BBQ Fest continues today. Here’s a link to the full schedule of events for today. A few of my picks:
- The Grill Mates demos, because they conclude with samples for the audience. They’ll make grilled Texas pork tenderloin at 1:00 and spicy Nashville hot-style pork ribs at 4:00.
- Awards ceremony for Anything But, Hot Wings, and Sauce 6:00
- Cracker, approximately 9:15 PM
Park hours are once again 11 AM to 12 midnight. Keep in mind that some teams will close their booths to visitors earlier than midnight because it’ll be time to put the championship meat on the smoker for Saturday morning’s judging. Low and slow is the way to go.
Celebrity sightings: Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer are at BBQ Fest serving their new line of rubs and sauces on the VIPit Tour.
The Daily Memphian has a photo gallery of the Ms. Piggie Idol contest.
The Experience Memphis Gardens Tour runs from May 20 to July 2. Visitors can attend public, private, business, and community gardens, and even a railroad garden, as well as other Memphis gems like cut flower farms and aquaponics. There will also be a garden hat contest. The Downtown Memphis Commission is a supporter of this event, with 7 of the tour’s 200+ gardens located in our neighborhood.
Today is National Pizza Party Day. Aldo’s Pizza Pies Downtown would be my natural top recommendation to celebrate. There’s also Silly Goose with its wood-fired pizza oven. South Main readers, don’t forget, Max’s Sports Bar recently added a pizza oven, and of course there’s pizza at Little Italy across the street from Max’s.
Check out this duck grilled cheese sandwich I had at Local on Main this week:
If you look closely, you can see that there’s cheese on top of the Texas toast. There are several slices of bacon in the sandwich along with the duck, because everything’s better with bacon. Yummy indeed, although I suspect my friends at The Peabody would not approve of my lunch.
Star Dance Alliance is at the Renasant Convention Center this weekend.
On June 17, July 8, and August 12, the Memphis Farmers Market will partner with the Central Station Hotel and Made in Memphis for a Makers’ Market takeover of the Central Station corridor tunnel. 8 AM-1 PM will be the hours.
A few people have asked me why I haven’t been to Bardog a lot this week. I only have one day’s worth of good times there left on my gift card, and I’d rather not use it on a day when the place is full of BBQ teams I don’t know. I plan on going Monday and spending the rest of the card.
There will be a Music Tour at Elmwood Cemetery today from 5:30 to 7:00. Willy Bearden, Memphis music historian, will introduce you to the musicians and producers buried in the cemetery. $20. This is a walking tour, so wear appropriate footwear.
The Metal Museum will have a free Family Fun Day this Saturday. You can check out the smithing work going on, the museum’s exhibits, and hands-on activities. For $20 you can make your own metal tile art to take home. 11 AM to 5 PM.
Dan Favale of Bleacher Report made a list of top landing spots for the NBA’s most intriguing free agents. He thinks the Washington Wizards’ Kyle Kuzma should go to the Grizzlies via a sign-and-trade.
This next news item is not a Downtown event, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Years ago I had a bartender named Mary, first at the Flying Saucer, then at the Blind Bear. Mary went on to become this badass yoga teacher who offers classes at studios all over town as well as at yoga retreats all over the country.
One of the places Mary teaches is mind/body HAUS in Cooper-Young (685 S. Cox) and she’s organizing a very cool non-yoga event, a Mindful Meetup, on Saturday, June 17. It’s for
- People who’ve wondered what it would be like to socialize soberly
- People who are sober and who are looking for an event that doesn’t involve alcohol
The purpose of the meetup is to show that being sober doesn’t mean you have to be serious all the time. You can still enjoy a night out, meeting new people, having fun. They’ll have a bartender serving mocktails, and there will be snacks and a dance party. It’s $20 to attend the meetup and you can sign up through the Mindbody app.
Silly Goose has unveiled its new cocktail menu.
I’d like to thank the Rapid Riders golf cart shuttle for giving me a ride home from the Blind Bear last night. Dreading the long walk back from BBQ Fest? They can help. Call 901-649-7222.
From WREG: MPD to roll out Juvenile Crime Abatement Program amid summer break. The main focus will be curfew violations and the main area of concentration will be Downtown.
There will be a slight chance of pop-up thunderstorms this afternoon and then rain is likely after 10 PM.
Southwest has added a nonstop flight from Memphis to Washington, D.C.
There’s now a ChatGPT app for the iPhone. I just downloaded it and will review it in a future post. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot you can ask questions without doing web searches as we have traditionally known them.
Very cool: Kraft-Heinz is introducing Heinz Remix in restaurants, allowing customers to make their own custon mix of sauces. The way it works is
- You select a base sauce, either ketchup, ranch, BBQ, or Heinz 57
- You select enhancers like jalapeno, chipotle, buffalo, or mango
- You select intensity from one of three levels
Next week will be Fashion Week at Downtown’s Cossitt Library (Front at Monroe). All events listed below will happen between noon and 2 PM:
- Monday, May 22: Jewelry workshop with Olajide Ibitoye
- Tuesday, May 23: Sewing workshop with Morning Thyme
- Wednesday, May 24: Styling 101 workshop with Ari
- Thursday, May 25: Thrifting DIY workshop with Mars & Yasmin
- Friday, May 26: Thrifting DIY workshop with Mars & Yasmin
- Saturday, May 27: Vinyl transfers with Mainshiners
I’m off to the Cossitt Library myself for a few hours of laptopping and reading. I got on the Memphis Public Libraries website and searched for the call numbers of some of my favorite books. That’ll allow me to find other, similar books nearby that I might like.
Back tomorrow (probably) with more news.