Paul Ryburn's Journal

The Orion 5k, formerly known as the Gibson 5K, is this Saturday. Race starts off from St. Patrick’s Church at Fourth Street and MLK Ave. Registration/packet pick-up 4:00-6:30, race begins at 7, with one of the best race after-parties in the city following the race headlined by Marcella and Her Lovers. $10 cover charge for the after-party for those who did not participate in the race.

Six days after that, on Friday, June 15, another of the city’s best races, Crop Hop 5K, takes place at the Memphis Farmers Market pavilion. Registration begins at 5:30 and the race begins at 6:30, with a great after-party to follow. There is an option to attend the after-party without running the race. This event is a fundraiser for the Memphis Farmers Market.

Party Planet, a seven-piece band including a saxophonist and four-piece rhythm section, plays contemporary hits at tonight’s Peabody rooftop party. $10 cover, $20 if you want to go VIP, with ladies and hotel guests free before 7. Admission includes a buffet of popcorn shrimp with cocktail sauce and hushpuppies. If you’re in VIP you get a second buffet of tempura shrimp with sweet chili sauce, bacon wrapped scallops, and crab dip with pita bread.

Happy Thursday, YOGA! There’s lots of opportunities to do yoga in interesting places today. There’s a free all-levels class in Health Sciences Park this morning at 11:45. Then tonight there will be a yoga class in South Main Market (409 S. Main) from 6:30 to 7:30, with your $10 class fee including a token to spend with the market’s vendors afterward.

It’s Thirsty Thursday Night at AutoZone Park with $2 select drafts. The Redbirds will don their throwback Memphis Chicks uniforms, and college students can get a bluff ticket for only $5. There’s an all-you-can-eat specialty ticket that gets you access to a two-hour buffet of beef sliders, fixins, potato chips, and hot dogs.

KIX on Beale, the free country concert series sponsored by KIX 106, returns to Handy Park starting June 14. These shows start at 7:30 on Thursdays and are all ages and free. You can listen to KIX 106 for chances to win VIP seating. Here’s this summer’s schedule.

My troll turns one and a half years old today. The Terrible Twos are right around the corner.

Memphis is getting its first cidery.

Yesterday I returned to Amerigo for lunch, where I had their Wednesday special: Donnell Farms meatloaf topped with flash-fried onion strings and with sides of Asiago cheese leek potatoes and braised greens.

This was a fantastic lunch. Keep it in mind for Wednesdays if you work in the East Memphis area.

That’s it for now. Big day ahead. Back tomorrow with more news.

It”s time to make nominations for your favorite bartenders, servers, bloggers, etc. for the annual Best Of awards presented by the Memphis Flyer. Nominations will be taken through June 28. Voting will begin on August 1. This is widely considered the most prestigious of the city-wide awards, because the voting is run by an editorial department rather than a marketing department, and you can only vote one time as opposed to once a day or once an hour. The least credible polls are the ones where you can vote the “Most.”

Well, I guess I won’t have many CA employees voting for me after that comment. But what would people who live in Nashville be doing voting in a Memphis poll anyway?

Good news for those of you who have kids. The city has a new city program to help youth learn golf. It is designed to do two things: expose kids to golf who otherwise would have never played, and eliminate the cost barrier. The city offers complimentary greens fees for those 17 and under to seven Memphis courses, and they have clubs for kids who don’t have their own. Giving kids the chance to pick up a lifetime hobby and passion without a major investment is very cool. Way to go, Memphis.

As part of Minor League Baseball’s Cope de la Diversión, the Memphis Redbirds will take the field tonight as the Memphis Música. Copa de la Diversión is a season-long event series designed to embrace the culture and values of participating teams’ Hispanic and Latino communities. Aztec dancers, a Latin DJ, and a Spanish-language PA will be part of the fun. First 1500 in the gate get a Memphis Música shirt. Gates at 6:00, first pitch at 7:05.

