Month: May 2016

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Canvas and Dirty Crow Inn.

After two long years of putting in some long hours, their dream has been realized for business partners Rob Coletta and Brandon Knight.

The pair recently opened Canvas, a bar-slash-music venue-slash-gallery-slash-live art forum.

“It’s an interactive arts lounge,” Coletta says. “It’s a place where we invite musicians, artists, and creative people to perform and create under the same roof.”

Robert Coletta (left) and Brandon Knight

This is not their first go-round with the concept.

The two operated a similar venture downtown, Memphis Rehearsal Complex, for a few years until the opportunity “expired,” according to Coletta.

They immediately began looking for their next spot, and the house at the corner of Madison and Evergreen became available when Echoes of Time antiques moved across the street.

“We were just driving by and saw it,” Knight says.

They immediately signed a lease, but the place was far from move-in ready.

The house is more than 100 years old.

“We took out part of the chimney and reinforced it with steel. We had to do new plumbing, electric work, heating and air. We put in a brand new sidewalk all the way around,” Knight says.

They also put in a patio, which seats 40 in addition to the 50-seat indoor area.

Canvas features a seasonal drink menu with the first incarnation including Mud Island Tea, Painted Mule, and Purple Drank, all around $8 or $9.

The menu is salads and sandwiches and flatbreads, with everything also hovering around $8 or $9.

“We want to keep the focus on the art,” Coletta says.

Every weekend showcases local musicians performing while artists create live art.

Shawna Gardner buys two Amy-Beth Rice paintings

Wall space is dedicated to local artists, where they sell their work, created both on- and off-site, for a small consignment fee, and every other Sunday is open mic night.

“It’s a great way for local musicians and artists to interact with the neighborhood and sell their work and music and merch,” Coletta says. “We’re having a good time.”

Canvas is open 4 p.m. to midnight every day, with the kitchen open late.

Paul Atkinson has worked every bar position available except one.

As of April 26th, he can now say he’s worked them all.

“It’s always been on my bucket list to be a bar owner,” the former Bayou Bar and Grill employee says. “I’ve held every position but owner.”

Just before Beale Street Music Fest, Atkinson opened Dirty Crow Inn, a combination of his favorite bourbon, Old Crow, and his nickname for it, “Dirty Bird,” at the corner of Crump and Kentucky across the street from the popular South Bluffs apartments.

“There are not that many places down here. There’s the new Loflin Yard, and I believe we can help each other out,” Atkinson says. “They’re building new apartments down here left and right, and they’re already at 90 percent capacity.”

Atkinson was working in Nashville when he found out about the space.

“I got a text out of the blue that asked if I would be interested in opening a dive bar. I was intrigued,” he says.

He came for a visit and left with a vision.

“When I looked at the spot, I immediately saw what it could be,” he says.

He describes it as a “five-star dive bar.”

It took him five months to build everything out, with a new bar and walls covered in old pictures and insignia he’s collected over the years.

“My mom has been going crazy finding everything she can with a crow on it,” he says.

The print of Cosmo Kramer came with the place.

“It was in the women’s restroom, but I thought his place was out here so everyone could see him,” Atkinson says.

As of press time, Atkinson is still waiting on his liquor license but says it should be any day now.

“I wanted to be open for Memphis in May,” he says.

His kitchen is up and running, though, featuring fresh ingredients and everything homemade, including wings cooked on the smoker ($8.50), a catfish basket ($8.50), Crispy Fried Pickle Chips ($5), a pulled smoked chicken sandwich ($8.50), and Poutine Fries ($7.50) — fries covered in smoked chicken gravy and mozzarella.

“It’s pub grub. Everything is scratch-made. I’ve always loved to cook, and I believe fresh is best,” he says.

Other plans include putting in a beer garden with a cornhole game, serving daily specials, and maybe some acoustic music here and there.

“I want to do a lunch business for Budweiser and Hershey’s and the businesses behind me and be a neighborhood bar to the apartments across the street,” Atkinson says. “I want this to be a fun, comfortable place to grab great food, a cold beer, and a good drink.”

Dirty Crow Inn is open 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., seven days a week.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Let the Sun Shine In

Who said there was nothing new under the sun? Depending on your religiosity, the answer is either the Almighty Himself or the vaguely cynical old churchman who authored the Biblical text known as “Ecclesiastes.”

In any case, now that we’ve reached a point on the calendar where the sun is more or less reliably shining, let us submit the idea to the proof test.

