Month: February 2007

A sweetheart deal on dining, new RSDM news article, and more

– The company I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, selling $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10 and $10 certificates for $3, is back with a new promotion. Through February 10 you can get 50% off on certificate purchases (which would mean a $25 certificate for $5, or a $10 one for $1.50) and they’ll throw in an additional $10 gift certificate free. Here’s the link to get you there:

Save 50% on Dining Certificates and get a $10 certificate FREE! Use code SWEETHEART at checkout. Offer valid through 2/10/07.

The certificates are valid at Big Foot Lodge, Bhan Thai, Blue Plate Cafe, Cafe Ole, the downtown Dan McGuinness, McEwen’s, Molly’s La Casita, Silky O’Sullivan’s, The Gibson Lounge, Stella and dozens more Memphis locations.

Last time I posted about this I had several skeptical readers call the restaurants and ask if this offer was legit, and found out that indeed it was. If you have any doubt that these are accepted, I encourage you to call the restaurants before ordering. I have yet to hear of a case where a restaurant was listed but the certificates were not accepted. Please do pay attention to whether there are particular times of day that they must be used, and whether they can be used for alcohol purchases as well as food.

– I just posted a new news article to the Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis site. Seems that some of the panhandlers are running a new scam when people refuse to give them money, but offer to buy them a meal at a restaurant… they’re not interested in the meal, but in restaurant customers’ personal belongings. Find out the details and how to protect yourself by going to the RSDM homepage, then clicking the Latest News menu item.

The article also suggests an option that may be more constructive than buying a meal at a restaurant – buying coupon books from the Union Rescue Mission and giving the coupons to panhandlers. Each coupon entitles the bearer to two meals and a night’s stay at the Mission. Again, click over to the RSDM site for details on these coupons and how to order them.

– The annual “hotties” edition of the Memphis Flyer just came out, where they name the hottest guys and gals in the city… and once again, I’ve been overlooked. Congrats to a friend of mine, the Center City Commission’s very own Katrina Shelton, on making the list though. The hottie who got the cover photo is the manager of Raffe’s Deli. Raffe’s is a major advertiser in the Flyer. Hmmm…

– Remember the massive downtown fire from October 6 of last year, that destroyed a historic church and the Court Annex building? Looks like Knoxville had something similar last night. They said it was “raining fire,” with quarter-sized embers falling everywhere.

– The Memphis Daily News reports that the old Butler Street Bazaar building has sold for $1.8 million. The new owners are waiting to see what happens with the Tennessee Brewery building across the street before they proceed with any plans.

– Don’t forget, the Memphis Net Impact kickoff is tomorrow night at EP’s, starting at 5:30 but going on for a couple of hours to give people time to drive in from out East. For those of you who want to hang out downtown a little longer, The Dempseys will be playing at Blues City Cafe tomorrow night at 8, a mere quarter-block away from EP’s.

– Last night I reported that I planned to join a couple of friends of mine for wing night at Hooters after work. Well, looks like I’m going to have to cancel that… I have a lot of preparation to do for an important meeting this weekend and just can’t afford an evening off. So I’ll be spending the evening installing and learning to use the Drupal content management system… if anyone out there has experience with Drupal and can provide hints or tips, let me know.

I’ll probably do my work from the Second Street branch office… I think the Roxanne Lemmon band plays tonight, they’re pretty good. Not sure what the “buy the beer, waste money on the glass” glass is this week.

Hmmm… one of my co-workers quit yesterday… I better run back to work and steal his mouse (mine doesn’t have a center wheel) before someone else gets it…. see you later, have a good afternoon.

Drunk post

Quote of the evening: “Paul, you’re the popular voice of all us fuck-ups downtown.” Unfortunately I can’t remember who said that. Think it may have been someone I’ve seen at Sleep Out Louie’s before, but the name escapes me. Oh well, can’t win ’em all.

Some advice I’ve given people moving downtown for the first time over the years, and thought I’d share with you tonight:

1) Whatever your food & entertainment (read: alcohol) budget was in other parts of the city, double it. It still won’t be enough, but if I told you to triple it (more realistic), you might second-guess moving down here.

2) Whatever your current clothing size is, starting buying clothes in the next larger size. You’ll understand why soon.