50-and-up dance team the Memphis Grizzlies Grannies & Grandpas are absolutely my favorite part of Grizzlies games. There will be a casting call for the Grannies and Grandpas coming up here soon.

If you love Shelby Farms, save the date: June 21. From 4:30-10:30 that evening buy a beer at the Ghost River taproom and Ghost River will donate a dollar to the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy.

There will be a run for Global Running Day departing Loflin Yard at 6:30 tonight and going across Big River Crossing. Coach Kevin of Can’t Stop Endurance Training will be there if you need some tips. Specials for runners at Loflin Yard after they return.

Knob Creek Cask Strength Rye Whiskey is the special this week at Belle Tavern. Half off through Sunday.

Memphis River Parks Partnership invites the public to join them at Beale Street Landing tonight at 6 for Urban M: Design in the River Parks. The design team behind the riverfront’s re-launch will share their thinking and discuss the role of design in building great places.

TaskRabbit, an app to help you find help with odd jobs like yard work and furniture assembly, is now live in Memphis.

Stormy Daniels is coming to Memphis. She’ll do meet & greets at The Pony Monday, June 18 at 9 and 11 PM.

Two matches have been announced for WWE Smackdown Live next Tuesday at FedExForum: WWE World Champion A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, and Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz and Big Cass.

For my fellow Arkansas fans, game times have been announced for this weekend’s Fayetteville Super Regional. All three games (if the third is needed) will be on ESPN2 or ESPN.

A new hotel could be in the works for 99 and 105 S. Front. Developers will speak to the Landmarks Commission about leaving the facades of these buildings in place while demolishing the rest to make way for a new structure.

In other hotel news, the new owners of the Benchmark plan to demolish it and build a new five-story, full-service, four-star hotel. The Benchmark is the shell of a hotel across from the Peabody and AutoZone Park and has got to be a major embarrassment for the people who operate both of those businesses.

Happy D-Day! One Twitter user speculated that Donald Trump probably thinks D-Day has something to do with bra size. Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s true. Outta here for now but quick programming note: My schedule is weird tomorrow so I will try to get my Thursday news post up before I leave for work.

The Redbirds are back in town and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening games will now start at 7:05 as we enter the heat of June. Tonight there is a special all-inclusive ticket that includes free hot dogs, hamburger baskets, chips and cheese, popcorn, and small fountain sodas. The ticket is $20 no matter whether you buy Club, Dugout, or Field Box.

Wiseacre will host Pilates on Tap tomorrow night, June 6, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. Certified instructor and professional dancer Stephanie Mei Homm will lead this free, beginner Stott Pilates class at Wiseacre’s pavilion. Bring your own mat.

There was a small fire at Blues City Cafe last night around 8. It was quickly put out and they plan to reopen the restaurant tonight.

An indepedent investigation has cleared the good name of former Memphis Tigers basketball head coach and current Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner. The investigation found that Pastner’s former friend, Ron Bell, was blackmailing him, threatening to report that Pastner impermissibly paid two Georgia Tech players through Bell in order to convince them not to transfer. When Pastner failed to take the bait, Bell’s girlfriend accused him of sexually assaulting her. Bell’s claims were found to be “baseless” and “contradicted by verifiable facts.” I never believed the allegations for a minute and am very happy for Josh that the truth is out. Crazy people who make false accusations are the worst, and people who believe the accusations and help spread them (these people are known as flying monkeys in psychological terms) are a big part of the problem too.

Looking for a good read for your kids this summer? Check out Rise and Shine, a children’s book by local Memphis authors/illustrators. It’s now available at the Center for Southern Folklore.

The Memphis River Parks Partnership tweeted (@memriverparks) that the diggers are in Mississippi River Park, and fabricators are hard at work constructing a tree house, nests and pavilions. The new Mississippi River Park should be finished by Labor Day, just in time for fall weather.

The River Parks Partnership is hiring a summer fellow. The fellowship is full-time from July to the end of October and pays a $10,000 stipend.

