Last night I discovered the best item on Maciel’s Tortas and Tacos’ menu. That’s saying a lot, because everything on the menu is really, really good.
This is the gazpacho salad. It’s made with lettuce, mango, cilantro, tomato, onions, avocado, and grilled steak. Look at that photo. Could they have POSSIBLY fit any more steak in that box? All the flavors came together beautifully and the chipotle dressing was superb. 10 out 10, would get again, would strongly recommend. For those of you who never stray away from the tacos section of the menu, you’re missing out!
All right. On to the next thing. Mostly I’m preaching to the choir here. Feel free to show this to your friends who don’t eat out much and who therefore are not familiar with how things work.
Let’s talk about people who walk into a bar and sit down at a table. After two or three minutes, no one has come by to take their order. They get up and leave. The next day, they leave a one-star review of the bar on Yelp or Google Reviews and say, “The service here is trash.”
Applebee’s is a restaurant. Chili’s is a restaurant. O’Charley’s is a restaurant. At those places, you are greeted by a host or hostess. They walk you to a table and inform a server that they have a new customer. The server then comes over and takes care of you.
Bars, however, are different. Except during peak hours, they generally don’t have someone at the door to greet you. You seat yourself. If a server doesn’t come over to your table within about 5 minutes, then the bartender is most likely working by herself. In that case, you should go up to the bar area and place your order there.
How can you tell if an establishment is a restaurant or a bar? It’s most likely a bar if any of the following words appear in its name:
- Bar
- Pub (or “public house”)
- Lounge
- Tavern
- Saloon
- Speakeasy
- Beer
- Ale
- Any type of liquor (e.g. whiskey, gin, etc.)
- Roadhouse
- Joint
- Inn (if the business is not also a hotel)
If having to seat yourself and go to the bar to place your order bothers you, that’s totally understandable. Simply don’t visit these types of establishments. But don’t leave bad reviews on them simply for being what they are.
The Orpheum announced yesterday that one of the true legends in the world of music, Smokey Robinson, will be there April 7. This announcement is so new that they don’t even have the concert listing on their website yet. Tickets go on sale this Friday.
Bourbon fans, get ready: McEwen’s on Monroe will host a Buffalo Trace Advanced Tasting Class by Whiskey University. Buffalo Trace is the oldest continually operating distillery in North America and the third largest bourbon distiller in the world. In this class, you will sample nine ½-ounce shots of Buffalo Trace bourbons. These include
- Weller Special Reserve “McEwen’s Pick”
- Weller Antique 107
- Weller 12
- Blanton’s Single Barrel
- Hancock’s President’s Reserve
- Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel
- Stagg
- Jr. Barrel Proof
- Eagle Rare “McEwen’s Pick”
While sampling these bourbons, you’ll learn about the three bourbon mash bills offered by Buffalo Trace: Wheated, Mash Bill #1, and Mash Bill #2. Cost for the class is $125. If you have a bourbon lover in your life, tickets to this class would make an amazing Valentine’s Day gift.
The Downtown Neighborhood Association posted a construction alert yesterday: As work on Tom Lee Park continues, the temporary bluff walk connection at Vance Park will be closed through April when the new, permanent connection opens.
Bill Dries of the Daily Memphian is reporting that The Who will play FedExForum May 13. That’s Friday of BBQ Fest week (and Friday the 13th).
A Facebook friend of mine recently asked, what IT skills should I learn to be qualified for a lot of jobs? I’m not in IT anymore, but I still get newsletters from IT recruiters, and I’ll tell you what I am seeing – there are a lot of Microsoft SQL Server jobs open right now, both local and remote positions. SQL Server is an enterprise-level database server. If you have Windows, you can download it for free (go to this page and grab the Express version) and there are plenty of good free tutorials online. Even if you don’t learn the Microsoft-specific stuff, knowledge of the SQL database query language is a boost to any resume.
Also, one of my favorite tech writers, Flavio Copes, recently published a roadmap to becoming a web developer in 2022 that is worth a read.
The Grizzlies host the L.A. Clippers tonight at FedExForum at 7. Local TV coverage on Bally Sports Southeast.
The NBA trade deadline is Thursday and Grizzly Bear Blues has a trade deadline primer.
The DM’s Steven Johnson reports that Emoni Bates has returned to the Memphis Tigers after seeing a specialist about his back injury. Johnson also reports that my fellow November 18 baby Jalen Duren earned AAC Freshman of the Week honors and Josh Minott made the AAC honor roll.
You can learn to do soul line dances at the Hard Rock Cafe Wednesday at 6. This will be a recurring Wednesday event. Free to the public, free parking behind the building, hosted by the M10 Line Dancers. They’ll explore both the latest soul line dances and some classics.
I’ve been debating whether to mention this next item. I’ve had a few people saying, “We need to have a onesie bar crawl!” Turns out there’s one Downtown this Saturday but I have an important caveat: It’s organized by a national company – NOT locals. Bar crawls organized by out-of-towners have sometimes not lived up to their promises in the past (ask around about the New Year’s Eve bar crawl Downtown). I’m not recommending this crawl but I feel it’s worth a mention because
- As I said, a onesie bar crawl has been requested, and this may be your only chance to participate in one this year; and
- February 12 (Saturday) is at the peak of the slow season for bars. There aren’t likely to be a lot of people at the stops on the crawl that are not a part of the crawl. (None of the stops on the crawl are places that would be popular for early Valentine’s Day dates.) That makes it much more likely that the bars will honor what is advertised on the event’s Facebook listing.
Register and attend at your own risk. You won’t see me there.
I got up at 1:30 this morning to give myself time to get a full day of writing in while still going out at noon. Feels good to be back to being a morning person. Back tomorrow with more news.