one of which is a collaborative splatter session,” Rees said. “So rather than coming with your friend, each do your own painting, you’re now coming together to create one larger painting.”

The business has attached itself to the idea of making sessions a bonding, teambuilding, or dating activity, with a new “date and create” session for couples, an adults-only session held each Friday night in Sandy Springs, and sessions held specifically for teambuilding within families, companies and other groups.

The Splatter Studio co-owner Fabrice Werner said over the past year, the Sandy Springs location has shown them how well the action painting experience works for business and corporate groups.

“We want to bring together two worlds, the art and the business world,” he said. “So, for instance, if you have a challenge around change management, that’s one of the things we can work on together.”

But no matter what group or individual is in their studio, the joy they witness firsthand each session shows them they are on the right path.

“I think the word fun is also something that is on top of my mind,” Werner said. “Over the weekend, we were quite busy, and I could hear people laughing, having a great time … it’s not usually something you see too often, different ages, different people, from the youngest to the oldest, they are having a great time. This is really what I love about it.”

The Splatter Studio is in the Parkside Shops shopping center at 5920 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs. To learn more about The Splatter Studio and how to book a session, visit thesplatterstudio.com.

PHOTOS BY ALEXANDER POPP/APPEN MEDIA

Splatter Studios on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs offers customers a place to unleash their inner Jackson Pollock, by making creative and personal action paintings using a variety of tools and paints.

Battle and Brew creates geek and gamer haven

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The team behind Battle and Brew has spent the past 15 years creating a hub for all things game and geek culture in Sandy Springs, where people can find community and comfort through pop-culture offerings.

Battle and Brew was the first video game restaurant, bar and venue in the United States according to the establishment’s general manager Ryan Blake. The concept came out of the “natural evolution” of gaming and its popularity.

Blake pointed to the popularity of arcades in the past, usually located in shopping malls. People could go to play casually for hours. Some restaurants may have also featured an arcade game in their dining room, but Blake said the Battle and Brew team wanted to modernize the oldfashioned approach.

“As times evolved, gaming systems became more elaborate,” Blake said. “If you want to keep their interest you have to keep up with the times.”

Thus, Battle and Brew opened with a pay-as-you-play hourly game model. The restaurant and bar features various console games, including Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation models. It also offers desktop computer games, set up next

to each other for potential multi-player gaming.

Customers can pay an hourly fee as an individual or group for unlimited play at any of the desktop setups or communal couches. They can also opt for board games and tabletop games, like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons.

The restaurant has had to keep up with an ever-expanding catalog of video games, particularly as gaming continues to grow mainstream popularity. A 2022 report by the Entertainment Software Association found about two-thirds of Americans, more than 215 million people, play games regularly.

But Battle and Brew wants to cater to all types of people and subcultures. Blake said many customers who come in don’t even play games, rather, they participate in events and partake in the food and drinks.

The menu is jam-packed with pop culture references, which the manager said comes with not being a “corporate” establishment. Battle and Brew’s chefs, bar managers and bartenders all get to concoct their own seasonal offerings.

The cocktails vary from drinks like the Princess Peach, a reference to the Super Mario franchise, to Eda the Owl Lady, named after a character in Disney’s animated show the “Owl House.”

Together, the food, drinks and

ambiance combine a host of different subcultures — which Blake said is “not defined by one thing.”

To play into different interests the business hosts various events, like trivia, cosplay nights and miniature figurine painting sessions. Blake is particularly proud of the trivia nights, which switch up themes every week.

“We’ve always believed this is the hardest trivia in Atlanta,” Blake said.

The events are a hit with customers. On an average night, they have about 30 teams attend the competition. For more popular themes like Disney trivia, up to 75 teams turn out.

“The entire restaurant was in full Disney cosplay,” Blake said.

The night turned into a full-throated Disney sing-along party for the 200 people in attendance.

“It’s the fact that they’re comfortable here,” Blake said. “It’s an environment where they come in and express themselves without judgement, without any kind of strange looks.”

The manager said people come to Battle and Brew for the food and drinks, but even more so for the comfort and community bonds. Many customers will arrive on a typical night dressed up in cat ears or full costume. Some employees do the same.

Blake admits for people less keyed into

geek culture, the first trip to Battle and Brew can be a surprise.

“For people who have never been here before, they go ‘What did I just walk into?’” Blake said.

Without fail, after a beer and some time, the manager said many people get back into playing a game and “going back to their childhood.”

The restaurant and bar has many regular adult customers, but it’s also family friendly. Battle and Brew is open to all ages before 11 p.m., although children under 16 must have an adult companion. Marketing coordinator Erika Raquel said the establishment aims to welcome everyone from every background.

“We’re all about inclusivity,” Raquel said.

Blake sees Battle and Brew as a haven for geeks and gamers, and he hopes people can form bonds from “sharing the same passion.” As video games and tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons gain attention in mainstream media, he hopes those bonds will increase.

“It’s always been cool, but people also just now realize ‘Hey, I’m not the only one,’” Blake said.

With strong community bonds at the Sandy Springs location, Battle and Brew plans to expand to The Battery Atlanta shopping mall by October, with a few more hopeful locations down the line.

DELANEY TARR/APPEN MEDIA

Battle and Brew, a video game restaurant and bar, is a hub for all things game and geek culture in Sandy Springs. Customers can pay for hourly play at any of the various video game consoles and computers.

Lemonade stand sells sweet hit at Alpharetta Farmers Market

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Cooper GarrisonBrook, a 12-year-old Johns Creek student, began selling lemonade to raise money for a new computer. Now, he has dedicated the weekly stand to helping those in need.

In May 2021, Cooper said he slipped while exiting the school bus and dropped his laptop, which broke on the pavement. Cooper, who was 10 years old, sought an enterprising way to earn money for a replacement.

That summer, he and his parents opened the first Lemonade with a Purpose booth at the Alpharetta Farmers Market.

His father Dan Brook is a partner in Bagel Boys Cafe, another local business. Dan said Bagel Boys owner John Lamb had provided the family some supplies for a test run at the market.

“Now it’s become sort of a family thing where we all look forward to the time together on Saturday and doing it together,” Dan said.

While the lemonade stand began as a way for Cooper to earn money, sales continued to grow. By the summer’s end, the family decided to make Lemonade with a Purpose a staple at the market.

“We have had lots of people tell us it’s the best lemonade they have ever had,” Cooper said.

The purpose

Staying true to its name, Lemonade with a Purpose donates more than a third of its profits to charity. Its current recipients are the Rainforest Awareness Rescue Education Center, Discovering My Purpose and Save the Children.

Cooper’s mother, Laura GarrisonBrook, is the president and CEO of Discovering My Purpose, a nonprofit that provides resources and programs for young people.

Ultimately, Laura said Cooper chose the three groups because he is passionate about them. While the family volunteers at the market to keep the booth running, she and Dan said Lemonade with a Purpose is Cooper’s

like peach tea. Customers can add lemon, lime or grapefruit sparkling water or flavored popping pearls to their lemonade for $1 extra. Prices range from $5 to $7.

idea, from concept to execution.

“This is a big endeavor for our family,” she said. “And it’s about helping Cooper connect to what lights him up, helping him connect to a sense of, ‘I have the ability to make a difference in the world,’ his own sense of agency.”

In its first year, the booth donated $1,555 to charity. To date, it has given more than $6,800. The booth’s cash tips sponsor Shihab, a boy in Bangladesh who is around Cooper’s age.

With the profits from the booth’s second year, Cooper and his family volunteered at the Rainforest Awareness Rescue Education Center in the Amazon rainforest in Peru for a week.

“I wanted to give back to the community,” Cooper said. “Obviously, everyone in the farmers market is what’s fueling this business, so I felt wrong to just take for myself. I had to give back.”

The process

Much like the concept of Lemonade

with a Purpose, the lemonade itself is also a product of Cooper’s mind. He said he spent weeks studying and testing recipes to find the perfect blend to sell at the market on Saturdays.

The process starts on Wednesday or Thursday, when Bermet, an exchange student from Kyrgyzstan whom Cooper considers his sister, makes a simple syrup base. Before, Cooper and his family would hand-squeeze the lemons, a process that takes between four and five hours.

The family has since invested in a commercial juicer, which expedites the process. They work through Friday to prepare the lemonade and watermelon puree. The juices are packed that evening and ready for the market in the morning.

At the farmers market booth, customers can choose from blueberry, mango, peach, pina colada, raspberry, strawberry and watermelon lemonade.

