Month: April 2013

Imagine Vegan Cafe’s New Home

Post author By Susan Ellis
Post date April 30, 2013

We went to Imagine Vegan Cafe last week both to support Dining Out for Life and to check out the restaurant’s new spot further east on Young.

Imagine is now in the former site of Fork It Over, which has moved to Lindenwood Christian Church on Union. This old house is perfect for Imagine. It’s owned by a husband and wife who keep their kids on-site, and they’ve developed a group of tight-knit regulars who add to the family feel.

There are three dining rooms and a front porch with additional tables. A larger cooler, displaying drinks and desserts, is where customers place their orders.

Much of the menu is the same, but there are some new items, including Tony’s Nachos ($6.99), which can be upgraded to full-on vegan BBQ nachos by request, as those pictured above were.

Also new is the Southern Staple ($9.99), a huge plate of collards, black beans, and rice drizzled with a garlic sauce and served with cornbread. Worth a visit to Imagine alone.

To top the meal off, we could not resist sharing a piece of Boston Creme Pie cake ($5.75) made by Stephanie Roy, of the vegan Swell Baked Goods, who joined us for this lunch. This is one of many dessert options Roy provides for Imagine.

Roy is basically an evil genius of baking. That near inch-high layer of impossibly perfect chocolate ganache … still thinking about it.

Roy will bake for you. Go here for more information.

Sports Tiger Blue

Tiger Trivia Tuesday

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date April 30, 2013

TTT is back! Check in every Tuesday for a test of your Memphis Tiger wisdom. From the merely memorable to the unforgettable, Tiger history will unfold one simple question at a time (with answers posted on Thursdays).

The 2012 Tiger football team finished its season with three straight wins. It was only the third such finish for the U of M since 1976. What were the other two seasons during this stretch in which Memphis won (at least) its final three games? And how did the Tigers do the following year?

News

Double Feature

Post author By
Post date April 30, 2013

Indie Memphis presents a double feature Tuesday night with screenings of Room 237 and Antiviral.

Opinion

Biking the Harahan Bridge as $30+ Million Thrill Ride

Post author By John Branston
Post date April 29, 2013

Once called the Harahan Project, the Main Street to Main Street Connector Project is nine miles of street and sidewalk improvements in downtown Memphis and West Memphis, Arkansas and one mile of pedestrian and bike bridge across the Mississippi River.

“This is a number-one priority for us,” Mayor A C Wharton said Monday in a briefing on the project that is now estimated to cost “more than $30 million” in local, private, and federal funds. It will tie Main Street in Memphis from north of the Convention Center to Main Street (Broadway) in West Memphis. The ten-mile project includes one mile of cantilevered boardwalk off the Harahan Bridge, 3.8 miles in Arkansas floodland and downtown West Memphis, and a little over 5 miles in downtown Memphis from desolate blocks of Main Street north of The Pyramid and convention center to South Main Street and a new pedestrian bridge over Riverside Drive at Channel 3 Drive.

Because $14.8 million in federal transportation funds are involved, all of this has to be compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Construction will begin in September and the bridge section should open in August of 2014.

The bridge section will be either 10 feet wide or 12 feet wide, depending on how much planners and funders decide to pinch the budget. There will be a high, unclimbable fence on the railroad side and a lower fence with a mesh screen on the other side to permit river views. The deck will be light-weight aluminum coated to lower the summer heat. New steel bridge supports are raising the project cost. The “boardwalk” will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and have security cameras and emergency telephones.

There will be a parking area on the West Memphis side close to the western entrance to the pedestrian bridge. The western approach is covered because it is lower than the train tracks.

Wharton said it is time to accept the Main Street Mall with its trolley tracks, empty buildings and vacant storefronts in downtown Memphis for what it is — a pedestrian and trolley mall where (most) cars are banned.

“What we need to do now is make it the absolute best we can and make it distinctly Memphis,” he said.

Tags bicycle and pedestrian path, Main Street to Main Street, Riverside Drive, West Memphis

News

Will Forrest Rise Again?

Post author By
Post date April 29, 2013

John Branston has the latest on the controversy over renaming the parks.