What’s new? Between the previous warm season and the one we’re now enjoying, the University of Memphis has acquired new coaches for its two major sports programs — football and basketball. One of the newbies is Tubby Smith, who won an NCAA basketball championship at Louisville some years ago and who, as recently as last season, was named “Coach of the Year” for his work at Texas Tech. Considering that, only weeks before Smith was snagged, UM’s basketball program seemed incurably bogged down, with two straight seasons without a post-season tournament for the Tigers and a contract with then Coach Josh Pastner that had come to seem over-endowed (to many disappointed boosters, anyhow), Smith’s acquisition does indeed seem to make the sun shine brighter.

And, on the football side, there’s new coach Mike Norvell, the former offensive coordinator at Arizona State, who comes in this year to replace Justin Fuente, who, in his brief tenure, had returned the University’s football program to a measure of the sunshine it had seemed to lose in the several previous years and had won a) 19 games in a two-year span, b) a conference championship, and c) a major bowl game. Can Norvell do as well? By the reckoning of several people equipped to judge such things, Norvell’s first recruiting class may be the most promising in the nation, and, in a self-introduction of sorts to the Rotary Club of Memphis on Tuesday, the 34-year-old Norvell, the self-described “youngest head coach in college football,” certainly seemed convincing as he talked up his team as a family and promised to lead his young charges to the “next step” on their lives and to “excellence on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.”

A tall order, maybe, but even in making his case, Norvell lit up the room. It is easy to imagine him doing the same on the practice field.

And sometimes old wine comes in new bottles and seems the riper and better for it. At the very time that political figures in Tennessee and various presidential candidates in the nation at large have been urging a revision of our criminal justice system, here comes what we judge to be a bright new idea from former Memphis schools superintendent, former Memphis mayor, former charter-school entrepreneur Willie Herenton, who two weeks ago proposed an innovative scheme to house youthful offenders in pleasant, rehab-focused local surroundings, near their homes and loved ones, rather than in far-off, menacing penal institutions that double as crime schools.

Worth a try, we say, and, best yet, Herenton, who hopes for official state support, isn’t asking local taxpayers to foot the bill.

Let the sun shine in: That’s not exactly a new idea, but it’s still a good one.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Healthcare “Road Show” Off to a Good Start

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

There has been no shortage of skeptics about the bona fides of the health-care task force recently appointed by state House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) to look into the matter of an alternative to Governor Bill Haslam‘s “Insure Tennessee” proposal for federally funded Medicaid expansion, which was dead on arrival upon its presentation to the General Assembly in last year’s sessions of the General Assembly.

Criticism came from both left and right. Early on, state Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini seemed to dismiss it out of hand in a press release titled “A Task Force Called Meh,” in which she said, “It doesn’t have any actual policy or concrete meeting dates. It doesn’t have the will to actually, you know, do anything. … Once again we are a witness to the failure of the Republican majority to lead.”

Nor was everybody in the state Republican Party exactly blissful about the task force’s creation. At a meeting of the National Federation of Independent Business in Memphis last week, two key GOP state Senators were less than enthusiastic. “It remains to be seen how serious this is as a task force,” said Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown), the state Senate’s Judiciary chair. “I find it curious that the House now has this road show,” said state Senator majority leader Mark Norris (R-Collierville), referring to a series of public hearings the task force has begun statewide.

(Both GOP Senators, it should be noted, were vehement opponents of “Insure Tennessee.”)

To be sure, the task force has evolved since Harwell put it together in early April. Back then, it consisted of four House members, all Republicans: Cameron Sexton of Crossville, the task force chairman, who chairs the House Health Committee; Steve McManus of Memphis, chair of Insurance and Banking Committee; Roger Kane of Knoxville; and Matthew Hill of Jonesborough.

Since then, the Speaker, acquiescing to pressure to diversify the group, has added state Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis) and one member from the state Senate, Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville), a physician. Crucially, perhaps, both Camper and Briggs were supporters of “Insure Tennessee.”

The reconstituted task force began holding its public hearings in Nashville last week and intends to hold several more before preparing legislative recommendations, which chairman Sexton says he hopes to have ready by June.

On Monday afternoon, three members of the task force — Sexton, Camper, and McManus — were on hand at the University of Memphis University Center, where they were joined by panelists and audience members representing a diverse group of respondents, including hospital spokespersons, representatives of ad hoc health providers, and prospective patients.

