This coming Wednesday: Lienenkugel Sunset Wheat on "keep the glass" night

Just arrived at the Second Street branch office for my afternoon work shift. Noticed that one of the best beers ever served there, Lienenkugel Sunset Wheat, will be the beer for “buy the beer, keep the glass” night next Wednesday, July 11.

Sunset Wheat is a wheat beer with a flavor of orange and blueberries. If you like Blue Moon, you’ll like Sunset Wheat even better.

Tell Rachael Ray where she should eat in Memphis

Looks like Rachael Ray will be coming to Memphis soon. She has a show on the Food Network where she visits a city and dines on $40 or less for the whole day. I’ve never been a big Rachael fan – she’s a lousy tipper, and since I have a lot of friends in the service industry, that annoys me. However, this is great publicity for the city of Memphis and the restaurants she chooses to visit.

If you have suggestions for Rachael, you can give them to her here. Be sure to uncheck the boxes before you submit, or you’ll be subscribed to about a bazillion of her newsletters.

Hmmm… where in Downtown Memphis would I suggest…

– Breakfast at the Arcade… mmmm… haven’t had their Western omelet with ham, cheese, and green peppers in a while. Oldest restaurant in the city, lots of character, lots of stories to be told.

– Maybe Dyer’s on Beale for lunch… some of the best burgers in town, and that’s a place with a lot of history… 90-year-old grease. She could walk across the street to Handy Park and listen to the house band afterward, maybe buy a Big Ass Beer.

Alternate for lunch… Cozy Corner on North Parkway. I’ve heard a lot of people say that’s THE place to go downtown for ribs – not the Rendezvous or the Beale restaurants. Doesn’t have the nearby entertainment that Dyer’s does though.

(edited to add: Another alternate for lunch – Gus’s Chicken. How could I forget Gus’s?)

– Peabody lobby for the 5 PM duck march (free)

– Dinner… that’s a tough one… a lot of my favorite places downtown would be out of her budget. Maybe Pearl’s Oyster House… their enormous po-boys are inexpensive. Can’t remember the price but under $10 I’m pretty sure. Wonder if she’d go for Pearl’s… great place but Memphis is not known for seafood. If she wants to stick to stereotypes Pearl’s might not make it. It’s still my suggestion though.

– Late night… partying at EP Delta Kitchen. She could try the Lobster Pronto Pups, Not-Yo-Crawfish nachos, or the Duck Quesadilla, all under $10. Great house band for her to dance to, it’s on historic Beale, and the building used to be Elvis Presley’s club.

Those are my thoughts… hey, if you like my suggestions, I guess you could get on her site and post a link to this blog entry.

Will be working from the Second Street branch office this afternoon. Happy weekend everyone.

Thursday update: Bums, beer, art and parties

– After an absence of a month or two, Sharp Dressed Bum is back on the streets of Downtown Memphis. Last night I was sitting in the window of the Flying Fish, eating grilled tilapia (“Make it snappy!”) and I saw SDB on the sidewalk in front of the Peabody, conducting “business.” I grabbed the camera and took the pic shown on the left (click it to see the image in a larger size).

As you can see, SDB dresses better than most panhandlers (hence the nickname) – lately he’s had on a khaki golf shirt with dark collar, white casual pants, and leather sandals. He’ll walk around Second, Union, Monroe, and Beale, trying to be all friendly, especially to tourists, offering to show them around. But, at least in my experience, when you turn down his requests for money, his demeanor changes – he’ll start cussing and threatening you, even physically acting like he’s going to come at you. Several of my readers have reported similar encounters with Sharp Dressed Bum.

Now you have a face to put to a name. If you see this guy coming, I recommend crossing the street, ducking into a store, or whatever you can do to avoid having to talk to him.

– You know, this gives me an idea, since I’ve got a digital camera… perhaps I need to make a photo album of all of Downtown’s street people. I wouldn’t necessarily post it publicly, but I’d let people know it’s available by request, if they have been the victim of harassment or a crime Downtown and are trying to find a pic to show to the police.

– The Memphis Business Journal reports that Memphis may soon have a local brewery. A Germantown resident has started a company called Naked Lion Brewing. A former Coors brewmaster, the CEO is currently brewing the company’s first offering, Copper Flask, out of a brewery in Wisconsin, and has distribution contracts all over the South and Northeast. Although he’s currently making the product out of state, he hopes to eventually have enough volume to build a brewery here in the Memphis area. So if you see Naked Lion Copper Flask in stores or bars, please buy it and support the home team.

Lantana Projects will have an open studio visit with guest resident artist Eric Knoote Friday night, July 6 from 7-9 PM at Marshall Arts, corner of Marshall and Monroe. Knoote is the artist who recently put up an exhibit at the empty building space at Jefferson and Main.

