Paul Ryburn's Journal

The Peabody just posted its menu for the first rooftop party tonight. For those who have never been, your $15 cover (usually it’s $10, higher tonight because of Ingram Hill) not only includes your first drink, but a food buffet that changes from week to week.

Tonight they’re doing an Italian theme, with meatballs, penne pasta, and pizza rolls on the buffet, with Stella Artois as the featured beer.

If you’re in the VIP section (buy a season pass for $75 to get this), they’ll have bruschetta, antipasto, and fried ravioli.

This afternoon I confirmed a rumor that I’ve been hearing for weeks. If you plan to go to the Thursday night Peabody rooftop parties and were wondering where to party afterward this season, you have a new option, and it’s a good one.

Paula & Raiford’s Disco will be open. They plan to open at 9 PM on Thursdays and stay open until around 1 AM or so. Ladies will get in free until 11, and will pay $5 cover thereafter; men will pay $7 cover.

Raiford’s is a short walk from the Peabody. Just walk a block and a half north on Second Street, and the club will be on the right next to Elliott’s.

Should be a fun after-rooftop option. More upbeat than just sitting at a bar, but not the frenzy of Club Shadows where the Nuh-Uh Girl and her cougar dance party go on weekends. I’ll miss the first rooftop party tomorrow night due to friends in town, but I’ll probably make it to the next one… and possibly Raiford’s afterward.

A South Main Precinct police officer has been named MPD Officer of the Year. Officer Brian Falatko has been recognized for his intuition thwarting crime and finding suspects. Congratulations to Officer Falatko!

Slow news day, but that’s because I pretty much exhausted my supply of news last night when I made three posts. I bought one of the Texas de Brazil VIP cards I blogged about last night. All last year I ate brunch for cheap (well, cheap compared to their regular prices anyway) on friends’ cards, so I decided it was time to buy one myself and give back.

Change of plans for me tonight… I’d planned to go to Bardog for Wednesday night poker, but I have work to do instead. Last weeked I upgraded my web hosting account to PHP5, accidentally breaking all 110 of my Amazon affiliate websites. Fixing them isn’t hard – just gotta put a couple of lines in a php5.ini file and FTP it over – but I have to do it 110 times. Fixed about 40 sites last night. Need to get the other 70 done tonight. I see no reason why I can’t fix the sites while drinking beer, so I’ll probably grab the netbook and hit the Saucer after work.

I will try to make it to the Grizzlies watch party at Bardog at 9:30. Go Grizz, although if it will help us avoid the Lakers I’m not so sure I’d mind a loss tonight.

A lot of Downtowners have been waiting for this… Texas de Brazil VIP cards are on sale again. You pay $59.99 for a punch card that can be used for up to 12 dinners at 50% off. If you use even 3 punches, you’ll make a profit on the card, and the $59.99 goes to the Children’s Cancer Fund.

There are various restrictions on the card, so be sure to read all the fine print before purchasing. The biggest restriction is that the card can’t be used Friday or Saturday nights or on major dining-out holidays. However, my group of friends has found these restrictions quite easy to work with: We go to Sunday brunch with the cards. Delicious meats, breakfast items like au gratin potatoes and bacon on the salad bar, and of course we add on the $3 unlimited mimosa. Getting a meal at TdB including mimosas, tax and tip for around $30 is quite the bargain.

Punches on the card must be used by September 29. One punch or many can be used at one table, but you can’t use multiple cards per table, so don’t get a group larger than 12 together when you go eat.

Attn gang (you know who you are): Do we want to get a bunch of these again? I’m certainly willing to pay for a card.

I wonder if I was responsible for Memphis in May cutting off their 3-day passes early this year?

Last year they sold them up until the Wednesday before Music Fest. I blogged that I would wait until the last day to make my decision. If the weather looked good, I wrote, I’d buy a 3-day pass. If the forecast was for the weather to suck, I’d skip it. Wednesday came and rain was in the forecast. So I didn’t buy, and MiM missed out on my $69 (or however much it was last year). I know the people at MiM read my blog. I wonder if it had anything to do with their decision to cut off the 3-day passes on April 18 this year? If you wait until after the 18th, you’ll have to buy individual tickets to each day. If you’re sure you want to go all weekend, buy passes here before the deal runs out.

Congratulations to a couple of friends of mine who are stepping up to new gigs at Sports 56 WHBQ. Will Askew, who has done the afternoon drive-time show The Sports Bar for the past several years, will take over Ron Tillery’s spot on the Morning Rush from 6 to 8 AM. Tillery is leaving the station to spend more time with family. Congratulations to Will on winning the coveted morning drive-time spot. Guess the 6 AM start time will put a damper on his late nights at Max’s Sports Bar though.

Also congratulations to Chris Hrabe, who will take Will’s seat on The Sports Bar. He’s been the show’s producer and has had a weekly afternoon show of his own, and now he’s making the move to afternoon drive time. More info about the changes can be found on Sports 56’s site.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau site, MemphisTravel.com, has a snazzy new redesign. Check it out here. If you meet people visiting from out of town, it’s a good link to give them.

