Daily thoughts of a Downtown Memphis resident
I’ll be at the Cooper-Young Festival tomorrow practically the entire day. I’ll be there from about 10:30 in the morning until it wraps up at 7 PM, except for a brief trip away to stop by a friend’s party in the area. If you see me out there, please feel free to stop me and say hello.
I’m planning one more post before the day’s out… I’ve decided whom I’m going to support in the Memphis mayoral election. Will let you know who it is as soon as I run down the street and take a picture.
The “Boor & Hungry” from Elliott’s, a sandwich with smoked sausage, Swiss cheese and egg on Texas toast. Mmmm good.
Ate at China Restaurant for the first time today, and had the Chef Special, Singapore Fried Rice and an egg roll for $5.99. It was a good-sized pile of fried rice with beef, chicken, shrimp, egg and vegetables, fried in curry sauce so it was spicy but not TOO spicy. I enjoyed it. Figured there’d be enough left to put in a to-go box for local homeless person Scratchy, but I guess I was hungry. Sorry, Scratchy, maybe next time.
They have two $5.99 Chef Specials every day, and in most cases you can choose an egg roll, fries, or fried rice as your side. Most days they have one special that’s spicy and one that’s not. They also have a $4.99 lunch menu where you can choose from about 10 items which are pretty standard at Chinese restaurants.
One thing though – it took 20 minutes for them to get the fried rice out to the table (they did bring the egg roll after only a few minutes), and I stood at the counter for another 5 waiting to pay. If you work for a boss who gets upset if you run over your alloted time for lunch, this may not be the best place to go.
You can tell they’ve had problems with the bums by the signs on the wall. There’s a sign saying that drink refills must be consumed within the restaurant. They also charge for to-go packets of soy sauce, duck sauce, and mustard. Only in Downtown do you see signs like this, but if you’ve spent any amount of time among the “locals” here, you understand why those signs are necessary.
Overall, a good meal. I’ll go back on other days of the week to try more Chef Specials.
Will be working from the Second Street branch office this afternoon.
Ate lunch at China Restaurant as planned. Will blog about that later today.
Here’s a link to the latest storm track for Hurricane Humberto, which just made landfall on the Texas-Louisiana coast. Seems like every year around Cooper-Young Festival time, we have to worry about remnants of a hurricane spoiling the fun. It looks like Humberto will move through northern Louisiana and then make a U-turn away from Memphis, and probably won’t bring rain to the area on Saturday. Still worth keeping an eye on though.
Starting to go into Cooper-Young preparation mode… making sure I have sunscreen in the apartment to put on Saturday morning… making sure the camera battery is charged, and so is the spare battery… making sure I have enough money in my wallet to buy food, beverages, and anything I want from vendors … making sure I have plenty of business cards for the Handling-Panhandling group, my Memphis Discount Dining site, and some of my own cards to give to people… making plans for a relatively quiet Friday evening so I can wake up well-rested and ready to go on Saturday.
Time to do about an hour’s worth of work on a real estate website, then I’ll head to China Restaurant around 11 to try their Singapore Fried Rice.
Last night I met fellow Sunday bruncher John D at the Peabody/Capriccio Corner Bar to check out the free appetizer buffet (free with alcoholic beverage) that they’re now doing. John D was already there when I arrived, and they had Bud Light bottles, so needless to say he was a happy man.
The buffet consisted of some breads, some nice imported cheeses, and one hot item, which last night was fried ravioli. I’ve been told they have other hot items on different days, including (according to a press release the Peabody sent me) fried calamari, chicken Parmesan strips, and meatballs.
Between the two of us, we had 4 beers and the tab was $17.48 before tip – that works out to $4.37 per beer. A little pricey for Bud and Bud Light, but it’s the Peabody, what do you expect. My recommendation: The happy hour is worth going to, but fill up on apps while you have one beer, then tab out and go somewhere where the beer is cheaper (like Frenchie’s bar across the street at the Holiday Inn).
John D and I then headed up to Court Square for “Bands, Beer and Bums: The Court Square Concert Series.” A guy walked up and started talking to John D: John had him immediately pegged as a panhandler, but I didn’t. He was clean and had all his teeth. I went to get a round of beers, and while I was away the panhandler asked John, “Do you think that guy (meaning me) will give me some money?”
“No,” said John D. “But what he will do is take your picture and post it to a panhandling site on the Internet that the cops read.”
