Beer tip

Yesterday afternoon, while hanging out at Bardog Tavern, I received a beer tip from one of my blog’s regular readers. BP Riverside, located at the corner of Riverside and Carolina, has 5-liter refrigerator kegs of Newcastle and Spaten Lager for $20. You don’t need any special equipment to operate the kegs. By my calculations, you’ll get about ten and a half pints from one keg, which works out to $2 a glass of premium beer. Not a bad deal at all.

It’s lunchtime and given the weather, I have no inclination to go out. Staying in and working on a couple of things. For one, I’m answering a set of questions Kerry from the I Love Memphis Blog sent me. I’m scheduled to be one of her 365 Memphians in an upcoming post. She’s meeting me at the Saucer tonight to take my photo. As much as I hate not having Grizzlies gear on tonight, I feel the need to wear my Ques Brothers shirt and represent the BBQ team.

I’m also working on a long post about Music Fest people-watching. The good news is, none of the people-watching I will describe requires you to spend any money. If I get that done before my hour is up, I’ll publish it; if not, it’ll be up tonight.

Visiting an old friend

You know, it’s weird… I’ve been Downtown for nine years now. I write a blog that a lot of people consider the go-to guide for what to do on the weekends. And yet, on Saturday nights lately, I find myself searching for things to do.

One group of people I know, who call themselves the Wolfpack, make the circuit of bars and clubs. They do Bardog then Local then Bar None then Silly Goose then Raiford’s then Club Shadows followed by a late night snack at Blues City or Cockadoos. They have fun but I couldn’t do it on a weekly basis. For one thing, they prefer to be at each bar when it’s at its most crowded. Although I’m a big fan of most of the places I just mentioned, some of them are less fun when they are super busy. People constantly crowding you, bumping into you, you know? Plus, I can’t see myself making a regularly weekly habit of partying with 22 year olds at Shadows at 4 in the morning.

Another group of my friends goes to the Blue Monkey every Saturday. Now, while I think the Monkey is a fantastic bar in general, Saturday is karaoke night. I cannot think of anything more BORING than spending the best night of my week listening to horribly crappy singing. Did my friends all turn 60 and move to a trailer park? Sometimes I wonder. Also, given the amount of rent I pay to live in the Downtown core, I want to hang out in the core most of the time, not have a regular Saturday night gig at a bar almost a mile’s walk away. Yes, I know there’s a trolley but it stops running at 1.

So, on a few Saturdays recently, I’ve ended up by myself. Which is fine – I’m an only child and have been comfortable doing my own thing my entire life. I feel the need to vary things up though. Hanging out at the Saucer all the time gets old after a while.

Yesterday, after spending a few hours at Max’s, I hopped on the trolley to ride north. I decided to get off at Beale Street and visit an old friend – my mug at the Tap Room.

Beale Street is full of bars that attract mainly tourists (Hard Rock, BB King’s) and dance clubs that mainly kids go to (Alfred’s, 152/Shadows). But the Tap Room… now that’s my kind of bar. Dark, wooden interior, memorabilia including beer steins and unusual beer cans. Nice, long bar with 20 beers on draft, full liquor selection. Bands play on the weekends, but not so loud that you can’t talk to the person next to you. Games on TVs at each end of the bar. Really good food, because they share a menu with King’s Palace next door. The Tap Room used to be my nightly home, from about ’03 to ’05 before I got on a roll with the Saucer. It had a really good mix of people, balanced perfectly between locals and out-of-towners.

As for my mug, they have a “Mug Club.” When I joined, I paid $20 (it’s probably a little more now) and was given markers to decorate the bottom of my mug, including its number (52). Mug Club members get a discount on beers in their mug, and they get extra value on every beer they drink. I believe the mugs are 23 ounces, compared to the usual 16-ounce pints. One of my friends actually bought mug #1 from its original owner, so he could say he’s #1. Nowadays there are so many Mug Club members that they don’t even bother numbering them.

I ordered dinner, going with the seafood pasta: Shrimp, crab and scallops in a cream sauce. Absolutely delicious. I highly recommend it. The Chicken Pontabla (chicken and cheese over potatoes with Cajun spice) is another can’t-miss dish.

Although it had been close to a year since my last visit, the Tap Room still felt like home. I need to get a regular Saturday rotation of bars going – something less ambitious than what the Wolfpack does – and the Tap Room deserves to be on the list. Saucer, Tap Room, maybe Bar None. As much as I love Bardog and Silly Goose, they get so crowded on Saturdays that I don’t go much, unless I know friends are going too. Maybe Rehab Disco or Raiford’s if I want to end the night at a dance club – both of those clubs appeal to kids and grownups alike. I need to spend more time at Rockbottom, the locals’ bar on the ground floor of Rehab, in particular.

