Paul Ryburn's Journal

The Memphis Business Journal reports that a new restaurant has already made a deal to open in the old Stella space at Main and Monroe.  It will be open by April.  You can read the full article here but this is a quick summary:

• Theme will be “flights.”  The idea comes from wine flights where you buy samples of several different wines for one price, and learn about them as you drink.
• However, there will also be flights of everything behind the bar, and food flights as well – for example, fish prepared three different ways.
• Lunch will have an airline theme and will feature specialty foods from particular cities, e.g. Miami, New Orleans.  (Airline theme?  Bet Air Traffic Mike will be in there a lot)
• Kitchen will close at 10, but the bar will remain open until 3 AM.

Another bar staying open late night… with Bardog Tavern steps down the street, that will make the block of Monroe between Front and Main a hub of late-night activity Downtown.

I just took my “What’s the Fire Sale” walk (it’s Labatt Blue) and then walked up Second to Elliott’s to get a cheeseburger and fries.  On the way I passed Automatic Slim’s and they had their March music menu on display, so I snapped a pic (click image below to see it full size):

Looks like they’re going to have live music every Friday night, and DJ Mark Anderson every Saturday.  Walrus on the 6th to kick it off… that should start things off with a bang.

And look at March 13… a new place to see THE DEMPSEYS!!!!  Actually, looking at their play dates, that is going to be a heck of a week for Downtown Dempsey fans.  On Sunday 3/8 they play Huey’s, followed by Blues City on Wednesday 3/11, then the Flying Saucer on Thursday 3/12, and Slim’s on Friday 3/13.  Whew… I’m going to be Dempseyed out by the end of that week.

Meanwhile, I’ll catch them at the Saucer tonight.  Looks like a fun March at Slim’s!

I’ll start off with reminders for a couple of things going on tonight… it’s the annual “Rock & Roll for Red” party tonight at the Red Rooster from 7 PM to midnight.  Your donation (I think they’re suggesting $10) raises money for the American Heart Association.  Great cause, great venue.

Meanwhile, over at the Saucer, the Dempseys take the stage at 9:30.  It’s been over two months since I last caught a Dempseys show Downtown… can’t wait.  If you’ve never seen this band, you’ve got to.  Wonder if they’ll do their “cities, states, counties and towns” song medley tonight… I have a special hand gesture I do during “Rocky Top” that I especially look forward to doing this time of year because Bruce Pearl is such a tool.

Automatic Slim’s is going to have live music and DJs on the weekends beginning in March… a good move now that they’re staying open until 3 AM every night.  Chef Michael Patrick said he’d e-mail the lineup and I’ll post it when he does.  I saw DJ Mark Anderson quite a bit on the listings they wrote on their outside sandwich board.  Good choice.

This Sunday is the annual Soup Sunday fundraiser for Youth Villages at FedExForum from 11 AM to 2 PM.  For a $20 donation ($10 children) you can sample soup from about 50 Memphis restaurants, and some will offer other treats as well.  This is a great event but I’ll offer the same advice I offer every year… GET THERE EARLY.  By “early” I mean, be waiting at the door at 10:55.  The lines get ridiculously long within a half hour of opening, and by 12:30 some of the restaurants start to run out of soup.

Note to Mountain Dew lovers:  Since the Forum carries Pepsi products, you get all-you-can-drink Mountain Dew as part of the bargain.  The two years I did Soup Sunday I walked out with a caffeine buzz that had me soaring for the rest of the day.

I’m probably not going to make it to Soup Sunday this year… promised John Bragg that I’d give Circa’s brunch a try.

Looks like there are several good Mardi Gras parties going on Saturday night the 21st.  The Phoenix Club will be Downtown at the Cadre Building (Second at Monroe) from 8 PM to 1 AM.  Party guests can play casino games for the chance to win prizes, and later in the evening Lord T and Eloise will take the stage.  Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased at the Phoenix Club’s website.  Sauces and Red Rooster are among the sponsors, so I have reason to believe there will be some pretty good food there.  VIP Memphis is also a sponsor, so I have a feeling Ptolemy Kat and her friend Amanda will show up and badger the photographers to take their pictures all night.  Plus they’ll probably take their own pics and post on Facebook.  If I see one more Facebook pic of Amanda with her mouth open I just may delete my account.

