Yan Karaoke is on track to open its 15,000-square-foot Reynoldstown hub by this holiday season, and the bar’s team says the neighborhood conflicts have been resolved ahead of opening night.
The project drew attention from neighborhood leaders and historic preservation advocates this summer, when renderings for the bar design at the Atlanta Dairies became available. The images sparked concern. While the Atlanta Dairies are a 1930s Streamline Moderne property on the National Register of Historic Places, the buildings don’t actually have any protections.
Preservationists and civic leaders worried Yan Karaoke would make changes to the historic facade and darken street-level windows against Beltline Overlay District rules.
Now, Yan Karaoke Director of Operations Theodore Williams chalks the conflict up to misunderstanding. “A lot of what people saw were the kind of first stage renderings,” Williams explained.
The ambitious karaoke bar comes with multiple cocktail bars, a restaurant, VIP areas and private singing suites. Williams said it’s for people looking for more out of their nightlife experience instead of the “same old standing around.”
But the team didn’t update the publicly available renderings as design plans changed, especially as the group started working around the historic space. By the time the neighborhood saw the renderings, they were no longer accurate.
“The renderings don’t really do justice to what it actually looks like,” he said.
A big difference between the renderings and the real design is in the exterior changes. Originally, preservationists took issue with designs for a new entrance, awning and exterior light stretching the building.
Williams says none of it is a permanent change. The lights are glued onto the exterior, and the potential marble column design isn’t actually marble. “The only permanent change to the structures is going to be a couple of bolts that go in just to hold the awning,” he explained.
“There was pretty much no expense spared with how we were trying to create this aesthetic of what it is we’re building,” Williams said.
The other key issue for the community is the windows that wrap the building exterior. In a letter to the city’s plan review staff, the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League raised issues with designs that seemingly darkened the windows.
Heavily tinted or covered windows are banned in the Beltline Overlay District, where the Atlanta Dairies are located. It follows urban design principles: dark windows provide privacy, but they also “deaden” the street for pedestrians who can’t see inside.
Windows can be complicated for a karaoke bar. According to Williams, the space is split into 15 private karaoke rooms without windows. It’s necessary to “trap the sound in.” So, while the windows are only 25% tinted, Yan Karaoke also added walls on the other side of the windows.
Williams said the team is “trying their best to make them look good, and not like you’re looking at the back of a wall.”
The whole Yan Karaoke team brought these updates and changes to Neighborhood Planning Unit N, and the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League. Williams said they spoke to organization heads and committees.
On his end, the first call was “not very nice.” But later conversations were better, and he thinks “everyone was really excited.”
The NPU has a slightly different view. In an email to SaportaReport, NPU-N representative Nicole Seekely said some of the group’s concerns were assuaged.
“While disappointing they are not embracing the historic nature and uniqueness of the property, it seems most of the alterations could be remedied in the future should they move out of the space,” Seekely said.
But the window issue wasn’t resolved. The tint follows the Beltline Overlay District requirements, but Seekely said the interior walls have “rendered the windows useless and the street facade less than engaging.”
“From an urban design standpoint, this is a hostile move that could have been avoided with more thought into the layout of the interior space,” Seekely said. She thinks the configuration does not meet the “intent” of the zoning code.
Other NPU members responded to the email in agreement. Ultimately, Seekely said the group wishes Yan Karaoke success, “but hope future tenants will engage more with the neighborhood.”
Williams said Yan Karaoke would “still like to have more conversations” with the neighborhood to ensure everyone feels good. He feels particularly committed to the area, since he lived in Cabbagetown for 12 years. After all, the Dairies location will be the flagship bar.
“We want Yan to be a positive addition to the neighborhood and something the community is genuinely happy to have,” he said.
Yan Karaoke will open in the 2026 “holiday season” at the Atlanta Dairies in Reynoldstown.