In any event, my Saturday schedule will be thrown all out of whack next week, thanks to Music Fest. Reminds me, I need to do a post about Music Fest people watching. Maybe I’ll work on that this afternoon since the Saucer doesn’t open until 5.

Reader question: Which is the best night to go to BBQ Fest?

After yesterday’s post about BBQ Fest, I had a reader ask an excellent question: I plan to go to BBQ Fest, but only one night. Which is the best night to go?

Here’s my take on it.

Wednesday is Friends & Family Night, not open to the public. It’s extremely hard to get a ticket. On a large team like ours, it’s difficult to get tickets even for spouses.

Thursday is my favorite night. In my team’s booth – we have a large team with about 50 members – it tends to be a big party with our friends. It gets very busy, but the mood is generally fun and festive.

Friday is when the masses arrive. It’s still fun, but the mood gets a little more tense, particularly at the booth entrance where freeloaders who obviously don’t know anyone on the team try to get in. Also, the cooks begin to prepare the championship meat on Friday night, and we want them to be able to concentrate and do their best.

Saturday, in my opinion, is the worst day to go for a couple of reasons. For one, the judges come by in the afternoon, and everyone has to be out of the booth for the presentation. Then a few hours later, everyone’s out of the booth again attending the awards ceremony. After the awards, many teams start tearing down the booths (not us – we party until they kick us out). Many teams are visibly tired out by Saturday – it’s a lot of work to be on a team. Also, you don’t get as much time to party on Saturday. The park closes at 10, as opposed to midnight Thursday and Friday.

So, if you only go one night, Thursday sounds like the best… BUT…

It’s expensive to organize a BBQ team. As I mentioned in a previous post, a budget of 20 grand is reasonable for a large team. To help cover expenses, many teams get corporate sponsors. Some sponsors, as part of the deal, ask for a “sponsor night” where they can bring in clients. The teams wait on the sponsors during sponsor night and tend to limit outside guests. Not all teams with sponsors have sponsor night; for example, my team’s sponsors, WordPress.com and Bar None, are cool sponsors who want to party with us, not order us around, and we have full run of the booth every night.

So, my answer would be, check with the teams that invited you, and all things being equal, go Thursday. If a lot of the teams are doing sponsor night on Thursday, go Friday.

Hope that helps. Hard to believe that two weeks from today, we’ll be building the team booth. Or, I should say, two weeks from today I’ll be sitting at the Saucer drinking beer while teammates with a stronger work ethic than mine build the booth.

Couple of random pics

Cleaning old pics out of the camera. Here are a couple of random ones:

Uncle Ray, who loves to have his picture taken, and Robo at Shelton Clothiers Thursday night. Shelton partnered with the Squeal Street BBQ team for a benefit for LeBonheur. Attn Robo: I’m going to try to direct a birthday party happening Downtown tonight toward your favorite Saturday night place. Birthday girl is someone whose photographs have frequently appeared on this blog (recently, the same photo over and over).

I’ve been playing poker with Brick a lot lately at the Silly Goose’s Monday Night Texas Hold’em game (free to play, 10 PM). Based on her strategy, I suspect that Brick has been reading poker books. Particularly, the poker book that states, “K-3 is a powerhouse hand that is easily strong enough to call an all-in move pre-flop.” I busted Brick out of the tournament Monday night.

Someone post pics to Facebook of last night’s toga party at Max’s! Didn’t make it down there, because I was dealing with a bout of severe laziness. Highlight of my evening was the Cajun chicken eggrolls I had at Majestic Grille.

I will be at Max’s this afternoon for their courtyard party. I don’t know if I will stick around to watch the Grizzlies game – would prefer to head back to the core before evening – but I want to be there around 2 PM to catch Dynaflow play. Three bands, beer specials, crawfish, two HDTVs outside. It’s definitely the Downtown event of the day, so come down!

Early warning: BBQ Fest

It’s the start of a nice, relaxing Easter weekend, but I want to give everyone an early warning: Memphis in May BBQ Fest starts in less than 3 weeks. At BBQ Fest, about 250 teams compete in ribs, shoulder, whole hog, and Patio Porkers. The thing is, due to health regulations, you can’t go in the team booths and eat unless you’re on a team, or are an invited guest. So, now is the time to start gathering invitations.

(Note: As an invited guest, you still have to pay to get in the festival.)

