Paul Ryburn's Journal

I’m asking on behalf of a blog reader… I know McGuinness used to but they’re closed. His team is Real Madrid if that makes a difference.

Silly Goose is seeing increased business due to the Foursquare iPhone app… I’m the mayor of the place according to Foursquare… how could I not go in there tonight? Sausage & melted cheese plate was good. So was the PBR.

Many thanks to my friend Joan who is a concierge at the Westin Hotel, who called around to a lot of the restaurants and bars Downtown to confirm whether they would be open or closed, and if open what hours, on Thanksgiving. She was kind enough to share the list with me.

This, by the way, is indicative of the wonderful service at the Westin Hotel Beale Street, and how far out of their way they will go to make sure guests have the best possible stay.  If you’re visiting Memphis or have guests coming to town, please consider a stay there.

All right, on to the listings.

Plain text – closed Thanksgiving Day
Bold text – open Thanksgiving Day
*** Starred bold text – open and I will be there

Restaurants

Automatic Slims – Closed Thanksgiving, Friday dinner only
Bangkok Alley – Closed Thanksgiving
Blue Fin – Closed Thanksgiving
Circa – Closed Thanksgiving
Currents at the River Inn – Open on Thanksgiving
Felicia Suzanne’s – Closed Thanksgiving
Flight – Closed Thanksgiving
Grill 83 at the Madison – Open on Thanksgiving
Ground Zero – Open 5pm Thanksgiving
Gus’s Fried Chicken – Closed Wednesday @5, Closed Thanksgiving
Huey’s – Closed Thanksgiving
Inn at Hunt Phelan – Open but booked, 4-7
Itta Bena – Closed Thanksgiving
Kooky Canuck – Closed Thanksgiving
Majestic Grille – Closed Wednesday – Friday
McEwen’s – Closed Thanksgiving, Friday dinner only
Mesquite Chop House – Closed Thanksgiving
Pearl’s Oyster House – Closed Thanksgiving
Peabody – Chez Philippe and Capriccio’s open on Thanksgiving
Rendezvous – Closed Thanksgiving
Sauces – Closed Thanksgiving
Sole Restaurant and Oyster Bar – Open until 4
South of Beale – Closed Thanksgiving
Spindini – Closed Thanksgiving
Texas de Brazil – Open on Thanksgiving
Wang’s – Open on Thanksgiving

Bars

Bardog Tavern – Open 5pm Thanksgiving
Calhoun’s – Open 5pm Thanksgiving
*** Earnestine and Hazel’s – Thanksgiving party, 8pm
*** Flying Saucer – Open 5pm Thanksgiving
Silly Goose – Open 5pm Thanksgiving

Beale Street

Alfred’s On Beale – 197 Beale – Closed Thanksgiving
BB King’s Blues Club – 143 Beale – Nightlife, 7-8:30/Corey Osborn Tribute, 9-1am
Blues City Café – 138 Beale – Closed Thanksgiving
Blues Hall – 182 Beale – Chris McDaniel’s Band, 8-midnight
Kings Palace Café – 162 Beale – Closed Thanksgiving
King’s Palace Patio – 162 Beale – Closed Thanksgiving
Rum Boogie – 182 Beale – James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band, 8-midnight
Silky O’Sullivan’s –183 Beale – Closed Thanksgiving

Museums

All Closed

Very short post today due to a Thanksgiving potluck at work… Circa just started selling 50% off gift certificates on their website, so check them out if you’re a fan of John Bragg’s excellent food.

Will post more after work… updated list of stuff going on this Thanksgiving weekend.

Details here on the American Blues Blog.  Congratulations to Dr. Green!

The Majestic Grille is gearing up for its one-day-only half-off gift card sale. On Wednesday, December 2, the Majestic will begin selling $50 gift cards for only $25 beginning at 9 AM until they run out. If you’re a big fan of the Majestic’s food, this is the way to get to eat a lot of good food for cheap. Note that it’s “9 AM until they run out,” so if you work outside of Downtown, I’d recommend taking as early a lunch as possible (or come in late and get there at 9). You have to purchase them in person – no phone orders.

Note that the gift cards cannot be used until 1/4/10. They also cannot be used for alcohol, tax, gratuity, to-go orders, or for special events.

Suggestion: If you haven’t tried one of Patrick’s filets, it alone is worth splurging on a card. The whole rotisserie chicken is a good one too.

The restaurant is also bringing back Sunday Supper and a Movie starting this Sunday. A special menu will be available, in addition to the regular menu, beginning at 6:30 PM, with movie starting at 7, except as noted below. Here’s the line-up:

November 29: We’re No Angels
December 6: Holiday Inn (dinner at 7, movie at 7:30)
December 13: Christmas in Connecticut
December 20: It’s a Wonderful Life

Reservations for these are highly recommended, as these Sunday movie nights were quite popular last year.

There’s one more too. It’s becoming an annual tradition at the Majestic – the showing of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, with costume contests for tackiest sweater and for best Christmas Vacation Character Costume. That will happen on Tuesday, December 8, 7:30 PM special menu, 8 PM movie. I was one of the judges for this last year and it was a whole lot of fun. Note that this event SOLD OUT, so if you want to come you better make reservations well in advance.

I’ve had a couple of people ask me if the Foursquare application is available for the Crapberry… there’s not an app for it, but it looks like you can hit Foursquare’s mobile page through any phone that has a mobile web browser. I’ve become the Mayor of a third location on FourSquare – Number 10 Main, my apartment building.

Also had an e-mail asking what is going on New Year’s Eve other than the parties at the Peabody and Beale… don’t know. Best bet is to go to the DowntownMemphis.com home page and check their calendar of events.

Also check out the Downtown Download blog while you’re on the site, for a post about how the Calhoun’s regulars turned the bar into a gingerbread house for the storefront competition.

