Paul Ryburn's Journal

Yesterday I was surfing the Memphis Flyer’s site and noticed an article saying that former Shelby County mayor Bill Morris may be running for mayor of Memphis. That really surprised me. “Isn’t Bill Morris retired?” I thought to myself. “He hasn’t been involved in politics for 12 years. And I thought he and Mayor Herenton are friends – why would he run against the mayor?”

Well, after reading Thaddeus Matthews this morning, it makes more sense. Thad speculates that Morris is in the race at the invitation of King Willie, in an attempt to split the opposition vote enough ways to allow Willie to retain his mayor’s office. It’s speculation but it makes a lot of sense to me. Morris is well-liked and respected and would take a lot of votes away from Carol Chumney, Herman Morris and the other candidates.

I haven’t figured out who I’ll support for mayor… but it won’t be King Willie and it won’t be Bill Morris. Willie has done a lot for downtown but lately it seems like he’s more interested in doing for himself and his friends. It’s time for him to go.

Couple of things before we get to the main topic:

1. There’s a new post on my other blog, A Better, Bigger Deal. Today’s topic: How to find iPods below the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

2. Correction to a previous post where I said that NTN Trivia is gone from Sleep Out Louie’s: It’s not gone, just suspended. They plan to close for renovations for a little while at some point in the next few months, and when they reopen NTN will be back. Glad to hear it, although I still have to question whether SOL is making a good move closing for renovations right as two other locals’ bars, Bar Dogs and the downtown Blue Monkey, open for business.

Okay, let’s get down to business.

As I continued to flip through this week’s Memphis Flyer, I noticed something new and different in the ad for TJ Mulligan’s Pinch: On Mondays they’re doing Team Pictionary. Pictionary, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a game kind of like charades, except you draw pictures rather than use gestures. It’s very popular with groups of friends who do “game night.”

I gotta applaud Mulligan’s for trying this, because it really shows they’re thinking outside the box. There are people who wouldn’t go to a bar to watch a football game or hear a band, but they would go to socialize with friends over a fun game. So Mulligan’s will be creating a new set of regulars, and as the people nearby (who live in Uptown or Mud Island) come on Mondays and get used to the place, they may start coming other nights of the week as well. That’s how you build yourself up as a neighborhood bar.

Me personally, I doubt I’ll be showing up for Team Pictionary night, not when my beautiful waitresses at the Saucer are serving $2.50 pints that night. But, I think it’s a brilliant move, and if you enjoy game nights with friends, this sounds like it would be worth checking out.

(Edited to add: Don’t forget that today’s the last day you can buy $25 gift certificates on sale for $5, or $10 for $1.50, and get a bonus $10 certificate free, redeemable at some of Memphis’ most well-known restaurants – Big Foot, Stella, Cafe Ole, Blue Plate Cafe, McEwen’s, Bhan Thai, Dan McGuinness downtown, and over 60 more. Here’s the link:

Save 50% on Dining Certificates and get a $10 certificate FREE! Use code SWEETHEART at checkout. Offer valid through 2/10/07.

Note: The main subject of today’s post, The Happy Mexican, is NOT on the list of restaurants accepting these certificates.

Edited again to add: Just noticed that the original Gus’s Fried Chicken, in Oakland, TN, accepts these certificates. Didn’t see the downtown one on the list though.)

A couple of months ago I reported on a rumor that I had heard, that Las Margaritas in the Artisan Hotel in Midtown was looking to take over The Happy Mexican, the Mexican restaurant at 385 South Second, a few blocks south of Beale.

Well, as I flipped through the Memphis Flyer today I found an ad for the Happy Mexican, and at the top it read, “Your amigos at Las Margaritas have now moved to The Happy Mexican – new menu!” So it looks like the rumor was true. The ad also listed their specials, a very impressive list. Here’s what they’ve got going on:

• On Mondays, 2-for-1 small lime margaritas
• On Tuesdays, 2-for-1 domestic bottles
• On Wednesdays, 2-for-1 import bottles
• On Thursdays, 2-for-1 pitchers
• On Fridays, jumbo Top Shelf margaritas for $7.99
• On Saturdays, Ultimate and Presidente jumbo margaritas for $7.99
• Lime margarita happy hour 3-7 PM Tuesday-Sunday

Those are the specials, but you should still grab a print copy of the Flyer and look for the ad (page 12 of the special dining section in the middle), because there’s a coupon for a free appetizer with the purchase of two entrees.