– Thursday night party options:

Gabby Johnson on the Peabody rooftop, 6-10
Symbiosis on the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10
Garry Goin and G3 with Q107.5 at EP’s, 8-mid

Looks like KIX 106 is taking a week off from its Thursdays on Beale concert series to promote a Trace Adkins concert at Snowden Grove Ampitheatre.

Not sure where I’ll end up tonight, but I can pretty much assure you it WON’T be the Trace Adkins concert.

Time to get some work done, so I can afford to go out tonight. May be back with more entertainment options once I see this week’s Memphis Flyer.

Non-smoking laws starting to take effect

The new non-smoking law won’t be enforced until October 1, but businesses are already starting to implement it. The first sign I saw of the new law was last night, when I went to the Saucer for our weekly trivia match. A team member showed up and started looking for an ashtray… and found that there weren’t any ashtrays in the inside room.

He asked a manager about it. “The indoor room is nonsmoking until 8,” the manager told him. (8 PM is when they stop admitting people under 21.) “You can still smoke in the Garden, as long as all the garage windows are up.”

I hadn’t noticed any difference until my friend inquired about smoking… but afterward, I did. For one thing, I noticed that I wasn’t coughing every few minutes. I also noticed that the air in the room was clear for a change, instead of a smoky haze. I kind of liked it.

As more team members showed up, a discussion arose about the smoking ban and whether government is going too far intruding into people’s lives. Hmmm. I’m not 100% in support of the new law, but on the other hand I wouldn’t characterize it as “going too far.” I mean, we pass laws to prohibit corporations from releasing chemicals, toxic chemicals that kill people, into our rivers and streams. Is it really that different to prohibit individuals from releasing chemicals, toxic chemicals that kill people, into our air?

Anyway, the new law is what it is, and it appears to be here to stay. I still wonder what smokers at the Saucer are going to do in January – they’ll want the garage windows raised so they can smoke, but then everyone who sits in that room will freeze to death.

The Rapscallions took third place last night, bringing our gift certificate stash to $290. We’ll cash them in before the next trivia night.

I had a gordita for lunch today. A real one, not the Taco Bell version.

Had to run the car out to Saturn this morning for repairs… got a pop-up headlight that won’t pop up. The lights are one of the main reasons I bought my ’95 SC2 in October 1994… they make the car look like a miniature Corvette. I’ve always thought the ’91-’95 SC2 was the best-looking car Saturn ever made.

Wasn’t such a big fan of the car this morning, though. They handed me a bill for $404 – $373 for a new motor for the headlight, and another $31 because I told them to go ahead and do the 3,000 mile oil change and inspection so I wouldn’t have to come back. Then they told me they didn’t have the motor in stock and I’d have to bring it in next Tuesday. So I get to come back anyway. Goody.

So I got out of the dealership around lunchtime and realized I was in an area with a large Hispanic population, so I decided to poke around and see if I could find a good Mexican restaurant. And right up the street, at Raleigh-LaGrange and Covington Pike, I found one. They brought me a huge basket of chips and 3 salsas – the traditional red salsa, a hot green tomatillo salsa, and a reddish-brown salsa. They then pointed to the lunch specials on the back, but I wanted something a little more adventurous than the “Speedy Gonzales” (taco, enchilada, and choice of rice or beans) or the “Burrito Especial.”

So I looked over the rest of the menu and ordered a plate with a Gordita on it, figuring it had to be better than Taco Bell’s version… and it was… ground beef and melted cheese between two ground corn patties. Really good, especially with the green sauce spooned on top of it.

I could have been even more adventurous and tried the “lengua” (beef tongue) but decided not to. Maybe next Tuesday.

Back to the car… they inspected it and said that, despite having 145,600 miles and being almost 13 years old, it’s in perfect running condition. I guess if you have to have something break down on a car, a pop-up headlight motor is the kind of thing you want it to be. Looks like the car will be around for a while longer, as I’m in no mood to drop 25 grand for a new car when there’s a perfectly running one (albeit an old one) out in the garage.

Tonight: Beer. Trivia. Waitresses. It’s the trivia team’s last chance to increase our $280 gift certificate total before we have our next party. We’re minus a few members due to July 4 plans, but so are all the other teams… and since we have 20 members, we’re in a better position to withstand a few absences. Hopefully I’ll be reporting on our first-place victory later tonight or in the morning.

New dining discounts: EP Delta Kitchen, Bluefin, Dish, Zinnie’s East, Blue Fish, and more

If you check the “Discount restaurant gift certificates” menu bar on the left side of my blog, you’ll see that I’ve added a couple of Downtown’s favorite restaurants – EP Delta Kitchen and Bluefin. In each case, you can buy

  • $100 face value certificates for $40
  • $75 face value certificates for $30
  • $50 face value certificates for $20
  • $25 face value certificates for $10

Also, for Bluefin, you can buy $10 face value certificates for $3.

