BREAKING NEWS: Due to a busted water main, The Little Tea Shop will be closed for lunch today. Bardog is also currently closed and will open later today when the repairs are done.
Powerhouse Malco Cinema opened for business yesterday, bringing the movies back Downtown. There are 7 screens with recliner seating. This week is something of a soft opening, with Captain Marvel being shown on 6 screens and The Kid showing on 1 screen. Once they work out the opening kinks they will expand to a full slate of movies.
As many of us remember, the last time we had a movie theater Downtown, in the Peabody Place Mall, it didn’t work out due to the place being overrun by rowdy, loud teenagers. Malco is putting policies in place to make sure that doesn’t happen at Powerhouse. After 6 PM on Friday and Saturday, no one under 17 will be admitted to an R-rated movie, and those under 17 must be accompanied by a parent to get into a G, PG, or PG-13 rated movie. THANK YOU Malco for providing an environment adults can enjoy!
The bar & grill menu looks really good, with pub food, sandwiches, burgers, salads, and wood-fired pizzas. I’ve been told they have in-theater delivery of food (not quite sure how that works without disturbing other movie watchers, but interesting). There are milkshakes and you can add booze. There’s also a full bar, with a good selection of local draft beers, classic cocktails, and specialty drinks. The only thing I think they did wrong with the bar is that they don’t have PBR. I haven’t confirmed this but I’ve been told it’s possible to dine and drink at the Powerhouse bar and grill without having purchased a ticket to a movie.
The Redbirds have announced their promotional schedule for 2019. Here is a summary of some of the highlights:
- All-you-can-eat nights, where a specialty ticket gets you a seat to the game and a 2-hour all-you-can-eat buffet, are being moved to Fridays this year. The featured dish will change from week to week, including wings, crawfish, tacos, beef sliders, breakfast, and ribs… but the best one of all, in my opinion will be on Friday, August 23: crab legs.
- Fireworks will remain on Saturdays this year and will be sponsored by Terminix.
- Thursdays will be Throwback Thursdays with the Redbirds wearing the Memphis Chicks uniforms. $2 select draft beers and $1 Polk’s hot dogs.
- Mondays starting in June will be Musica Mondays, honoring Hispanic Heritage.
- Kids will still get to run the bases on Sundays and will get free Prarie Farms ice cream.
Edible Memphis is back with another of their excellent restaurant articles. This time the subject is Cozy Corner. You know, I hate it that I always forget to recommend Cozy Corner to tourists because it’s tucked away off the beaten path. Their food is worthy of being mentioned alongside Central BBQ.
The upcoming time change has been discussed and there has been some confusion. Here’s the deal: The minute after 1:59 AM Central Standard Time this Sunday, March 10 is 3:00 AM Central Daylight Time. So we will not have a 2:00 hour this Sunday morning. That’s why it’s said that we “lose an hour” and “spring forward.” The first Sunday morning in November, we have two 2:00 hours and get our hour back.
Canines, Cookies & Craft happens this coming Wednesday, March 13 from 5 to 8 at Cordelia’s Market. Diamond Bear Brewing Co. out of Little Rock will be doing a pairing of 4 craft beers with Girl Scout cookies. Weather permitting, Streetdog Foundation will have adoptable dogs onsite.
It’s International Women’s Day at the Grizzlies tonight with an all-female entertainment lineup. Memphis hosts the Utah Jazz at FedExForum tonight at 7.
The Daily Memphian has a food fight between two beloved locals’ bars, Bardog and Dirty Crow Inn: Who has the better club sandwich? Those of you who have the same inside information I have will find it a bit ironic that the Crow was chosen as Bardog’s opponent.
The Memphis Tigers are now locked into a 5 seed in the AAC tournament to be played in Memphis next weekend. Although the Tigers still have a regular season game left this Saturday versus Tulsa, the outcome cannot push Memphis up to a 4 seed or drop them to a 6. The Tigers will open AAC tournament play Thursday at 2 vs. Tulane. Assuming they advance, their next games will be
- Friday at 1
- Saturday at 2
- Sunday at 2:15
Thursday’s game will be on ESPNU, Friday and Saturday’s games on ESPN2, and the finals will be on ESPN.
The Brass Door is holding a Blackwater St. Patrick’s Day Throwdown Sunday, March 17 from 2:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. Come spend St. Patrick’s Day hearing Blackwater Trio in Downtown’s authentic Irish pub.
Crawfish lovers, a good Instagram follow is @Glazescrawfish. Glaze does the crawfish boils at Sidecar Cafe Wednesday evenings, Railgarten on Thursday evenings, and Loflin Yard on Saturday afternoons.
Yesterday at happy hour at the Silly Goose, I was talking with a business owner about his new product that is coming to Memphis: Whey Good protein shakes on a stick. You eat these like you would an ice cream treat on a stick, and they taste as good, but they contain 21 grams of whey protein. They’re available in vanilla, double strawberry, and banana cream. They are now in the two Memphis-area Whole Foods, and the business partners are looking to get these in additional locations in the Memphis area.
While talking to him, a question came to mind: “I remember the menu from the smoothie truck that used to sell at the Memphis Farmers Market. You could add whey protein or vegan protein to your smoothie. Why wouldn’t whey be considered vegan?”
“Whey can be dairy,” he replied, and I immediately thought about the nursery rhyme that mentioned curds and whey. Little Miss Muffet I think?
The past three weeks, I’ve been experimenting with portable versions of the Linux operating system that can be booted off a USB stick. I have tried Ubuntu, Porteus, Slax, and FatDog64, but none of them did everything I wanted. Finally I have hit upon a winner: Linux Mint. This is the first flavor of Linux I have ever seen that is as friendly as Windows 10. It detected my sound card, which several of the other Linux flavors didn’t. It also found that my Wi-Fi card was being accessed with the wrong driver and offered to fix it. It offers a graphical interface to install additional packages (much like an app store) but if you need to install packages through the terminal (using apt or something similar) you can do that too. If you’ve ever thought about dipping a toe into the waters of Linux, Linux Mint on a USB stick is a way to do it without buying a new computer or messing up your current one. Hit me up if you want me to explain how to get Linux on a USB drive. It’s super easy once you understand the process.
That’s all for now. Back tomorrow with more news.