Month: March 2010

See his blog if you don’t know why I’m congratulating him.

One of the best people I’ve met Downtown in my 8 years here, and I wish him all the happiness in the world.

Too drunk to type anymore.

It’s time for the return of the best regular features on this blog – “What the Bums are Drinking this Week.” Last night I was walking home from the Saucer and I saw this on the Main Street Mall:

So it looks like the bums are drinking Icehouse this week.  Or at least one is, anyway.  This is another reason why we need the single-serve beer ordinance to pass – to reduce litter Downtown.

The new MacBook Pro has arrived! I spent a few hours playing with it last night. I got my Wi-Fi working and downloaded OpenOffice, a free open-source substitute for MS office. Still trying to figure out what other free software I need. If you have suggestions, e-mail me at paul@paulryburn.com. Parallels Desktop and Windows 7 arrived too, but I’m going to wait a week before installing them, so I can get used to the Mac experience first.

Former Dempseys guitarist Brad Birkedahl debuts with his new band The Burnin’ Love Band at Blues City Cafe, 8 PM. He and the band will be there tomorrow and Saturday too. I’ll have to walk down tonight or tomorrow and check them out.

The Silly Goose will reopen for lunch starting March 15. Opening at 11:30 AM, they will have $5 paninis and flatbreads, and a full salad bar. Great idea! Downtown needs more salad bars.

WREG has links to discount deals at several Memphis restaurants here. Two restaurants, A&R Bar-B-Que and Cordelia’s Table, are located Downtown.

Yay… Bardog is tweeting their specials. Mussels with Jamacian run down sauce, potato and corn chowder.

City Market, the new grocery and deli scheduled to open at Main and Union this spring, now has a Facebook fan page. Become a fan to keep up with the latest news on the store’s opening and what they will carry.

Lansky at the Peabody got together with Hush Puppies to create a limited-edition Blue Suede Shoes line. The shoes were featured in Footwear Magazine, and you can read about them here. You can buy the shoes at Lansky at the Peabody, or here.

MPACT Memphis has invited the public to meet the “new” MPACT Memphis. They’re not the same organization they were when founded in 2001. They have over 700 members and have become a powerful force engaging Memphis’ young professionals. You’re invited to a Cocktail hour at its office (506 S. Main) on Thursday, March 18 where you can meet the faces of MPACT, and where you can learn about its new Voice of MPACT survey and its importance to the community. Cocktails, finger foods and networking at 6; presentation by Executive Director Gwyn Fisher and Board Chair Shante K. Avant at 7. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

With the weather to soon get warm, I’ve had a request for a post on Downtown’s best patios. I’ll try to pull that together soon.

Plans for tonight: I’d love to stay home and play with the MacBook, but one of my favorite bartenders is leaving the Saucer this week, so I pretty much have to show up tonight. Probably I’ll play with the MacBook for an hour and a half, and arrive at the Saucer just in time to squeeze in a happy hour beer. Maybe I’ll walk down to Blues City to catch Bradley D. later in the evening.

Great tweet from @watchdogon3 this morning: “Willie Herenton against the legalization of marijuana. Might cost him the election. You’d have to be smoked up pretty good to vote for him.”

If you’re into event planning, or if you have an upcoming event to plan, you might want to bookmark my friend Christina’s new blog Zen Planning and Events. Christina aka “C-Pop” was the one who planned the Jersey Shore Pub Crawl that happened last month.

On a related topic: South of Beale tweeted yesterday that they’d tasted the new Ed Hardy vodka, and it was pretty smooth, so they were considering ordering it. That started a storm of tweets in reply, pretty much all of them against the idea. A few hours later, they tweeted, “WOW…looks like we won’t be carrying Ed Hardy Vodka ANYTIME SOON! Haha!” Good call. Carrying that vodka would send a “we cater to douchebags” message. Probably not their desired clientele.

Two big concerts at the FedExForum this week: Thursday is country night, with George Strait and special guests Reba McIntire and Lee Ann Womack. Friday will be the night of rock legends, with Eric Clapton and special guest Roger Daltrey. The Memphis Marriott is offering a special room rate of $115 per night to concert-goers March 4-7. Go to their website to book a room and use promotional code D52 to get the rate, while supplies last. The Marriott is about a mile north of the FedExForum, but it’s right on the trolley line so you can ride almost all of the way there.

