Author: paulryburn

This is the week when the saints of COGIC gather in downtown Memphis for their annual convention. Welcome, and if you have any questions about the area that you’d like to ask a local, feel free to e-mail me.

One of the best ways to celebrate the abundance that God has given you is to share that abundance with others. To that end, I’d like to ask you to please tip your servers well when you go out to eat at downtown restaurants this week. With so many people in town, the servers are going to be extremely busy, and they deserve to be compensated well for their hard work, don’t you agree?

A standard tip at a restaurant is 15%. For your convenience, I have computed 15% of common amounts below.

• 15% of $10.00 = $1.50
• 15% of $20.00 = $3.00
• 15% of $30.00 = $4.50
• 15% of $40.00 = $6.00
• 15% of $50.00 = $7.50
• 15% of $60.00 = $9.00
• 15% of $70.00 = $10.50
• 15% of $80.00 = $12.00
• 15% of $90.00 = $13.50
• 15% of $100.00 = $15.00

If you make special requests of your server – food prepared a special way, substitutions, etc. – you may want to consider tipping your server a little extra, say, 20%. Again, for your convenience, 20% of common amounts is below.

• 20% of $10.00 = $2.00
• 20% of $20.00 = $4.00
• 20% of $30.00 = $6.00
• 20% of $40.00 = $8.00
• 20% of $50.00 = $10.00
• 20% of $60.00 = $12.00
• 20% of $70.00 = $14.00
• 20% of $80.00 = $16.00
• 20% of $90.00 = $18.00
• 20% of $100.00 = $20.00

Also, please keep in mind that if a restaurant does not give a COGIC discount, it’s a policy set by management. Your server has no influence over that policy and does not deserve to be penalized on his or her tip. If you only want to eat at restaurants that give COGIC discounts, it would be a good idea to ask about this before you are seated.

I personally can attest that when you freely share your bounty, as God Himself would, with all those around you, it comes back to you tenfold and more. So please keep that in mind when you sit down to eat in downtown Memphis this week.

Again, welcome. Thank you for spending you tourism dollars in Memphis, and if you have questions about Memphis just ask.

I updated my MySpace profile this weekend. I re-read my old profile and realized it sounded like all I do is hang out at bars, and that’s not very good. So I rewrote it with more details, to give people a better idea of who I am and what I’m all about. Hopefully I come off sounding like a more well-rounded person now.

Sunday I spent about 7 hours at Sleep Out Louie’s. For some reason EVERYONE showed up yesterday; the place was packed from open to close (or at least, from open until 7:00 when I left). I love that place because I can always count on some interesting conversations up there – for example, yesterday I spent some time talking to a guy who invented a silicone prosthetic eye. Pretty cool. It’s just one of those topics I knew nothing about and enjoyed learning. Anyway, great times yesterday at SOL. We even had an off-duty Beer Goddess up there, and this time I’m not talking about my Halloween costume.

Speaking of which… with Halloween over, I had no more need to wear my hair in pigtails, so I got it cut last Thursday – about 3 inches shorter than it was. Reaction has been just about 50-50 between “Oh, you got a haircut, you needed one, it looks good” and “Why did you cut your hair? I liked it long.” After looking at pics of myself the last time my hair was this short and comparing to more recent pics such as this one taken in August,

… I’ve decided that I agree with the “why did you cut your hair” crowd. So I’m going to let it grow back out. Not as long as it was for Halloween – that was TOO long but I needed to do the pigtails – but back to the August length as pictured above. I think that’s a happy medium.

So, no haircuts until February probably, and since I normally pay $25 a haircut, that means I have enough money to buy an extra 10 Pint Nite beers at the Flying Saucer. Speaking of which, I’m at the Saucer right now as I type this. Earring Girl is my waitress. They’re out of Blue Moon. The managers are having a meeting at a table across the room, and I’m tempted to walk over and ask what they were thinking when they booked that disaster of a Halloween costume contest. I also want to ask if they plan on hiring any more Romanians. But then, walking across the room seems like an awful lot of exercise – I’d probably burn 0.25 calories. Never mind, I’ll just sit here and drink instead.

