Category: Uncategorized

Downtowners are always on the lookout for restaurants that deliver, especially ones that serve food other than pizza. This past weekend I came across a menu for a place called Duffies at 212 N. Fourth Street. They are open 8 AM to 10 PM (I guess every day, the menu didn’t say), they deliver Downtown, and they serve breakfast all day. So if you want a waffle delivered to your home at 6 PM, there you go. They also have wings, salads, sandwiches, and yes, they do have pizza as well. Click the images below to view the menu in a larger size.

Got a couple of pieces of Monday-specific news… the Flying Saucer is now doing Songwriter Night with Roland and Friends every Monday night at 7 PM. I am assuming this is the same Roland who is co-organizer of Stumbling Santa.

Cafe Pontotoc is now open on Mondays, and they have some good specials. Every Monday night that will have $5 margaritas, $2 tacos, and $2 tamales.

From Lifehacker: A James Beard Award-winning chef has tips on building the perfect plate of nachos.

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson comes to the Orpheum tonight at 7.

Lisa’s Lunchbox will not be coming to the Front Street Deli location after all, the CA’s Jennifer Biggs reports. The deal fell through last week, which is why Lisa’s Lunchbox acquired the Tuscan Italian Eatery space a block away.

Experimental rules have been approved for the postseason college basketball tournament that determines who is the 69th best team in the country, the NIT. The Tigers may be headed there, so you might want to take a minute to get familiar with the rules.

That’s it for now. Probably going to hit happy hour at Bardog this evening, then over to Blind Bear to watch college basketball. Back tomorrow with more news.

For the past few weeks, Seth from Best Memphis Burger Fest and a few other folks have been working on putting a new Memphis food festival together, and yesterday they made the announcement: 901 Popper Throwdown is happening Saturday, March 25. This will be a cooking competition to determine who makes the best jalapeno popper in Memphis. Here are the rules if you want to enter. Entry fee is $60, $65 counting credit card fees. The event will be held at High Cotton Brewing Co. at 598 Monroe. Teams will be able to hand out samples in exchange for donations to Memphis Paws, Inc., an organization that provides funds to animal rescues. There will be live music, a jalapeno eating contest, and great craft beer.

A few minutes after Seth announced the popper fest, he made another announcement: He’s looking for judges. With a regional in Atoka the following weekend, I knew the Moody Ques wouldn’t be competing in Popper Fest. I texted the team president and asked if the team had anything scheduled for March 25.

“Nope,” he replied.

So I filled out the judging application! I love spicy food. One of the questions was “what is the spiciest food you have ever eaten?” I gave two answers: One is that I have a bottle of Crazy Good ghost pepper sauce that I sprinkle on fries and whatever else needs to be taken up a notch. Also, one time I ordered a seafood curry at Bangkok Alley and asked them to make it spicy. They asked how much on a scale of 10 and I told them 9 out of 10. YIKES! I only did that once. I have since settled at 6/10 as my comfort zone there. Given that I’m not a certified food contest judge, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be accepted, of course. However, I do have judging experience (the first Best Memphis Burger Fest), 10 years experience on a BBQ Fest team, and 4 years experience on two Burger Fest teams. We’ll see what happens. Maybe all the certified judges will be busy that day.

On to the next subject… I went to the crawfish boil at Max’s Sports Bar yesterday, and having eaten a box, I have no problem making this statement: The crawfish at Max’s Sports Bar’s crawfish boils are better than the crawfish at any public crawfish festival in Memphis. They are better than Rajun Cajun. They are better than the Overton Square crawfish fest. A guy named Glaze cooks the crawfish, and they have the perfect amount of spice, and each box comes with corn, taters, and smoked sausage that have been cooked in the crawfish boil.

I decided to visit Clarence at Earnestine & Hazel’s yesterday morning, then got to Max’s a few minutes after 11 to get a good seat. Good thing I did – an hour later the place was PACKED! By 1 PM every square foot of Max’s was filled with people waiting in line to get tickets for boxes of crawfish, and for beer.