Calhoun’s is having a party that night as well.  Jambalaya cookoff from 7 to 9 PM with guests tasting for free and participating in the judging, and guests are invited to “show their flair” and Calhoun’s staff will crown a king and queen of the “Calhoun’s Krewe” based on the best male and female costumes at 10.  $2.50 Abita specials throughout the night.  Mikey told me they recently acquired one of those all-in-one stand-up video games that has many of the classic ’80s games including Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Galaga.  I think he said it had 3-D golf too.

As I’ve blogged previously, Orleans on Front and its downstairs bar, the Voodoo Room, will also have a Mardi Gras party Saturday night.  Upstairs, Chef Clint will offer a special menu of Cajun dishes including stuffed bell peppers, shrimp Creole, jambalaya, red breans & rice, Gulf Coast Ribeye with lump crab and crawfish sauteed in creole butter, crawfish cakes with pepper jack cheese sauce, Mardi Gras pasta, parmesan fried green tomatoes with comeback sauce & grilled shrimp, and the traditional Mardi Gras dessert, king cakes (individually sized).  Clint will give away a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to the person wearing the best costume or mask for the evening.

Downstairs in the Voodoo Room, there will be a PBRtini and crawfish pie eating contest at 11 PM.  A maximum of 6 people can enter, and if you want to enter you need to let Hoop or Clint know right away – e-mail him at chefclint@orleansonfront.com.  A $50 bar gift will be the prize.  At 1 AM there will be a giveaway for a huge string of beads for the person who “best represents themselves” in true Mardi Gras fashion.  You can figure out for yourself what that means.

Then there’s Bardog Tavern, which is saving its Mardi Gras party for Tuesday night the 24th.  I’m sure that one will be fun.  Tuesdays are $3 Pint Night there.  Hmmm… thinking about taking a week off from trivia to bar-hop Tuesday night.

Time to get busy…  I’ll be at E&H for a party my apartment building is having for residents tonight (free Soul Burgers and the Nuh-Uh Girl lives in my building… hmmm wonder if she’ll show up).  After that it’ll be time for the Dempseys.

If you have web hosting on GoDaddy, and you have any sites that use subdomains, you may want to check them to make sure they’re working.  Yesterday I got an e-mail that GoDaddy was migrating my hosting to a new, faster server.  When they did it, apparently something happened that caused all my subdomains to point to the wrong place.  That’s kind of a problem because I have 72 of my websites (all the individual college shopping sites) set up to use subdomains.

I have a support ticket into GoDaddy asking about this.  Just wanted to let other web people know.

A rare period of more than 24 hours without a post… there just isn’t much to blog about this time of year.

Looks like there’s a new trivia night Downtown.  I just opened my weekly e-mail from the Red Rooster, and it says they’re doing a trivia night on Wednesdays (that’s tonight) from 7:30 to 10 PM.  Didn’t mention prize amounts though.  The Corner Bar has had a Wednesday trivia night for a while, but if you’re looking for an alternative, check out the Rooster.

A good night last night.  My trivia team beat the Weiss Asses in a tiebreaker to take second place and win $25.  The question was, “How many words were in George Washington’s second inaugural speech?”  The Nuh-Uh Sister came up with a guess of 176 and we went with it and won (correct answer was 135; we were the closer of the two teams).  Surprised we got that one, because a few of the Weiss Asses were there for Washington’s second inauguration.  “Washington D.C. was still being built at the time,” they told me, “so Philadelphia was the temporary capital.  We rode our dinosaurs up there to hear G.W. speak.”

