David is back! We are very excited to announce that David Magazine is back after more than five years. We want to thank Peach for carrying the torch in that time and ensuring that Atlanta always had a weekly entertainment guide even through a global pandemic and economically challenging times.
The past years have taught us that we need to provide support and extra care for our community to keep it thriving and growing. So even though you may see David change a little in its transition from Peach, we will still center around providing you with the best content inspired and driven by the voices in our community.
With the shift to David, we will be continuously committed to providing you with the premier weekly guide to all things gay in Atlanta.
We want to publish the best version of David yet and work with you to do just that. So, get in touch with us if you’re going to promote an event, have an idea for a story, or want to launch your business with us – we can’t wait to show you what we have in store for you!
Have ideas for content?
Please email Mikkel at mikkel@davidatlanta.com
Want to promote your event or business?
Please contact Russell at russell@davidaatlanta.com
Comments or feedback?
Please email Mikkel at mikkel@davidatlanta.com
Photos by: Russ Bowen-Youngblood
By Mikkel Hyldebrandt
Atlanta’s famed rainbow intersection will soon have a new food destination with the introduction of Casa Almenara at the corner of 10th and Piedmont. DAVID spoke to the owner of the (former) 10th & Piedmont and G’s Midtown spaces, Gilbert Yeremian, about all the updates and initiatives that will characterize the new Tulum-style cuisine and craft bar.
Named Almenara after the Spanish word for “beacon,” Gilbert Yeremian hopes that the rebranding and relaunch of the restaurant space at one of the busiest intersections in Midtown will become a necessary oasis of good, unassuming food and craft cocktails in the heart of Atlanta. “It’s been ten years since we last rebranded, so I felt it was about time to introduce a new chapter to the restaurant,” says Gilbert, who has been in business at the attractive destination since 2000 when he and his brother opened Gilbert’s Café and Grill in the space most recently known as G’s Midtown. “Over the last few decades, a lot has changed about what guests expect from their neighborhood restaurant, and we want to reflect that change’” says Gilbert.
Casa Almenara will offer a completely updated space, including a new exterior, an updated kitchen, and all-new dining room décor that will reflect the laidback style of the Mexican Tulum region. As Gilbert explains, “this is a floor-toceiling update, and nothing will be left untouched.” The menu will also be completely revamped, offering Tulum- inspired dishes and craft cocktails that are freshly prepared and beautifully presented. One of the restaurant’s focal points will still be its brunch, offering mainly Tulum cuisine with all-time favorites like shrimp and grits. The brunch service will also be expanded beyond the weekend. “We don’t want to make the menu completely different for all the people who already love us, so we will still have items like a burrito and a burger, but overall, the menu will be all Tulum,” says Yeremian about the new menu.
The Tulum inspiration came to Gilbert through talks with friends and family, where he would ask about their happy place. “I like the relaxed concept of vacation cuisine. We want to feel like we are in a happy place, right? So where do we go to find that happy place? It’s a hammock, it’s a beach, places like that evoke those good feelings,” Gilbert explains, “we are in the business of relaxation with great food, great cocktails, great environment, and I can’t think of a better place than feeling like you’re on vacation.”
The change to the corner of 10th and Piedmont with Casa Almenara comes as the whole intersection is seeing other changes with new businesses like Boy
Next Door opening up. To Gilbert, the change is welcome: “It has to be more diverse beyond bar and club. I want this corner to be diverse and vibrant with a place that brings gastronomy to the mix.”
Casa Almenara will also have an entertainment schedule unique to the food destination under the term ‘Tulum Nights.’ Gilbert’s own word, ‘enter-dine- ment,’ which combines the words dining and entertainment, is all about making entertainment components a fluid part of the dining experience. “The majority of the atmosphere is created by hiring the right staff, but also with live music and DJs,” explains Gilbert,” we will have food specials, bar specials, and some moodsetting offerings every day of the week we are open.”
