Month: November 2007

First of all, some big, big, BIG news. This is really huge. You will probably want to bookmark this post to refer to over and over again when you read what I’m about to tell you.

Jack’s Food Store now has Busch beer 12-packs in a “Special Edition Hunting Package.” No kidding. It’s camouflaged and everything.

I’d like to ask my fellow Downtowners to try and be considerate and not trample each other as you rush to Jack’s.

What a smart marketing move on Busch’s part… now you can bring your beer into the woods with you and the deer won’t even see it! Because, you know, getting wasted while you’re holding a loaded shotgun is a great idea.

Memphis in May is having a holiday sale. Here’s a poster with the details (click for larger image):

At the sale you can pick up merchandise from past Memphis in May events at discount prices. 88 Union Center, next week Dec. 3-7. Click the flyer for more details, I’m too lazy to type them. What a convenient way to get all your holiday shopping done! Nothing says “I love you” like a 2004 BBQ Fest T-shirt.

Tonight I’ll be at the South Main Trolley Art Tour… you know the deal, most of the South Main art galleries put out free wine and snacks and open their doors from 6 to 9. All the stores will be decorated for Christmas and it should be really fun and worth withstanding the cold.

After Trolley Tour ends… don’t know. Maybe E&H. Maybe Pearl’s. Maybe Hoop’s Bar, if the EP’s crowd doesn’t spill over into it too much. Saucer sucks on weekend nights so probably not there. Not enough energy to do Raiford’s and I’ll be there tomorrow night anyway.

Snozberry plays the Saucer tomorrow night… won’t be there for their entire show but I imagine I’ll be stumbling through there sometime around 10 or 10:30 for one beer.

If you missed the Hannah Montana show last night at the FedExForum, journalist “Skippy” Blank has a recap. Skippy is a huge Hannah Montana fan and was the perfect person for the CA to send to write the story.

Time to go to work. I really enjoy my new job, but I ain’t gonna lie, I’m glad it’s Friday.

Last night I hit Circa for their Wednesday night happy hour special, $8 wine flights. You get three 2 oz. pours per flight. The bartender started describing the different flights, and I quickly realized that I don’t know nearly as much about wine as I know about beer. “I like white wine,” I told her. “Pick something for me.” So she did.

All three were good but the one on the right was my favorite. I should’ve taken notes for my next trip to the liquor store.

After Circa we moved down the street to Sauces, where our friend Ugly Steve was bartending.

Ugly was one of my bartenders during EP’s: The Early Days. Good to see him back behind a bar, and I predict that Sauces will have a regular Downtown crowd with him there.

After that it was time to hit the Saucer, where they had a tolerable fire sale (Flying Dog Tire Bite) for once. And after that it was on to Hoop’s Bar.

Hung out there mostly, wandering into EP’s when it was time to recycle beer. I always go down to the first floor restrooms so I can see the entire place. Interesting crowd last night.

Hoop’s Bar now has food, and so I got their version of Paul’s Drunkass Wings to go. Their wings are meaty and breaded. Attn Ranch Girl: They apparently get their ranch from the same place as the Saucer.

Plans for tonight: Saucer, then Hoop’s Bar/EP’s. I need to e-mail my friend Kennedy and find out if the “VEP” promotion is happening this week. If so I’ll post details.

Just took a walk and discovered that Roma Pizza, Pasta, Subs and More at the corner of Third and Court is open for business. So, of course, my walk break turned into my lunch break and I went in and ordered. It’s all laid out at the counter Sbarro-style, but better food than what you’d find in a mall. They’ve got dinner-sized salads, whole pizzas, stuffed pizzas, pizza by the slice, pizza rolls, pasta dishes, subs, side orders, and desserts.

Prices are quite reasonable. I ordered the lasagna for $6.99, and got this huge hunk of lasagna, house salad with Italian dressing (Thousand Island and RANCH are also available), and garlic rolls. There’s no way I’m going to be able to finish all this food. Subs are also a good deal for the money – I saw someone get a 12″ meatball sub for $6.50.

Didn’t try the desserts, but I ran into my landlord on the way over there and he recommended the tiramisu highly.

He also told me that the place is open until 9 at night, so Downtowners have a new place to get dinner. Not sure if that’s every night of the week or just some. They need to put their hours on their to-go menu.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera with me, so no pics. Sorry.

Well worth checking out for lunch or dinner. We need more affordable places to eat down here.

We’ll start off with a link that came across one of the RSS feeds I subscribe to: WikiHow’s article on How to deal with a bad kisser. Hmmm… my only thought on the matter is that if you consistent have to deal with bad kissers, it’s probably you and not the other person.

