![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/td-2023-sabor-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI led off at the Venezuelan restaurant Sabor Caribe for two of their empanadas, one beef, one chicken. (They also had black bean.) I loved the corn shell of these South American fried pies. It complimented the flavors of the meat so well.<\/p>\n
I got the spicy sauce (pictured above) for dipping, but in hindsight, I wish I’d got a cup of the green cilantro sauce too. I bet it would have been amazing with the beef pie.<\/p>\n
A giant meatball from Rock & Dough Pizza, topped with ricotta and basil, was my second sample to try. I was already familiar with the restaurant, having eaten at the Germantown location several times when I worked out there.<\/p>\n “I wonder what their tie is to the Medical District is?” I wondered. I soon got my answer – they told me a Rock & Dough is coming to the District in early 2024. That is great news! We can never have too much delicious pizza down here!<\/p>\n Speaking of delicious pizza, the one restaurant I wanted to try more than any other at Taste of the District was Slim & Husky’s, the hip-hop-themed pizza joint on Union. They had a pepperoni & sausage pizza, and I almost got that, since I prefer to get a traditional pizza when I try a new place. However, once I saw the spicy chicken jalapeno pizza, I had to have it!<\/p>\n Slim & Husky’s absolutely lives up to the buzz that has been generated about the place. Thin-crust pizza is a little harder to get right than other pizza varieties like hand-tossed or pan. If not prepared right, thin-crust pizza can come off as no better than a frozen Totino’s or a school lunchroom pizza. Slim & Husky’s has the flavor on point, though.<\/p>\n I want to hit the restaurant soon to enjoy more than just a slice of their pizza, and they encouraged me to do so with a coupon good for 20% off anything but alcohol.<\/p>\n Sunrise Memphis, the popular breakfast joint on Jefferson, was stop number four. “How are they gonna do breakfast from 4 to 6 in the afternoon?” I wondered. Breakfast for dinner is a thing, of course, but many breakfast dishes tend to be so heavy, not ideal when walking around an outdoor food festival.<\/p>\n Sunrise found a way around this conundrum, though, serving cheddar biscuits with onion jam. Really good!<\/p>\n You know I had to stop by Alcenia’s booth. The North Main soul food restaurant served chicken (baked or fried), cornbread, a spicy green beans\/potatoes side (REALLY good, never had anything like it), and a cobbler for dessert.<\/p>\n The goodie bag I got when I showed my Eventbrite registration at the front booth.<\/p>\n As I was eating my Alcenia’s sample, I got a strong “THAT’S ENOUGH” feeling from my body – a sense that if I tried to eat any more, I’d get sick (not from Alcenia’s food, but from overeating). Since I had to walk home a mile in the October heat – yes, in Memphis that’s a thing – I wanted to err on the side of caution.<\/p>\n I hate it that I didn’t get to go see Cristina at the Feast & Graze booth for some charcuterie, though. Hmmmm… she’s closing up at 55 S. Main this fall and moving to a yet-to-be-disclosed location… could her presence at Taste of the District offer a hint as to where she’ll end up?<\/p>\n I also hate it that I missed out on Riko’s Kickin’ Chicken, but the lines were the longest in the park and I didn’t feel like waiting. People in this city go crazy for some hot wings.<\/p>\n The Medical District is usually thought of as the area between Jefferson and Union, between Manassas and Cleveland, but it’s actually bigger than that. It includes The Edge and Victorian Village as well. And because of St. Jude, the District arcs to the northwest to include Uptown (and therefore Alcenia’s) as well.<\/p>\n Y’all. Put this event on your MUST-DO list for 2024. Well worth taking off work an hour early. If MMDC had charged $20 for this event, it still would have been a good value. It blows my mind that Taste of the District is free.<\/p>\n Visit the MMDC website<\/a> and sign up for The Vitals, their monthly newsletter. That’s how I found out about Taste of the District.<\/p>\n Quite a bit of other news going on…<\/p>\n General manager Joe wrapped up his tenure at Bardog yesterday and many people were there to send him off. Thank you Joe for making the place so welcoming. I always feel tremendously respected when I hang out at the ‘dog.<\/p>\n And don’t worry, the place is being left in good hands. I hear Melissa is the new GM. They could not have found a more qualified candidate. With her working 9 to 5 most weekdays, I wonder who will get her happy hour bar shifts?<\/p>\n Just in time for Halloween, Insomnia Cookies on Beale has limited-edition candy apple cookies. They’re made with bites of toffee, apples, Hershey’s kisses, and M&M Minis.<\/p>\n The Cossitt Library’s Dos Hermanos Kitchen will host a Little Shop of Horrors brunch<\/a> on Saturday, October 14, Solar Eclipse Day. All library locations have glasses that allow you to view the eclipse safely.<\/p>\n The Cossitt will host Frame by Frame: A Filmmaker’s Workshop<\/strong> this month. This set of seminars will be led by 6 talented artists, and will get you familiar with many aspects of filmmaking and content creation.<\/p>\n Memphis in May had a record loss for its 2023 event<\/a>, Action News 5 reports.\u00a0 Music Fest had its lowest attendance in 30 years. The loss is the second record one in two years.<\/p>\n Austin “Walking” Cane with Daykisser’s Jesse Wilcox<\/a> plays South Main Sounds, 550 S. Main, Friday from 7 to 9.<\/p>\n Today is National Vodka Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n Today’s the last day for a while with highs in the mid 80s.<\/a> A cold front\/rain moves through tonight and tomorrow and Memphis highs will be in the 60s and 70s afterward. Rain will be likely tomorrow, unfortunate since tomorrow is Election Day.<\/p>\n One last reminder: Paul Young is the candidate I endorse for Memphis mayor. If you want me to give you an alternate choice, Van Turner is worth a look as well.<\/p>\n A test of the Emergency Alert System<\/a> will go off on TVs, radios, and phones today at 1:20.<\/p>\n As if this post needed ANOTHER food pic, here ya go. This is the special at Local on Main today, buffalo fried catfish over jalapeno cheese grits:<\/p>\n All right. Gonna go ahead and hit Publish. Back tomorrow probably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is gonna be a huge news update, so grab yourself a cup of coffee, a PBR, or whatever you prefer, strap yourself in, and get comfortable. We’re gonna be here a while. Yesterday was the Taste of the District food festival in Health Sciences Park, put on by the Memphis Medical District Collaborative. As … Continue reading “Taste of the District photos + Wednesday news”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27084"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27094,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27084\/revisions\/27094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Breaking news: MLGW plans to move its headquarters out of Downtown.<\/a><\/p>\n