2009 – Page 71 – Paul Ryburn's Journal

Third Tue update: Inauguration watch?, cheap eats, ACC school shopping sites done

Is there anyplace Downtown that will show Barack Obama’s inauguration (preferably with sound) next Tuesday, January 20? The question was raised on my trivia team’s e-mail list this afternoon and I thought I’d ask the readers of my blog. If you know of a place that will be showing it, e-mail me at paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll start a list for a future post. True, the inauguration will be during the day while most people are at work, but thanks to the Bush economy many of us find ourselves laid off and unexpectedly free during daytime hours.

There’s a new Restaurant.com coupon code out today. Code EXCLUSIVE can be entered at checkout to get $25 face-value certificates, normally $10, for only $4. The 60% discount also applies to their Dinner of the Month Club. Over 80 Memphis-area restaurants are part of this program, including more than a dozen of Downtown’s most popular restaurants.

I just finished created College Logo Shopping sites for the ACC schools. Here they are:

As with all my College Logo Shopping Sites, these stores are convenient ways to find all merchandise on Amazon for a particular college. Once you’ve got the items you want in your cart, you’re transferred over to Amazon for their state-of-the-art secure checkout process and shipping options. I never see your name or credit card number, only a notification that an item was purchased and I made commission on it.

Only one BCS conference remaining for me to do – the Pac-10. Glad I’m almost done, because it’s really boring building practically the same site over and over and over. The other work I’m doing, revising the personal finance software, is not the most mentally challenging work either, mostly involving changing date formats and showing and hiding data on spreadsheets. However, both projects may prove financially lucrative down the road, so I’ve got to keep at it. The Pac-10 has some of the biggest name schools in the country – to name a few, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, and the university where I’ve always dreamed of doing a Ph.D., California. Those schools should be online by the end of the week, and then I can finally do something different.

Looking forward to a great SMA meeting tonight at Sole, and a Rapscallions victory at trivia afterward.

Second Tuesday update

I’ve had people e-mail me about tonight’s SMA meeting, asking how much it is to join. It’s $25 for individuals, $35 for two-person households, $80 for businesses. You can join at the door at tonight’s meeting, 6 PM at Sole in the Westin Hotel. This is money well spent – if you go to most of the meetings and parties throughout the year, you’ll more than make your membership fee back in complimentary food and drinks.

The Nuh-Uh Girl has confirmed her attendance for the SMA meeting, so there may well be some new pics of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating on the blog tomorrow.

Looks like NYC Deli didn’t open yesterday as promised. They’re still doing some work on the location on the ground floor of One Commerce Square. On the other hand, I walked by A&R Bar-b-que and they are most definitely open and have a good lunch crowd.

I guess I owe Kooky Canuck bartender Meghan an apology for saying her car was illegally parked on Second the other day. As I walked down Second last night, it appeared they had re-zoned the parking so that it’s now legal. I still hate her Ole Miss license plate holder though. If you’re Downtown, go by and give her your two cents’ worth on her license plate holder. And by “give her your two cents’ worth,” I mean that’s the recommended tip to leave her next time she serves you.

Congrats to Circa, which won 8 awards in the Memphis Magazine readers’ poll: Gold for best chef, best restaurant, best atmosphere, and best wine list; Silver for best business dinner and best martini; Bronze for best service and best French/continental.

Just got back from New York Suit Exchange at Union and Danny Thomas where I bought a new dress shirt to wear to interviews. My old dress shirts don’t fit well anymore and make me feel like I’m choking. That’s a hidden value in Downtown Memphis – I got an Italian dress shirt for $15, and they measured my neck and sleeves and I was in and out in under three minutes. Very professional service.

Pint Night at Bardog Tavern from 7 to 3 tonight. All pints $3.

