Paul Ryburn's Journal

It’s Tuesday night and I just got home after another impressive Rapscallion win at trivia.  Counting the Easter Keg $100 and Chad’s plate party, we have $675.  Gonna be a drrrrrrrrrrunk night for the team.

While there at the Saucer, it was announced that in honor of Craft Beer Week, the Bluff City Brewers will give a talk about homebrewing tomorrow, Wednesday, May 19, from 6 to 8 PM.  Furthermore, Ghost River will talk about brewing beer 6 to 8 Friday the 21st.

After trivia, I decided to walk to Bardog.  On the way there, I saw the new menu for Hari’s, the new restaurant going into 51 S. Main (formerly On the River Seafood and More).   I took a pic.  Here it is.  Click on the pic for larger (readable) size.

In addition to the usual burger/sandwich fare, they’re going to have a number of different curries.  Nice to see that in my neighborhood.  I lived in San Diego’s Pacific Beach district for 6 months and they had a restaurant called World Curry that did the same thing and it was awesome.  Prices at Hari look reasonable.

Then I went to Bardog to enjoy a $3 pint night Blue Moon.  While there, I snapped a pic of this info about their runners’ club.  Again, click for a readable image.

If you’re going to run, run for beer.

Off to bed.  I can actually squeeze in 7 hours sleep tonight.

Here’s a Memphis Flyer article on new Downtown restaurant Cockadoos. They’re Project Green Fork certified, and you can place an order via Facebook or Twitter! How cool is that? When I was in there last week, I saw a computer monitor displaying Facebook and Twitter, but I didn’t realize they were using it for ordering.

The Venus Mission will perform this Thursday at the Peabody’s rooftop party. Theme this week is “A Taste of Asia,” with teriyaki chicken kabobs, egg rolls, and pork fried rice on the food buffet. In VIP there will be fried dumplings with soy sauce, fried wontons, Thai chicken, and cashew spring rolls. Asahi and Sapporo will be the featured beers. Also… this isn’t part of the official Peabody program, but… you’ve heard of cooking demonstrations? I’ve heard the Nuh-Uh Girl will give an eating demonstration at approximately 7:30. If you miss it, there will be additional demonstrations at 7:37, 7:46, 7:59 and 8:14.

There will also be a Third Thursday party that night, as the businesses on Main between Gayoso and Peabody Place throw their monthly block party. Entertainment by Bluff City Backsliders, Star & Micey, and the Daddy Mack Blues Band. Food and drink specials, retail discounts. Good stop for pre-rooftop warmup.

The second round of Corporate Karaoke happens tomorrow in Court Square at 11:45. Click this link to register and get a crack at $200.

Friday is Bike to Work Day. More info here.

Wow Facebook is screwing up more every day. Privacy invasions, inability to keep data secure, suspending accounts seemingly on a whim, etc. They’re the 800-pound gorilla right now but I really wonder if they still will be in a year’s time. Sounds like their management doesn’t have a clue.

All right, gonna grab a bite to eat then back to work. Damn these “daily update” posts seem so sanitized compared to the fun posts I did last week. I kinda don’t like it. Possibly another post after work, we’ll see. Trivia tonight at the Saucer at 7. May do Super Tuesday at Kooky Canuck ($5 34 oz. signature mixed drinks) afterward.

I didn’t realize this happened until I heard about it last night: Tent S-200, five down from ours, was raided Saturday night. Marijuana and a variety of pills were discovered and three team members were hauled off to jail. Details here.

I always try to do a walkthrough on a weekday when it’s slow.  Here’s this year’s.

Nearly made the 11:30 Silly Goose poker game but talked myself out of it. Going to bed.

Yeah, I know, no lunchtime post today.  Our computers had to be shut off at work, due to A/C issues.  Also, the day after BBQ Fest weekend ends is never a stellar day for my blog posts, due to being so damn exhausted from the weekend.  I need to recharge my brain.

In the meantime, take a look at the blog of our sponsor, Matt Mullenweg from WordPress.com.  Matt has several pics of the Ques Brothers, as well as a pic of the Filet Mignon Benedict from the Majestic Grille.

As I said, I need to recharge my brain.  And I hear beer is brain food.  Pint Nite, here I come.

Saturday was the last day of BBQ Fest.  “Why don’t they have it on Sunday too?” people ask.

“Because one more day of this and we’d probably all die,” is my answer.  Here are some of yesterday’s highlights.

Team member Otto with WordPress guru Matt Mullenweg and his friend Van.  You know what I like about both of our sponsors?  They’re big names in their respective fields – Matt in open-source software, and John Bragg in cooking – but they’re both just regular guys who you can sit down and have a beer with.

One of the judges

Christy took a break from chowing down on BBQ at the Squeal Street booth to stop by and get her photo taken for the blog.

How to break a cart

My friend Nicole was out taking photos of all the BBQ booths.  She had a tube top on.

One of the best photos I took all weekend

Nicole, by the way, is a very talented photographer who often has work on display in Midtown galleries.  You can check out her photography at 11photographs.com.

The Nuh-Uh Girl was mad at me for the comments I made in the Friday recap post.  “I was not hovering by the food more than any other team member!” she protested.  Okay, I’m going to have to call bullshit on that one.  MANY team members saw her doing it and made comments about it.  Fellow Ques Brothers, can you back me up?

After the awards ceremony, the Green Man stopped by our booth.

Nicole with the Green Man

Facebook is being uncooperative right now, so I can’t upload the entire photo album and link to the pics.  I’ll try again tonight.  I’m seriously thinking about doing an anti-Facebook rant, because they’ve been irritating me in many ways lately.

Team members:  I have all the photos in 3264×2448 resolution, which is much higher resolution than what I have posted here and on Facebook.  If there are particular photos you want in high-res, bring me a USB memory stick and I’ll copy them for you.  Photos are about 3 MB each.

I just saw a post on Craigslist about a schnauzer missing in the area of Union and Fourth.  Photo below.  His name is Sampson.  He’s wearing a blue collar, although you can’t see it in this pic.  More details about the dog, more photos, and phone numbers for the owners, can be found in this Craigslist post.

The Memphis Flyer’s Hungry Memphis blog has a post up about BBQ Fest, mentioning the Ques Brothers and several other teams.  Check it out here.

I wanted to pass along a compliment that I heard yesterday.  As I was walking to BBQ Fest, I ran into my friend Sarah who was out walking her dog.  “I just had the best sausage biscuit Downtown,” she told me.  “It was at that little convenience store, Second Street Shoppers.  The sausage was so good.  It was a little spicy and that made it different.”

Check them out if you need to grab a quick bite.  They have a full deli.  They’re located on Second near Kooky Canuck and the Flying Fish.

BBQ Fest 2010 is over, and it’s time to congratulate a few of the winners.

The Ques Brothers didn’t finish in the top 10 for shoulder this year, but we did bring home the Grilling Green Award for our recycling efforts.

On the way back to the booth, I saw that another local team, Barbecue Republic, had picked up an award in the Whole Hog category.

Our friends at Squeal Street BBQ scored fourth place in Patio Porkers.

Congratulations to ALL the BBQ Fest winners.  What a party.  I am absolutely exhausted.  I took about 140 photos yesterday, and given that it was the final day of debauchery, I have to go through the photos and remove the ones that are not fit for public viewing.  As soon as I do that and take a shower, I’ll post the rest of the pics.