There will be an Evening of Classic Soul in the Peabody’s Grand Ballroom Friday night, in celebration of Peabo Bryson’s 60th birthday. Performers on hand will include Jerry Butler, Dennis Edwards from the Temptations, Russell Thompkins, Jr., and The New Stylistics, The Emotions, Percy Sledge, Billy Paul, Archie Bell, Candi Staton, Maxine Brown, and Dee Dee Sharp. The event kicks off with cocktails at 7, then a seated dinner and then a 3-hour concert. The performers will mingle with the guests over cocktails. Event benefits The MED Foundation; get tickets on their site.

All right, guess I’ve procrastinated on my chores long enough. I hope the team is doing well at trivia tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be back out for the Grizzlies watch party at Bardog, and possibly poker as well.

Home tonight. I took the night off from trivia, because I needed a day of rest, as well as time to get various chores done. One of those chores was the Wine Race photo post. Here you go, the best of 2011 Beale Street Wine Race:

Complete photo album (well, minus the 40 or so pics I’d get in trouble for posting) can be found at the links below:

• Part 1
• Part 2

Big, big weekend coming up in Downtown Memphis. Here’s an overview of the major events going on.

Thursday, April 14 is the Peabody rooftop party season opener. Ingram Hill will be the featured entertainment, along with Finger Eleven, the Beale Street Flippers, a drumline, hosts Maney, Drex and Riley, and DJ Mark Anderson. Doors open at 6 PM and the party goes on until 11. $15 cover charge includes your first drink; ladies and hotel guests free until 7. VIP passes that will get you in all season, and will get you access to a special VIP area on the rooftop, will be on sale at the door for $75.

Saturday, April 16 finds two big events on the calendar. First up is the Southern Hot Wing Festival, on South Main south of G.E. Patterson. This festival continues to grow, and we have 75 teams competing this year. Action kicks off at 10 AM and lasts until 6 PM. Insider tip: Get there by noon, when The Young Guns take the Jack Pirtle stage. When I first saw them set up three years ago, I thought, “Yeah it’s just a bunch of kids.” Then they blew into one of the best covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” I’ve ever heard. These kids rock; do not miss them.

Also on the 16th, Memphis Brewfest happens at AutoZone Park. Three and a half hours, beginning at 4 PM, to spend walking around AutoZone Park’s courtyard sampling beers. Proceeds benefit Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and the Memphis Redbirds Foundation. Huge beer list. (Disclosure: They comped me a ticket. It’s good to be a blogger sometimes.)

Sunday, April 17 is one of my very favorite festivals of the year: Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest. It takes place along Wagner between Union and Beale. Beautiful river views, zydeco bands, contest and games including the always-entertaining “bobbing for crawfish.” Yikes, I see on their site that they’ve raised the price of a bucket of crawfish to $20 this year, and beer to $4! Better hit the ATM before you head down there. Time to give my yearly advice: Get there early. This festival is not known to run out of crawfish, but if you haven’t bought your bucket by 12:15 you’ll be standing in a line 50-100 deep. Luckily the people selling the crawfish know what they’re doing and move the line quickly.

(Reminds me: Time to remind my group of my festival rule. When there’s a festival going on, I plan to be at the festival, not on a rooftop looking at the festival.)

Will the weather cooperate? According to the MemphisWeather.net forecast, the Peabody party should see good weather with highs near 80. Storms are expected but not til overnight. No rain Saturday and Sunday, but temperatures cooler than I’d like to see, with highs in the mid 60s. That’s a shame because Rajun Cajun in particular is normally one of the best fests of the year for tube top watching.

With all going on, I’m very happy with my decision to take next Monday off work. I will need the recovery day.

I hope to have Wine Race photos up tonight. Just need to weed out the pics in the “not fit for public viewing (but will be e-mailed to a few select friends)” category.

Bardog Tavern bartender Amanda “Panda” Parks won the Queen of the Vine contest yesterday at the Beale Street Wine Race. Congratulations Amanda!

Congratulations also to Club 152, who won for best parade entry; the Downtown Mesquite Chop House, who won the grape stomp; and Huey’s, who won the wine relay.

I took 341 photos yesterday. I didn’t have time to go through them all and post before work, but I hope to have them online in the next day or two.

Longtime blog reader Uncle Ray just informed me that there’s $5 PBR at Redbirds games. For a ballpark that is an excellent price. The stand is right by the entrance.

The Grizzlies’ last regular-season game will be Wednesday night, a road game against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Grizzlies will host an official Watch Party at Bardog Tavern for the game, which tips off at 9:30 PM. The McDonald’s Claw Crew will be at Bardog with trivia and prizes. Come watch, as the outcome of that game will determine whether we get San Antonio, the Lakers, or Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.

Insider tip: If you like poker, get there two hours early (7:30) and head downstairs for Poker Jon’s weekly Texas Hold’em tournament. Real cards, real felt, progressive blinds, just like you see on TV, and it’s free to play. Game usually doesn’t last much longer than two hours, so you’ll finish in time to join the watch party.

More info on the watch party (and the one the night before at Hi-Tone) can be found here.