Afterward I stopped by the Voodoo Room, where Chef Clint whipped me up a batch of his homemade cheese sticks.  They were huge – perhaps “logs” would be a better term than sticks.  Let me tell you, they put Huey’s cheese sticks to shame.  Clint asked if I wanted marinara or ranch for dipping, and I went with ranch.  A few minutes after he brought them out, he disappeared back into the kitchen, then came out and said, “Here – try this” and handed me another cup.  “Comeback sauce,” he said.  That went well with the cheese sticks too.

Clint asked if I plan on entering the crawfish pie eating and PBRtini drinking contest at the Mardi Gras party Saturday night.  Probably not… I like to savor my food and wouldn’t stand a chance.  Shame too, since I was party responsible for the invention of the PBRtini, which is PBR poured in a martini glass.  If the Nuh-Uh Girl enters the crawfish pie eating contest, she’s the odds-on favorite to win.

The Saucer now has Old Speckled Hen on tap.  It’s a traditional English ale brewed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MG factory.  It has the same kind of pouring spout that Guinness and Boddington’s do, so I suspect it has the same kind of creamy foam as those beers.

Tentative plans for the rest of this week:

Tonight:  I’ll go somewhere to watch the Memphis vs. SMU Mustangs game.  It’s on CBS College Sports, channel 222 Comcast digital cable (not available on regular cable).  The Silly Goose finally managed to pick up that channel, so they’ll have the game.  The Saucer has that channel as well.  So does Calhoun’s.  Undecided where to watch it.

Tomorrow:  My apartment building is throwing a party for the residents at E&H.  Soul burgers – yay!  After that I’ll hit the Saucer for the Dempseys at 9:30.

Friday:  Crawfish boil at the Red Rooster in the early evening; after that I’ll hit the Saucer to try the Lazy Magnolia custom-cask sweet potato beer.  Not sure where I’ll end up later in the evening.  Bardog is always a possibility.

Saturday:  I’ll probably catch Aquanet’s first set at the Rooster and get my fill of hair-band music.  Then I’ll wander over to the Voodoo Room for their Mardi Gras celebration.  I definitely want to be there around 1 AM for the bead giveaway.

Time to get the day started.  Most of today will be spent creating screen captures and pasting them into a help file.  Fun fun fun.

Been a while since I did a nighttime post… most nights I come home and head straight to bed.  I met my health guru AL at Safari World Tapas on South Main and was quite pleased with my dinner.  I ordered three items from the tapas menu:  Thai shrimp with noodles, Moroccan beef skewers, and falafel with hummus.  No, that third one is not a typo.  I actually like falafel and hummus.  I prefer it supplemented with meat dishes, of course.

After that I caught the remainder of the UConn vs. Pitt game at Calhoun’s, then headed back north to the Saucer.  Bartender Katie asked where I’d been, and apparently I didn’t say “tapas” clearly enough.  “You went to a topless bar?” she asked.  No, don’t think there are any topless bars on South Main.  Might be a good idea for one of those empty warehouses though.

Here’s a good link my BBQ team used to find lockers for our booth at a great price:  govdeals.com.  It’s auctions of used government equipment.  You never know what you may find on there.  Chances are you’ll have to watch the site for a week or more before you see something you want.  Then again, if you’re in the market for a used fire truck, you won’t have to wait; they have plenty.  Hey, they have a parking meter for sale too!  And HVAC equipment!

Finally, Orleans on Front/Voodoo Room sent me details about the Mardi Gras party they’re throwing this Saturday, February 21, both upstairs and down.  It’s a long e-mail so I’m just going to paste it below.  Good night all… out of news for now, so there may or may not be a morning post.

—–

Hey Paul!

Hope all is well with you……. I wanted to invite you and give you the scoop on this Saturday 2-21. Fat Tuesday is 2-24 and I am doing a little celebrating here at Orleans on Front and in the Voodoo Room.