The crawfish are big for this time of year!

This must be one of the best crawfish seasons ever. Normally you don’t see crawfish in Memphis until the last week of February. Not only are they here ahead of schedule, but they’re already the size of the ones usually served at the crawfish festivals in April. I wonder what they will look like at the boils at Max’s at the end of the season in June. At what point do they stop being crawfish and start being lobsters?

Due to the size of the crowd, they ran out of crawfish about 2. Glaze told me that he brought 4 bags of crawfish. They’re going to do the next boil at Max’s two Saturdays from now, and Glaze is bringing 6 to 8 bags.

The Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team has a home game this afternoon, hosting Temple at FedExForum at 1:00.

That’s it for now. I’m going to catch up on my WWE Network subscription (new episode of Legends with Stan Hansen just dropped) then off to D-RANKS with B-RAD at Blind Bear at 11.

 

Pam & Terry love posing for photos with their fans. Last night they played Blind Bear and their newest fan, Perjorie T. Roll, got her photo opportunity.

About a week ago, I was sitting in Max’s Sports Bar watching TV, and a man named Duncan introduced himself. He told me he was opening a new restaurant in the former Double J building across the street. He said it would be called The Vault (because at one time that building was a bank) and that he would serve Creole and Italian food, and maybe some steaks. The cat is out of the bag now, with the Flyer reporting on The Vault yesterday. It could be open as soon as the beginning of next month. Each booth will have its own TV, and both downstairs and upstairs will be open.

Yesterday was the last day for Tuscan Italian Eatery on Front Street. The location has been sold to Lisa’s Lunchbox, which is odd considering Lisa’s is taking over Front Street Deli a block away. The Tuscan Italian Eatery location inside 200 Jefferson (the Darth Vader Building) will continue to operate.

archimania, the award-winning architecture firm currently located at 356 S. Main, has dropped plans to move its headquarters to a building at Main and Carolina. They apparently feel that their business would stick out like a sore thumb in a neighborhood that has unexpectedly blossomed with new apartment dwellings. They will seek a location elsewhere Downtown, or in Midtown.

Not much news today, but that’s all right; it’s going to be beautiful outside! Time to go hit the usual spots and celebrate a very productive week.

Got some news today for my readers who like craft beer and who also like saving money. Ghost River has a nice little collection of short cases. These are cases of beers that either aren’t completely full, or whose labels were put on crooked. They are selling these cases (four 6-packs) for $20. That’s less than a dollar each. It’s like going to the outlet mall, but BEER!

High Cotton Brewing Co. is bringing back a popular event:

Confirmed this afternoon HCB will be teaming up with Girl Scouts of America and Troop 901 for another Cookies on Tap on March 23rd! pic.twitter.com/DeHh9fgyMg

— High Cotton Beer (@HighCottonBeer) February 9, 2017

Memphis Made is bringing back their popular beginner sushi class on Sunday, February 26.

Yesterday Mayor Strickland delivered his annual State of the City speech at the Impact Club at Frayser Baptist Church. You can read the speech or watch the speech in its entirety.

Major League Baseball plans on experimenting with a pretty radical rule change in its rookie leagues and the World Baseball Classic. If the change proves successful, the new rule will make its way up through the minor leagues, eventually reaching the majors. The rule has to do with extra innings when the game is tied after 9: Each inning beginning with the 10th, the batting team would start out with a runner on second. The rule is designed to get extra-inning games over more quickly.

Chris Johnson, who got deep into the American Idol season and who has performed all over town, will play The Dirty Crow Inn tonight from 9 to midnight.

There are nasty women in The Edge! The Memphis exhibit of NYC’s Nasty Women Art Exhibit opens today at Marshall Arts, 639 Marshall, and runs through February 19. The subject matter is left up to each artist who either is a Nasty Woman or supports one. Funds raised from this will support women’s causes in the era of the Trump Regime.

Steph, Klay, Dray and KD come to town tonight as the Memphis Grizzlies host the Golden State Warriors tonight at 7 PM at FedExForum.

The Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau has opened an office in Auckland, New Zealand to serve Australia and New Zealand.

That’s the news for now. It’s been a long but productive week, and I am ready for the weekend!

Big score for AutoZone Park! Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) will hold its Institute at the park February 16-19. The institute is a training conference for coaches and league administrators affiliated with RBI. From 4 to 6 PM on Saturday, February 18, RBI and AutoZone Park will host a free PLAY BALL event for children ages 6 to 13. Kids who want to participate should wear sneakers, and no gloves or bats are needed. Register here. At the event, MLB will present a check to Pitch In For Baseball, to be used for purchasing baseball and softball equipment to benefit kids in local public schools.

Here, kitty, kitty, YOGA! Memphis Animal Services is teaming up with Crosstown’s Cross-motion Studio to present two sessions of cat yoga February 25. What’s that you ask? As participants in the class do yoga, ten adoptable cats will wander the room. After the class, you can adopt a cat for $35, half the normal Animal Shelter fee. Price includes vaccination, collar, a goodie bag, and more. Those not interested in yoga are still invited to attend the session and meet the cats.

Job news: The Fourth Bluff is seeking a programming curator. If you want to put together quality events that encourage people to make use of Downtown’s public riverfront space, this could be the perfect place for you to work.

Holly has a post about her construction tour of the Old Dominick Distillery on S. Front Street, as well as what to expect when it opens this spring.

Here’s an article on how to discourage Windows tech support scammers. If you get a call from “Windows support” saying viruses or malware have been detected on your computer, it’s a scam. My mom fell for these all the time when she was alive.

Belle Tavern is starting a trivia night on Mondays at 8 PM beginning this coming Monday, the 13th. $50 gift certificate for first place, $25 certificate for second place, $10 for third. Also on the announcement was the following: “Beginning February: Happy Hour 10 PM to 12 AM. $2.50 domestics, $3.50 imports, $3 well drinks, $3 house wine, $1 other drinks.” Tonight I’m going to try to get by there and get clarification on whether the happy hour is just on Mondays, or every night.

The Metal Museum is having Champagne Sunday from noon to 2 this Sunday, February 12. It’s a good chance for you to run by the gift shop and pick out a special gift for Valentine’s Day. Check out their exhibit Rounding the Edge while you are there.

DowntownMemphis.com has a list of things to do Downtown on Valentine’s Day.

Sucks to be the Saint Louis Billikens men’s basketball team. Not only did they lose to St. Bonaventure 70-55 Wednesday night, but while they were playing the team’s bus driver got drunk and abandoned them. The bus was found 35 miles away and the driver was found to have a .22% BAC.

Pearl’s Oyster House is opening a second location out in Cordova.

Tomorrow, Friday, February 10, the New Daisy will host We Are One!, a benefit for Mid-South Pride and Out Memphis. There will be burlesque, belly dancing, drag, and go-go dancing.

Here’s the Memphis Tigers 2017 football schedule:

Memphis football’s 2017 schedule has been announced; home and season opener on Thursday, Aug. 31 https://t.co/3Adx26nGC5 #GoTigersGo pic.twitter.com/Uz3gTl1wkj

— Memphis Tigers (@TigersAthletics) February 9, 2017

Last night I played (well, actually my troll played) the Silly Goose’s new promotion for Grizzlies games, where each person gets four free squares on a Squares board, with prizes of $10, $25, $10, and $50 being awarded for the winning square for the 1st quarter, halftime, 3rd quarter, and final score. I didn’t win but I spent extra $ on beers and stayed around until 9:30. It’s a promotion that makes a lot of business sense. By the way, they played “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls on the sound system at the Goose last night.

I’ll be back at Silly Goose tonight for happy hour. Back tomorrow with more news.

This morning, I had to put in a call to my apartment building’s office. My air conditioner wasn’t cooling the apartment well, and I needed maintenance to come service my A/C with Freon. On February 8.

