Paul Ryburn's Journal

You never know what’s going to happen on Sunday Fun Day in Downtown Memphis. Yesterday I led off the day at Bardog. One of the regulars there had dressed up as a bunny for Halloween. He brought the bunny suit and people took turns putting it on. There are large wooden stairs by the window right now, that were used for people to climb up on the bar for the Halloween costume contest. They haven’t been taken back to storage yet and people got up on the steps and danced, in the bunny suit, in the window. I can’t imagine what tourists thought as they walked by. Maybe every bar in the city should get a dancing bunny. It could be a Memphis thang.

After the bunny crowd left Bardog, I saw a friend of mine check in at Silly Goose, commenting, “Bardog puked and it landed on the Goose,” so I guess that was their next stop.

I’ll be at Bardog this evening for Melissa Monday (happy hour with Melissa), but I’ll be there for an additional reason as well: To see who wins the bike.

Bardog is giving away a New Belgium Fat Tire bike tonight. Since early September, an entry in the drawing has come with each purchase of a Fat Tire. Tonight is the drawing.

Stumbling Santa has been announced for Saturday, December 6. This is an enormous pub crawl that happens every yea
r to collect toys and money for Porter-Leath. Over 1000 people dress up as Santa and stumble around from one Downtown bar to another all evening. Want to be part of it? Put on your Santa suit (or Mrs. Claus, reindeer, whatever) and bring one or more toys to the Flying Saucer at 7 PM. The Saucer will be the starting and ending point of the crawl; other stops to be announced.

Kinda funny… Grizzlies rookie Jordan Adams missed trick-or-treating because there was a game on Halloween. He tweeted that he hoped someone saved him some candy, and got a response from owner Robert Pera.

The Memphis Business Journal’s BBQ Brackets are down to the Swinal Four. Two of the round of eight matchups were very, very close to a 50-50 tie.

Time to get back to work. I’ll be out at Melissa Monday and Pint Nite at the Saucer after work.

The Mad Earl posted a chart (hope that link works, it’s a Facebook image) of their 17 types of chicken wing sauces. To help you choose, they have the sauces graphed, with “hot” on the x axis and “crazy” on the y axis. There seems to be a sauce for everyone, even Memphis residents who are natives of the planet Zambodia – for them there’s “The Zambodian” with maple syrup and cereal sauce. Burlesque dancer and bingo host Kitty Wompas has a sauce named for her, and from the description it sounds like the one I would be inclined to order, equivalent to extra hot at other wing joints. Bartender Ugly has a spicy BBQ sauce named after him. Their hottest and craziest sauce is called “F-U-J” and Clay claims it will shut up anyone who says that the Mad Earl’s wings are not hot enough. Wings are 75 cents apiece and are discounted to 50 cents on Mondays and when the Grizzlies are playing.

Kooky Canuck is days away from opening its second location at 1250 Germantown Parkway. For those of you out in Cordova who have never been to the downtown location, you’re going to love it. Here are a few of my recommendations:

• Great maple sirloin – it’s just the right portion if you want steak but don’t have a huge appetite. It comes in a skillet with blue cheese mashed potatoes and green beans.
• Four cheese burger – my favorite burger on the menu. I like to add mushrooms or bacon to this one.
• Yonge Street burger – a close second favorite. A double decker with bacon and special sauce.
• Wings – Kooky’s wings are big, tasty, and served in generous portions. I usually get them with the hot sauce, although some of my friends rave about the strawberry jalapeno. The Holy Smokes wings are the equivalent of suicide wings at other restaurants and should be approached with extreme caution. At most places I prefer blue cheese with wings but Kooky’s Dill Ranch sauce is the bomb.
• Fried ham and cheese sandwich – you won’t find “American Heart Association approved” next to this on the menu.
• Southwest chicken salad – I love the cilantro sour cream that comes with this one. You can substitute fried green tomatoes for the chicken if you like.

This is also an excellent place to go if you’re a hockey fan, because the owners are too.

The Loony Bin, the new gallery at 8 South Main, has announced that they will do pet photography starting today. You can make an appointment to bring your pet by to be photographed by professionals.

The Mystery Beer Tub got me again! After getting off work early, I met a buddy at the Silly Goose for happy hour. About 6:30 he went home to change and I went to the Flying Saucer, planning to meet him back at the Goose in a couple of hours. I started with my usual Dos Equis Lager (now $5.50 a pint) then switched to the $2 mystery beer tub that they have every Halloween. My first pull from the tub was a can of Old Milwaukee, my bad luck streak from 2013 continuing. My second pull, however, was a large bottle of beer I didn’t recognize that must have had an ABV of close to 10%. It was delicious but it hit me hard. By the time I got back to the Goose I was out of it and sleepy. Got home pretty early for Halloween.