In the spirited discussion that ensued for two hours, there was some evidence that, the critics of left and right notwithstanding, the task force might indeed be up to something serious. A key moment came at the very close of things, when McManus, who in 2015 had adopted an adverse position on “Insure Tennessee” and chaired a brief hearing of his committee to an inconclusive end, responded to some passionately expressed testimony by uninsured and under-insured attendees, mostly low-income people who had invested some hope in the prospects for Medicaid expansion through “Insure Tennessee.”

“We’re going to have something for you,” McManus said, in an emotional statement of his own. Asked later if he thought his group would give serious reconsideration to some version of the governor’s plan. “Absolutely, we will,” he said, adding, “Let’s face it. Back then the matter was a political football.” Meaning that its coupling with the Affordable Care Act, better known among Republicans as “Obamacare,” had doomed the proposal to partisan treatment by the General Assembly’s GOP super-majority.

Typical of a potential sea change among Republicans was a lament by panelist Ron Kirkland, a Jackson physician who ran for Congress in the 8th District GOP primary in 2010, that more than $1 billion annually in Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding had been lost to the state by its failure to endorse “Insure Tennessee.” As Kirkland put it, “We’d have been jumping up and down if that much money was available to the [West Tennessee industrial] mega-site!”

And numerous of the medical-community representatives noted that Medicare funding allotments for Tennessee had been scaled down under the ACA with the idea of fleshing them out again with the Medicaid-expansion component of the Act. Subsequently, the Supreme Court’s ruling that the latter component was not mandatory upon individual states had allowed Tennessee and various other states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, with the unintended consequence of reducing overall medical funding.

Overall, the discussion on Monday seemed pointed more toward solutions of this and other dilemmas than to recapitulating various rhetorical talking points. Perhaps this is one road show that might lead to something real and tangible on the main stage of Tennessee government.

• “Give a mouse a cookie…”: Given the factional divisions on the Shelby County Commission, such as they are, it is a rare thing indeed that Heidi Shafer, the East Memphis Republican who so often speaks for what is arguably the Commission’s dominant coalition, should quote with approval Steve Basar, a fellow Republican but one who often sides with another, predominantly Democratic group.

But so Shafer did on Monday, in the course of her current effort to retard — or at least subject to serious vetting — a proposal to assist the office of District Attorney General Amy Weirich with backup to help process the future use of body cameras by local law enforcement, primarily the Memphis Police Department.

A condensed version of the Basar remark cited by Shafer would go something like this: “Give a mouse a cookie, and he’ll ask for a glass of milk. Then he’ll want another cookie.” And this de facto little aphorism was employed by Shafer as a warning against what she called “mission creep” in the matter of funding Weirich’s office.

The fuller argument, as she and other skeptics have developed it in two of the Commission’s mid-week committee sessions and two of the body’s regular public meetings, boils down even further to a fairly simple formulation: “Why us?” — the idea being (a) that the impetus for use of body cams came from the MPD and city government, and (b) the District Attorney General’s office is a creature of state government, not county government.

Ergo, why should county government have to foot the bill?

That argument has found enough buyers so far to have stymied the initial proposal for a fuller funding of the D.A.’s office in the amount of $143,378. By the time of Monday’s meeting, the issue of direct new funding was off the table — replaced by an offer from the administration of Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell to shift residual money in the county’s fund balance to provide “temporary support staff for body camera rollout.”

That support would total out, as finally agreed to by the Commission on Monday, to about $25,000 from the fund balance. And that amount, as Shafer reminded an acquiescent administration CAO Harvey Kennedy, would have to be shared with the Public Defender’s office, which, according to state law, is entitled to funding equivalent to 75 percent of any sums appropriated to a District Attorney General’s office.

Enough stop-gap money will be shifted to endow three temporary employees for the D.A.’s office, along with two for the Public Defender’s office, for a period of roughly a month to assist with body-cam rollout.

