{"id":4220,"date":"2009-07-19T12:27:38","date_gmt":"2009-07-19T17:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=4220"},"modified":"2009-07-19T12:27:38","modified_gmt":"2009-07-19T17:27:38","slug":"will-beale-streets-metal-detectors-cost-the-street-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/19\/will-beale-streets-metal-detectors-cost-the-street-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Beale Street’s metal detectors cost the street business?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned earlier in the week that I had a birthday party\/pub crawl to go to Friday night.\u00a0 About 9:30 we arrived at our third stop of the evening – Beale Street.\u00a0 Security guards guarded the entrances as usual.\u00a0 In the past, it took less than a minute to get through the gates.\u00a0 However, Friday night, this is what we encountered:<\/p>\n

Two long lines snaked back from the entrances all the way to Second Street and down the sidewalks.\u00a0 Security guards were wanding people with their new metal detectors to check for guns, and they were doing a pretty thorough job.\u00a0 I’m 100% in support of their decision to do so; we don’t need guns on Beale Street.\u00a0 However, I have to wonder if they’re implementing this the right way.\u00a0 After 5 minutes the line had hardly moved.\u00a0 I and several other members of our party decided to skip Beale Street and go on to the next destination.<\/p>\n

I wonder how many people will get frustrated by the lines and will go elsewhere.\u00a0 You can walk a short distance from Beale and get to a blues club that’s as good as anything on the street (Ground Zero), a nightclub that’s as good as anything on the street (Red Rooster, and soon Republic Nightclub too), and to bars that are good as anything on the street.\u00a0 Me personally, 3 minutes is about all it takes to hit my frustration limit.\u00a0 Beyond that I simply refuse to stand in line, knowing I can have just as much fun elsewhere.<\/p>\n

I hope they figure out a way to speed things up yet still keep patrons safe.\u00a0 If the line was that long at 9:30, I wonder what it looked like at peak time, 11 to 1 or thereabouts?<\/p>\n

A few tips if you’re going to Beale:<\/p>\n

The entrances on Third Street will probably have much shorter lines than those at Second and Fourth, which are the ends of the street.\u00a0 Wish we had thought of this Friday night.<\/li>\n

If you’re going to Beale for some authentic Memphis barbecue ribs, the best place to get them is Blues City Cafe, and Blues City’s entrance lies outside the barricaded entrance to Beale Street.\u00a0 So you won’t have to deal with the long lines.<\/li>\n

Itta Bena, the only fine-dining restaurant on Beale, also has an entrance outside the barricades.\u00a0 Look for the valet-parking stand on Second.\u00a0 There’s a separate entrance to the third floor of BB’s, which is Itta Bena.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Off to Sunday Fun Day… Dos Equis Lager is the Fire Sale at the Saucer.\u00a0 Yay!\u00a0 The Dempseys play Huey’s at 8:30 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I mentioned earlier in the week that I had a birthday party\/pub crawl to go to Friday night.\u00a0 About 9:30 we arrived at our third stop of the evening – Beale Street.\u00a0 Security guards guarded the entrances as usual.\u00a0 In the past, it took less than a minute to get through the gates.\u00a0 However, Friday … Continue reading “Will Beale Street’s metal detectors cost the street business?”<\/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\/4220"}],"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=4220"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4223,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions\/4223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}