Yesterday I heard the perfect description of BBQ Fest: “Spring break for grown-ups.” I couldn’t put it any better than that.
The first open-to-the-public day of BBQ Fest was awesome. I pre-gamed at the Saucer and the Bear, stealing our sponsor the Blind Bear’s mayorship on Foursquare. Then I headed down to the park.
Judging for Best Booth happened not long after we got there. I was sure we were a lock for it but we did one thing wrong: We had the Philippines flag UPSIDE DOWN. There are Filipino judges and we more or less insulted their country. Just terrible. We got third and I was surprised they gave us that.
Anyway, here are some pics. Other than the flag yesterday just may have been the best day I have ever spent at BBQ Fest.
Horror movie starring Uncle Ray
Beer can chicken
As much as I like to brag that the Moody Ques have the best booth in the park, I have to admit our friends at Squeal Street had us beat in at least two ways: 1) Saucer girls behind the bar and 2) THIS. Misting cooling fan. It felt SOOOOOO good in the 90 degree heat. Team: We need one of these next year.
Mary Pat
Moe, Larry and Curly assembling a garden cart. No kidding, this comedy of errors lasted more than an hour. They put the entire thing together backwards and had to re-do it.
BBQ chicken
Mustard sauce
Nice use of pins from our sponsor WordPress, which happens to be the content management system that powers this blog and 15 million other websites.
Beer can chicken in the smoker
Tube top dresses. THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE, PEOPLE.
Chelsea knows what’s up, rocking the green tube top.
She’s bringing me the new flavor of Doritos and she has a tube top dress on. WINNING.
Misty
Michael Bean explains to the bartender how to be incredibly annoying at a poker table
Signature cocktail by the Blind Bear
Marcus Hunter and Ruchee. Catch Marcus on MemphiSport Live on Sports 56 from 11 AM-1 PM Saturdays.
Hannah, Kyla, and Maddison on our rooftop deck
We’re not on the riverside, but our booth is tall enough that we have a river view anyway.
Ciara and Mark
Two of my favorite Downtowners, Karen and Dennis.
Like me, Uncle Ray appreciates tube tops and tube top dresses.
Quick night-time visit to Squeal Street. Murphy’s Law of BBQ Fest: As soon as I got to Squeal Street, several people I invited to my own booth showed up, and I had to run back over there and let them in.
Rebekah knows what’s up.
Morgan doing a fine job representing our sponsor the Blind Bear in a tube top dress.
Okay, time for a mini-rant: People get mad at me for taking candid photos rather than posed ones, for the most part. This photo is an example why candid photos are better. You don’t get stuff like this when you allow people time to pose. This is awesome.
BBQ FEST DONE RIGHT.
Full album (184 photos) can be found here.
I was hitting the beer hard early in the day, from 11 on. By 5 or 6 I was nearly worn out and falling asleep on my feet. But I remembered the advice of our inspirational leader/father figure: “IT’S A MARATHON, PAULANATOR, NOT A SPRINT.” From that point on I made a recovery. By midnight I was dancing with some friends in The Hogfather’s tent, and amazingly I was the most sober one of the group. Not sure how that was possible.
And now it’s time to do it all again. Saucer at 11, park at 12.