Okay, folks, let’s take a minute to discuss men’s restroom etiquette. Particularly, men’s rooms where there are two toilets/urinals (I’ll collectively refer to them as “pissers” from here on out) and a lock on the door. Is it acceptable to lock the door if you’re the only one in there? Here are my thoughts on the matter:

• If there is no divider between the two pissers (Bardog upstairs, King’s Palace Cafe Tap Room) it’s fine to lock the door for privacy
• If there is a divider for privacy between the two pissers, WHY would you need to lock the door?

I bring this up because people were locking the men’s room door at Pontotoc Lounge brunch when they were in there by themselves. I don’t get it. It’s inefficient.

Pontotoc, by the way, is offering 50% off lunches Wednesday-Friday of this week. Their lunch hours are 11 to 2.

In the news: Woman sues Bass Pro, “unable to enjoy the normal pleasures of life” after a fall on vomit at the Pyramid on May 14.

The Commercial Appeal Sports Awards, honoring Memphis high school sports accomplishments, happens at the Orpheum tonight at 7 (red carpet at 6). Former Memphis Tigers running back DeAngelo Williams will make a special appearance.

For the next several weeks, two westbound lanes on the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River will be closed 8 PM to 8 AM as workers remove the old lighting.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow with more news.

Peabody Place will be closed in the evenings this week for re-paving. They are doing the work in the evenings to minimize the impact on traffic. Plan accordingly if that’s a route you take.

There will be a ribbon-cutting for the new South Main Bumpus Harley-Davidson this Saturday, June 9, with special guest Bill Davidson, great-great-grandson of William “Bill” Davidson, one of the original founders of Harley-Davidson 115 years ago. More than 100 riders are expected to participate in a ride from the store on Whitten Rd. to the new South Main store.

Trey Moore, executive director of Explore Bike Share, will be the featured speaking at the South Main Association meeting on Tuesday, June 12. He will talk about Explore’s program and how the benefits of bike sharing can be enjoyed by everyone. Afterward there will be a Q&A. The meeting will be at the Rumba Room. 6:00 social, 6:30 program, and you can stay afterward for Latin dance lessons. Drink specials for meeting attendees and the SMA will provide light appetizers. Free for members, $10 non-members.

Two Motown legends, The Temptations and The Four Tops, come to the Orpheum October 3.

Memphis made national news this weekend, in a good way. CNN had a story about how Memphis Inner City Rugby transforms teens’ lives.

Roundhouse Revival makes its return to the Mid-South Coliseum on July 21. It will be a free day of wrestling, basketball, food trucks, community groups, water slides, voter registration and more.

A friend of mine gave me a tip that the gyro at Grecian Gourmet is really top-notch. I will have to try that soon. If you haven’t been yet, Grecian Gourmet is in the old Onix space on Main near Huling.

This weekend I got into a lively discussion with two of my BBQ teammates and bartender PBjaRni about the party bikes in Downtown and Midtown. One thing brought up was bike riders going “WOOOOOOOO!” as they go down the street. For the benefit of my readers, here is a Should you go “WOOOOOOOO!” checklist.

• Have you ever been a member of The Four Horsemen or Evolution?
• Do you have a robe with “Nature Boy” in sequins on the back?
• Have you won at least 16 world titles?

If your answer to these questions is YES, then it is appropriate for you to go “WOOOOOOOO!” on a party bike. Otherwise it is not appropriate.

Fun time at brunch at Pontotoc Lounge yesterday. Tony sat in a seat where I’d be looking right at him every time the door opened, and B-RAD and I reminisced about how… someone else… used to do that at Blind Bear brunch. Later in the day Rahul referred to Tony as “a big piece of Easter Bunny chocolate” and for the first time in my life I wished I was deaf.

Later in the day I made the trek over to Max’s Sports Bar for BBQ nachos.

This was a HALF order and it was humongous. Good value on the menu at Max’s. Of course the $2.50 PBR is value drinking at its finest.