Opinion

Stage Set for Renaming Forrest Park

Post author By John Branston
Post date April 29, 2013

The stage is set for the Memphis City Council to either put the park names controversy to bed or engage in a nasty battle over Forrest Park and the statue and remains of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

A committee of citizens named to rename three parks split 4-4 Monday on a motion to go back to the original Confederate-themed names. In separate votes, the committee then, by split votes, chose new names for the parks. The recommendations are only advisory.

Forrest Park would become Civil War Memorial Park; Confederate Park would be Promenade Park (Naval Battle of Memphis Park was rejected); and Jefferson Davis Park would be Harbor Park (Wolf River Cobblestones Park was rejected).

In an ominous note, Councilman Harold Collins, a member of the renaming committee, requested an opinion from City Council Attorney Allan Wade on whether ithe council could rename Forrest Park and move the statue and the remains of the general and his wife. Short answer: Yes.

“In our opinion, the Council’s authority over the renaming of the park, relocation of the statue, and re-internment of the remains of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest has a sound legal and political foundation.”

The remains of Forrest and his widow were moved from Elmwood Cemetery to the park in 1904.

“We have been advised that the Forrest family burial plots still exist at Elmwood Cemetery and that there is adequate room for the reinternment of Forrest and his wife. We have also been advised that there is also room for the Forrest statue.”

In order to reinter Forrest, the city would have to initiate a Chancery Court lawsuit, which would keep the controversy alive indefinitely.

News

Song & Dance

Post author By
Post date April 29, 2013

The nominations for the 2013 High School Musical Awards have been announced. More at Intermission Impossible.

Intermission Impossible Theater

High School Musical Award Nominees Announced for 2013

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 29, 2013

Everything you need to know about the HSMAs in one convenient video.

Sabaa & Sam

Winners will be announced Thursday, May 23rd at 7:00 p.m. More than 200 students will perform on stage and the winners in the Lead Actor and Actress categories will travel to New York City in June to compete nationally in the Jimmy Awards held at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway.

Last year’s big winners Sam Shankman and Sabba Sharma— who I interviewed here— were featured in the PBS miniseries Broadway or Bust.

Watch Broadway or Bust: Boot Camp – Preview on PBS. See more from Broadway or Bust.

Tickets are $15-$35 and go on sale to the public May 6.
People’s Choice Award voting begins on May 10, 2013.

Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Win Tickets to Brooks’ Vin-a-Que: The Art of Swine and Wine

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date April 29, 2013

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is giving 1 Hungry Memphis reader a pair of tickets to Vin-a-Que: The Art of Swine and Wine event being held Friday, May 10, 7 p.m.

Enter to win here. One entry per person. Winner will be notified by email on Tuesday, May 7th.

DON’T MISS VIN-A-QUE: THE ART OF SWINE AND WINE

This second annual event will be held at the Brooks featuring snout-to-tail pork barbecue and other delicious fare, even vegetarian items, along with craft beer (pairings provided by Budweiser of Memphis), Oregon wines, and specialty cocktails from Alchemy and Buster’s.

Live music by Star & Micey out on the terrace!

Snout-to-tail pork BBQ by Chefs Andy Ticer & Michael Hudman of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen and Hog & Hominy, Chef Ryan Trimm of Sweet Grass, Chef Jackson Kramer of Interim, Bar-B-Q Shop, Central BBQ, Garibaldi’s Pizza, Mosa, and Rendezvous.

More information: memphiswineandfoodseries.org.

Memphis Gaydar News

Openly Gay NBA Player Jason Collins Has Past with the Grizzlies

Post author By Bianca Phillips
Post date April 29, 2013

Jason Collins

The NBA finally has an openly gay player, thanks to Washington Wizards center Jason Collins coming out story on Sports Illustrated‘s website this morning.

Collins jokes in his piece about a parlor game called “Three Degrees of Jason Collins” since he’s played for so many teams that everybody knows somebody who has played with him at one point or another. Collins even played 31 games with the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2007-2008 season. In his piece, Collins mentions that former Grizzlies player Mike Miller once sold him a dog.

Collins is the first person to come out in a major American team sport. Collins writes that he finally decided to come out after the Boston Marathon bombings made him realize that things can change in an instant and that he should live truthfully.

To read more about Collins’ decision to come out, click here.

Tags jason collins