The benchmark for him is to create a space that he and the surrounding community can be proud of and contributes to a thriving Midtown neighborhood. “Change is hard – and very expensive – but we thought it was time to offer the community something new and exciting,” Gilbert says. His primary focus is to bring even higher levels of gastronomy back to the rainbow intersection: “it’s my passion; that’s our DNA. I want to bring back more high-quality food, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do in the Tulum way.”
Casa Almenara is slated to open its new doors on February 8, 2023. Casa Almenara will serve brunch from 11: 30 -5 pm Wednesday-Friday and 10 am-5 pm on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner from 4 pm-close, Wednesday-Sunday. The restaurant will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The restaurant will host Tulum Nights, an entertainment series that will start during dinner service each evening.
Reservations are available for Casa Almenara on OpenTable.com. To stay updated, please visit casa-almenara.com.
It’s been two years, and I want to move in with my boyfriend. I’m tired of the endless planning, the bringing clothes back and forth, and the sleeping alone sometimes. I want to build a home together, so after two years, isn’t it time? I feel like it’s the next natural step in our relationship to share our lives like this. My boyfriend keeps saying he wants to wait and that he needs time and space for himself. I guess I’m ready for more commitment, and I’m scared that my boyfriend isn’t, and that he just wants to do this endless dating game. What should I do? Just wait for him to get ready? Or should I move on because things aren’t changing?
A big part of being in a relationship is trying to figure out how to be a couple despite all the differences between you. It is ok for your boyfriend to not wanting to move in with you just as it is okay for you for wanting to make a home together. The question is; can your differences on this be reconciled?
Being in a relationship also means that you get to know each other better and better with time, so start by engaging in a talk as to why he is closed off to the idea of moving in together. If he is good at talking about other sensitive topics, then it shouldn’t be a problem. If he is unwilling to discuss your future plans, you have some deeper-rooted issues at hand. In that case, you can talk to him about why he is having difficulty even talking about it–it may not solve anything, but you’ll at least get to know him better. And that’s the whole point, right? And you’ll see if he is willing to deepen your relationship or not. If he continues to stay shut off from discussing sensitive or serious issues in your relationship, then many red flags point to the fact that he may not be interested in being any closer than you are right now. And that’s where you both must consider if it makes sense to part or not.
Here at the beginning of a new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, there is no denying of the show’s global-scale success. But why and how did a show about drag performers grow to become a pop culture juggernaut? Turns out a research team has recently a paper on how the show spectacularizes LGBTQ+ stigma – and we spoke to them!
It was a shared interest in RuPaul’s Drag Race and the obvious impact the show had, that brought the researchers Maria Rita Micheli, Mario Campana, and Kat Duffy together. Mario, who is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Bristol Business School, started watching the show in 2013, and because he sensed that there were layers of the show to uncover, he started read more academically about drag. He then discussed the potential project with Maria Rita, Assistant Professor of Strategy at IESEG School of Management in Paris, and Kat, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, and they collectively started to collect and
analyze data while developing the theory for the recently published research paper. DAVID had the pleasure of catching up with them to talk even more about their remarkable theory. How did you come up with the idea to study why RuPaul’s
Everything started with watching the show over time, from its first season to the more recent ones. Its success became more and more evident with time, and we became extremely interested in the mechanisms leading a show that started as a niche one to be a worldwide phenomenon. As fans, especially two of us, we were really enjoying the show; as researchers, we all felt there was the potential to study something interesting. In particular, we soon understood we had the opportunity to study organizational stigma in action, being so visible across TV and social media platforms. We decided to study RuPaul’s Drag Race to understand how stigmatized organizations could succeed without hiding their stigma, but also how organizations can contribute to reducing stigma.
We are so happy we engaged in this journey, and we look forward to studying more about it.
So what is the main takeaway from the study? What is the show’s transformative power?
