UPDATE: The Clermont Lounge reopening has been delayed again.
ORIGINAL STORY (published July 25): If all goes well, the Clermont Lounge will reopen this weekend, and maybe even as early as Thursday evening.
The Atlanta Fire Department is scheduled to inspect the famous Ponce de Leon Avenue basement strip club Wednesday, according to co-owner Kathi Martin. Assuming the bar gets the green light at that time, it will reopen before Friday.
If the inspection is delayed, the lounge will open the day following approval, Martin said.
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The establishment closed at the start of the year to accommodate the redevelopment of the historic Clermont Motor Hotel into an upscale boutique hotel. The Clermont was built in 1924 as an apartment building and was converted to a hotel in 1940.
Whatever day the lounge reopens, guests should be aware of two changes caused by ongoing hotel construction: They’ll enter on Bonaventure Avenue, and doors will open at 5 p.m. (as opposed to 1 p.m.).
The reopening for the bar — which was referred to as "The Clermont Lounge 2.0" in a recent post on the business's Facebook page — has been delayed multiple times.
More than any patron, the dancers are likely most excited for the doors to finally open. To find other means of income during the prolonged closure, they washed cars at a Cobb County bar, performed at Star Bar and raised $9,000 through a GoFundMe campaign.