To stick with the aforementioned Basar analogy, that compromise solution is less a cookie than a crumb, and it’s a clear signal that, with stiff funding increases sought by the Sheriff’s Department, and even stiffer ones sought by Shelby Couty Schools, the D.A.’s office will face difficulty during forthcoming budget negotiations in getting much more for the body-cam matter.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall: Jason Miles and The Nutbush Area

Miles Files

Fly on the Wall was convinced that WMC reporter Jason Miles was fearless. Time and time again, he’s illustrated how far he’ll go to get a story. He’s crawled under cars. He’s crawled under buildings. He’s stuck his head through pet doors. Once upon a time, he even chest-bumped a police officer on Beale. Last week, Miles showed the limits of his bravery by choosing not to visit the Streets Ministries headquarters on Vance to report on a colorful mural that artist Erin Miller Williams had spent the last three days painting. “Well, I’m not standing right next to that mural tonight because, quite frankly, we wouldn’t feel completely safe,” Miles said. Williams’ mural is 25 feet tall, 35 feet wide and says “Hope will lead us there.” Jason won’t, apparently.

Headline News

There’s a famous moment in the classic detective film The Thin Man when the glamorous Nora Charles turns to her dashing husband and says “I read where you were shot in the tabloids.” Nick answers “That’s not true. They never came anywhere near my tabloids.” WREG similarly reported that a woman was “recovering after she was shot in the Nutbush area.” Some people were outraged when pictures of the suggestive report circulated online because, no matter how ill-considered the teaser might have been, the story was serious. A similar situation resulted when Commercial Appeal reporter Ron Maxey waxed poetic in his story about a North Mississippi family marking the mysterious disappearance of a relative by releasing balloons. According to Maxey, the family “watched the 30-odd balloons drift slowly away until they vanished into a clear blue sky, much as James Irby Jr. did three years ago Wednesday.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Memphis 2016 Homicides By the Numbers

On March 28th, 22-year-old Reginald Burke was shot while driving near the I-240 North/I-40 East flyover, the apparent victim of a road rage incident between himself and Tarrance Dixon and Robert Chaney, both 21. Dixon and Chaney were charged with second-degree murder.

Burke was able to flag down another driver for help and was transported to the Regional One Health, where he eventually succumbed to his injury, making him the city’s 59th homicide victim.

Burke’s murder is one of 79 homicides in the city so far this year, a number that’s nearly double from 2015’s 47 homicides to date. According to statistics released in April by the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, the murder rate was up 69 percent over 2015 and 43 percent over 2006 (the year the commission launched their Operation Safe Community crime-fighting plan).

Reginald Burke

Those high homicide numbers appear to be skewing the overall violent crime data, pushing citywide major violent crime up by 16 percent from January to March 2016 versus the same period in 2015. And homicides haven’t seemed to slow in April or May either.

“It is almost impossible to predict when a homicide will occur. There is no statistical data that will alert us when someone has made the decision to commit murder,” said MPD Interim Director Michael Rallings.

Of the 79 homicides so far, 55 of the murders have been solved by the MPD, 42 arrests have been made, and three warrants have been issued for suspects who remain at large. Four of the 79 homicides have been ruled as justified by the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. In 34 of the 79 homicides, the victim and suspect knew one another. Only 11 of the 79 homicides are believed to be gang-related.

“By saying gang-related, I mean the suspect, victim, or both are known gang members, and the homicide occurred due to some type of gang activity,” Rallings said.

Rallings said 65 of the 79 murders to date involved firearms.

Memphis Gun Down, a program that launched in 2012 under former Mayor A C Wharton’s Innovate Memphis (formerly the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team), has made it a goal to reduce gun violence in the city. The program’s 901 Bloc Squad sends reformed gang members into high-crime areas in Frayser, Orange Mound, South Memphis, and the Mt. Moriah corridor to connect with those who are caught up in the gang lifestyle.

“They’re trying to show diplomacy and influence these young people who are gang-involved to put their guns down and resolve conflict in other ways,” said Memphis Gun Down Director Bishop Mays.

Memphis Gun Down also has a hospital intervention program at Regional One Health, through which they make contact with shooting victims to try and prevent any retaliatory crimes. Additionally, the program offers youth an outlet during the summer through its “twilight basketball” games in the above-mentioned target communities.

“We need to align our resources throughout the city. We can’t put everything on the backs of the police officers,” Mays said. “We’re in a state now where we must pay attention or we will lose a lot of youthful assets in our community. We need to not judge and be willing to reach out to those who will accept help.”

Rallings echoed Mays’ statement, saying that the police can’t curb violence without help from the community. At a press conference last week, Rallings urged citizens to alert police any time they see an altercation occurring or someone suspicious in their neighborhoods.

