Category: Uncategorized

Country Grammar at the Peabody rooftop, 6-10 PM.  $5, ladies free before 8

Brian “Breeze” Cayole at the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10:30 PM

(EDIT:  Just found out the Dempseys at EP’s tonight is a private party.  Sorry.  It was in EP’s ad in the Flyer so I assumed it was public.)

White Noise Theory at the Flying Saucer, 9:30 PM

“Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster all evening, extremely cheap beer specials.  Their website does not list a band playing tonight so I assume there will be a DJ.

Whatever the hell goes on at Atlas.  Do they have a website listing bands for each week?  If so I can’t find it.  Oh well, the place sucks anyway.

If I’m missing anything let me know and I’ll edit.

An article on the Memphis Business Journal’s site this morning reveals that the Majestic Grille is adding not only a movie screen, as previously reported here, but also an art gallery.

They are converting their private dining room into an art gallery and event space.  The art of photographer Gary Kessel is currently on display there.

The movie screen will show shorts, silent movies and other movies from the early era of film, the era in which the building was a movie theater.

The restaurant will also host events for various arts organizations around town.

For more info check out the MBJ article here.

Glad my plans changed and I got to attend Downtown Night at Itta Bena, because when I got there I found out it was the last one where they will give away free appetizers.  There will still be a Downtown Night next week at Itta Bena, but it will be different.  Plans are still being made, but there will likely be discounts on the appetizers on the regular menu.  That’s a good thing because if you find something you like, you can come back and have it again, whereas up ’til now the free appetizers were created at the chef’s whim and were not part of the regular menu.  They’re also discussing $5 wine specials (one red, one white each week) and weekly beer specials (tonight they were selling leftover stock of Xingu for $2).  When I get complete details I’ll blog them.

The owners of Calhoun’s e-mailed to tell me they have a new deck under construction out back.  It will seat 20 and work on it will begin Monday.  They claim it will be done in a week.  Is that a real deadline or a Blue Monkey deadline?  Hope it actually happens, so Calhoun’s patrons can have a view of the night sky and South Main bum J.J.

I received an e-mail from a reader who works in South Main and reports that there’s a sign outside E&H about Soul Burgers for lunch.  Previously they didn’t open until 5 PM.  Can anyone confirm this?

After my stop at Itta Bena tonight, I went to (can you guess?) the Flying Saucer.  Had 6 Fire Sales (Woodchuck Granny Smith).  One of the other regulars asked me to complain on the blog that there are NEVER paper towels in the men’s room, to see if anything gets done about it.  Valid point.  I’d estimate there are paper towels maybe 40% of the time.

Plans for tomorrow:  Private party at a restaurant in the Downtown core, then a move to the Saucer for a brief visit, then on to EP’s to see the Dempseys (EDIT 4/17:  Just found out this is a private party, never mind), and if I’m still awake after that it’s on to the Red Rooster for “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night.

Busy day at work in the morning so don’t expect 5-6 posts in one day.  If I have time I’ll post all the bands for the rooftop and related Thur parties.

Got a copy of the Memphis Flyer and flipped through it at lunchtime.  A few items of interest to Downtowners:

– The Memphis Farmers Market opens on Saturday.  It’s in the parking lot next to Central Station, on G.E. Patterson between Front and Main.  All kinds of good fresh vegetables, meats, jams, and arts and crafts on sale.  They usually open the first week in May, but this year they’re opening early so you can get strawberries, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and other spring fruits and veggies.  It runs from 7 AM to 1 PM.  If you’re serious about getting the best stuff, you better show up at 7 because a lot of the restaurants go there and clean the farmers out within the first hour.

– The Montessori school on Mud Island is having its annual rubber duck race Saturday.  There will be other events from 10 to 5 including a boat race of boats constructed of cardboard and rubber tape, and canoe and kayak races.  I’ve never been to this but have heard from many people that it’s a fun event.

– If you want to do something to make your community more beautiful, there will be a Wolf River Harbor cleanup from 12:30 to 3:00 Saturday.  Meet under the Auction Avenue bridge.  The Sierra Club will provide gloves and trash bags.

