Month: October 2014

For those of you who remember the early years of the Silly Goose when Shorty had his pasta bar, there’s good news. It is probably going to be coming back during happy hour one night a week. He did a test run last night and it went really well. It works like this: Shorty has the toppings laid out on a table. You pick out what you want, what type of sauce you want, and what type of pasta you want. Shorty cooks it up and brings it to you. DELICIOUS. I’ll have more details after they finalize plans.

Spreadable beer. Awesome.

Baaaaaaddddd news: TDOT may shut down the I-55 bridge over the Mississippi River for up to two years. This would double traffic on the I-40 bridge.

Ever wanted to act in a film or be part of a film crew, but didn’t know how to make that happen? Come to Take One Weekend – Filming in The Edge, this weekend starting tomorrow at 6 PM. Over 48 hours, five short films will be shot. Cost is $40 to participate. More info on FuelFilm’s website.

Pretty cool article: The music geek’s travel guide to Memphis

Best Memphis Burger Fest is considering adding a 5K race the evening before the Sunday festival for 2015. They’re thinking of having live music and beer after the race. Those who show a race bib would get into the festival for free.

Church Health Center Christmas cards are back for the 2015 holiday season.

I’m in a great mood today and am thinking this is going to be an unusually fun night. I’ll start off at Jessica’s bar at the Silly Goose for happy hour, then over to Jerry Lee Lewis’ Cafe for Winn’s 8:30 Texas Hold’em game upstairs. Hmmm the Saucer is on the way there so I might have to make a stop… I don’t want to be late though, because Winn gives extra chips for being on time. As I’ve said before, life, like poker, is a game of incomplete information, but today I am sitting on the dealer button and have more information than most do. See ya tonight, poker players.

As I was waking up this morning, I thought to myself, “You know what I need to do? Go back and re-read the works of Shakespeare.” They’re available online for free and it would be nice to read Shakespeare’s plays when I am not being forced to read them and write book reports and take tests. I especially want to re-read his tragedies. In the tragedies, most of the main characters get themselves into trouble because they possess a character trait called hubris.

From Wikipedia: “In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance. Hubris is often associated with a lack of humility, though not always with the lack of knowledge.”

Damn. Almost 400 years after his death, Shakespeare’s works are still relevant. By the way, I wonder if anyone is going to do anything special in 2016, the 400th anniversary of his death?

On to the news… Kevin Cerrito hosts “The Walking Dead” trivia tonight at Tamp & Tap at 7. Also, don’t forget that tomorrow is PRO WRESTLING TRIVIA!!!!!! (with six exclamation points) at 8 at the Green Beetle.

Tomorrow at Central BBQ downtown starting at 5, you can go snipe hunting. Help Memphis Made kill its last keg of Snipe Hunter. There will be snipes hidden around the restaurant and if you find one, you will be rewarded with T-shirts or free beer.

The Plan B Comedy Tour is coming to the Brass Door Saturday night at 9. Seven comedians will perform, including Jamie Ward who was recently on Fox’s “Laughs.” These up-and-comers have been touring all over the Southeast, so come check them out.

The monthly South Main Association meeting is next Tuesday at 6 PM at the Memphis College of Art grad school, 477 S. Main. Six MCA students will present their concepts for crosswalk art, with installation planned for next spring. Cash bar, SMA members free, $10 non-members.

Follow @kookycanuck on Twitter for info on when the restaurant will re-open after Monday’s fire. They’re shooting for dinner tonight if all the equipment gets there on time.

Check out A Taste of Wellness, the Church Health Center’s new healthy cooking blog.

I’m getting my first haircut since Memorial Day week after work, so I’ll be late getting to my usual Wednesday Silly Goose stop after work. Time to run some errands and then get back to a fun afternoon of tracking down missing semicolons in PHP code.

There was a fire in the kitchen of Kooky Canuck this morning. A friend of mine who lives nearby in Van Vleet Flats shot some photos:

 

 

 

The fire was put out quickly and all staff are safe. The restaurant will be closed today for cleanup.

Memphis Magazine has an interview with Tad Pierson of American Dream Safari. You may have seen Tad cruising around town in his 1950s Cadillac. He can put together some really cool custom tours of Memphis and the region around it.