It looks like there is interest in eating dinner at EP’s Delta Kitchen and Bar tomorrow night after the Rapscallions kick ass at trivia. If anyone is interested in going, you can meet up with us at the Saucer around 8:30-8:45 (that’s generally about the time trivia is over). Or meet up with us at 7 and join the team! Even with a big group, I doubt we’ll need reservations, considering that the place has been open less than a week and hasn’t advertised.

No plans for Wednesday night as of yet – I’ll probably go to a bar or something. Maybe I’ll play a few games of NTN Trivia at Sleep Out Louie’s to help convince management not to get rid of it. The Saucer’s Buy the Beer, Keep the Glass beer Wednesday night is Bridgeport, and if there’s no additional charge for this week’s glass maybe I’ll get one – Bridgeport IPA is tasty (but VERY hoppy, so if you’re not an IPA lover, this might not be the beer for you).

Thursday, of course, The Dempseys play the Saucer, so I’ll be there. Attn Dempseys fans: You know that song where Brad and Joe switch instruments mid-song, and at the end Joe tosses Brad his guitar back? Well, Saturday night, for the first time ever, Brad dropped the guitar. From what they said, it sounded like it cost some $ to repair. Sunday night at Huey’s Joe stood about 1 foot away from Brad when he tossed him the guitar.

Friday night I may be out of town, but if not I’ll be at Sleep Out Louie’s. Bobby Durango, Crash Kole, and Josh Lemons will be playing. Bobby, the lead singer/guitarist, played with the Rock City Angels back in the ’80s, and Crash and Josh are two of his top students. There may be guest guitarists as well. Here’s a flyer for the event:

I caught part of their show last time and they were good – particularly Bobby, with whom you really see different sides of his personality when he sings.

All right – time to get off the laptop and drink some beer, then maybe hit one or two more bars on the way home. Have a good Monday night everyone.

Every time I open up my mailbox I find two or three pieces of negative mail from Harold Ford Jr. telling me what a horrible person Bob Corker is. I also find two or three pieces of negative mail from Bob Corker telling me what a horrible person Harold Ford Jr. is. I can’t turn on my TV without seeing campaign ads explaining why the other candidate is unfit for the Senate.

I’m fed up with both of them. A couple of weeks ago, I early voted, and at the time I voted for Ford. I now wish I could re-do my vote, and either leave the Senate race blank or write in Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges as a protest. Both Ford and Corker have run disgraceful campaigns in these final weeks and I’m embarrassed to have either of these men representing me in the Senate. I realize a lot is on the line here, and it’s not just these two men but party machinery and supporting organizations running the ads. But still, if this is what you have to do to get a seat in the Senate, then it’s time to overhaul the American election system.

Horrible, horrible example to set for our children.

I’ve bought this so many times at Schnucks. Glory Black Beans and Rice. And yet I don’t think I’ve ever once opened it and heated it up sober. It tends to be a 12 to 3 in the morning dish.

Tonight I went to Makeshift Music’s showcase at the Gibson, taking Memphis’ poet laureate IQ as my guest. Incredible show, thanks for inviting me. I heard all the bands and The Glass were my favorite; Augustine impressed me too.

Afterward, I went to Raiford’s with one of my regular blog readers and her friends. Because if you’ve been drinking off an open bar all night, what do you want to do? Go to Raiford’s and drink three 40s of Bud Light, of course. I still can’t get a decent pic of Raiford on my digicam thanks to that fog machine. I guess I’ll have to go in at 10 one night to get pics of him, before he fires the machine up. If anyone knows of a camera setting that will defeat that fog machine let me know.

Attn regular blog reader (she knows who she is): One of these nights I’m going to get you drunk and take advantage of you. I’m not a nice boy. Also: I thought of a title for the song we talked about writing: “You can keep the change” If you don’t know the story behind that title (happened in early October, when I was at the Saucer, sitting at one of the rails inside) I’ll tell you.

