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Photograph by Cean Williams
At Cars & Coffee Atlanta, you may see anything from a Porsche 911 GT3 RS to a vintage Japanese fire truck—and everything in between. “There’s always something unique to look at. It’s not boxed into one kind of category,” says Dana Toledo, a hospitality interior designer and admirer of fast cars, who attends the free monthly event. Cars & Coffee takes place on the last Sunday of every month, in the parking lot outside PERC Coffee’s East Lake location. Those who make it to the early-morning gathering—it starts at 8 a.m.—are treated to anywhere from 50 to 75 eye-catching automobiles and plenty of conversation. “It’s very casual. We try to keep it completely unpretentious and welcoming and inclusive,” says Salisha Fingerhut, the event’s organizer. Anyone can show up, whether they have a “cool” car or not. Most attendees pop into PERC to buy a coffee, but it’s not mandatory. Kids and dogs are welcome, too (the former love seeing the latter).
Though there are versions of “cars and coffee” meetups all over the country, an Irvine, California, gathering is often credited with sparking their popularity in the mid-aughts. Lane Friedman, a film and television hair stylist, introduced the Atlanta iteration in 2020 as an alternative to other, larger car gatherings in the suburbs. Fingerhut, who works in tech consulting and loved attending the event, took over as the organizer in 2021 when Friedman headed home to Los Angeles. “It’s really always been word of mouth, whether it’s in the neighborhood, friends that people have known over the years, or local car businesses,” she says. “It’s exploded since then.” Fingerhut herself is a car enthusiast, with a 1986 BMW E28. “It was a model that my dad had,” she adds.
One of the regulars, Neil Bedwell, loves how laid-back Cars & Coffee is relative to other automotive gatherings. When Bedwell shipped over his 1968 Porsche 912 from his native England, it took a while to find the kind of car enthusiast community he’d enjoyed back home. A friend directed him toward Cars & Coffee, and he’s been hooked ever since. “It’s become the place where I’ve met a bunch of friends that I now go on road trips with, hang out with,” says Bedwell. “Outside of that, it’s fostered this great community of intown Atlanta car folks.”
This article appears in our September 2024 issue.
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