Category: Uncategorized

Just a reminder that A&R Bar-b-que at Third and Court and NYC Deli in the SunTrust building are now open for lunch, so check them out if you haven’t already.

I’m going to throw in a mention for Bardog Tavern here as well.  I was in there last Wednesday and was shocked that place hadn’t built more of a lunch crowd than it already has.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• The spaghetti with Aldo’s grandmom’s meatballs.  I’d put their spaghetti & meatballs up against any Italian restaurant in the city.
• The saloon sliders, 3 mini-burgers cooked on the grill.  Comes with fries with ketchup and their Bourbon mayonnaise dipping sauce which is really good.
• The Woof Woof Chow Chow, the hot dog version of their sliders, also with fries.
• If you’re not very hungry you can get a single burger or hot dog slider without the fries.
• The Rambo, the sandwich I posted about last week with NY strip steak, pepperoncini, and red peppers.  It’s a little pricey for lunch (over $11) but it comes with fries and is enough for two friends or co-workers to split.

If you like Circa by John Bragg, click this link to go to the restaurant’s listing on UrbanSpoon.com and click the “I like it” button to vote for the place.

Last night I dreamed that I was back in college, living in a dorm which was called “New Dorm” at the time I attended.  (Meaning, no one had donated gobs of money to get their name on the dorm.)  Next door to my room was a Foot Locker which had a game room and food court inside.  I’m not really sure how to analyze this dream.  I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve ever dreamed about Foot Locker.

That’s all for now.  Got to go buy a shirt that fits that I can wear to job interviews.  Not excited about having to put on a tie again.  After I got the last job I hoped that interview would be the last time in my life I’d ever have to wear a tie.

I’ve been told that A&R Bar-B-Que at Third and Court, in the old Roma location, is now open (not sure if they’ll be open today, though, since it’s Sunday).  Here’s a link to their menu. Looks like I’m going to have to stop by for lunch one day next week.  I miss Roma’s lasagna but I’m happy to have another BBQ option for lunch.

The economy definitely hasn’t stopped people from going out in Downtown Memphis.  I started at the Saucer and by 10 it was PACKED, so much so that I got tired of bumping into people and having to move for them to get by.  “I’ll try Bardog,” I thought.  No, it was packed too.  Barely anyplace to stand upstairs, and downstairs was packed too, every table taken and people standing at the bar.  I’m happy to see them doing so well less than half a year after opening, and in the slow season no less.

So I ended up at Voodoo Room, aka Hoop’s new bar.  I didn’t get many more details about next Saturday night’s toga party other than it starts at 10 PM, which means it will be in the downstairs rather than up.  They’ll provide togas for the toga-challenged.  I’ve been asked to be a judge for the ugliest and sexiest toga costume contests.  Not surprised Hoop wanted me as a judge, after the fantastic job I did last summer at Pub Olympics, where I forgot the rules of beer pong, drank so much beer that I stumbled home and crashed before the event was over, and then forgot to bring their stopwatch back.  Looking forward to an equally stellar judging performance at the toga party.

I’ve added new colleges to College Logo Shopping.  I did most of the Big East schools, although I decided to hold off on some of the smaller, basketball-only schools until after I get the ACC and Pac-10 done.  What I’m learning while building these stores is, if you want a great merchandising deal for your university, you better be in a BCS conference and you better play football.  Here are the new additions.  Some of the basketball-only schools have a lot of empty categories I need to go back and remove, but I think you’ll still be able to find lots of good stuff.

• Cincinnati Bearcats
• Connecticut Huskies
• Georgetown Hoyas
• Louisville Cardinals
• Marquette Golden Eagles
• Pitt Panthers
• Rutgers Scarlet Knights
• South Florida Bulls
• Syracuse Orange
• Villanova Wildcats
• West Virginia Mountaineers

Brunch at the Majestic today, then the Saucer for a friend’s plate party.

It’s the slow season Downtown.  From New Year’s until St. Patrick’s Day, Downtown tends to be pretty dead, although the opening of FedExForum has turned around winters on Beale Street a little in recent years.  Only things I know of going on are the Baltimore Ravens vs. Tennessee Titans game on screens at various bars around Downtown (3:30 PM); the Tigers are at UCF (4 PM; on CBS College Sports and WREC 600); legendary bluesman Blind Mississippi Morris plays BB King’s tonight; and jam band FreeWorld plays the Saucer.

Pilsner Urquell is the Fire Sale.  Hmmm may have to partake of a few of those later today.