If you want more Halloween fun, the Blind Bear is doing Halloween all weekend long. $5 Rogeue Dead Guy 16oz drat, $3 for 16oz aluminum bottle of Bud or Bud Light, Fireball or moonshine, $4 drink specials through close Sunday. Costume contest tonight at midnight, and live music tonight as well.

As usual, I’m leading off at Panda’s bar at Bardog today at 11. This afternoon I will head south for the Memphis Farmers Market’s Barnyard Ball. I still have my extra ticket so text me if interested. Check back, because I plan on posting a sample chapter from my new book before I go out today.

Usually I do a post the week before Halloween announcing what parties are happening on what nights… but with Halloween on Friday this year, there’s no need. Damn near everyone is having a Halloween party tonight. Just take a look at the Downtown Memphis newsletter to see what your options are.

There are a couple of FedExForum Groupons that may be of interest. One is to go see the Grizzlies play a home game. There are four different games and two different options to choose from.

The other FedExForum Groupon is for the Harlem Globetrotters on Saturday, January 10. There are three different ticket options.

The Mid-South Heart Walk is tomorrow morning, so allow extra time if you have to drive the streets of Downtown.

Last night, an angry crowd told city leaders that they want Riverside Drive converted back to four lanes of car traffic. The city proposed four alternate plans for Riverside. I was neutral on the Riverside issue until I took it home from work one day and was caught in a traffic jam that extended south from Beale almost all the way to Georgia. Since then I’ve sided with the “give us our four lanes back” crowd.

Normally I don’t promote anything that happens in Germantown, but India Fest, tomorrow from 10 to 6, is worth a drive out there. One of the lucky side effects about getting my Master’s in Computer Science is that I met a lot of Indians and got exposed to their culture and especially their delicious food. Pot-luck holiday parties with Indians were the best.

From Gizmodo: A court fined Google $2000 for using a cleavage shot of a woman that the company took with one of its StreetView cameras. She told the court she suffered “extreme emotional trauma” because of the image. Are you fucking kidding me?

They’re letting us go at 3 today, so I’ll be out for the full Happy Hour doing the Ickey Shuffle with my cold cuts. I hear I might be made famous later tonight, so I’ll be staying out late.

(Administrative note: Today’s lunchtime post is a little late going up thanks to GoDaddy and its stupid 500 Internal Server Errors. Thank goodness I had a draft saved.)

Yesterday evening I was at one of my favorite after-work watering holes. A woman came up to the bar and ordered $20.50 worth of food for herself and her friends. When the food arrived, I watched in astonishment as she handed the bartender a 20, then proceeded to fish around in her change purse for two quarters.

Do you think bartending is volunteer work?

Do you think you don’t have to tip because the bartender didn’t mix you a drink?

The bare minimum I would have left would have been $24, which would be about a 17% tip. However, since I am a regular at this particular bar and the bartender is a friend of mine, I would have been inclined to leave something more like $27.
The bartender makes $2.13 an hour. There’s no law saying you HAVE to tip, but not doing so is in extremely poor taste.

The Cotton Museum will hold an artist talk with Lisa McCord this evening from 5:30 to 7:30. She will discuss her two new books of photography, Osceola and Highway 61. Free to the public and there will be refreshments and snacks.

Memphis is a finalist for the location of the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. Get on Facebook and show your support for our city and tell the people in charge that the Hall of Fame needs to be here.

Jay Sieleman will step down as the head of the Blues Foundation in 2015. Jay has done an incredible job increasing awareness of the foundation and the blues. His successor will have big shoes to fill.

Matt Mullenweg is the head guy at WordPress, the CMS used to publish this blog and 23% of websites worldwide. WordPress was my BBQ team’s sponsor from 2009-13, and I still check out his blog from time to time. He blogged an interesting fact this week: No More Platinum. Not one artist’s album has gone platinum in 2014. How the music industry has changed.

The MBJ has an update on Bass Pro construction progress at the Pyramid. The project is on-time (for once), and a new glass skywalk has been announced similar to the one at the Grand Canyon. There will be a restaurant and an aquarium inside the skywalk.

Restricting myself to a York peppermint patty for lunch today so I can talk to Shorty about a bowl of pasta after work. I’ll be out about 5:30 and we’ll see where the evening takes me. Possibly coming tomorrow: A sneak preview of my new book. We’re having an office cookout tomorrow for lunch so I probably won’t be doing my Friday update post until mid-afternoon.

