Category: Uncategorized

The final table of the Bluff City Poker league was tonight at the Silly Goose. It was a 9 handed table with the 7 top point earners and 2 satellite winners. It got down to heads up between these two:

Congratulations to Katie Mac (left) on winning it. New poker league starts now for the next 16-week prize. Games are Double J, Wednesday, 8:00, Jerry Lee Lewis, Thursday, 8:00, and Silly Goose, 8:30 Monday. Weekly prizes plus points toward league total. Katie Mac won a $400 Amazon gift card.

As I start off this Monday blog post, I realized that I posted some IMPORTANT PBR NEWS to Facebook and Twitter this weekend but the news never made it to the blog. Gus’s is now selling 16 ounces of Pabst Blue Ribbon for $2.75. So now you can enjoy the world’s finest beer while eating Memphis’ best chicken.

Belle’s Diner posted a pic of its new lunch menu today. The diner is in the former Rio Loco space on Union.

The Geoff Calkins show premiered this morning on FM 92.9. If you missed it, executive producer John Martin posted a podcast in two parts: hour 1 and hour 2. Calkins’ first guest was Memphis Tigers basketball coach Josh Pastner. Catch the show weekdays 9-11 AM on 92.9.

Thanks to those who came out for my 8th plate party at the Flying Saucer yesterday. For my 8th trip through the Ring of Honor, I got a $150 party for myself and my friends. I also have a stein coming. If you’re interested in getting your own plate, ask a server or bartender how to sigh up.

Plans for tonight: I’ll work on three beers toward my 9th plate at the Saucer, where it’s Pint Nite and almost all drafts are $3 all day. Then I will head over to the Silly Goose to watch some of my friends play in the Bluff City Poker league’s final table with a $400 Amazon gift card to the winner. If you’re interested in earning points toward the next final table, show up for games at the Silly Goose 8:30 Mondays, Double J Loft Bar 8:00 Wednesdays, or Jerry Lee Lewis Honky Tonk and Cafe 8:00 Thursdays.

And now it’s time for a quick Target run. I guess there are a few advantages to working in suburbia. Sure wouldn’t want to live here though. I’ll be out about 5:30 tonight.

Eight new police cameras are being installed along the riverfront as part of a port grant. Two are on the bridge to Mud Island, one is on Riverside Drive, and five are on President’s Island. More new cameras are already installed elsewhere including South Main.

If you’re a WWE fan, this interview with executive Triple H is a must-read. Trips discusses at length how he went from being a main-event level talent to a key figure in the WWE corporate office, and it was a lot more than just marrying the chairman’s daughter. He also discusses the creation of the new WWE Talent Development Center in Florida, and how important it is to have the center now that the territory system no longer exists. Triple H is the likely successor as the head of the WWE once Vince McMahon steps down.

Yesterday afternoon I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner, and I talked to a friend who had tried Yao’s China Bistro for the first time on Friday. He had the General Tso’s Chicken and really enjoyed it. So I ended up getting on Yao’s website and ordering the General Tso’s Shrimp. Ten minutes later I walked over and my order was ready. It was very good, with lightly breaded shrimp and a sauce that was HOT. They really weren’t afraid to load it up with hot peppers. I love spicy food and it hit the spot.

I want to take a minute to apologize to the person who sent me information about an Ole Miss watch party Downtown. I appreciate the info, but I do not post offensive material to my blog. However, I will comment that the Arkansas Razorbacks open against Louisiana at 3 PM on Saturday, August 31, and Max’s Sports Bar is a great place to watch.  This is a game that will be carried on FSN, not a pay-per-view game, so Max’s should have no trouble carrying it.

I’ve been typing a Paul’s PBR Review post for the past hour, and now I am super hungry because the place I’m reviewing has really good food. Ready for the Majestic to open at 11, and today I will most definitely be getting food with my mimosa. Stops at Silly Goose and Flying Saucer after that. If I’m still standing by 6:30 – and it’s questionable whether I will be – I’ll play poker at the Blind Bear. This is the last real summer Sunday Fun Day. Next week is the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival, and after that it will be NFL season which will cause a re-shuffling of my Sunday stops. For now, though, I’m ready to get this day started, and since the Majestic is still 48 minutes away from opening, it’s time to hit the fridge and pop a PBR open.

