Pam & Terry to play Sleep Out Louie’s tonight

They’ve been doing a soft opening for about a week, but today is the Grand Opening of the new Sleep Out Louie’s. The opening will be from 5-til, and very appropriately given the history of the old Sleep Out Louie’s, Pam & Terry will be playing. The new Sleep Out’s is next door to Texas de Brazil on Second Street.

The final two Memphis in May events happen this Saturday.

Great American River Run is a half-marathon and 5K taking place on the banks of the Mississippi and through Downtown Memphis. After the run, there is a post-race party with food, drinks and live music.

901 Fest is a celebration of our great city at Tom Lee Park Saturday afternoon and evening, with local live music, local food for sale, and local vendors. There will also be an air show, fireworks, knockerball and Zorb ball, a creative arts tent, and a cornhole tournament.

Most people have Monday off, and if you’re looking for something fun to do late night Sunday, I have a suggestion: FreeWorld is having a grand celebration for their founding father Dr. Herman Green’s 88th birthday at the Blues City Band Box. The evening will be full of surprises and musical guests honoring Dr. Green. Should be a special night.

Classic film To Kill a Mockingbird will be shown at Cemetery Cinema at Elmwood Cemetery this Friday from 8:30 to 11 PM. The La Guadalupana and MemPoPS food trucks will be on site, and libations will be available for purchase. Children 12 and under are not permitted at Cemetery Cinema, nor are pets.

I hate to post bad stuff about Downtown, but this time it’s necessary: Police are showing photos of a person of interest in a sexual assault investigation. The assault happened in an alley near Front and Vance Sunday, May 6 around 5 AM. That would be Music Fest weekend, a prime weekend for predators looking for victims.

Also, shots were fired at a horse carriage Saturday night of BBQ Fest near Front and Pontotoc.

Some random BBQ Fest musings

One of my most treasured moments in the booth this year was when the family of a team member who passed away came to visit. I realized I taught his sister math at the U of M in the 1990s. His 18-year-old son, planning to major in computer science, asked if I had any advice. “Do some side projects, projects that interest you,” I told him. “That’ll build up a portfolio for you that you can put on your resume, giving you an advantage over other new graduates when you finish school.”

“What if a project I want to work on is not related to my career?” he asked.

“Then ESPECIALLY do it,” was my reply. I know a guy who has been doing a side project for 14 years, and while not related to his career it has brought him much success, happiness, and connectedness to the community. In case you haven’t figured it out, you’re reading that side project right now.

It still makes me laugh that the troll recruited two of our members. It started with a conversation at Bardog on a day when I had forgot to take my troll out of my pocket and set her on the bar. “Where’s the troll?” I was asked, and that led to a conversation about BBQ. (The troll is Deputy Director of Public Relations for the team.)

I’m also very happy that I recruited my friend Mac to join the cooking team, consisting of our members who had previously competed in regionals as Memphis Squeal and our 2015-17 pitmaster Frank. From what I’ve been told, Mac was a fantastic addition to the cook team, and he said he learned a ton from the others because he’d never done shoulder before. “I’m so happy to be back cooking and I can’t wait for 2019,” he told me Saturday after the festival was over.

Thursday night was the best, dancing with teammates and their guests until midnight. Wait, no, make that second best. Nothing beats finding out we had a trophy that wanted to meet us.

I apologize to anyone who I cut a conversation short with Friday night. I was feeling sick and it was a combination of the heat and too many people being around. I left the park around 9 that night.

Back to my East Memphis lunches

Yesterday I tried another new place (new to me) not far from my office, Amerigo Italian Restaurant in East Memphis. I got the Cannelloni al Forno, an egg pasta stuffed with roasted chicken, spinach, ricotta cheese, fresh herbs and Parmesan; topped with mozzarella, tomato and cream sauces.

It came with bread and oil for dipping. My entree was out quick and I was in and out in 40 minutes. I will be back to try other menu items. I like it that they have their full dinner menu available at lunch and not just the lunch menu.

Plans for tonight: Given my commute from Germantown, I don’t get out until around 5:45 these days. Sleep Out Louie’s will probably be packed with ServiceMaster folk around that time, so I will lead off at Blind Bear then head over to hear Pam & Terry 7:00-7:30ish after the place has cleared out a bit. Back tomorrow with more news.

Monday update

A Memphis in May Panel of Grillers will be the presentation at tomorrow night’s monthly Downtown Neighborhood Association at Beale Street Landing (6:00 social, 6:30 program). There will be BBQ catering by Hog Wild BBQ and a wine and beer bar. Free for DNA members, $10 visitors.