“It takes everybody working together to make this a safe community,” Rallings said. “People are waiting on the police to solve all these problems, but the police are just one aspect. The clergy, everyone in the educational system, and individuals in the community all play a part.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

The Week That Was: Overton Park, Greensward, Michael Rimmer

Here’s a rundown of some of this week’s top stories:

• Shuttle buses, bicycles, pedestrians, and a new traffic pattern calmed the bluster of what Overton Park officials said was a “perfect storm” for the park, a weather-perfect Saturday packed with events that attracted thousands.

Latino Memphis celebrated Brazil with food, music, and a 5K run. Memphis College of Art students took exams and celebrated with an Art in the Park event. Beignets, chicory coffee, and more were served at Cafe Du Memphis, an annual fundraiser to benefit homeless families. The Memphis Zoo’s new Zambezi River Hippo Camp drew thousands.

Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) officials worried that the events would jam the park, but they had a plan. One-way streets and off-site shuttles were launched in a traffic experiment.

“We were happy to see full buses and lots of cyclists and pedestrians, and the one-way configuration and closure of Old Forest Lane resulted in fewer cars having to turn around in traffic after being unable to find spaces,” the OPC said.

• OPC said earlier in the week that costs for the mediation process were at $37,000 since January, noting that “those costs will only increase.”

OPC and Memphis Zoo officials entered into mediation talks in January at the urging of Mayor Jim Strickland. The content of those talks are private, but Strickland announced last month that the zoo and OPC had agreed to a plan that would yield 325 new parking spaces without building a parking structure.

OPC’s mediation costs are on top of the $75,000 it spent conducting its transportation and parking study earlier this year. Together, these costs have unexpectedly surged OPC’s budget up by 14 percent.

• On Saturday, Michael Rimmer was convicted again of the 1997 death of his former girlfriend, Ricci Lynn Ellsworth, in a case previously overturned because of allegations that lawyers in the Shelby County District Attorney General’s (SCDAG) office hid evidence from Rimmer’s defense team.

District Attorney General Amy Weirich recused her office from the case. Special prosecutors from Nashville were brought in to handle the state’s case against Rimmer.

Ellsworth disappeared from her job at the Memphis Inn in February 1997. Her body was never found, but there were blood spatters and signs of a struggle at her motel office. Rimmer and Ellsworth had dated, but he was later convicted for raping her.

After he was released and Ellsworth went missing, Rimmer was arrested in Indiana driving a stolen car with Ellsworth’s blood in the back seat. However, during the investigation, SCDAG veteran prosecutor Thomas Henderson failed to give eyewitness identifications of other suspects to Rimmer’s attorneys.

This broke Brady laws that govern criminal court cases, and Rimmer’s conviction was overturned because of it. The Tennessee Supreme Court investigated the action.

The court ordered a public censure of Henderson. Weirich pulled Henderson from the Rimmer trial but did not order any further punishment for him.

Rimmer was sentenced to death by the jury Saturday. It was the third time he had received the death penalty in the case.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Strickland Vows to Make City Friendlier for Breastfeeding Moms

Trinity Poole’s tattoo

On Trinity Poole’s bicep, there’s a tattoo of a mother breastfeeding her child in a ring sling. It symbolizes dual passions — breastfeeding and baby wearing.

“I got it because those two things have been a very big part of bonding with my son,” said Poole, 36, who has an 18-month-old son and a daughter due in October. “My first resource was my sister Meredith, who became passionate about nursing in public and breastfeeding rights when she had her youngest daughter. It sparked an interest in me.”

Mayor Jim Strickland recently signed a pledge to make Memphis a more supportive environment for breastfeeding mothers. Immediate steps include a lactation support policy for city offices, which would require designated storage for breast milk in workplace refrigerators and an employee orientation. And eventually, the policy will lead to the opening of lactation rooms at City Hall. Strickland did not respond to a request for comment.

If 90 percent of mothers exclusively breastfed for six months, the United States would save $13 billion and 911 lives per year, a Cambridge Health Alliance found. Though infant mortality stems from widespread issues, breastfeeding is known to lower the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Enter the Shelby County Breastfeeding Coalition, an advocacy group comprised of nurses, certified lactation consultants, breastfeeding peer counselors, dietitians, nutritionists, and, of course, mothers.

“Breastfeeding is important because of the significant health benefits,” said Coalition Chair Allison Stiles, a physician who practices breastfeeding medicine. “There’s less of all types of infections for the baby: less infant mortality, less obesity, less Type 1 and 2 Diabetes. As well as for mom — fewer sick days, lower insurance costs, less breast cancer, Type 2 Diabetes, and less obesity.”

