Setting The Record Straight
Yesterday we reported that Vision Nightclub (also known as SPI) would probably open as a Gay Bar (story here).
This assumption was based on the following circumstantial evidence:
First, the club had their soft opening during Atlanta Pride. Second, the Gidewon brothers renamed the club, Club Reign and lastly, Creative Loafing listed Club Reign as a “Gay/Lesbian Bar” at 1021 Peachtree Street, the address for Vision.
We were half right. Club Reign will cater to homosexualists on Fridays and will officially open Saturday, Oct. 30, for a Q100-promoted Halloween party. Scott Henry with Creative Loafing has this story:
It won’t be Vision. And it won’t be SPI, thank God.
No, when the Gidewon brothers finally open the doors of their latest and, already, most controversial nightclub, the name on the marquee will be Club Reign. (Not to be confused with Rain, the hip-hop club in Mechanicsville.)
According to club spokesman Chris Kappy, Reign will open Saturday, Oct. 30, for a Q100-promoted Halloween party. But don’t expect too much crunkness. (Crunkiosity? Crunkitude?) “We’re not going to go with a huge fanfare to blow the doors off because some of our neighbors are still looking for reasons to get us shut down,” Kappy explains. “We’re expecting some push-back from the neighborhood.”
That’s probably a reasonable expectation, to say the least. Since July 2009, when Michael Gidewon filed an application to open a new, 20,000-square-foot club at 1021 Peachtree Street— since divided into separate nightclub and lounge spaces — the “first family of Atlanta nightlife” (as we called them in a cover story last year) was forced to fight several rounds of legal battles against neighboring residents and businesses that wanted to prevent the clubs from opening.
The clubs’ opponents used every avenue to wage war against the Gidewons — filing lawsuits and legal challenges; speaking out at public hearings; creating an anonymous, anti-Vision website, www.keepmidtownsafe.com; collecting 1451 signatures on an online petition; writing letters to persuade Mayor Shirley Franklin and other public officials to deny the required permits; and generally bad-mouthing the Gidewons and their previous clubs at every turn.
Read the rest of Scott Henry’s posing here.
Club Reign
1021 Peachtree St. N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309