While we’re on the subject of Max’s, I look forward to watching my Arkansas Razorbacks there in the coming days. The Hogs locked up a Super Regional spot last night with a victory over Dallas Baptist. As a top-eight seed, the Razorbacks will host the Super Regional in Fayetteville, playing either South Carolina or UNC Wilmington. Note that expected opponent #12 ECU did not advance, so the Hogs have a very good shot at becoming OmaHogs and earning a trip to the College World Series this year.

My AT&T Call Protect app on my iPhone really does work! Saturday afternoon I got this notification:

And this morning I got this one:

Sunday night I got a call from a friend, confirming that Call Protect does not stop you from getting calls you actually want. Lifehacker has more information on getting your phone to screen spam calls.

The G7 summit is this weekend, with leaders of world powers gathering to discuss topics like climate change, women’s empowerment, and building a more peaceful world. And we’re sending Donald Trump. Oh my God what a shitshow that is going to be.

Melania Trump has not been seen in public in 24 days, and it has been announced that she will not go to Quebec for the G7 Summit or Singapore for the U.S.-North Korea Batshit Crazy summit. Is it possible Donald Trump will become the first president in history to have his wife leave him while in office?

And could admitted adultery nullify a prenuptial agreement? Time to pop some popcorn. The next two weeks could get real interesting.

Back tomorrow with more news. I’ll be out at happy hour somewhere tonight, but I haven’t figured out where yet.

Spring festival season has ended, giving me a lot less news to report. I considered not blogging at all today, but I’m up early and I might as well do something.

Richard Wilson plays Sunday Evening Slowdown tonight at Ghost River at 5 PM. If you go there earlier (12-3) you can get brunch from the Flying Sobies food truck – Cornish hens with your choice of sauce.

If you don’t mind a drive to Jackson, Tennessee, you can play Dungeons and Dragons at 2 this afternoon.

There’s a kick-off party for Vacation Bible School at Fellowship Baptist Church in Marion today at 5:00.

An armadillo was spotted outside Max’s Sports Bar in South Main last night.

Seriously, that’s how bad I’m hurting for news to report.

I sure have enjoyed these past 6 months at places like Max’s, Blind Bear, and Silly Goose. Wish I could have 18 more just like them.

In case anybody cares who I hope the Grizzlies pick with their #4: Jaren Jackson Jr. He’s the safest bet for a team that can’t afford another Hasheem Thabeet-type mistake. He’s one of the few bigs in the draft who actually plays defense, he can shoot the three ball, and he’s 6’11”. Start him as a power forward alongside Marc Gasol, let him learn everything he can, and eventually he can be moved over to center when Gasol leaves or retires.

The only thing I dislike about picking Jackson is it leaves Jamychal Green coming off the bench, and makes Jarell Martin all but expendable. I’ve always liked Martin and think he has more potential than people give him credit for. You have to do what’s best for the team though.

Now and then I hear naysayers talk about Seattle poaching the Grizzlies from Memphis first chance they get. I think that’s total B.S., BUT… a Thabeet-level bust in the draft this year and yeah, it becomes possible.

While we’re on the subject of the NBA, I’ll share an opinion that is going to be wildly unpopular: I actually like Draymond Green. He far exceeded initial expectations and has become the epitome of the NBA in this decade. When he retires in 8 or 10 years, how awesome would it be if he joins Sir Charles and Shaq on commentary?

Time for D-RANKS with B-RAD at Pontotoc Lounge. Today’s conversation topics: People who can’t handle the truth and 96 degree patios. Back tomorrow with more news unless tomorrow is as slow a news day as today.

Are you a hockey fan, and in particular are you a fan of the Las Vegas Golden Knights? This week I discovered that there’s a Vegas Knights 901 group on Facebook. Tonight they are having a Game 3 Watch Party tonight at Max’s Sports Bar at 7 PM. The Golden Knights take on the Washington Capitals in the third game of the Stanley Cup finals. I’ve never been to Las Vegas but sure, I’ll root for them. The Washington Capitals need to change their name to the Washington Clowns to more accurately reflect who is in our capital city.

