I had lunch at Hard Rock on Beale yesterday… the management there contacted me and asked if they could buy me lunch and talk with me about the place.\u00a0 Like many Downtown locals, Hard Rock simply hasn’t been on my radar the past several years – there’s a tendency to dismiss it as just a chain restaurant where only tourists go.\u00a0 I have to admit, once I got in there I was surprised by a few things I learned:<\/p>\n
– All their food is made from scratch in the kitchen, except for one very popular item (the spring rolls).\u00a0 As a corporate chain I’d assumed all the food was shipped in pre-prepared.\u00a0 That’s not the case, they told me.\u00a0 I had the chicken mac & cheese and it was definitely from scratch and very good.\u00a0 They said that’s why their food is slightly higher than other Beale restaurants – because they have to cover labor costs involved in preparing the food.<\/p>\n
– When there’s a cover at the door for live events, it usually goes to charity.\u00a0 When local management suggests an event to corporate, corporate will often come back to them with the response, “That’s great.\u00a0 Now how can we partner with a charity and make this a win-win for both of us?”\u00a0 Except for very special events, they try to keep their cover reasonable, no more than $5.<\/p>\n
– Authenticity is one of their key values.\u00a0 “If Jimmy Page came in here, we’d ask him to sign a guitar,” they told me, “but we couldn’t hang it on the wall.\u00a0 We’d probably auction it for charity.\u00a0 We couldn’t hang it on the wall because the guitar would have no significance.\u00a0 The guitars and clothes and other items you see on the wall here were used for a particular tour, or with a special show the band did.”<\/p>\n
– They showed me their upstairs area, which is the second-largest publicly viewable collection of Elvis memorabilia in the world (obviously the largest is Graceland).\u00a0 They have a wedding picture which Priscilla came in and signed.\u00a0 They even have Elvis’ garbage can, encrusted with jewels, from one of his California homes.<\/p>\n
I was pleasantly surprised by the place and will go back.\u00a0 They’re trying to be a locals’ destination for live music, so there should be some good shows there this year.\u00a0 I invited them to send me details of upcoming events, and I’ll post them as they do.<\/p>\n
I will make one criticism though:\u00a0 Beer pricing.\u00a0 They told me they had to fight with corporate to do a $3 special on pints of Coors Light.\u00a0 If they want locals in there regularly, they need to understand that $3 Coors Light is hardly considered a “special” Downtown.\u00a0 Reminds me, I need to get back and do the long version of the “why I hang out the places I do Downtown” post that I promised a couple of months ago.\u00a0 “At least one value drinking option” is one of the things I look for, and that most Downtowners look for.\u00a0 Hard Rock management:\u00a0 Feel free to show this to corporate if it will help.<\/p>\n
Overall though, I liked what I saw, and Hard Rock will be on my radar from now on.\u00a0 Thanks to management for the lunch and the tour.<\/p>\n
Tonight is the annual Memphis Flyer Hotties party, to celebrate the “Hotties” named in the annual Valentine’s Day issue.\u00a0 It’s open to the public and will be at the Red Rooster from 5 to 8 PM tonight.\u00a0 There’s no cover, there will be happy hour drink specials, and they’ll have free hors d’ouevres.\u00a0 Free food… wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up?<\/p>\n
Speaking of free food, thanks to the Flying Saucer, who put out a free buffet last night to thank its UFO members for their business.\u00a0 There was bratwurst and sauerkraut, cheese and crackers, pasta salad, and enormous fruit and vegetable trays.\u00a0 It was a very nice gesture that is much appreciated.\u00a0 It was also Valentine’s “Buy the Beer, Keep the Glass” night, although I wasn’t fond of the slogan, “I love you more than beer.”\u00a0 That’s just sacrilege.<\/p>\n
At the Saucer, I watched the Memphis Tigers<\/a> dominate Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa scored a total of 37 points… that’s the kind of score that’s rarely been seen since the shot clock and the three were adopted.\u00a0 Go Tiger defense!\u00a0 I had conversations with two people about Tyreke Evans, one who said that Tyreke will definitely go pro after this year, and another who said that there’s no way Tyreke will go pro and he wouldn’t even be a first-round pick.\u00a0 We shall see what happens… I am ready for March Madness to get here.<\/p>\n Meeting my BBQ team captain Chuck at the Center for Southern Folklore in a few minutes… it’s Thursday, which means it’s their Brown Bag concert series with lunchtime musical entertainment.\u00a0 They don’t have the artist posted on their site, so I guess this one will be a surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had lunch at Hard Rock on Beale yesterday… the management there contacted me and asked if they could buy me lunch and talk with me about the place.\u00a0 Like many Downtown locals, Hard Rock simply hasn’t been on my radar the past several years – there’s a tendency to dismiss it as just a … Continue reading “Thur update: Hard Rock, Hotties party, more”<\/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\/3160"}],"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=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3162,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}