I have a couple of BBQ team announcements. We have decided on an end date for our name our new smoker contest. It will be Friday and we will announce the new name in the days after that. We have an entry that I would say is in the lead so far, but we’re open to more suggestions. You have five days.
Secondly, if you’re on the Moody Ques, save the date: Saturday, August 8. As I’ve said, one of our goals is to have practice cooks/team get-togethers throughout the year, not just in the couple of months preceding BBQ Fest. Our head cook Frank is itching to light up our new smoker (using the BBQ device I’m no longer allowed to mention), which by then will have a name. So, we’re going to get together at Holliday Flowers’ new storage space. I don’t have the exact address but I have been told it’s on Monroe about a block away from the building that used to be Kudzu’s, about a 10 minute walk from the Downtown core. Time to be determined, and I will have more details on this blog in the coming weeks.
(I mentioned the BBQ device I’m no longer allowed to mention 
)
Oh, one more thing: August 8 is Brent’s birthday!!! Brent is our booth designer, and his work is absolutely amazing. I remember the first year he worked with us, back on the old Ques Brothers team. The park was at its absolute muddiest. It had rained pretty much the entire week prior and Tom Lee was a swamp. You could barely navigate the sidewalks without slipping and falling. And then you got to our booth, and it was like stepping into a Miami Beach nightclub. It was other-worldly. If you are planning an event – a wedding reception, birthday celebration, corporate event – you need to talk to the folks at Holliday Flowers. They can put together an experience like no other.
By the way… if the August 8 cookout is on Monroe, that puts us in the vicinity of the High Cotton brewery tap room… hmmmmm field trip? Then again, we tend to have such awesome beer at our events that it might not be necessary.
I owe an apology to my Lyft driver Ricky who got me home from South Main last night. It was only my second time using the app and I forgot to tip. He told me he reads my blog, too. I am so sorry, it was not my intention to stiff you.
Historian Jimmy Ogle leads one of his walks across the I-55 bridge this afternoon at 2. Meet at Crump Park, at the Metal Museum Drive exit off I-55. He’ll talk about the river, the barges, the park, the bluffs, the railroads, and the Metal Museum. Free to attend.
A band called Blu Zatcha plays Huey’s tonight at 8:30. Never heard them before, but neat name.
The Memphis Shorts Festival returns to Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday at 7. Short films in a variety of genres.
So, yesterday I learned that my BBQ team vice-president has never eaten a chicken fried steak in his life. “Look,” I told him. “We’re a bit spoiled because we live Downtown. You could ask Michael Patrick to cook you one as a special order, and I’m sure he would and it would be damn good. But that’s not what you need to do. You need to get in the car and get on I-40. You can go toward Nashville or toward Little Rock. It doesn’t matter. The first billboard you see for a gas station with a restaurant that mentions chicken fried steak, that’s where you want to go. If there’s a choice of brown gravy or white gravy, the white gravy is mandatory. Mashed potatoes as a side is mandatory too.” I recommended green beans as a second side, but Clay said he is more of a purple hull peas kind of guy. I have no issue with that.
Oh another thing – Clay ate biscuits and gravy for the first time in his life yesterday. HE GREW UP IN THE SOUTH. What is wrong with this boy? And he’s on the Moody Ques cook team. That might explain our finish in the shoulder competition this year.
Reminds me – we had a cookout at work the last day we were open before the Fourth, and a co-worker asked me, “Is your team’s goal to eventually open a restaurant, the way the team behind Memphis Barbecue Co. did?”
“Our goal is to finish in the top 90% in the shoulder competition,” I replied. Maybe one of these years it’ll happen.
All right. Time to hit Publish and jump in the shower. D-RANKS with B-RAD at 11. I’ll be there a while, so come on up.