From the MBJ: A $3 million renovation will soon begin on a building in the Front Street Chicken District. It will be converted into lofts. (Credit @kerry901 for the district name)

Hide your food! The Nuh-Uh Girl is back in Memphis and will be here until next Tuesday. For my newer readers, the Nuh-Uh Girl was a fixture on this blog from 2006 up until March of this year when she moved to California to go to sommelier school. She was known for showing up at events where there was free food and helping herself to multiple plates. She was also known to frequent Costco on days when a lot of free samples were out. If she sat next to you while you were eating at a restaurant, she’d say “That looks yummy! Can I have a biiiiiiite? ” and then the next thing you know, half your food would be gone. She’s staying with her family out east but I’m sure she will be Downtown some. Her favorite hangouts where she ate other people’s food included Silly Goose, Blind Bear, and Local, so especially watch out if you have dinner at any of those places.

 

That’s it for now. I’ll be out at Melissa’s bar at Bardog for happy hour after work. Not many places in Memphis offer a view of a hearse.

What an exciting day of college football yesterday. As you all know, Ole Miss has not exactly been my favorite school over the years. However, there is absolutely no way I can detract from what Ole Miss’s football team accomplished yesterday. They earned and deserved their win over #1 Alabama. Great game. Congratulations.

Also, congratulations to the Memphis Tigers football team on their 41-14 win over Cincinnati. Wasn’t Cincy favored to win that game? I bet the Tigers will get votes for the Top 25 this week. They won’t get enough votes to crack the Top 25, but they will get some votes. Looking at the Tigers’ schedule and seeing who the remaining teams to play are, is it possible they could run the table from here on out, finish with a top 20 ranking, win the AAC, and be invited to a damn sweet bowl? None of the remaining opponents are football powerhouses. The Tigers are lucky to not have to cross paths with nationally-ranked ECU in the American this year.

Right as I was typing about the Tigers going to a bowl, 92.9 PM’s John Martin (@JohnMartin929) tweeted a list of AAC bowl affiliations.

#15 LSU got clobbered by #5 Auburn 41-7. One of my favorite sports writers is not going to be too happy to see me post this, but I think LSU is Arkansas’ best shot at getting a win over an SEC West team this year.

The big event Downtown today is Katy Perry in concert at the FedExForum at 7 tonight. The singer was in Oxford for yesterday’s game and appeared on College GameDay.

If you work Downtown, you can spend your lunch break with the Grizzlies tomorrow. They will host an open practice at 12:30 PM.

Save the date: The weekend of October 24-26 will be a huge Grand Reopening weekend at Hard Rock Cafe. I will have more details in the days and weeks to come, as management is still finalizing the lineup. I can tell you to expect live music from some well-known names.

Pet peeve of mine: People who say “the Twitters,” “the Internets,” or worst of all, “the Intarwebs.” I need to write a widget that automatically unfollows accounts that use any of those.

All right, time for Sunday Fun Day. I’ll start out at Bloom’s bar at Bardog at 11 and end up at poker at the Blind Bear at 6:30. Stops in between TBD.

 

 

Every year Bardog Tavern raffles off a hearse at 11:59 PM on the night of Halloween. Aldo has purchased the 2014 hearse and it is here and will be parked outside of Bardog all month long. This hearse appears to be a Lincoln Town Car, whereas previous hearse giveaways have been Cadillacs. Also, this hearse appears to be a newer model than previous ones that have been given away. Ask your bartender or server how to purchase tickets for the raffle. You must be present at the drawing to win.

Developer Billy Orgel has revealed some of his plans for the Tennessee Brewery which he is purchasing. The building will likely be residential with a small amount of commercial space on the ground floor. Orgel said that one of the potential uses of the commercial space could be a microbrewery. How cool would that be? Brewery Untapped will not be coming back, but Orgel admitted that Untapped helped make him aware of the building’s potential.

If you were planning to run in the Tap ‘N’ Run this afternoon, the event has been cancelled.

The Blues Ball is tonight at Gibson Guitar Factory. Lt. George W. Lee Avenue will be blocked off for the event.

