Month: September 2010

This is exciting.

I’ve been contacted by someone who is considering opening a grocery store Downtown.  This is a name I recognize, someone I believe I’ve talked to at SMA meetings before.  He’s looking for new and innovative ideas to make the store appealing to all.  If the market warrants, he says, he may be able to make it happen.

If you want to share what you would want in a grocery store Downtown, put your ideas in an e-mail to paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll forward them on to the person who contacted me.

Last week, I was hanging out at the Saucer and decided to get some beers done for my plate.  I saw two new ones by Yazoo, a brewery up I-40 a ways in Nashville.  The Saucer has carried their Dos Perros and Pale Ale on draft for a while.  The two new beers, however, come in bottles.

Yazoo Sue is a rauchbier, or smoked beer.

I’ve already tried one rauchbier, Aecht Schlenkeria, and it tasted like a trip to BBQ Fest.  It was like drinking a glass of smoked bacon.  Good thing I love bacon.  Yazoo Sue is similar.  It’s not a beer I’d want to drink every day, but it’s tasty when in the mood for it.  Here’s what the Saucer has to say about Yazoo Sue (click to see the image in a larger size):

Yazoo Hop Project is a unique beer indeed, a member of the IPA family.

The brewers use a different combination of hops with every batch they make, so you’re never getting the same beer twice.  You can look at the side of the bottle to see when your beer was brewed:

You can then go to the brewery’s blog (yazoobrew.blogspot.com) to read about the hops used in your beer.  It looks like I had batch 34, brewed the third week of August.  They used Warrior hops at the beginning of the boil, then added a hop they’ve never used before, Sorachi Ace.

Here’s what the Saucer has to say about Yazoo Hop Project:

The good news is that neither of these beers will put a big hurt on your wallet.  If I remember correctly, Sue was $5 and Hop Project was $4.75.  At this point in my push toward my next plate (about 145 beers down, 55 to go) inexpensive beers are always appreciated.

If you’re a fan of beer, these are both worth trying.

Yesterday, the University of Tennessee confirmed what we have known all along – that its men’s head basketball coach, Bruce Pearl, is a douchebag.

The Big Orange Carrot admitted that he misled the NCAA about possible violations during a 17-month investigation of his program.  This is not what UT needed right now, after Lane Kiffin violations, football players being arrested for attempted robbery, basketball players being arrested for drug charges and carrying weapons, players involved in bar brawls… the list goes on and on.  Pearl set an example for his players, showing that it’s OK to lie as long as you can get away with it and are winning.  Except, this time he didn’t get away with it.

As a result of his actions, the Bruchebag will lose 25% of his salary for the remainder of his 5-year contract, and he will not be allowed to recruit off-campus for a year.  His three assistant coaches will also lose 25% of their salaries for a year.  Keep in mind that these are only self-imposed sanctions put in place by the University… the NCAA has yet to rule on the mess at Tennessee.

I wonder if Pearl will still have a job by the end of the 2010-2011 season.  And congratulations to Tennessee A.D. Mike Hamilton, who has done the impossible in actually making Memphis A.D. R.C. Johnson look competent by comparison.

To add insult to injury, the Tennessee football team is going to get killed by Oregon today.

Arkansas in the Top 25, Ole Miss losing to Jacksonville State, all of Tennessee’s programs in a world of pain… this is turning out to be a pretty good year in college sports.

Free party tonight after work! Tonight is the first of the Alley Jams fall concert series. Memphis Jones and the Soul Shockers will perform at Main and Peabody Place, with a cash bar open at 4:30 and music starting at 5 and lasting until 8:30. The series will also feature digital projections onto Downtown buildings by the UrbanArt Commission; this week, artist Jill Wissmiller will cast images onto the Orpheum.

Also at the event, donations will be accepted for the Hospitality HUB, a wonderful organization that assists the homeless. Some of the things they provide include help getting documents (such as birth certificates) needed to get a job; phone calls to relatives; MATA bus passes; shelter vouchers; lockers; access to substance abuse and mental health treatment; and most of all, a warm welcome to every visitor.

For more info about tonight’s Alley Jam, check out this page.

I was pleased to see that a few people jumped on Facebook today, and per my suggestion, wrote on the wall of Buffalo Wild Wings that they’d be welcomed in the old Jillian’s/Primetime location in Downtown Memphis.

My friend and fellow blogger Air Traffic Mike, however, came up with an alternative idea, one that would locate Buffalo Wild Wings in the Downtown core, as well as giving Downtowners something that has long been desired – a grocery store. Furthermore, his plan would combine many under-utilized Memphis museums into one big museum, which would be a real attraction/showplace for the area.  The museum would be something truly family-friendly, not drop-your-kids-off-and-be-rid-of-them-for-a-while-friendly as Jillian’s was.

The only casualty of his plan would be Downtown Hooters, which I think would hardly be more missed than Primetime.

Check out what he has to say here.

