Best of, top 10 lists, favorite posts. They all belong here.
Bryan Kirkland was named one of the Top 25 Designers in Atlanta by Veranda Magazine, Bryan Kirkland has been the owner of Showroom 58 at ADAC since 2018, and before that owned BAK Designs for over a decade. He’s also got a Jonesboro drawl to die for and is a Southern dandy through and through.
The South is filled with skilled artisans, crafty entrepreneurs and makers of all kinds. I love going into a boutique or hitting up an outdoor craft festival and discovering new creatives (usually with a thick drawl and impeccable manners) at work making incredible things. From candles to booze to prayer sticks (wha?), here are six things made by southerners I’m loving right now.
Liz Moore Mcdermott owns any room. Whether she’s in Atlanta, Tuscaloosa, New York City, Austin, Palm Beach or Nantucket. She holds court. She is joy personified. Liz Moore Mcdermott is a talented interior designer and entertainer, and she frankly (my dear), doesn’t care if you like her or not. She’s going to have a good time no matter what. And isn’t that part of her incredible Southern charm?
Christy Plott Redd is a Southern girl. She is the creative director, head of global sales, and co-owner of American Tanning and Leather. I’ll let her tell you what that’s all about below. Let’s just say she’s a red-headed spitfire who knows her way around a gator farm in Louisiana, as well as the corporate offices of Oscar de La Renta, Ralph Lauren and other hoity-toity fashion designers who buy up her alligator skins like hot cakes. She is as Two-Sided Southern as they come and one of the funniest, most charming people I know. Read below and you’ll soon agree.
The Royal family is one of the most refined and regal group of people in the world. In the Crown, they put them to the famous Balmoral Test.
For someone who grew up in the South, what is known as low brow culture—state fairs, pimento cheese, field parties, honky tonk bars—is entangled in all the memories that make my heart ache for a simple, perfect way of life. But at the same time, my parents were well-traveled, voracious readers, loved the theater and arts, and made sure to instill an appreciation for sophisticated, more esoteric culture in me.
I can remember attending the Georgia Shakespeare Festival in Atlanta from first grade through my twenties, going to see new exhibits at galleries and also carving out time for Atlanta’s smaller theater productions. But here’s where I’m Two-Sided Southern: Booting-up for Pioneer Days in Acworth and eating corn dogs was a highlight of my youth, pre-partying in a field before hitting up a summer country concert at Lakewood Amphitheater, and stomping over crushed peanut shells at Buckhead Saloon were also uniformly appealing in my upbringing.
Being Two-Sided Southern means I am equally as comfortable at a Monster Truck rally as I am opening night for the latest exhibition at High Museum of Art, or at a University of Georgia tailgate party with a red Solo cup in my hand as at a $1,000-a-ticket fundraising gala for the Atlanta History Center. I’ve also lived in New York City a couple of times in my life. Does that mean I get conflicted? Yes. Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to ride two horses with one ass. But instead of hiding one side of me from the other, I decided to embrace it all and start this site for people like me. Those Southerners who feel torn between two worlds, but also feel at home in both as well.
It also means that while I’m a career woman through and through, I adore being a mom and hands-on parent. So, like many women I know in the South juggling both, I want to give (and take!) mom advice and tips on the coolest places around town to shuttle my kids as well as advice on how to navigate leading a team, handling office culture and more. So you’ll see a little of that peppered in around here.
If you ever feel Two-Sided Southern too, then pitch a woo, ‘cause you’ve come to the right place. A place where an affinity for both cheese grits and caviar mean you have great taste.