The experiment with bike lanes and a pedestrian promenade with seating on Peabody Place is coming to an end. It was an interesting project but it was under-used. The lack of turn lanes clogged traffic turning into garages and parking lots for FedExForum and Orpheum events. Peabody Place will be reverted to its previous striping next month.

The week before BBQ Fest I posted that I visited the new Sleep Out Louie’s, and that it had a great menu and friendly staff but the beer prices ($4 for a PBR 16 oz. can) were a bit high. Last week Sleep Out’s tweeted me that they had reduced PBR prices to $3 per can, very much in line with what surrounding bars charge. At happy hour the PBR is $2.50. I’ll try to get in there for a second visit soon.

I want to give a little link love to local coffee maker Launch Process Coffee. They had a free giveaway at the Blind Bear Saturday to introduce their product – unfortunately, the place was nearly empty due to BBQ Fest. The guy behind Launch Process came up and introduced himself (knew me by name) and offered to make me a cup of gourmet coffee. Trouble was, I am not a coffee drinker. I felt bad that he didn’t have a better launch. BBQ Fest is just a bad week to schedule any kind of event Downtown.

As your number one source of news and information about The Edge District, I want to link to a couple of articles that seem to have been missed by other sites. High Ground News has a great piece on the transformation of 10 acres in The Edge by Development Services Group (DSG). There will be a mix of office space, residential, and retail, and will adapt existing buildings and add new ones.

Meanwhile, the CA has news on the plan for the Edge Motor Museum at 645 Marshall. The blue streamers at Monroe and Marshall attracted Richard Vining to the neighborhood and helped convince him to buy the building, formerly a guitar workshop. Edge Motor Museum will house vintage cars and have a display on the history of American sports cars.

The Redbirds return to town for a game against Oklahoma City tonight at 6:35 (gates at 5:30). No special promotions tonight, just good baseball to be watched.

High Ground News has information about the Mini Ramp SK8 Jam held by Memphis Athletic Ministries at the Greenlaw Community Center on May 12. This was an all-ages skateboarding competition.

As I typed yesterday’s post about my own team The Moody Ques’ success at BBQ Fest, and in part because I was so tired I could barely put words together, I neglected to mention that my second BBQ family/fellow shoulder team Squeal Street BBQ also enjoyed success, improving from last year’s score in the 20s all the way up to 14th this year (out of 57 teams). They are applying a Memphis style of grit-n-grind to their BBQ strategy that brings incremental improvements every year. There aren’t many increments left before they will jump into the top 10.

That’s it for now. Back on my regular blogging schedule, so I should be back tomorrow with more news and a non-BBQ lunch photo.

7th place in Shoulder

“The Moody Ques are competing in Best Microwave Popcorn this year.”

“Best Booth? So you guys are a decorating team competing in a cooking contest?”

“There are 55 teams competing in Shoulder this year, so somehow the Moody Ques will find a way to finish 56th.”

Those are some of the jokes that have been hurled our way since the Moody Ques formed in 2012. We’ve won non-cooking awards at BBQ Fest, and we’ve won cooking awards at regionals, but up until this year a BBQ Fest cooking trophy has eluded us. Something always seemed to come up and trash our score – cooker not holding temperature, ash not being properly cleaned out. Even something as picky as a serving table not being the right size could cost us points on presentation. We had to look all the way back to 2008, when our predecessor team the Ques Brothers took 3rd in Shoulder, to remember what a BBQ Fest cooking trophy looked like.

About 4:30 yesterday I was standing in our booth when I heard our treasurer Misty scream. A BBQ Fest ambassador had just handed her a letter saying we need to be at the awards ceremony at 6:30, because we were going to receive a trophy. The drought had come to an end!

We threw beer and Jello shots in our cart and headed to the stage. They started the Shoulder awards at number 10. Every time they announced a team and it wasn’t us, we cheered. Movin’ on up like George Jefferson!

Finally it was time for Ron Childers to call our name. “In seventh place in the Shoulder division, The Moody Ques!”

I am so excited. We have finally come up with a winning recipe. When I say that, I don’t mean just the meat. I mean, the overall organization of the team. We had no problem recruiting members, plus we had great sponsors and a lead on another one for 2019. Our T-shirts were on point. We had great music and a great bartender. There was no drama in the booth at all, highly unusual for any BBQ team. Our booth was packed on Thursday and Friday night. People were raving about the food, especially the smoked ham that was served for dinner Friday.

Congratulations to all my teammates on a strong year. I can’t wait for 2019.

Sorry the blog has been lacking in posts this week. I’m just dead tired. I’ll pick it back up the next day or two.