Got a couple of Halloween deals you need to know about. Arby’s will give away free bacon as a topping on any item on Halloween, provided you say “Trick or meat!” when you order. Free bacon? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up at an Arby’s out in California.

Also, Dishcrawl will offer a 15% discount on its upcoming Soul Food Crawl, featuring Tonya Dyson, if you use the discount code “Spooky” when you purchase online.

The National Civil Rights Museum has announced an additional recipient of its 2014 Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award: Tom Brokaw. Brokaw will be in town December 2 to receive his award.

The folks redeveloping the Chisca want to put a 144-space surface parking lot in the adjacent area to the east of the building.

Little Rock friends – Nikki’s Hot Ass Chips will appear on your store shelves soon. East Arkansas too including West Memphis, Jonesboro, and Forrest City. These are a must-try if you like spicy food. Have a full cold drink nearby though.

Time for beer, back tomorrow with more.

As longtime readers know, I am not a fan of the AP Stylebook at all and do not follow it on my blog. I think it is overly picky about things like the Oxford comma, and just plain wrong in some instances (for example, calling a handbill a “flier” rather than a “flyer”). However, sometimes I wonder if we need a local Stylebook. For example:

– Griz or Grizz as a shortened version of the Memphis Grizzlies name? (For the record, I prefer two z’s)
– Bluefin or Blue Fin? Seen it spelled both ways.
– South Main Trolley Tour or South Main Trolley Night? I’ve seen both although Trolley Night seems to be the SMA’s preference recently. Or should we even include the word Trolley at all, given that they aren’t running?
– And how the hell do you capitalize the Creole restaurant on Main? DeJaVu? DejaVu? Dejavu? Seen all three, used all three on my blog at times.

Question for my readers who write for the MBJ, Daily News, Flyer or other publications – do you have a standards document to follow for confusing local names?

Last night I played poker at the Blind Bear, and Clay and Ugly from the Mad Earl joined the game. I had blogged about Burlesque Bingo last week, which happens at the Earl Thursdays at 8 PM, but I didn’t make it last Thursday. “You need to come,” Clay told me. “The place gets packed.” So apparently Burlesque Bingo is really popular. How did I not hear about it until two weeks ago?

You know, besides Burlesque Bingo, there’s $2 PBR at the Mad Earl. Why am I not spending more time there? Seems like about two years ago, I got set in my ways always going to the same four bars – Bardog, Blind Bear, Saucer, Goose – and have ignored other places that have opened that are really good.

Tonight at 7 PM is the Flying Saucer’s annual Beerknurd Calendar Release Party. Members of the Saucer’s UFO Club submit pictures of themselves doing stuff in Saucer attire, and one photo from each of the Saucer’s 16 locations makes the cut. Come early, because the calendars will be gone quickly by January or February maybe.

Yesterday I mentioned a new gallery called The Loony Bin at 8 South Main. They have a Facebook page if you want to “Like” them and get their updates.

MemphisWeather.net’s extended outlook has lows in the mid 30s Halloween night as well as Saturday. That’s not good, considering a T-shirt (that I don’t want to be covered up) is the major piece of my Halloween costume! Nor is it good because there will be fewer slutty female costumes out. Saturday’s forecast high in the 50s is not good either, because I have an outdoor event, Memphis Farmers Market Barnyard Ball, to attend. (By the way, I have an extra ticket. Who’s going with me? Too bad the Nuh-Uh Girl is no longer in town. She’d be all over some free food.)

Fireball has been pulled from store shelves in two European countries because it doesn’t meet government standards. Wow, I drank that stuff for three years. I hope I didn’t permanently damage my body.

(Kirk is probably doing an “I told you so” dance right now)

Go Grizzlies in the season opener tonight. I’m not going to the game but will be watching it on TV at one of my favorite watering holes. Outta here for now…

There will be no Memphis Farmers Market this Saturday, November 1. That’s because they are gearing up for two exciting events: Their annual Barnyard Ball party that afternoon, and the beginning of the Winter Market the following Saturday.

The Barnyard Ball is the market’s annual end-of-year party… or maybe I should say end-of-the-regular-season party now that there’s going to be a winter market. It’s from 4 to 7 Saturday at the pavilion at Front and G.E. Patterson. There will be live music by Star & Micey, and food from MFM vendors as well as from Memphis restaurants. There will also be a Boots & Buckles contest, a cake and wine walk, and live and silent auctions. Tickets are $40 in advance and can be purchased on the MFM website.