I also encountered a second February-in-Memphis problem last night, one that is unique to me. For the past two months Perjorie (my troll) has lived comfortably in my jacket pocket, ready to make appearances when requested (and there were requests this weekend; she’s getting popular). However, yesterday it was way too warm to wear a jacket out. So Perjorie had to share a shorts pocket with my iPhone, a bunch of loose change, and a container of breath strips. I understand they’re a fashion no-no but I may have to invest in some cargo shorts.

Normally I don’t post Cordova news but this is a pretty unique job opportunity: They’re looking to hire a carousel operator at Wolfchase.

The Grizzlies host the Phoenix Suns tonight at FedExForum at 7. I looked at the promotional schedule to see if there’s a giveaway tonight. There’s not but I was pretty surprised at the time they’re giving away at the March 11 game – a GRILL! A Marc Gasol grill. Well, this is the BBQ capital of the world, so it makes sense I guess.

Bathroom accessory that Downtowners might want: toilet paper holder that also holds a beer

Regional farm Whitton Farms is offering a limited number of produce and floral CSAs (community-supported agriculture). These are subscriptions where you get fresh produce or flowers dropped off at a location convenient to you every week or every other week. Downtown pickup locations include the Memphis Farmers Market and Trolley Stop Market. Order your subscription here.

The Orpheum has announced a student/teacher rush for the Friday night performance of The Illusionists. This offer applies to students, teachers and school staff. It also applies to members of the military, as well as police, firefighters and other heroes and their families. Show up at 6 PM and buy tickets for only $20 on a first-come, first-served basis. Must show valid ID.

The Break-up Show 6 happens at the New Daisy Saturday. This is a celebration of how much love sucks, featuring stories submitted anonymously by Memphians.

Rep. Steve Cohen is hosting a town hall meeting at East High Saturday from 10 AM to 1 PM. He will discuss his legislation and work in Congress, and he wants to hear his constituents’ concerns and ideas.

That’s it for now. I’ll be out at the Silly Goose for happy hour after work. Back tomorrow.

The Memphis Tigers host Tulsa in a 6 PM game tonight at FedExForum. The Tigers, currently in 3rd place in the American conference, need to stop the skid they experienced Saturday at UCF. Every game counts as Tubby and the team look toward a good seed in the AAC tournament next month.

A debate a lot of people have wanted to see is going to happen tonight. Senators and former presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz will debate on CNN tonight at 8 PM. The topic is the future of Obamacare. One tweeter described this debate as Yoda and Darth Vader resurrected for one last fight.

Local BBQ team Porkosaurus, one of the winningest teams at BBQ Fest, has a new product in their online store: their original recipe BBQ sauce. For those of you who have always wanted to sample a BBQ Fest competitor’s sauce but have never had access, this would be an excellent one to try.

Mayor Strickland’s office has released the Mayor’s Dashboard Review for the month of December 2016. See for yourself how our city is doing.

Congrats to the Shelby County Commission for doing the right thing by voting for funding for a free condom program. The vote was 7-5. Shelby County has the highest HIV rate in the state.

Here’s more info on that Blue Suede Brigade job fair next week. I did not realize one of the fair locations would be Downtown, at 480 Beale.

DMC Job Fair 2/13 & 2/16 @Jobs4_TN @JamieMcGriff @FeliciaBoltonTV @Jerica_Phillips @Kontji @choose901 @ilovememphis pic.twitter.com/x9CHnUtYYs

— WIN Memphis (@MEM_WIN) February 7, 2017

Hot rumor from the Memphis Flyer: Nashville hot chicken restaurant Hattie B’s may be coming to Midtown.

This is my second post today, so if it’s your first visit here today keep scrolling for more news.

Shen Yun comes to the Cannon Center tonight and tomorrow night. This performance celebrates 5000 years of Chinese civilization. It is a treat for the senses with elaborate costumes, a live orchestra, classical Chinese dance, and an animated backdrop. Tickets are $70-150.