BBQ Fest Day 1: Wednesday

The first public day of BBQ Fest, no longer Friends & Family Night, has come and gone. We already have one achievement of which I am quite proud:

Koozies! I have wanted these for a while. For one thing, I go out to a lot of places selling PBR in cans or bottles. I have been missing out on opportunities to promote the team! I also got tired of seeing our team members carrying around other teams’ koozies. So I got our vice-president to pull the trigger on a koozie order 2 weeks ago. Teammates, find me in the booth to get yours if you haven’t already.

Yesterday was “The Misty Show” for sure as we got the booth in order. Her attention to detail is why the booth was such in good shape by the time guests started arriving at 5. We appreciate all she does for the team and the free entertainment she gives us along the way.

A couple of weeks ago we had a taco bar at work for Cinco de Mayo. Well, last night was Sesenta de Mayo for the Moody Ques.

Tortillas and chips. Shout out to the cook team for having both flour and corn tortillas.

Pork shoulder

Pico de gallo

“Redneck caviar”

Aaron’s banana pudding. I didn’t get a photo of Laura’s chocolate chip brownies but they were delicious as well.

Team shirts for this year

Special thanks to DSV for coming on board as our main sponsor. Great to have you with us!

Putting the finishing touches on our Prague astronomical clock booth design

In the background you can see the 30-foot air conditioned rig our cook team is using this year.

Back to the park for BBQ Fest Thursday. This tends to be the most fun day because our cook team isn’t preparing the championship meat yet and the amateurs wait until Friday to come. One note: We have 55 team members and our booth capacity is 120 (70 down, 50 up). We will hit capacity at the peak times and the fire marshal will order us to stop letting people in. If I can’t let you in immediately I promise you it is nothing personal.

Quick stop at Bardog then back to the park.

A look at the 409 S. Main South Main Market food hall

Last Sunday I had brunch at Pontotoc Lounge at what the locals call D-RANKS with B-RAD. I had the pleasure of meeting Pedro Velazquez of the Memphis Latin Porkers, a hog team at BBQ Fest. Pedro is also one of the people renovating 64 S. Main into a one-stop health shop and restaurant. After Pontotoc several of us headed south to the food hall at 409 S. Main where I took some photos.

Check out the food hall if you haven’t already. Excited to see this concept come to Memphis.

Back to D-RANKS with B-RAD this morning to show him my new team T-shirt. I don’t have team bag pickup duty today so I may walk down to Tom Lee Park and see what’s going on at our booth.

Saturday update

I’ll start off this post with the funniest question I have been asked in a bar at a while. This happened a couple of weeks ago. A guy came up to me and said, “So I guess you’re a huge Star Wars fan, aren’t you?”

“Well, I’ve seen all the movies, and most of them were really good,” I replied. “But I don’t know if I would call myself a huge fan. Why do you ask?”

He said, “Well, isn’t that Yoda you have standing on the bar?”

The Memphis River Parks Partnership will not re-open the restaurant in Beale Street Landing this year. Instead, the restaurant area will be used as a community gathering space.

Speaking of which, the monthly Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting will be at Beale Street Landing on Tuesday, May 22. Free for members, $10 non-members. Complimentary wine and beer bar. 6:00 social, 6:30 presentation by a panel of Memphis grillers. Hey DNA, if you’re looking to fill spots on the panel, I can send the Deputy Director of Public Relations of my BBQ team (pictured above) over.

Tonight is Grit ‘n Good Luck Night at AutoZone Park. The Redbirds are in the NBA draft lottery spirit and have partnered with the Memphis Grizzlies for several promotions tonight. First 5000 fans in the gate (gates at 5 PM, first pitch 6:35) will get a magnet. Postgame there will be launch-a-ball for the chance to win a meet-and-greet with the Grizzlies’ draft pick (just think – YOU could win the chance to meet the Hasheem Thabeet of this decade!) Grizzlies head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will throw the first pitch and there will be performances by Grizzlies entertainment groups. There’s a Grit ‘n Good Luck ticket package that gets you into tonight’s game, the annual Grit ‘n Grind Night on August 17, and a ticket to the Grizzlies 2018-19 season home opener.

The Center for Southern Folklore hosts An Evening with Zeke Johnson tonight. Come hear Zeke play the blues and tell blues stories. It’s a free show but donations are accepted.

Info for my vegetarian readers:

The silent disco phenomenon comes to Club 152 tonight as Hush Silent International Party takes over the third floor. DJ Dnyce, DJ Rice and DJ Static will battle for your attention. “Come vibe to one of the most diverse crowd that you’ll ever come across while jamming to Afro-beats, Dancehall, Hip-Hop, Salsa, Soca, Reggae, Zouk & Habesha not forgetting old school classicals for our 70’s and 80’s fans in the house.”

Moody Ques teammates: Those peanut butter cookies from the bakery in Kennett, Missouri will be back Friday. Even if you are a “I don’t eat sweets” kind of person, this is cause to make an exception.

