Thursday update: Brewery road trip recommendation and more

Being a native of Little Rock, I follow the @WooPigBrewey Twitter account to keep up with beer news in central Arkansas, and was recently reminded of a brewery I visited back in January: Lost Forty Brewing in east Little Rock. I would definitely recommend that place as a day trip for my beer-loving readers. What separates Lost Forty from most breweries is that they don’t bring in food trucks. Rather, they have their own kitchen. Their menu is the best beer-bar menu I have ever seen – better than any iteration of the Saucer, better than McGuinness’ menu when they were Downtown, better than Gordon Biersch’s menu when they were Downtown. Highlights include

  • House-smoked turkey salad sandwich
  • House-made bratwurst
  • Petit Jean bacon and cheese dip
  • Open-faced fried Italian bologna sandwich with an egg on top
  • Smoked jalapeno Pimiento cheese
  • House-smoked turkey Reuben with Swiss, sauerkraut, and homemade Thousand Island
  • Hoppin’ john hummus

Check out their entire menu on Facebook if you like what you read above. The brewery is about a 10-minute walk or 2-minute drive from Downtown Little Rock. By the way, their beer was outstanding too, and their brewers couldn’t be nicer. As I was leaving Lost Forty, one of the brewers was outside getting some fresh air, and he was so excited when he learned I was from Memphis and asked all about the craft beer scene here.

The Memphis Flyer reports that tater tots are now available at all Huey’s restaurants. Hmmm really? I just might have to get a Huey Burger and some tots to take home tonight.

A month or two ago it became widely known that agents of the TV show Bar Rescue were cold-calling bars in the Memphis area. For those not familiar with the show, industry expert Jon Taffer and his team will come into a bar, renovate, train staff and make staff changes if needed, redesign the menu, and (in most cases) re-brand, hoping to turn the bar’s fortunes around. As I said, they were cold-calling, reaching out to bars that clearly do not need Taf’s help. They called the Silly Goose, for example.

Well, it looks like Taffer may have found his Memphis episode. Tuesday afternoon he posted

Come join me tonight at 6:30pm CT
GameTime Sports Grill
11695 US 70
Arlington, TN 3802
“It might be stressful .”

All-levels yoga class to benefit Grizzlies Prep tonight at Ghost River:

YOGA!

The Downtown Memphis Commission has acquired an option to purchase the building that was the former home of Murray’s clothing store at 18 S. Main on the pedestrian mall. They have put out a Request For Proposals to occupy the building. They want a full renovation with commercial/retail on the ground floor and residential or office space above. They want a tenant who will start work on the building within 120 days of agreement, and who will add foot traffic and vibrancy to that block of Main.

Great trivia night by Charles at the Blind Bear, who asked a question about the movie Trolls last night. “Who said, ‘No troll left behind?'” Although not a big movie watcher myself, I knew the answer to that one – Poppy.

Jerry Lawler’s Bar and Grill on Beale will have a Halloween party Saturday, October 28. Live music by Chris Hill at 9, $3 Fireball all night, and a costume contest with $500 cash to the winner. Speaking of Lawler, don’t forget that there’s a free wrestling show tonight at Handy Park at 7. He’s main-eventing vs. Buff Bagwell.

Also, speaking of Halloween, the Downtown Memphis Commission has a great Halloween guide.

Something to keep in mind if you have floor seats for Grizzlies games:

Great post by a former Memphian: Hey Chandler, this is how you win over Memphis basketball fans. It’s all stuff that can be done off the court, and most definitely Z-bo-inspired. I was disappointed when Parsons bricked free throws early on, but from what I hear, he is working as hard as he can. When Marc Gasol says, “Booing Chandler is booing Mike and me,” that’s all I need to hear to cheer for Chandler Parsons.

Great speech by George W. Bush today. More and more I am coming to understand what a patriot the former president is. We need to return to being a nation of decency and inclusion.

That’s it for now. I’ll be out at happy hour at Silly Goose after work. Back tomorrow with more news.

Wed update: Go Grizzlies, aquarium proposal, Maciel’s open and more

Second post in a row with BIG NEWS: An aquarium has been proposed for Mud Island. Local firm Archimania put together the proposal and it is said to be “world-class,” offering the chance to study groundwater, fish and fowl along the Mississippi. If we get the aquarium on Mud Island and the Brooks Museum relocates to Front and Union, we will have come a long way toward the re-thinking of the Memphis Riverfront that has been discussed the past year.