Feds investigate King Willie regarding options to purchase Greyhound bus station

For years, Mayor Herenton has been pushing to move the Greyhound bus station out of Downtown Memphis. This would be great for Downtown, as many panhandlers, vagrants, and bums arrive here on the bus, and as soon as they get off they hit Downtown streets and start begging for money. In early 2006, we heard of a plan to move the Greyhound station to the airport in a joint venture with MATA, as part of an intermodal transportation transfer point that may one day include light rail. We were told it would be done by the end of the year, but it’s 2009 and the Greyhound station is still here.

Well, this article in today’s CA sheds some light into why it’s taken so long… the mayor held options to purchase the land, and eventually his privately held real estate company made more than $90,000 on the deal. This is the subject of the latest federal probe investigating the mayor.

Once again, King Willie does what’s best for King Willie, not for the people who elected him to serve as mayor.

Tue update: Cheap beer, bike giveaway, SMA meeting tonight, and more

As I walked by Kooky Canuck last night, I saw a sign saying they’re celebrating the 3-day weekend (for some people) this weekend with $2 34 oz. beer all day Sunday. I need to walk by again and get the details from the sign on the door, but I think it’s Super Cold Coors Light.

The Flying Saucer is going to give away this bike on Fat Tuesday, February 24:

Apologies for the hazy-looking pic… digital cameras need a setting to balance colors in pics taken in nasty, filthy, disgusting cigarette smoke. The Saucer will have $2.75 Fat Tire pints every Tuesday between now and February 24, and every time you buy one you can ask your waitress or bartender for an entry form to fill out. On the 24th a drawing will be done from the entry forms for the bike. But here’s the catch – drawing will be at 10 PM, and you must be present to win.

I was at the bar for Pint Nite last night, and one of the people sitting at the bar with me nicknamed Lazy Magnolia beer “Brittney Magnolia.” He came up with this name after bartender Brittney spent most of the first two hours of her shift standing around talking to people, while the other two bartenders ran around and poured beer and waited on customers. So Britt joins the elite club of people who have a beer nicknamed after them – a club I’m already a member of, due to the “Paulie Lager” (Dos Equis Lager with extra limes).

Don’t forget the South Main Association meeting tonight at Sole, the restaurant in the Westin Hotel that used to be Daily Grill. It’s an important meeting for two reasons: 1) Jeff Sanford, the president of the Center City Commission, will give a “State of Downtown” address; and 2) free wine and food for members! Members can renew their memberships for 2009 tonight. Mingling at 6 PM, with Di Anne Price on piano; the speech starts sometime after that, probably around 7. Free food… wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up?

Anyone else find it interesting that Jeff is giving this speech to the SMA and not the DNA?

Attn my fellow BBQ team members: I’ve updated our website so that you can now pay online via PayPal and download a copy of the 2009 membership application to fill out.

Fellow blogger Dr. Booze had an interesting post on Sunday: He found an article explaining how to create your own flavored vodka using Skittles. Yum! Bet that would be a big hit at Downtown house parties.

If the person who ordered 17 party dresses from my Skank-o-ween costume store yesterday is a reader of this blog, thank you! I’ll make over 50 bucks commission on those. If you’re planning a costume party, Skank-o-ween is a great place to look for ideas. It’s not just for Halloween!

Had some more weird dreams last night. In one dream, I was living in a college dorm room, and the room was decorated with LSU Tigers furniture. I like LSU, but in real life I’d probably decorate with Memphis or Arkansas stuff instead. Also, my next-door neighbor in the dorm was a polar bear.

Then, I had a dream that a FedEx plane was flying extremely low through neighborhoods, just barely above rooftops, to avoid bad weather. I’ve had this dream a couple of other times recently, but this time, the plan crashed and started a fire. I hope that’s just a dream and not a premonition of an actual event.

Time to get the day started… I’ll be late for trivia tonight due to the SMA meeting.

New lunch choices today. Plus: Vote for Circa

Just a reminder that A&R Bar-b-que at Third and Court and NYC Deli in the SunTrust building are now open for lunch, so check them out if you haven’t already.

