First Draft with Brandon Ley and Johnny Martinez

Local Joystick barkeeps ready the Georgia Beer Garden

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After Brandon Ley and Johnny Martinez bought the old Edgewood Animal Clinic building across the street from their current Old Fourth Ward business, Joystick Gamebar, they started investigating and found 60-70 liquor bottles hiding under some brickwork. A mixture of bourbon and gin pint bottles, some of them dated back to Prohibition-era Georgia.


“There’s a long history of serving booze here,” Martinez says.


“And a long history of Georgia being slightly behind the rest of the country,” Ley adds, alluding to the Peach State’s longer-than-usual Prohibition era of old and the state’s archaic beer laws of new.


Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that they’ve rehabbed the space and turned it into Georgia Beer Garden, a laid-back watering hole that will feature 24 draft lines and 60-80 bottles and cans of beer all made in the Peach State. Roughly based on the idea of a German beer garden, they’ll pair the local brews with hearty Southern takes on German-inspired small plates. Most importantly, it’ll be a relaxed place where customers can take their time — an alternative to Edgewood Avenue’s party scene.


“It’s like a Georgia beer festival in one building,” Martinez says.


Creative Loafing sat down with the pair in the almost-finished space as they made final preparations for their (fingers crossed) October opening to talk beer, relaxing, and the absurdity of the small business permitting process.


Describe your first beer.


Ley: Honey Brown. I was a senior in high school, 17 years old, and my older sister said, “You’re going to college and you’ve never been drunk?” So she got me a six-pack and we drank it, and then we dug into my dad’s Icehouse stash.


Martinez: My mother’s from Spain, so my first was probably Mahou. My first beer in the U.S. was probably a Coors. And the first time I was being fancy with a beer was a Guinness.


Aside from the all-Georgia concept, what distinguishes your place from other bars?


Martinez: We’re committed to the Old Fourth Ward and to Edgewood Avenue. This is an exciting part of town. There’s a lot going on. More people are moving into this area all the time, and I think they’re looking for a place they can go to and relax.


It’s been a pretty arduous process getting this place open. What was the hardest part?


Ley: It took us 14 months to get a building permit. A lot of that was just how inefficient the city is run … It’s a lot of common sense things. Office of Planning and Office of Building, they’re on the exact same floor at City Hall, but they don’t talk to each other. So we, as the business owners, have to haul our ass back and forth and play the middleman. The other option is to spend thousands of dollars for an expeditor. And we don’t have that … The costs of having an empty building just sucks the life out of you. Luckily, we had Joystick.


Martinez: If Joystick hadn’t been open, we would’ve sold the building — and that would’ve all been because of the city’s inability to give out a building permit in some sort of reasonable amount of time. It should not take over a year to get a building permit … And that’s why we don’t get small businesses in this city. You either have to be very well connected or you have to have a giant wallet.


BEER EVENT 


Wrecking Bar Brewpub Wood-Aged Wednesdays
When: Every Wednesday
Where: Wrecking Bar Brewpub
Price: Depends how many wood-aged beers you drink
Each week, the Little Five Points brewpub serves up a special small-batch beer that’s been aged in a wood barrel.