Maciel’s Tortas and Tacos is back in business, finally! They will be open 11 AM to 8 PM today.

Authentic reproductions of Christopher Columbus’ ships, the Nina and the Pinta, will be docked at Beale Street Landing today through Monday. Come take a tour of the ships and grab some food at The Front Porch.

The CA has a beautiful article celebrating the life of Eric Janssen, a former employee and a man who lived and breathed Memphis. Eric died from an accidental fall in Chicago Monday. Eric was a newspaper employee who was an early adopter of digital media. Long-time readers may remember that in 2006, I did a blog for the CA called Deal of the Week picking the best deals from the Sunday advertising inserts in the newspaper. Eric offered me that gig.

If you’re going to the Grizzlies home opener tonight, get there early, because Playa Fly and Gangsta Blac will be performing pre-game. 7 PM tip. In other Grizzlies news, this thank-you letter to Memphis from former Grizzly/current New Orleans Pelican Tony Allen is well worth a read.

Save the date: Ghost River celebrates its taproom’s first birthday Saturday, November 4. They will have a giant Small Shop Saturday with many vendors (click the link for a full list) 1-6 PM. Live music by Cameron Bethany and MAKEMADBEATS from Unapologetic starting at 8. Sushicide Squad food truck noon to 5, El Mero Taco 6 to close. Hourly giveaways (click the link for a full list; must be present to win).

Five-time Grammy winner Marty Stuart plays the Halloran Centre tonight at 7:30. Get there early, though, because at 6:30 Empire Distributors will host a tasting for a cocktail called the ’55 Makers Punch, made with Maker’s Mark, in honor of Stuart’s song “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’.” Live music by Nancy Apple in the lobby prior to the show.

Two Girls and a Whip have added a Pina Colada cupcake to their selection. It’s in the case today.

Living Colour will perform at the New Daisy next Wednesday, October 25.

That’s it for now. Tonight I will be at the Silly Goose for happy hour, but it may take an extra minute to get a beer as the place will be swarmed with Grizzlies fans pre-gaming. That is a first-class kind of problem that I am happy to have! Back tomorrow with more news.

Brooks considering move Downtown + more Tuesday news

BIG NEWS today: The board of the Brooks Museum of Art, facing space issues and other issues in their Overton Park location, is considering moving the museum Downtown. One of the suggestions in a recent study on what to do with the riverfront was the inclusion of “an iconic cultural asset.” There’s interest in the Brooks being that asset. This would be the biggest news for Downtown since we got the Grizzlies.

I Love Juice Bar will be the first retail tenant in the Tennessee Brewery project. It will open next spring. The juice bar already has locations on South Cooper and in Crosstown Concourse.

Beale Street beacons: The new Beale Street smartphone app interacts with 100 beacons placed at various locations on and around Beale, Once notifications are turned on, when you get near a beacon you get information including historical context, news on upcoming events, special offers, and coupons.

Emmy Award-winning writer and comedian John Mulaney will be on stage at the Orpheum tonight at 7.

Coach Fiz is giving away 500 tickets to the Grizzlies home season opener tomorrow night. The giveaway happens at FedExForum’s Grand Lobby today at 1:30. Limit two tickets per person. Every fan attending the home opener gets a Grit Grind Forever growl towel.

Pink Floyd fans, put Saturday, October 21 on your calendar for Oh, by the Way, Which One’s Pink? at Wiseacre Brewing Co. It will be an evening of Pink Floyd songs by Mister Adams. Admission is free and of course there will be great craft beer to drink.

Memphis Blues Society’s 2017 Battle of the Blues Challenge happens this evening and tomorrow evening at Club 152. It will feature youth, solo/duo acts, and bands competing under International Blues Challenge rules. The winning youth act, solo/duo act, and band will qualify for the 2018 IBC in January.

South Side Supper Club plays Belle Tavern tonight from 7 to 10 PM.

Many people don’t realize that Swarm by Foursquare, the app in which you check in to venues and become “mayor,” is still around. For the past two years I have been involved in an intense (but friendly) battle for the mayorships of two Downtown bars, Bardog Tavern and Earnestine & Hazel’s. I will get those mayorships back for good, but for the worst possible reason. Goodbye, my friend. It was a pleasure talking with you over beer and Soul Burgers on Saturdays. Your love for our city was apparent in everything you did. Glad we got to be BBQ teammates this year.