Off for a day of BBQ team work. Got to check with our Thursday-Friday bartender to make sure she has everything she needs, then I’m off to do team bag handout duty. Posts will be erratic the next 8 days, but I will try to be back tomorrow with more news.

 

New Caribbean restaurant and more Friday news

As I was driving to work this morning, I noticed a sign for a new restaurant called Curry n Jerk in the old Lolo’s Table location on Monroe next to McEwen’s. I did a little research and found the restaurant’s website. They will have an authentic Caribbean menu with a full bar. Should be a nice addition to the neighborhood.

Drink-n-Draw returns to the Ghost River taproom tonight at 7. It’s a night of fun, drawing games, and gold-spray-painted prizes hosted by Eric C and DJ Carla Worth. It’s $5 to draw and they will supply everything you need.

Disney Junior Dance Party on Tour comes to the Orpheum tonight at 6. In this interactive concert experience, you can sing along with Mickey and the Roadster Racers, Sofia The First, Puppy Dog Pals, Elena of Avalor, Doc McStuffins, Vampirina, and The Lion Guard. Damn! I may have to ask if I can leave work early so I can be first in line for a ticket!

Get Sweet on Mom is the theme at the Memphis Farmers Market this Saturday. Load up on breakfast items for mom, as well as supplies to cook her Mother’s Day Sunday dinner. Flowers and a gift from the Market will make your Mother’s Day complete. Kids can make a card for Mom at the crafts station. Live local music all day long. The Market runs from 8 AM to 1 PM every Saturday under the pavilion at Front and G.E. Patterson.

As your #1 source of news and information about The Edge District, it’s my pleasure to link you to this Daily News article about The Edge Motor Museum, a new automotive history museum planned for 645 Marshall. Given that the neighborhood known as The Edge was the original auto row in Memphis, this is the perfect place to locate such a museum.

High Ground News has been putting out some great stuff this week, including

Yes I saw there was an announcement about 100 N. Main. There has been so much speculation about that building that has never come to pass that I refuse to post about 100 N. Main until I see real, physical ACTION.

I had my first visit to Genghis Grill yesterday, where you select raw ingredients, spices, veggies and sauce from a buffet and then hand your bowl to a chef to make Mongolian BBQ style. It was my first visit to Mongolian BBQ place in 18 years and I had nearly forgotten what to do.

I decided to build a chicken bowl with Cajun, garlic, and hot spices and sauces. The server was real sweet showing me how to order. My bowl was not bad, although I want to go back and try again sometime soon.

Not next week though, when I’ll be focusing on a different type of BBQ! My BBQ Fest vacation starts at 5 today and my BBQ Fest work begins at 1 tomorrow at the first of three sessions handing out team bags. Weather is looking HOT for next week! I tell you, though, I will take a BBQ Fest with temps in the 90s over one with temps in the 50s anytime! Higher temps tend to bring out the better-dressed women, if you get my drift.

A bonus BBQ Fest condition: no stale jokes about “chubs,” charcoal, or “the meat sweats” this year!

Sources I follow on Twitter indicate that news is going to be breaking bad for the Trump White House over the weekend.

This is my second post since lunchtime yesterday, so if this is your first visit here today, keep scrolling… I visited the new Sleep Out Louie’s last night and took some photos. Back tomorrow with more news.

First look at Sleep Out Louie’s: Big space, good menu, welcoming staff; domestic beer prices high

My first home away from home, post-moving Downtown in 2002, was Sleep Out Louie’s. The lawyers’ bar at 88 Union was my spot and my initial entry into the Downtown crew. Between Fish Races, Pam & Terry, Charlie Wood, Steak Night and more we had a great, great time there for many years. So I was happy to hear Sleep Out’s made a comeback this week, in a new location next door to Texas de Brazil on Second.

The menu (click for a larger size). The manager went through the menu with me and it is clear that they plan on delivering some quality food at a very reasonable price point.


The PBR was $4 a can. They told me they’re going to have some great mixed drink specials, and that they’re going to have some great domestic beer specials on happy hour. That’s good news. But if I start somewhere else and come to your bar at 8 PM, I’m paying $4 a PBR? That’s a dollar a beer more than several bars a block away and you know it. Perhaps you could get away with $3.50 because of your legacy among those of us who remember you. But $4? Just because you manage other bars on Beale doesn’t mean you can charge similar prices in the Downtown core and expect to get away with it.

I did have the pleasure of seeing throwback (not old) regulars from the former location. In our 40s and our hair is all real, what more can you ask for?

If you go this weekend, they don’t have their liquor license yet and are still getting beer deliveries, so don’t fault them for that. Give what they do have a try. Menu looks good and very reasonably priced. Fix the costs of domestic beers and you could have a winner.