Home - The James Room

we've been expecting you...

WE'RE A VIBE

The James Room is a gathering place meant to galvanize our need for social interaction, connection, and positive energy. The dimly lit cocktail lounge is meant to be a place where you can leave your stresses at the door and immerse in the energetic vibrations of our cozy and intimate space. Once you get settled, indulge in our savory light bites and carefully hand-crafted cocktail menu. With excruciatingly detailed musical programming, cozy lighting schemas, and mature design aesthetics, the James Room is a complete Vibe.

THE LOUNGE

At night, when the lights go down and the music turns up, our intimate hidden cocktail lounge comes to life. Carefully curated mixes of pop, hip hop, r&b, reggaeton, and soul music fill the room and keep you engaged. Music aside, we aim to pry the basic bar mixed drinks out of people’s hands and replace them with more robust, more complex, and more conversation-worthy cocktails. Set a date and tell your friends to meet you at the room…The James Room.

THE CAFÉ

During the day our café features top-notch pastries and savory snacks to accompany our Vittoria Coffee products, in addition to beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages. Feel free to get some work done or meet clients in our cafe, lounge, or on our patio during the day. The James Room cafe is the perfect place for people watching, working, or relaxing. Our daytime old school r&b musical selections will keep you high spirited and productive.

It's five O'Clock somewhere...

The team at The James Room is excited to present our minimalist cocktail menu. The menu is inspired by the mantra ‘less is more,” with cocktails being made of only one to two flavor combinations. The entire team has worked to pair thoughtfully-sourced spirits with just one other key ingredient or flavor.

DRINK

Every Moment has Music

Just as everything is music in one sense or another, everyone is a synesthete – to a larger or lesser extent. You do not need an advanced degree in psychology to figure it out: how music impacts your perception of food, for instance, how it influences your menu choices, how it modifies your mood and guides your thinking, how it induces or demotivates interactivity at the table.

It takes a bit of extra curiosity to realize how various auditory stimuli affect the quality of your gustatory experiences – the specific genre of music, volume, tempo, instrumentation, the balance of low and high frequencies, its lyrical component… Music is a sonic seasoning, they say: higher notes, flutes, and tinkling piano sweeten food, while deeper, more resonant notes make it taste more bitter than it actually is. Loud and upbeat music, groovy music, music with vocals, familiar pieces of music – the types of music that increase heart and blood pressure rates – suppresses the appetite. Too much excitement around the table makes food bland; an exquisite delicacy may taste like sand.

From the synesthetic point of view, it is not only music that defines your dining experience as an intricate interplay of the senses. In equal measure, it is about a visual impact (interior design, food presentation), tactile impressions (room temperature, the texture of food), vestibular sensations (physical comfort afforded by the furniture), and so on down to the color of napkins.

Text: Source & Fluence
Editors: Rachel Howard, Tom Osmond

ADDRESS

661 Auburn Ave NE Suite 280

Atlanta, GA 30312

HOURS OF OPERATION

Cafe Hours

Sunday-Saturday 8am – 5pm

Bar Hours

Monday – Closed

Tuesday: 5pm – 12am

Wednesday: 5pm – 1am

Thursday: 5pm -1 2am

Friday & Saturday 5pm – 2am

Sunday: 5pm – 10pm

GETTING HERE

Car Service/Taxi/Lyft/Uber: Have your car drop you off at the entrance to the Studioplex (659 Auburn Ave NE) Parking lot and walk towards the staircase on the left side of the townhouses under construction (there is an elevator as well). When you reach the bottom of the stairs, we are the first location on the right. For the cafe, enter in the front. For the speakeasy/lounge, the secret door is not in the cafe…..look for James to enter in the back (hint…under the stairwell in the alley! ask the host!).

Driving: If you take a car , pull into Studioplex (659 Auburn Ave NE) and pull through the gates into the parking lot. You can either park in the parking lot or pull into the parking deck (be sure to avoid any reserved spots. open spots are typically found on the very 1st or 4th floor). Walk towards the townhouses which are under construction and take the stairs down to the beltline. If you take the staircase closest to the parking deck, we are all the way at the end to your left. For the cafe, enter in the front. For the speakeasy/lounge, the secret door is not in the cafe…..look for James to enter in the back (hint…under the stairwell in the alley! ask the host!).

Walk/Bird/Bike/Lime, etc: Take the Beltline’s Eastside trail away from Ponce City Market towards Krog Market. Cross over Irwin. Go about 200 yards and you will see Studioplex Alley on your right. We are the first location on your right. For the cafe, enter in the front. For the speakeasy/lounge, the secret door is not in the cafe…..look for James to enter in the back (hint…under the stairwell in the alley! ask the host!).