The Joystick Interview

A frank talk with Brandon Ley and Johnny Martinez, the rebellious owners of Joystick Gamebar, about running a bar on Edgewood, nightlife, crime and pinball.

Johnny Martinez, left, and Brandon Ley, co-owners of Joystick Gamebar, looking casual.

These two men are friends of mine. You should know that up front, gentle reader. They are custodians of one of my happy places: Joystick Gamebar downtown, on Edgewood Avenue. The place is a riot. It’s loud. It’s Dungeons and Dragons and classic videogames and mixed drinks. It is nerd heaven, set amid Atlanta’s raucous, rollicking — and somewhat-troubled — downtown club district.

Roughly ten percent of Atlanta’s gun crimes occur steps from one of the city’s late-night clubs, bars and restaurants. The administration of liquor licenses and security for these establishments has been questioned by city leaders of late. The mayor attributes some part of the increase in violent crime to clubs remaining open during the pandemic, but the city has only now started to consider using the tools at its disposal to curtail excesses.

Joystick’s co-owners, Johnny Martinez and Brandon Ley, believe the problem is more fundamental than that: mismanagement borne of ignorance and indifference to the problems in Atlanta’s nightlife. In this interview, they lay out one path out of the morass: fully-engaged leadership.

This interview has been edited for length, clarity, to make me sound less dumb and to keep any of us from getting sued.

George Chidi: Johnny Martinez at Joystick!

Johnny Martinez: And Brandon Ley.

Brandon Ley: L E Y, which is something that everybody misspells.

JM: We are 50-50 owners here and the [Georgia] Beer Garden. And two-thirds of the ownership at By Weight and Measure, which we'll be opening in the fall in Midtown.

BL: And Mambo Zombi at Georgia Beer Garden. It’s a room at Georgia Beer Garden. 

GC: Yes, that's a problem right now (laughter). So, here's what I want to know. I came out here a couple of weeks ago, because I wanted to write about Joystick and Edgewood. And I really was looking for positives. And I think I delivered that ... right up until 1:15 in the morning, when somebody got shot. I came out here, knowing that there had been this huge shooting from one year ago. I wanted to contrast it. I shouldn't be able to call my shots. Like, I shouldn't be able to go. ‘Alright, I'm going to go out to Cheshire Bridge tonight and take my chances because maybe somebody will get shot. And I’ll go right to the crime scene, like I'm the guy from Nightcrawler.

JM: It shouldn't be as 50-50 as going fishing. Right? I'll go out and maybe catch some fish. I'm going to go to Edgewood and maybe someone gets shot.

GC: So, what's your take on how the city has been handling bar and nightlife-related crime?

BL: One, I don't think the city has been handling nightlife, in general, well. At all. Ever.

I think there's one city service available after 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and that is APD. And as good as our relationship with APD is, and as good as our current major has been in terms of communication with the community, we need more non-policing options. We need a way of closing a street down that isn’t some emergency with a lot of flashing blue lights. So, I'm not pleased with all of the city because the way they demonize nightlife. I think they look down upon it. I think they ignore it. I think they don't take us seriously. And I think we contribute a lot to this economy and a lot to the cool cachet that Atlanta has.

JM: You know, it's like Brandon said, there's really only one true service that we can call on. And yet, other cities don't have that. And if you look at the audit that came out by the city of APD’s liquor licenses, there's only one person for the liquor license department who's even working on the weekend for the entire city. That's wild. Why are we shocked that we have some clubs and bars in the city that don't even have liquor licenses? And that you have bars and clubs that stay open whenever, however they want, how long they want? There's no rules in place. And when there's no rules in place, it hurts the people who follow the rules.

Johnny Martinez

GC: I got the distinct impression from talking with both Felicia Moore and Andre Dickens that they've got a grasp on the problem. I also think they ... I want to say respect ... nightlife's contributions culturally to the city. I think they get it. But I also think that they're hamstrung by bureaucratic forces that would appear to a city councilperson to be beyond their control. How much of what's happened would you attribute to the mayor? Not just this mayor, but any mayor?

BL: One, this city's government is so bloated, and it's so siloed. No one talks to anyone else. When you talk to one department and they don't communicate with another department, as citizens, we have to be the ones to try and connect them and create a comprehensive plan. We're just but one person.

And as far as the mayor goes, we've only been in business on Edgewood for two mayors: Kasim Reed and Keisha. Neither of them showed up. Neither of them paid any attention. We can't get anyone in any mayoral office to pay attention to us. The executive branch, in general, has been really problematic. [Planning commissioner] Tim Keane, vaguely, talks to us occasionally, but not really. [Transportation commissioner] Josh Rowan started out very communicative and very collaborative, but has ended up ... not. At all. In fact, he has been actively trying to sink the pedestrian zone we're trying to create. With the exceptions, again, of Major Ries and Captain Zenelaj from Zone Six, as far as the executive branch goes, we get nothing.

