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First of all, be sure to read this guest editorial in the Commercial Appeal by CCC president Paul Morris. He states that Downtown is the brand of Memphis, and I agree. When people come here, they’re going to want to see the Peabody, the Orpheum, Beale Street, the FedExForum, the river, the National Civil Rights Museum, and all of Downtown’s many other attractions. It’s important to show them a great time so visitors will want to come back, and so people and businesses considering moving here will have a favorable impression of Memphis.

Okay, this is interesting. Due to a follow on Twitter, I learned this afternoon that a Russian bath house is coming to Memphis, with the address listed as 85 Union. Is that the old Smooth Moves space? They have a website which explains the health benefits of banya, or traditional Russian bath. You can follow the bath house on Twitter at @UnionStreetBath.

If you can’t make it to Memphis Madness at the FedExForum tomorrow night, it will be streamed on GoTigersGo.com. This link has more details.

Minglewood Hall’s 1884 Lounge has its grand opening tonight from 4:30 PM to 1 AM. Drink specials, and college football on the big screen. Yeah I know this isn’t a Downtown event, but Minglewood is such an awesome space that it deserves mention anyway.

The South Main Association is looking for volunteers for RiverArtsFest for three shifts: 2-6 PM Saturday the 23rd, and 10 AM-2 PM and 2 PM-6 PM on Sunday the 24th. Volunteer opportunities exist in artist support, beverage sales, and possibly other areas. Visit the festival’s website to sign up as a volunteer.

The Wall street Journal reports that Yuengling is nearing the purchase of the old Coors plant in Memphis. Yuengling products will hopefully be brewed right here in our hometown very soon! Amazing when you realize that just three years ago, you couldn’t even get Yuengling here.

The Memphis Business Journal has reported that new apartments will soon appear at 436 S. Front. This would be across Nettleton from the 420 S. Front condos, and the same developer that did 420 will do this new apartment project. There will be 25 units in all, 20 1BRs and 5 2BRs. There will also be retail space on the ground level. Details in tomorrow’s print edition of the MBJ.

That’s all… going to mention a Grizzlies deal in a separate post, then it will be time for beer.

Mayor Wharton has invited the citizens of Memphis to a new festival, the GreenUp Memphis festival, which will be held at “The Green at South Front Street,” adjacent to the Memphis Farmers Market behind Central station, Saturday October 30 from 11 AM to 3 PM. The festival will celebrate things you can do to make Memphis more eco-friendly and a more attractive place to live. There will be festival food, exhibits, prizes, and live music. If you want to make a difference in your community, come on down. The Farmers Market will be going on next door, so why not hit both events?

It’s Wednesday. The Majestic Grille has announced that their famous chili is back today, and will be back every Wednesday this fall/winter season.

Early voting for the fall election begins today. You can early vote from now until October 28.

Congrats to the trivia team on taking first place last night in my absence… I was up until 11 working on upgrading my Amazon sites. Wasn’t too bad though – I did site upgrades on my netbook while watching season 2 of Jersey Shore on my MacBook. One more evening and I hope the site upgrades will be finished. In fact, I hope to get out to the Saucer for a beer or three tonight, although it will more likely be 8-9ish than for happy hour.

Good Groupon for Memphis today. Get $15 worth of their food for only $7 here. Enough people have already signed up for this deal that it’s on, not surprising as popular as Kooky is.

Artitude, a group that supports the arts in Memphis while going to parties, meeting new people, and having a good time has announced their pre-RiverArtsFest party. RiverArtsFest, in case you haven’t heard, is the biggest arts event of the year on South Main, with hundreds of artists as vendors, as well as food, bands, and beverages. This year’s RiverArtsFest will be Saturday-Sunday, October 23 and 24, and Artitude’s preview party will be Friday, October 22 from 6 to 9 at the Memphis College of Art, 477 S. Main. The party is a catered event where your $30 entry fee (pay at the door) gets you two tickets for complimentary beer and wine, live music, and a silent auction where you can bid on goods donated by RiverArtsFest artists and South Main shops.

The Hard Rock Cafe, always a generous supporter of local charities, will have a Cancer SUCKS! party this Saturday, October 16 from 9 to midnight. 100% of the $5 cover goes to Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure, and there will be music by Jeremy Stanfill, Grace Askew, and Star & Micey. They’ll have $2 Bud and Bud Light to thank all that attend for supporting the cause, and if you wear pink you’ll be eligible to win prizes like Grizzlies tickets.