The booth also has weekly specials,

Cooper said the work is sometimes tiring, but he enjoys his seasonal business venture because it allows him to meet people and feel like he is a part of the community. On the side, he also works at a summer camp.

“I’ve just been having fun with it,” he said. “That’s the whole goal, is having fun at this point.”

With two summers under his belt and a successful third in progress, Cooper has no plans to stop selling his lemonade. While he said he may try to expand one day, for now, he is content.

Cooper said he and his family are considering finding other families to sell his lemonade at other local markets. Until then, Lemonade with a Purpose can be found at the Alpharetta Farmers Market.

The market runs April through November from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays in downtown Alpharetta. The market will start at 9:30 a.m. in November.

“It’s been a really good experience for our family to do this together and do something that gives back and at the same time, gives him a good experience,” Dan said.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Cooper Garrison-Brook, center, runs Lemonade with a Purpose on Saturdays at the Alpharetta Farmers Market. From left, Cooper’s grandmother Cindy, mother Laura, father Dan and exchange student Bermet, whom Cooper considers a sister, volunteer at the booth.

Lemonade with a Purpose volunteer Laura Garrison-Brook pours lemonade for a customer Aug. 12 at the Alpharetta Farmers Market. More than a third of the booth’s profits are donated to charity.

Embrace tasty traditions with the Zukerino Pastry Shop

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — If you’re ever craving sugar while heading west on I-285 through Dunwoody, it might be easy to just go for a gas station candy bar or fast-food milkshake, but that would be a big mistake because the Zukerino Pastry Shop is right around the corner.

Opened by Theodore Kazazakis and his family in 2012, the Zukerino Pastry Shop is a one-stop shop for all things tasty and delicious, from Baklava and cheesecake to Italian butter cookies and classic American turnovers.

A native of Athens, Greece, Kazazakis learned pastry making at his family’s bakery and served as the culinary pastry chef at the Landmark Diner for seven years before setting out on his own. He now runs the pastry shop with his son, Alex Kazazakis.

“He decided that he wanted to branch out and wanted to open up his own place. So that’s exactly what he did,” Alex said.

Nearly 12 years after opening, Alex said they have transformed the Zukerino Pastry Shop from a small bakery based out of an old Waffle House, into a thriving business with hundreds of customers in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee, including more than 100 restaurants.

He said about 70 percent of their business comes from restaurants they supply in the Atlanta area, but they also do a good amount of business from everyday people who need pastry treats.

“I always have my regular customers,” Alex said. “I always try to entice them with something new.”

The Zukerino Pastry Shop is based on Greek pastry traditions like Baklava,

a dessert made of phyllo pastry filled with chopped nuts and soaked with honey, or Kourambiedes, butter cookies dusted with powdered sugar, and Melomakarona, honey cookies shaped almost like a pecan. But they also excel with treats from around the world like tiramisu, New York-style cheesecake, and the Kazazakis’ favorite, Italian Butter Cookies.

“When it comes to cookies, these are my favorite. All of these right here,” he said, pointing to a case of thick creamcolored cookies covered in sprinkles, M&M’s or dipped in chocolate.

Often, they might be the only pastry shop or bakery within several hundred miles to make a specific type of traditional dessert or treat, which draws in customers from sometimes states away.

“They’ll call us and go, ‘Hey, what time do you guys close?’ and we’ll wait for them because that’s extreme loyalty,” Alex said.

Crystal Smith, who has worked at Zukerino for the last seven years, said the business often feels like a second family. New customers, even just people passing by on the street, are quick to come on board and love their shop.

“You establish relationships with customers when you work the front,” she said. “A lot of people who don’t know about us see us in the line at Dunkin’ Donuts and then drop in here where I give them samples.”

The Zukerino Pastry Shop is located at 2230 Cotillion Drive in Dunwoody.

Learn more about their offerings and hours by visiting their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Zukerino/, or calling 770-220-1733.

PHOTOS BY ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

Zukerino Pastry Shop, located off Cotillion Drive in Dunwoody, is a one-stop-shop for traditional Greek, Italian and other ethnic deserts. The pastry shop will celebrate its 12th anniversary this December.

At the Zukerino Pastry Shop in Dunwoody you can find simple well-known deserts like cheesecake, tiramisu and American turnovers, but your mouth will thank you when you try the honey-soaked Baklava rolls and a rainbow of cookies, cakes and other unusual pastries.

Rivermont Golf Club celebrates after 50 years in the game

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — It’s not often that you hear of a family owned and operated golf club, or one that takes so many environmentally green measures, but that’s Rivermont in Johns Creek.

Chris Cupit, owner and general manager of Rivermont Golf Club, is the son of one of the guys who started the place in 1973. In July the club hosted the Georgia Amateur Championship for the first time as part of a week-long celebration to mark its 50th year. There were also parties for the club’s 700 members and a night of fireworks.

Cupit and his mother Lynda are neighbors and live on the golf course. Cara, Cupit’s sister, will soon run a Pilates studio that was recently built next to the clubhouse. A brown spritely dog named Hobbes, after “Calvin and Hobbes,” acted as an escort to the new building.

Cupit said family-owned private golf clubs are an unusual model. There are member-run clubs, he said, but there’s an increasing number of companies who consolidate.

“We have to be successful, and we have to make money because it’s our livelihood,” Cupit said. “But our focus is on so much more. My mom will say it’s her ministry.”

Family history

Cupit sat in his office on the second floor of the clubhouse, stately and tastefully dated, describing the story of his father David, how he came over from a big golfing family in Texas. David, who died in 2003, was one of 10 kids, and one of five who became a golf professional.

Cupit’s father moved to Atlanta and began working at the Atlanta Country Club in the ’60s, then Ansley Golf Club. Before making Rivermont what it is today, David was the first head golf professional at Dunwoody Country Club.

The Cupits became the sole owners in 1988 and since then, have fostered a sense of community among its members and beyond, like with the Rivermont Women’s Association.

While the club never had any exclusionary policies like other clubs at the time, Cupit said his family recognized the ladies wanted to be more involved and allowed not only members, but also women in the

surrounding neighborhood to join.

The association has an investment club, a book club, a lunch bunch and several bridge groups. That day, about a dozen women played the card game in the dining area. The association also regularly brings in guest speakers.

Eye on environment

Rivermont Golf Club has become known for its innovative green practices.

To fertilize the course, the club’s “mad scientist” Mark Hoban brews compost tea using worm manure, or worm castings, fish hydrolysate and

mycorrhizal fungi, brought in from different areas around the country like Alaska.

Hatcher Hurd, former editor and writer for Appen Media, detailed Hoban’s positive impact on Rivermont in a story from 2015. Hurd reported Hoban’s “organic maintenance philosophy” earned him the Environmental Leader in Golf award from the Georgia Golf Environmental Foundation.

Cupit said Rivermont uses less than a pound of nitrogen per acre in a year, whereas golf courses tend to use four to five pounds of nitrogen per acre annually. Homeowners typically

use one to two pounds of nitrogen per acre, he said.

He also said Rivermont’s irrigation uses recycled water.

“We’re the last bit before it goes in the Chattahoochee,” Cupit said. “So instead of all the runoff going from the neighborhoods going right into the river, we capture it.”

A social sport

There’s 100 people waiting to become a member at Rivermont, Cupit said, in part due to the growth in golf’s popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Golf was one of the few things people could safely do.

The pandemic reminded everyone of how they’re social creatures, he said, contributing to the mission of Rivermont.

“If we can help people find friends and develop relationships, and have fun being together, centered around golf … that’s what we want.”

While he didn’t follow his father’s footsteps as a pro, Cupit played golf in college and involves himself with the game today whether it’s through volunteering with the Georgia State Golf Association or with the United States Golf Association as a rules official.

Cupid said he loves golf because it has some “old fashioned values,” defined by walking with a bag and not being bombarded by screens, and he enjoys that the game is “primal.”

“You get to hit a ball with a bat,” he said. “It’s fun to whack something.”

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Chris Cupit is the owner and general manager of Rivermont Golf Club, where he lives. The club, located on Rivermont Parkway in Johns Creek, celebrated 50 years in operation this year and hosted the Georgia Amateur Championship for its first time in July.

A member drives along the cart path to his next swing. Rivermont Golf Club prides itself on environmentally green, organic course maintenance.

A new Pilates studio was recently built next to the right of Rivermont’s clubhouse. Classes are expected to begin in September.

Couples Academy isolates on marriages in crisis stage

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — Hasani and Danielle Pettiford, owners of Couples Academy, will soon celebrate 21 years of marriage. But as they sat closely on the couch in their Milton home, they recalled a time when that benchmark felt impossible.

