My friend Deni who owns the Majestic Grille made me aware of a piece of legislation that could badly hurt local family-owned restaurants. A bill about wineries was making its way through the Tennessee House of Representatives when Rep. Curry Todd stuck on a last-minute amendment that had nothing to do with the rest of the bill. The amendment would force restaurants to pay for liquor cash-on-delivery, rather than have the 10-day window to pay that they have now. For a lot of locally-owned restaurants, that 10 days is vital and is the difference between being able to keep the doors open and not. The amendment was added to the bill last-minute, and it was not put to committee or discussed. The entire thing was done in a very underhanded manner, and because of this the bill passed the House and it is now on its way to Gov. Haslam to sign. We have 10 days to convince Gov. Haslam to veto the bill.
So here’s what you need to do. Email bill.haslam@tn.gov the following:
Gov. Haslam: I support the Memphis and TN Restaurant & Hospitality Community and the $16 billion impact they have on the state. Please VETO HB2027 / SB2415.
There are still rumors of a royal visit to Memphis this weekend. A friend of Princes William and Harry is getting married here this weekend, and it’s said that they will be in town and possibly Kate Middleton too. Mayor Wharton is preparing for their visit even though it hasn’t been made official yet. Part of the weekend’s itinerary includes dinner on Beale Street. Um, you realize Music Fest is happening this weekend? Good luck with that!
MATA will run the trolleys for extended hours for Music Fest weekend. Trolleys will run until 1 AM Friday and Saturday and until 10 PM Sunday.
Eric Clapton plays Mud Island tonight. Buy tickets here. Tickets are $75-145.
There’s a Groupon for a Memphis Grizzlies basketball camp going on right now. The camp is for ages 6-17 and is run by the National Basketball Academy. Admission to the camp is a $199 value but you can get it for $115 with the Groupon.
The Grizzlies return home with a 3-2 lead over Oklahoma City, after winning 100-99 in the fourth straight game that went to overtime last night. Game 6 will be at 7:00 Thursday on TNT.
Up early this morning, so I figured I’d go ahead and get the news update done. There may be another post around lunchtime, so check back.