Thanksgiving Day update

Gobble gobble! Here’s a list of what places will be open after you get done dining on turkey. Beale Street:

As for the Downtown core hotspots, Flying Saucer opens at 5, Blind Bear at 6, Silly Goose at 7. I haven’t confirmed this but Bardog usually opens at 5 on Thanksgiving and serves a Thanksgiving dinner special. Brass Door is closed today.

By the way, Brass Door has an item on its bar menu called “Irish Nachos.” Hand cut fries covered with beer braised onions, corned beef, and cheese dip. Yum!!! I must try those soon.

Got beer news from a couple of great Memphis breweries. Ghost River will have a release party/retirement party Saturday, December 2 from 5 to 10 PM. SMASH Test Dummy is a Double IPA and Dummy’s daddy Mike, the beer’s brewer, is retiring. Just one more of many reasons for Downtowners to celebrate the first weekend of December!

Chocolatier Phillip Ashley takes over the Wiseacre taproom this Saturday 2-5 PM. For the past year he has been collaborating with the Wiseacre brewers on Charlemayne, a barrel aged Belgian Stout with Peruvian cocoa ribs and orange zest. This week Wiseacre returned the collaboration favor, going to Phillip Ashley’s place and experimenting with cocoa butter, melted chocolate, caramel, cream, brandy and beer to come up with a batch of super fancy chocolates. Both the beer and the chocolates will be for sale at the taproom on Saturday.

The Madison Hotel will be laying off over 30 workers in January. It will temporarily close its restaurants eighty3 and Twilight Sky Terrace for improvements. The hotel itself will remain operational through this period.

Statistic site FiveThirtyEight says this Saturday’s Iron Bowl matchup between Auburn and Alabama could be their biggest game ever. There are playoff implications for both schools and for Georgia. I am rooting for Alabama to clobber Auburn Saturday, and it’s not because I’m a huge Tide fan or have anything against the Tigers. However, if Auburn misses the SEC championship and the CFB playoffs, Arkansas is more likely to woo Auburn coach Gus Malzahn away to Fayetteville.

Lifehacker suggests that you should get drunk and cause a scene today at family Thanksgiving. Someone’s going to do it, might as well be you, and as they point out, if you strike first then you get to set the tone and tactics.

Vanity Fair has an exclusive on the intelligence President Trump let slip in a May 10 meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak. The intel was passed to the U.S. by Israel, and no doubt once it was shared with the Russians, it made its way to Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy. Hurry up, Mueller… we have got to get this narcissistic, sociopathic kook out of office soon.

Getting some housecleaning done as I wait for a Friendsgiving event that starts at 5… looks like the cherry pie is going to make it there after all. I’m off tomorrow and you know what that means – BARDOG BARDOG BARDOG. They’re going to see a lot of me the next two weeks, as I am extending Celebration Weekend next weekend through Tuesday, December 5. That’ll do it for now. Back tomorrow if there’s enough news for a post.