This is the last dull weekend before fall festival season kicks off. If you haven’t made plans for next weekend, Downtown is the place to be. One of the best music festivals of the year, the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival, takes place Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1, 11 to 11 both days. Live music on multiple stages, dance demonstrations, cooking demonstrations, and a lot more. The festival is put on by the Center for Southern Folklore on the block of South Main between Gayoso and Peabody Place.

The Redbirds’ last home game was August 20, but they are still in the hunt for the playoffs. Playoff tickets for Game 3 of the Pacific Coast League championship, to be played September 6, and games 4-5 if needed, to be played September 7 and 8, go on sale at 10 this morning. The MBJ has more info here.

Want to learn how to make pesto? Learn from the best in this video. Chef Felicia Willett from Felicia Suzanne’s stopped by the WREG Live at 9 studio to do a little cooking yesterday.

High school students can apply for a cultural exchange program to visit Panama, the honored country for Memphis in May in 2014. The exchange is overseen by Memphis in May and students will get to spend 10-12 days there, enough time to (Edit: immerse. I really said emerge? No posting before at least 8 oz. of Mountain Dew has been consumed) themselves in Panamanian culture.

A Downtown bartender, Dale Naron from Bluefin, was featured in this week’s Meet the Bartender on GoMemphis.com.

From Lifehacker: How to find someone to talk to when you can’t afford therapy. Note that “Go to a bar, latch onto the person next to you, and bore the living shit out of them with nonstop, unwanted, uninteresting conversation” is not among the suggestions.

There’s a Foo Fighters tribute concert at the Hard Rock Cafe tonight at 7. $10 in advance with limited seating. How sad is it that when I saw “A Tribute to Foo,” I thought of the computer programming variables foo, bar, baz and bat rather than the band? I spend too much time around computers. The show is put on by Memphis School of Rock. This is the first I’ve heard of the school and it sounds like an awesome program. If I had kids I’d encourage them to get into this.

I’m up reasonably early for a Saturday, so I guess I’ll start work on the next installment of “Paul’s PBR Review.” The next place I plan to cover has been open for less than two years, which is good because it means I don’t have to fire up the 2006-09 laptop to mine photos. When Panda’s bar at Bardog opens at 11 I will be there, with a stop at the Flying Saucer to follow.

 

Before I get started with today’s news, I’d like to hand out a special Douchebag of the Week Award. It goes to the guy who went to the bar and ordered his food to-go so he wouldn’t have to tip on it, and then when it arrived he opened the box and ate his food sitting at the bar. You know, I’ve seen “take-out orders must be eaten off-site” signs at Blues City Cafe (which was not the location where this happened), and have always wondered about them. I figured maybe the bums had been causing problems in there. But after the events of this week, that sign makes sense. People who are too cheap to tip should stay home.

On to the news. Kooky Canuck will have a Double Your Dollars gift card sale Wednesday, August 28. Buy a gift card and they will double its value (minimum $10 purchase).

Bluff City Coffee and Bluff City Bakery are interviewing for fun, fast-paced part-time and full-time positions. The coffee shop is at 505 S. Main.

Tamp & Tap is starting a trivia night on Wednesdays at 7 PM, hosted by Kevin Cerrito who does the Tuesday trivia at Ferraro’s and Thursday at Green Beetle. $50, $20 and $10 gift cards to the top three places, and a growler of High Cotton beer for best team name. All ages, free to play. This coming Wednesday it will be all ’90s TV trivia.

Twilight Sky Terrace atop the Madison Hotel will have a two-day Labor Day celebration, Sunday, September 1 after 1 PM and Monday, September 2 after 4 PM. $7 char-grilled watermelon old fashioneds, $5 summer beer, and $1 firecracker chicken wings.

The theme at Memphis Farmers Market tomorrow (7 AM-1 PM) is Coming Together. The market will remember two of its vendors, Lindsay Chandler of Green Acres and Mark Newman of Newman Farms. There will be a moment of silence at 10:15 for these men. The music lineup includes John Lockwood and John Chambliss, 8-9:30 AM, Aaron Shiers, 9:30-11 AM; and Amy Andrews, 11 AM-12:30 PM. Pet adoptions by Real Good Dog Rescue from 8 to 1.

1957 romance An Affair to Remember plays on The Orpheum’s big screen tonight at 7.

Don’t forget that Dishcrawl’s Downtown Neighborfood event is tomorrow from 2 to 6.