Speaking of hotels – The Peabody is now pet-friendly. They’ve wanted to do this for a while, but have had to figure out what special precautions to take, since pets might not play well with the Peabody’s 5 famous residents. They’ve worked it out so that pets and the ducks can co-exist.

I’d posted to my poker blog that I’d be attending poker night at Bardog tonight at 7:30, but it now looks like I’m going to have a new MacBook to play with when I get home from work. Poker will have to wait a week.

Again, not much to report today, but I’ll work with what I’ve got…

MPD Director Larry Godwin will speak on “Panhandling, Graffiti, and Crime in South Main and Downtown” next Tuesday, March 9 at the monthly meeting of the South Main Association at Local Gastropub.  Social at 6, meeting at 6:30, cash bar, complimentary hors d’oeuvres by Local.

Wonder where Director Godwin will park?  Maybe he’ll park in one of the metered spaces not far away on Beale, and have a bum try to charge him to park there.

Stepbrothers, the two-man band consisting of Cameron Lazek and Tyler Burns, performs tonight at the Silly Goose at 9 PM. On the band’s Facebook page, they list their influences as DMB, Jason Mraz, Barenaked Ladies, Sister Hazel, Oasis, Bob Dylan, Matt Nathanson, Howie Day, John Mayer, and Jimmy Buffett.

Good fan page to join on Facebook – “Memphis Happy Hours.”  Every day they post specials going on around town.  Specials at Boscos, Fox and Hound, and Bardog Tavern were mentioned in today’s post.

That’s all I’ve got for now… trivia tonight at the Saucer at 7.  If my MacBook arrives a day earlier than expected, I may no-show trivia, otherwise I’ll be there.

The Nuh-Uh Girl saw my post from earlier tonight about the ziti that is the special this week at Bardog. She messaged me on Facebook, “Ziti? Nice.”

She lives in my building. I guess I better make sure the deadbolt is secure on the door before she comes a knockin’ looking for leftovers.

At home eating Paul’s Drunkass Food.  Because BARDOG TWEETED THEIR SPECIALS, I knew they had ziti with sausage and cheese and salad.  It’s a great value for $10.99 (I think that was the price).

Although, Bardog wasn’t my first choice for dinner. One of the off-duty girls at the Saucer tonight Facebooked, “I NEED A WAL-MARTING BUDDY IMMEDIATELY. Ya’ll know I hate doing the shit alone. Hit me up, ASAP.”

I responded, “OK, but 1) you have to pick me up at the Saucer; 2) I’m drunk as f**k; and 3) we have to go through a fast food drive thru on the way back. Is there a Popeye’s in West Memphis?”

She didn’t take me up on it, but, Popeye’s. Damn right.

This past weekend I posted a pic of a bar’s dress code that read, “IF IT’S ON JERSEY SHORE, IT’S NOT COMING THROUGH THE DOOR.  No Affliction.  No Ed Hardy.  No Christian Audigier.  No exceptions.”  The club was named Republic but I didn’t think it was the Republic Nightclub that operates in Downtown Memphis.

I have now had it confirmed by a reliable source that the Republic in question is in New Orleans.  The source tells me that the owners are friends of his and the place is great.

And I’m going down there on a work trip the last week of July and staying on Canal Street.  Sounds promising.

Yeah, I don’t have much to report today, so I’ll just suggest a few Monday night options and leave it at that.

Tonight’s the kick-off of the Majestic Grille’s new jazz night.  Starting time is 7 PM.

If you want to play some poker, there are free games at the Silly Goose at 7:30 and 11:30 PM.  These are live games with real felt and real chips, not video poker games.

Trivia with Will at Local Gastropub at 8 PM.  No corkage fee if you bring your own wine.

And, of course, in my opinion the best Monday option of all – Pint Nite at the Flying Saucer.  Almost all their drafts are on sale for $2.75.  That’s where I’ll be after work.

That’s all for now.  Back to work.  Counting the days until my new MacBook arrives.

I wasn’t even going to go out yesterday.  I was going to stay at home, play poker tournaments, and take courses from the online poker training site I joined.

Then something happened that completely changed my life.  I received a text that read, “Dos Equis Lager is the Fire Sale.”  Needless to say, I threw my clothes on and skeedaddled to the Saucer.

The pic below happened after about 8 beers.  Kelly decided to tie the strings of my hoodie into a bow and tie my hair into a ponytail like Pebbles from the Flintstones.  I don’t know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.