There’s a band called Foxtrot Union playing Huey’s tomorrow night at 8:30. Great name. Foxtrot Union. Get it?

For my readers who are WWE Network subscribers: I highly recommend the Monday Night Wars series of videos. I’ve watched the introductory episode, the nWo one, the Bret Hart one, and the Mick Foley one so far. All of them are excellent.

Any of you ever have a flashback to a childhood experience, when you’re drifting right on the border between dreaming and being awake, and it gives you clarity on a situation that is happening in your contemporary adult life? I had that happen this morning.

All right. Time to get to Panda’s bar at Bardog and help control the PBR population. Should be an excellent SEC football watching day.

 

 

This weekend is Central Station’s 100th anniversary. The celebration lasts all weekend and tomorrow there will be an official ceremony at 11 AM and free admission to the Railroad and Trolley Museum all day Saturday. There will be tours of railroad cars, a live recording session, vintage photos, railroad collectibles, and a lot more.

Men in Black will play on the big screen at Beale Street Landing tonight. Movie starts at dusk.

High Cotton’s Oktoberfest is tomorrow from 12 to 7. Tickets are $40. Learn more about the festival here.

WREG Live at 9 has video of Peabody Chef Konrad Spitzbart giving his recipe for southern buttermilk pie.

In case you missed it: You’ll have to pay to attend Memphis Madness this year. The Tigers’ open practice is October 18 this year and Rick Ross will be there.

The MBJ has a good report on the state of Downtown that is well worth a read.

I went to the first Thursday night poker night at Jerry Lee Lewis’ Cafe last night. It was upstairs in the elegant Twelve Bar and they had specials for poker players while they were playing. They had six food specials for players for $6. I didn’t eat, but one of my opponents had a huge plate of Buffalo chicken bites from the menu, and another had a huge plate of nachos. It was a good time and I wish I could have stayed longer but I needed to get closer to home due to the approaching storm.

When I got to poker, one of the people at the table shouted out, “It’s The Intimidator!” Then I had someone ask if I planned on intimidating the entire poker table. So it looks like that nickname is going to stick. I can think of worse nicknames to have. I don’t watch a lot of NASCAR but wasn’t that the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s nickname?

Time to go intimidate some people. The weekend is here!

Thank you to the Memphis Flyer for a fun Best of Memphis Winners party at Beale Street Landing last night. I didn’t know the results of the Best Blog voting at the time of yesterday’s post, but I found out not long after: I got Readers’ Choice along with Choose 901 and I Love Memphis. I am honored to have my blog mentioned alongside those two very fine blogs. If you have never checked them out, you should.

If you missed last night’s party – or even if you didn’t – there’s another big, fun party tonight. MIFA’s Feed the Soul is tonight at The Warehouse, the green building at the northeast corner of Front and G.E. Patterson. Your ticket gets you live music on multiple stages, food, drinks, an oxygen bar with multiple flavors, a bourbon tasting, a silent auction, and more. Buy tickets here.

Wiseacre Brewery’s Grand Prize Giveaway starts tonight at Green Beetle trivia at 8 and goes on for the next eight weeks. When you win trivia, you win raffle tickets: Three for first place, two for second, one for third. On the Thursday before Thanksgiving, November 20, a winner will be drawn from the tickets. The winner will get a VIP tour for 8 of the brewery with a free beer sampling, tab at the bar, souvenir glass and Uber credit included. Wiseacre is not open to the public for tours, so this may be your only chance to see the brewery’s inner workings.

Oh, by the way… next Thursday, October 9, the trivia theme at the Beetle will be PRO WRESTLING TRIVIA!!!!!! I might be willing to be recruited onto someone’s team in exchange for a few PBRs. I have been watching wrestling since 1982 and am an encyclopedia of wrestling knowledge.

The MBJ reports that a new soul food cafe will open in the ground floor of The Renaissance Apartments at 99 N. Main. It sounds like the new cafe will go in the former Tony’s Pizza space. It’s being opened by the owner of Wrapsody next door. Where Wrapsody attracts a breakfast and lunch crowd, the new restaurant, called Main St. Cafe, will aim for an evening and weekend crowd. Projected opening date is tomorrow or Monday.

