From 1996 to 2022, Swinging Richards held its place as Atlanta’s legendary all-male, all-nude strip club—part circus, part church, depending on who you ask. Tucked on Northside Drive, it was the first club in the city to go full-frontal, a place where gay men (and the occasional smuggled-in bachelorette) packed the room for dancers, drama, and a very specific kind of Southern hospitality.
Across its 26-year run, it became more than just a bar: a fundraiser venue, a post-Pride pilgrimage, a place where friendships, crushes, and very questionable decisions were all made under the same pulsing lights. Closing in January 2022, it left behind a thousand stories and a very noticeable hole in queer nightlife—locally and nationally.
