“Buckhead isn’t what it used to be.” That could be the tagline for Atlanta’s best-known neighborhood, where politicians, rappers, blue-bloods, and the nouveau riche (and oh yeah, the governor) mingle with apartment dwellers, the cash-poor, and the entirely normal people; where fine international dining meets light-beer pub crawls; where Atlanta’s whitebread history of private schools and gated mansions are inextricably linked to (and incredibly removed from) the city’s African-American and urban fabric. In the mid-20th century, Buckhead was a rustic, white, middle-class bastion of high-school hoo-rahs and church Sundays. By the turn of the millennium, it was known internationally as the site of a double murder outside of a nightclub after the Super Bowl. Locally, it has long served as a derisive moniker for anyone who seemed too materialistic or entitled: “She’s very Buckhead, yes?” Today, the old commercial center—the Buckhead Triangle at Peachtree, Paces Ferry, and Roswell—is a redesigned, high-end shopping district. But some of the best places of Buckhead’s history still remain the same.
The best bakery for power players and hoi polloi alike.
There’s an assumption that if you want to find a great record store in Atlanta, you have to head to the Liberalized, dirty, psuedo-Bohemian parts of town. But just down Pharr from all the high-end retail madness, you’ll find Fantasyland Records, a buy-sell-trade store operating since 1976. Along with an impressive selection of old and new music on vinyl and CD, the store sells some of the best $7 rock ‘n’ roll posters that could ever adorn a dorm wall. There’s also dedication to other nerdist hobbies, including a small section devoted to baseball card collectors.