Hasani said couples tend to struggle in five areas — communication, sex, parenting, finances and loss, though communication is the common denominator.

“We suffered from all five of them. All of it,” Hasani said. “Broke, busted and disgusted, didn’t have a pot to pee in, a window to throw it out of … We had to crawl our way out.”

Danielle said she had asked Hasani to go to counseling time and time again, and eventually checked out. But something in him changed one day, she said, and he started watching therapeutic VHS tapes to begin a journey of self-repair.

“We found some therapists that turned everything around and gave us a different experience, where we were working on ourselves,” Danielle said. “... They really helped us center on our own development.”

In the trenches

The Pettifords saved their marriage and began sharing their story with other couples at casual gatherings at their home, laughing and playing cards. But the pair realized some of these couples would pour out their marital issues in search of the same level of happiness they had discovered.

So, Hasani and Danielle decided to take their positions more seriously and become certified as marriage and family coaches.

“Once we became infidelity recovery specialists, it seems like 99 percent of all our clients kind of fit in that category,” Hasani said.

What separates the Pettifords from other marriage counselors is that they deal with crises, those on the verge of divorce, impacted by an affair.

“It’s beyond ‘Hey, have a date night and just learn to communicate better,’” Hasani said. “We get in the trenches, and deal with some heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy issues that most practitioners are not equipped for,

become overwhelmed by and may refer out because that’s just not their thing.”

Since becoming infidelity recovery specialists a decade ago, Hasani said only eight couples who have gone through programs at the Couples Academy have divorced.

Connecting the dots

Couples can take one of two routes at Couples Academy. One is the traditional path consisting of weekly sessions led by one of 15 practitioners. But the Pettifords said this is not ideal.

“If somebody chooses the traditional weekly model, the national statistics suggest that the average couple engages in about 16 to 20 sessions before they wind up stopping,” Hasani said.

Couples stop, not because the process is completed, he said, but because they either haven’t seen enough breakthrough or because it’s too costly. Yet, it takes one to two years to heal from an affair, Hasani said.

We connect dots, and we walk you through a journey to get you to a final destination.”

HASANI PETTIFORD

Couples Academy owner

The preferred path is an intensive, three-prong approach. The first step is attending a “Last Chance” weekend, where four to eight couples participate in experiential learning exercises, a process that includes a “shock factor.”

“We connect dots, and we walk you through a journey to get you to a final destination,” Hasani said.

Those weekends are three, 12- to 16-hour days that consist of teambuilding activities, like hiking Stone Mountain or climbing a 30-foot pole

blindfolded.

“You see that partnership, and they make it together,” Danielle said.

Couples then participate in a 12week program, exclusive to husbands and wives, tackling different obstacles on the individual level. This is followed by what the Pettifords call “building your kingdom,” where couples tap into the power of their partnerships.

“We’re not just interested in saving your marriage,” Hasani said. “There’s so much more behind that.”

Danielle and Hasani Pettiford, owners of Couples Academy, stand in their Milton home. The Pettifords began working with married couples around 15 years ago after therapy helped them overcome their own marital difficulties. While the pair cover a wide range of issues, they specialize in infidelity recovery.

Salon delivers clients a sense of belonging

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Level Spa

Salon owners George-Anna “Georgie” Wood and Andrea Craighead have two decades of experience as stylists, but at their salon, business is secondary to creating a home away from home.

“The atmosphere we want to create when you come in is warm, cozy, homey, inviting,” Wood said. “And that’s probably the biggest one. We want our salon to be just an inviting space.”

Wood and Craighead execute their vision through an open floor plan, without the partitions separating chairs that are often found at salons. Stylists can share ideas and have conversations while working, and clients can interact with other stylists if one is busy.

“Our clients, we want them to feel comfortable if they need to see other people because we are … kind of that family environment,” she said.

Wood and Craighead opened Level Spa Salon on Peachtree Parkway in 2007 during the Great Recession. Despite the economic climate, the pair found immediate success in their first and only location.

“I think that we were just the right amount of young and dumb and driven,” Wood said. “Because I mean, we worked, for sure, six days a week for the first two years, [first] year for sure … And even at those times, I don’t remember it being really that much of a chore … We were excited. Failing wasn’t an option.”

Craighead said in the early days, the two worked 10- to 12-hour days, driven to not have debt from their business venture. Their dedication, and their commitment to crafting an intimate environment, paid off, and Level Spa Salon cemented a loyal following.

“I would say 80 percent of our clientele, if not more, we’ve probably serviced for a minimum of 15, if not 20plus, years,” Craighead said. “You know, it’s a family. They just were so excited to just want to see us grow.”

Mutual beginnings

Craighead, who hails from a rural Florida town, said she never seriously considered styling as a career until moving to Georgia in 1997. She said she came from a creative background and loved dolling up her three sisters, but her small hometown did not afford much opportunity.

“I used to lock myself in the bathroom knowing that I was going to get

grounded,” Craighead said. “I was always very into my hair and extreme styles from the get-go. So, I was grounded a lot.”

She began working at a salon in Alpharetta in 2000, where she met Wood, who shared a similar background of loving to dress up and wear makeup.

Wood said she knew in high school she wanted to go to cosmetology school, but first, she tried her hand at a business degree.

“I got about two years into the college route, which I loved,” Wood said. “I loved

that experience, but I wouldn’t say I’m the best academic student. And I just was like, ‘… This is going to take me another three years, then hair school. Let me just get that middle portion out of the way.’ So yeah, went to hair school and surprisingly, I was a way better student.”

Reflecting on 23 years of working together, Craighead said she and Wood have been “married” longer than they have to their husbands, and they have spent more of their lives together than apart.

While Wood and Craighead had a heavy workload during its early years, Level Spa Salon now employs 13, including the owners, who still style and work with clients.

“It’s just real life, and then you get to be creative,” Craighead said. “Nobody ever comes in feeling worse when they leave. Even if it’s a bad day, you’re always making it better.”

A complete experience

Much like their commitment to customer service, Wood and Craighead strive to make working at the salon the best possible experience for their stylists. They said they offer their employees holidays and holiday weekends off, as well as a 401(k).

“We mentor these people to buy houses and cars and build credit and create not just a career for themselves, but a life for themselves,” Craighead said.

One of their employees, Melissa “M.J.” Janes, has worked at Level Spa Salon for 11 years and handles customer service. She said the salon is like a second home to her, and it is her safe space.

Level Spa Salon also provides mentorship for Forsyth Central and West Forsyth high school students, who can gain credits working at the salon to earn a license through the schools’ cosmetology programs.

Although the salon offered other services in the past, Craighead said Level Spa Salon now focuses on hair, its standout service.

“We’re always open for something new,” she said. “In the past years, we’ve had massage, we’ve had nails, we’ve had eyebrow waxing, facials, but we have realized that we’re hairdressers, and that’s what we’re best at.”

Craighead emphasized the salon’s commitment to testing and enjoying the products it sells. Wood said Level Spa Salon currently sells nutritional supplements for skin and hair health.

Wood said the salon offers customized hair coloring, cutting, detailing and styling. Even if five customers request the same thing, she said Level Spa Salon aims for a personalized experience.

“Everybody is different, and each head of hair is different and will be customized to what fits and suits them,” Wood said. “I feel like we definitely strive to give that more personal, detailed approach, versus a one-haircut-shop kind of style.”

Level Spa Salon is in Suite 160 at 405 Peachtree Parkway. More information on pricing, hours and appointments can be found at levelspasalon.com.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

From left, owner Andrea Craighead, customer service representative M.J. and owner Georgie Wood welcome guests to Level Spa Salon Sept. 1. Craighead and Wood have owned the salon on Peachtree Parkway since 2007.

Level Spa Salon features an open floor plan with no partitions separating chairs Sept. 1. Owner Georgie Wood said the design aims to create a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Eatery transports guests on journey to Middle East

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — When Fares Kargar opened Delbar on Old Milton Parkway, he envisioned a resort that would transport diners from the fares of Metro Atlanta to a world of Middle Eastern flavors.

Hailing from Iran, Kargar said he grew up loving food and began cooking out of necessity for his family. Now a Sandy Springs resident, Kargar relocated to the United States around 2007, but he never imagined himself in the restaurant business until his time as a student at Georgia State University.

“It was always a hobby, something I enjoyed doing a lot, but I never looked at it as a career until I came to the U.S.,” he said. “… my plan was always to go to architecture school and become a architect and build homes and businesses and that kind of thing. That’s kind of what my family did, and my dad did.”

