Month: March 2013

Yesterday after work I kicked things off at the Flying Saucer, taking a seat at the far end of the bar with my friend Mike. About 7 the bartender came up and told me, “They just tapped Goose Island 312. It’s really good. You should try one.” I like keeping people informed of new beers Downtown on social media, so I posted “Saucer just tapped Goose Island 312” to Facebook and Twitter. Within minutes it became clear that a lot of people love this beer. My Facebook post got 10 “Likes.” My tweet got a couple of replies in the “that is awesome” vein and some retweets. Based on the response I ordered one. It’s very smooth, easy-drinking wheat beer with a slight citrus flavor. I would definitely order this beer again. Its alcohol volume is 4.2%, about the same as Bud Light, so you could drink two or three of these without getting completely wasted.

The Saucer, by the way, is opening at 10 for those who want to pre-game for the 11 AM Tigers game at the FedExForum this morning.

Even more Saucer news: They posted their schedule of events for St. Patrick’s Day, which is next Sunday, March 17:

HOLY MOLY BATMAN, THEY SPELLED “SHEPHERD” RIGHT!!! After nearly 16 years someone finally turned the spell checker on and learned that it’s not “shepard.” Wonder if that’ll make spelling/grammar Nazi Puckett more likely to attend. Seriously, though, this looks like a good lineup, and those Irish dishes are a bargain at $7. I’m sure I’ll spend a good bit of time at the Saucer on St. Pat’s.

In other beer news, the Cash Saver on Madison has a Make-Your-Own Six-Pack of craft beer with dozens of choices for $7.25 plus a 10% markup. It’s not Downtown, but only a short drive to Madison and Avalon in Midtown. If you don’t drive, the Madison trolley line will take you almost all the way there (although good luck walking back from Avalon to Cleveland without bums asking if they can have one of your beers). I am thrilled to hear that the people who run Cash Saver are beer lovers. Follow them at @Cash_Saver on Twitter.

The Memphis Chamber is looking for a Meeting & Events Coordinator. I bet that would be a great job and a chance to help bring new businesses to your city.

From the Business Journal: The Orpheum may have to cut back expansion plans. They acquired the space next door and had planned to build there, but in this economy they’re competing with a lot of other charities and nonprofits for charitable donations.

Don’t forget that Daylight Time starts at 2 AM tonight. We’ll lose an hour of sleep, but tomorrow we’ll be treated to a sunset that happens after 7 PM.

Fun day ahead. I’ll start at Panda’s bar at Bardog as usual at 11. Mid-day I’ll take a break, then at 8 I have dinner reservations at Texas de Brazil with my friends Nick and Sarah and about 15 of their other friends. Nick and Sarah live in Ohio now but are in town to take their wedding photos. Looking forward to tasty dead animals and whatever else the evening brings.

I was surfing around DowntownMemphis.com’s events page and discovered a cool event happening Downtown this weekend. The Memphis Punk Rock Fest will happen Friday and Saturday night at the Memphis Rehearsal Complex, 296 Monroe. There will be plenty of local and touring bands. Admission is $10 with a canned goods donation for the Mid-South Food Bank, $15 at the door.

Want to taste BBQ cooked by Memphis in May BBQ Fest teams, but you don’t know anyone on a team? Sign up here to be a judge of the Kingsford Tour of Champions. For a $10 judging fee, you can sign up for any of four shifts: Thursday 2-4 PM or 4-6 PM, Friday 2-4 PM or 4-6 PM. You can sign up for multiple shifts if you want.

Last night I kicked off happy hour at the Silly Goose, and about 7 the owner, Daniel, came in. “We’re getting a foosball table,” he told me. “It should be here in the next hour.” Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, a foosball table was delivered.

It’s near the left wall, between the bar and the DJ booth. They said on weekends, they’d put it behind the DJ booth to make room for a dance floor.

My next stop was the Flying Saucer. As I was sipping my Dos Equis Lager, one of the managers came up and asked, “Have you noticed that the TV looks a lot better?” The TV at the bar nearer to the front door, normally the one I watch as I stand/sit, had been a source of frustration for months. The picture had been pixelating so bad that Grizzlies and Tigers games were nearly unwatchable. They said it had only been happening on a few channels, but they were sports channels, which is kind of a problem when the TV is in a bar. The managers worked on it yesterday afternoon. I watched the third and fourth quarters of the Grizzlies game there, and the TV picture was very good and did not pixelate even once. Thanks to the managers for a significant improvement to customers’ sports viewing experience.