The panhandler beat a hasty retreat to the other side of the park. When he saw me take my camera out of my pocket, he nervously ran over to another panhandler and pointed me out, and they gathered their belongings and left the area.
So I didn’t get a pic of him, but I did manage to snap a few other pics.
Giant Bear performing in the gazebo. They were outstanding.
Legendary Downtown street person Willie N. lights up some concert attendees with his sparkling conversation. That is, if you consider “Hey, lemme get a quarter” sparkling conversation. The Blue Suede Brigade told me he was in rare form last night.
The guy in the gray jacket approached John D and me for a cigarette. I don’t smoke, but John reluctantly gave him one. The guy walked away, then came back up about five seconds later. “Hey man, look here, I’ve got some VCRs I’m trying to sell,” he said, motioning toward a couple of bags on a bench. Couldn’t see the contents of the bags, but they looked like they very well could contain VCRs. After we turned him down he was nice enough to pose for the picture above, which has since been brought to the attention of MPD.
Then I moved on to the Saucer where I had a few Left Hand Sawtooth Ales on Fire Sale. My friend Lee was there and, on the bartender’s recommendation, he got the Winter Solstice Ale, which came in a collectible porcelain bottle. “Yeah, that was left over from a past ‘buy the beer, get the glass’ night,” I told him. “Specifically, it was left from December 22, 2005.”
“This beer is almost two years old?” he asked me. “How much is it?”
“Hell if I know,” I said. “They took it off the menu 18 months ago, when spring ’06 arrived.”
He offered me a sip. I don’t remember Winter Solstice being a high-alcohol beer, but it seemed to have fermented into one after two years in that bottle.
Was going to head to Beale Street to catch The Dempseys, but Kings of the Delta were playing the Saucer and they were good, so I just stayed there. They played the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon” from the White Album… that’s a song you don’t hear a lot of bands cover.
Ever wonder which beers are most frequently consumed at the Saucer? I saw a list posted by the waitress station:
Memphis Saucer Most Popular
Hmmm… I wonder what the Cordova Saucer Most Popular would look like. Here’s my guess at their top 5:
And I’ll take a shot at my personal top ten:
Dogfish Head Midas Touch would’ve been on the list (at #1) but they’re currently out of it.
Time to get to work. Trying to decide if I’ll hit the Madison rooftop to catch Charlie Wood this evening. Probably will hit EP’s a little later on, around 9.
Fellow blogger Downtown Amy posted this site to her blog yesterday – looks like the Raiford’s comeback is official.
The Memphis Business Journal has a new article about the RiverArtsFest to be held in the South Main Arts District October 26-28. Some new details about the fest are revealed in the article. Check it out here.
One of the Sunday brunch crew e-mailed me, and it looks like we’re going to meet up at the Peabody/Capriccio Corner Bar around 5:30 for their drinks and appetizer buffet, then head to Court Square after that for “Bands, Beer and Bums.” If anyone wants to join us feel free.
Although, keep in mind the Saucer has good glasses – the really nice Stella Artois ones – tonight for glass night at 7. If you collect beer glassware, might want to skip Court Square tonight and hit the Saucer. Court Square will have a scaled-down version of its entertainment tomorrow night, so you can go then – no bands or beer, just “Bums” as the theme. “Bums” will also be the theme Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and pretty much the rest of 2007.
I’ve already got a full set of glasses though, so I’ll be at the Corner Bar. If anyone who works there reads my blog: Better stock up on Bud Light bottles this afternoon.
In order to tide myself over until 5:30, I stopped by Jack’s Food Store and got a bag of these:
You know who ought to team up? Frito-Lay and NORML, the organization that works to try and legalize marijuana. Seems like a lot more Doritos would get sold if people could buy pot legally.
Think I may eat at China restaurant, on Jefferson between Second and Third, for lunch tomorrow. I noticed a sign on their door that they have daily chef’s specials for $5.99, and tomorrow’s special looks good – Singapore Fried Rice, which appears to be combination fried rice fried in spicy curry sauce. Yum! I think it comes with an egg roll and maybe soup – although, I’m not sure, because as I was reading the menu a woman walked out and said “Ex…CUSE me.” in a tone of voice that implied, “How DARE you be in my way.”
These Doritos are pretty good, especially when you eat one hot wing chip and one blue cheese chip together.
The Fire Sale at the Downtown Saucer is Left Hand Sawtooth Ale.
Back to work.