The dining section also has a coupon for a free appetizer (looks like there are no strings attached) for Cafe Toscana out east on page 13. And on page 11 they have a picture of the “Shirley Burger” at the Lamplighter in Midtown, and it looks like Shirley makes a fine burger indeed. In all the years I’ve been in Memphis I’ve never been to the Lamplighter – guess I’ll have to add it to my growing to-do list of places to eat.

I haven’t been down there to confirm this, but other Sleep Out Louie’s regulars who I trust tell me that the popular Downtown bar has discontinued their NTN Trivia game.

For those of you who don’t know what NTN is, it’s a nationwide trivia game that is played in bars and restaurants. A typical game consists of 15 questions and takes 30 minutes. Questions appear on monitors tuned to the trivia channel, and people playing in the restaurants answer on blue wireless boxes – often called “crack boxes” because NTN Trivia is about as addictive as crack. Daytime games generally don’t have a theme, but during prime-time they’ll run themed games about celebrity trivia (which The Nuh-Uh Girl dominated at SOL), sports trivia, music trivia, etc. They also have a poker channel where players can participate in a simulated Texas Hold ‘Em game.

Some of you are probably expecting me to go off on a rant against Sleep Out’s parent company, River City Management, for taking away NTN… but I’m not going to. I learned several months ago how much they were paying per week for it, and let’s just say it’s a lot. It was a business decision on River City’s part and I can’t blame ’em for making it.

Now, if they discontinue the $1 PBR on Sundays… THEN we’re gonna have a problem.

Enjoyed some good times on NTN over the past year though. Challenging worthy competition like PDS and Tracy… hitting #1 in the nation on a game I played after consuming three bottles of champagne and several duck farts… watching Skippy gloat after FINALLY beating me… and most recently I’ve been challenged by two employees of another nearby restaurant who play together under the screen name BIATCH.

This does present an opportunity for another bar in the Downtown core to pick up NTN and get a built-in regular following. Currently the only other location in the core that has it is TGI Friday’s, and you’re never going to see a lot of Downtown locals become Friday’s regulars; this ain’t Cordova, folks. Might be worth it for Dan McGuinness to look into it – if they did it’s virtually guaranteed that they’d yank some of my drinking dollars out of the hands of the Saucer. Bar Dogs, the locals’ bar scheduled to open on Monroe in May, might want to consider it as well – NTN could lead to them stealing a lot of business away from Sleep Out’s, especially considering Sleep Out’s is rumored to be closing for a month for renovations right around the time Bar Dogs opens.

Ho hum… it’s cold and not much is going on downtown tonight… I’ll probably stay in. Look for a couple of other restaurant/bar-themed posts this weekend.

… go read Guy Kawasaki’s blog instead. He has a good post today about bosses. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid the kind of bosses he talks about, but I’ve sure heard of many of them at the major corporations around town.

Net Impact pics from last night will be up soon. Happy belated birthday to Otto.

– I’m quoted in an article in today’s Memphis Daily News, covering the new Memphis Net Impact chapter launching tonight at EP’s. Writer Andy Meek did a great job explaining what the new organization is all about, and how other Net Impact chapters have made a difference. Please take a look at the article, and if Net Impact sounds of interest to you, stop by EP’s this evening. Since it’s a kickoff party, it’s a good chance to let the organizers know what goals you’d like to see them pursue in 2007.

– There’s a vote online to determine which city The Food Network’s Rachael Ray should next visit to film an episode of her “$40 a day” show. For those of you who haven’t seen it, she visits major cities and finds dining bargains. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Rachael (mainly because she’s a lousy tipper) but any national publicity for Memphis is good publicity – so please take a moment to click over to her site and vote for Memphis.