His first foray into the industry was a job as a busboy at Luciano’s on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth. There, he worked his way up to assistant general manager, which inspired him to open his own restaurant.

The perfect location

In May 2020, Kargar opened his first Delbar location in Inman Park. The restaurant was successful, cementing a loyal clientele who would drive south to Atlanta from Alpharetta to dine there.

Recognizing the large demographic of Middle Easterners in Alpharetta, Kargar began pursuing his second location. He had seen the building on Old Milton Parkway while driving, a former Indian fusion restaurant, and identified it as the perfect location for Delbar.

“It is a huge building, standalone, very modern look, you know, the fountains up front,” he said. “There is a lot going on with the building, kind of gives me that kind of a resort vibe and resort feeling, rather than just a typical restaurant … and I wanted Delbar to have more of identity.”

Delbar celebrated its Alpharetta launch in May, and it now serves its North Fulton fans closer to home. Guests are welcomed to the restaurant by a complimentary valet service. Its outdoor entryway is adorned with arches of flowers, followed inside by an airy open floor plan, plentiful windows and subtle décor.

“The goal is for them to be transported,” Kargar said. “My goal is always at Delbar would be to transport

Delbar is open seven days a week at 4120 Old Milton Parkway, with varying hours for brunch, lunch and dinner. For menus and reservations, visit delbaratl.com/ home-old-milton.

people, to make them feel that they’re not in the city. They’re on a leisure vacation, away from Atlanta.”

A taste of nostalgia

Kargar said he wanted Delbar to be unique among Persian restaurants. The menu is inspired by his native northern Iran, but also southeastern parts of the country, where he spent summers in his grandmother’s village.

“Each region of Iran has different foods,” he said. “And there was so much food that gets neglected because everyone just is used to same idea of kabob and rice kind of scenario.”

Delbar has dinner, weekend lunch and brunch, dessert and weekday lunch menus. Its weekday lunch offerings include mazze, or small bites, and a list of spreads served with fresh taftoun bread.

Guests can also choose from greens and grains, which include a variety of polo, a rice dish, salads, fries and beet carpaccio, or meats served a la carte.

The lunch menu also boasts a list of sandwiches, each served on homemade turmeric barbari bread.

“So, one of our staples is, the chinjeh is one that we can never take off the menu,” Kargar said. “That always stays on the menu.”

Each menu is crafted based on the demographics of the Delbar location. Guests at the Inman Park location preferred a Turkish-inspired breakfast, but he found Alpharetta clientele prefer staples such as kabobs and rice.

Kargar said sourcing quality ingredients is also a priority. Some of its cocktails are related to the season, and others are aimed at incorporating elements of Persian cuisine, such as barberries, sumac, cardamom and saffron.

“When it comes to food, it’s more of a story of my life, right,” he said. “The dishes you see on the menu are my favorite items that I’ve eaten, either back home, or when I lived in Turkey, or kind of moved across the U.S.”

Many of the dishes are those Kargar had cooked with his grandmother or meals his mother used to make.

But no matter the inspiration, the food at Delbar is crafted to create a feeling of nostalgia, aimed at giving a sense of feeling in each bite.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Owner Fares Kargar greets guests behind the bar Sept. 22 at Delbar at 4120 Old Milton Parkway. The restaurant offers a cocktail menu inspired by Persian flavors, incorporating saffron, cardamom, sumac and barberries.

Delbar at 4120 Old Milton Parkway welcomes guests with a complimentary valet service and an archway of flowers Sept. 22. Owner Fares Kargar hoped to make guests feel like they are on vacation at a resort when he opened the Alpharetta location in May.

Delbar offers an adana bite, an adana kabob with zhoug and spicy tahina served on fresh taftoun bread, on its weekday lunch menu Sept. 22 at 4120 Old Milton Parkway. The adana bite is on Delbar’s mazze, or small bites, menu.

Sugo backs food fare with more than 100 years of history

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — At Sugo, an Italian and Greek restaurant on Medlock Bridge Road, this year marked the 20th anniversary of serving up dishes that span generations of the Castellucci family.

To celebrate, some 160 guests circulated throughout the dimly lit restaurant Oct. 1 grabbing from stations with dishes like spanakopita, the way Frederico “Mr. C” Castellucci II’s grandmother handmade it, and eggplant fries. There was, of course, meatballs — a fan favorite that continues to be a staple in Sugo’s cooking classes, once featured on the Food Network.

The fusion comes from both sides of Mr. C’s family, his Italian father and Greek mother.

Walking into the business, guests see many black and white photos of Mr. C’s family hanging on the wall. One, from June 1917, shows his mother standing in the middle of her father’s restaurant. She had just served a decorated officer from the First World War.

“When guests come for the first time, and they want to know the story behind the restaurants, I usually bring them over to the pictures because the pictures tell the story more than I can,” Mr. C said.

All the staff wore white T-shirts with the silhouette of Mr. C’s face, his daughter’s idea after the cooking classes had taken off. He recalled delivering food to a family during the pandemic, who had shouted after him once he dropped the food off at the door; he turned around, and they were all wearing the T-shirts.

“You can’t make this up,” he said.

Nancy “Mrs. C” Castellucci, Mr. C’s wife and Sugo’s general manager, has been an integral part of everyday operations. Before guests arrived, she buzzed around the space, directing staff on where to go and how to set up. Later, she would greet those entering the door with a hug.

The pair met after a calamity had struck the Castellucci family, or, as Mr. C likes to say, a “Black Swan” event that is out of anyone’s control. She was hired as a server at his father’s restaurant in Rhode Island, a place

When guests come for the first time, and they want to know the story behind the restaurants, I usually bring them over to the pictures because the pictures tell the story more than I can.”

FREDERICO “MR. C” CASTELLUCCI II Sugo Former Owner

called Archie’s Tavern, after it was rebuilt following a devastating fire.

“As much as we discourage inside romances in a restaurant, we broke our own rule,” Mr. C said, laughing.

They married seven years later and have been business partners since, opening Sugo together in 2003 at its original location in Roswell.

The Castellucci’s three children entered the restaurant business as well. Their eldest formed the Castellucci Hospitality Group, the ownership umbrella of a number of restaurants throughout Metro Atlanta and out of state, including Sugo, The Iberian Pig, Cooks & Soldiers, Double Zero and Mujo.

Mr. C remarked on “the grit factor” among his children, a virtue which carried them through the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Edison and the lightbulb, he said failure has been a lesson more than a loss for the Castelluccis.

“There’s been so many difficult times, and that’s why it’s just incredible, the way my kids have navigated all of that,” he said.

Mr. C isn’t the owner of Sugo anymore; he’s the owner’s father. But he remembered a patron comparing him to Frank Sinatra.

“‘Frank Sinatra did not own Capitol Records, and he actually didn’t write any of the songs,’” the man told Mr. C. “‘But every time he sang, people knew he cared.’”

Nancy “Mrs. C” Castellucci and Frederico “Mr. C” Castellucci II, middle, stand with Sugo staff before the doors open for the restaurant’s 20th anniversary celebration Oct. 1. Ricardo Soto, bottom right, is the executive chef of Sugo, an Italian and Greek restaurant on Medlock Bridge Road, owned by the Castellucci’s children.

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

A Sugo staff member helps a guest with food options. For the 20th anniversary event, food stations were set up around the restaurant.

Guests walk into Sugo for its 20th anniversary celebration.

Pandemic-forged Roswell gym strives to shape community

By HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — When you think of a CrossFit gym, a group of people with different skills, circumstances and strengths may not be what comes to mind.

Mike Vialpando said it’s a dream to be in his third year as owner and head coach of Forge Roswell at The Mill in Historic Roswell, 23 Maple Street.

“What separates us, I believe, from other gyms is not that we’re ‘better,’” Vialpando said. “We’re intentional about what our goals and values are… community, coaching and programming.”

While some members joined the gym for general conditioning and a sense of community, Forge Roswell’s unique style has allowed it to retain and expand membership.

The workout programs at Forge Roswell are geared toward the individual’s desired level of functionality. Most gyms affiliated with CrossFit differ in some ways.

While some are geared toward CrossFit competitions and high-intensity workouts, others, like Forge Roswell, modify the fitness regimen to suit individuals.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many gyms across the country closed permanently.

When Vialpando acquired CrossFit NBK in Oct. 2021, membership had declined amid lockdowns.

The 6,000-square-foot gym needed a community based revival, Vialpando said.

“We’ve been growing ever since,” Vialpando said.

There was a group of five coaches from the prior gym when Vialpando acquired it in 2021.

Today, there are 10 coaches at Forge Roswell.

