Okay, dear readers, I have a confession to make to you.
I lied to you a little.
Yesterday I posted that Local on the Square is closing its doors at the end of this week, after 11 years in business. I pointed out that Local on Main, Downtown on the Main Street Mall, is an entirely separate restaurant from Local on the Square, with its own management, its own employees, and its own set of policies for inspecting food that comes out to ensure it is fit to serve to guests.
Okay. So far all of that is true – as of this week.
But I lied when I said there’s no connection between the two restaurants. There’s about to be a BIG connection.
The Memphis Flyer’s Michael Donahue let the cat out of the bag yesterday. Tim and Tarrah Quinn, the owners of Local on Main for the past few years, are the new owners of the former Local on the Square. That’s right, I said “former.” They’re rebranding the Square restaurant as Madison Tavern.
I would like to encourage my Midtown readers to give the Quinns and their new restaurant a chance. I have gotten to know Tim and Tarrah over the past 12 months. They are super kind to their employees. They are very open to listening to their customers to understand what customers hope to see, eat, and experience when they come to the restaurants.
I think they will do great in Midtown.
And I think the Downtown regulars need to organize a field trip to Madison Tavern sometime in December. Maybe for a Sunday Fun Day brunch, a time when folks in both service industry and 8-to-5 corporate rat race employees are off work. Hmmm the Tavern is a short 3-block walk from Slider Inn Midtown… we could easily hit both in an afternoon.
Today is Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day. I don’t have a recommendation to celebrate in Memphis. A lot of Memphians think a county fried steak is the same as a chicken fried steak. It’s not. As the name implies, the steak should be dipped in the same batter you would use to fry chicken. Think the Colonel’s Original Recipe or Extra Crispy, whichever you prefer.
Not only that, but – the chicken fried steak must be served with WHITE gravy. NEVER BROWN. One of the side dishes must be mashed potatoes, and the gravy should cover the potatoes as well as the steak.
A nice-looking CFS, but it needs some mashed potatoes on that plate. Photo credit: Kevin from Oklahoma, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
As a general rule, the closer you get to the American Southwest, the more likely you are to find an authentic chicken fried steak, and not the fool’s gold/cubic zirconium of the culinary world, country fried steak with brown gravy.
It’s long been my suspicion that you can get a damn fine chicken fried steak in Mena, Arkansas, but I’ve never driven over there to prove it. Mena is in far western Arkansas, about an hour south of Fort Smith.
One more note… if ever you’re driving through the desert of Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona, and you see a billboard advertising a restaurant and it says “CHICKEN FRIED STEAK” and there’s a cartoon image of a chicken holding a skillet, you absolutely MUST go there. It’ll be the best CFS you’ve ever had, I can promise you that.
Let’s get on to the news…
The Cossitt Library’s Dos Hermanos Cafe will host The Boo Brunch this Saturday, October 28, from 11 AM to 3 PM. Come dressed in your Halloween costume and enter a costume contest after you chow down on some scary good food. The Cossitt is at the northwest corner of Front and Monroe.
South Main’s ARRIVE Hotel has been named one of the 20 best in North America by Fodor’s.
Memphis Symphony Orchestra performs Carmina Burana Saturday at 7:30 at the Cannon Center in partnership with Opera Memphis. Locally, the concert will be broadcast live on WKNO-FM radio.
Alice Hasen plays Live at the Tracks tonight at Central Station Hotel from 6:30 to 9:30. New menu, specialty drinks, local craft beers.
A new Los Comales location has opened Downtown. It’s at 345 Madison, in the building that used to be Stop 345.
If you go out during the day Sunday, take a jacket even though the temp may seem pretty warm (mid 70s-low 80s) in the morning. A cold front will drop the temperature drastically and we will be looking at high 55-60/low 37-39 weather for a few days after that.
Reminder: There’s a charity poker tournament tonight at 6 at Blind Bear. It’s organized by AutoZone people, but you don’t have to be an AutoZone person yourself in order to play. The tournament supports breast cancer awareness and
- a $20 donation gets you a 2000 starting chip stack
- a $30 donation gets you a 4000 starting chip stack
- Optional rebuy
Great prizes for winners; food and drink specials for all who are playing, including
- $5 Tito’s
- $5 Pink Drink
- $5 Hibernation dip & chips
- $5 Bear Balls
- $5 Tacos & chips
The very shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies took a 111-104 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans yesterday. Desmond Bane went 5 of 10 from the three-point line en route to a 31-point game. Next up for Memphis: A home game vs. Denver at FedExForum Friday at 6.
BET recently talked to Mayor-elect Paul Young about his vision for Memphis.
Mike Johnson is the new Speaker of the House.
I’ve found a new use for Quora, the social media platform where anybody can ask a question and anybody can answer one. Quora is really good to learn about topics where knowledge is somewhat widespread, but no one has ever thought to write a book.
This week I’ve been reading about the U.S. military and its ranks on Quora. Just to give you an idea of the questions and answers I’ve found:
- Q: Can a 23-year-old second lieutenant fresh out of college order around a sergeant major with 30 years of service? Require the Sgt. Maj. to salute, address him as “Sir,” march him around? The most common answer is, theoretically yes; however, sergeant majors tend to have direct communication lines to the commanding officer, making such a move career suicide for the lieutenant.
- Q: What exactly is a warrant officer? I’m still reading answers and figuring this one out. If you think of a branch of the military as a solar system, warrant officers seem to be the asteroid belt that lies between the inner rocky planets (enlisted men/women) and the gas giants (commissioned officers).
Lily Afshar has passed away. She was a classical guitarist from Tehran who was on the University of Memphis faculty for music. She was 63.
Local on Main has the same special they did yesterday: 8 oz. chopped steak with fried onion straws, topped with shiitake mushroom wine sauce, vegetable medley, mashed potatoes. It’s not letting me upload the photo again, so scroll back to yesterday’s post for more news. Back tomorrow.