JM: If anything, of the issues when it comes to crime that we've had in the city, at least on Edgewood: you can lay that at the feet of Kasim Reed. Hands down. I mean, easy. Reed was notified countless times through his office, and through Kwanza Hall, who also did nothing. They ignored all the problems on this street. There were bars on the street that didn't have liquor licenses for half a year.

GC: So, that blows me away. The idea that any bar could just start up and start serving alcohol without a cop, just on the spot saying ‘Just shut down. You're done. Where's your liquor license? Now. You don't have one?’ How does that even happen?

JM: Also, a lot of the places that end up getting special treatment, who don't do the same processes or don't suffer when they do something “wrong” are quite frankly, people who are close and chummy with those in charge. Not to be conspiratorial, but the city has a history of corruption.

GC: That makes me want to dig. It makes me want to go and pull off duty stuff. I'm doing that in DeKalb right now. It’s fascinating, with the same sort of chummy relationship with police driving some of this. So what do you want to happen? What changes would start to fix things?

BL: So in my opinion, there needs to be a way of shifting the culture that isn't APD-based. Because we have no desire for this to become militarized. We have no desire to see a bunch of flashing blue lights. We are not Buckhead: we're not crying for more police. That being said, APD is underfunded, but we are not crying for more police. We see the gun violence that happens and they are drive-bys. They are people who jump in their car and they speed off immediately. We have seen parties come out of their car. We have seen liquor being sold out of cars. We have seen car stereos that keep our residential neighbors up until six in the morning. To us cars are a problem.

So, we're trying to create a pedestrian zone. We believe that this nightlife district should be akin to New Orleans, or Bourbon Street or Beale Street or anywhere in New York or even Chattanooga. There's a car dependency in this city. That has created this culture of ‘cars should be allowed everywhere, all the time.’ And that has caused a specific problem on Edgewood. And I think at this point, the city is dense enough, there are enough transit options and Uber options and all of that, to be able to comprehensively create a plan where you don't have to have cars run through this strip. You can create a pedestrian zone in this nightlife district that only occurs Friday and Saturday nights after 6 p.m. on Fridays and before 8 a.m. on Mondays. That accommodates all of the deliveries that we have to receive. That accommodates the daytime businesses that are on this street. And that then creates a safe environment for our guests and for our residents.

GC: That would be fun. Registering this correctly, depending on where to put the barriers, that would shut the streetcar down.

BL: Yeah, currently, right now in our block, we view this as an experiment. Our understanding is that what we're doing here, there are places around the city, Little Five Points, for instance, that are interested in doing something similar. So, we viewed this as an experiment. They could perfect it. We want them to experiment.

GC: Like that one street, where the theater is. Yeah, I can totally see that being shut down.

JM: You know, what we have learned, at least here is that a lot of people who are coming to drive their cars up and down Edgewood, which is great. It's a lot of fun. I love peacocking, too. But they're not coming down for the bars and restaurants. They're coming down to party out of their cars. That is the point of coming down here. But they want to do it in front of other people.

Edgewood’s greatest strength is its diversity of small businesses. There's not a single chain on the street. It is entirely owner operator. And that is beautiful. And there are gay owners and black owners and white owners and brown owners and women owners, and there’s gay black women owners, right? (approving laughter)

BL: Are there Canadians?

JM: We don't allow them. Too polite.

BL: But there is a diversity of small businesses that grew organically. It wasn't some developer that came in and curated it right? It's just people that were able to populate a very cool walkable strip. And that brings a crowd. And the assholes who come in on the weekends and trash our neighborhood, shoot motherfuckers in the face, right. They are not patronizing small business. They're not supporting our neighborhood. They're not supporting the MLK historic district that we are all in, right. 

JM: Yeah. And you know, a lot of times they're under age. So, you have kids who come up to here 19, 20 years old – and I would do the same thing – they come up here, they can buy alcohol and jello shots and whatever they want out of somebody's trunk. But you know, they still check in online. You know how social media works. They can be in this parking lot next door, checking in at Joystick, get drunk off their ass, and they never stepped foot in here. And when they go kill someone in a car wreck ...

GC: ... the social media trail leads to Joystick. “Did you shoot this guy? Did you serve this guy?

JM: We're not trust fund babies, you know? We're not rich. We don't have the kind of funds to protect ourselves from every lawsuit from some teenager who bought whiskey out of some guy's truck.

GC: You’re quintessential small business owners. You have a high profile. Fascinating, interesting business, I hope it's successful. Successful?

JM: This street has been very good to us. That's why we're so protective over it. Because, you know, most bars and restaurants aren't open a long time and we’ll be nine years next month.

GC: Nine years is seven years longer than normal.

JM: Again, it's longer than the Civil War. And people still talk about that.

GC: This is one of my happy places. When I was working at Central Atlanta Progress, I would come down here when I needed to blow off steam and use Police Trainer.

BL: You're very good at that game. Right? I watched you. Make sure you let people know not to approach you in the dark.

GC: So that was my training game when I was in the army 20 years ago. Crazier is that that Terminator pinball game took a full point off my GPA. (laughter)

JM: We don't think we're asking for things that are, you know, just way out there.

