Hotel Clermont

Character and identity

A six-storey 1920s brick building on Ponce de Leon Avenue, crowned by a resurrected sixty-five-foot radio tower, the Clermont turns its colourful past (a former motor lodge, with the legendary Clermont Lounge strip club still operating in the basement) into a 94-room independent hotel with a confident '70s design vocabulary: low-slung velvet couches, leafy plants, lightbulb sconces, record players, and moody portraits by Atlanta artist Sharon Shapiro nodding to the dancers downstairs. Tiny Lou's, the French-American brasserie named for a 1950s burlesque performer, anchors the dining, with a rooftop bar, lobby bar and Café Clermont rounding out the social spaces. Service punches above the quirk.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you're really booking is atmosphere and a kitchen: a heritage building with sharp design, a credible restaurant in Tiny Lou's, and a Poncey-Highland location that lets you walk to the best of east Atlanta. Spend up for one of the suites rather than the bunk rooms if you want space, and reserve Tiny Lou's before you arrive.