For those of you who are attending the National Conference for Media Reform, and feel like going out for a night on the town after you get done with your conference duties, I want to post some recommendations. Now, I know many of you won’t have time to get out after the conference, because there’s a lot of serious work to get done. But, with 3,000 attendees, I figure there have to be SOME partiers in the group. This post is for you.
First of all, my number-one recommendation. If you want to go out and dance, and you want to go to a place that is as REAL as Memphis can get, this is where you need to go:
This is Raiford’s Hollywood Disco. Fellow blogger Mr.Roboto described the owner/DJ, Robert Raiford, as “the crunkest man on Earth” and he is absolutely right. You will never have another experience like Raiford’s. He spins disco, soul, and hip-hop for one of the most diverse crowds you’ll ever see. There are like 100,000 lights in the club. The dance floor lights up and has a stripper pole on it. There are white leather couches to sit on. The club’s signature drink is a quart of Bud Light. If you don’t like the signature drink, too bad, because that’s about all they serve. You can carry in your own liquor and they’ll sell you set-ups. It opens on Friday and Saturday at 10 PM, starts to get busy about midnight, and there will be a looooooong line to get in by 1 AM. It closes around 4:00, 4:30 AM. To get there, take Main to Vance Ave. (three blocks south of Beale) and you’ll see it, just off Main on Vance. Highest possible recommendation. You haven’t been to Memphis until you’ve been to Raiford’s.
Some other recommendations:
- The only place downtown that keeps it real as much as Raiford’s does is Earnestine & Hazel’s, at the corner of Main and GE Patterson. They sell beer and have exactly one menu item – the Soul Burger, which is one of the best burgers in town. They also have the best jukebox in town. This is a former brothel and they have done very little in the way of redecorating. If the upstairs is open (look for an open door in the back left), by all means, go up there and check out the rooms where business was taken care of in the old days. They have a small bar upstairs too, tended by a guy named Nate who is one of my favorite bartenders downtown.
- If you insist on going to Beale Street: Normally I’d list Blues Hall and BB King’s as the best places to hear live music on the street, but I see that The Dempseys are playing Blues City Cafe Friday and Saturday and they are the best band in town. The Pig on Beale and Blues City Cafe have the best ribs. EP’s Delta Kitchen has the best upscale bar menu. King’s Palace Cafe has the best regular bar menu. The Tap Room is a great place to hang out and drink a beer. Pat O’Brien’s and Silky’s are good places to party.
- Bluefin on Main Street (between Gayoso and Peabody) has good sushi and a chilled-out atmosphere with live DJs.
- If you want to meet some friendly locals, check out Sleep Out Louie’s on Union between Front and Main. The regulars there will be happy to talk to you and recommend more good places. On Saturday night they have an acoustic band called Pam & Terry who are very good.
- The Flying Saucer has the biggest beer selection and the best-looking waitresses, but on weekend nights it tends to fill up with frat dudes, and there’s a cover charge. Take a peek in the window, and if it looks like your thing, by all means, go in, it’s a good bar; if it doesn’t look like your scene try Dan McGuinness Pub across the street.
- There are lots of good restaurants on Monroe and Union between Front and Third, and on Second between Union and Peabody Place.
- Peoples (on Beale between Third and Fourth) and Jillian’s (Second at Peabody Place) have pool tables. Jillian’s also has a bowling alley.
There ya go… that’s a list to get you started. I’ll be at the Democracy for America/National Conference for Media Reform mixer at TJ Mulligan’s on Saturday from 6 to 8, so if you see me there, stop and say hello.