A few tips:

  • Ask around among your friends; find out who you know who is on a BBQ team. Memphis is one of those towns where everyone knows someone. You probably know more team members than you think.
  • Look for people who are wearing BBQ team T-shirts and polos. That’s a sure indication they’re either on a team, or are very close to someone who is.
  • If you’re new to Memphis and have never been to BBQ Fest, use this to your advantage. Team members realize it kind of sucks to be at BBQ Fest when you don’t know anyone on a team; being on the outside looking in is no fun. As a result, many teams tend to be sympathetic to newcomers.
  • When you get invitations, be sure to get the team name. Most of the teams have similar names, some variation of pig, hog, swine, etc. It’s easy to get down to the park and have no idea whose booth you’re invited to. Write the name down or put it in your phone.
  • If possible, get their booth number as well. If you have an iPhone or Droid, the Memphis in May app will let you look up the team, find the booth number and get an approximate location in Tom Lee Park.
  • Let them know that you understand it’s expensive to run a team (budgets in excess of $20,000 are normal for the large teams), and if they have a tip jar you’d be happy to stick a few dollars in.
  • Be appreciative. Ask nicely, and be grateful if an invitation is extended. Don’t act like it’s your God-given right to come in. Being a douchebag is not a good strategy to get in booths.
  • Don’t ask if you can bring 8 other people with you. That’s unreasonable. One person, sure. Two, maybe. But don’t expect to ride up with your entire posse and be welcome.
  • Ask if they use any kind of system to denote invited guests – wristbands, cards, etc. – and arrange to get one.
  • If you go to Music Fest, that’s a good opportunity to network for BBQ Fest, because of the sheer number of people you’ll see there.
  • If you ask and are told no, be understanding. As a member of a team, I hate telling potential guests no, but sometimes I have to. We can’t allow more people in than the capacity set by the fire marshal, and it’s not fair for me to let 75 invited guests in when my teammates only have a few guests each.
  • Find out what dates and times are best for you to stop by. Many teams have a “sponsor night” when they have to limit guest access.

(Edit: A frequent guest of my team’s booth just reminded me that wearing a tube top is an excellent strategy for gathering booth invites.)

The early bird gets the worm. Start early, and you won’t get caught in a mad scramble to get in booths when BBQ Fest opens to the public.

If you want more info about BBQ Fest, you can get details here.

Fri update: Davis-Kidd, new restaurant/club in Quetzal space, Redbirds fun for kids, Sunday No-Fun Day for grownups, poker editorial and more

Today’s first item isn’t Downtown news, but it’s sad news… the Daily News reports that Davis-Kidd bookstore is likely to close after its parent Joseph-Beth goes through bankruptcy. I hate to see Memphis lose another bookstore. Then again, probably the last 20 books I bought were from Amazon (and most of those Kindle books), so I guess I helped contribute to the decline.

The CA reports that a new restaurant called Sky Grille will open in the old Quetzal space on Union near Marshall. It will be a family restaurant serving Huey’s-style food from 11 AM to 10 PM, then it will turn into a club with DJs, VIP rooms and even a bikini contest on Thursday. They say they will have free valet parking and a shuttle to various points Downtown. I always hope new businesses succeed Downtown, but the concept for this really sounds all over the place. They’re going to have to do many things well from the beginning, rather than focusing on doing one thing well (like Huey’s did with its burger) and then expanding from there. Nevertheless, I wish them luck.

Big weekend at the Redbirds. Saturday is fireworks night (game starts 6:05). On Sunday, there will be an Easter egg hunt at 1:00 before the game begins at 1:35. Kids will be able to get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny, and can run the bases after the game.

What are the grown-ups going to do on Sunday? The Saucer doesn’t open until 5. Two days away and I’m at a loss for ideas.

Great editorial from former Senator Alfonse D’Amato: Make online poker legal? It already is. If poker is a game of chance, as the Justice Department seems to think, then the average Joe could enter a tournament and have the same chance of winning as Phil Ivey. If that’s the case, how come Ivey has won tens of millions of dollars and I’m sitting in a cubicle?

Congratulations to my friends on the Squeal Street BBQ team, who had a special guest yesterday for their cookout at Shelton Clothiers. Mayor Wharton stopped by for a bite. I stopped by for a bite later in the evening, and the BBQ sliders were delicious.

Plans for tonight: No idea. I guess I may stop by the toga party at Max’s Sports Bar, where they’re giving out prizes for most authentic, best accessories, most likely to be a Roman God, etc. If there’s a prize for not caring enough to find a toga to wear, I might win.

Outta here for now. Happy Good Friday!