Staying home from trivia tonight as I continue my mad rush to get my 110 Amazon storefronts upgraded by Friday. I got about 30 done last night, and was pleased enough with my progress to make it to Pint Nite… good meeting blog readers from my alma mater Rhodes College… and I got another 15 storefronts upgraded early this morning. By the time I get all these done I’m going to have nightmares about the Filezilla FTP client. (Not that it’s not excellent software – I’d just rather be drinking beer than using it.)

All right… hungry for the Mexican Gumbo from Qdoba Mexican Grill… time to go sit on Goodman Road for 10 minutes waiting to make a left turn.

SMA Oktoberfest wasn’t the only street festival going on yesterday.  The Flying Saucer blocked off Peabody Place yesterday from noon to 10 and had a fall beer festival of their own.  For $20, attendees got a tasting glass and a card good for 10 tasters.  People walked from booth to booth sampling different types of beer, such as Local, West Coast, Europe, and Oktoberfest.

They also had delicious, inexpensive food, a necessary item at beer festivals.  There were Oktoberfest-style long tables in the middle of the festival area, where people could drink and dine.  It was a big area (half a block blocked off) and people had plenty of room to mingle and discuss beer.

A good first-year effort for this festival.  However, there are a couple of things that I hope they fix next year if they bring the festival back:

• In their advertising and flyers for the event, premium and rare beers such as several Stone 30th anniversary beers were listed, along with the price of $20 for 10 tasters.  There was nothing to indicate those beers would not be included in the price; however, once there, we learned that we had to buy an “upgrade” to a $30 ticket to be able to sample those beers.
• The week before, several of us asked the managers what size the tasting glasses would be, and were told “standard five-ounce taster.”  However, after I paid my $20 I was handed a glass with the fill line marked “4 oz.”

Still glad I did it, though.  This and SMA Oktoberfest on the same day nearly killed me.  Here are a few pics:

I predicted that this year’s South Main Association Oktoberfest would be the best yet, and it indeed was. Not only did they deliver a quality event, but they overdelivered.

Earlier in the week, I was told by the event’s organizers, “Get there early if you want food. If attendance gets big, we may run out.” I ate early, but at 6 PM (festival ran from 3 to 7) I looked over and still saw people putting food on their plate.

The heavy attendance did cause them to run out of beer about 5:30. Now, many festivals would just tell attendees, “We’re out of beer, sorry,” and that would be the end of it. The SMA organizers did better. They went and got more beer – 2 kegs of it in fact.

Pam and Terry were scheduled to play until 6 PM, but when the organizers saw how much fun the crowd was having, they paid Pam and Terry extra to keep playing until 7. The SMA folks made sure that everyone had a good time from the moment they got there right up until the scheduled ending time – Oktoberfest didn’t gradually die out over the final hour as many festivals do.

Very well-done event. Big thanks to the SMA for providing a fun-filled afternoon. Here are some pics.

The Memphis Daily News posted this article about Mac Edwards, who is re-opening Bon Ton Cafe.  Mac plans on not only re-opening it, but expanding it to stay open for dinner as well.  Check out the article – it’s a good read.

Just a reminder that I won’t be out at the bars this week for happy hour or trivia – I have to get 110 Amazon storefronts upgraded by Friday to comply with Amazon’s new terms of service.  Those storefronts generate a pretty good amount of commission for me, enough that I can’t afford to let them slide.  For those concerned that this might cause me to lose my Saucer mayorship on Foursquare, don’t worry – I’ll work until 9:30 or 10 every night then go out for one beer, maybe two.

Since I have both a MacBook and a netbook, I will be blogging as I work.  I’ll upgrade the sites using one computer (most of the upgrade involves waiting for FTP to finish transferring files) and blog on the other.  Reviews of Saucer Beerfest and SMA Oktoberfest, with photos, should be online tonight.

Just a quick post to let you know that I have pics from today’s two beer festivals. One more than delivered on their promises and one didn’t.  Both will be reviewed as soon as I recover and get the pics off the camera.

You may not see much of me this week. This morning I was notified that I have to upgrade my Amazon storefronts by Friday to stay in compliance with their affiliate program. Most people affected by this have one or two. I have 110, and they make enough money where I can’t ignore this. If I go out the netbook may be with me as I get this done.