We studied RPDR as a stigmatized organization, managing to leverage spectacles of drag and LGBTQ+ stigma to reach mainstream success. Since the beginning of our project, we thought that understanding how this happens is crucial. In fact, prior research has traditionally described ‘coping’ with stigma or hiding the stigma as the only way for stigmatized organizations to operate within the mainstream market. However, we claim that spectacularizing stigma can be a viable strategy for success. The results of the study are important because we show the
dynamic nature of stigmatization and normalization of stigma within society. The show embraces the dynamism of these processes and transforms the perception of stigma associated with drag culture, eliciting its acceptance.
Do you think that having a show like RuPaul’s Drag Race will help reduce stigma related to drag and the LGBTQ+ community in general?
Absolutely. We show how drag culture has permeated the mainstream culture with its language, core features, and components. In this process, RuPaul’s Drag Race had a fundamental role, showcasing and engaging with stigma on prime time on TV, discussing on social media and developing a strong brand that can now be recognized by mainstream and LGBTQ+ audiences. Over time, the show managed to reduce the stigma related to drag and LGBTQ+ community, but stigma elimination is still far away. In fact, we show that stigma still exists, with the protagonists of the show being assaulted, harassed, and offended on social media; at the same time, we show how RuPaul’s Drag Race engages with these events and keeps taking a stand aiming for stigma elimination. Overall, our hope is that organizations and brands will read our paper and acknowledge that they can have a crucial role in giving voice to stigmatized and marginalized individuals. We also believe that the mechanisms we identify can be leveraged also for the reduction of other typologies of stigma.
You mention normalizing stigma by turning it on its head – what other
mechanisms are prevalent in the show?
Yes, stimulating the interest of people is the first step for normalizing stigma. In the paper, we call this mechanism Reiteration of Transgressions, with the show continuously repeating the transgressions associated with drag stigma. For example, each episodes features contestants’ transformation from men into women, applying makeup and shaping their body. By showing these practices, RuPaul’s Drag Race normalizes them. This first mechanism is part of spectacularization, which normalizes the stigma associated with drag. We also identify two additional mechanisms. The second mechanism is Awakening of Social Consciousness, which happens when the show expands the discussion around the deep-rooted struggles experienced by drag queens, humanizing them and normalizing the elements that cause their stigmatization. The third mechanism is Language Modeling, with the show using drag queen lingo across different platforms, making it more appealing to mainstream audiences and normalizing it.
We have different goals. From a research perspective, we hope scholars will be more and more interested in understanding how stigma can be showcased by organizations, while also enhancing success. In addition, we also hope that stigmatization of drag and LGBTQ+ communities will be further analyzed, with the aim to
can contribute to their well-being and reduce their stigma. Related to this, from a managerial perspective, we really want organizations to see our paper as a call for action. Not only stigma can be showed and leveraged for success, but we want them to understand that each organization can help its members and stakeholders to feel less stigmatized, more at ease, and empowered to fight stigma. We also want to engage in this call for action and this is why we have already started new projects on the topic.
On the topic of RPDR: You’ve obviously had to watch all seasons and episodes of the show. What season is your favorite and why?
And we have watched it multiple times! Mario’s personal favorite is season 6. It was when the show started taking off, so the production was more curated
than earlier seasons but still quite authentic when the contestants did not necessarily act according to some specific ‘scripts’. The drag queens on the show were all so talented. Mario’s all-time favorite is Bianca Del Rio.
What do you hope to see in the new season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race?
We think what they are trying to do is trying to bring back the authenticity of the early seasons after a couple of years in which they have released new Drag Race formats all over the world… and we hope that they manage to do that. However, the strength of Drag Race has always been awakening social consciousness, educating people to drag and accepting diversity. We hope to see this also in this new season.
Anything else you’d like to add? Well… just a reminder… We are all born naked, and the rest is drag!