You know, that reminds me… I haven’t kissed anyone at the new Raiford’s since it reopened. I’ve definitely been slacking in that regard. Pinning a girl up against the back wall of the dance floor and passionately kissing her is the BEST. Assuming she’s indicated that she wants to be kissed, of course.

Maybe I’ll break my losing streak there Saturday night… looks like I’ll be stumbling into Raiford’s around 11:30 or so. However, this time I won’t be in an outfit that stands out from the crowd. So if I can convince any girls to kiss me I’ll have to do it on personality alone. (I can just hear Otto saying, “Yeah, good luck with that.” Shut up.) This time I’m determined to last until the place closes. No power-drinking 40s as soon as I arrive.

Next up: One of my blog readers was nice enough to send some images from the 1977 JCPenney catalog, and I can’t resist posting a few of them.

Man… someone needs to open up a vintage clothing store Downtown so I can buy cool outfits like those.

Yesterday I posted a mathematical formula that’s supposed to be the socially acceptable limit of how much younger a person you can date/hook up with – half your age plus seven. My favorite blogger/MILF responded, “So is there a formula for calculating ‘How old is too old’? I must say, if it went along the lines of ADDING half of my age plus seven… I could work with that. ;)”

Hmmm… 22 + (half of 22) + 7 = 22 + 11 + 7 = 33 + 7 = 40. Works for me!

Currently on my living room floor:
The clothes I wore last night
The clothes I wore Monday night
The clothes I wore Sunday night
The clothes I wore Saturday night
The clothes I wore Friday night
The clothes I wore Thursday night
The clothes I wore Wednesday night

Great article on The Warehouse in this morning’s paper. The owner, Kris K, really personifies all that is wonderful about Downtown Memphis.

Plans for this evening: I’ll hit the Saucer about 5. If the Fire Sale is good I’ll stay for a while. If it sucks I’ll have one happy hour Dos Equis Special Lager and then move to Circa and try their happy hour. I had discussed maybe hitting the Wednesday night EP’s thing with some people but am not sure I’ll have the energy for it this week… will definitely be at EP’s tomorrow night though.

Shout out to regular blog reader Nick: Glad you could join us for trivia last night, and thanks for the beer. You’re most definitely welcome to hang out with us anytime.

I must’ve been drunk when I got home last night. Woke up this morning to find Paul’s Drunkass Wings from Big Foot on the TV tray, and it looks like I managed to make it through one and a half wings (out of 12) and half a stick of celery before I passed out. Well that was a good use of $5.99.

Guess it’s time to go to work now.

I see that my friend Skippy has been reading my blog. He e-mailed a response about my wish for NTN Trivia Downtown so I can kick his ass:

“Oh, how I hope somebody gets NTN trivia so your specious taunts can finally be laid to rest, Pauly. There’s more to knowledge than Grover Cleveland’s wife’s maiden name, buddy. There’s Brittany Spears and Hannah Montana – and I am an expert in both.”

Um. Dude. If you’re going to claim to be an expert, at least learn how to spell “Britney” correctly.

Last year I reported that a new neighborhood bar would open on Monroe, in the old Mike’s location across from the Shrine. It was to be called Bar Dogs, I was told, and would cater to locals and stay open late for service industry people who get off work.

Work stopped in the spring and I heard no more about the place for months. Well, this weekend I heard that construction has resumed, and someone who knows the people doing it estimated it at about four months away. Anyone got more details about this place? This is all second-hand information so take it with a grain of salt, but I sure want to believe it.

Sure would be happy to see a Sleep Out’s-type bar open up a block from where I live. Although, it could have a side effect of splitting our Downtown gang in two, as the Monkey is opening soon as well, and half the gang lives a short walk to the Monkey and the other half a short walk to Bar Dogs. In that case I guess the Saucer and Hoop’s Bar would serve as common meeting places when we want to get everyone together.

Wonder if they’ll do a Sunday brunch? Currently the plan is to move to the Monkey for brunch when it opens, but if Bar Dogs does a good one (and especially if they get NTN Trivia so I can kick Skippy’s ass) I may lobby the group for a two-and-two arrangement like we currently do at Majestic and McGuinness.

It’s all just speculation for now though… again, if anyone has the inside scoop on Bar Dogs shoot me an e-mail at paul@paulryburn.com.

Just found an interesting page on Wikipedia, almost by accident.

Last night I heard that a Downtown restaurant – I won’t name it but valet parking is a prominent feature – has a reputation as “The Cougar Lounge.” Meaning, cougars from Germantown sit at the bar and try to pick up younger men.

So I looked up “cougar” on Wikipedia, figuring I’d link to it for those who don’t know what a cougar is, and it led me to this page on age disparity in sexual relationships. Not only is there a section defining “cougar,” but other similar terms as well, such as chicken hawk, sugar daddy, MILF, jailbait, and so on.

