The team behind beloved former Eastside Beltline antique and art shop Paris on Ponce are teaming up again for a new concept at the Underground Atlanta development.
Skip Englebrecht and Nicolette Valdespino will open Pigalle by Paris on Ponce at 50 Alabama St. SW in the former Mick’s space. The pair co-owned Paris on Ponce, which closed in 2019 after a fire destroyed part of the 100-year-old building. Valdespino relocated La Maison Rouge, a Parisian-themed event space housed at Paris on Ponce, to a space downtown, but closed it in December in anticipation of moving to Underground Atlanta.
Pigalle will officially open Oct. 6 with an event held during Underground Atlanta’s First Fridays. Chef Darryl Taylor, who was a contestant on the Fox cooking competition “Next Level Chef” and is the owner of catering company Epicurean Drama, will provide the food.
Named for an area of Paris that Valdespino described in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as “a bohemian playground where all the artists stayed, and where the Moulin Rouge is. At twilight, it was a lot of fun.”
Credit: Courtesy of Pigalle
Credit: Courtesy of Pigalle
The 6,000-square-foot space will be home to four separate concepts. A New Orelans-style wraparound porch on Lower Alabama with lanterns and hanging ferns that will be elevated about 6 feet “so you can oversee the original street and feel like you’re outside,” Valdespino said. She anticipates the porch to “cater to ladies who brunch, and people who want to take their time and do some people watching,” with a drink list highlighting wine and Champagne.
Inside, the main theater, will be an authentic vaudeville theater space that in October will host events including a Barbie Ball and Hocus Poke-Us, a Halloween-themed, burlesque show. Several nights will also feature a theme, including Membership Mondays, open to vetted members who pay an annual fee; Tiki Thursdays with tiki drinks; Fridays featuring chanteuse singers; and Sunday brunch. Pigalle will announce its regular hours at the beginning of November.
“You sit, you have a cabaret experience and can interact with the show, and you can have some nice cocktails,”
Pigalle’s speakeasy will have an absinthe-focused menu. Curated by Caleb Grubb, the beverage director for the Fishmonger restaurants that Englebrecht co-owns, the beverage program will feature absinthe tasting menus, absinthe cocktails and some classic cocktails, as well as beer and wine.
Credit: Courtesy of Pigalle
Credit: Courtesy of Pigalle
Finally, a sidebar with a walk-up window that used to be a ticket booth will serve daiquiris and frozen drinks, including a version of the frozen Irish coffee from New Orleans bar Molly’s at the Market and will be decorated “very Maison Rouge,” with leopard-print wallpaper, fringed lamps and red lighting. “It’s small, but it’s perfectly silly,” Valdespino said.
While Pigalle will mostly be focused on drinks, there will be a small food menu of “elevated nibbles” according to Valdespino, with items like charcuterie and cheese boards, and Taylor will help with Sunday brunch.
Underground Atlanta, which was purchased in 2020 by Lalani Ventures, spans Pryor, Central, Wall, and Alabama streets and is readying for a $150 million renovation that will also include housing.
Valdespino said the history of the area made it an ideal place to resurrect the spirit of Paris on Ponce.
“There’s an emotional connection that everyone seems to have with the Underground,” she said. “And being there physically, you’re down there with all of the fronts of these buildings that were built in the 1800s, and you still have the brick you can put your hand on. There’s a drunk tank down there from the Prohibition era. For me, there’s an ephemeral sense of history and beauty and the core of what it is to be an Atlantan.”
Credit: Courtesy of Pigalle
Credit: Courtesy of Pigalle
On a practical level, she and Englebrecht liked the ease of parking and the possibility of using the enclosed Lower Alabama Street area for larger events.
The official name for the concept is Pigalle by Paris on Ponce, and Valdespino said Pigalle’s proximity to artist and gallery spaces at Underground is an homage of sorts to her first venture with Englebrecht.
“Some of the artists were vendors of ours at Paris on Ponce, and it really does feel like that gritty, good, bubbly energy that we had on Ponce on decade ago. It wasn’t scary anymore, and it was just full of possibility. Paris on Ponce was a huge part of our lives, and Pigalle is the manifestation of what Paris on Ponce is.”
Underground Atlanta is already home to several event and performance spaces including Masquerade live music venue; Future Showbar and Restaurant, a 14,000-square-foot, two-story LGBTQ restaurant and bar; and Atlanta Comedy Theater at Kenny’s Alley, as well as food and beverage concepts like Dancing Crepes from Yandy Smith-Harris, who also owns YELLE Beauty in Underground; a brick-and-mortar location of Dolo’s Pizza; Daiquiriville, a 2,200-square-foot indoor/outdoor restaurant and bar with karaoke and other entertainment; and iScream Ice Cream ice cream parlor.
Nightclub MJQ is set to relocate to Underground Atlanta from its current location on Ponce de Leon Avenue by the end of the year.
50 Alabama St. SW, Atlanta. 470-755-8557, thepigalle.com
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