A special menu upstairs from 5 till 10pm will consist of Stuffed Bell Peppers, Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya, Red Beans & Rice, Gulf Coast Ribeye (it has lump crab & crawfish tails sauteed in creole butter), Crawfish Cakes with pepper jack cheese sauce, Mardi Gras Pasta, Parmesan Fried Green Tomatoes with Comeback Sauce & Grilled Shrimp and of course……….. King Cakes ( a mini version for individuals)
Also upstairs I will be giving away a bottle of Caymus Cabernet to the best costume or mask for the evening.  I will be wearing a fuzzy orange, purple, & green pimp hat with a purple cape!! I may win my own bottle of wine!

The Voodoo Room
At 11pm (or there about) we will have a PBR -Tini & Crawfish Pie eating contest. Max 6 people and they need to let Hooper know they want in asap! Or they can email me at chefclint@orelansonfront.com. The prize for that contest will be a $50 bar gift.
At 1am (or there about) we will have a the “Huge ASS” String of beads giveaway. This will go to the most deserving and creative person who represents themselves in a true Mardi Gras Fashion! Mardi Gras + Beads + Girls + Alcohol =…….. Well I think you get the idea!

Food downstairs will be simple, right now specials will include the “Poke” Chop Poboy for $6 and Parmesan Fried Green Tomatoes with Comeback Sauce for $4. I will have the Voodoo Burger Available too……this thing is huge!! Probably will have some food from the upstairs available too. We will have the $2 PBR as usual and all Abita Beer will be $3. Don’t Forget about the $3 Bartender’s Shot that everyone has grown to love!

Look forward to seeing you there!

I’m meeting my health guru AL for dinner tonight at Safari World Tapas on South Main.  It will be my first time to eat dinner there and I’m looking forward to a new and different food experience.

The Dempseys play the Flying Saucer Thursday night… needless to say, I’ll be there for that performance.  Heck, let’s face it, I’d probably be there no matter what band is playing.

While surfing the Saucer’s website to confirm the Dempseys, I noticed that they’re having a special release tapping Friday, February 20.  That’s when the brewer makes a custom cask – just one – of a specialty beer for Saucer customers to try.  This Friday it’s Lazy Magnolia Jefferson Stout Sweet Potato Cream Stout.  Wow that’s a long name for a beer.  Sweet potato-flavored beer?  Think I might like that.  Website doesn’t list a start time but these things usually start at 7 PM.  Dammit, that means it’ll conflict with the crawfish boil at the Rooster!  Guess I’ll have to leave the Rooster around 8 or 9 and take my chances that the beer hasn’t run out.

Restaurant.com has a new promotional coupon code good through February 19. Click here and enter code PREZ at checkout to save 70% on your order. It’s good on their $25 gift certificates, Dinner of the Month Club, and most of their other popular products.  Many restaurants Downtown and throughout the city are part of this program.  Normally you can buy $25 face-value certificates for $10, but with the discount promo code that will cut the price to $3.

I attended the Silly Goose’s Sunday Bloody Mary breakfast yesterday… am going to give them another week to work the kinks out before I review it.  It’s hard to close a restaurant at 3 AM and turn around and open it at 11 AM.  Not sure I’ll be back this coming Sunday, but some Sunday soon I’ll give it another try.

I have to write a user manual for the software I’m developing this week, starting today.  That’s mostly going to be capturing and captioning screen shots and is going to be boooooring.  Wish I could outsource this stuff.  Hmmm perhaps this is the kind of work that can be done with a Pint Nite beer in front of me.

I’ll finish this post by wishing a good morning to those who have Presidents Day off… for everyone else, yeah, it’s not such a good morning, given that it’s Monday and below freezing outside.  See ya later… I’ll post again if I learn of more stuff going on this week.

I’ve mentioned all these things before, but just to remind everyone:

• $2 Super Cold Coors Lights at Kooky Canuck all day today.  It’s a celebration of the Presidents Day weekend.  You know, in 1789 when Washington started his first term, a penny would’ve been a very generous tip.  So if Meghan is bartending, why not party like it’s 1789 and hand her $2.01 for your Super Cold beer?
• There’s a Bloody Mary bar at Silly Goose today, with doors opening at 11 AM.  Looking forward to crafting Bloody Marys to my own taste.  $6 hangover breakfast too.
• Calhoun’s is having a NASCAR party beginning at 2 with prize giveaways.