Tomorrow (or, really, today, Sunday): Sleep Out Louie’s from 11 to 2:30-4:30. I’ll have the laptop with me because I have projects I need to work on, but that won’t stop me from drinking at least one bottle of champagne. 4:30-7:00: The Saucer, to see my waitresses. 7:30 on: The Dempseys @ Huey’s. They don’t start until 8:30 but I like to get there early and get a good seat at the bar.

Drunk. Going to bed. This was a complete waste of time, both for me typing this and you reading this.

Tonight, after a couple of beers at the Tap Room, I stumbled into EP’s Delta Kitchen and Bar, located in the old Elvis Presley’s Memphis building at Second and Beale. Now, I had to get by there at some point this week and then write about it in my blog, because my friend and former neighbor Mike (who used to be the chef at McEwen’s) is at EP’s now and designed the menu. “All right,” I thought. “If this place sucks as much as Elvis Presley’s Memphis did, I’ll bury it in a ____day Update post and give it two sentences in the middle of nine other bullet points.”

EP’s gets its own post.

EP’s gets its own post and my recommendation to GO THERE AND EAT. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Let’s start out with the decor: It’s superb. Think Swig, Dish, Bluefin, but with the soul of Beale Street. The furniture, the lighting, the music, make it feel hip, yet you never forget where you are.

I asked the staff for a few recommendations. One that was pointed out repeatedly was the pork loin stuffed with house-made sausage. Comes with sweet cornbread pudding and creole mustard demiglace.

Another popular recommendation was the stuffed portabella mushrooms with shrimp, spinach, and caramelized onions. Another was the fried green tomatoes with tomatilla sauce and pear compote – “we’re taking fried green tomatoes to a whole new level.” Also highly recommended was the smoked duck seafood gumbo. But really, just ask to look at the menu. You can’t go wrong. They told me they want to be on a level with Stella, McEwen’s, Felicia Suzanne’s, etc. within a year, and based on the menu they’re already there on their second day.

By the time I got there, they had rolled off the regular menu and onto their late night menu. From that, I had the Lobster Pronto Pup – a corn dog, but with lobster rather than a hot dog inside, over a bed of greens – SO good. Also recommended on the late night menu is the nachos with sweet potato chips, pepper jack and crawfish.

To drink, I had a peanut butter and banana cocktail, with Godiva liqueur, 99 Bananas, vodka and amaretto. It comes garnished with a banana chip. Yummy.

As Mike the chef explained it to me, EP’s knows they’ll draw tourists solely based on location but “we want to cater to locals. We want a place where they can relax and feel at home. We don’t expect to see the same people every night of the week, but we want it to be the place they go when their mother comes to town to visit. (Attn Mama: when you come to town, we need to eat here) We want it to be the place you bring Uncle Todd for his 56th birthday.”

For those Downtowners who go to a bar for the people as much as for the food and drinks, Ugly Steve (formerly of the Tap Room/King’s Palace) is bartending downstairs, and Hooper (formerly of Dan McGuinness Pub, and before that, Downtown Huey’s) is upstairs.

I asked how late they planned on staying open tonight – some places that are more restaurant than bar close early. “Oh, we’ll be here until about 2:45,” I was told.

This place SO makes me wish I had a girl I was seriously interested in so I could take her to dinner there. If this place doesn’t impress, I don’t know what will.

Attn Rapscallions: Dinner at EP’s after trivia Tuesday night?

It’s time to turn that frown upside down!

A full line of M the Moron merchandise is available from Betty Bowers’ CafePress store.

– According to a story in the Commercial Appeal today, environmentalists are predicting that there will be no seafood left in the world by 2048, due to overfishing and pollution. So you better hit Shoney’s Friday night all-you-can-eat seafood buffet while you still can.