BL: Right? Yeah, we're not looking to invent anything new. We're looking for a safe place. And when I say safe, I mean for pedestrians to walk across the street. And you shouldn't go out and get shot. The first weekend, the shutdown that was happening on the street was planned and executed terribly. And that's because they didn't ask any single business on the street how they should run it. So, I have 1000 problems with it. But the first weekend they did it, or maybe it was the second someone got shot up the street just kind of outside [a nearby bar]. We talked to Major Ries afterwards. And we're like, ‘hey, how did the shutdown affect your response to this?’ And he said, ‘honestly, it was better. We were able to get to the victim quicker. We were able to catch the people because they weren't able to jump into a car. It made it safer.’ APD, as far as we know, is behind this idea. And yet still.

JM: It’s a way that doesn't require police cars and a militarized force.

GC: I was talking to some folks who are working at one of the clubs. And they were telling me that they weren't crazy about the street being shut down, because in their view it reduced pedestrian traffic, because people aren't able to drive up. Does that make any sense to you?

JM: There's only 18 spots on this street to park, and it's not legal to park on weekend nights. So, you're losing zero spots. I don't understand it. The thing that kills pedestrian traffic is not the fact that cars aren't allowed. It’s the fact that ATLDOT decided to put up 48 barriers. It looks like a construction zone. It looks like the West Bank. It looks like a bridge is out. It looks terrible.

GC: I see.

JM: Josh Rowan seems to have made it his goal to make sure this never happens again. He sent us an email – which by the way, went to multiple city council members – where he says, ‘the challenges you have created, are self-inflicted.’ He also told us in summary, ‘our current situation is not sustainable logistically or financially. I can't imagine what would happen if we had even three more requests for weekend closures to essentially promote private businesses.’ So, he doesn't view this as a question of making a pedestrian zone that’s safe for everyone. He views this as us – us, specifically – trying to make more money.

GC: I'm hearing [@atlurbanist writer and ThreadATL cofounder] Darin Givens have an aneurism. That’s the pop I just heard ... (laughter)

BL: ... Somebody call [CCI policy director] Kyle Kessler, get him into the ER ...

GC: ... Because I'm looking at what happened on Peachtree Street where they started traffic calming, and they narrowed that street. And I'm sure there were some people who are freaked out. But my understanding is that the reception has been positive.

BL: Well, everything the city does to improve something is always for out-of-town guests. Ask yourself who lives on Peachtree Street, right? Ask yourself what resident of Atlanta benefits from the effort and the money and the planning and the time that they are pouring into Peachtree Street? That street  already has the widest sidewalks I can think of in the city. That includes Midtown, which is wildly walkable. Why they couldn't take that money and effort and put it into smaller neighborhood streets, especially the streets that attract thousands of pedestrians and have bullshit sidewalks.

GC: I’ve asked you what you want to see happen. Have we explored that fully?

JM: I'll tell you what I want to see happen. I want to see it safe. I don't want Edgewood to be anything crazy. I want it to be a neighborhood. I want you to be able to walk from downtown, all the way to the beltline, through Edgewood. I want you to come down here and celebrate Dr. King, and what he represents: the most famous Georgian, maybe American in the world, from the most famous church that anyone knows. This is the New South. With this level of diversity and young people and energy, this is what this New South is about. I want to see this become normal for everywhere else. And just be safe for people to do their business.

GC: What do you think is going to happen?

BL: I think people are going to continue to get shot on this street because the city doesn't pay attention to us.

GC: That's a harsh ... I mean I’m hearing you.

BL: We have an email that we sent to Kwanza Hall, specifically, eight years ago, seven years ago, where we said if you don't help us with what's happening here at night, people are going to start to die.

GC: I read that fucking email. I think you posted it.

BL: We called him out after some really bad activity happened. He went to the news and he said it was up to the millionaire bar owners on Edgewood to take care of it.

JM: I have yet to meet a millionaire bar owner.

BL: At this point it's fuckin’ Two Chainz, right? Was I a goddamn millionaire?

JM: What I personally think you're going to see happen -- and you know Sean Keenan; I told Sean Keenan he needs to write about this – is that I think this is what you're witnessing on the street, which is part of the overall discontent. I think this is the first major instance of black gentrification. Wealthy African-Americans gentrifying out lower-income African-Americans.

GC: Oh, that’s fascinating and weird. I completely agree with you. But it's also weird as hell to talk about.

JM: Because I will say this, which I never mind bringing up because I'm never afraid to discuss race. The problem with some of the things we're talking about is when you say, ‘I don't want underage kids buying alcohol out of the trunk of a car,’ some people hear ‘you don't want black kids there.’ And that's not the case at all.

GC: You would die. This is dead without black kids running around here.

JM: The diversity is what I love about this street. I don't want to end diversity. Don't be a dick. We don't give a shit. It’s not that hard. Just don't be a dick. Right? Regardless of your age, ethnicity or income.