Ate hot wings at Bardog yesterday, then watched the game at the Saucer, then cabbed it to Mollie Fontaine’s to meet up with a group, then back downtown to Silly Goose.  Good seeing my favorite blogger/MILF at the Goose last night.

Time to go mix some Marys.

Just saw on Facebook that ANOTHER restaurant Downtown, Sauces, is adding a Sunday brunch.  Wow Downtown is loaded with choices for brunch now.  Here’s a summary of the ones I know about:

– The Majestic Grille, of course, has Sunday brunch from 11 to 3.  They have $3 mimosas and Bloody Marys, and they have a special brunch menu with frittatas, steak & eggs, shrimp & grits, and “John D’s breakfast,” a traditional breakfast with eggs, bacon, grits, and biscuits.  Other choices too, and their lunch menu is available as well.  Glad to see other new brunches popping up, but the Majestic’s is still the gold standard.

– Automatic Slim’s has brunch from 10 to 4 Saturday and Sunday.  They have $2.50 mimosas and Bloody Marys, and some incredible items on their brunch menu.  My recommendations would be the omelet with jerk meat, the crawfish eggs benedict, and the Tonga Scramble (chorizo and eggs over hashbrowns with sirachi sauce).  My friend Air Traffic Mike says they’re the only place outside New Orleans that makes Eggs Sardou the right way.  I’ve been there four times now and have been very happy each time.  With Michael Patrick in the kitchen, you can’t go wrong.

– The Blue Monkey has a brunch as well, with steak and eggs, breakfast dishes including eggs benedict and such, and they have a few salads and burgers on there.  A couple of my friends are especially fond of their crawfish bisque.  Brunch runs 11 to 2 I believe, with discounts on mimosas and Bloody Marys, and I believe it’s also happy hour from 11 to 7.

– Circa recently started a brunch, on Sundays 11 to 3.  They have cocktail specials, French press coffee, beignets, a variety of egg dishes, crepes, entrees including petite filet of beef and poached salmon, and more.  John Bragg was voted “Best Chef” in last year’s Flyer poll, so you know it’s got to be good.  This is maybe slightly more expensive than the other brunches listed here (except the Peabody and TdB), but worth it.  Apologies to John for not having made it by to try his brunch yet… I feel especially bad about that considering he’s a sponsor of our BBQ team.  I’ll get by there some Sunday in the near future.

– Silly Goose is opening their doors at 11 AM on Sunday starting tomorrow.  They’ll have a “mix your own Bloody Mary” bar where you can choose from a variety of mixes and spices, to create exactly the Bloody Mary you want.  They’ll also have a hangover breakfast of eggs, waffles, sausage, and bacon for $6.  This is without a doubt the best value on the list.  Bloody Marys will be $3, mimosas as well.

– Just got on Facebook and saw that Sauces is now going to have a Sunday brunch (and soon Saturday too) from noon to 5.  $4 Bloody Marys and mimosas – not bad but not competitive with most of the other places listed here.  Menu sounds good, with eggs benedict, chorizo sausage balls, beignets, roast chicken hash, huevos rancheros and more.  I thought Sauces was changing its name to the Green Room?  The sign is still above the door, though, and they’re still referring to it as “Sauces” on Facebook.

– Then there are the hotel brunch buffets, the most lavish of which is of course the Peabody.  Worth trying at least once in your life for sure, but Downtown locals usually go to the other places listed here, mainly because it gets mighty expensive to spend upward of $40 to eat there every Sunday.

– Oh yeah… writing about brunches over $40 made me realize I forgot one – Texas de Brazil.  They have the best salad bar Downtown, and then gauchos bring cuts of meat to your table and carve them for you, all-you-can-eat style until you can’t take it any more.  They also have egg dishes, bacon, and other breakfast dishes on their salad bar during brunch hours.  You better be hungry if you do this one.  If TdB is in your plans, you should get on their website and get on their mailing list – they’ll sometimes e-mail you coupons for 2-for-1 brunches and other discounts.