On a happier note, happy birthday to Coonass NEAL! His birthday party is Downtown tonight and I wouldn’t miss it, so that’s the plan. Back tomorrow with more news.

Win this hearse + Saturday news

My favorite Bardog Tavern promotion is back! You could be the owner of 225 beautiful inches of hearse. All month long, you can enter a raffle for chances to win. Cost to enter is $1 for 1 ticket, $5 for 7 tickets, or $10 for 20 tickets. This looks to be an early to mid ’90s model Cadillac Fleetwood. I looked it up and this thing gets 17 MPG city/26 MPG highway, which is actually a little better than I expected.

What a game last night. Most of us know the Grizzlies as the team that grits and grinds. The Grizz are known for scoring in the 80s and 90s but having such good defense that the other team scores less. Last night, however, was completely different, as Memphis put up 142 against the New Orleans Pelicans, earning a 41-point margin of victory. The new-look Grizzlies are going to be fun to watch if this keeps up all season.

Congratulations to Flight restaurant at Main and Monroe on being named one of the country’s top 25 fine dining restaurants in Trip Advisor’s Travelers’ Choice poll. Flight is known for its “flights” that allow you to try small portions of multiple entrees in one sitting – perfect for people who like variety. They have wine flights too.

Random thing I learned yesterday: There is a bar in Louisville called Troll Pub Under the Bridge.

Volleyball is back at Tom Lee Park.

Loflin Yard will host Howl-O-Ween Sunday, October 29 from 3 to 7 PM. There will be a pet costume contest at 5. Stop by the Hollywood Feed booth when you get there to register your pet. There will be prizes and goodie bags.

The Side Street Steppers will bring their retro hootenanny style to The Front Porch restaurant at Beale Street Landing tonight from 6 to 8.

Memphis interstate highways need this:

A retired professor at the Wharton School of Business and Finance said the Trumpster was the “dumbest ——- student I ever had.” The professor said Trump thought he already knew everything. Yep, that’s our president. That’s the man with the nuclear codes.

Off to do my Saturday things. Back tomorrow with more news.

Friday update #2

South Main Sounds Songwriter Night #68 happens tonight 7 to 9 PM at 550 S. Main. Shannon LeBrie, on her way back to New Orleans, will join Skylar Gregg from Nashville. There will also be two veterans of the songwriter night performing, Paul Waits and Regional Nash Next winner Amber Rae Dunn.

Happy Friday, YOGA! Downtown Yoga is having a Fall Flash Sale where you can get 10 classes for $99. Use the promo code FALL.

Good gourd, we’ve got gourds is the theme of this week’s Memphis Farmers Market. Buy some decorative gourds to spruce up your home, and also buy some edible members of the gourd family – pumpkins, winter squash, butternut squash, acorn squash – to serve for dinner. Live music all day long. There are only three Markets left in the season – last one is Saturday, October 28. Wonder if the last one will be a “dress up for Halloween” market? You know I had a lot of fun with that last year. The Market is at the corner of Front and G.E. Patterson the next three Saturdays from 7 AM to 1 PM.

Old Dominick will host a Hocus Pocus Halloween Party tomorrow from 7 to 11 PM.

Loflin Yard has a Porch Series during October on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, featuring performances on the porch of the Coach House. Tomorrow from 3 to 6 South Side Supper Club will be the featured band. There is no cover and you can grab a beer or fall cocktail to enjoy along with the music.

Per the Grizzlies, Chandler Parsons is out for tonight’s pre-season game vs. New Orleans for personal reasons.

Yay… got my fall vacation scheduled figured out. I usually take my birthday and days around it off, but this year my birthday is on a Saturday so I won’t spend it in a cubicle in any event. I decided to instead take Monday-Tuesday, December 4-5 off. There’s always a lot to celebrate the first weekend of December so I figured I’d make it a long one!

Donald Trump said he met with the president of the U.S. Virgin Islands, not realizing that he is the president of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

That’s it for now. This is my second post, so keep scrolling down for more news and thoughts on what makes a great food competition festival.

What makes a good food festival? + Friday news

Seth of Best Memphis Burger Fest asked a really interesting question to competitors of his food festival and others on Facebook: What is most important to you about competing in a food fest? Is it prize money that at minimum covers the entry fee? Cool trophies? Bragging rights? Qualification into another festival? Something else? I responded on Facebook but I figured I’d post here as well and go into more detail.

