The New York Times has published its best article ever. Who Made that Tube Top? is the story of an Iranian immigrant who arrived in New York in 1971 with less than $100 in his pocket. When a manufacturing error resulted in a pile of fabric tubes, the immigrant bought them and proceeded to re-sell them as tops. They caught on in the East Village, and by the 1990s he had a $500 million empire. Folks, this is truly entrepreneurship at its finest. The people at LaunchMemphis should keep copies of this at the Launchpad to hand out as inspiration.
You can show your support for entrepreneurship by wearing a tube top to Bardog’s alley party tomorrow afternoon. The party is a fundraiser for St. Jude, so you’ll also be supporting medical research and care for children by wearing a tube top.
The Little Tea Shop has announced plans to re-open Tuesday, August 21. The popular Downtown lunch restaurant has been closed since Mr. Lauck passed away last month. I know a lot of people who work Downtown will be happy to have it back.
Downtown business owners: If you want to make improvements to your storefront, the Center City Development Corporation will match you dollar-for-dollar on money spent. Improvements can include lighting, signage, awnings, canopies, patio railings, painting, cleaning, and accessories like planters. Details in this MBJ article.
Now that Aldo’s Pizza Pies is open for lunch as well as dinner, “Like” the pizzeria on Facebook to have Slice of the Day announcements show up in your News Feed. Today’s Slice of the Day is Mr. T-Rex, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, and meatballs.
By the way, I’d like to thank Aldo for motivating me to have a cleaner apartment. This morning I pulled some years-old pizza boxes out of the refrigerator and rode them down the elevator to the dumpster. That way the refrigerator is ready for future pizza boxes.
Local Gastropub is hiring for both the Downtown location and the Overton Square location which will open next month. They are looking for front-of-house people at the Downtown location, including bartenders. For the new location they are hiring for front-of-house and back-of-house. If interested, apply in person at the Downtown location Monday-Thursday 2 PM-4 PM, and bring a resume. You must have experience in the position you are applying for.
eighty3 is having a Farm to Fork dinner to celebrate the end of summer a week from tomorrow, Sunday, August 26. Cost is $59 per person plus tax and gratuity. Call 901-333-1224 to make a reservation. Here’s the menu
Salad: Local lettuces topped with poached farm-fresh egg, ricotta cheese and peach white balsamic reduction
Soup: Grilled watermelon gazpacho
Starter: Peach and ginger catfish escabèche with green tomato
Entrée: Grass-fed local beef short ribs served with “Grit Girl” Johnny cakes
Dessert: “Tomate du Saltambique” local beefsteak tomato braised in crème du caramel, stuffed with local nuts and fresh fruit and served with a spiced white peach sauce
Yahoo! Sports blog The Dagger reports that Adria Gasol, younger brother of Pau and Marc, will walk on at UCLA this year. Although 6-10 and from a famous family, the youngest Gasol has not shown much interest in basketball until this year. Never count him out… remember, people would have laughed if you’d predicted 9 years ago that Marc would be an NBA All-Star.
Sid and Sabrina Vicious will be on AM 560/87.7 FM at 11:30 AM this morning on MemphiSport Live to discuss how their son Frank is doing on Big Brother. You can listen on TuneIn Radio if you don’t live in Memphis.
All right. Time to go do important stuff, like play Zynga Poker on my iPad. No definite plans for tonight, but I may hit Max’s Sports Bar at some point.