(Disclosure as required by the government: They gave me a pair of tickets to the ball)

The winter market starts the following Saturday, November 8. MFM put out word to vendors, asking if they’d be interested in coming back to sell late fall and winter produce, and the response was an overwhelming “YES!” The market will run every Saturday for six weeks.

There’s a free ticket giveaway for tomorrow night’s Grizzlies season opener this afternoon at 3:30 in the FedExForum lobby. Four Grizzlies players will hand out 500 tickets, first come, first served, limit two tickets per person.

The last Friday of the month happens to fall on Halloween, and that means there will be a special Halloween version of South Main Trolley Night this week. Look for jack-o-lanterns in store windows to know which stores will be handing out goodies to trick-or-treaters. Live music by Eric Crays, Taylor Rene Bothwell, Jack Kadien, Yancy & Yancy, Sing for Glenn, Rocky Tallent, Bobby O’Neal and Roger Wild. If you’re an SMA member, there will be an area set up for you next to Bluff City Coffee with beer, wine, and food including Mark Parsell’s famous chili.

A new gallery called The Loony Bin is opening next door to where I live, at 8 South Main. On Halloween they will have a party with food, beverages, and a costume contest kicking off at 4 PM.

Poker night at the Blind Bear at 8! Wonder if the player who publicly berated me at the poker table Sunday night will do so again this evening. Hopefully she will find a 26 year old boy to coug on and leave me the hell alone. Last night she was showing a relatively new Downtowner around and I Facebooked, “It’s so horrible to listen to someone who’s full of shit give someone new a Downtown orientation.” People “liked” my post so apparently they agree.

Rainy afternoon ahead. If you’re playing poker tonight, I will see you at the table.

The Halloween party I attended in South Main Friday night had some special guests: The Beastie Boys. DJ Lil’ Eggroll put “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn” on and these guys absolutely killed it.

As for me, I was Ickey Woods.

Get some cold cuts… get some cold cuts… WOOOOOOO!!!!!! 44, ladies, that’s me! I’m gonna get some cold cuts today!

I will probably be Ickey again Friday night… but… the person who’s a constant source of drama at poker got mouthy with me last night. You better check yo self before you wreck yo self, young lady. There are a few people who have begged me to dress up as you for Halloween. I had dismissed the idea, responding “Nah… too much,” However, after your verbal attack on me last night, I’m considering it. I wonder if Amazon offers one-day shipping on low-cut tank tops and push-up bras?

Want a free pink Grizzlies headband? Be one of the first 10,000 ticketholders to show up at the FedExForum Wednesday night for the season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tip-off is 7 PM.

Want to meet the folks who write for the Memphis Business Journal? You’ll have a chance to do so Thursday. They’re having an After Hours at Pat Halloran’s club in the Orpheum on the corner of Main and Beale at 5:30. There will be complimentary appetizers and beverages, but you must register in advance to attend.

The River Inn of Harbor Town was recognized nationally by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the top 25 hotels in the United States.

There’s a Groupon deal going on right now for admission to the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art in Pembroke Square.
Historian Jimmy Ogle will lead a free Beale Street tour tomorrow at lunchtime. Meet in front of the Orpheum at 11:45. The tour will last about 45 minutes. Feel free to bring a camera.

That’s it for now. I’ll be at Bardog for happy hour with Melissa after work.

 

Thanks for the hospitality and the Yeungling. Never had it in a can before. I love my life Downtown.

Good development news for Downtown: The CEO of Hard Rock Cafe is in talks to build a 200-room hotel Downtown. More hotel rooms mean we can attract bigger conventions, so this is a good thing for our economy.

I wonder if the hotel will have pool parties like the one in Vegas does? I remember seeing tons of pictures of those parties on the Hot Chicks with Douchebags site.

From Fast Company: Inside America’s first cat cafe. These cafes are popular in Japan. People who cannot keep pets in their apartment can go there and enjoy some cuddles with the resident cats along with their coffee.

The Flyer’s Hungry Memphis blog has visited eighty3’s new patio.

The 2014 WSOP Poker Hall of Fame inductees have been named: Daniel Negreanu and Jack McClelland. Negreanu goes in at age 40, the first year in which he was eligible. The legendary Chip Reese was the only other player to get inducted at age 40.

The Memphis Business Journal’s BBQ Brackets are down to the round of 8. Notable matchup: Central BBQ vs. The Bar-B-Q Shop.

Highs in the low to mid 80s this weekend. Who’s wearing a tube top to RiverArtsFest?

Weekend! The Halloween party I’m going to doesn’t start until 9, so I have time to hit a few of my favorite spots first. Should be a fun night!