My final stop was the Blind Bear, where trivia was ongoing. I helped one of the teams with a few answers. While playing, I learned that the giraffe is the only animal that can clean its ears with its tongue. Well, that would be convenient!

Don’t forget that there’s poker going on tonight at 8 at Dancin’ Jimmy’s, on Beale in the old Pat O’s building. Free to play, and some of the best drink specials of any of the bar poker games. I hear that the poker host, Muruako, is my new BBQ teammate on the Moody Ques! Very happy to hear that. Definitely a top-quality addition to the team.

Back to work. I’ll be out about 5:30, probably starting at the Goose again.

Lee Busby, owner of Front Street Deli, has died at age 59. I didn’t know him well, but when I was working Downtown I stopped in the deli a few times and he fixed me hot dogs and sandwiches. Friendly guy who made delicious food, and I can definitely see why he had so many loyal customers. My condolences to his family and all those who knew him.

The Big East, or whatever they will be called by the time the Tigers start playing football, has released 2013 season football schedules. Even with the defections to other conferences, the Tigers play a tougher schedule than in past years. One game, at Cincinnati on Wednesday, October 30, will be nationally televised on ESPN2. View the schedule here.

I hear there is a movement to revive the old Metro Conference name to rename the Big East, since its 7 Catholic basketball schools are leaving with the name. The Metro Conference has been defunct since 1995 and Memphis was a founding member. The name is no longer trademarked and the former conference president has said he has no problem with the remainder of the Big East adopting it.

Are you a Swede living in Memphis? Memphis in May would like to talk to you. The festival is looking for Swedes to represent their home country as MiM’s honored country during the month of May.

I may have named a hot wing team last night. A member of one of the teams competing in the Southern Hot Wing Festival on Saturday, April 27 came up to me at the Saucer yesterday and asked me to help brainstorm team names. I think I came up with a pretty good one. The festival is on Riverside Drive at Jefferson Davis Park (or whatever it’s called now). It expanded significantly last year and has become one of Downtown’s biggest and most fun festivals. I won’t reveal the team name I suggested, but if they use it I will definitely go by their booth and take some pics.

Today was a big day on Seth’s Best Memphis Burger blog: For the first time ever, a burger was awarded a perfect 5 stars. Unfortunately us Downtowners will have a bit of a trip to get this 5-star burger: It’s at Off the Hoof Burgers in Arlington. Seth said it’s better than anything he sampled at Best Memphis Burger Fest, and there were many delicious burgers there.

Sad to hear of the death of Paul Bearer today. Paul Bearer was a character in 1990s WWF who managed the Undertaker, carrying an urn to the ring. Before he signed with the WWF he was known as Percy Pringle III in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas.

That’s it for now. I’ll probably kick things off at the Silly Goose tonight about 5:40, then migrate over to the Saucer after the Grizzlies crowd clears out. The Grizzlies have a home game vs. the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at 7. Word is that Zach Randolph will probably not play, but hopefully we can still pick up the “W.”

There’s a new food truck out Downtown today. Its name is the Get Stuffed Truck and it’s serving gourmet burgers and empanadas at Main and Jefferson. Follow the truck on Twitter at @GetStuffedTruck to learn where it will be on future days and what it will be serving.

Elmwood Cemetery is having a “Suds & Spuds” tour Saturday, March 16. It’s a tour of the historic cemetery’s Scots-Irish along with a pint of beer and a baked potato bar. Register here for the tour.

It’s cheap to attend a Grizzlies game, but not cheap to drink there. According to this MBJ report, Grizzlies games have the second-cheapest tickets and the seventh-highest beer prices in the NBA.

The Flying Saucer has started its Easter Keg hunt. Every year in the weeks leading up to Easter, they post clues as to the location of a decorated empty keg somewhere in Memphis. The keg is placed the Saturday before Easter, and the first person or team to find it and bring it back wins a bar tab. To get the clues, visit the Saucer and look in the bottom center of the chalkboard above the bar.

That’ll do it for now. Time to grab some chicken then get back to an afternoon of web programming.

Central BBQ Downtown is having one of its famous cornhole tournaments today. Registration and open play at 5 PM, double elimination tournament at 6. There’s a $5 entry fee which goes to support St. Jude. There will be plenty of $3 beer specials for players.

MemphisWeather.net is looking for a nowcaster/social media intern for the period of April through August, extensible by mutual agreement. This would be fantastic experience for anyone with an interest in meteorology, or anyone looking to get some experience doing social media for a company.