– Speaking of TV shows: Coyote Ugly’s Ultimate Coyote reality show, where they audition girls to become Coyotes who bartend and dance on the bar, will be filming its final round in Memphis all next week, beginning on Sunday the 11th. So if you want to see yourself on TV, head down to Beale.

– I’m deleting the spam from my Gmail account as I type this. Gmail has Google AdSense ads at the top of the page, which look at the page’s content and determine which ads would be best to display. So when I go to check my spam filter, I frequently find that Google has selected recipes involving SPAM for me to read. This morning it’s SPAM Vegetable Strudel. Yukkkkkkkk!!!!!!!

– Took my laptop to the Saucer last night and got much farther than expected installing and learning to use Drupal. By about 8:00 my work was done, and my friends Ken, Kenny and Rick showed up and we hung out and drank for a while. We watched in amusement as one of the male customers bought his waitress a rose. (They have a guy who walks through a couple of times a night selling roses.) When the waitress came over to see if we needed anything, we told her, “We were going to buy you a rose, but we decided to buy a round of Jager instead.”

– Hmmm… just saw an Evite for the Net Impact event tonight… fellow blogger Semi-Charmed Kat has responded that she’ll be there. For those of you meeting SCK for the first time, these are her favorite conversational topics: Ptolemy, Ptolemy, Ptolemy, Carnival, Ptolemy, Ptolemy, her breasts, Ptolemy, and Ptolemy.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Back to work, hope to see you at Net Impact tonight.

– The company I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, selling $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10 and $10 certificates for $3, is back with a new promotion. Through February 10 you can get 50% off on certificate purchases (which would mean a $25 certificate for $5, or a $10 one for $1.50) and they’ll throw in an additional $10 gift certificate free. Here’s the link to get you there:

Save 50% on Dining Certificates and get a $10 certificate FREE! Use code SWEETHEART at checkout. Offer valid through 2/10/07.

The certificates are valid at Big Foot Lodge, Bhan Thai, Blue Plate Cafe, Cafe Ole, the downtown Dan McGuinness, McEwen’s, Molly’s La Casita, Silky O’Sullivan’s, The Gibson Lounge, Stella and dozens more Memphis locations.

Last time I posted about this I had several skeptical readers call the restaurants and ask if this offer was legit, and found out that indeed it was. If you have any doubt that these are accepted, I encourage you to call the restaurants before ordering. I have yet to hear of a case where a restaurant was listed but the certificates were not accepted. Please do pay attention to whether there are particular times of day that they must be used, and whether they can be used for alcohol purchases as well as food.

– I just posted a new news article to the Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis site. Seems that some of the panhandlers are running a new scam when people refuse to give them money, but offer to buy them a meal at a restaurant… they’re not interested in the meal, but in restaurant customers’ personal belongings. Find out the details and how to protect yourself by going to the RSDM homepage, then clicking the Latest News menu item.

The article also suggests an option that may be more constructive than buying a meal at a restaurant – buying coupon books from the Union Rescue Mission and giving the coupons to panhandlers. Each coupon entitles the bearer to two meals and a night’s stay at the Mission. Again, click over to the RSDM site for details on these coupons and how to order them.

– The annual “hotties” edition of the Memphis Flyer just came out, where they name the hottest guys and gals in the city… and once again, I’ve been overlooked. Congrats to a friend of mine, the Center City Commission’s very own Katrina Shelton, on making the list though. The hottie who got the cover photo is the manager of Raffe’s Deli. Raffe’s is a major advertiser in the Flyer. Hmmm…

– Remember the massive downtown fire from October 6 of last year, that destroyed a historic church and the Court Annex building? Looks like Knoxville had something similar last night. They said it was “raining fire,” with quarter-sized embers falling everywhere.

– The Memphis Daily News reports that the old Butler Street Bazaar building has sold for $1.8 million. The new owners are waiting to see what happens with the Tennessee Brewery building across the street before they proceed with any plans.