The start of Vialpando’s coaching journey began when he left a 10-year healthcare career at St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta. He said starting a youth fitness program was spurred by his desire to address healthcare before patients reached the hospital.

Because of his experience in a hospital, Vialpando said he thinks the cost of a gym membership is much less than the cost of healthcare later in life.

“I created youth programs to get ahead of it,” Vialpando said.

Prior to acquiring the gym, Vialpando was head coach and manager for several years at another gym in Metro Atlanta.

“In the Roswell area, we are saturated with other CrossFit gyms specifically [and] just fitness organizations for adults, so there’s a lot to choose from,” Vialpando said.

Following a 2020 controversy in the CrossFit organization, in which founder Greg Glassman resigned amid charges of

racism in his social media posts, Vialpando and his coaching staff have taken measures to promote an inclusive culture at Forge Roswell.

“CrossFit comes with some stigmas,” Vialpando said. “But if somebody steps into our gym, they will see themselves reflected in the leadership.”

Forge Roswell has community events, like Trivia Night at Summit Coffee on Atlanta Street Oct. 19.

The community at the gym participates in competitions and gatherings around North Fulton, Vialpando said.

“Ruck the Mill” is a 1-hour hike, two Sundays a month at 8 a.m. Forge Roswell invites anyone interested to enjoy the Vickery Creek Trail at Roswell Mill.

The Forge Roswell coaches have crafted unique classes with modifications for individuals based on their fitness condition and lifestyle.

The gym has programs for CrossFit athletes, as well as a low-impact functional training program for people with less experience.

There are six CrossFit classes Monday through Friday, with two classes on Saturday and Sunday.

Each class throughout the day is 60-minutes and designed for people with CrossFit experience.

The competitive lifting class is 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Saturday.

The low-impact functional training classes are twice a day Monday through Friday.

Vialpando’s own LIFT classes are designed to sustain everyday activities by focusing on strength training and aerobic conditioning.

Vialpando said he thinks Forge Roswell’s modified CrossFit workouts create a community designed for any committed individual regardless of experience.

“Our goal is to help support the activities that you’re already doing,” Vialpando said.

Vialpando encourages men and women of all ages to consider a 60-minute class at Forge Roswell.

The gym also has a summer teen program, which meets three days a week starting June 5.

“We taught kids how to safely and properly lift and move weights,” Vialpando said. “The whole goal is to create an active lifestyle.”

Kids who play year-round sports and kids with other interests are encouraged to attend youth classes at Forge Roswell.

Vialpando said he hopes to start weeklong youth programs when school is out for the holidays.

To learn more about classes at Forge Roswell, visit https://www.theforgeroswell. com/

PHOTOS BY FORGE ROSWELL/PROVIDED

Roswell Forge staff and gym members gather in the middle of the 6,000-square-foot facility at 23 Maple Street, Roswell. Owner Mike Vialpando sits at center, wearing a cap and light blue shirt.

Gym members hang from pull-up bars during gymnastics class at Forge Roswell.

Hotel, spa is new oasis for cats

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Unlike the average boarding facility, The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa on Medlock Bridge Road offers a luxurious extended stay for area felines.

After a career in broadcast and marketing, Pittsburgh native Susan Hamlin said she wanted to pursue something fulfilling. With three children now in high school and a lifelong love of cats, she found Happy Cat through a Facebook ad, a small growing chain with a handful of locations in the Northeast.

“I love cats,” she said. “I’m a crazy cat lady, or I would be. I only have one, but I would be if I could be … it just checked a lot of boxes for me.”

Hamlin, a Duluth resident, signed the deal to open the first Happy Cat location in Georgia and the South in mid-2022. The boarding facility and spa celebrated its grand opening Oct. 21, and now, Hamlin hopes to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for North Fulton cats.

Cats check in to Happy Cat Johns Creek much the same as humans check into luxury hotels. The hotel is appointment-based, where owners select a check-in and check-out time. Each cat has its own private room, though owners can book multiple cats in a single room for an additional fee.

Each of the 22 rooms at Happy Cat Johns Creek has a theme, including “Meowmi,” based on Miami; the “Rocky Meowntain Lodge,” which features Colorado-themed décor; and “Weekend in Purris,” an elegant and pastel space where four-legged guests are joined by their own Eiffel Tower on the wall.

The Johns Creek location has an exclusive room, “Catlanta United,” with a special soccer ball chair and a decal of the Atlanta skyline.

“There is a reason behind everything that’s in there,” Hamlin said.

The business offers boarding for cats while their owners are on vacation, moving, renovating their homes, at work or facing a life event that makes it difficult to care for their pet.

No cats are kenneled at Happy Cat Johns Creek. While the rooms vary, most include wall perches, boxes for hiding and beds. If a guest is still anxious after their first night, Hamlin said staff can build a “fort” and cover any windows in the room.

“… it really is an oasis,” she said. “I don’t know, I mean, we have so many things in place above and beyond what you see, you know, as far as, like, the care and

The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa Johns Creek is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Suite N at 10360 Medlock Bridge Road.

More information on reserving a room and grooming can be found at happycathotel. com/johnscreekga.

the cleaning and updates and webcams. And there’s just nothing like it.”

Each morning, Happy Cat staff check on all guests to ensure there are no health emergencies. Owners provide contact information for their veterinarians along with updated vaccination records.

The hotel asks owners to provide their cat’s choice of food for their stay. Any treats or special routines are accommodated so the furry guests are less homesick and more comfortable in their transient home.

Hamlin said owners receive daily updates and are always welcome to message staff for news on their cat. However, if the owner misses their companion or wants to see how things are going outside of business hours, each room has a webcam that can be accessed 24/7.

Some rooms at Happy Cat also border the windows of the business, so guests can look at the world outside. Hamlin said there will also be birdhouses on the windows for the cats’ viewing pleasure.

In addition to boarding, Happy Cat Johns Creek offers grooming services. Hamlin said the business hopes to fill the absence of cat groomers in Metro Atlanta, which are typically much harder to find than dog groomers.

“But just grooming, everything for dogs, is so prevalent,” Hamlin said. “So, we knew that respect of it was a niche, you know, and people are very pet focused.”

Happy Cat groomers are certified by the National Cat Groomers Institute, and services are performed without anesthesia. If a cat is ever too uncomfortable to continue, staff works with the owner to determine the next best steps for their client.

Happy Cat Johns Creek spa services include the standard cat groom, a bath, blow-dry, ear and eye cleaning and trim for long-haired cats; plush trims; traditional lion cuts; and de-shedding treatments.

Each service includes nail trimming, but owners are welcome to book the service without a groom.

Regardless of the reason for their stay, all cats at Happy Cat Johns Creek are given VIP treatment.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Owner Susan Hamlin visits the “Bonsai Kitty” room Oct. 19 at The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa Johns Creek. The cat hotel celebrated the grand opening of its first Georgia location Oct. 21.

The “Outback Cat” room at The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa Johns Creek features Australian themed décor Oct. 19. Guest cats at the hotel receive 15 minutes of playtime with staff daily during their stay.

X-Golf simulators allow players to perfect swing

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — In this day and age, there’s no need for a plane if you want to play golf at St. Andrews in Scotland.

The world-renowned course is one of more than 50 at X-Golf, a new facility at Halcyon where golfers can improve their swing on a simulator that provides real-time data at 6,000 calculations per second while enjoying beer, cocktails and shareable appetizers from a fully stocked bar.

Golf activity comes and goes with the seasons, but the 6,800-square-foot facility equipped with seven simulation bays allows it to be a year-long affair.

“Inside X-Golf, it’s always sunny and 70,” said franchise owner John Vautour at the Nov. 14 grand opening.

While there are more than 100 X-Golf locations around the country either open or in development, Vautour’s is the first in Georgia. It was a two-year effort, finding the right property, the negotiation process, securing loans and the build-out.

Initially, Vautour wanted to open a

bar in his hometown of Athens, but he scratched the idea and began looking at franchises. He found X-Golf, went to a few locations and fell in love with it.

“Once I found Halcyon and the franchise, it was like a match made in heaven,’” Vautour said.

He picked up the game in just the last five years with a “bunch of knuckleheads,” enjoying a beer while the rest smoke cigars in a casual outing.

And, X-Golf is casual – roomy, comfortable with TVs posted above the bar.

Serious players can improve their game using an endless number of features on a nearby computer, which Vautour used in a demonstration. After hitting a ball toward the screen, the computer provides an analysis of the shot.

Customers can also set up lessons with a PGA professional at X-Golf. Golfer Alex Hillmon, who has been playing for more than 30 years, guided a man at another bay. Hillmon works with beginners by looking at the hole backwards, and for folks with more experience, he suggests only a few tweaks.