Not a whole lot going on Downtown today, but if you’re into Christian music, there’s the Winter Jam Spectacular at the FedExForum tonight. Otherwise, pull up a stool at the bar of your choice and watch the Grizzlies take on the Orlando Magic in an away game today at 4.

Looks like Saturday morning at Panda’s bar at Bardog is gaining steam. After months of it being just my “DAWG” John D and me, five or six of our group showed up this week, including one person who was still out from Friday night (he took a cab to Bardog from Alex’s). We were discussing the farm & gin show that is Downtown this weekend, and we asked late-night guy if he knew what a gin does. “I guess it separates the cotton from the… non-cotton part.” Well, I suppose we have to accept that as a correct answer.

Two of my friends wanted to go to the Flying Saucer and work on beers for their next plate, and of course I was down with that idea. Unfortunately my friends had a drunk guy hovering behind them saying things of the nature “I don’t know about you, but THE PERSON TO YOUR RIGHT (insert thinly veiled passive-aggressive insult here)…” My friends told him they weren’t interested in hearing about the person to their right (meaning me) and sent him on his way. Good God. I think I’d be willing to pay $1 more per beer if I could enjoy it without having to deal with retards and stupid people. Maybe even $2. Oh well. You can’t fix stupid but you can get it banned from your BBQ team.

Once again, up too late to make my usual 11:00 brunch appointment at the Majestic. I’ll get out about noon and hit the usual Sunday Fun Day stops.

I know many of you were waiting for a post yesterday and didn’t get one. Scott Stratten, one of my favorite marketing authors, advises to post when you have something awesome to say, rather than posting on a schedule. Yesterday’s post, if I had done one, would have been a go-through-the-motions blah post. I decided to take Scott’s advice and take a day off rather than water down the quality of this blog. Good news is, I’m back today with lots to talk about.

One of the biggest things going on tonight is the Phoenix Club Mardi Gras party at the Cadre Building at Second and Monroe. This is one of the gala events of the spring Downtown, and proceeds support a good charity, the Boys and Girls Club of Memphis. DJ Mario will perform and there will be food by Blind Bear, Bardog, Central BBQ, and Local Gastropub, and drinks by Budweiser of Memphis and Cathead Vodka. It’s too late to purchase tickets online but they are $50 at the door.

Burger Land, a show on the Travel Channel, will be in town next week to film at Dyer’s on Beale Street and at Alex’s Tavern. Each time the show, hosted by George Motz, visits a city, they have a local burger expert provide commentary. Serving as burger expert for Memphis will be none other than Seth of the Best Memphis Burger blog.

Next Wednesday, March 6, the Brass Door will have three live bands in the Cavern for one low price of $5. One of the bands is named – I kid you not – Plush Club. Fortunately they have no association with the building at Fourth and Beale that needs to be torn down. Another band, Pocket Vinyl, is a one-man piano band plus an onstage painter. At the end of the show the painting is auctioned off to the highest bidder. RadRadRiot, a two man wrecking crew, rounds out Wednesday’s music.

My favorite dead rock star Geri, a sushi chef at Bangkok Alley, posted to Facebook that she’s going to be teaching classes on The Art of Sushi twice a month at My Urban Workspace. I assume that means she’s taking over the March 5 and 19 classes 6 to 8 PM, even though her name wasn’t on them last I checked.

South Side Supper Club, a band that includes my buddy Good Shane, will perform at the Blind Bear tonight from 10 to 1. Come check them out if you want to catch some good live music in an elegant space.

After the loss to Xavier, the Memphis Tigers have dropped from a projected 5 seed to an 8 seed in Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology on the ESPN website. We’re projected to play 9 seed St. Mary’s. That is not the kind of school I would like to see as a first-round opponent.

Thursday night my BBQ team, the Moody Ques, received a major compliment. I ran into Robert, AKA “Bones,” one of the main guys on the very successful Squeal Street BBQ team, as I was walking down the Main Street Mall. He’d been talking to one of the Moody Ques team leaders, and he said it sounded like our team is very well organized this year. We have the team from next door completely managing the kitchen, and the Blind Bear completely managing the bar. The Moody Ques’ responsibility is to manage the party. I’ve long admired how well organized Squeal Street is, and for one of their top guys to compliment the Moody Ques’ organization means a lot.

It’s snowing outside, which means it’s a good day for some Fireball at Bardog. I’ll be at Panda’s bar when it opens at 11.