It also has a formula (which I’ve heard of before) to compute the minimum socially acceptable age of people you can hook up with – half your age plus seven. According to that formula I shouldn’t be trying to hook up with anyone under 26. I don’t think I like that formula.

I can’t believe the quote “If there’s grass on the field, play ball” didn’t get explained somewhere on the page though.

Just got e-mail from chef John Bragg of Circa, letting me know about various things going on there. I was particularly impressed with what they’re doing for happy hour, and wanted to pass on the information.

Circa Happy Hour Promotions:Mondays: $5 Martinis

Tuesdays: All Beers including Microbrews and Imports* $2.50

Wednesdays: Wine Flights – $8

Thursdays: Scotch Night – All Single Malts $2.00 off

Fridays & Saturdays: Complimentary Hors d’ Ouvres in the Bar

Sundays: Tasting Menu with Wine Parings – $45 per person

snaCks

all $3

Crawfish Beignets with Red Pepper Remoulade

Crab Cake with Mustard Aioli

Fried Oysters with Red Chili Glaze

Fresh Oysters on the Half Shell

Smoked Salmon and Potato Galette

Grilled Beef Brochette

Seared Hawaiian Big Eye Tuna with Sesame-Chile Sauce

I’m especially impressed with the “snaCks” section, which is similar to what the Daily Grill does. Circa can definitely expect to see me sometime this week to check the happy hour out, although it won’t be tonight because I have to reserve our spot for trivia night down the street.Only made it through 6 beers at Pint Nite last night. Maybe having a job really is slowing me down.

Free food and mingling for Downtowners at the Westin Hotel, one block south of Beale Street, tonight from 5:30 to 7:00. The lovely Di Anne Price will be on the piano.

Also, if you haven’t yet done so, run by the Daily Grill and check out their $2.95 happy hour appetizer menu. That’s always a great option the other 29 days of the month when there’s not free food. Di Anne plays every Monday, so I imagine you could take your apps into the lobby and eat and listen to her play.

Recap of yesterday: Brunch at the Majestic. Most everyone showed up late after a long Saturday night of drinking. Patrick and Deni gave me a Majestic shirt as a late birthday present – thanks, I’ll probably wear it tonight. Now everyone will think I work at the Majestic, I guess.

We moved to the Saucer about 1:30 and played pool with the Ono family. John D had some classic lines that had us busted up laughing – he’s a funny guy when he gets a few Bud Lights in him. Drank 3 Roaring Lions to wake up. Roaring Lion is imitation Red Bull that bars are starting to keep on tap. It’s the same price as a soft drink, so it’s cheaper than going with the real deal. The gang left at 5, and I had my tab transferred to the bar (I’ve decided I’m going to start keeping my tabs at the bar more often) and kept going. Watched football. Watched people play pool. Next thing I knew it was 11:45 and the lights came on for last call. Yay. Another expensive and completely unproductive day.

And now I get to go to work. Yay.

Pics of last night’s party. I realize 90% of you don’t know these people, but I’m posting this photo album anyway to show how much fun we have Downtown. It’s not just about being able to walk home from the bars… it’s about great friends and great memories.

The gang awaits Yoko’s arrival for her surprise party.Yoko and her dad. She didn’t realize her family was in town.

Lauren: “You’re not going to take a bad picture of me and put it on your blog, are you?” No, I’d never do that!

This duo nicknamed themselves “Skip and Chip.” Here Pete the Trivia Guy is telling Skippy, “Yes, I WOULD agree that the Rapscallions are the most intelligent trivia team I’ve ever met.”

A rare good photo of me, with my buddy Lee.

Otto was really excited to be at the party.

The char-grilled oysters I had last night at Pearl’s, with garlic butter and Parmesan cheese.

Yoko opening her presents.

Here’s something you hardly ever see – the Nuh-Uh Girl EATING. She put cold marinara sauce on her salad. Gross.

After we got done at Pearl’s we went down to The Warehouse on G.E. Patterson, where we had free run of the place thanks to a friend of the owner. Here’s a pic of Spuds Mackenzie who was stolen by an unnamed drunk girl earlier in the year (wait, I actually DID just name her) and recovered by the Sunday brunch crew.

You know what the song says… don’t ride the white horse.

Mikey on a stripper pole… now that’s an image I think we’d all like to erase permanently from our minds.

Now that’s much better!

The worst band ever to play The Warehouse.

Here’s a link to the entire album (142 pictures). My only regret last night is that I didn’t bring the spare battery for the camera. Gang: I’ll take the laptop to the Saucer later today and get ’em uploaded to our shared file folder, but right now I’m late for brunch at the Majestic!