Paul Ryburn's Journal

A few final BBQ Fest pictures:

The third place trophy on tour at the Saucer

In the ’67 Firebird

On the patio of our sponsor Circa by John Bragg

Ground Zero, the new blues club on Lt. Lee Avenue and neighbor to the Westin Hotel and the Red Rooster, has been open for a couple of weeks, doing a “soft opening.”  However, this week, on Sunday, May 25, they’re doing their grand opening party.  More info in this Memphis Business Journal article.  It says the new club will be open for lunch and dinner, and will have live entertainment Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

Got an e-mail saying that 64 oz. growlers of Boscos beer have been reduced from $14 to $10 at the dock of their warehouse at Main and Crump. There’s still a $3 deposit if you don’t have your own growler.

Ten bucks for 64 ounces, that’s $2.50 a pint for Boscos beer, not bad.

Tonight I started at the Saucer, then moved to Big Foot where my former BFF was bartending. She claimed to have invented a new drink called the “Flying Moose.” I couldn’t tell exactly what was in it, but it tasted like it contained sweet & sour and melon liqueur (and undoubtedly some other high-alcohol ingredients). It’s one of the candidates to go on the 34 oz. $9.99 drink menu. I hate to say it, considering it’s the invention of my former BFF, but it was GOOD. Worth ordering next time you go in. Attn Shawn and Lana: Give that drink a place on the regular menu. Then find a reason to fire my former BFF so you can take all the credit. And so I don’t have to put up with her next time I come in.

While there and drunk I talked to Luke, the co-owner of the Red Rooster. The Rooster is doing some kind of bachelor auction for charity in July and I agreed to be a part of it. File this under the “things I would not have done sober” category. More details to come.

Thanks to Air Traffic Mike for the gumbo. Eating it now.

(Edit: Forgot to hit Publish before going to bed, so you’re getting this Tuesday morning.)

The Downtown Flying Saucer will host an NBA Draft Lottery watch party tomorrow night, Tuesday, May 20, beginning at 6 PM.  ESPN Radio 730 AM will broadcast, and members of the dance team will be there, and there will be prizes and giveaways.  Hopefully the Grizzlies will do better than expected in this year’s lottery (to make up for last year’s worse than expected luck) and get #1 or #2 and select either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley.  More details available here.

Trivia team:  We need to get there as early as possible and get our usual spot, or as close to it as we can get.

For those of you who live in East Bumblefuck, you can get in your gas-guzzling SUVs and drive to the other Flying Saucer, located in one of the many cookie-cutter lookalike strip malls on Germantown Parkway.  There will be a watch party there too, hosted by Soul Classics 103.5 FM.

5:25 walkthrough video of our 2008 BBQ team booth.

Walking home from Saucer/Hoop’s Bar tonight (I decided not to go to the Rooster), I walked past Big Foot and heard “Paul’s a bitch!” coming from the alley.  I turned around and looked down the alley and there was my former BFF along with several other Big Foot employees.  “No, I’m just kidding,” she laughed nervously.

Translation:  I want so desperately to connect with you, but seventh-grade taunting is the only way I know how.

I snapped the picture shown above, then turned my back on my former BFF and walked home.

Looking forward to Memorial Day Eve.  Having just had a long BBQ Fest weekend, it almost doesn’t seem right that I have another long weekend coming up.  But, you know what, I’ll take it.

BBQ video coming soon.

I arrived at the booth about 2 PM, and was immediately kicked out. “What’s going on?” I thought. The BBQ judges usually come by the shoulder booths between 11 and noon. Judging should have been over well before I got there.