LGBTQ Americans may not have heard of Mike and Sebastian yet, but that is all about to change. The extremely handsome duo is currently living in Vienna, Austria but planning to relocate to Palm Springs in 2023 to start a new life together with their 7-year-old daughter Mia. They will be featured on one of Germany’s most highly watched reality television shows called Goodbye Deutschland
Mike and Sebastian are local celebrities in German-speaking countries, having been involved in numerous entrepreneurial ventures and frequent guests of the media especially when it comes to speaking about two dad families.
Before we talk about their latest endeavors, here is a bit of background information. Mike was a singer who won Austria’s first TV band casting at the age of 21 and was a member of the pop band Sugarfree, with which he also won Austria´s national music prize “Amadeus”. He then passed the bar exam and in 2011 purchased a facility management company, restructured it, and had a successful business exit in 2022. After that he published the international bestseller “Blake the Drake and the enchanted Egg” which became a #1 bestseller on Amazon.
At the age of 24, Sebastian won a major national competition to develop an app for politics. He won €100,000 and was dubbed “the €100,000 man” in the media.
He took over a small family business with a turnover of $250,000 dollars, which he, as sole owner, was able to develop within only a few years into an international player on the prefabricated house market bringing in over $7 million dollars in revenue.
Mike and Sebastian first met in 2015 at an event hosted by friends. Neither of them had planned to attend that night but as fate would have it, Mike immediately caught Sebastian’s eye. Mike had failed to read the invitation carefully and was wearing his provocative Life Ball outfit in the middle of a black-tie affair.
On their third date, Mike broke the news to Sebastian that he was about to become a father to a little girl, which he had made possible with the help of an egg donor and a surrogate mother. Mike’s daughter Mia was born on July 2, 2015. Much to his surprise, Mike received a loving and deeply touching letter from Sebastian, but it wasn’t addressed to him. It was addressed to Mia.
When Mike returned with baby Mia, the couple embarked on life together—not in a cozy, romantic relationship for two, but as two young dads getting used to everyday life with a small child. It wasn’t always easy, but the bond grew stronger, and their love stood the test of time. A deep understanding for their partner’s struggles and mutual, unconditional support of one another are integral parts of Mike and Sebastian’s life together today. With Mia by their side, Mike and Sebastian were married in Bora Bora in 2021.
The dynamic duo is invested in making the Mike&Sebastian brand just as successful on the American market as it is in Germanspeaking countries. “In concrete terms, this means bringing a critical mass into contact with our family concept so that it is anchored as normal in the public eye. We’re talking about 10%-14% of society. Dream BIG,” Mike says enthusiastically.
“As role models for gay men who want a family, it is important to us to bring this understanding of family to the public,” mentions Sebastian. “Goodbye Deutschland has a reach of 1,600,000 viewers in German-speaking countries. This brings our vision of normalizing 2dadfamilies a long way.”
The couple is also in the process of turning their social media and media activities into their full-time job. Being on such a successful and popular show is a great step in that direction.
Mike and Sebastian have committed to producing one season, however, there are couples who have been on the show regularly for 15 years and the production
company has already indicated a long-term partnership. The show will visit Mike and Sebastian once they arrive in Palm Springs to follow their surrogacy journey also be present during the birth of their second child. They were planning on welcoming him in August, but nature had other plans. “After a long search for a new egg donor (unfortunately, Mia’s egg donor was no longer able to donate) we found our perfect match and now have 4 embryos again, although the first transfer just didn’t work. Of course, this is disappointing for us, but we are still in good spirits, knowing that the baby that is meant for us will come to us.”
Two successful gay men can move anywhere in the world, so why Palm Springs? “Palm Springs is like a dream come true for us,” mentions Mike. “Samesex marriage has only been legal in Austria since 2019, so you can imagine how the population is attuned to homosexuals. We are not confronted with violence there, but with disregard, ignorance, and exclusion. Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear a whisper behind our backs.”