It’s that time again. First Max’s crawfish boil of the season! Glaze is cooking them up at 12:30 this Saturday. Doors open at 11! pic.twitter.com/z4xmlg8KqJ

— Max’s Sports Bar (@MaxsSportsBar) February 6, 2017

The first crawfish boil of the season at Max’s Sports Bar will happen this Saturday, February 11. First pot will come off around 12:30 in the afternoon. There will also be $3.50 Bloody Marys and mimosas until 3:00. The folks who do the boils at Max’s do crawfish right. Plenty of spice, the way crawfish should be served. They usually have taters, corn and smoked sausage in the boil too.

Happy February, YOGA! Downtown Yoga is holding a special class called FireFlow on Saturday, February 18 from 7 to 8:30 PM. Instructors Alyson and Jocelyn will lead a class that is said to be groovy, hot and full of love; a class that will make you sweat and help you de-stress.

Songwriter Night returns to South Main Sounds, 550 S. Main, this Friday, February 10 from 7 to 9 PM. Rev. Neil Down and Friends will perform, with Jon Dillard, Tiffany Harmon, and Megan Carolan.

I Love Memphis has a guest post by Blake Marcum about the best new high-gravity beers brewed in Memphis. Prior to a change in the law that happened January 1, Wiseacre, the only local craft brewery with a distiller’s license, was the only brewery in town that could produce beers above 6.2% ABV. Now Memphis Made, High Cotton, Ghost River, and Boscos are catching up.

Innovate Memphis is looking to hire a Commute Options Ambassador. The Ambassador will speak to workplaces about travel options, educating workers on public transit, ride sharing, bicycling, and walking to work and school. The goal is to reduce the number of people driving alone to work.

There will be a job fair for the re-tooled Blue Suede Brigade positions next Monday and Thursday at the Central Library on Poplar.

Possibly a second post at lunchtime, so check back.

I want to say this again… I enjoy meeting my readers and talking to them. So if you see me out, don’t be afraid to approach me.

The reason I bring this up is that I ran into a former co-worker of mine from 15 years ago at the Blind Bear Saturday. He said, “I’ve seen you in here for a while, and I’ve wanted to talk to you, but I thought I might be bugging you.” I assured him he was not bugging me.

He said, “Well, I wasn’t sure. It’s like, you were busy on your phone.” And then my friend sitting on the other side said, “Yeah Paul, you do kind of look like you have the male equivalent of don’t-approach-me resting bitch-face when you’re doing stuff on your phone.” HAHAHA! Let me explain that.

Most of the time when I’m doing stuff on my phone when I’m out, I’m cultivating material for my next blog post. I’ll be on social media and I’ll see an event that I need to tell my readers about. So I’ll throw the link into Evernote and type a short description so I remember to come back and post about it later. But it’s not that important! Don’t feel like you’re interrupting me.

As for the expression on my face… the past year and a half or so has been somewhat difficult for me. Many lies have been told about me in certain parts of Downtown. Now and then a reminder of that chapter of my life will pop up on social media and I will scowl for a minute. But I promise you I’m generally not an unhappy or angry person! I’m just a person who learned about “alternative facts” a year before the rest of the country did!

With that out of the way, let’s get on to the news. The South Main Association has announced its February meeting, to be held at Art Village Gallery at 410 South Main on Tuesday, February 14. The speaker will be Meagan Nichols, lead reporter at the Memphis Business Journal. Topics will include the background of the MBJ, how the MBJ approaches reporting, commercial real estate trends and developments in the area, and a Q & A. There will be Valentine’s Day appetizers by “a secret admirer” and beverages by the SMA. 6:00 social, 6:30 program. The meeting is free for members and $10 for non-members.

For the fourth post in a row, I have another awesome event to tell you about that will be happening at Wiseacre this month. Everybody loves Oktoberfest, so why wait until October to celebrate? Febtoberfest will happen at the brewery Saturday from 1 to 10 PM. It will be a “fill your stein” party – fill your own for $7, or purchase a Wiseacre stein and fill it for $6. Costumes are encouraged, and if you don’t have traditional German garb, you can wear any costume. Polka band The Mighty Souls Brass Band will perform 6:30-9 PM and food trucks will be there serving German fare.