“We’re top 3,” several team members told me. “The judges are coming back for the final table.” Never have I been so happy to be kicked out of my own booth. Here’s a pic of the judges and our cooks and team leaders in the booth for the final judging:

Our cooks’ hard work paid off… later in the day we were awarded Third Place (out of 70-80 teams) in the World Championship Pork Shoulder Category.  Here’s a pic of the team onstage accepting the third-place trophy:

Here’s a pic of me (the sole pic of me in the 300+ taken with my camera on Saturday) posing with the trophy:

Here’s a pic of our team shirt (front view):

And here’s the back of our shirt:

After the awards ceremony we celebrated not only the 3rd place finish, but our friend Lauren’s 23rd birthday.  Here’s a pic of her boyfriend Lee bringing out the cake:

And here’s a pic of the birthday girl:

Hey, we got Lauren porn for her birthday!  Oh, no, wait, that’s a giant birthday card.

And finally, let’s have a pic of what a $60,000 BBQ booth looks like:

That’s the upper deck of the Valero Oil booth which was next door to ours.  Saturday night and it was EMPTY.  Just goes to show, you can throw as much money as you want at BBQ Fest, but it’s the PEOPLE that make it.  Our booth, by contrast, cost about $12,000 and change, a shoestring budget considering the number of team members (~42) and the number of guests we invited (we went through 1,000 guest wristbands in four days).  Next year we will have a considerably more expensive booth, but we will have sponsors who see how much fun we have and want to have it with us, not ones who expect to take over the booth and make it a corporate BBQ team.

I’ll finish this post with a pic of the “without you, it wouldn’t have happened” people – head cook Willie (on the left) and team captain Chuck (right), with Chuck’s mom in the middle:

BBQ Fest wrap-up to come.  Got lots of thoughts and rants still to post before the subject of BBQ is done for the year.

Here’s a link to Saturday’s BBQ Fest album, so large (314 pictures) that it had to be split off as a separate album from the Sun, Wed, Thur, Fri pictures.  5-minute walkthrough video of the booth to come.

I’m giving myself permission to sleep through brunch in the morning, but if I get up in time it’s Majestic week 2.  It’s booth tear-down day but I’m invoking the “no physical labor” clause.  Right now it’s 12:30 in the morning and I’m thinking to myself, hmmm the Rooster is open.  I haven’t been out other than BBQ Fest all weekend.  Time to go have some fun.

Tube Top Month begins June 1, only two weeks and a day away!  Ladies, if you’re coming to BBQ Fest today, why not wear a tube top and I’ll take your picture for a blog post sometime during the month of June.  Weather is perfect for tube top wearing (high 80, low 62, very little chance of rain).  I’ll be at the team booth from 2 PM until 11 PM, except for a brief trip to the awards ceremonies around 5,6ish.  Last year I skipped the awards, but this year the chances are very good for my team The Ques Brothers to finish in the top 10 and win a trophy.  This time around I gotta be there.

So come on down and show off those tube tops!  I got a full 8 hours sleep last night and am ready to party one more time at BBQ Fest!

I added another 107 photos to the BBQ Fest album yesterday.  Here are some of the best:

Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating.

The booth was a shambles after Thursday’s wind and storms.

Terry and Otto’s dad hard at work repairing the booth.

Sam and Melissa, two of my favorite people from Itta Bena.

Melissa tries on Mikey’s disco helmet.

Our booth was one of five to host a poker run.  Here team leader Steve (at left, red cap) is seen helping one of the poker run participants funnel a beer.

Pig cigarette lighter with Turkish fez

Air Traffic Mike expresses his amusement that I caught the Nuh-Uh Girl eating yet again.

At one point Friday Terry thought to himself, “You know, the problem with the image I project is that I’m not flamboyant enough.  Perhaps I should go buy myself a furry white hat.”

BFF of the Month candidate Lizzie and her cousin George

Head cook Willie pulls apart a pork shoulder similar to the one that will be entered in the World Championship contest.

Another 100 or so pictures from Friday are available here.  This is the entire BBQ Fest weekend album, so scroll to the bottom to see Friday’s (the most recent) images.

Too sleepy to recap BBQ Fest Friday other than pictures.  Maybe in the morning.  The judging will be done tomorrow AM, so I’ll stay out of the booth until 1 or 2 in the afternoon.