(By the way – in the answer below I am speaking as Paul Ryburn, a guy on a food competition team. NOT as spokesman of the Moody Ques)

In order of importance as I see it:

Bragging rights – You betta’ believe I have been doing lots of bragging about my team’s trophies in Specialty Burger and Bloody Mary this week. Some people on the Facebook thread seemed to think bragging rights are not a big deal. Let me tell you, though, when you earn the right to tell people that your team makes a better anything-goes burger than LBOE… that’s kind of a big deal.

Ability for teams to bring in whatever kind of beer they want – A food festival without PBR is like a day without sunshine. Please don’t take my sunshine away.

(Goal for the weekend: Serenade a can of PBR with “You Are My Sunshine”)

Prize money – A major category win should have a cash prize greater than or equal to cost of entry. Minor categories, not necessarily. So first in Veggie Burger at Burger Fest should at least pay back entry cost; first in Bloody Mary doesn’t necessarily need to. Second and third in major categories should pay out something although it shouldn’t have to cover the entry.

Cool trophies – these are always fun to put on display. However, I would prefer holding an ACME Trophy Co. Model #SX94Z rather than an imaginative trophy that looks like the competition item if I’m not allowed to hold a PBR in my other hand.

Qualification into another festival doesn’t matter to me in the least. Yes, back when Burger Fest was affiliated with the World Food Championships, it would have been cool to qualify, but mostly for bragging rights. Having to take days off work and figure out how to haul our equipment down to the WFC host city would have been quite a pain.

On to the news…

Heels and Faux Killas headline the Dock Party series this week at Ghost River tonight at 8. $5 cover, family-friendly, patio is dog-friendly. Ghost River, by the way, announced that bottles of Midnight Magic Black Ale will soon be in stores.

Tony Allen returns to FedExForum tonight as the Memphis Grizzlies host the New Orleans Pelicans in a pre-season game tonight at 7. I mistakenly referred to this as a regular season game in a few conversations earlier this week. The Pelicans will return for the first regular season game next week.

Former Memphis Grizzlies announcer Rick Trotter has been indicted on four counts of taking upskirt photos of women at the church where he was a leader.

Whatcha gonna do, brother, whatcha gonna do… It’s going to be a new world order tonight when Hulk Logan plays The Front Porch, the restaurant in Beale Street Landing, tonight from 6 to 8, brother. I wonder if Mr. Logan plays “Eye of the Tiger” or “Voodoo Chile”?

That’ll do it for now. Off to work. May do another post at lunchtime.

Thursday update

Memphis Madness, introducing the 2017-18 Memphis Tigers basketball teams, is tonight at FedExForum. There’s a meet-the-players autograph session at 6, followed by team introduction and a scrimmage at 7. There will be a dunk competition, former Tigers men’s and women’s players, and performances by Memphis Pom Squad, Mighty Sound of the South, iHeartMemphis, and Gabrielle Nicole. The event is family-friendly. Tickets are $5, with free admission to kids under 12 and U of M students.

This weekend, Old Dominick Distillery and Dream Bars are teaming up to transform the distillery into witchy digs straight out of Salem. Tonight at 7 there will be Hocus Pocus Trivia.

Mark the calendar for next Thursday. YOGA!

Pontotoc opens next week at 314 S. Main in the former Cafe Pontotoc space. It will be run by Daniel Masters of the Silly Goose. There will be jazz music and initially it will only be open for dinner, adding breakfast, lunch, and brunch later.

The Brass Door is hiring servers and bartenders who can bring warm hospitality in an Irish setting. They are taking applications today, tomorrow, and Saturday 11 AM-3 PM. The Brass Door is at 152 Madison between Second and Third. They ask that you apply in person rather than call. The Brass Door has brought the folks who run the Majestic in as consultants for the Irish pub’s re-opening.

Local artist Kong Wee Pang has been selected to lead a lighting and mural installation on the I-40 underpass at the Cook Convention Center.

Grizzlies owner Robert Pera has indicated that he expects Tony Allen’s #9 jersey to be hanging in the rafters at FedExForum next to Zach Randolph’s #50 one day. That is an idea I can totally get behind.

