Last night, I entered the poker tournament at Hollywood South, Mpact’s fundraiser. About 16 people participated, and after two hours of play (by then they were starting to close the place up) it was down to one other person and me. I got dealt an Ace-King, which if you know anything about Texas Hold’Em is not a bad hand to start out with. So I went all-in (bet all my chips). When my opponent flipped her cards over and had a 3 and a 9, I started to feel really good.
Then they dealt the flop. 3, 3, 9. She had a full house on the first five cards. Blast it. So I came in second.
Still not bad though. The second place prize is a personal meal from the chef at the Majestic – he will come to my place to cook dinner, although I have to supply the food. Works for me. Later in the evening I went to Earnestine & Hazel’s and ran into him there – I told him I won and he liked the idea of cooking on No. 10 Main’s rooftop grills.
He also told me that the Majestic will be open in a couple of weeks, so it looks like the April 10 date that I heard last month was a bit optimistic.
The Mpact party was a blast. They always throw tremendous parties for their fundraisers. Being in that space made me realize how much I miss Club Ten. For those of you not familiar with it, it was a members-only nightclub inside the Plaza Club at Third and Monroe. It cost $150 a year to join and they gave you passes to invite guests. Trendy, upscale music, drinks, and crowd – think Swig with a dance floor. The club was doing extremely well but in April 2004 its owners moved to England and decided not to try to run it from overseas. There was talk of reviving it in a different location later that year, but nothing ever came of it.
I wish someone would pick up the Club Ten concept and run with it. I think it would go over huge with downtown’s young professional crowd. If anyone decides to give it a go, you have my promise that I will promote the living hell out of it in this blog.
Yesterday when I went to the crawfish festival, I parked on Jefferson, east of Cooper. I easily could have found a spot two blocks closer to the fest, and people were asking, “Paul, why do you always park so far away at these events?” Here’s why: there were four Metro DUI cops waiting to pick people off as they pulled out of the parking lot. Now, I wasn’t drunk when I drove home, but still – if I’ve had even one beer, I go out of my way to avoid encounters with cops. Parking where I did, I just drove to East Parkway and blended in with traffic, never coming anywhere near the festival and the cops as I drove home.
By the way – I’m not condoning driving drunk, but if you do ever get pulled over on suspicion of DUI, every lawyer I’ve ever talked to has said the same thing: absolutely do NOT submit to a breathalyzer test. You’ll get your license suspended for the refusal, but it makes it a lot harder for them to pin a DUI on you. Get a good attorney and you’ve got a good chance of fighting it and getting the charge reduced or dismissed.
Last night I heard a rumor that there’s going to be a new coffee shop opening soon in the South Main area. Anybody got the info on that?
Speaking of coffee shops, as I was walking down Main yesterday, I noticed that the shop formerly known as Empire Coffee is now calling itself Puffy Joe’s. Doesn’t “Puffy Joe” sound like someone who smokes a lot of weed? Not that I’ve ever met the guy, but I’m just saying, with that name… of course, he’d hardly be the only downtown business owner who… never mind, let’s just end this now.
Deal of the Week will be up later today.