In the meantime, enjoy the pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating.

The Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest yesterday was a smashing success.  I cabbed down there, getting there right as the festival opened at 1.  I stayed all the way through until 5.  I had a great time, drank some delicious beers, and learned quite a bit about beer as well.  Here are some pics and some information I learned.

Okay, I want to take a break from pics for a minute to mention some things that were said in the Southwest presentation.  Southwest represents a lot of the smaller craft breweries who don’t devote a lot of resources to marketing, because they’re too busy brewing good beer.  He said that a lot of craft breweries are skeptical that there’s a market for their product in Memphis. If there are beers you want to see in the Memphis market that are not available here, his advice is to e-mail the breweries and let them know there’s a demand for it, both in grocery stores and in bars.

Southwest also hosts beer dinners around Memphis. Beer actually pairs with food just as nicely as wine does, as I have learned at the Flying Saucer beer dinners. To see a list of their upcoming beer dinners, visit memphisbeersandwines.com. You can also follow them on Facebook.

More pics…

Okay, got some stuff to say about Vino’s.  First of all, their Rock Hopera beer was absolutely delicious.  If you’re a fan of hoppy beers, you’ve got to stop by there next time you’re in Little Rock (it’s at 7th and Chester) and give it a try.

The star of the show, however, was Vino’s Goldcrest 51 beer.  Goldcrest 51 was the beer that was brewed in the Tennessee Brewery for many years.  Not long ago, a recipe for the beer was found in someone’s attic, and Vino’s tried to recreate it.  They gave a sample to Jake Schorr of Westy’s.  Jake’s is a descendant of the people who ran the Tennessee brewery, and probably the only person who was around the brewery when the original Goldcrest was being made.  Jake reportedly said that Vino’s Goldcrest 51 was “very close” in taste to the original.

Then the Vino’s people told us they had this book for sale at their booth:

It’s a history of the Tennessee Brewery, from its opening in the 1890s, through Prohibition when breweries had to be very creative to survive, to its final days in the 1950s.  I bought a copy and hope to read it this week.  Then I will loan it out to friends who live near the brewery and have an interest in beer.

Excellent festival, even though it was a very warm day outside.  If they do it again next year, I’ll be back.

The Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest tweeted earlier this morning that 54 of the 400 tickets remain.  If you hadn’t made up your mind about going but decide you want to, tickets will be available at the door.  This morning they made an updated post with info about the event.  You can read it here.

You can view the festival’s beer list here.

Again, if anyone from Downtown wants to split a cab down there, I’ll be at the Saucer around noon for a pre-game beer, then about 12:40 will walk to the Peabody or Beale and find a cab.

All right… I wanted the beer festivals to take center stage for my lunchtime post, but I have plenty of other stuff to report. Let’s see what we’ve got…

A Downtown cat is now famous. JuneBug, first pictured on my blog in December ’08, is cat number 9 in this photo gallery of 109 cats in sweaters. It’s hard to believe that 109 people exist who would do this to their cats, but hey, people are weird.

I’ve been wondering when the Majestic Grille was going to do another art show in its Innovators Room, and now I have my answer. This coming Monday, October 11, will be the opening of “John Henry: At Last,” featuring the photography of John Henry Hunt. Free admission, and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be served. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. Works will be for sale as noted, and all money goes to the artist. The Majestic Grille, as part of its commitment to the arts, does not take a commission.

Historian Jimmy Ogle will conduct a free walking “super tour” of Downtown Saturday. Tour will cover Court Square, Adams Avenue, and the Pinch District. Meet at the fountain in Court Square at 10 AM. If I didn’t already have a ticket to the CY Beerfest, I’d attend this… would be good to sit in Court Square and reminisce about the days when it was filled with bums. Now all that’s there is a Blue Crush camera. And pigeons. I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of the pigeons.

The 17th annual Blues Ball is Saturday night. More info here.

Monday is Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, and Kooky Canuck will be serving turkey and dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and cranberry jelly to celebrate. They’ll also celebrate a day early with 99 cent Labatt Blue draft on Sunday.

The Lacy Special at the Little Tea Shop was profiled as a “Best Bet” in the Commercial Appeal this week.  The Lacy Special is a chicken breast topped with cornbread sticks, covered in gravy and a side of rice.  If you haven’t had it for lunch, you’re missing out!

All right.  Work week’s over and I am really ready for a beer.  Time to head out.