South Main is planning a big Red, White & Blue Trolley Night for this Friday, June 29. The South Main Stage will be set up at Main and Talbot, future home of Slider Inn, with DJ Nugget Johnson of The Q 107.5 headlining. The DMC will provide games like cornhole and volleyball pong. There will be an area set up for South Main Association members with food and beverages, and if you aren’t an SMA member yet they’ll be happy to sign you up. Most of the stores in the South Main area will stay open until 9 or later so you can come shop and mingle with your neighbors.
Freewheel slow rides are coming to The Fourth Bluff six Thursdays this summer. These are bike rides at a leisurely pace along the riverfront and through Downtown Memphis, and when the ride is over they stop by a nearby watering hole. Explore Bike Share and Revolutions will lead these rides. If you don’t have your own bike, you can ride one of Explore’s for free on an as-available basis. Register to reserve your spot. The dates and places for the slow rides are
July 5: EBS Station at Second & Beale
July 19: EBS Station at Second & Beale
August 2: EBS Station at Court Square
August 16: EBS Station at Beale Street Landing
August 30: EBS Station at Court Square
Sept 6: Beale Street Landing
Pop-up Jazz comes to Court Square Sunday, July 8 from 6 to 8 PM. Hosted by by Deborah Swiney and Downtown Memphis, this event will highlight jazz in Memphis. Free, family friendly, and bring money for food trucks.
MIFA has a five-day challenge going on where a donor has offered to match your donation not once but twice. Give $25 and MIFA gets $75, give $100 and they get $300, you get the idea. This is ongoing through June 30.
DMC is reviewing eight proposed designs to revamp Handy Park and make it a modern park with amenities that will see more use. View the proposals here.
The Tennessee Brewery is adding apartments due to high demand. The 148 units originally planned are already 100% booked up, so they are going to convert a retail space into 3 more apartments. The one retail tenant will be a new So Fresh juice bar location. I wonder if that’s why we haven’t seen the So Fresh truck at the Farmers Market this year, because they’re planning a brick-and-mortar location nearby.
For those of you with kids 2-5 looking for things to do with them in the summer, the National Civil Rights Museum is hosting Small But Mighty Storytime Wednesdays at 10:30 AM. Each week they will read a book and do an activity together.
Action News 5 reports that the Tom Lee memorial could be removed from Tom Lee Park. The obelisk had not been replaced since it was toppled by wind last year, and insurance concerns are cited. However, the main reason a removal has been proposed is a line on the memorial that is inappropriate by modern standards.
For lunch yesterday I decided to make a return to Cafe Med, the Mediterranean restaurant on Kirby near Poplar. Previously I’ve sampled around their list of 18 different types of gyros, but yesterday I wasn’t hungry enough for a gyro so I turned to the Appetizers section of their menu. The apps you find on every Mediterranean menu were there, of course – hummus, tabouleh, babaghanoush. However, I wanted to try something different, and turned my attention to the Yassou dip, made with Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and garlic.
The dip comes with pita chips. It’s a good lunch for someone without a big appetite, or two people could split it as an appetizer. They are so nice there and I am lucky to have Cafe Med so close to work that I don’t even have to get in the car.
Sometimes the best plans don’t work out… last night I walked south to Max’s Sports Bar for Game 1 of the College World Series championship.I got there a few minutes after 6 with the Hogs and Beavers in a rain delay, and the Omaha radar did not look good. After 90 minutes they called it. I wandered over to Earnestine & Hazel’s for a $1.50 PBR before happy hour ended at 8. I didn’t play any songs but I went through the jukebox and composed a playlist in my head for Saturday. I have a BBQ team meeting that day not far from the Farmers Market so for one week only I’m going to skip Bardog and just hang out on the south side after I hit the Market.
Tonight I will return to Max’s Sports Bar after work as Omaha tries again to host Game 1 of the CWS finals. I will also make Earnestine & Hazel’s my second stop once again, as they have a jazz night beginning at 8 in memory of the late, great Keenan. Back tomorrow with more news.