The brunch crew has been alternating 2 weeks Majestic, 2 week’s Slim’s recently, but with so many new brunches popping up, I think I’m going to deviate from the group plan from now on, and go wherever I feel like going when I get up Sunday morning.  Can’t go wrong with any of these, and I’m sure I’ll know people at all of them.

Tomorrow, though, I’ve definitely got to try the Goose.  That Bloody Mary bar intrigues me.  I could have a whole lot of fun with that… the $6 hangover breakfast is easy on the wallet too.  We haven’t had a good brunch at a true locals’ bar in the Downtown core since Sleep Out Louie’s closed… if I like it I have a feeling that could be my destination of choice a lot of the time.

After brunch, some of the gang is going to a Buzztime NASCAR party at Calhoun’s with prizes… I’m sure it will be a great event for those into NASCAR, but for me, the existence of golf is the sole reason NASCAR isn’t the most boring sport on TV.  Unless the Saucer does something really stupid (examples: Turbo Dog on Fire Sale, re-hiring Meghan) I don’t see myself deviating from my usual post-brunch plans.  Calhoun’s is great but it doesn’t have the ambience the Saucer does.  And by “ambience” I mean “miniskirts.”

All right… gonna go eat lunch at Bardog, after hearing a strong recommendation for their new wings.  After that I’ll make my decision where to watch the Tiger game.

Last night our trivia team, The Rapscallions, had the 10th edition of our party where we cash in all our winnings for the past three months.  Here are a few pics of the team enjoying some free beer:

This time we went back to our old tradition of picking a waitress who we wanted to work the party.  For this one we picked Amber, pictured below in a rare photo of me taken with my own camera.  She did a great job and we were thrilled to have her.

After that, we moved on to Calhoun’s, needing to get in the vicinity of Earnestine & Hazel’s for the South Main Dirty Dozen party that was scheduled to start a little later in the evening.  All the crack boxes were in use, but after about 20 minutes I got one and began my usual domination of the Buzztime Trivia competition.

Okay gonna rant here for a minute… I CANNOT STAND IT when I’m playing Buzztime trivia, the person sitting next to me is not, and they keep “helpfully” trying to supply me with answers.  This drives me nuts for several reasons:

1) I want to win fair and square, on my own.

2) The person sitting next to me may not be supplying me with correct answers, which could mess up my score.

3) The person sitting next to me may be talking loud enough for other people in the bar to hear the answer.

This was a big problem at Sleep Out’s and it’s starting to become a problem at Calhoun’s… to people who do this, STOP!  Either get your own crack box and join the trivia game, or watch quietly and keep your answers to yourself.

Down the bar from me, my friends Shawn and Joe ordered Calhoun’s lunchroom pizza.  At the other end of the room, the Nuh-Uh Girl’s radar went off that someone had food.  She came over to eat off their plate:

Complete photo album (52 pics) here.

I played trivia until a little after midnight, and never made it to the Dirty Dozen party.  Those stupid crack boxes.  And stupid $1.50 PBR.  And the fact that we’d been drinking free beer at the Saucer didn’t help either.  Apologies to the Dirty Dozen hosts for not making it after I RSVPd.

So I rode the trolley home.  I want to say something here about the trolley driver.  At every stop he was announcing not only the name of the stop, but interesting things to do at each stop.  “Union Avenue.  Huey’s.  Peabody Hotel.”  “Monroe Avenue.  Bardog Tavern.”  The trolley drivers are often among the first locals visitors to Memphis encounter, and he made the city look like a million dollars.  Kudos.  He was driving the “540” trolley about midnight last night if anyone at MATA reads this.

Plans for today:  Will watch the Memphis Tigers game somewhere at 4 PM.  Not sure where.  Meeting up with some people later on for a celebration of being single on Valentine’s Day.  Should be a fun day.