This Week
in Gwinnett.
Hey Neighbor,
Last month I told you I had no idea whether it was a good time to sell your house, because I'm the guy who tells you where the free concert is.
Then a whole lot of you blocked out a Thursday lunch break to hear somebody who actually does.
So we're doing it again — and this time it's the question I got asked the most afterward. More on that in a second.
First, the thing I'd put on your calendar: the Gwinnett County Fair opens Thursday, and it's $10. I'm picking it because it's ours.
Not a festival that happens to be nearby — the county's own fair, on Sugarloaf, eleven days, ten dollars a head. Every year I tell myself we'll go one night and every year we go twice. Details below.
Let's get into it.
This Coming Week
THE WEBINAR: WE'RE DOING IT AGAIN
this is actually a photo of my home back in LA circa 2016
What happened last time
On August 20 we put Jim Stern on a call for 30 minutes and asked him flat out: what is the housing market actually doing in Gwinnett — not nationally, not "the Atlanta metro," here.
He answered. People asked their own questions live. A handful of you walked away with everbowl gift cards. And Jim stuck around after we wrapped for the folks who'd rather ask something without the whole group listening.
If you were there, you know. If you weren't:
👉 Watch the replay → (this is an unlisted link — only people on this list have it)
What's next
The question I kept getting afterward wasn't about selling at all. It was some version of: okay, but how would a person like me even start buying?
So that's the next one.
A live 30-minute conversation with Jim Stern
📅 Tuesday, September 22
🕛 12:00 PM (noon) sharp
⏱️ 30 minutes, max — you've got a lunch break, not a lunch hour
💻 Online + free
This one is built for people who have never done it and have wanted to, or at least done it once. People who've wondered what the first step actually looks like and have never had anyone explain it without trying to sell them something.
A no pressure half an hour, just like last time.
Got a question you want Jim to answer live? Hit reply and send it to me — I'll put it in front of him.
📍 THIS WEEK IN GWINNETT
1. Wellness Wind Down at everbowl Hamilton Mill
Saturday, September 19 · 6:00 PM · FREE
everbowl Hamilton Mill, 2740 Braselton Hwy, Suite A1, Dacula, GA 30019
Pilates, B12 shots, matcha and açaí — in the parking lot of the same everbowl my 11-year-old made that video about.
Here's the part I like: this isn't one business running an event. It's three. A Piece of Kate Pilates, everbowl Hamilton Mill, and Hydraglō Mobile IV Therapy put it together between them. Three local businesses that could have each done their own smaller thing and instead decided to do one better thing.
Free to attend, but you have to sign up.
Why I'd send you here: because "leave the day behind" is exactly the right pitch for a Saturday evening in September, and because I'd rather you spend an hour with neighbors than an hour scrolling.
2. Suwanee Fest 2026 — "Once Upon a Suwanee Fest"
Saturday, September 19 · 9:00 AM–7:00 PM · FREE
Sunday, September 20 · 12:00–5:00 PM · FREE
Town Center Park, 330 Town Center Avenue, Suwanee, GA 30024
The parade steps off at 9:00 AM Saturday and runs from Town Center on Main down Main Street into the park. This year's theme is storybook, which means the floats are going to be very good or very strange, and both are fine with me.
Then it's two days of the whole thing — vendors, food, music, the works.
Why I'd send you here: it's the closest thing Gwinnett has to a hometown Saturday, it costs nothing, and it's the kind of day you don't plan and then wish you had. Get there before 9 if you want the parade.
3. ⭐ The Gwinnett County Fair opens
Thursday, September 17 · gates 5:00–9:00 PM (Sat 11 AM–10 PM · Sun 1–9 PM · runs through Sept 27)
Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway, Lawrenceville, GA 30045
$10 adults · $5 seniors 65+ · $5 kids 6–11 · under 5 free with a paid adult · ride wristbands $20–$35
Funnel cake, a Ferris wheel you can see from Sugarloaf, and the particular sound a county fair makes at dusk.
Why I'd send you here: this is my pick of the week. Ten dollars gets a person through the gate, the fairgrounds are fifteen minutes from most of you, and it runs eleven days — so if this weekend is spoken for, go next week. Monday the 21st drops to $5 if you'd rather skip the opening crowd.
4. "Game On!" — Broad St. Concert Band at the Eagle Theatre
Tuesday, September 15 · 7:00–9:00 PM · FREE
The Eagle Theatre, 5029 W Broad St, Sugar Hill, GA 30518
A full concert band playing sports music — fight songs, movie themes, the stuff that makes the hair on your arms stand up whether you wanted it to or not. No tickets, no reservations, first come first served.