Elmwood Cemetery is having a Street Names Tour today at 1. Don’t worry about temps in the 90s because this will be in the air-conditioned chapel. Learn about the people behind the names of streets in Memphis. Snacks, beer, wine and soft drinks will be served.

Anyone else receiving an excessive amount of phone call spam these past few days? I sure have and it seems a lot of my Facebook friends agree. One of them told me that anyone on AT&T, using a compatible device, can get the AT&T Call Protect app for free and set it up to block well-known spam numbers. This won’t get all of them, I’m told, but it will reduce the number you receive by a good bit.

If you’re on Android, go to the Phone Dialer app, click the 3 dots, then Settings, then Caller ID & Spam, then select Filter Selected Spam Calls. As with the iPhone app, this will block many although not all.

The Harbor Town 3 Mile is tonight at 7:30. This was called the Harbor Town 5K in the past but technically the course is a bit shorter than 5K, so they changed the name. Run with views of the mighty Mississippi.

Babycreep is the featured vendor at Small Shop Saturday at the Ghost River taproom today from 12-4. Come drank you a burr while checking out some ceramics with creepy baby faces on them.

Minnesota Mike will host his No Curtain Call CD Release Party at Earnestine & Hazel’s tonight from 6 to 10.

Phillip Ashley, The TaKeOver, and MANE®️ host School Daze, an Old School College Party and Movie Night this afternoon at the Orpheum at 3.

All-You-Can-Eat Night returns to the Redbirds this Thursday, June 7. With a special ticket you get a 2-hour all-you-can-eat buffet of beef sliders with fixins and potato chips, plus hot dogs. Tickets are $24 Club, $20 Dugout, and $17 Field Box.

As your #1 source of news and information about The Edge District, it is my pleasure to let you know about an event on Monday at 6:30 called Help Us Wonder. The founders of the new co-working space for artists and creatives at 340 Monroe want your ideas on what the new space should be exactly, what amenities are desired, what kinds of events should be on its programming calendar.

All right, we can’t make it through the week without at least one lunch food picture.

These are the Dan Dan Noodles from Noodles Asian Bistro and they are probably the best thing I have had there yet. The garlic soy sauce tastes great. As always, they ask if you want it spicy on a scale of 1, 2, or 3, and I asked for 3. I got it with shrimp but you can get chicken or beef as well. Next time I want to try this dish with the beef.

It’s Farmers Market time! I hope the ginger-lime popsicles are on sale there today. After the Market it will be a game-time decision whether to hit the south loop of my favorite spots or head back north. Back tomorrow with more news.

The Uptown Porch Concert Series kicks off next Tuesday, June 5 at 633 Greenlaw Place. GEIST will perform starting at 6 PM. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, snacks or dinner, whatever you want. Great way to get to know your neighbors and your neighborhood. The Porch Concert Series is funded by an event grant from the Memphis Medical District Collaborative.

Yesterday on 92.9, Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau chairman Kevin Kane announced that the third floor of AutoZone Park will become a Memphis Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.

Bloom into Flower Power is the theme at the Memphis Farmers Market this Saturday. Flowers are in full bloom this time of year and the Market has several flower vendors. Kids can bloom with a flower-themed craft 8 AM to noon. Also, 10 AM to noon tomorrow and the first and third Saturday of every month, Shamichael Hallman will lead a Cossitt Library Reading Corral at the Farmers Market. Hallman is branch manager of the Cossitt Library and civic engagement director for Fourth Bluff. There will be live local music all day long. The Farmers Market is located at the corner of Front and G.E. Patterson under the pavilion and runs 8 AM to 1 PM Saturdays.

The Tennessee Brewery apartments have hit full occupancy in less than five months.

Pam & Terry play Sleep Out Louie’s tonight 7-10. This will be the first of 10 Friday and Saturday dates for the duo during the month of June.

If you missed a chance to see Justin Timberlake for the Man of the Woods Tour this week, he’ll be back at FedExForum on January 12, 2019.