Any of my readers been to Esperanza Bonanza in Marion, Arkansas, particularly the BBQ competition? We’re looking for a spring regional in which to compete. I posted this question to Facebook and Heath from Victory Lane BBQ responded that it is a good one. That tells me two things: 1) It must indeed be a good competition if Victory Lane enters; 2) Our chances of becoming grand champion out in Marion are likely about 0.01% if Victory Lane enters. :mrgreen:

Trump dumped: Donald Trump’s planned visit to England next year has been downgraded and will no longer be a State Visit. That means there will be no pomp & circumstance, no state dinner, no military parades, he won’t spend the night in Buckingham Palace, and he very likely won’t meet the Queen. By contrast, the Queen had lunch on her 90th birthday with President Barack Obama.

That’s it for now. I’ll be out at Silly Goose happy hour after work. Back tomorrow.

Tuesday update

Skinny, organizer of the Grilled Cheese Fest scheduled for November at the Hi-Tone, posted some bad news yesterday. Due to an unexpected and unavoidable oversight by the city permit office, the street closure that had been requested will not be possible. Therefore the festival has to be canceled. Ticket sales will be refunded as will money paid by teams, vendors, and food trucks. Although my team never competed in the event, I am sad to hear this news, knowing it was an event to which many of my friends looked forward.

The October Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting will be a good one. On Tuesday, October 24 at 6 PM, the meeting will be held at the new Pontotoc at 314 S. Main. The speaker will be Daniel Masters, new owner of Pontotoc and longtime owner of the Silly Goose. He will speak about his plans to carry on the tradition of the cafe. Catered hors d’oeurvres, DNA beer bar and wine bar.

In other festival news, Holly (@ilovememphis) tweeted that Southern Hot Wing Fest is moving to Tiger Lane and will be on April 21, 2018. Although I normally would hate to hear of Downtown losing a festival, the wing fest never really felt right on Riverside. Tiger Lane is a great spot for a food fest, and other festivals might want to consider moving there as well (BBQ Fest: I do NOT mean you).

South Main was recently named one of the most stylish streets in America by Thrillist.

Being a weather fan, and having taught math classes back in the ’90s that included a chapter on probability, I remember reading a statistic that in Memphis, there was a 1.4% chance of an October with at least one day with a high of 90 or above. What do you think that chance is now? 50% maybe?

Fun fact: In WWE 2K18, World Wrestling Entertainment’s next-generation video game scheduled for Friday release, you can play Colonel Sanders as a character.

What I learned today: If there have been several hours of heavy/torrential ran in the early morning, don’t take I-55 South out of Downtown. There was a foot of pooling water covering all three southbound lanes just south of the McLemore exit. I was amazed that no one had wrecked.

Don’t forget that the A. W. Willis bridge to Mud Island is closed through next Monday for work on the railroad tracks. There was said to be a 20 minute delay to get off the island via N. Mud Island Drive/Second Street this morning.

Burger teams: Best Memphis Burger Fest has posted complete score details where you can see how each judge graded each burger.

This week President Trump has said he has a higher IQ than his secretary of state, and has nicknamed the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “Liddle.” Way to be a statesman there, Mr. Trump.

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

More about Burger Fest results + Monday news

Yesterday I learned some interesting things about Best Memphis Burger Fest this year that I thought I would share.

The story behind the winning hot dog

I had heard that championship hot dog team Squeal Street had hand-made their hot dog, but yesterday I found out the full story. It was made by Mike, the Wednesday-Sunday night bartender at Max’s Sports Bar. After Burger Fest Squeal Street took the giant check down to Max’s and they had a big celebration. “If you had any doubt Max’s has the best hot dogs in town, now you know,” one of my teammates who was at Max’s Saturday night told me. They have a new hot dog menu that I have got to try soon.

One ten-thousandth

In second place in Specialty Burger with a score of 155.1434, Bluff City Burgers. In third place with a score of 155.1433, the Moody Ques. That’s right, we missed second by a ten-thousandth of a point. Seth said he had never seen a top-three finish that close before.

Distractions, distractions

Two weeks before Burger Fest there was a breakfast festival out at the Med Center. We were invited to compete but chose not to, believing that we needed to focus on burgers and get a third practice cook in that day. It was absolutely the right move – our third-place Specialty Burger would not have scored so high without that third practice.

“For every team competing in both the breakfast festival and Burger Fest, that’s one spot we’re going to move up in the overall Burger Fest standings,” I commented the week before the breakfast festival. Sure enough, that week people were talking about omelets, breakfast sandwiches, breakfast sweets. I smiled and thought, “You’re not talking about burgers. We’re talking about burgers.”