Why I'd send you here: this is tonight. You are reading this email and the thing is happening in a few hours and it costs nothing. That almost never lines up this cleanly.
5. JapanFest Atlanta 2026
Saturday, September 19 · 10:00 AM–6:00 PM
Sunday, September 20 · 10:00 AM–5:00 PM
Gas South Convention Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth, GA 30097
$20.78 one-day advance · $38.13 two-day advance · $25.20 at the door · kids 6 and under free
Taiko drums, martial arts demos, food, an artisan market, and about four thousand things your kids will want to buy.
Why I'd send you here: one of the biggest Japanese cultural festivals in the Southeast happens in our county every year and a lot of Gwinnett still doesn't know it. Buy ahead — see below.
👉 Tickets
From the county.
💛 GOOD NEWS FROM THE COUNTY
Small thing at the county fair that I think says something about us.
Admission is free all eleven days for active and retired military, law enforcement, and fire — just show ID at the gate. Not a discount. Free. And Monday the 21st drops to $5 for everybody, which is a quiet way of saying we'd like the families who can't do $10 a head on a Saturday to come too.
Nobody put out a press release about that. It's just sitting there in the fine print on the hours page.
I like living somewhere that does things like that without announcing them.
⚡ GUS' PICKS: FIVE DATE NIGHTS WORTH REPEATING
You asked for this one. These are five places I've already put in front of you back in January and February that are still worth the drive — two for a real occasion, two for a regular Friday, and one for when the kids are coming and you've stopped pretending otherwise.
🥂 Perry Street Chophouse — Lawrenceville · 125 N Perry St, Lawrenceville, GA 30046 · (770) 854-0901
USDA Prime steaks and live piano downtown. Their Tuesday "Dinner for Two" runs $100, which is the single best-value splurge in the county.
🥂 Aqua Terra Bistro — Buford · 55 E Main Street, Buford (Historic Downtown) · (770) 271-3000
Voted Most Romantic Restaurant in Gwinnett since 2002, and it has held that for a reason. Open kitchen, 25 years in, staff who make you feel like a regular on night one.
🍽️ Three Blind Mice — Lilburn · 1066 Killian Hill Rd, Lilburn
Named Best Gwinnett Restaurant 2025 by Atlanta Magazine. Farm-to-table, owned and run by three local families since 2010. Upscale but nobody's checking your shoes.
🍽️ Nature Village — Suwanee · 302 Satellite Blvd NE, Suite 125, Suwanee, GA 30024 · (470) 350-1019
Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, halal, and the room is genuinely beautiful. Get the parda biryani. Bring someone who likes trying things.
👉 Menu
👨👩👧 Duluth Diner — Duluth · 3620 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Duluth, GA 30096 · (770) 814-0523
Family-owned for almost 20 years. Not a chain, not a franchise. Open 8 AM to 8 PM every single day, generous portions, and nobody looks at you sideways when the four-year-old drops a fork.
The "text this to your spouse" section.
WORTH KNOWING THIS WEEK
🎟️ JapanFest advance pricing ends Friday, September 18. Advance is $20.78 a day, $38.13 for both days. At the door it's $25.20. For a family of four going Saturday, buying before Friday saves you about eighteen bucks. The venue is also cashless — leave the cash at home, bring a card.
🚧 Main Street in Suwanee closes for the parade Saturday morning. The route runs from Town Center on Main down Main Street to Town Center Park, starting at 9:00 AM. If you're driving through Suwanee Saturday morning and not going to the festival, go around. If you are going, park early and walk in.
🎡 The fair runs eleven days, not one weekend. September 17 through 27. If this weekend is already full between Suwanee Fest and JapanFest, the fair will still be there next week — and next Monday it's $5.
Before You Go!
I've been thinking about why that first webinar hit the way it did.
It wasn't the market data. Honestly, half of you probably don't remember the numbers Jim gave. It was that somebody sat down and answered a question straight, for free, without wanting anything from you at the end of it.
That's rarer than it should be. And it's most rare around money — which is exactly where people need it most, and exactly where they're most embarrassed to admit they don't know something.
So if you've ever sat in your car after work and wondered what it would take to own something that pays you back, and then talked yourself out of asking because you figured you should already know — next Tuesday is for you. Nobody's going to make you feel behind.
Bring the question you've been too proud to ask.
👉 Save my seat for Tuesday, September 22 → 👉 Save my seat
Your Neighbor and GwinnettBest Creator,
Gus Ruballo