FedExForum COO Jason Wexler tweeted a pic of the new healthy offering at FedExForum concessions: a fried double Twinkie.

Time to go get lunch, and I won’t ask for it in a to-go box and then dine in. I’ll be out at the usual places after work, probably leading off at the Flying Saucer around 5:30.

The American Athletic Conference has released its full schedule of men’s conference basketball games and the University of Memphis has released its men’s basketball schedule for 2013-14. The good news is that the Tigers are going to be on TV a lot more than in past years. The bad news is that a lot fewer games on the schedule are against cream puffs.

There are usually one or two dates where a Tigers and Grizzlies game are held on the same day at the FedExForum. Roser from the Chris Vernon Show pointed out that this season, there will be four: December 7 (which is also the St. Jude Marathon, the SEC Championship, and Stumblin’ Santa), December 28, March 1, and March 8. Follow Roser on Twitter at @Jon_Roser, where he is known for keepin’ it real.

Been thinking about buying a tablet? Amazon is having a Kindle Fire sale today.

RiverArtsFest is seeking volunteers for the October 25-27 South Main festival. Volunteers are needed for the following: Check-in for artist market, opening night party, logistics support/setup, artist market support, artist in motion, beer and wine sales, entertainment, and traffic control. If you want to do something else, contact the festival organizers and let them know what you have in mind.

A poll was conducted of America’s least respected brands and I’m sure many Memphians won’t be surprised to find Delta at the very bottom of the heap. Delta has cut back its service to the city this year and its high fares have forced Memphians to drive to Little Rock and Nashville to catch affordable fares.

(By the way, where’s Comcast in that poll?)

Here’s a YouTube video of Valerie June on the David Letterman Show last night.

Looking for a place to eat lunch Downtown? Give Kudzu’s a try. Their lunch business is suffering since the Wonder plant closed. Kudzu’s is on Monroe about a block east of Danny Thomas.

The Brass Door is hiring experienced bartenders and servers who have their ABC card and can work flexible schedules. Apply in person or email resume to brassdoormemphis@gmail.com.

RIP to Mark Newman of Newman Farms, a familiar face at Memphis Farmers Market. He was a leader in the progressive pork movement and an integral part of snout-to-tail events such as Cochon 555.

If you missed it yesterday evening, there’s a new Paul’s PBR Review post up, reviewing Max’s Sports Bar. I probably won’t make it to poker at Max’s tonight, but will be out at the usual places in the core.

The new parking meters being installed Downtown will have dynamic rates to respond to events going on in the area. So the new rate of $1.25 an hour may not apply at all times, and the rate could be considerably higher for events such as Grizzlies home games, Music Fest, and BBQ Fest. This puts Downtown at a disadvantage to most of the rest of the city, where people can park for free. Also, as many times as I’ve seen servers run outside mid-shift to feed the meter, it’s going to be an additional tax on those who work Downtown.

Singer Valerie June, a former Memphian, performs on David Letterman tonight. Set your DVRs.

New schedules have been announced for the Downtown trolley lines. I’m glad they gave the Main Street line a 7 AM start time on weekdays. That will allow for it to at least be an option for Downtown professionals to commute to work, although I have heard from many people that it is too unreliable to use for commutes. The scaled-back end times on the weekends will make it a little harder for me to go down to Max’s Sports Bar to see my South Main friends, although I suppose I could have Michele call me a cab home if I miss the last trolley.

Elmwood Cemetery is bringing back its popular “What a Way to Go” tour for an encore. The tour looks at the graves of Memphians famous not only for what they did when they were alive, but how they died. Tour will be Friday, September 13 at 6 PM. Sign up here.

Singer Johnny Mathis will have a holiday show at The Orpheum on Saturday, December 21 at 8 PM. The singer will perform a mix of his hits and familiar holiday tunes. Tickets will go on sale at 10 AM on August 26 and will be $40-125.

Seth from Best Memphis Burger recently penned an article for The Guardian about Memphis’ most decadent foods. Downtown dishes mentioned include the Holy Smokes Burger at Kooky Canuck, the Double Double at Dyer’s, the Elvis at the Arcade, and BBQ nachos at Central BBQ.

The MBJ reports that the Memphis Tigers basketball team ranked 11th in average attendance for home games among NCAA Division I schools. Now we just need to get our poll ranking in line with our attendance ranking. Wins against Louisville and Oklahoma State would make that happen.

