The Painted Pickle, located right down the street from SweetWater Brewing Company in Buckhead is Atlanta’s newest, and only, pickleball “compeatery” in the city. According to its website, the Painted Pickle is “a place to compete, eat, drink and be social.”
Recently I had the chance to visit the Painted Pickle to see for myself what all the hype is about. And boy…am I glad I did.
When I first entered the Painted Pickle after leaving my car with the valet (street parking is available too), I was greeted by the sounds of paddle whacks, cheers and squeaking sneakers. But what I didn’t expect to find was the stunning bar off to the left of the entrance and mouth-watering aromas coming from the kitchen.
“We were confident that this was going to be the next winning formula for our company, and it’s been a tremendous start. It’s been absolutely packed,” said Owner and CEO of Painted Hospitality Justin Amick.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Amick and his team of hospitality experts are also behind the tremendously popular social venues, the Painted Pin and the Painted Duck.
In fact, Amick has been in the food and beverage industry nearly all of his life.
From Wall Street to restaurants
“I’m a second-generation restaurateur. Born and raised, a rare, true (404) Atlantan. I was raised in Midtown but grew up in the restaurant industry. My father owned the nationally acclaimed Peasant Restaurant Group in the ’80s and ’90s. He also started Concentrics Restaurant Group in the early 2000s,” Amick explained.
But Amick didn’t initially intend to take over the family business. He wanted to be an NBA star. He played collegiate basketball at Tulane University in New Orleans but realized he didn’t have a professional career ahead of him. Yet, being in one of the largest culinary and hospitality cities in the country, Amick re-fell in love with the industry.
“I moved to New York City with my then-girlfriend, who’s now my wife, we met at Tulane, but we moved up to New York City with a bunch of our friends, and it only took me about three months in a corporate job on Wall Street, to realize that I was not made to be in the corporate realm,” he confessed.
“I decided that I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and learn the restaurant industry, which was perfect for me. Coming from a team-oriented sports background, it’s the ultimate team-oriented industry,” he said.
Culinary street-cred
Amick has an impressive pedigree in the restaurant business. He got a job with famous chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio, who at the time, owned Gramercy Tavern and Craft Restaurant. During Amick’s tenure, Craft won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. The James Breard Awards are basically the Oscars for restaurants.
“My father and I wanted me to work and learn the ropes from somebody else besides his company. I worked every position you can think of in the front and back of the house. I was a reservationist, I was a kitchen prep, a dishwasher, a server assistant, a host, a maître d’, a front waiter, a captain, a bartender, all the way to management trainee,” he recalled.
Amick also has extensive professional experience as an advanced sommelier.
“I really fell in love with the wine and beverage side of things, and it piqued my interest to go through a lot of the different wine accreditations that were out there in the U.S. I worked my way up in the wine industry, and eventually, became an advanced sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers,” he said.
After holding a range of management positions for the likes of chef Richard Blais, Two Urban Licks, and Parish Foods and Goods, Amick decided to venture out on his own.
A winning combination
With his now business partner, Willian Stallworth, Amick decided to bring something new to the entertainment and restaurant markets in Atlanta.
“By combining my competitive athletic background, with my beverage-focused operational interests … we saw a hole in the market in Atlanta for alternative forms of entertainment, and we came up with the Painted Pin in 2014, which we call an upscale boutique bar, bowling and entertainment venue. We kind of hit the ground running there in 2014, and never looked back,” he recounted.
Both the Painted Pin and Painted Duck combine amazing food and beverage selections, and beautiful warehouse aesthetics, with different gaming offerings, and two different bowling variations. Now, the same concept has been applied to the Painted Pickle.
For all your pickleball needs
While I was perusing Painted Pickle’s eight pristine, Wimbledon-inspired indoor courts (and making a stop or two at the second bar area), I ran into the venue’s Athletic Director Iván Vizcaya. An Atlanta native, Vizcaya spent the last several years in Austin doing software consulting. After getting laid off, he returned home and decided to put his pickleball experience to good use.
“I just wanted a little side hustle, maybe give some pickleball lessons because I was playing a lot of tournaments and giving lessons in Austin,” he said.
Looking for a little side hustle quickly turned into a full-time position running the pickleball facilities and overseeing the venue’s pickleball programs and events.