Memphis in May 2011 iPhone/Droid app now available

The Memphis in May app for the iPhone and Droid is now available in the App Store (and whatever the equivalent of the App Store is on the Droid). Even if you have the 2010 app, you’ll still need to download the new one.

I got it this afternoon and it’s very cool. I went straight to the BBQ Fest section, scrolled to my team, and found our booth. Then I looked at the Music Fest section. You can search by time or by artist, and you can build your own personal “My Schedule” and then share it with friends so you can arrange to meet up.

There are also sections for Sunset Symphony, and for the honored country, Belgium.

The app is free, so if you plan to attend any of the Memphis in May events, this is worth a minute to download.

Ferraro’s Pizzeria and Pub to start new trivia night next Tuesday

Ferraro’s Pizzeria and Pub, located at Jackson and Main in the Pinch, has announced that they are starting a new weekly trivia night next Tuesday, April 26. Trivia will begin at 8 PM and wrap up around 10.

Trivia will be hosted by Kevin Cerrito. Prizes for first, second and third, and a prize (which I hear is a pitcher of beer) for the best team name.

My trivia team, the Rapscallions, has played Tuesday trivia at the Flying Saucer since September 2005, but next Tuesday we’re going to take a break and try Ferraro’s. The Saucer adopted a new format recently, some of which doesn’t make much sense. (For example: A “beer question” where the first team to answer gets a beer. The team sitting nearest the trivia guy nearly always wins, and how does a team split ONE beer anyway?) We’re going to explore other options.

There’s a limit of 8 players per team at Ferraro’s, and since our team is often bigger than 8, we’ll have to decide how to handle that – split into two teams or something. Then again, I think we may actually see new team members, because unlike the Saucer, Ferraro’s is SMOKE FREE. We had people who wanted to play trivia with us, but the smoke bothered their eyes and stunk up their clothes. Not a problem at Ferraro’s. Also, since it’s smoke free, all ages can come and play.

(For people who insist on smoking, there’s a patio)

One person on Twitter compared it to the old Poplar Lounge trivia nights, but better. There will be beer specials, and they have PBR. I’ve eaten at Ferraro’s one time, and the calzone was excellent. Hoping I can talk a teammate or two into splitting a pizza on Tuesday, as I’ve heard nothing but good things about Ferraro’s pies.

For updates on Ferraro’s trivia night, “Like” them on Facebook and follow @cerrito on Twitter.

Thur update: Rooftop parties, MLGW app, new photo blog, yogurt place about to open

Rooftop party season gets into full swing tonight as the Madison Hotel starts their “Sunset at the Madison” Thursday night parties. Elmo & the Shades play tonight. Rooftop tapas menu, sophisticated drinks. Doors open 5:30, live music 6-10. $7 cover.

The Madison is adding a second party this year – “Moonlight at the Madison.” From 10:30 PM to 1 AM, DJ Tommy Austein will entertain. Cash bar continues, late night menu. $5 cover and Sunset attendees extend their party for free.

Over at the Peabody rooftop, one of the most popular bands they book, Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster, will perform tonight. Get down with ’70s and ’80s disco and enjoy a buffet of ’70s favorites like pigs in a blanket and fondue. In the VIP secion, the buffet will consist of deviled eggs, mac & cheese, and ham/asparagus rollups. $10 cover includes first drink, ladies free before 7.

If you hold a VIP season pass (buy them at the entrance for $75), the Peabody will occasionally have VIP pre-parties in the Corner Bar. There’s one tonight from 5 to 6. It will be a Bud Light Happy Hour. Complimentary Bud Light, Crispy Chili Glazed Chicken Wings, Bar-B-Que Pork Sliders, Spicy Traditional Pepperoni and Mozzarella Pizza.

(Disclosure: The Peabody gave me a VIP pass for the season.)

(John D: “Whaaaaaa? Complimentary Bud Light at the pre-party? Paul, can I borrow your pass?”)

There will be an after-party in the Corner Bar to which the public is invited (i.e. it’s not VIP only), from 10 to 12 with DJ Witnesse. 10 to midnight, benefits the Memphis Music Foundation.

In other news: If you’re one of the ones without power, MLGW has an iPhone app that you can use to check for status updates. (Of course, you’ll have to find someplace with power to charge your phone.)

Cool new street photography blog: seen memphis.

The CA reports that the new frozen yogurt shop on Main will be open Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

Second post on the way, about a new trivia night Downtown. Plans for tonight: Probably a warm-up beer at the Saucer, then a trip to Shelton Clothiers to eat Squeal Street BBQ at the Third Thursday party. Possibly Peabody rooftop to hear Dr. Zarr afterward, depending on weather.