Sad news for movie fans today. IMDb, the repository of information about pretty much every movie ever made, is shutting down its message boards effective February 20. Trolls have ruined the message board experience, so IMDb is doing away with the boards and switching to other forms of social media. Don’tcha just hate those crazy trolls?

inferno has a list of the brand winners and losers from last night’s Super Bowl ads. Of course, brands that paid for overtime advertising were the biggest winners of all.

Front Street Deli’s future is uncertain no more. It’s going to become a Lisa’s Lunchbox and will open on Presidents Day. There will be a large picture of longtime Front Street Deli owner Lee Busby in Lisa’s Lunchbox, along with a plaque about the history of the building.

The CA’s John Beifuss was there to report on the America’s Got Talent auditions that happened this past weekend at the Cook Convention Center.

The Grizzlies host the San Antonio Spurs tonight at 8:30 at FedExForum. First 3000 fans get a National Civil Rights Museum Pride scarf. Bring a food or monetary donation to the Mid-South Food Bank and receive a voucher for a 2-for-1 ticket purchase at an upcoming Grizzlies game.

That’s it for now. Probably I will hit Bardog after work for Melissa Monday. Back tomorrow with more.

Yesterday I led off at Bardog Tavern as usual, and Bloom told me “You’ve got mail” and placed an envelope in front of me.

“I’m getting mail at the bar now?” I thought. “Maybe I really do spend too much time here.” However, when I opened it, I realized it was one of the sweetest pieces of mail I have ever received. It was a card from Aldo’s mom in New Jersey. She told me she reads my blog every day, and wanted to say she was sorry to hear about the passing of my mom. Gail, thank you. That meant a lot to me. You know, Bardog really IS family.

There’s a lot going on at Wiseacre in February, and for the third post in a row I have a special event to tell you about. Flowers and Chocolate will happen on Valentine’s Day from 7 to 10 PM. If your valentine prefers hops and barley to flowers and chocolate, this is the perfect date night. There will be a brewery tour and pairings of Wiseacre beer with Dinsthul’s chocolate. Tickets are $20.

Want to help a neighborhood grow? The Memphis Medical District Collaborative is looking to hire two program managers. One would be in charge of real estate, and the other in charge of community development.

Most likely I will watch the Super Bowl at the Blind Bear today. They are running a huge number of specials. All day long they will have chili cheese fries for $6, chili cheese dogs one for $6 or two for $8, two chili cheese dogs and chili cheese fries for $10, and pepper jack chili mac & cheese for $10. You can add cheese, sour cream, chives and bacon to the chili mac if you choose. The hot dogs are Nathan’s Famous, and the chili is Colin’s prize-winning turkey and 3-bean chili. An hour before the game until an hour afterward, there will be $3 Bud, Bud Light, and Mich Ultra 16-ounce aluminum bottles. (If you prefer the Cadillac of beers, PBR in 16-ounce cans is always $3.) They’ll have their Sunday night poker game at 6:30.

Paulette’s monthly wine dinner is Tuesday. This month’s menu sounds like a good one, with crab, short rib, venison and toasted honeycomb among the courses.

If you want a good meal without spending a lot of money in the South Main area, let me show you what I had for lunch yesterday.

For $3.50 at Max’s Sports Bar you can get a Nathan’s hot dog covered in chili, cheese, mustard and chopped onion. This is a regular menu item, not a special. You can get chips for a dollar more. If you’re hungry and in South Main and don’t want to go drop $35 at the sushi place, keep this in mind. You can add chips at Max’s for a dollar more.

And of course, look who has to jump in every cardboard container she sees. Sometimes I wonder whether I adopted a troll or a cat.

Internationally syndicated radio show Beale Street Caravan has a particularly good lineup in this week’s show. It features the music of bluesmen Bukka White, Furry Lewis, and Sleepy John Estes, each of whom enjoyed a career revival in the 1970s after rock bands began covering their music. Listen here.

That’s the news for today. I don’t really care about either team in the Super Bowl, so I will be neutral as I watch.