Burle's Bar — Restaurant in Atlanta

Unwelcoming to Black women. Go to Bully Boy or New Realm or anywhere else instead unless Whites Only is also your vibe.

The three guys who worked the bar on Friday, November 17th definitely ensured that Burle’s Bar maintained an “Unwelcoming to Black people” atmosphere. If you are also prejudice, racist, or okay with supporting places that are, this place is for you. :) If you’re not, walk a few more feet and go literally anywhere else on the beltline.

Two of the three men behind the bar opted to flat out ignore us when we were the only three people at the bar waiting to order drinks. One guy eventually came up to us and said “I can only serve beer and wine” as a tactic to deter us from ordering and get us to leave. We could visibly see the other two guys ignoring us (they had literally nothing else to do to keep them busy) so we said “we want to order cocktails” and they had no choice but to take our order. I did not want to stay but another person in our party wanted to see the endeavor through to compare our service to the other patrons.

We ordered our drinks after an unnecessarily long, visibly uncomfortable ramble from one of the bartenders who apparently could do more than serve us beer and wine after all. After we ordered we sat at a table inside directly across from the bar. They did not bring us our drinks, they yelled at us that our drinks are at the bar. The bartender did not tell us which drinks were which and ignored us as I asked so and took another person’s order. I asked four times which drinks were which and instead of answering me the bartender tried to take another drink order of someone who was behind us, suddenly gung-ho about doing his job. Someone else behind the bar told us what one was and we figured out the other two on our own.

We enjoyed our drinks as we watched them provide prompt, efficient, and friendly service to literally everyone else in the place, even bringing drinks to tables and walking around to collect empty glasses. Astonishing to see that they actually do have the capability of coming from behind the bar to deliver drinks, just not for us.

When we were ready to tab out, they provided us a ticket with three drinks that we didn’t even order that cost more than what we ordered. I wanted them to correct this but my friend who insisted we stay said to leave it as is as physical proof of their level of service for particular patrons.

This experience was wildly disappointing considering the location. They should go out to the ‘burbs with with all that unwelcoming energy but I assume this is what’s coming with the aggressive gentrification in the area. I live and own a business in the neighborhood and this type of behavior is coming from a few of the new eastside beltline places. Pretty sad. They should take their sign off the beltline if they actually don’t want the many people of the beltline actually visiting their business.

Alternatively, if you are looking to have a drink with a couple of your girl friends after a long week, I recommend going to Rina, Bully Boy, Atrium or 12 inside PCM, Two Urban Licks, Indaco, or literally Kroger before this place. Or keep walking a bit and go to Ladybird or Ranger Station....

BAR: Trendy, not hipster. A lot of cool craft cocktail type bars can be a bit stuffy, not this one. I've got a lot tattoos despite my lack of style and lame suburban look, so I'm going to stereotype to prove my point. When you see cool looking tatted up staff at cool bars, IN MY EXPERIENCE IN SoCAL AND ATLANTA, they are usually rude, and too cool to actually provide service. NOT THIS PLACE.

STAFF: The staff here from Owner on down are incredibly friendly, nice, engaging, etc. They seem like a family in this place, rather than some sort of weird bar hierarchy. The patrons that I've met while taking my dog there have all been really nice, really interesting, and all walks of life. From your youthful Mailchimp employee, to a wealthy retired couple, ALL have been incredibly friendly. As someone who lives on the Beltline and have seen the best and worst it has to offer, I can say that the obnoxious crowd you don't want to be around form the Beltline; do not hang out here.

DOGS: Yes. My dog, you ask? Yes, they are INCREDIBLY dog friendly (Not inside, dog's can chill outside though). I've become a regular, and I take my dog Dermot everytime. I say that as he is friendly, but not all dogs are. Every dog he has met here has become a friend. People aren't bringing ill behaved dogs to this bar.

PRICE: They could EASILY charge "Beltline Prices" for where they're located, the quality of drink, the service they provide, but they don't. They don't steal your pocket change, and the quality does not suffer because of it. They have a great Belgium Pilz that's only $5 a can. They make a mean spicy margarita (So I'm told by a self called "Spicy Margarita Maker"), and they give you a Biscotti on your Old Fashioned.

THOUGHTS: If you're a good person, have a dog, have millions in the bank or you live paycheck-to-paycheck, but are a good person, go to Burle's. Don't let the new building and posh look of the bar throw you off, it's a classy place but...

If I could give 0 stars I would. Came to this place with 2 other girlfriends and the lack of hospitable service received was beyond me. The bartenders intentionally and obviously ignored us standing at the bar for some minutes before turning attention to us and taking our order. After we sat down and waited, we were summoned to the bar to retrieve our drinks, not knowing which drink was ours (since we all ordered something different). To our astonishment, despite asking which drink was which multiple times, still had to figure out 2/3 drinks on our own because the bartender did not provide the answer. Meanwhile and not surprisingly as we drank, we observed several other non-Black individuals came in to patron and were not given delayed or rude service. To top it all off, when time to close out, we were given one bill that did not have all of the correct drinks itemized on there.

Establishments like this are what’a wrong with the increasing gentrification in Atlanta. Knowing the rich history of the city, it is shameful that some places like this decide to set up shop in the area only to be dismissive and rude to a specific population (Black women in this instance) in 2023. It is...