Mon update: Tigers, D.J. Stephens, teams coming to Memphis, Viva Panama, War Horse, food truck competition, new Memphis Made beer, eighty3 gumbo, Grizzlies

I’d like to start off this post by saying THANK YOU to Memphis Tiger seniors Joe Jackson, Chris Crawford, Geron Johnson, Michael Dixon Jr., and David Pellom. It has been a pleasure rooting for you this year. The Tigers got eliminated last night, losing to Virginia 78-60. There’s no shame in losing to a 1-seed; that’s what 8-seeds are supposed to do.

With three starting guards and our sixth man leaving, there’s going to be a lot of room for other Tigers to step into bigger roles. I bet Damien Wilson will be a big factor for us next season. And where the Tigers have been “Joe’s team” for the past four years, next season they will be Shaq’s team. It will be fun to watch these guys develop.

A former Tiger is in the news. I’ve seen reports on Twitter that D.J. Stephens will sign a 10-day contract with the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday. Very happy to see D.J., who developed into a crowd favorite here in Memphis, get his shot at the big time.

With the round of 32 over, we now know which teams will be here Thursday through Saturday for the NCAA South Regional: Florida, UCLA, Stanford, and Dayton. Looks good. Florida fans always travel well, and Memphis is a day’s drive from Dayton so I would think the Flyers will be well represented here too.

Memphis in May will present “Viva Panama,” an evening of Panamanian jazz, folkloric dance and authentic cuisine, at the Orpheum on Thursday, May 8 at 7:30 PM. Bailes de Panama will peform, as well as Danilo Perez: Panama 500. Chef Charlie Collins will prepare the cuisine. Tickets are $15 ($10 for groups of 20 or more) and are available now on Ticketmaster.

Also at the Orpheum, War Horse starts there tomorrow and runs through Sunday.

The Daily News reports that part of the revitalization of the Tennessee Brewery, which will be taken over short-term by Taylor Berger for April and May, may include a food truck contest. Aspiring chefs will be given access to a food truck for a day. The winner could be invited to become the chef at Berger’s new restaurant Truck Stop in Midtown.

Memphis Made Brewing Co. will debut its newest beer tonight at the Flying Saucer. The new beer is Cocoa Reverberation. This is a change to their Belgian stout. It is still a collaboration with local coffee company Reverb, and still features freshly roasted dark Sumatra coffee. The addition of cocoa nibs will add more chocolate notes to the coffee flavors. The beer is 5.8% alcohol by volume and will go on sale at 7 tonight. If you drink the last glass of Cocoa Reverberation and kill the keg, you will get a free ticket to Memphis Made’s April 3 beer dinner at the Saucer. You can also buy tickets to the dinner if you don’t want to kill the keg.

Downtown restaurant eighty3 won Best Gumbo at Youth Villages’ Soup Sunday this year. They wanted to take it even further, so they are donating 10% of all gumbo sales between today and Friday to Youth Villages. If you haven’t tried their gumbo yet, this is a good time to do it!

The Grizzlies play Minnesota tonight at FedExForum at 7.

That’ll wrap it up for today. I’ll kick off the evening at Melissa’s bar at Bardog, then walk over to the Saucer for a few Pint Nite beers while I watch the Grizzlies game.