The hotel was originally built as high-end Bonaventure Arms Apartments, with substantial amenities for the time such as two elevators. In 1939, it reopened as the Hotel Clermont, catering to travelers on Ponce de Leon Avenue which was then a fancy thoroughfare. Around the midcentury mark, the first iteration of a dinner club opened in the downstairs of the hotel, followed by the Gypsy Room (where dancer Tiny Lou headlined in 1952), and the Playboy Club. Black ties, bunny outfits, and pricey steaks once reigned where Blondie now operates – now the Clermont Lounge which opened in 1965 or 1968 depending on who you talk to.

When Ethan Orley bought the formerly decadent Hotel Clermont in 2012, the Atlanta landmark was in disarray, a mess of rusted plumbing, busted kitchenettes, heavy terra cotta walls, and dingy road-motel carpeting. So famous was the lodge’s nefarious past, Orley was surprised to not find it riddled with hypodermic needles.

After several years of construction setbacks, Orley has nearly $30 million in the finished project with fantastic elements such as Georgia pink marble at the entrance and the terrazzo staircase. The Hotel Clermont is marketed as a “den of good times,” and that sentiment is very true to form with the hotel’s history. Each night when a switch is flipped, the red-lit rooftop tower (visible from across the city) shines a new, and a long-ailing icon is reborn.