My trivia team The Rapscallions finished out of the money for only the second time since December 1. I think it’s because Carmel wasn’t there. When Trivia Guy announced the three winning teams, people kept coming up to me and asking, “I missed the Rapscallions announcement, what did we win?” Nothing.

After trivia ended, I intended to walk home and get a full night’s rest… but Big Foot intervened. ASSIGNMENT TO ALL MY BLOG READERS: I found out that the $5 34 oz. Blue Moon isn’t necessarily here to stay. The distributor ran out of Bud Select and gave them Blue Moon instead. So, please go by Big Foot and tell Shawn to keep the Blue Moon.

While I was at Big Foot I had hot wings with celery, carrots, fries and blue cheese dip. I didn’t have any purple cupcakes with sprinkles though. Sorry, inside joke… I’d link to the blogger that inspired it, but she’s kind of hot (at least from the pics I’ve seen) so why would I want to introduce 150 new male readers to her?

While I sat at Big Foot I watched several episodes of Rachael Ray’s $40 a day show on the Food Network. We should put together Downtown Memphis on $0 a day and have some of our local bums host it. Half-finished Coors Light in a trash can on Beale Street? Yum-O!

So I have tickets for the Grammy party at Hard Rock (open bar, free food) Sunday night as a result of whoring my blog out for them a couple of posts ago. I guess I need to find a date between now and Sunday. Also, my neighbors are talking about having an Oscar party the 25th; I’m undecided what to do about that. On one hand, there’ll be some damn good food. On the other, I never watch movies, so why would I watch a movie awards show? We’ll see.

Let’s see if I can burp without having to get out the computer screen cleaning kit I bought at Office Max yesterday… successful.

Looks like I may be doing all-you-can-eat wings at Hooters in the PM Wednesday, which is today due to my being up so late.

I’m feeling the need to lie down NOW so that’ll do it for this post.

Grammy viewing party, Sunday, February 11 at Hard Rock Cafe

The Recording Academy is hosting the official viewing party for the 49th annual Grammy Awards, to be held this coming Sunday at the Hard Rock Cafe on Beale Street. Event is free for Recording Academy members and one guest, and $25 for non-members. Check-in/pre-telecast reception is at 6:30, and viewing begins at 7.

Your admission price includes FREE FOOD (I’ve been told this includes carving stations) and an OPEN BAR all night long, so Downtowners, this sounds like an event worth attending. There will also be special giveaways and a program book. You can buy tickets at the Recording Academy’s offices at 493 S. Main, or you can call them at 901-525-1340. Tickets must be purchased by Thursday (Feb. 8) and will stop being sold once capacity is reached.

In other news: I attended a private Super Bowl party yesterday that is on its way to becoming an annual downtown tradition. I love it when the party hosts are good cooks… I had a couple of juicy Italian roast beef and pepper sandwiches which were just unbelievably good. Didn’t make it to Sleep Out’s or the Majestic Grille’s parties at all… there were just too many good people and too much good food where I was for me to contemplate leaving.

So Peyton finally has his Super Bowl ring… finally a different kind of ring than the one I (and a lot of other people) have always associated with him… BO-ring.

And that’s about it. I have a meeting at work at 1:30… our best programmer is quitting tomorrow and I think we’re going to sort out what will happen after he leaves. They had a farewell dinner for him at Outback today but I skipped it – no way I felt like eating a big meal after all those roast beef sandwiches I had yesterday.

Later today: Pint Nite at the Saucer, of course.

Back to work.

Reader feedback: City leaders and real estate developers please read

One of my regular readers sent me the e-mail below. I’d like to ask city leaders and those who have a stake in Downtown real estate to give it a read. How many more people like her have considered buying a condo downtown, but have decided against it because of the panhandling problem?

———————

I read your blog frequently because I now date someone downtown and have become a downtown regular after work hours. Even though I have worked downtown in the legal system 35 years, I have discovered a whole new scene of restaurants and clubs and all the stores at the south end.

I have lived all my life in MidTown Memphis, but I am convinced that the action has continued to move west as downtown has grown and flourished. I believe that downtown is now safer than MidTown. The burglaries and robberies in my neighborhood have now turned to home invasions. At least, I have gated parking downtown and in the condo, two sets of locked doors to negotiate.