Good Lifehacker article: The difference between viruses and malware and the best advice to protect yourself from both. Note that the two most highly recommended tools are FREE and are not named McAfee, Norton, or Symantec.

That’s the news for now. I may get the second installment of “Paul’s PBR Review” up after work. If not, it will be ready later this week.

And now, after the pizza post and the Bardog Alley party recap, it’s time for the Monday news. Informing you people is making me awfully late getting to the Flying Saucer to drink beer. Geez, it’s going to be after 2 before I get there.

Max’s Sports Bar is looking for a server to work Saturday and Sunday nights during the busy football season. Hours would be start time between 6 and 8 PM and quitting time between 11 PM and 3 AM. I was forwarded this from a bartender who works there, who says that the pay is approximately $9-12 an hour plus tips, and that you can make $200+ a weekend and the job is fairly easy. If interested, go in and ask for Max. Max’s doesn’t open until 4:30 weekdays so the traditional 2-4 PM time frame for servers to apply for jobs wouldn’t apply here. Probably any weeknight would be good to go in and apply. To learn more about Max’s, check back later in the week for the second installment of “Paul’s PBR Review.”

The same bartender also said that the Green Beetle is looking to hire a server. As with the Max’s job, this would be temporary during football season, but with the potential to develop into something permanent. This would be a Friday-Saturday job with start time between 4 and 6 PM and a quitting time between 11 PM and 3 AM. If interested go by the Beetle and ask for Josh.

Here’s a link to an Informed Sources broadcast about Beale Street Landing that is well worth watching if you’re a taxpayer in the city of Memphis. The question discussed is “Why is the landing having such a hard time attracting a restaurant to open in it?” The project is way over budget and one of the commentators described it as a “boondoggle” that’s right up there with any of the past boondoggles the city has been involved in. I would agree. The commentators pointed out that this time we don’t have Sidney Shlenker to blame, and that the city could not have done worse with this project had it managed it itself rather than letting the RDC develop it. It’s time to take a hard look at whether the RDC is worth funding in the future. $43 million and counting… what if we had instead taken that money and given our police officers a raise?

This 5-day weekend is almost over, and it has been incredibly relaxing, exactly what a vacation should be. Tomorrow I will go back to worth with my batteries fully charged, something that sure wasn’t the case after my BBQ Fest vacation. Right now, with all my blog posts done for the day, it’s time to go enjoy a beer.

Yesterday was Bardog Tavern’s 5th anniversary. To celebrate, Aldo threw a huge alley party, which was preceded by the Breakaway-Bardog 5K race. Both were to raise money for St. Jude. There were reported to be at least 1025 people who ran, which means that probably just the race alone broke last year’s total raised of $30,000. I got to the party at noon and found it to be expanded this year, with Monroe Avenue blocked between Front and Main to expand the party into the street.

I didn’t take as many pictures as usual, because I wanted to concentrate on having a good time with friends. Here are some of the best of the pictures I got.

Okay, that concludes “the best” of the photos, i.e. “photos with tube tops or tube top dresses in them.” Now, here are some of “the rest” of the photos:

Bama Lawdog

Terrell working the Italian ice cart

Nice to see one of MPD’s finest win one of the Fat Tire bikes that was raffled.

The Nuh-Uh Girl taking the Fat Tire bike for a ride. She seems to be looking for a pawn shop.

Soon-to-be-open restaurant Dejavu around the corner brought some jambalaya for party-goers to try. It was delicious. Can’t wait to have some more in the new restaurant.

The alley, where there were beer stands, VIP tables, a dunk tank, and a meatball eating contest.

Uncle Ray enjoying a cigar

Not exactly sure what is going on here.

Special thanks to Jimmy AKA “Scratchy” for the use of his alley for the day.

The raffle

Suzy with strategically placed stickers. These were a good idea because I saw Suzy earlier in the day, and she appeared a bit, shall we say, chilly.

Full album (44 photos) here. What a great party, and boy did the weather cooperate. Low 80s in August is a treat for sure. Thanks to Aldo and all the people involved with Aldo’s restaurants for being such a wonderful part of our Memphis community.

Yesterday I posted that the Bardog alley party is open to the public at 11:30. It’s actually noon. Up until then it’s a private party for the runners who generously raised money for the Bardog 5K. Several opening times have been mentioned but I heard noon straight from Aldo himself, so that’s the correct time. Apologies for any confusion caused by the incorrect time in yesterday’s post.