Theater actor, educator and producer Jake West’s 11 Good Things

Jake West is an actor, teaching artist, producer and director. He is the creator and producer of The Come Up, a variety show hosted by the Red Light Cafe the first Monday of every month. He also serves as the outreach director for Havoc Movement and as one of its producers, where he has worked on Just Another Play About Rainbows: Vol. 1 and Dracula: The Failings of Men. As a theater artist, he hopes to create stories that celebrate essential humanity in ways that take care of the artists involved as well as the audience.

Here, in no particular order, are his 11 good things. 

1. The Alpine Negroni at Banshee. I bartended at Banshee’s sister restaurant, Bona Fide Deluxe, for about a year, and Katie McDonald runs one of the best cocktail programs in the city. This drink is maybe the most perfectly balanced cocktail I’ve ever had, and it started my love affair with Pasubio. Bitter, boozy and exceptional every single sip.

2. Gigi’s Italian Kitchen. This one is wildly simple: I fell in love here. Head over feet stuff. I think it’s kind of impossible not to. They curate an immaculate vibe and have a menu that is deliriously good. Grab a counter seat (which is right in front of their kitchen), sip an amari, eat the best pasta you’ll ever have, get your world rocked by their tiramisu and probably fall in love? 

3. Radio Roasters Hi/Fi Blend. Whenever I make coffee at home, I make a café Cubano, and I use this blend. It’s got chocolate notes and a bit of dried fruit in it. It’s like my perception of Chuck Taylors in 2013; it goes with everything. 

4. The moment everyone breathes in at the same time after the entire room laughs.  Proof that the mundane is holy. 

5. Caleb Hearon’s Model Comedian. This is the best comedy special I’ve seen in a long time. Caleb Hearon has a voice that speaks to a specific generational crisis: The fight between our desire to be genuine/known and the artificiality we have been trained to hide behind to abstract the horrors around us. Masterclass in storytelling, structure and a dang ball.

6. Topo Chico’s Twist of Grapefruit. I go hard in the paint for a bubbly water. This guy is still king.

7. John Wick 4. Guys. It’s perfect.

8. Propranolol. I have a lot of mental health struggles, and this was a breakthrough. It’s a beta blocker and helps with a lot of the physical symptoms of panic attacks. Between this and having a therapist who is incredible, it’s made a world of difference for me. 

9. Spontaneous picnics. If I can offer any piece of advice, get a picnic blanket and keep it in your car. Even the most boring meal becomes an adventure when you eat it outside on a nice day. You can hit a place like Vin ATL and tell Dwight or Erin you have $20 and four unexpected hours, and they’ll get you an amazing bottle. Elemental Spirits is also great for a little pick-me-up, boozy or non. Atlanta has a lot of green space that makes spontaneous picnics a breeze. Say hey to the magnolia tree in Freedom Park for me. 

10. The hour-long nap I take with my partner’s dog in the morning after our walk. The little guy comes in to cuddle and is like “I’m done being adventurous; I wanna sleep,” and I’m like, “Me too, bud,” and it is super snuggly and warm.

11. Dropout. I think this is the best pound-for-pound investment I make every month. For the uninitiated: A creator-first streaming platform with programming that is more audacious than anything on TV. If there is one company I want to work for, it’s this one.