– Don’t forget, the Memphis Net Impact kickoff is tomorrow night at EP’s, starting at 5:30 but going on for a couple of hours to give people time to drive in from out East. For those of you who want to hang out downtown a little longer, The Dempseys will be playing at Blues City Cafe tomorrow night at 8, a mere quarter-block away from EP’s.

– Last night I reported that I planned to join a couple of friends of mine for wing night at Hooters after work. Well, looks like I’m going to have to cancel that… I have a lot of preparation to do for an important meeting this weekend and just can’t afford an evening off. So I’ll be spending the evening installing and learning to use the Drupal content management system… if anyone out there has experience with Drupal and can provide hints or tips, let me know.

I’ll probably do my work from the Second Street branch office… I think the Roxanne Lemmon band plays tonight, they’re pretty good. Not sure what the “buy the beer, waste money on the glass” glass is this week.

Hmmm… one of my co-workers quit yesterday… I better run back to work and steal his mouse (mine doesn’t have a center wheel) before someone else gets it…. see you later, have a good afternoon.

Quote of the evening: “Paul, you’re the popular voice of all us fuck-ups downtown.” Unfortunately I can’t remember who said that. Think it may have been someone I’ve seen at Sleep Out Louie’s before, but the name escapes me. Oh well, can’t win ’em all.

Some advice I’ve given people moving downtown for the first time over the years, and thought I’d share with you tonight:

1) Whatever your food & entertainment (read: alcohol) budget was in other parts of the city, double it. It still won’t be enough, but if I told you to triple it (more realistic), you might second-guess moving down here.

2) Whatever your current clothing size is, starting buying clothes in the next larger size. You’ll understand why soon.

My trivia team The Rapscallions finished out of the money for only the second time since December 1. I think it’s because Carmel wasn’t there. When Trivia Guy announced the three winning teams, people kept coming up to me and asking, “I missed the Rapscallions announcement, what did we win?” Nothing.

After trivia ended, I intended to walk home and get a full night’s rest… but Big Foot intervened. ASSIGNMENT TO ALL MY BLOG READERS: I found out that the $5 34 oz. Blue Moon isn’t necessarily here to stay. The distributor ran out of Bud Select and gave them Blue Moon instead. So, please go by Big Foot and tell Shawn to keep the Blue Moon.

While I was at Big Foot I had hot wings with celery, carrots, fries and blue cheese dip. I didn’t have any purple cupcakes with sprinkles though. Sorry, inside joke… I’d link to the blogger that inspired it, but she’s kind of hot (at least from the pics I’ve seen) so why would I want to introduce 150 new male readers to her?

While I sat at Big Foot I watched several episodes of Rachael Ray’s $40 a day show on the Food Network. We should put together Downtown Memphis on $0 a day and have some of our local bums host it. Half-finished Coors Light in a trash can on Beale Street? Yum-O!

So I have tickets for the Grammy party at Hard Rock (open bar, free food) Sunday night as a result of whoring my blog out for them a couple of posts ago. I guess I need to find a date between now and Sunday. Also, my neighbors are talking about having an Oscar party the 25th; I’m undecided what to do about that. On one hand, there’ll be some damn good food. On the other, I never watch movies, so why would I watch a movie awards show? We’ll see.

Let’s see if I can burp without having to get out the computer screen cleaning kit I bought at Office Max yesterday… successful.

Looks like I may be doing all-you-can-eat wings at Hooters in the PM Wednesday, which is today due to my being up so late.

I’m feeling the need to lie down NOW so that’ll do it for this post.

Are you a certified asshole? – take the test and find out.

Last night I hung out with my friend Ken who was visiting from out of town. Our last stop of the evening was Big Foot Lodge, where the bartender informed me that they now have 34 oz. mugs of Blue Moon for five bucks.

Hmmm… 16 ounces for $3.75 at the Saucer vs. 34 ounces for $5.00 at Big Foot… yep… sounds like I’ll be stopping in Big Foot more often from now on.