“I think what’s special about this place is we really emphasize having fun and having a good time and not trying to be too stressed out about the actual sporting part of pickleball. I would say other places are more facilities for athletics and this is more of an entertainment venue that has pickleball as one of the main draws. We encourage people of all levels and demographics to come, like little kids, the elderly. Brand new players as well as professional players all play here, and they all treat it the exact same way,” he explained.
Vizcaya invited me to watch a high-level match he was playing later with some local pickleball influencers, Moses Das (@mosesdas) and Dr. Brien Lee (@thehealthypickleballer) as well as Matt Holliday. Yes, 2011 St. Louis Cardinals World Series Champion Matt Holliday. Little does he know my mom’s family is from Afton, Missouri. I’ve watched the Cards all my life and I was super pumped to catch the match.
But first, it was brunchtime.
The restaurant side of things
Not only does the Painted Pickle serve brunch on the weekends, but they also have a full menu of small plates, sandwiches, salads and a full-blown sushi bar.
The kitchen staff was clean, efficient and gracious.
I ordered the egg sandwich, a breakfast burrito and (my personal favorite) a Pimm’s cup. The delicious gingery-ness of my drink paired very nicely with the simple but incredibly tasty breakfast staples.
One of the more innovative ways the Painted Pickle is creating smoother customer experiences is by syncing its point of sales together across the entire venue. Patrons can order food and drinks from either side of the facility and settle up their tab before heading out. I didn’t have to whip out the credit card four or five different times or sign a handful of receipts and it made a difference. The bartender agreed with me and said it made things a lot easier for her too.
I realized at that moment how Amick’s extensive experience in fine dining and restaurant operations permeated the whole venue, down to the littlest detail.
“We really understand design restaurant and hospitality design, and energy and synergy, and food and beverage and gaming, and how all of those different revenue streams flow off of one another,” Amick said.
“I think a lot of people getting into the pickleball game these days are more like pickleball clubs. They’re member-focused gyms with pickleball focuses, which is great. I love to enjoy those sorts of concepts, as well. But I feel like our approach is very unique, because we’ve got 32,500 square feet, and only half of that amount of space is actually dedicated to pickleball,” he added.
Filling a gap in the market
Unique is how I would describe the Painted Pickleball too. I budgeted two hours for the duration of my trip and before I even realized it, nearly five hours had passed. While I wasn’t able to get on the court myself (they were all taken), I played ping-pong, shuffleboard and practiced my short game. Yep, the Painted Pickle has a putting green inside the restaurant.
“I think people appreciate our optics and our spin on bringing pickleball into the mainstream because we do differ so much than what people have probably seen in other markets, because they are really more member-focused amenities, like gym memberships, and those concepts aren’t really food and beverage outlets,” said Amick.
“They might have some snacks, or even maybe a juice bar or something like that, but there’s not this full-encompassing experience with the attention to detail, the level of the high-end build-out, and the quality of the overall food and beverage offerings, with the level of customer service and hospitality. That is what we’ve built our brand on,” he elaborated.
Reporter turned spectator
I rushed back to the courts just in time to catch Vizcaya’s match. And wow, these guys were jammin’. No lobs here ladies and gentlemen. Both teams, (Vizcaya and Holliday on one side, Das and Lee on the other) were playing at an incredibly high level.
Vizcaya’s aggressive serves were met with equally powerful returns from Das and Lee. Holliday was a formidable presence at the net standing at 6’4. For such a muscular player, he was light on his feet and displayed a tremendous amount of finesse and feel for the ball.
One particularly memorable point was an intense rally that pushed players up and back through the court. In a scramble, Lee’s return landed short in the no-volley zone and sat up high for Vizcaya to pounce on. He launched a winner straight up the middle to finish off the point.
After the match was over, it was time to head out. Sitting in the car on the way home, I started to write this article in my mind as I reflected on my entire experience. And what I determined was, the Painted Pickle is a straight-up fun time all around. I haven’t come across anything like it so far and I encourage all you pickleball fans out there to give this “compeatery” a try.
For more information or to make your court reservations, click here.
Photos are courtesy of the Painted Pickle and in certain instances, shot by Anna del Villar.