Hillmon is one of two PGA professionals Vautour has on-call for individual lessons, but he also plans to set up group lessons for children.

Vautour stressed the experience can be enjoyed by someone who has never picked up a club, in part because of the overall experience he intends to create. He plans to partner with nearby businesses for catering and wine tastings as well as introduce a clothing vendor who makes golf outfits.

About the game itself, Vautour said, “It seems like the worse you are, the funnier it is.”

It seems like the worse you are, the funnier it is.”

JOHN VAUTOUR Franchise owner of X-Golf

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Theresa and John Vautour, middle, perform a ribbon-cutting on their new business X-Golf along with family Nov. 14.

PGA professional Alex Hillmon, at left, guides a man at X-Golf’s grand opening Nov. 14.

Café serves community in downtown Alpharetta

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The family-owned Warm Waves Coffee House on North Main Street serves as a gathering place with an intentional and curated menu for the Alpharetta community.

Some 15 years ago, Milton resident Kenny Libby said his wife Shawn gifted him a coffee roaster for Father’s Day, and he began sampling different beans and coffees.

“It was just such a difference between what you buy at the grocery store and roasting fresh coffees,” Kenny Libby said. “It kind of became a personal hobby of mine. I just loved it.”

Initially, Kenny Libby shared the coffee he roasted at home with friends and family. But, when his daughter Brooke needed to fundraise for a World Race gap year mission trip, she thanked those who donated with coffee.

The Libbys then set up shop at the Alpharetta Farmers Market in 2018 and soon found success.

“The next year, we signed up, and we built an espresso bar and then stepped it up and started making espresso drinks and more offerings, and it just became really popular,” Kenny Libby said.

With a proof of concept, he said the family purchased a commercial coffee roaster that year to be housed in a building he owns in Norcross.

Throughout 2019, he was trained through the Specialty Coffee Association and received his professional roasting certification.

“Our goal when we started this was to become wholesale coffee roasters,” Kenny Libby said. ”Our plan wasn’t to open a coffee shop. At the end of 2019, we felt pretty good about the quality of our coffee that we were roasting, and we felt comfortable starting moving past just friends and family with the coffee and start selling it to the general public.”

The new business venture hit a hurdle when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Warm Waves to close its existing accounts.

But, on the way home from the last Alpharetta Farmers Market of the season, Kenny Libby said he and daughters Brooke and McKinley spotted a former day spa for lease at 52-A N. Main St.

“We signed the lease in December of 2020 and then built out the place and opened up in August of 2021,” Kenny

If you go…

Menus, hours and more information can be found at warmwavescoffee.com.

Libby said.

Warm Waves serves the standard fare of tea and espresso in traditional sizes, but guests can also sample seasonal drinks crafted by the shop’s baristas, including bourbon butterscotch, sweet potato pie and fall spice.

“I think, in general, we are just really proud of our sauces and our syrups, and I think that sets our menu and our coffee apart in a lot of ways,” Brooke Libby said.

Brooke Libby now works as a barista and manager at the Alpharetta coffee shop. She is also set to become manager of Warm Waves’ forthcoming second location in Suwanee.

She said the shop’s fan favorite flavor is the beehive, a combination of cinnamon, vanilla and honey, but its lavender and vanilla flavor is a popular summertime choice.

“When we opened this place up, I think, above all else, we wanted this to be a space where people could come and gather and spend time together and have good conversation,” Brooke Libby said.

The sourcing of Warm Waves’ coffee is also a priority. Kenny Libby said the shop works with small farmers to cut the middleman and maximize profits for the small-scale operations.

The coffee shop works with an eighthgeneration Honduran coffee farming family, a boutique partner in Nicaragua and a family-operated Ethiopian company.

Beyond the coffee, Shawn Libby said Warm Waves serves a variety of fresh pastries in partnership with St. Germain Bakery in Atlanta.

The shop also employs an in-house chef who prepares blueberry muffins, orange cardamom cake, quiches and egg bites.

“We try to incorporate a little bit of everything so people can have something nice to eat, excellent coffee, great atmosphere, positive vibes, good community,” Shawn Libby said. “And our goal is, really, to partner with local, family-owned businesses as well. That’s really important to us because we’re a family-owned business.”

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Warm Waves Coffee House borders North Main Street in Alpharetta Nov. 17. The family-owned coffee shop serves espresso, tea, seasonal drinks and fresh pastries.

McKinley, Shawn, Kenny, Woods and Brooke Libby smile outside Warm Waves Coffee House Nov. 17 on North Main Street in Alpharetta. The family-owned coffee shop opened its doors in 2021 after testing the waters at the Alpharetta Farmers Market.

Pair runs coffee shop from the grounds up

Brother, sister brew customer-friendly business

By HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — After leaving the corporate world of Los Angeles for Dunwoody nearly two years ago, Ark Coffeehaus co-owner John Yacoub is ready to give residents a taste of the new family-owned operation at 4448 Tilly Mill Road.

If you have any trouble finding the coffee shop, look for the pink car across the street at Dunwoody Automotive.

Ark Coffeehaus follows the trend of third-wave coffee, a movement toward higher-quality coffee, relationships with local farms and unique flavors.

The coffee shop rolls out a new menu each month. The Holiday Menu in December features house-made peppermint and gingerbread syrup; a Merry Shrub with cranberry, orange and champagne vinegar; and a dark chocolate and orange mocha.

Prior to his move, Yacoub was a broker and owner of a real estate group in California.

Yacoub co-owns Ark Coffeehaus with his sister, former Dunwoody resident Priscilla Wells, who previously left a corporate finance career in Metro Atlanta. While Wells has been in Metro Atlanta for most of her professional life, Yacoub said he made the move to find a conducive place to raise his family.

Yacoub said the motivation to leave corporate culture behind is what spurred the brother-sister duo to open a coffee shop.

“We knew we wanted to operate something hospitality-oriented,” Yacoub said. “Craft coffee had been a hobby of mine for some time, and Priscilla has curated and mixed her own teas for some time.”

The COVID-19 pandemic provided the owners of Ark Coffehaus the opportunity to pursue their passion project, Yacoub said.

Ark Coffeehaus’ principles can be broken down into four concepts: regeneration, localism, hospitality and darn good coffee.

The regenerative and local aspects of their business model involve a partnership with Little Ebenezer Farm in Mansfield, about 50 miles east of Atlanta. The farm, founded by Priscilla and her husband, Jeremy, in 2021, promotes healthful foods produced through natural techniques.

Little Ebenezer Farm currently produces organic cage-free eggs, honey and dairy.

BEN PETERSON/PROVIDED

Ark

We want to be a place where the city can gather to just enjoy a good, quality coffee.

JOHN YACOUB Co-owner of Ark Coffeehaus

Jeremy created the artwork at the coffee shop, adding another layer to the family-owned business.

Yacoub said the Wells primarily live in Mansfield, but they always have a place to stay with him in Dunwoody.

As the coffee shop and the farm grow, Ark Coffeehaus will look to expand their selection of products from the Mansfield farm, Yacoub said.

All coffee grounds from the coffee shop are used at the farm for composting.

What’s more, some of the food scraps from the shop are sent to feed the freerange chickens at Little Ebenezer Farm. Yacoub said customers can also compost their coffee cups and coffee plugs, which are made from organic materials.

While localism and regeneration are cornerstones of third-wave coffee, hospitality and darn good coffee are not a guarantee at every new coffee shop that pops up in the city.

John Yacoub, co-owner of Ark Coffeehaus, stands behind the shop’s high-end espresso coffee machine. La Marzocco, an Italian company founded in 1927, handcrafts their espresso machines for customers to enjoy worldwide.

“I like to say that our business is hospitality, and the medium is darn good coffee,” Yacoub said.

Yacoub said Ark Coffeehaus pays each of its employees a living wage, so customers do not have to tip. The idea is the coffee shop takes care of its employees, so customers do not have to stretch their pockets.

“The tips are going to people that are usually working hard for them,” Yacoub said. “We would just rather our people are taken care of, so that dilemma or frustration doesn’t rest on our people.”

To add to the co-owner’s emphasis on hospitality, they will offer three classes at 2 p.m. in December: Intro to Composting Dec. 6, Tea Tasting Dec. 8, and Planning Your Spring Garden Dec. 13.

Yacob said he would like to begin hosting local musicians and hiring outside of the family in January 2024.

“The name ‘Arc’ can mean a place of refuge, it can mean a place of safekeeping or preservation,” Yacoub said. “So, we want to be a place where the city can gather to just enjoy a good, quality coffee.”