Shelby County reports some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the United States and an infant mortality rate that has long exceeded national numbers. The Centers for Disease Control’s target infant mortality rate is six deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2014, Shelby County’s rate dropped from around 14.9 to 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births — the lowest in the last 100 years.

Though Tennessee has laws in place to support and protect breastfeeding mothers, the Coalition goes to bat when those laws are violated, Stiles said. They once had a case where a mother was told she couldn’t nurse at a daycare. Another mom was told she couldn’t breastfeed at a downtown courthouse. There’s also a lack of opportunity at the workplace — though Tennessee laws require flexible time for mothers to pump in a private space.

Aside from Papua New Guinea, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t require employers to offer paid maternity leave. Staggering, more so, when considering that mothers supply the primary income for 40 percent of U.S. families with children 18-years-old or younger, the Pew Research Center found.

“Many moms return to work in as little as two weeks,” Stiles said. “It’s hard to see returning to work and pumping. How is a mom who works in the hub, a warehouse, the tarmac, or at McDonald’s going to imagine pumping? [Memphis] needs to be sure all city facilities have lactation access, not just City Hall. … One big area of opportunity is in a more supportive maternity leave policy.”

Meanwhile, the breastfeeding coalition and other advocates are doing all they can to make breastfeeding in public more commonplace. Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women is sponsoring what may turn out to be the largest breastfeeding event in the city this year. On August 6th at Trinity Baptist Church, breastfeeding moms from across the Mid-South will come together for Latch On Memphis, an attempt to break the record for the most mothers simultaneously nursing.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Where There’s Smoke … There’s Barbecue!

CREDIT: Toby Sells

The Old

Teams. Tents. T-shirts. Team stickers. Private Port-A-Potties. Multi-night parties (and even unofficial party nights).

These are now some very basic staples of the Memphis in May (MIM) World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. But they weren’t always staples. Someone had to invent this stuff, right? You know who invented it? Rednecks.

Call them innovators. But Pete Gross and Woody Coleman self-identify as Rednecks first. They founded the Redneck BBQ Express, the very first team to ever compete at (what locals call) Barbecue Fest or, more simply, Barbecue.

Toby Sells

Redneck BBQ Express founding members Pete Gross and Woody Coleman look over memorabilia.

When the Rednecks fire up their grills this weekend, it’ll be the team’s 39th appearance at the 39th annual Barbecue event. While they look like pros now, the first year in the lot in front of the Orpheum Theatre was very different.

They had a Dodge van with a canopy and a stereo, coolers, and a grill. They were cooking a whole hog so they had to get started on it Friday night to be ready for the competition Saturday. So, they did what they always did — they invited all their friends down to drink beers.

That night, some of the festival organizers dropped in to check the lot. They found Gross, Coleman, and all their pals ” just having a ball,” as then-MIM president Lyman Aldrich told Memphis magazine in 2006. Seeing those Rednecks, just doing what they do, sparked the idea in Lyman that Barbecue could be a multi-night event.

“They said, ‘Who are you guys?'” Gross remembers. “What do you mean? We’re just a bunch of guys called the Redneck BBQ Express. Y’all said you’re having a barbecue contest. Well, we’re here.”

They were the only team. Everyone else registered as solo competitors. Thus, the first real Barbecue team — the prototype for what we all know today — was born.

Few rules governed that first festival, Coleman says. Samples were given out freely to everyone. And judging was done right by the grill, no formal sit-down necessary. Coleman took a “Redneck nap” in the van in full view of the judges that year, and, after a day of handing out samples, “our hog looked like a ravaged dog,” Gross says. They came in 10th of 16.

The Rednecks had also decided to print up T-shirts for the festival. They printed more than they needed, decided to sell them, and, thus, Barbecue T-shirts were born.

The festival was moved to Tom Lee Park the next year, and all the teams for two years cooked under an enormous, circus-style tent. Tired of fighting the smoke and the haze, the Rednecks decided to get a tent of their own.

“Everybody was like, ‘What are y’all doing out there?'” Gross recalls. “Then, they all moved out and got tents of their own, and then the big structures started.”

The “sticker phenomena” — once a huge deal at Barbecue — came from the Rednecks. Even the idea of starting the party on Tuesday night began with the Express (though, partying commences nearly every night after Saturday load-in these days).