All right, enough typing for now. For some reason I thought I could make it without my morning Mountain Dew on the way to work today… that was a stupid move. Gonna run to Exxon and buy one before lunch break ends. I’ll be at Pint Nite at the Saucer about 5:30, then poker night at the Silly Goose at 7:30.

I’ve blogged this weekend about a new social networking app called Foursquare.  It’s one of those apps where you “check in” at your current location.  Unlike other apps, though, it awards you points for checking in, which makes it very addictive.  You can win honors for checking  in at the same place multiple times a week, or for checking in multiple places per night.  It’s an app for drunks.  I expect to do very well on Foursquare.

If you check in at a place  more than anyone else, you become “mayor” of the place.  I became mayor of the Saucer and Silly Goose today.  Goose I will lose within the week, I would think, although maybe not since I will be there for poker tomorrow.  Saucer I may lose and regain a couple of times, but long-term I’m thinking it will probably be me.  Remember, last time I counted my monthly bar appearances, the Saucer count for a 30-day month was 42.

But, I’ve got a question.

Who’s going to emerge as mayor of Calhoun’s?

It’s a tiny bar but the regulars are absolutely rabid about that place.  They love it.  But they’re also a competitive bunch (see Buzztime Trivia and poker).  And most of them have access to an iPhone or similar device.  So, which one of the regulars there will emerge as the long-term mayor?  I can see people making extra trips there just to try to wrest the title away.

Otto is the most tech-savvy, so he would not be a bad bet.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Mikey (who has a trophy there for consecutive days visited) finally breaks down and gets an iPhone to get in the race.

Home from a long, rough day of drinking beer, early enough to get a full night’s sleep.  Finished beer #200 today, due to a new stout going on Fire Sale.

Foursquare is the latest social media app to be hyped to the sky.  Like Brightkite, it’s an app which detects your location and then you can “check in” wherever you are.  However, it seems to be the next big thing.  I read about it earlier this week, but in the news reports it said that Memphis was not among the cities Brightkite covered.  Well, I downloaded it last night, and they have added Memphis.  They have apps for the iPhone and Android and other devices.  Visit their site here, or download their app from the App Store.

You get points for checking in at the same location multiple times a day.  You get points for checking in at the same location more than a certain amount of times in a week.  Hello, Saucer!  I’m guessing I’m going to be on the leaderboard for points for this thing.

You also get points for adding new locations, and Foursquare being new to Memphis, there are plenty of locations to be added.  I just checked in at home at Number 10 Main and got points for adding it.

Just got out of bed.  I thought to myself, “sun’s up, must be about 7.”  No, it’s well after 10.  I’m positive I’m still drunk from last night.  Stupid bars.  Not going to make it to brunch but will be at the Saucer around noon for Sunday Fun Day.

Ate at Kooky Canuck this afternoon. While there I got a tip from Terry the bartender. If you ever eat super hot food that kicks your ass, e.g. the Holy Smokes wings there, drink warm water to relieve the pain. Terry told me that warm water opens up the capillaries on the tongue, whereas ice cold water does just the opposite.

Anyone think certain people have theme songs? Every time I see Terry I’m reminded of when we played a Led Zeppelin IV tape backward in college and it seemed to say “because I live with Satan.” Not sure why.

Whoever’s idea it was to put chunks of ham in the cheesy corn, you are a genius.

As I was walking around taking pics of the Downtown lights last night, I noticed this sign posted at the trolley stops:

Next Friday, you can ride the trolley for only a quarter.  Great day to take the riverfront loop and see the river for cheap.  Or take the trolley to the Pinch and hang out at Westy’s or TJ Mulligan’s.  Or take the trolley to South Main and watch football at Calhoun’s.  Or take the Madison Avenue line and… um, I don’t know, go to the Circle K at Madison and Cleveland or something.

What to do with my Saturday… my plans for tonight got cancelled, so the day is wide open.  My little blue netbook is sitting on the coffee table, saying, “Paul, you know you’d like to open me up and play some poker, wouldn’t you?”

Let’s see what football games we’ve got going on today… Mississippi State at Arkansas at 11:21 AM.  An easy win for the Hogs hopefully.  It’s on ESPN360.com, which I don’t think the Saucer carries, so that’ll save me from starting my beer drinking early.

Memphis at Houston at noon… oh who cares about the football team anymore.  Did you hear Team Pastner slaughtered Tennessee Tech last night?

LSU at Ole Miss at 2:30 on CBS.  Go Tigers!  Ole Miss home game… I’ll have to look for white hoods in the stands.  “The South Shall Rise Again”… I wish an earthquake would rise up and bury Ole Miss for good.  Volcano would work just as well.

Vandy at Tennessee at 6 PM on ESPNU… go Vandy.

Kansas at Texas at 7 on ABC… go Jayhawks.

Meanwhile in basketball news, Rivals.com has just updated their rankings of 2010 recruiting classes.  Who’s #1?  Have a look.

All right, I’m going to sign off and try to figure out what to do with my day… beautiful weather, maybe something outside.

I walked over to Court Square about 5:15 for the flip-the-switch celebration for the Downtown holiday lights.  As I walked up, I noticed two things:  1) There were fewer people than last year, a little surprising because the temps this year were about 30 degrees warmer; and 2) I found it odd that the carolers were caroling at the edge of the square, by the Porter Building, rather than in the gazebo.

As I walked through the square and looked at the lights, though, my questions were answered:  The square had been overrun by rats!  They were running all over the place.  I stayed in the park for 5 minutes and must have seen a dozen of them scampering around.  They definitely were not afraid of humans either.

During the course of the evening, I took two walks and took photos of Downtown storefronts decorated for the holidays.  Here are some pics.