Regina’s Cajun Kitchen will have all-you-can-eat snow crabs Wednesday, June 6 from 2 to 6 PM. $25.99 gets you corn and potatoes as well as the crabs. Drink specials will be available.

I realize I haven’t posted any lunch photos this week – that’s partly because I’ve settled in on one place lately, the lunch buffet at Garibaldi’s. The kid in me gravitates toward the pizza, but the adult in me is starting to look at the other offerings. Yesterday was Thursday pot roast day on the buffet, and they had a really nice vegetable medley. They also had ravioli in meat sauce which was really good, and their salad was too.

That’ll wrap it up for now. Back tomorrow with more news.

Memphis Italian Fest is this weekend. It’s not a Downtown festival – it’s out in East Memphis at Park and Mt. Moriah in Marquette Park – but I always like to mention it for my readers who are new to Memphis. Like BBQ Fest, this is a cooking competition where teams set up elaborate booths and have great food all weekend. Also like BBQ Fest, it’s definitely more fun if you know one or more teams and are invited into their booths. Is it worth going if you don’t know a team? Yes. There are vendors selling Italian food to the public, as well as live music and more to do. One exception: It’s not worth going if it has been raining all week and the park is a mud pit, but it does not appear that will be a problem this year.

And no, my team the Moody Ques does not compete in Italian Fest. It would be a Herculean effort to do that and BBQ Fest only two weeks apart.

Voodoo Gumbo, a cover band with songs ranging from rock to pop to dance, will provide the live music for tonight’s Peabody rooftop party. $10 general admission, $20 VIP, ladies and hotel guests free before 7. Admission includes a buffet of mini meatloafs and tater tots. If you’re in VIP you have a second buffet of chicken & waffles, mini beef brisket sandwiches, and mini cheesecakes.

Side Street Steppers will play Felicia Suzanne Restaurant’s patio for this week’s edition of Tacos and Tunes starting at 7 PM. Every week there is live music along with $2 tacos and $5 drinks.

The Hernando deSoto Bridge, AKA “the new bridge” (although it’s 45 years old) AKA the I-40 bridge AKA the “M,” will be getting the LED treatment that the Harahan Bridge got to celebrate the opening of Big River Crossing. Construction will begin next month with the removal of the old lights, and the new display will be turned on in October in conjunction with RiverArtsFest which moves to the riverfront this year.

The Memphis River Parks Partnership will have its first volunteer weekend next weekend. Sign up for one of three shifts:

Friday June 8 2-5 PM
Saturday June 9 10 AM-1 PM
Saturday June 9 2-5 PM

You’ll be assigned a task such as mulching, planting, painting, fixing, or surveying. Are you the type of person who was born to lead? Come to a group leader pre-training session Thursday, June 7 and then you’ll be assigned a small group to manage and train.

The Rock & Soul Museum tweeted a great quote by Elvis Presley:

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.

Oh man, now I want to hear some Elvis! Maybe I’ll play some of his hits on the jukebox at Earnestine & Hazel’s next time I am in there.

A new art installation called Treedom is coming to A.W. Willis Avenue between Second and Third. This will be an interactive installation providing space for community meetings, meals, yoga classes and more. This Saturday, June 2 from 4 to 6 there will be a launch party for Treedom with live music, food trucks and more. The event will start off with a Second Line Parade led by Mighty Souls Brass Band.

There will be free Tillamook cheddar samples at Ghost River from 4 to 8 today. Also note that the brewery taproom will be closed for a private event.

Bring the kids to Mud Island this Saturday from 10 to 2 for Touch-a-Truck. Kids will be able to explore fire trucks, police cruisers, ambulances, motorcycles, tractors, and big mudder trucks. There will also be a splash park, face painting, food trucks, MemPoPS, and free photos at the Amurica photo booth. Admission is free.

If you missed Downtown soul food restaurant Alcenia’s on Sunday’s Today Show, here’s the video.

