We are moving into spring party season, and as of today the sun is staying up late to party with us. I’ve learned of another new spring event to add to the calendar. The Green Beetle will have a crawfish boil Sunday, April 7. More details to come.
The Memphis Flyer had a good article about saving Dewey’s booth in the Chisca Hotel. Starting May 7, the Chisca will begin to be renovated into apartments. However, the developers hope to save a piece of history in the building. Dewey Phillips, a Memphis DJ, was the first person to ever play an Elvis Presley record on the radio, from his booth in the Chisca in 1954. Money is being raised to relocate the booth to the ground floor for all to see.
There’s nothing like going out for brunch on Sunday Fun Day, and as of today we Downtowners have a new brunch to add to the list.
Starting today from noon to 3, the Flying Saucer will serve a brunch menu with six different food options. The Migas Baveria, two scrambled eggs, black beans, and a beer brat served with warm tortillas in particular sounds interesting, a mix of Mexican and German breakfasts. Also, $7.99 for shrimp and grits is one of the lowest prices I’ve seen on a brunch menu. Also from 12-3 they have a Bloody Mary bar. You pay for ice and vodka and then fill your glass up with tomato juice and whatever else you want. They have over 30 sauces, seasonings, spices, and garnishes. The brunch is new but they’ve been doing the Bloody Mary bar for a while. Last week I noticed they’d added sriracha to the bar, which I consider to be a key ingredient in a good Bloody Mary.
From Lifehacker: Researchers claim to have found the most efficient exercise regimen. You better own or have access to an exercise bike if you want to take advantage of it. My neighbors and I in Number 10 Main have several exercise bikes in the basement of our building, and cable TV to watch.
Cool app I learned about on Twitter yesterday: Let’s Move Down. Once at a Grizzlies game or other sporting events, you can locate better seats and purchase them on your phone, right there in the arena.
Fabulous night with friends last night. My friends Nick and Sarah were in town to take wedding photos, and afterward about 18 of us met up at Texas de Brazil for dinner. This is the first time since 2003 that I’ve had dinner there, as opposed to Sunday brunch. We started off with the salad bar. I have a rule about items on the salad bar: If a rabbit would eat it, it has no business on my plate. Lettuce? No. Green beans? Uh-uh. Mozzarella balls? Can always make room for those. Shrimp? Yes, please. Provolone? Of course. Bacon? Yes yes yes. (They don’t have bacon crumbles for salad toppings. They have half-pieces of peppered bacon.) Calabrese cold cuts? Yes sir. Imported olives? Yes. Lobster bisque? The universal dipping sauce at Texas de Brazil. Gotta have a bowl of that.
Then the meats came out. “Nick! That’s what you want!” I pointed as the piçanha, the Brazilian house garlic sirloin, came around. Cooked to a perfect medium rare, it “melts in your mouth,” Nick commented. Other favorites included flank steak, the American version of garlic sirloin, bacon-wrapped filet, and Brazilian sausage which was perfect for dipping in the lobster bisque. I passed on parmesan chicken and parmesan pork. “A short time ago, my dinner was standing in a pasture, mooing,” I thought. “Now it’s sitting on my plate next to garlic mashed potatoes.” By the way, PRO TIP: Those garlic mashed potatoes they put out to complement your meal – don’t put those on your plate as soon as they come out. Eat some meat first, and then use the potatoes to sop up the leftover meat juice.
Edited to add: PRO TIP #2: Before you go to the salad bar, while people are being seated and drink orders are being taken, they put out baskets of these little buttery bread balls for you to snack on. Definitely have one, but don’t over-indulge. The more bread you eat, the less room you will have for meat. The bread balls are delicious, but as a poker player I look at them and think, “those have a negative expected value.”
Although Texas de Brazil had a full menu of beer, wine, and liquor, I decided to skip alcohol during my meal so I could savor the food more. I ordered a Coke, and it came out in one of those little glass bottles, along with a glass and ice.
Nick was amused by how many people I knew who worked there. “That’s Randi, I play poker with her on Mondays,” I said. “That’s Allie, she used to work at Blind Bear. I don’t see my friend Jerome, he must be working downstairs.” I didn’t know the couple next to me but they told me they read my blog all the time. That’s the kind of stuff that happens to me. I’ve said this before about Downtown: There are friends you know, and friends you haven’t met yet.
My tab was $58, counting the Coke, tax, and an 18% gratuity. I added a few dollars more because 18% is stingy by my standards when dining Downtown. I wouldn’t want to spend that much for dinner every night, but for one night out with friends it was worth every penny.
After dinner we checked out the Blind Bear. They had a band playing and it was super duper crowded. Of course, I’m always comfortable at the Bear, but some of our group were people who are no longer into the go-out-to-bars-every-night thing, and constantly having to move out of people’s way was a bit much. “Do you know of someplace less crowded?” Sarah asked. Not surprisingly, I had a suggestion: The Flying Saucer.
I was wrong about the Saucer being less crowded. There were at least twice as many people as were in the Blind Bear. However, the Saucer is probably three times the size of the Bear, so there was still a little more room to stand and after a few minutes some bar seats came open. “This is the place,” Nick said, and I can’t disagree. Nick had done 188 beers toward his plate on the wall (need 200 total) so anytime he’s in town he gets a few beers knocked out. Sarah used to bartend at the Saucer and she spent a while catching up with Jim, who’s been there ever since I first started coming.
My friends took off about midnight. Full of energy post-Texas de Brazil, I held on and had a few more beers until the Saucer turned the lights on. I meant to watch my phone’s clock make the jump from 1:59 to 3:00 but I forgot. After the Saucer closed, I went back to the Blind Bear, which was less crowded by that time, and closed the Bear down too. The bartenders wear ’20s period attire as they work, but as the night winds down they sneak back into the office and change. “When Jamie and Jeannette change into T-shirt and jeans, you know it’s game over,” I posted to Facebook. “It’s like when Shaq Goodwin takes off the hair band at the end of Tigers games.”
Congratulations to the Tigers, by the way, on a perfect 16-0 conference record. Even in a bad conference, making it all the way through without slipping up even once is quite an accomplishment.
Happy birthday to the Nuh-Uh Girl, who I’m sure will celebrate by devouring mountainous amounts of free food today. Also, a belated happy birthday to my friend Charlie Brown. I had to miss his birthday party at the Goose when I realized I’d already committed to the Nick and Sarah dinner. I’m sure I’ll catch up with him today. Time to put on some shorts (glad the weather is finally acting like March) and get Sunday Fun Day started.