The couple has learned to live with it, but suddenly it began to affect their daughter Mia because nearly none of her friends have ever heard of the fact that samesex couples can have children. Children don’t mean it badly, of course, but Mia grows up with the suggestion from those around her that it’s not ok the way her family is. She was even called a liar because she confidently said that two men can of course have a baby, which is how it is with us. “One of the things we want to do with the move to Palm Springs is to take the pressure off of this situation.”
They also wanted their second child to grow up in a more inclusive environment and thought Palm Springs would be the perfect location.
“Because of our second baby, we considered
taking part in the surrogacy process in the United States and moving to California,” Sebastian explains. “We checked out a few places but fell in love with Palm Springs immediately when we visited. We had a very special feeling there, we couldn’t classify it at first and then we were able to name it: Hey - nobody whispers behind our backs. We are “normal” here - we do not belong to a minority but to a majority. It was unbelievable for us, and we want the same for Mia and our second baby, so it happened that we made long-term plans to emigrate, and now the time has finally come.”
The couple will hit the ground running as soon as they land. They have a temporary place to live but will immediately begin looking for a home and office. In fact, Mia begins school just two days after they arrive in the city.
To follow their journey, please visit mikeandsebastian.com.
@ Atlanta Eagle | January 21, 11 pm
DJ Neon the GlowGoBear’s famous stoplight party is back at the Eagle! Color code your night for just the fun you want, whether you’re just dancing or want someone to come and take it.
@ Woofs Atlanta
January 19, 6:30 pm
The Socializers are moving into the new and expanded space at Woofs. Come out to mingle and the chance to win fantastic door prizes.
Blackout Party
@ The Heretic
January 21, 10 pm – 3 am
DJ Stan Jackson comes to the Heretic for this blackout party where anything can happen in the dark. No cover.
Atlanta Winter Wine Festival
@ City Winery | January 21, 12-10 pm
Enjoy plenty of wine samples, entertainment, and a souvenir wine glass at the wine festival, where you can choose between two sessions. Get your tickets at bigtickets.com.
Donut & Dessert Fest Atlanta
@ Second Beer Self Company|
January 22, 1-4 pm
Donut Fest curates favorite donuts, and guests can enjoy a Sunday Funday while sampling donuts, desserts, beer, coffee, and more with a fun-filled tasty event! Tickets via Eventbrite.
Atlanta All Stars Week 2
@Future Atlanta | January 24, 9-11 pm
The 7-week drag competition to name Atlanta’s top all-star is in its second week. Hosted by LaLa and judged by Phoenix, Tahjee Iman Star, and Niesha Dupree, 11 contestants will compete for the title and a cash prize of $10,000.
Drag Karaoke
@ Out Front Theatre Company
|January 18, 7:30 pm
Join Hostest with the Mostest, Tugboat the Queen, as contestants screamsing their favorite tunes at Drag Queen Karaoke! Come for the mic; stay for the booze. Free RSVP at outfronttheatre. com.
Xion w. Micky Friedmann
@ Believe Music Hall
January 22, 1:30-7 am
Come out to Wish for an extended hours event where DJ Micky Friedmann will headline after an opening set by Kevin DuRard. Tickets Future-Atlanta. com.
We all have those moments of ‘wait, did they just say that?’
Lucky for you, we compile the best of the best right here on this page. Want to join in on the b*tch session? Submit your own nuggets to info@davidatlanta.com.
I fantasize about watching White Lotus in a sports bar setting, so we can all scream at the TV with Aperol spritzes in hand.
“No really, I have slept with my entire group of friends”
Gay culture is making fun of poor people while needing roommates in your 40s to afford rent…
Sorry for having a great ass and the correct opinions on everything
Going back to work after the holiday break should come with a long weekend
After promising myself to change everything about my life in 2023, I can safely say we are back to the old sh*it
My 2023 motto: If you can’t have a happy home, wreck one!
