Bar Review - Prep School Reunions at Churchills

Genre: Preppie heaven

Where to?: The pricey boutique zone of Buckhead, off East Andrews

The Scene: Churchills (formerly Churchill Arms) offers two large rooms. The main bar has an aggressively British public house feel. The centerpiece of the barroom is a full-scale hearth. Photo portraits of royals and commoners hang between mirrored ads for British beers. The game room offers a few pool tables, three dart lanes, a couple of video games and some TVs tuned to the big sporting events of the moment and ESPN. Promotions include discounts for hospitality industry employees on Mondays and trivia nights on Tuesdays.

The Clientele: The interesting thing about this place is how disparate its regulars are, depending on when you go. Some of the older, longtime guys who linger during the afternoons have been coming in for years. But on weekend nights, it's a totally different story, full of beautiful, young, thin, upwardly mobile clones.

Drinks: Don't come here for wine — they only have a couple of bottles, and they aren't much concerned with them. Beer bottles are mainly macrobrewed dross: Bud, Coors, Michelob, Miller and Sam Adams. The domestic bottles balance a European draught list that includes Amstel, Bass, Boddington's, Guinness, Harp, Newcastle, Pilsner Urquell, Stella Artois, Strongbow cider, Warsteiner and Widmere. "We have the bottles basically for people who don't drink good beer," said bartender Matt with a shrug.

Munchies: Eat before you get here, because unless you are planning on Guinness for dinner, there is no solid sustenance.

Wallet impact: Liquor drinks range from $4.50-$8, and $10 for some whiskeys. Beer prices are quite reasonable: Bottled beers are $3 for domestics and $4 for imports, and pints on draught are $4.50. There is no cover and parking is free on the street, if you can find a spot.

Where the preppies meet'n'greet: On a recent Friday near midnight, the place was hoppin'... but it was like everyone there came from the same prep school. Not a single person of color. Nary an untucked shirt. Not one man in the place had hair that passed his shirt collar, and the only facial hair was the occasional moderate sideburns or tightly trimmed goatee. Every single female had stick-straight locks. No one stood out, in dress nor manner. It was all kind of Stepford, really.

Then we happened to meet Stan — Stanley H. Smith III, actually — who put into words what we were observing: "For a private school person, this is the place to be! When we're in Atlanta, we all know to come here and meet." We chatted for a few minutes, and I was fascinated by the way Stan, a graduate of the Lovett School, simultaneously embraced and ridiculed the crowd's homogenity.

Churchills. Mon.-Fri. 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sat. 3 p.m.-4 a.m. 3223 Cains Hill Place, 404-233-5633.