Team behind Westside Motor Lounge to open pop-up concept at the Krog District

A collective of Atlanta hospitality veterans is bringing a new pop-up concept to the Krog District this spring. LikeMinds, led by Kelly Campbell of Westside Motor Lounge, will operate for a limited 120-day run at 112 Krog Street NE in the former BrewDog space.

The 14,700-square-foot venue sits adjacent to the BeltLine Eastside Trail and draws on teams from Southern Culinary & Creative, Smith’s Olde Bar, Frazie’s Meat & Market and Bunker Design. While it builds on the creative vision behind Westside Motor Lounge, Campbell says LikeMinds is a standalone concept developed over several months.

Open seven days a week, the space will feature live music and guest DJs programmed by Beau Nolen of Smith’s Olde Bar, a curated vinyl program, billiards, bar games and a sports-viewing setup. The food menu, led by Julian Hower of Smith’s and Mark Frazie of Frazie’s Meat and Market, will include sandwiches and shareable plates, with a weekend brunch program inspired by Hower’s Pho Cue concept. Dana Roberts of Westside Motor Lounge is designing the bar program, which will offer craft cocktails, spirit-free options, beer, wine and THC beverages.

LikeMinds is expected to open in late spring.

— Derek Prall

Trust for Public Land and Atlanta Public Schools open two community schoolyards

Trust for Public Land and Atlanta Public Schools have opened two schoolyards to the public, bringing park access to more than 8,600 residents living within a 10-minute walk of the sites. Of those residents, 451 previously had no park within walking distance.

Hope Hill Elementary School, at 112 Boulevard NE, held its ribbon cutting May 8. The renovated schoolyard features new play equipment including a zip line and embankment slides, a performance stage, picnic tables, ADA ramps and green infrastructure designed to capture stormwater.

Continental Colony Elementary School, at 3181 Hogan Road SW, followed with its ribbon cutting May 14. That site includes a shade pavilion, a new half-court basketball court with a student-designed mural, an accessible sidewalk connection to Hogan Road and a raised bed garden with a rainwater cistern.

The openings are part of Trust for Public Land’s national Schoolyards Program, which redesigns school grounds to serve as neighborhood parks during non-school hours. Over the past six years, the organization has partnered with 14 Atlanta schools on similar projects. Since the program launched in Atlanta in 2019, the city has climbed from 42nd to 21st in Trust for Public Land’s annual Park Score ranking of the 100 most populous U.S. cities.

— Derek Prall

Serial Killer: The Exhibition extends its run at Pullman Yards through July

Serial Killer: The Exhibition has extended its Atlanta engagement at Pullman Yards through July 26, citing record attendance and high demand.

The exhibition features more than 2,000 original artifacts across 27 themed sections, drawn from over 15 years of research and collaboration with more than 100 collectors worldwide. Items on display include Jeffrey Dahmer’s eyeglasses, John Wayne Gacy’s typewriter and prison television, and an electric chair, among other objects tied to high-profile and lesser-known cases from around the world.

Among the exhibition’s most popular features is an interactive psychopathy assessment that allows visitors to measure their own behavioral profile against traits associated with psychopathy. Tickets are available here. Pullman Yards is located at 225 Rogers Street NE.

— Derek Prall

Two Georgia State Perimeter College graduates earn Jack Kent Cooke scholarships

Two recent graduates of Georgia State University’s Perimeter College have been named 2026 Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholars, placing them among just 60 community college students selected nationwide from more than 1,300 applicants.

Ndeye Sarr, who studied engineering, and Navila Azad, who studied physics, are the only recipients from Georgia this year. Both were members of the Honors College at Perimeter’s Dunwoody campus and received STAR Awards and STEM Scholar awards from the college last month. They learned of the scholarship during a surprise meeting with Dean Barbara J. Johnson on May 11.

The scholarship provides up to $55,000 per year to help recipients complete a bachelor’s degree with minimal debt. Winners also receive personalized academic advising and access to a network of more than 3,400 Cooke scholars and alumni.

Sarr plans to attend Duke University in the fall to study civil and biomedical engineering after completing a summer research fellowship at Stanford. Azad is weighing offers from several schools and will spend the summer conducting research on neutrinos.

— Derek Prall

Blank Family Foundation’s HBCU scholarship initiative reaches early milestones as first recipients graduate

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has distributed more than $4.2 million in scholarships to nearly 600 students at Atlanta’s historically Black colleges and universities, less than a year into a $50 million, 10-year initiative first announced in October 2025.

The program targets students facing unmet financial need in their final semesters, providing gap funding to help them stay enrolled and graduate. Recipients attend Clark Atlanta University, which has received $1.45 million supporting 290 students; Spelman College, with $1.65 million supporting 189 students; and Morehouse College, with $1.24 million supporting 115 students.

Some of the program’s first scholarship recipients are set to graduate this spring, including Kayla Drummond, a first-generation student at Clark Atlanta who will cross the stage May 18. Drummond had exhausted all other financial options before receiving support through the program.

The foundation says the need for gap funding remains significant, with institutions continuing to identify students who are academically prepared to graduate but face financial shortfalls that put their degrees at risk. The initiative is projected to support thousands of students over the next decade while encouraging broader philanthropic investment in student completion at HBCUs nationwide.

— Derek Prall

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