Great news. The old Burger King location on Madison, between Second and Third next to the First Tennessee Bank building, has been purchased by a group of partners. The building will be torn down to make room for a privately-owned park. Getting rid of that building will remove a huge piece of blight on a street that is starting to boom with a Cuban restaurant, a cake shop, an Irish pub, and a sports bar. The park may be used for movies, art presentations, or concerts, according to Scott Crosby, one of the partners who purchased the space. It has a lot of potential.
The theme for tomorrow’s Memphis Farmers Market is Pick the Cream of the Crop. The freshest and most delicious produce of the season will be at the market tomorrow. Felicia of Felicia Suzanne’s will do a chef demo at 10:15 AM. Music by Tiffany Harmon at 7, Kim Harmon Gummel at 8:30, and Beka de Santis at 11. A bike tour of Downtown will depart from the market at 9 (must wear a helmet). There will be adoptions by Streetdog Foundation as well, and a book brigade for kids 10-11. The market is at Front and G.E. Patterson, Saturday 7 AM-1 PM.
1986 movie Labyrinth starring David Bowie plays tonight at 7 at the Orpheum. Doors open at 6. Come early for drink specials and to win prizes at trivia about the movie. Labyrinth was directed by Jim Henson and patrons are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite Jim Henson character.
Tomorrow evening is Blues on the Bluff, benefiting WEVL, on the grounds of the Metal Museum overlooking the Mississippi River. There will be live music by the Garry Burnside Band, the Bo-Keys, and the Blind Mississippi Morris Band. There will be food by Central BBQ, with all food sales profits donated to WEVL, and Schlafly beer. Wine and non-alcoholic drinks will be sold too. Silent auction, free guarded parking. First band starts at 6:30. Buy advance tickets here. MemphisWeather.net says the high will be only 82 with a north wind. Blues on the Bluff is normally scorching hot, but not this year!
LUNCHBOXeats will be closed Saturday and Monday and will re-open Tuesday.
Amazon has officially unveiled its Kindle unlimited subscription service.
The Daily News reports that opportunities are growing for young professionals. Y’all who read this who are in your 20s and early 30s, take advantage of these. I was very active in a young professionals’ organization in the 2002-05 period and made many contacts who are still valuable to me to this day.
Election day is August 7 and early voting has already begun. See a sample ballot here.
The Flying Saucer’s PR firm emailed me the running order for the Stumbling Elvis pub crawl on Saturday, August 9. The crawl will start at the Saucer and crawl to Blind Bear, Cafe Keough, Alfred’s, Purple Haze and end back at the Saucer. You can view the event on Facebook here although they haven’t added the list of bars there yet. Um, guys, this is the SIXTH annual Elvis crawl not the second. I know this well because the first crawl (2009) was the night I finally got fed up with one of Memphis’ biggest idiots and told him off. It’s liberating to lose the “yeah he’s annoying as shit but I feel sorry for him” mindset that a lot of other people have. Nice to see Cafe Keough added to the list of stops. Great place. Plenty of Elvis costumes on Amazon if you’re looking for something to wear. If you dress up as Elvis, prepare for a 20 minute walk down 1 block of Beale Street as everyone stops you to take pictures.
Time to grab some food from Popeye’s then back to the grind. I’ll be out at the usual places after work.