My suggestion that Buffalo Wild Wings would be a good fit for the old Jillian’s/Primetime Sports Bar at Second and Peabody Place generated some lively discussion on Facebook and Twitter.  If you too would like to see a BWW in that location, I suggest you do the following:

– Go to the Buffalo Wild Wings page on Facebook
– “Like” them
– Leave a comment on their Wall saying you’d like to see them in that location, or somewhere in Downtown Memphis. (Make sure you say “Downtown Memphis,” not just “Downtown,” so they’ll know what city you’re talking about)

All this BWW talk has made me hungry… and it’s Boneless Thursday.  I think I’ll hit the Southaven BWW for some boneless wings with Wild sauce and blue cheese dressing.

The Memphis Business Journal has an article on the closing of Primetime Sports Bar.  The article’s first sentence (it’s a question actually) sums up Primetime’s legacy.

“Those who have fresh news, report; those who don’t, link.”

Or something like that.

My main news source today consists of links to the Memphis Daily News. In their first article, they report about a new restaurant/bar I’m super excited about: A new Irish pub called The Brass Door will open at 152 Madison. It will be an upscale pub serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Downtown core hasn’t had an Irish pub since Dan McGuinness closed in 2008, and having one so close to my front door is an added bonus. I’m also happy to see a business of this caliber going into the block of Madison between Second and Third – I’ve long felt it was one of the “sleeper” blocks of Downtown just waiting to be re-discovered.

The same article reports that another restaurant, Red Velvet, will open at 314 S. Main. This will be a restaurant and bakery that will offer treats such as cupcakes, coffee, and wine. Great addition for the northern part of the South Main District, which has seen businesses such as the Rumba Room, Pearl’s Oyster House, Frank’s Deli, and South of Beale open in the past three years.

More hotel rooms will be coming to Downtown. The Daily News reports that a Hilton-branded hotel will come to the corner of Linden and Fourth, anchoring the SoFo (South of Forum) district. It will have 20,000 SF of meeting space, an outdoor pool, signature restaurant, and lobby bar. More high-end hotel rooms means the ability to attract bigger conventions to downtown, which is a Very Good Thing. Some people abhor the term “SoFo” for the area, but I personally like it, because I can call the people who live and work there “SoFo mofos.”

All three businesses are applying to the CCDC for forgivable loans and grants. Best of luck to all three, as they all sound like they will make Downtown even better.

I’ve heard from a couple of people that Primetime Sports Bar at Second and Peabody Place has closed. Not surprised. I hardly ever saw people go in there. It struck me as a poor attempt to keep something similar to Jillian’s/Club Atlas alive, just to have something in the building for when the Peabody expanded into the Peabody Place Mall. Now that the Peabody expansion has been delayed, I guess they saw no reason to keep Primetime alive. Too bad because that space is in an extremely desirable, high-traffic location Downtown. Something successful needs to go in there.

I’ll tell you what I think would work, and I’m not alone in this thought, because a couple of friends have mentioned it to me. Most chain restaurants are not a good fit for Downtown. TGI Friday’s on Union does okay but it’s mainly due to tourist traffic – I rarely see locals go in there. I can’t see something like an Applebee’s going in that space. But there’s one chain I think would do really well in the Primetime space: Buffalo Wild Wings.

For those who have never been in one, Buffalo Wild Wings offers a casual dining menu, the highlight of which are wings dipped in one of twelve signature sauces. They recently added some dry rubs too. They have a good selection of beer as well as a full liquor bar, and the restaurants are full of TVs for watching whatever games are on.

The Primetime location is about the right size, in terms of layout and square footage, for a BWW. There would be plenty of foot traffic past the door: The location is one block from the Beale Street entertainment district, and is right across the street from the Flying Saucer, arguably the busiest bar Downtown. There are many other bars and restaurants within one block of the location. The Peabody and Hampton Inn hotels are right around the corner, and the Westin is two blocks away. Many apartment complexes and condos are within a quarter-mile walk. Both locals and tourists tend to bar-hop, and a BWW’s presence would likely benefit surrounding businesses in terms of increased traffic for everyone.

BWW locations feature Buzztime, where you can play trivia, card games, and sports games against other restaurant patrons via video screens and handheld controllers (“little blue boxes,” or as we call them “crack boxes”). There is no place in the Downtown core that has Buzztime. A lot of people look for these Buzztime locations when traveling on business, so they can have something fun and social to do in the evenings without knowing people in town. A BWW could fill that need for people staying in the Peabody, Westin, Hampton Inn and all the other nearby hotels. The only location in all of Downtown that has Buzztime is Calhoun’s, in the South Main district, farther than a lot of people would choose to travel if they don’t have access to a car and aren’t familiar with the trolley system.

The only question would be, what to do with the bowling alley which was prominently featured in both Jillian’s and Primetime. It could be split off as a separate business, or perhaps BWW could take it too and feature the location as one of the few BWWs in the chain with a bowling alley.

BWW is a proven concept that has been around almost 30 years.  I wish Downtown leaders would pursue getting a BWW in the Primetime space, because I can’t think of a tenant that would be a better fit.