Ark Coffeehaus held a soft opening of the family-owned business Oct. 31.

Representatives from Discover Dunwoody and the Perimeter Chamber of Commerce, along with Mayor Lynn Deutsch and other councilmembers, held the grand opening and ribbon-cutting Nov. 15.

Yacoub said support from the community, meeting councilmembers, and word-of-mouth has been essential for him as a new resident and his business.

“I’ve been here once,” Mayor Deutsch said. “I’m sure this will become my new meeting place.”

BEN PETERSON/PROVIDED

Ark Coffeehaus co-owner Priscilla Wells and her husband Jeremy taste some of the unique coffee blends offered at the shop. Jeremy and Priscilla Wells founded Little Ebenezer Farm in Mansfield.

HAYDEN SUMLIN/APPEN MEDIA

Coffeehaus co-owner John Yacoub stands outside of his new third-wave coffee shop on Tilly Mill Road Nov. 29. Ark Coffeehaus had its grand opening and ribboncutting ceremony with the City of Dunwoody Nov. 15.

Business builds community across the board

Level Up Games grows through table-top play

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — From competitive players to the more casual dabblers, Level Up Games is the place to find community in table-top gaming.

Keenan Crotty, manager of the Johns Creek location, says about 50 people have become regulars since the store’s opening in February. They attend weekly events for a variety of games found in the store’s wellbalanced stock, including your traditional board game, trading card games, role playing games aka RPGs, and miniatures.

Crotty was planning for a weekly event dedicated to “Flesh and Blood,” which he described as a video game turned trading card game.

That early afternoon was slow, save for a first-time visitor from Roswell who had been looking for a decade to play a physical game of BattleTech, a science-fiction tactical wargame. Level Up is much busier in the evening, Crotty said, when the business’ primary demographic leaves work and needs respite.

“That’s why we host events and things because we want people to have that third place to go hang out and do their hobby,” Crotty said.

Community focus

The Roswell visitor pulled up a chair to one of the tables in the back, as if he’d been going there for years, taking to the cozy, welcoming environment. Crotty told him he had a couple BattleTech guys, including one cop in the area, and connected the customer to the store’s Discord server.

About 3,500 people have joined the business’ Discord, used across all three locations — Johns Creek and Athens as well as the 12,000-square-foot store in Duluth, the first to open and the biggest of its kind in Georgia. Crotty said there are dozens of channels for specific games, allowing you to get advice, make a game and build groups.

Andrew Phillips, owner of Level Up, had been in the gaming industry for two decades on the distributor side before opening the Duluth location in 2019.

He took over the space from longtime Atlanta gaming institution Titans Games & Comics — Phillips gave it a new name with a new culture and had to ditch comics at the tail-end of 2020 due COVID-19’s hit to the industry, to focus on table-top games.

“It’s a true passion type thing,” Phil-

Keenan Crotty, manager of Level Up Games in Johns Creek, stands at his desk in front of a collection of trading cards. Owner Andrew Phillips also has two more locations in Duluth, the largest store of its kind in Georgia at 12,000 square feet, and in Athens.

lips said. “Nobody ever, unfortunately, gets wealthy doing this, but we enjoy it. It’s about community building. It’s about bringing people together.”

Phillips grew up on traditional board games, and he eventually found himself at the center of “geek culture” that rose in the mid-’90s, the same time when board games began transitioning from Europe. He said board games are a huge deal over there, where supermarkets and shopping markets often use dramatic board game displays and sales to attract shoppers.

“The industry is great,” Phillips said. “It’s full of a lot of creative people. There’s a lot of artistic people. There’s a lot of people with great imagination. Obviously, Dungeons and Dragons paved the way for all of this originally, and it kind of all bled into each other.”

The best thing about gaming, he said, is that there’s a genre for everyone. It’s not all fantasy.

“If you’re into horror, there’s tons of that stuff. If you’re into film noir, there’s tons of stuff for that,” Phillips said.

Game experts

Crotty, who helped open the Johns Creek location, started at the Duluth store last May after moving from Indiana. Like Phillips, Crotty began his gaming journey at a young age with traditional board games, playing with his highly competitive family — he said his dad once accused him of cheating in a game of Risk, and they didn’t talk for a few days.

But, Crotty mostly played with his brother who eventually showed him Dungeons and Dragons, diving into his D&D

At Level Up Games in Johns Creek, there’s an even-balanced stock of boardgames, role playing games aka RPGs, trading cards and miniatures.

books as a freshman in high school. He began creating his own campaigns, versus premade adventures, and roped his friends into weekly campaigns that lasted through college.

Crotty described a significant number of games with intermittent history lessons and up-to-date controversy, like pushback on Wizard of the Coast’s restrictive licensing on D&D content creators — which changed the popularity of the game at Level Up, though it still hosts D&D groups every week.

He said “Magic: The Gathering” remains the most popular at Level Up, a trading card game that started in the ’90s, though it’s being rivaled by “Disney Lorcana.”

“[Magic: The Gathering has] gotten to the point where people who started playing it

when they were teenagers are now parents, and they can teach it to their kids, so their kids are getting into it,” Crotty said.

He also said the game is updated with new sets every month, it’s highly competitive with complexity and modularity, but it’s also easy to learn.

Next in popularity at Level Up are board games, then come RPGs like D&D, often serving as a gateway, and miniatures.

When he started working at the shop, he became more interested in miniature games, not the well-known “Warhammer” though, but the Star Wars and Marvel versions of it.

“I am a bad hobbyist, because there are a lot of people who get into miniature games, like it for the building and the painting. In fact, some of them never even play the game. They just like the modeling part,” Crotty said. “I like the game.”

Games for everyone

Sometimes, Level Up offers demos often led by “paragons,” or volunteers Crotty chooses who have solid teaching and people skills. Demos could be of games that are popular at the time, a game that the store has a large amount of or simply a game the paragon is interested in.

The week before, the store demoed “Queen by Midnight,” a deck-building card game. Others have been what Crotty called “perennial classics” like “Azul,” an easy-to-play game where the objective is to create point-scoring patterns using colored Spanish, Moorish-era tiles that look like Starburst.

Crotty said one popular demo is “Wingspan,” a resource-management game where players collect things and accumulate them in such a way to get the most victory points. He said it’s “the bird game where you do bird things,” and includes the scientific Latin names of birds.

Crotty listed several games which have an explicit educational aspect like “Darwin’s Journey” and “Hegemony,” another resource-management game made in collaboration with professors of political science and economics. In “Hegemony,” he said players choose to be either the working class, the capitalist class or the state, and try to achieve specific goals.

When asked if all presidents should be required to play “Hegemony,” Crotty said the game veers towards certain sociopolitical ideals that might be uncomfortable for some people.

“A lot of games, like Monopoly, you’re just playing, like, ‘My Little Capitalist,’ but some games are doing other things,” he said.

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Vet offers preventative plans to Metro Atlanta pet owners

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — As more people look for cost-effective alternatives to traditional veterinary visits, Peach Vet Pet Wellness and PetCentric Health aim to make care accessible to Metro Atlanta pet owners.

Dr. Juliette Van Galder opened Peach Vet Pet Wellness, a boutique clinic in Suite 900 at 601 Houze Way in Roswell, in March 2022.

Peach Vet offers the standard array of veterinary care, including microchipping; spaying and neutering; wellness exams; surgeries; and diagnostics, as well as dental care.

But, Van Galder said the clinic is dedicated to making visits as fearless as possible for patients.

After opening, she said she offered her own primary care plans to help customers until partnering with PetCentric in June.

“I saw the value in what they could offer as a support system,” she said. “I feel like since we’re a small team, I just didn’t want to have too many caveats with managing the ‘what ifs’ with the care plan.”

Peach Vet’s partnership with PetCentric enables owners to come in sooner, so needed visits are not postponed because of cost barriers. The primary care plans allow owners to budget and save up to 45 percent on annual wellness exams, preventative tests and vaccines.

“That’s always important to me to give someone an option, if they don’t have the budget to pay,” Van Galder said.

Peach Vet is the first Georgia and flagship Atlanta partner of PetCentric Health, a primary care and digital database manager for pet owners and veterinary clinics.

CEO Heather Moore founded PetCentric in mid-2022 to provide pet owners with plans that offer financial predictability, ensuring they can follow their vet’s recommendations without the concern of cost.

“PetCentric Health was founded to be an innovative solution as to traditional wellness,” Moore said. “So, we consider ourselves a subscriptionbased primary care company. So, we work with clinics to custom design an in-house health plan, primary health plan, for their patients that they can offer through a subscription-based method.”