Construction delays are pushing back the opening date of the Cordova Kooky Canuck. The approximate soft opening date is October 21.

There will be a free workout session at RiverFit with Lauren Phelps Coaching this afternoon at 5:45. RiverFit is the Grizzlies’ pop-up fitness park at Tom Lee Park.

The Sensation Band performs at Handy Park, Third at Beale, tonight in a free Sounds of Beale concert.

That’s it for this post. Tonight I’ll do happy hour at the Silly Goose, then head over to Jerry Lee Lewis Cafe at 8:30 for the first Thursday poker night hosted by Winn. I think this will be a really good game, so come on out. The poker players are a great group and playing is a good way to meet people. It’s free, so why not give it a try? Extra chips if you show up on time.

The annual Memphis Flyer Best of Memphis issue hits the stands today. This is Memphis’ most credible “best of” poll and the issue is eagerly anticipated. Be sure to grab one. If you can’t get to one, the first-place winners are being tweeted by @MemphisFlyer and the issue will be available on the Flyer’s website tomorrow.

The Flyer sent me tickets to their annual Best of Memphis winners’ party which is tonight. I assume that means I made the top three in Best Blog voting. Flyers are hard to come by down in Horn Lake where I work, so I won’t know for sure until I get back Downtown around 5:00.

Whether I made the winners’ list or not, THANK YOU to all who voted for my blog. I’m glad you enjoy it and find it useful. It’s nice to win an award and get invited to a very cool party, but for me, the real reward comes when people tell me “I moved Downtown because of your blog.” Or, “thanks for writing about _______, I never would have known about that place otherwise.”

The awesome thing about the winners’ party is that a lot of the bars and restaurants that won are owned by friends of mine, so I won’t be going to a party with a bunch of strangers I don’t know. I’ll get to hang out with my friends. I’ll probably see Daniel from the Silly Goose. And Jamie, Jeannette and Colin from the Blind Bear. And Patrick and Deni from the Majestic. And Paula Raiford. When I went to Bloom’s bar at Bardog on Sunday, she showed me her Best of Memphis party tickets, so I guess she made top three in Best Bartender.

We’ll start off today’s news with some pigeon news: China thoroughly inspected 10,000 pigeons participating in its National Day. By “thoroughly” I mean they were given anal exams, to make sure the pigeons weren’t concealing explosives that might bring down the Communist Party. Thank goodness we live in a free country where our pigeons are not violated.

Tennessee Brew Works beers arrive in Memphis this week.

The Weather Channel has released its list of 2014 winter storm names and believe it or not, they’re even stupider than last year’s. There’s a storm named after Linus, the kid on Peanuts who carries a blanket and sucks his thumb. I guess Snoopy will have to wait for the 2015-16 season for his storm.

Anyone else notice that Groupon has been sucking lately? I follow Groupon’s Memphis RSS feed to try and keep you informed of any Downtown Groupon deals. Lately, though, there haven’t been any, and hardly any for the city of Memphis as a whole. It’s been junk like IT certifications and real estate certifications. Have Memphis businesses given up on Groupon?

Weird night at Blind Bear poker last night. Usually between 30 and 40 people show up on Tuesday. Last night only about 13 did, and we had two short-handed tables in play. People at my table were going all-in early on when people still had 50-100 big blinds left. I hate that because it takes all the skill out of the game. I played for an hour and 15 minutes, so I probably saw about 35 hands. During that time I got Ace-Jack six times! Ace-Jack is tough to play because if Ace-King or Ace-Queen are out, you’re in a world of pain. However, against loose players who are pushing all their chips in with all kinds of hot garbage, it’s a hand that’s way too strong to fold. You just have to call and hope for the best. The best didn’t happen and I didn’t make the final table. I’ll try my hand at poker again when I play Winn’s new Texas hold’em game Thursday night at Jerry Lee Lewis Cafe at 8:30. It’s free to play and the deals for poker players on food & drink are among the best you’ll find, so come give it a whirl.

Congratulations to all the Best of Memphis winners. I’ll see you at the party tonight.