My heart is broken for the members of my former BBQ team this morning. Over the weekend they received some bad news. As you may have heard, the renovations to Tom Lee Park – including hills and foliage – reduced the amount of usable space for BBQ Fest by 40%. As a result, the number of teams in the park had to be reduced from 220-230 to about 140.
My former BBQ team didn’t make the cut. And I can’t understand why. They did everything right.
They participated in BBQ Fest 2022 out at Tiger Lane and were told doing so would give them preference for team selection for the 2023 festival back on the river.
They had a top-10 finish and got on stage to accept a trophy in their main competition category, shoulder, in the past five years. (7th place in 2018)
They were well-liked by Memphis in May staff and were a sought-after destination for volunteer team ambassadors.
I left the team in 2021, but it wasn’t out of animosity toward other team members or any kind of disagreement with team policies. It was just that I’d done BBQ Fest for 13 years and felt like it was time to move on and have other experiences. I love all those folks and I wanted to see them achieve great things.
Anyway, on to the news…
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi updated his Bracketology yesterday after the college basketball day games. Memphis, following a heartbreaking 67-65 loss right at the buzzer to #1 Houston, is still off the bubble and on the right side of it. They’re still the 9 seed in the Kansas portion of the bracket, although Kansas has moved to the top overall seed.
The weather’s gonna be wild – I’m talking “bartender who gets STAY WILD tattooed on his butt” kind of wild – this week. Today and tomorrow will be pretty nice, 70s/50s although with high wind. After that it’s going to be cooler and we’re expected to get a lot of rain.
This’d be a good week to take a kite up to Greenbelt Park.
The American Athletic Conference tournament bracket is up.
- Thursday: Memphis does not play, but game of interest: 10 SMU vs. 7 UCF, 1:30 PM, ESPNU
- Friday: Winner of SMU/UCF game vs. 2 Memphis, 6:00 PM, ESPNU
- Saturday: Memphis plays at 4 PM on ESPN2 if they win Friday’s game; likely opponent is 3 Tulane
- Sunday: Memphis plays at 2:15 on ESPN if they win Saturday’s game; likely opponent is 1 Houston
From Action News 5: Memphis drag queens say they will not comply with the new Tennessee bill. The station visited Atomic Rose’s drag brunch yesterday.
We’re in the final week of Standard Time. We spring forward into Daylight Time on Sunday morning.
Reminder to new restaurant owners: Don’t serve a single drink until you have that liquor license physically in hand. An email from Nashville saying it’s on the way is not good enough. Don’t expect the ABC to look the other way just because it’s a certain day on the calendar. The ABC never looks the other way.
Memphis 901 FC’s home opener is Saturday at 4 at AutoZone Park. The opponent is Loudoun United FC.
Ain’t Too Proud, a musical biography of The Temptations, comes to the Orpheum this week.
All right. I guess that’s enough for today. Back tomorrow with more news.