Last night I ran into one of the FedExForum managers at the Saucer, and we talked for quite a while.  There are a lot of good things that the Grizzlies do for the community that most Memphians never hear about… for example, he told me that since the team has been here, the players have donated something like $21 million out of their own pockets to local charity.  A lot of stories and facts like that get passed over, because the media tends to look for stories that bash the Grizzlies.  I also learned about all the extra work the Grizzlies and FedExForum staff do to make sure that the facility looks top-shape for every event.  They could neglect it and it would begin to show its age (as happened with the Pyramid), but they refuse to let that happen.

I plan to meet with a few of the FedExForum people soon and learn more about the good things the Grizzlies are doing to better the community.  They are a key part of Downtown and the word needs to get out what good neighbors they are.

Hmmm not a whole lot going on tonight.  The Bobby Rush benefit at the Center for Southern Folklore and the Monster Jam at the FedExForum are the two main things.

Still working on the personal finance program today.  Changing the colors of cells in a third-party spreadsheet we use, to hide data we don’t want to display.  It’s like having to use a mouse to color a huge coloring book, but coloring books that look like spreadsheets aren’t very interesting.

On the positive side, the Saucer sent me a coupon for a free beer.  I’ll be cashing that in shortly.  Not sure where I’ll end up tonight, but Bardog, Voodoo Room @ Orleans on Front, and Raiford’s seem like possibilities.

(Edit January 9:  Hey, I never hit the Publish button on yesterday’s post.  Here you go.  This was typed about 5 PM yesterday, Thur Jan 8.)

I had a request from a West Virginia native to do a store for the state university on College Logo Shopping, so here you go:  West Virginia Mountaineers store

I just got a tour of The Silly Goose, the new bar that will open in the old Swig location.  They’ve done a great job with the place, and are putting the final touches on and waiting for their liquor license to be approved.  If I had to describe the place, in one word, I’d say “comfortable.”  They have completely de-Swig-ified it.  It’s not pretentious in the least.  They have warm, inviting wood trim and lighting that adds ambience, and they have a comfortable couch section that feels like a living room.  They have “the library” where the old sushi bar was – you can grab a book and read, or you can use one of their two computers to surf the Internet (they also have Wi-Fi if you want to bring your own laptop).  They’ve installed 10 beer taps and will carry 30 exotic beers in bottles.  This place is going to be great.  Can’t wait for it to open.

Wow, another locals’ bar.  With the Silly Goose, Bardog Tavern, and the Voodoo Room all in the Downtown core – and of, course, the old standby, the Saucer – there’s going to be plenty to do in 2009.  Then there’s Calhoun’s about half a mile to the south, with Buzztime Trivia due to arrive in a few weeks.

Jillian’s has discontinued their Thursday trivia night.  Not sure what their new plan for Thursdays will be.  I sure hope they don’t bring back Girls’ Night Out at Atlas, or as I called it, Poser Night at Club Lame.  Last year Thursdays at Atlas were the biggest collection of douchebags and douchebaguettes anywhere other than Vegas or Jersey.

This Friday and Saturday is Monster Jam, the monster truck show at the FedExForum.  That will draw an interesting crowd Downtown, I’m sure.  I bet Kooky Canuck bartender Meghan goes to Monster Jam.  She seems like the kind of person who would.  As I walked home from my tour of the Silly Goose, I saw Meghan’s car parked (illegally) on Second.  She has an Ole Miss license plate frame.  Ole Miss… geez… as if I needed one more reason to hate Meghan.

Apologies to those of you who sent me e-mail today and didn’t get a response… I found out that my old company laid off a bunch more people this morning.  I met one of my former co-workers at Bardog to talk about it, and was gone much of the day.  There’s really no such thing as a “safe, secure” job anymore.

I added the Big Ten Conference schools to College Logo Shopping.  Complete list of college stores is below.  Next up will be the ACC.

Alabama

Arkansas

Auburn

Baylor

Colorado

ECU (East Carolina)

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Kentucky

LSU

Missouri

Memphis

Michigan

Michigan State

Minnesota

Mississippi State

Nebraska

Northwestern

Notre Dame

Ohio State

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Ole Miss

Penn State

Purdue

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Texas A&M

Texas Tech

UCF (Central Florida)

Vanderbilt

Wisconsin

BIG NEWS for trivia fans this morning.  Buzztime Trivia, formerly known as NTN Trivia, will return to Downtown Memphis in 3-4 weeks.  Last week I mentioned that Calhoun’s sports bar on G.E. Patterson was adding more TVs… the reason why is that some of those new TVs will become monitors for Buzztime Trivia.

Buzztime Trivia is played against the other people in the bar, using blue boxes with a keypad (affectionately referred to as “crack boxes” because the games are addictive) to answer questions that appear on the monitors.  Most of the games are general knowledge, but there are some that are specific to movies, sports, TV, music, etc.  There are also other channels where you can play Texas hold’em poker, racing games, and more.