But it wasn’t like they planned to innovate. It’s just that when Gross and Coleman begin talking, they devise brand new ways to have fun. Hang out with them. You’ll feel it and see it in action. As for fun, that’s their main goal at Barbecue. Winning really does take a back seat with the Rednecks.

In their time, they’ve watched Barbecue change, and they wish MIM would create a commercial division for the die-hard, big-money, high-tech teams that show up to win. They praise the creation of the Patio Porker division, in which amateurs can compete on a smaller budget and scale.

What have they got to show for it all? Gross and Coleman can spin an absolutely true, absolutely hilarious, beer-soaked, high-volume, high-times, rough-and-rowdy tale of human celebration, as easy as breathing. Well, that, and the camaraderie of the 85-or-so Rednecks who have been on the team roster over the years.

Why do they do it?

“Because we can,” Gross says.

How long will they do it?

“As long as I can,” Coleman says.

— Toby Sells

The (Sorta) New

Mark Renaud is not exactly a newcomer to Barbecue Fest. He says that he’s cooked at the contest and ones like it for 20 years. This year, however, he’s bringing a new team with a new focus.

Whole hog had been the game at past contests — top 10 but never the grand prize. Under the corporate sponsorship of the St. Louis-based restaurant Pappy’s Smokehouse, Uncle Charlie’s Ribs will focus on ribs. Uncle Charlie is a nod to Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals pitcher who is a friend of Pappy’s owner, Mike Emerson. (Uncle Charlie is slang for curveball, a Wainwright specialty.)

Pappy’s is a Memphis-style barbecue restaurant specializing in ribs. According to Renaud, Pappy’s introduced the Southern-style barbecue to a region where most barbecue was in the heavy-smoke Kansas City tradition. They turn out about 500 ribs a day.

Ribs, ribs, and more ribs

Uncle Charlie’s will be competing with Pappy’s ribs.

“The only thing to do in Memphis,” Renaud says, “is to compete against yourself. The ribs have to be absolutely perfect.”

There’s also what Renaud calls the “dog-and-pony show” aspect of the contest — the on-site judging. Renaud says he’s particularly adept at presentation for the on-site.

“You have 15 minutes with that judge one-on-one,” Renaud explains. “There are three facets to it. One is the actual visual as you walk into the spot. We want them to feel like they’re sitting down in their own kitchen. Second thing is getting their attention, where they lock into you and aren’t daydreaming. And then there’s the product. When I do presentations, I start at the cooker, make them really hungry, and get them to the table about five minutes in, and then I basically hand feed them. My job is to make sure they don’t forget me, no matter how many spots they go to.”

As for the team’s chances? “I’m extremely comfortable,” Renaud says.

— Susan Ellis

Canadian Bacon

Rob Reinhardt is a Canadian Prometheus. Okay, maybe that’s an overstatement. He didn’t bring fire to the Great White North, exactly, but Reinhardt, an award-winning pitmaster who’s participating in his first Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, did introduce Saskatchewan to the manifold pleasures of Southern-style ‘cue cooked low and slow over a hardwood fire.

“We do have certain traditions in Canada,” Reinhardt says. “The West Coast Aboriginal community does smoked salmon. And we have lots of varieties of cured and smoked pork. But nothing resembling Southern barbecue existed here until enthusiasts and backyarders started spreading the word.” Gas grills, Reinhardt adds, had previously been the tool of choice for cooking meat outdoors. “Now, barbecue and barbecue traditions are growing like crazy.”

Rob Reinhardt

Reinhardt was always an avid and adventurous home chef, but until he made the switch to full-time barbecue cook and instructor four years ago, he was employed as a business analyst for a steel company. It was a good gig with a comfortable salary, nice benefits, and occasional travel opportunities, but something was missing. A work-related trip to Texas brought him into contact with open pit cooking and changed his life forever. “I stumbled across a real barbecue restaurant like I’d seen on TV and thought I’d try it out,” he says. After an order of beef brisket and pork ribs, nothing would ever be the same.

In 2006, Reinhardt hired a retired welder from Beausejour, Manitoba, to build a trailer-mounted offset smoker. Two years later, he upgraded to a 22-foot catering rig, formed the Prairie Smoke & Spice company, and entered the world of competitive barbecue. In 2012, he left his job and became a full-time pitmaster.