There are also new discounts for restaurants in other parts of town – if you check my Memphis Discount Dining website, you’ll see that there are new gift certificate offers for Dish, Blue Fish, Zinnie’s East, several Sekisui locations, Harry’s Detour on South Cooper, Tucker’s, and others. There are over 100 gift certificate offers for Memphis restaurants, so check it out.

For my friends in Little Rock, there’s a Little Rock Discount Dining site as well.

How this works: The links on this blog and on the Discount Dining sites are affiliate links of the national website Restaurant.com, which has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and other media outlets. I don’t recruit restaurants to sign up – the national site does that – but I get a commission when people buy certificates after clicking through from my site’s links.

Is this legit?: These links have been on my sites for months and many of my readers have bought and used the certificates successfully. If I didn’t know for a fact this was 100% legit, there’s no way I’d put my name on it. If you have any doubt whether a restaurant will accept the certificates, by all means I encourage you to call them and ask if they accept Restaurant.com gift certificates.

Please keep in mind that each restaurant has conditions which must be met: In almost all cases the certificates can be used for food only, not alcohol. There may also be minimum purchase amounts, times of day/days of week when they can be redeemed, etc. Please read your restaurant’s conditions carefully before you purchase.

Happy dining!

A thank-you to…

…whoever it was that suggested I try the Parmesan Garlic wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. Can’t remember who told me about them. This morning I worked for a few hours at a coffee shop, then stopped by BWW for a to-go order on the way home. The Parmesan Garlic wings were awesome. Thanks for suggesting them – normally I wouldn’t have tried anything outside the “hot/spicy” section of the menu without a recommendation.

Mail bag

Let’s see what we have in the ol’ Inbox today.

Subj: che@p OEM soft//are ships //orldwide

//ow, this is cert@inly gre@t news. I //@s just thinking, I //ould like to buy some new soft//ware, @nd I don’t //@nt to spend @ lot of money. @nd it’s @ good thing th@t they ship //orldwide, since their e-mail @ppears to have come from Chin@.

From: Gerardo Arrendondo

Subj: Hi I am 25 yo girl and I am bored. I want to chat tonight.

From: Emmett Holmes

Subj: Hi I am 25 yo girl and I am bored. I want to chat this afternoon.

From: Antony Hunyh

Subj: Hi I am 25 yo girl and I am bored. I want to chat

I guess giving girls very masculine-sounding names was all the rage among people who became new parents in 1982. And Antony needs to learn to use his, um, I mean her, spam software better.

Subj: Give your GF the gift of a larger penis!

You want me to buy penis enlargement for my girlfriend? Um, dude, I don’t know what kinds of women you think I date, but I prefer women WITHOUT penises.

Subj: URGENT PLEASE OPEN THIS MESSAGE. we’ve got what women want and need!

Oh cool, it must be a Tupperware sale!

(Okay, I admit it, I stole that one from Les Nessman on WKRP in Cincinnati.)

Subj: If uniwa is not up, send it to munnari and munnari will get it to uniwa eventually.

Huh?

Good to know munnari is on top of things though.

Subj: SU ATENCION POR FAVOR

Sorry, I don’t speak Spanish. (delete)

Subj: YOU’RE A WINNER PRIZE CONF# xl-17is324106

I won a prize! I won a prize!!! Of course, I’ll need to send them my Social Security number, date of birth, bank card PIN#, and permission to withdraw $599.99(*) from my bank account in order to confirm my identity, but that’s all right – I won a prize!!!

(*) Possible additional fees to accrue.

Subj: Buy Vi@gr@ and Ci@li$! E@sy p@yment and $hipping!

Hey, it looks like the guy who sells cheap OEM software has added a side business. Good for him, there are plenty of ways to make money in today’s global economy.

And that’ll do it for the mail bag today. See you later!

Interesting idea I heard last night: A march against panhandling

Last night I spent most of the evening on Barton Flats’ rooftop. Got a video of some of the fireworks, which I’ll post later on. After the fireworks, one of my fellow Downtowners came up with a very interesting idea.

“How about a march against panhandling?” he said. He was upset about constantly being panhandled on Beale, and about being swindled by a vagrant posing as a parking attendant. “Everyone down here is sick of it. Let’s have a march along the parade route where they do their begging. It would have to include Beale Street.”

“And it would have to pass by Jack’s Food Store and Easy Way on the Main Street Mall,” I added. “There are always five or six of them out there.”

“And the liquor store at Main and Madison,” said another rooftop attendee. “They hang out there, or in front of the Walgreens across the street.”

Hmmm…. if it got widespread support, a march against panhandling might be a good way to show government leaders how fed up we are all with the problem Downtown.