I am seriously considering selling my house and moving downtown, but the only deterrent is, as you so frequently comment on, the many panhandlers. I am very used to this since I have worked downtown all my life, and I am not a weeny about it. I have little fear of them, except I like to keep my distance since one of them spit on me years ago and one of them came at me in a threatening way.

My beef is, why should I invest a substantial amount of money in a home in an invigorating and culturally-stimulating environment of my choosing, with wonderfully diverse neighbors, only to be harassed every time I leave my door on foot or bicycle? I am especially irritated when this happens at night because panhanding is against the law after the sun goes down. And when I refuse the panhandlers’ plea for money and they unleash a vulgar verbal assault on me, which is also illegal, it just does something to my usually upbeat mood. And this happens frequently.

I have a sense, as a downtown “outsider”, that this very vital issue is not being addressed by the powers that be, especially our City government. What are the various downtown groups, who have so much at stake downtown, doing to stop this harassment? In an nutshell, what is the most effective group working on this and what are they doing? I have a great respect for civil rights, but what are other large cities doing to handle this problem, and possibly help some of these folks find a better way to live? And yes, I know most of them don’t want any help and are living the way they choose, and that is a conundrum.

Our police department seems unwilling to enforce the noise ordinance and allows cruisers to blare loud music from their vehicles, disturbing diners in the restaurants along Second Street near the Peabody. I see patrol cars routinely parked for long periods of time in parking lots downtown. Ae they taking a break, filling out paper work, doing surveillance? They never seem to be around when I am getting the “bum’s rush.”

My friend made one simple request of a downtown landlord to remove the squatters from his land near G.E. Patterson and Navy Park, and overnight it seems the “homeless city” was cleared out. Is this all it takes? Why does it seem no one else is working on this problem? Of course, it remains to be seen if the squatters will stay away. And is this only relocating them somewhere else downtown?

In my opinion, there needs to be a master plan to address the homeless and panhandlers, which are two separate problems, and a solution that will be lasting. Where are all the condo developers who are investing millions, the corporate leaders whose employees are harassed on the downtown streets, the restaurant owners whose patrons are approached for a handout nearly every time they enter a restaurant, the hotel owners who are trying to attract tourists? Why don’t they develop a truly big-time task force to deal with this problem once and for all, along with the auto “cruisers” that sometimes clog up the downtown streets?

Thank you for giving me space in your blog to express my opinion, and I hope this will spark some action to make downtown a more feasible housing and entertainment alternative to us in the eastern regions of the city. Thank you!

This stuff is SO good


This limeade-in-a-carton is some of the best stuff I’ve ever tasted. When I wake up in the morning, all dehydrated as a result of the previous night’s beer drinking, there’s nothing better. They have it at the downtown Walgreens, in the refrigerated case. I think it’s $1.79 a for a half-gallon carton.

New Better, Bigger Deal Post: Tips on using the newspaper to find Deals

Just made a new entry to my other blog, A Better, Bigger Deal. My mother, Marilyn Ryburn, who worked in newspaper advertising for 31 years, sent me some good advice on how to use the paper to find Deals. In it you’ll find answers to questions like:

– What day of the week should you buy a paper if you’re shopping for a mattress?

– Everyone knows that big-name retailers like Best Buy and Target run ads in the Sunday paper… but what other day of the week should you look to the newspaper for consumer-electronics Deals?

– Looking to buy a house? In addition to the Sunday real estate and classified sections, where else should you look?

– If you buy the Sunday paper to get the coupon inserts, there are certain weeks when you shouldn’t bother. When?

Answers to these questions and more on A Better, Bigger Deal. Check it out.

Couple of Super Bowl parties downtown

Idiotic quote I just heard at the Union Avenue branch office: “I like Syrah a lot, but Shiraz is nasty.” Ummm… I’m no wine expert, but aren’t those the same thing?

I have info on a couple of Super Bowl parties that I wanted to share:

The Majestic Grille will have the game on the big screen, and there will be food and drink specials. They’ll also be giving away free flatbreads at halftime.

At Sleep Out Louie’s, they’ll have $1.50 Bud and Bud Light longnecks, free hot dogs, and popcorn, and there will be door prizes and giveaways. They’re talking about giving away $25 gift certificates to The Chop House Grill, a new fine-dining/steak restaurant in Southaven which is owned by Sleep Out’s parent company.

I’ll be at a private party nearby most of the day, but I’ll be popping in and out of Sleep Out’s throughout the day.