For a long time Buzztime was easily accessible to Downtowners, available at Sleep Out Louie’s and TJ Mulligan’s.  However, Mulligan’s decided they didn’t want to spend the money, and Sleep Out’s closed down to become a steakhouse that would attract “a different clientele.”  So, since February 2007, Downtowners have had to travel to Buffalo Wild Wings at Poplar and Highland to get their Buzztime fix.  Within a month they’ll have a local option again.  I’m sure the trivia game will draw in many new Calhoun’s regulars, as people discover the $1.50 PBR, the many TVs carrying sports, the great bartenders, and the friendly crowd.

There’s more Calhoun’s news as well.  Comcast will be out there today installing feeds to all the TVs.  That means Tiger games carried on CSS, which is a Comcast-exclusive channel, will now be on TV at Calhoun’s.  Hmmm I bet the Saucer never sees Mikey for a Tiger game again.

Also, HD receivers have been hooked up to all 8 TVs, which means there will be no more annoying delays on the game feeds.

News elsewhere Downtown… tonight’s “buy the beer, keep the glass” beer glass at the Flying Saucer is the Lazy Magnolia brewery out of Mississippi, so you’re supporting a semi-local business if you buy one.  I watched one of the bartenders write this week’s glass listing on the chalkboard, and after she wrote “Lazy” I thought, “Cool!  They’re putting a picture of Brittney [one of the other bartenders] on a glass!”  But no, it’s a brewery, not a bartender.

Good article on George Hunt, the artist who exhibits at d’Edge Gallery on South Main and who usually designs the Memphis in May posters, in the Commercial Appeal today.

My new College Logo Shopping stores are off to a great start… the Big 12 schools in particular seem to be producing lots of sales, especially Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma.  All together they sold 23 items yesterday, not bad at all for websites only a few days old.  One of the items in my sales report was a Texas Longhorns recliner.  “That sounds expensive,” I thought, and clicked through to take a look.  It cost $699!  I’ll make $50 commission from that one item alone.  Needless to say, this motivates me to get more BCS school stores done.  I almost have the Big Ten conference ready to roll out.

Speaking of Texas… I watched Arkansas beat #7 Texas last night at the Saucer.  The Hogs are having a great year – record of 12-1 and they’ve beat the last 7 Top 25 teams they’ve played.  I can’t believe they didn’t crack the Top 25 this week.  Surely they will next week.  Freshman Courtney Fortson seems like he’s going to be a star point guard, as soon as he gets a little more disciplined.  He had the moves but was turning the ball over a lot last night.  Hopefully coach John Pelphrey can work with him.

Time to create some more stores, and do more work on the personal finance program I’m rewriting.  I need to do a post on lessons learned from it soon.  Done for now, not sure if I’ll be going out anywhere tonight.

The Rapscallions won first place at trivia tonight.  Afterward I watched the Hogs beat Texas on the Saucer’s big screen, then walked down to Bardog Tavern for to-go food.

Pictured above is “The Rambo,” a grilled and sliced New York strip sandwich with caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, pepperoncini, white American cheese, and horseradish cream on a hoagie roll.

Because I’m a big fan of audience participation, I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine whether I enjoyed my sandwich.

According to the Memphis Business Journal, the empty McAlister’s Deli space in One Commerce Square at Main and Monroe will soon become a NYC Deli.  This is being operated by the same people who run five Blimpies around town, which is why we saw that “Downtown deli positions, apply at Bartlett Blimpie” ad a few weeks ago in the Memphis Flyer want ads.

It’s trivia night at the Flying Saucer (7 PM) and Pint Night, all pints $3, at Bardog Tavern (7 PM to 3 AM).

My car needed brake work, so I dropped it off at Quality Auto on Jefferson just east of Third this morning.  A blog reader recommended them to me last June, and they did a great job getting my hardly-ever-driven car in shape to pass inspection.  I’ve always preferred to take it to the Saturn dealership, but Quality was much cheaper, I can walk home from there, and I like to support local Downtown businesses.  They’re my garage from now on.

On the way home, I noticed a new hotel:  Court Street Inn, at the corner of Third and Court, above the business that used to be Roma.  I did some searching, because I hadn’t heard of them before.  Here’s Expedia’s page on Court Street Inn.  It looks like it’s getting decent ratings, and rooms start at $75/night, so this may be an affordable option if you need a hotel room Downtown.

It looks like the A&R BBQ that will replace Roma in that building is almost ready to go.  They had their menu up, and were stocking the place with styrofoam cups and other supplies.

Whew… the garage just called.  Brakes are fine, 40% on the front and plenty on the back.  Gotta love honest mechanics.  Heading out to pick up the car.