– After my post about next weekend’s Fried Glass Onions event, I received an e-mail from musician Jeff Golightly, who played on the first Fried Glass Onions CD (the CD series is a tribute to the Beatles by Memphis musicians). He has a one-man solo act where he plays songs by not only the Beatles but other British Invasion bands, including The Kinks, The Who, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Rolling Stones, and more. In his sets, he not only plays the songs on his authentic Rickenbacker guitar and Vox amp, but also relates stories of his trip to Liverpool and his vast background knowledge of all these bands. He says he’s available for club and private party gigs and is very reasonably priced. You can read his bio and contact him for bookings via his MySpace page.

– I know a lot of the Sleep Out Louie’s regulars read this blog… do me a favor and go up there and play the NTN Trivia game. Management is going to get rid of it if usage doesn’t increase between now and February. It gets used a lot on Sunday (because of brunch) and Monday (people playing the QB1 game where you predict the next play on Monday Night Football), but not the other days. So if you get a chance during the week, go up there, play some trivia, spend some money and help convince management to keep NTN.

– I’m going to be going out a little bit less this month… I really need to get a thorough understanding of Cascading Style Sheets and ASP.NET 2.0 for some website projects I plan on doing this winter. So I’ll be going out to bars a little bit less (although, for me, that means going to bars 4 nights a week instead of 7) and Wi-Fi enabled coffee shops more. I don’t expect it to have an impact on my frequency of blogging – I’ll still find plenty to write about.

Got a meeting at 1, time to head back to work.

Sitting here at the Flying Saucer on my new Wi-Fi enabled phone. Testing whether I can post. Here’s some actual useful content for ya:

– FreeWorld Unplugged @ the Saucer, Friday 11/3 9:30

– Ken & Robyn Greene @ Sleep Out Louie’s, Sat 11/4 7:30

– The Dempseys @ DOWNTOWN HUEY’S!!! Sun 11/5 @ 8:30

– The Dempseys @ the Flying Saucer, Thur 11/9 9:30

Not bad for a phone post.

(Edited to add: Attn Amelia: Your MK friends are here asking about you)

…this could be an event to put on the calendar. I was flipping through the Memphis Flyer yesterday and noticed an ad for “Fried Glass Onions 3 – Memphis rocks the Beatles,” to be held next Friday and Saturday, November 10 and 11. Artists involved include Zack Mack, Dani, David Brookings, FreeWorld, Matt Isbell & Adam Levin, Van Duren, Charles Ponder, Jackie Johnson, Charlie Wood, Billy Gibson and Steve Selvidge. Backing band will be Dave Smith on bass, Gene Nunez on guitar, Greg Lundy on drums and Charlie Wood on keyboards/organ.

Now that is truly an all-star lineup of Memphis musicians. Event is at Heartsong Church at 800 N. Houston Levee Road, and this being the unofficial “downtown blog” I usually don’t write about events in East Bumblefuck, but this one sounds like it’s worth the drive. The ad says tickets are $15 and food will be available from a Memphis-themed menu. More info available here.

Come down to the Gibson Lounge and hear some of the best bands in town this Saturday, November 4. Makeshift Music is putting on a showcase to show off their acts – Augustine, Blair Combest, Brad P and the Makeshift Mafia, The Glass, The Coach and Four, and Two Way Radio (formerly Walkie Talkie). These are bands that tend to play Midtown more often than downtown and it’s a pleasure to have them down here. Admission is free.

Apparently I’m now a “vital part of the Memphis music scene” because I have a fairly popular blog… Makeshift sent me two tickets to their upstairs VIP area with access to the bands, food buffet, and the two words I love to hear most of all – OPEN BAR. Dammit… I was gonna cut back on drinking once Halloween was over, but I guess I’ll have to wait until after the 4th. But then, my birthday is the 18th, so I doubt there will be any cutting back that weekend either. Maybe in December… but Christmas parties are in December.

Anyway… I have an extra ticket to the VIP area and as of yet no one to go with… was so busy with Halloween that this slipped off my radar. If interested in going with me as my guest let me know.

(Edited to add: It took me ELEVEN tries to get the flyer below uploaded. photos.blogger.com is absolutely getting killed with everyone uploading their Halloween pics. Although, even on a normal day uploading photos is hit or miss. Now that Google owns Blogger, they need to drop some $ for better servers.)