Typically, owners visit the vet when their pet is sick, and vets charge owners on a traditional feebased model. If owners cannot afford

treatment their vet recommends, it is often deferred, which can escalate into more expensive and life-threatening conditions.

“That model no longer meets pet parents or vets where they need to be,” Moore said. “Anything around health, human through pet, you see that the movement of our society, you know, we’re not a strong cash-based society. We’re a subscription-based society.”

Owners can pay monthly or annually for primary care plans, which are geared toward preventative care to stop costs from becoming overwhelming if illnesses progress.

issues for which pet insurance is still not really appropriate,” Moore said. “In fact, it might be below their deductible, or they don’t really need pet insurance, but it’s kind of that bucket that pet parents can use for whatever the individual needs are for their pet.”

Van Galder said she still recommends enrolling in pet insurance as early as possible. As primary care plans focus on preventative and routine check-ups, insurance can help owners navigate large emergency bills.

“I’ve had some situations where even young dogs are diagnosed with this rare disease, and they’re already on insurance, and it has covered and helped them get the treatment they need,” she said.

Moore also said inflation and rising medical costs put downward pressure on local vets, as raising the cost of services would make them inaccessible to many customers.

The primary care plans offered by PetCentric help owners afford the services their pets need, while helping local vets retain their customers and remain competitive against big industry players like Chewy, which can undercut local operations with lower costs.

As primary care alternatives bring customers back to their local clinics, Moore said pets win by receiving important care, and veterinarians win by seeing the support of their local community.

PetCentric also offers local vet clinics digital services that would otherwise be managed in-house and place a heavy burden on clinic staff.

“We manage the pet parent subscriptions,” Moore said. “We manage all of the administrative items for the vet, and then we also create the digital experience for the pet parent.”

The digital experience is like the patient portal or virtual chart that a human would have. Owners can track their pet’s last vaccination dates, view real-time health data and see what is included in their health plan.

At Peach Vet, customers can choose between puppy, adult and senior dog plans based on their pet’s age and needs. The clinic also offers one feline primary care plan.

PetCentric’s plans differ from pet insurance, which often covers large, unexpected bills or compensates clients retroactively through reimbursement.

Although primary care plans do not cover emergency visits like insurance, PetCentric’s plans provide a pet flexible spend allowance that reserves money to be used on exams and expenses outside of routine wellness.

“It’s kind of a catch-all for minor

Van Galder said her main drive for offering the plans is to enable her customers to not wait until their pets are sick.

Above all, PetCentric’s plans ensure owners can get their pets the care they need.

“Health care for our pets is moving much more, more and more [to the] human health care arena,” Moore said. “We need to have better solutions for how people pay for their care than what’s out there or what has traditionally been available.”

To learn more about Peach Vet and its services, visit peachvet.com.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Dr. Juliette Van Galder owns Peach Vet Pet Wellness in Roswell. The boutique clinic opened at 601 Houze Way in March 2022 and offers primary care plans to help pet owners avoid large bills through preventative care.

Peach Vet Pet Wellness offers primary care plans for Metro Atlanta pets in Suite 900 at 601 Houze Way in Roswell. The clinic partnered with PetCentric Health in June to make preventative care more accessible to the community.

Ginger Room invites guests to traditional British teatime

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The Ginger Room invites guests to experience a traditional British teatime in the oldest home in downtown Alpharetta.

Roswell couple Karl Walbrook and Angela Avery opened The Ginger Room in February 2021 after two years of searching for a location to expand their hit farmers market business Ginger Yums.

After COVID-19 temporarily closed the Alpharetta Farmers Market, Walbrook said their customers sought a physical location to buy Ginger Yums juice. During this process, Avery said they found the perfect spot at 61 Roswell St.

The Skelton-Teasley House was built in 1856 for Dr. Oliver Skelton, a local physician and the city’s first postmaster, and his wife.

“I think it all worked out divinely because space-wise, being the oldest home, it has that character and charm that we wanted,” Avery said.

At The Ginger Room, guests can enjoy a traditional afternoon or high tea, with a choice from more than 50 blends, finger foods, pastries and fresh scones baked daily, with clotted cream and jam.

On weekdays, The Ginger Room offers its a la carte menu, where guests can sample individual items without a reservation for afternoon or high tea.

But, above all, Avery said the tea house invites its patrons to experience an intimate, unique experience.

“When you’re in London and go for a tea with, whether it be your friends or family, we want it to kind of have that feel right here,” she said.

A love of ginger

Around 2018, Avery and Walbrook founded Ginger Yums, which promotes the natural benefits of ginger through a variety of fresh juices.

The couple began selling Ginger Yums at the Alpharetta Farmers Market in 2019 to immediate success. The brand has since expanded to five markets across Metro Atlanta and a new sip room at 8465 Holcomb Bridge Road in Johns Creek.

The pandemic may have paused business at the farmers market, but the demand for Ginger Yums never ceased.

“Our customers, they wanted a place to come and get their juice, but we were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to just do a juice bar,’” Avery said. “We were like, ‘We want to do

a juice and tea house, something really, really cool.’ We love tea houses, and we love experiences.”

Avery and Walbrook, a London native, said they enjoyed hosting holiday high tea for their friends and family before they conceived the business.

Their mutual love for hosting teatime, as well as the demand from their farmers market clientele, inspired The Ginger Room.

“Well, I said, what I want to do as well is have an authentic tea house, so we could

do our afternoon teas here,” Walbrook said.

Now in its second year of business, The Ginger Room has been named among the state’s nine best tea rooms by Explore Georgia and sees visitors from across the United States.

An authentic experience

There are formal three teatime options at The Ginger Room: afternoon, high and children’s tea.

Each variation is served on a traditional three-tiered tower, with the bottom level

including a selection of finger sandwiches such as English egg salad and smoked pimento cheese.

The second level features handmade scones from Walbrook’s recipe from his days in grammar school.

“We make those scones fresh each and every day for our towers and for our guests who pop in,” Avery said. “And then you have fresh clotted cream made in house, and then you have your jams as well. We usually do strawberry, lemon curd and ginger, of course, because we’re in The Ginger Room.”

Avery said the top level, which highlights a rotating selection of specialty treats, is mostly sourced from local vendors at farmers markets.

The towers feature The Ginger Room’s exclusive ginger mini donuts from Orchard Bakery; English shortbread crown cookies from Angel Lane in Cumming; and teacup and teapot cookies from a bakery in Vinings.

Some desserts, such as Bakewell tarts and truffles, are baked in-house by Walbrook.

Although the expansion of their gingerbased businesses has kept them busy, the couple still stop by The Ginger Room frequently, especially on weekends. Since many of the recipes originated from Walbrook’s expertise, he is often found in the kitchen or greeting guests.

“He still makes every shepherd’s pie,” Avery said. “He’s trained them really good on the scones, so you can’t tell if he made them or one of the kitchen staff made them because they’re perfect now.”

Guests can also order high tea, which is an elevated version of afternoon tea with hot savory items such as shepherd’s pie, tomato pie, quiche Lorraine or croissant sandwiches. Based on request and availability, Walbrook also cooks his chef’s special, salmon en croute.

Children’s tea is a simplified version of afternoon tea for visitors 10 years old and younger.

Although afternoon and high tea can be served at any sitting time, The Ginger Room seats guests for tea between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays and at 12:30 and 3 p.m. on weekends.

Individual items can be served a la carte throughout the week, but Avery recommends making a reservation for any experience at The Ginger Room.

“Everyone is truly welcome,” Avery said. “And we really want everyone to come and experience The Ginger Room.”

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Angela Avery and Karl Walbrook smile outside The Ginger Room at 61 Roswell St. in Alpharetta Dec. 19. The couple co-own the authentic British tea house, which opened in the historic Skelton-Teasley House in February 2021.

The Skelton-Teasley House at 61 Roswell St. in Alpharetta was built in 1856 for local physician and postmaster Dr. Oliver Skelton.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

While covering Milton election operations, Appen Media analyzed historical voter data and identified possible disenfranchisement.

This reporting caused a statewide watchdog to get involved and, eventually, the city moved to add a polling place to the area. Later in the year, Appen discovered that the feasibility report the City Council used when voting to run their own elections was not the original document. Two residents on a working committee had altered it after city staff had completed it and before its presentation to council. Appen Media reporters identified all of the differences between the two documents and then created an interactive digital document. Readers and officials were able to scroll through the materials and read notes from the newsroom explaining the differences. You can find this document at appenmedia.com/electionsreport.

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