I’m going to throw in a mention for Bardog Tavern here as well. I was in there last Wednesday and was shocked that place hadn’t built more of a lunch crowd than it already has. Here are a few of my favorites:

The spaghetti with Aldo’s grandmom’s meatballs. I’d put their spaghetti & meatballs up against any Italian restaurant in the city.
The saloon sliders, 3 mini-burgers cooked on the grill. Comes with fries with ketchup and their Bourbon mayonnaise dipping sauce which is really good.
The Woof Woof Chow Chow, the hot dog version of their sliders, also with fries.
If you’re not very hungry you can get a single burger or hot dog slider without the fries.
The Rambo, the sandwich I posted about last week with NY strip steak, pepperoncini, and red peppers. It’s a little pricey for lunch (over $11) but it comes with fries and is enough for two friends or co-workers to split.

If you like Circa by John Bragg, click this link to go to the restaurant’s listing on UrbanSpoon.com and click the “I like it” button to vote for the place.

Last night I dreamed that I was back in college, living in a dorm which was called “New Dorm” at the time I attended. (Meaning, no one had donated gobs of money to get their name on the dorm.) Next door to my room was a Foot Locker which had a game room and food court inside. I’m not really sure how to analyze this dream. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve ever dreamed about Foot Locker.

That’s all for now. Got to go buy a shirt that fits that I can wear to job interviews. Not excited about having to put on a tie again. After I got the last job I hoped that interview would be the last time in my life I’d ever have to wear a tie.

A&R BBQ now open

I’ve been told that A&R Bar-B-Que at Third and Court, in the old Roma location, is now open (not sure if they’ll be open today, though, since it’s Sunday). Here’s a link to their menu. Looks like I’m going to have to stop by for lunch one day next week. I miss Roma’s lasagna but I’m happy to have another BBQ option for lunch.

The economy definitely hasn’t stopped people from going out in Downtown Memphis. I started at the Saucer and by 10 it was PACKED, so much so that I got tired of bumping into people and having to move for them to get by. “I’ll try Bardog,” I thought. No, it was packed too. Barely anyplace to stand upstairs, and downstairs was packed too, every table taken and people standing at the bar. I’m happy to see them doing so well less than half a year after opening, and in the slow season no less.

So I ended up at Voodoo Room, aka Hoop’s new bar. I didn’t get many more details about next Saturday night’s toga party other than it starts at 10 PM, which means it will be in the downstairs rather than up. They’ll provide togas for the toga-challenged. I’ve been asked to be a judge for the ugliest and sexiest toga costume contests. Not surprised Hoop wanted me as a judge, after the fantastic job I did last summer at Pub Olympics, where I forgot the rules of beer pong, drank so much beer that I stumbled home and crashed before the event was over, and then forgot to bring their stopwatch back. Looking forward to an equally stellar judging performance at the toga party.

I’ve added new colleges to College Logo Shopping. I did most of the Big East schools, although I decided to hold off on some of the smaller, basketball-only schools until after I get the ACC and Pac-10 done. What I’m learning while building these stores is, if you want a great merchandising deal for your university, you better be in a BCS conference and you better play football. Here are the new additions. Some of the basketball-only schools have a lot of empty categories I need to go back and remove, but I think you’ll still be able to find lots of good stuff.

Brunch at the Majestic today, then the Saucer for a friend’s plate party.

Hmmm… not really much going on tonight

It’s the slow season Downtown. From New Year’s until St. Patrick’s Day, Downtown tends to be pretty dead, although the opening of FedExForum has turned around winters on Beale Street a little in recent years. Only things I know of going on are the Baltimore Ravens vs. Tennessee Titans game on screens at various bars around Downtown (3:30 PM); the Tigers are at UCF (4 PM; on CBS College Sports and WREC 600); legendary bluesman Blind Mississippi Morris plays BB King’s tonight; and jam band FreeWorld plays the Saucer.

Pilsner Urquell is the Fire Sale. Hmmm may have to partake of a few of those later today.