There was literally a wild goose chase at the Detroit Tigers game last night. The Canada goose showed up on the field during a rain delay. After several attempts to chase the goose off, it flew into the video board and fell into the stands. A fan retrieved the goose and it was deemed healthy and released outside the ballpark.

So Roseanne got canceled due to Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet. My first reaction was, “Damn, that guy who played D.J. had a good job for the first time in 20 years, and now Roseanne went and f’d it all up for him.”

Trump wants to ban the import of luxury German cars into the U.S. You just can’t fix stupid. How the hell does this guy have a 42% approval rating?

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow with news about this weekend’s Memphis Farmers Market and more.

I made an interesting discovery on the Main Street Mall yesterday.

The Downtown core is getting a Starbucks! It will be inside the Residence Inn at Main and Monroe. They plan to open at the end of June and are currently hiring baristas, with a meet & greet today and tomorrow from 10 AM-1 PM. Apply in person at the Residence Inn.

I posted the “coming soon” photo to Facebook, and it quickly generated some strong emotions. Some clicked the “Love” button, while others clicked “Angry,” not wanting the corporate coffee chain Downtown. Personally, I am happy to have Starbucks as an option, although I will point out we already have a great place that serves coffee, Cafe Keough, in that same block. In addition to coffee Cafe Keough has great food and a full bar. They have a loyal customer base as well and I don’t expect their business to be seriously impacted by Starbucks.

Swanky Downtown Asian fusion restaurant Blue Fin has rolled out a new deli menu. (Click to see in a larger size; you absolutely MUST see this)

You can get a K-Pop Taco, a Memphis Ball (I think they mean “bowl” but I’m really not sure), or a wrap with “wrap sauce.” Just don’t ask for combo #3. You know, I have several Asian fusion places out in Germantown near where I work, and not one of them serves a 4 pc chicken tenders. Leave it to Downtown to lead the way in culinary trends!

The Orpheum has announced that Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite will play a September 11 show. Tickets go on sale this Friday.

Justin Timberlake plays FedExForum tonight for his Man of the Woods Tour. The people-watching Downtown (and by people-watching I mean hot women) should be exquisite. PRO TIP: It’s hard to beat the window seats at the Flying Saucer on nights like this.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow with more.

Every Sunday night at 6 Pattee O’ Furniture AKA Positive Pattee calls bingo at Oshi Asian Kitchen. Winners of each of the 11 rounds get their choice of a prize bag and the grand prize is a $25 bar tab.

Pattee has all kinds of different formats for her rounds of bingo: Make an H, make an L, make an I, make an M, standard bingo, blackout. It’s a lot of fun and if you’re hungry there’s great sushi and Asian food.

I hit a bingo on two of the eleven rounds but tied both times and lost rock, paper, scissors to break the tie. I used to be a champion (Flying Saucer 2008) and I must admit it’s difficult to be entering the twilight of my rock, paper, scissors career. Maybe I can pull a Z-bo and sign one last big contract.

Pattee is great at making all of her guests feel welcome and special. Between rounds she pointed me out to the crowd and announced my BBQ team’s 7th place finish in shoulder and I got a round of applause.

I found a great website this week: Mid-South Flair. They sell T-shirts featuring the Memphis of days gone by. The Shoe on Lamar… Fat Jimmy’s Pizza and Ribs… Captain Bilbo’s… etc. I have a suggestion for an addition though – Pat’s Pizza. When we went to Rhodes we used to go see Mrs. Pat and watch the rats run around the overhead lighting.

Reminds me… over my BBQ Fest vacation I was at Bardog and Bloom told me, “You went to Rhodes? You don’t seem like a Rhodes alum at all.” She meant it as a compliment.

We have one more place in the Memphis metro making great local craft beer. Rock ‘n Dough Germantown is now brewing. Great place – I go there for lunch from time to time. No beer for me on my lunch break though.

It’s 9:36. Bardog has been open for 96 minutes and I’m not there yet! Gotta go. Back tomorrow with more news.