Friday update: Tube tops, veggie wine dinner, discounts for locals, where to eat prime rib?, is it time for a Downtown charity beer fest?, and more

While researching listings for my new happy hour search engine, I happened upon an article from a Denver newspaper listing some Ladies’ Night promotions. I was especially intrigued by this one:

“The Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut St. The Walnut’s ingenious ‘Tube Top Sundays’ provides ladies clad thusly with free drinks from 2-5 PM.”

Attn Memphis bars, restaurants and clubs: Here is a promotion just begging to be copied. This is one of the best ideas ever, and any local bar that copies it has about a 99.9% chance of seeing me as a customer. If I ever take a vacation to Denver, I know where I’ll be Sunday afternoon.

Circa is having a vegetarian wine dinner on Wednesday, September 3. If you read the article in this week’s Memphis Flyer, you know what a great vegetarian chef John Bragg is. His dishes will be paired with wine from Heller Estate. 5-course dinner, $75 with wine or $55 without.

Memphis Travel, the Convention & Visitors Bureau site, has a page for locals. There you can download coupons to use around the city. Most of the local museums offer discounts, as do other venues including Center for Southern Folklore Circuit Playhouse. You can also enter a trivia contest to win a Memphis “stay-cation” for locals.

I had a reader e-mail me asking where to take guests from Tokyo for prime rib. That one has me stumped; I don’t eat prime rib that often. There’s the Blue Monkey but I think they’re looking for someplace a little more upscale. Any suggestions? They don’t have to be Downtown restaurants. E-mail them to paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll pass them on.

Got an e-mail from one of my trivia team members, mentioning that the beer fest at the zoo tonight is sold out, and that Art on Tap got so crowded last year that the Dixon saw fit to raise the admission fee to $50 for non-members.  He pointed out that Memphians clearly love their beer festivals, and suggested that it’s time for a Downtown charity beer festival.  There’s a ball someone could pick up and run with (although I still think it’s the second-best idea in this post, after “Tube Top Sunday”).

So McCain’s VP pick is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.  If he wants to make the case that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to lead the only remaining superpower, why did he pick someone far less experienced?  I bet today will be remembered as the day McCain blew the election.  Yeah some Hillary Clinton supporters might give the McCain-Palin ticket a look, because they want to see a woman in high office… but a woman who is staunchly pro-life?  Seems like that would be enough to turn away just about every feminist out there.

I had a good time watching Obama’s acceptance speech last night at the Majestic Grille, enjoying a whole roasted garlic chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans as I watched.  And I still have enough left on my gift card to go back and have one of Patrick’s filets.  Life is good.