Joystick Gamebar founders Johnny Martinez and Brandon Ley will open the Georgia Beer Garden at 420 Edgewood Avenue in early 2016.

“We’re right next to MLK, the Atlanta Streetcar comes right next to the Beer Garden, and Edgewood is becoming a big destination for the bar scene. We want to capitalize on that and show off what people around the whole state are doing with beer,” Martinez says.

The Georgia Beer Garden will operate more like a restaurant where patrons pay for what they order, as opposed to unlimited sample tours for set prices. Martinez and Ley plan to serve only beers from Georgia breweries (24 on tap, plus bottles and cans from the likes of Orpheus, Second Self, Creature Comforts, Jailhouse, Three Taverns, SweetWater, and Wild Heaven. Some wine and cocktails will also be available.

“We’re approaching it from the angle of a beer garden started in the South, as opposed to Germany. The food is Southern but you can see the German influence in it,” Ley says. Expect a play off country chicken and biscuits with schnitzel, housemade honey-roasted peanuts served with mustards and chow chow, and grilled local sausages

TVs for sports fans will be installed upstairs. “There’s not a good place to watch sports on Edgewood. We anticipate we’ll be able to remedy that,” Ley says.

What would a beer garden be without a big patio? Martinez says the outdoor area features a courtyard, a deck, a patio under a deck, and another outside area and that they’re looking into corn hole and other “communal social games.”