– April 27, a week from this Sunday, will be the date for the 3rd annual Dishes for Wishes dinner to benefit Make-A-Wish.  It will be held at Felicia Suzanne’s from 5 to 8, and will feature food from not only Felicia’s, but also from Automatic Slim’s, the Blue Monkey, the Butcher Shop, EP Delta Kitchen, Grill 83, the Majestic Grille, McEwen’s on Monroe, the Rendezvous, and Stella.  If you’re new to Downtown dining and want exposure to the cuisine of a lot of the neighborhood’s best restaurants, this is your chance.  Call 692-9508 for more info.  This is the same day as Wine Race so I’ll probably have to skip this one.  Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl is going; this is her type of event.  If she goes, someone please take a camera and get pics of her eating.

I can’t believe they didn’t list Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest as one of their recommended events in the “Steppin’ Out/We Recommend” section.  That’s got to be the biggest mistake the Flyer has made this year.  Wait, no it isn’t.  Second biggest.

Still more news and rants and stuff to come.

Here’s a good website where you have one-click access to just about anything you need to find on the web.  Would make a good homepage.

www.allmyfaves.com

Back with more later today.  Lots of news to report.

Interesting article on the Memphis Business Journal’s site this morning about a possible CCC proposal to return vehicle traffic to Main Street.  The Main Street Mall has been a pedestrian mall from Exchange to Peabody Place since the 1970s.

My first reaction was “No!  Don’t mess with my street!”, since Main literally is my street – I live at 10 South Main.  However, after thinking about it for a little while, I can actually see advantages to letting cars once again travel down Main – it would not only bring more vehicle traffic to the area, but more foot traffic as well.  That would encourage new retail businesses to open up in the Downtown core, and I think it would also help curb the activities of the bums who frequent the area.

My only concern if they do it is that they get it done quickly, and not take a year and destroy the sales of all the businesses on Main.  Since the trolley tracks are on Main, that worries me a bit, since MATA would be involved and they somehow manage to screw up every construction project they do.

Check back later today for a cool links page, and information on THE place to be tomorrow night for Thursday night parties.  My patio/mojito plans got cancelled – my friend got a last-minute work appointment – so I’ll revert to my usual plan of Downtown Night at Itta Bena at 5:30.  It’s a good time, come join.  Complimentary appetizers, and 5 bucks for well drinks that are better than call drinks at most bars.  After that I’ll move on to the Saucer and decide whether I want to buy their 4:20 glass for “buy the beer, keep the glass” night.  I need another glass like I need a hole in the head, but it’s hard not to want a glass that has “shiznit” printed on it.

I started last night at Itta Bena, where bartender Sam was working.  Hang on, let’s post a pic of Sam:

There ya go.  That’s Sam.  You may remember that Sam started a trivia team last year called “Suck My Blog” in an attempt to take down the greatest team in the history of trivia, the Rapscallions.  He failed miserably.  Then a couple of weeks ago he and a partner lost a pool game to Best Pool Partner Ever Lauren and me.  Well, last night Sam got to lose to me yet again.  He was playing with my phone and found a game called Bubble Breaker he’s played before.  I haven’t played it in more than a year.  So he challenged me.  Final score:

Paul 954
Sam 292

After leaving Itta Bena, I had safety patrol run a few bums off, then headed to the Saucer where I had to scan my UFO card one last time to see this on the screen:

Yep.  It’s confirmed.  I’m done.  They gave me a form to fill out to plan my plate party.  Here’s what the form looks like:

I requested a special slogan on my plate instead of a city, and the manager said no problem.  If you’ve ever read this blog you’ve seen the slogan.  If you can’t figure out what it is, I’ll post a pic of the new plate within the next 7 days after I have my plate party.

So I have a $100 bar tab to spend on the plate party, right?  Wrong.  The Rapscallions came into last night with $275 in trivia winnings, to be spent that night too.  So we have $375 to spend, right?  Wrong.  We added even more last night, as the Rapscallions dominated the third round and picked up yet another victory and $50 first-place gift certificate.  So our tab for the party is an enormous $425.

After trivia I rolled on to Calhoun’s.  They sell cans of Old Style for $1 a can during Cubs games, and after the game some of the people there decided to shotgun beers.  Here are some pics of that:

And here are some pics of what happened after the shotgunning was done:

Plans for today:  For the first time in over two months, I do NOT have to go to the Saucer.  Meeting a friend for mojitos on Sauces’ patio today after work.

