Let’s start off with several food news items. The DMC tweeted some photos of newly opened Grecian Gourmet at 412 S. Main yesterday, including a photo of the menu.
It’s grand opening day for Grecian Gourmet at 412 South Main! They serve authentic Greek food including signature dips like Hummus, Fiery Feta & Baba Ghanoush with homemade pita chips! Support your new local eatery! #downtownmemphis #choose901 #eatlocal #southmain #bringyoursoul pic.twitter.com/QL7wbjzNTB
— Downtown Memphis (@DowntownMemphis) March 13, 2018
Ignite Memphis is coming back April 12, and this time it’s all about food. Ignite is a format in which speakers give 5-minute talks using 20 PowerPoint slides, which auto-advance every 15 seconds. “Inform us, but make it quick” is the idea. They are currently accepting submissions from those who would like to give a talk.
If you have gotten into the Girl Scout Cookie and beer pairings in recent years, today is your lucky day. Miss Cordelia’s will be doing pairings tonight at Food Truck Wednesday 5-8 PM.
The Dirty Crow Inn’s special this week is a Nathan’s hot dog wrapped in bacon and deep fried, then topped with Pancho’s cheese sauce and more bacon. Yum!
Next up… got a couple of events associated with one of Memphis’ great craft breweries, Memphis Made. On Monday, March 19 from to 6 to 9 PM, Memphis Made’s co-founder Andy will be at the Rec Room at 3000 Broad. He’ll be playing old-school Donkey Kong. Beat the brewer and walk away with Memphis Made prizes.
Enter your motorcycle in the Bike Show at Memphis Made on Saturday, April 14. Prizes will be awarded in all categories of bikes. There will also be a pinball tournament. $10 to enter a bike, free just to come be a spectator.
South of Beale and Shawn Gates of MyBlockMusic are establishing a new concert series called Music on Main. It kicks off March 31.
FiveThirtyEight has posted their NCAA bracket predictions for March Madness 2018. Mouse over any school and see their chances of reaching each stage of the tournament. Probabilities will be updated in real-time as game results come in. Sad to see that my Arkansas Razorbacks, the 7 seed in the South, are a 40% underdog to 10 seed Butler. I think that’s probably accurate, but still not happy. The Hogs may have drawn the worst opponent (worst in terms of likely to beat them) in the tournament relative to their seed.
Then again, it may not be the Hogs but 1 seed Kansas, facing off against 16 Penn. This is the best chance for a 16 to upset a 1 in a long time. Would be really cool to see an Ivy League school send the Big 12’s dominant force packing.
Memphis in May, in conjunction with Indie Memphis, has announced its Cinema of the Czech Republic Series that will be happening around town during the month of May.
Q&A time! I love it when a bar conversation starts up and I get to share knowledge, whether it’s where to go Downtown, web development, or tips on writing a blog! The question that came up this week, though, pertained to social media.
How do I know if a Facebook friend is hiding posts from me?
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt on that one, and the answer is counter-intuitive. Add them to your Close Friends list.
When you post on Facebook, you have options concerning visibility of posts. You can make the post Public, in which case anyone can see it. The other common option is Friends, in which case it will only appear on the news feed of people you’re friends with on Facebook. However, a less-often used option is Friends Except… where you can specify particular friends whom you don’t want to see the post.
When you add someone to your Close Friends list, you get a notification every time they post. Click through the notifications. If you see a “This post is not available, it may have been deleted or you may not have proper permission to view” and it is the first time you have seen that from this particular friend, I wouldn’t worry about it.
If it happens twice, I would start to get a little suspicious.
If it happens on a regular basis, they are hiding posts from you. And that doesn’t mean EVERY post. You may see all their posts for a week and a half before a ghost post appears. Then you see their posts for another week, then another ghost post. Then two weeks before another ghost pops up. This is still sufficient evidence they’re hiding posts from you.
What do you do about it? Well, you have options:
- Confront them about it
- Keep silent about it and see how long they’ll continue to hide posts, while pretending like everything is just hunky-dory
- Move them from your Close Friends list to your Blocked list and don’t give them another thought
And now it’s time for…
The Perjorie T. Roll Lunch Series
For this, my last week Downtown before I begin a new job, my troll and I are hitting some of the best lunch spots in and near the area. Getting my lunch yesterday didn’t take a whole lot of effort.
Quintessential neighborhood bar Bardog Tavern opens at 8 AM on weekdays. During my time job hunting I tried not to go in there during the morning hours, wanting to be productive and available for phone calls and emails with recruiters. Now that I have the offer letter, though, there is absolutely no need for me to be productive! Well, I have been studying the client-side Javascript frameworks I will use in my new job, but I decided to call yesterday a true vacation day. I got to Bardog a few minutes before 10.
Melanie, the bartender, asked me if I wanted to order breakfast. I said no, wanting to see what kind of specials would get written on the board for lunch, which began at 11. So I nursed a PBR for an hour and the wait paid off… they had chicken enchiladas on special!
Now, keep in mind they probably won’t have chicken enchiladas today – the specials rotate daily. However, Bardog’s food is consistently well above average, and you’re always going to find something different on the special board. Could be Mexican, could be Cajun, could be Italian, could be a variation on sliders, could be a turkey sandwich on wheatberry. Follow the restaurant at @bardogtavern where they tweet their specials of the day. Of course, there’s plenty good on the regular menu too. I recommend the burger sliders, meatballs, deluxe grilled cheese with ham and bacon, and the Amazing Island Club sandwich in particular.
One note about Bardog during the cold months… might want to bring an extra layer of clothing. Their ceiling fan system does a great job sucking up cigarette smoke (yes, you can smoke inside there). However, it also creates a wind chill. In combination with the door opening frequently between the busy lunch hours of 11 and 1, it can get cold if you’re sitting near the door. I thought I could get away with just a T-shirt yesterday, given that it’s mid-March. Wrong! I had to keep my leather jacket zipped up.
Bardog is at 73 Monroe between Front and Main, across from the Shrine Building.
The troll and I are taking a road trip to Midtown today for lunch. I haven’t started the car in 6 days so it seems like a good and necessary idea. Unlike the other stops on the lunch series, this is not a favorite restaurant – although I suspect it will be in about three hours’ time. It’s not a favorite yet because I’ve never eaten there. However, it has been highly recommended by friends. Look for a post later today or tomorrow on that experience.