After the breakfast fest was over, members of one of the teams were up at the Silly Goose telling the bartender about their winning omelet. I smiled and took a sip of PBR as I thought, “You’re still not talking about burgers. And there’s less than two weeks until Burger Fest.”

Yesterday I was at the Blind Bear with team president John D, and he said we need to find something to compete in this spring. I was very happy to hear his next words… “a regional, maybe?” YES! Not the Pineapple Lovers Fest, not the Vienna Sausage Fest, not the Chicken Necks Fest or some other festival that would distract us from our main mission. A BBQ team practicing for BBQ Fest by competing in a regional BBQ festival – well, that sounds like a good idea.

The results

We got 3rd in Bloody Mary, getting on stage to collect a trophy.

We finished 12th in Veggie Burger. That result absolutely shocked me, because our Veggie Burger entry was the best meatless burger I have had in my life. Pretty much everyone else on the team agreed. We were sure that was the burger that was going to get us on stage to collect a trophy. I find it really hard to believe that 11 teams turned in something better than we did, and I feel horrible for head veggie burger cook Staci who poured her heart and soul into the burger. I wonder if it got jostled on the walk to the judging building and messed up our presentation.

The Classic Cheeseburger was the one where I had no idea where we would finish. At the first practice cook there was a suggestion that we keep it simple. “I think the judges would appreciate that,” said a team member.

As a former judge, I knew that while the judges may appreciate a simple burger, it won’t get 9s on their scorecard. I advised the team if they wanted to keep it simple, that’s fine, but have an angle – have one or two things about the burger that stand out and command attention. Thus the Fontina Brioche Burger was born. It apparently didn’t command attention enough though – it finished 18th out of a field of 26 teams that turned in entries, our only bottom-half finish. So clearly we need to re-think things there. Perhaps it is time to abandon “keep it simple” and push the boundaries as hard as we can given the rules of that category.

We got 3rd in Specialty, and another .0001 of a point would have tied us for second.

In the overall score, we finished 12th out of a field of 26 teams. Top half – happy enough with that, although the goal I had in mind was top 7. We were surrounded by familiar teams – Flying Saucer finished one spot ahead of us at 11. Dirty Crow Inn finished one behind us at 13. In 16th place was championship hot dog team Squeal Street.

The winning Specialty Burger

The Flying Saucer made its 1st-place Specialty Burger its burger of the day yesterday, and we got a list of the ingredients: Mushroom truffle aioli, bacon onion marmalade, whiskey cheddar, bib lettuce, and heirloom tomato

Air fryer on sale today

Half the team wants an air fryer after seeing Staci’s success cooking curly fries with one Saturday and at the practices. Kinja Deals posted that there is one on sale for $40 today.

On to the news

A building next to Sun Studio is being redeveloped. It will hold five studio apartments and three retail bays. The developer is looking to recruit retailers that are “very Memphis” and which will attract attention from tourists next door. This is certainly good news for The Edge neighborhood.

Max’s Sports Bar will open at 3 this afternoon for the Cubs game.

The SMA’s monthly meeting is tomorrow evening (social at 6/presentation at 6:30) at Ghost River Brewing at Main and Crump. Chuck Mitchell, RiverArtsFest director, will speak about the logistics of South Main’s largest event of the year. Wine and catering courtesy of RiverArtsFest, and there will be a cash bar in the Ghost River taproom. There will be a drawing to win a bottle of wine from The Corkscrew. Free for members, $10 for non-members.

The Grizzlies play an away pre-season game tonight at Atlanta. Tip-off is 6:30 and the game will be on Fox Sports Southeast.

B-RAD, the Sunday bartender at Blind Bear for the past 2 1/2 years, is moving back to his original day, Saturday, starting this week. This will allow him to have two days off in a row. So D-RANKS with B-RAD will be on Saturdays now. He was the Saturday bartender from the time he was hired in 2013 through January 3, 2015. If you’re wondering how I remember that exact date, his last Saturday shift was the day he told me I had an “admirer.” (no, not Rahul or Tony)

Bardog: Don’t worry, I will still lead off there on Saturdays. That’s a tradition I refuse to mess with.

I have a feeling Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker is going to be one of the most quoted politicians the next 15 months. Yesterday he said that the White House has become an adult day care. LOVE IT.

Probably going to head to the Silly Goose after work and tell Monday bartender Brittani about our adventures at Burger Fest. Members of championship hot dog team Squeal Street hang out there too, so perhaps she’ll get to hear the stories of two teams. Back tomorrow with more news.