The Moody Ques board had a planning meeting yesterday. I will get a team email out and a summary on the team website. However, some big news came out of the meeting, and it may be useful to some of my readers so I wanted to go ahead and share it with you here.
A common perception is that if you want to sponsor a team at BBQ Fest, it’s going to cost you $7500-$10,000 or more, which is why you only see big corporations as sponsors. That’s not exactly true – we’ve always had sponsorships as low as the $2000 level. However, we recognize that still is unaffordable to a lot of great Memphis businesses – startups, mom & pop operations who’d like to expand their customer base, mid-sized business who just have never had much of a budget for BBQ Fest. We hate it that businesses like those have been left out.
Therefore, the Moody Ques are offering a new $750 sponsorship level this year. If your main goal is to impress clients, that can get you a table for 8 for dinner one night in our booth at BBQ Fest. On the other hand, if your main interest is raising awareness of your business and attracting new customers, that sponsorship level will let you hang advertising inside our booth and leave business cards on our bar. If your goal is something else, let us know and we can work with you.
Why the Moody Ques? We are a team consisting mainly of young professionals who have considerable discretionary income which we spend at area shopping, restaurants, and bars. Many of us are active on social media and would be willing to mention your sponsorship. Unlike some of the other local teams, we are a young-ish team with average age of mid to late 30s. We have placed top 3 in Best Booth every year except one since we started the team in 2012. The Best Booth awards draw a lot of attention to the booth, a lot of people asking if they can come in and look around – and just think, they’d be looking at your advertising. And besides, how cool would it be to be able to mention “my company’s BBQ team” in conversation?
If interested, email moodyques@gmail.com and someone will get right back to you. If you want a bigger sponsorship than the $750 level, check out our sponsor packet.
We plan on having a full team meeting sometime in March, tentatively March 24. This kind of meeting is important because
- Gives team members a chance to socialize and know one another prior to BBQ Fest, when everyone tends to be running around getting chores done
- Gives team members a chance to meet the cooks and ask any questions they have about what goes on in the kitchen, their background/previous awards, etc.
- Opportunity for team members to learn how they can help – pre-construction tasks, load-in, booth construction, front-of-house duties during the festival, load-out
- Also an opportunity for people who have never joined a BBQ team before to come and hear what it is like to be on a team
- Any sponsors who sign on by the date of the full team meeting will be welcome to come out and talk about their business
We plan on competing in a regional between now and BBQ Fest to get a little practice in. This is not set in stone but we are looking at Southaven Springfest the 4th weekend in April as a possibility. We have a history of taking home awards at that event and would be happy to add to our trophy case.
One more announcement for team members: Pay yo’ dues if you haven’t already. It’s on the right sidebar of the team website, or the bottom of the home page if you’re viewing with a smartphone. If you would prefer to pay by check or cash, email moodyques@gmail.com and we can make arrangements.
If you click on the photo above to zoom in, you’ll notice the Deputy Director of Public Relations standing on the counter next to my notebook. She may be retired but she’s still on the BBQ team so she comes out for meetings.
On to the news… this is still in the rumor stage but I am hearing that a well-known local pizza place may be coming to the food hall at 409 S. Main in the coming months.
A new vintage store called Market on Madison opened in The Edge last Thursday. They have dry goods, antiques, home decor, gifts and more.
You’ve probably heard by now about the New York bar that bans customers who use the word “literally,” calling it the most overused, incorrectly word in the English language. I’ll tell you why I never fell into the habit of using that word: It’s because I watched pro wrestling and read wrestling magazines in the 1980s. The Sunday morning WWF show would open with Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura at the commentary desk. “We’ve got a jam-packed arena here, Jess! They’re literally hanging from the rafters!” Monsoon would say. Because of that, he made a magazine’s list of worst wrestling commentators, the writers pointing out that what he said meant that people were actually hanging from rafters in the arena.
By the way, Dallas announcer Bill Mercer made the top of the list. He mispronounced Nord the Barbarian’s name as Nord the Norwegian and talked about how Nord got so big and strong back in his home country of Norwegia.
Mardi Gras bar crawl in South End!
I remember what I was little, I was given a school assignment to interview my mom and write about the slang words she used when she was my age. In 2045, a paper will be turned in at some school, somewhere in America, reading: “In 2018 some bitches was basic and other bitches was bein’ extra.”
I’ve been asked how I’m doing with my quest to give up Fireball. Doing great. I don’t miss the stuff at all. Everyone at the bar can be doing shots and I don’t feel even the slightest need to join in. I am sleeping so much better. Last night I brought kung pao shrimp home about 6 PM, planning to eat and then get in bed for a halftime nap, waking up about 11 to go out again. Well, I did wake up at 11, but I decided more sleep sounded better than going back out in the cold. I slept until 7 this morning. I had a dream that I was at the Saucer with two of my BBQ teammates and I began to levitate above the bar. It’s my belief that nothing is as healing for the body as dreaming, and levitation dreams are the best. I never had them on any night when I had taken a Fireball.
Heading out to Blind Bear where B-RAD is doing a special Sunday shift. Not sure where I will watch the Super Bowl yet. The troll is un-retired for another day because she bought a square in one of the local “squares” games. That’s it for now, back tomorrow with more.