More Grizzlies coverage to come

Last night I ran into one of the FedExForum managers at the Saucer, and we talked for quite a while. There are a lot of good things that the Grizzlies do for the community that most Memphians never hear about… for example, he told me that since the team has been here, the players have donated something like $21 million out of their own pockets to local charity. A lot of stories and facts like that get passed over, because the media tends to look for stories that bash the Grizzlies. I also learned about all the extra work the Grizzlies and FedExForum staff do to make sure that the facility looks top-shape for every event. They could neglect it and it would begin to show its age (as happened with the Pyramid), but they refuse to let that happen.

I plan to meet with a few of the FedExForum people soon and learn more about the good things the Grizzlies are doing to better the community. They are a key part of Downtown and the word needs to get out what good neighbors they are.

Hmmm not a whole lot going on tonight. The Bobby Rush benefit at the Center for Southern Folklore and the Monster Jam at the FedExForum are the two main things.

Still working on the personal finance program today. Changing the colors of cells in a third-party spreadsheet we use, to hide data we don’t want to display. It’s like having to use a mouse to color a huge coloring book, but coloring books that look like spreadsheets aren’t very interesting.

On the positive side, the Saucer sent me a coupon for a free beer. I’ll be cashing that in shortly. Not sure where I’ll end up tonight, but Bardog, Voodoo Room @ Orleans on Front, and Raiford’s seem like possibilities.

Silly Goose news, no more trivia at Jillian’s, new College Logo Shopping store

(Edit January 9: Hey, I never hit the Publish button on yesterday’s post. Here you go. This was typed about 5 PM yesterday, Thur Jan 8.)

I had a request from a West Virginia native to do a store for the state university on College Logo Shopping, so here you go: West Virginia Mountaineers store

I just got a tour of The Silly Goose, the new bar that will open in the old Swig location. They’ve done a great job with the place, and are putting the final touches on and waiting for their liquor license to be approved. If I had to describe the place, in one word, I’d say “comfortable.” They have completely de-Swig-ified it. It’s not pretentious in the least. They have warm, inviting wood trim and lighting that adds ambience, and they have a comfortable couch section that feels like a living room. They have “the library” where the old sushi bar was – you can grab a book and read, or you can use one of their two computers to surf the Internet (they also have Wi-Fi if you want to bring your own laptop). They’ve installed 10 beer taps and will carry 30 exotic beers in bottles. This place is going to be great. Can’t wait for it to open.

Wow, another locals’ bar. With the Silly Goose, Bardog Tavern, and the Voodoo Room all in the Downtown core – and of, course, the old standby, the Saucer – there’s going to be plenty to do in 2009. Then there’s Calhoun’s about half a mile to the south, with Buzztime Trivia due to arrive in a few weeks.

Jillian’s has discontinued their Thursday trivia night. Not sure what their new plan for Thursdays will be. I sure hope they don’t bring back Girls’ Night Out at Atlas, or as I called it, Poser Night at Club Lame. Last year Thursdays at Atlas were the biggest collection of douchebags and douchebaguettes anywhere other than Vegas or Jersey.

This Friday and Saturday is Monster Jam, the monster truck show at the FedExForum. That will draw an interesting crowd Downtown, I’m sure. I bet Kooky Canuck bartender Meghan goes to Monster Jam. She seems like the kind of person who would. As I walked home from my tour of the Silly Goose, I saw Meghan’s car parked (illegally) on Second. She has an Ole Miss license plate frame. Ole Miss… geez… as if I needed one more reason to hate Meghan.

Big Ten schools now on College Logo Shopping

Apologies to those of you who sent me e-mail today and didn’t get a response… I found out that my old company laid off a bunch more people this morning. I met one of my former co-workers at Bardog to talk about it, and was gone much of the day. There’s really no such thing as a “safe, secure” job anymore.

I added the Big Ten Conference schools to College Logo Shopping. Complete list of college stores is below. Next up will be the ACC.

ECU (East Carolina)