Weird not to have a beer report to type.  Possibly another post around lunchtime.

New info on the Memphis Zombie Attack, where you can be transformed into a zombie on Beale Street or at the South Main Trolley Art Tour on Friday, April 25.  (What an appropriate day; lots of scary creatures have been born on 4/25.)  HauntedWeb is offering $50 to the best male and female zombie.  More info on that here.

You can either show up as a zombie, or you can show up wearing clothes you don’t mind being ruined with a piece of duct tape prominently displayed, and the existing zombie horde will zombify you as they pass by.

Another option is to show up at the parking lot adjacent to the Plush Club at 5 PM that day, and professional makeup artists will transform you into a zombie.

March starts around 7, down Beale to Main, then down Main to Earnestine & Hazel’s.  There will be an after-party at E&H’s back from featuring the Creeping Cruds, a Nashville horror rock band.

I won’t be among the zombies that night, but I will be out taking pics for a 2008 photo album.  Should be fun.

It’s Tuesday night, which means it’s movie night at EP Delta Kitchen.  This week they’ve picked two movies with disco themes – Boogie Nights and 54.  Movies are shown on their big screen and start at 7.

There’s also a crawfish boil on the patio (although, I wonder if they’ll move it inside because it’s so blasted cold).  If you can’t wait ’til Sunday’s Rajun Cajun fest to get your crawfish, you can show up at 6 and get all you can eat for $16.95.

I hate to miss the disco movies, but it’s trivia night and my team’s last chance to earn gift certificates before Rapscallion Party VII/Plate Party 2.  After trivia ends I will stop by EP’s, though, for an engagement party for two of my friends.

Feeling better today… time to put some clothes on and head to work.

Just checked the tracker… the blog set a new record for number of hits in one day yesterday – 960.  Otto installed a WordPress plugin on my blog which is supposed to make it more friendly to search engines… guess it’s working.

Now that I know how much it costs to get a plate on the wall at the Flying Saucer ($1,263.75), it’s time to crunch some numbers and see what that means.

I drank 207 beers en route to getting my plate.  That’s because the Saucer lost 10 (5%) of the beer tickets I handed in to record that I drank each beer.  I got 3 of the beers credited back.  The other 7 I didn’t bother with, looking at them as part of the true cost of getting a plate (because most people wouldn’t go to a manager and get them credited; heck, most people probably wouldn’t even realize they lost beers).

Dividing $1,263.75 by 207, I get a cost of $6.11 per beer, including tip.

The $1,263.75 total includes a consistent tip of 30% throughout the 207 beers.  Want to know what the per-beer cost without the tip?  $1,263.75/1.30 = $972.12, which would be an average of $4.86 per beer.  The average beer at the Saucer costs more than $4.86, but I held the total done by drinking Fire Sales and Pint Nite beers wherever possible.  Also, because there are slightly more than 200 beers on the menu, I was able to avoid the two $30 bottles, as well as a lot of the Samuel Smith and Lindeman’s beers in the $10-14 range.

If you think I should only count 200 beers, I can do that too:  $1,263.75 / 207 * 200 = $1,221.01.

If you think the count should be 210 because I got 3 credited back, it would be $1,263.75 / 207 * 210 = $1,282.07.

If you tip some other amount than I do, you can multiply $972.12 by 1.15 to get a total of $1,117.94 if you’re a 15% tipper, or $972.12 * 1.20 to get $1,166.54 if you’re a 20% tipper.

At an average cost of $4.86/beer, if I had not gotten any of the 10 tickets the Saucer lost credited back, I would’ve spent an extra $48.60 on the plate ($68.13 including tip).

In the 2 months and 10 days it took to do my plate, 8 Saucer girls either quit or got fired.

And those are the stats.  It’s all over but the plate party.  Tonight I’ll show up for trivia and go back to drinking $2.75 Fire Sales.  Hope the Fire Sale beer isn’t something disgusting like Turbo Dog.  I wonder if I’ll be able to maintain my record 960 hit count without daily beer reports.  They were the most interesting part of the blog, after all.  With the beers all done and with the new safety patrol having run all the bums off, what do I have left to write about?