In Canada, barbecue is a very seasonal career choice. “People only seem to be interested in this sort of thing during the summer, with almost no demand January through March,” Reinhardt says. “But we’ve learned how to appreciate that.” He’s also learned how to appreciate the rapid growth of Canadian barbecue culture.

“In my hometown of 200,000 people, there are now five different businesses offering Southern-style barbecue catering,” Reinhardt says. “A lot of people would look at that level of competition as a stress factor. But I think more people doing barbecue raises the awareness. Competition is a good thing. I keep my knives sharp and make sure I’m putting out a good product.”

— Chris Davis

The Name Game

The Bastey Boys, The Count Bastie Porkestra, Magically Piglicious, Squeal Street, Crosstown Neighborhood BBQ Cooking Team … Okay, so maybe not so much that last one, but you get the gist. A good barbecue team name, be it crude, punny, or funny, captures the joy of the contest.

The Usual Saucepects is one of those big operations: multi-level structure, huge banners. The team started last year with members from other teams, including Slab Yo Mama. They placed 10th in the rib category.

Matt Savard of the Usual Saucepects says, “We wanted to do it bigger and better. Push the limits — scaffold, lights, sound.”

He says the name was his girlfriend’s idea. He works in marketing and knows a good draw. Folks clamored for their T-shirts and other merchandise. Interest sparks more interest, which may, in turn, lead to more opportunities to help defray the $60,000 cost the team spends being in the contest.

Deeez Butts is made up of members from the local National Guard. Dale Burkett says that once they had enough members for the team, they set about for a name. One night, a team member and his wife were going through old ’80s hair band CDs fishing about for ideas, according to Burkett. “Somehow, he went from ’80s hair bands to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic album, and on that album, there’s this [comic skit] ‘Deeez Nuuuts,’ and he just replaced, obviously, ‘nuuuts’ with ‘butts’ for barbecue, and that’s how we came to be.”

It’s a perfect fit, Burkett says.

“It reflects what our team is,” Burkett says. “We like to let loose and party because we work really hard. We fly a lot of missions, so we don’t like to take it too seriously. We like to have fun and eat good barbecue.”

Last year, a video went viral of a man doing the “Deeez Nuuuts” routine. “That made our team get really noticed a lot more last year,” Burkett says. “People were stopping by our tents and taking pictures with our banner and wanted to buy our T-shirts.”

Yes, Deeez Butts is notorious. Says Burkett, “The funny thing is, this being our fifth year, every time I go to the team meetings to pick up our packages or go to Sam’s Club, they may not remember me specifically, but once I tell them the team name, they’re like, oh yeah, I know who you are.” — SE

Who’s the Piggiest of Them All?

The Swinos won last year’s Miss Piggy Idol contest. They placed the previous two years.

“We try really hard to put on a very fun, very creative, very original show,” says team president Matthew Heffington. “We don’t play to the judges. We don’t play to the competition. We like to do it our way.”

The Swinos have a team band named Tender to the Bone, a rotating crew of six, who are charged with coming up with the performance. They keep everything quiet until the day of the show. Even fellow members of the Swinos don’t know what will happen until the band is onstage.

The Swinos

Last year, it was a porkified version of the history of rap. One year, it was Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” (“Beanz and Slaw”).

“The approach is to reach into the landscape of pop culture, take into account who’s playing at Barbecue Fest,” Heffington says. “We take into account our locality and, obviously, food. It’s all about paying your respect to the pig gods and putting out your best artistic version of your team and how you feel about the year.”

Heffington suggests we speak to Tender to the Bone’s Justin Taylor for more insight.

“Per our attorney’s advice, we are the Band Formerly Known as Tender to the Bone,” Taylor says.

“We are triple-crown champions. We have nothing to prove anymore. This is about the people. Pork the record industry, and long live Prince,” Taylor continues.

Taylor says they start about two weeks in advance of the contest, picking a theme by throwing rib bones at a target on the wall.

And the choreography? “Tight undergarments and man fat,” Taylor answers.

He then reiterates what the attorney has said about the Band Formerly Known as Tender to the Bone. And “Pork the record industry.”

Is this a hint? “Absolutely not,” Taylor says. “No. No one in their right mind would touch Prince.” — SE

Music to Barbecue By

No real barbecue experience is complete without some tunes. From Frayser Boy to Tom T. Hall, here’s a collection of songs to get your party started this Thursday night at the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Deep Purple — “Smoke on the Water”: Okay, this one was pretty obvious, and the folks running the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest must have thought the same thing, as this was the slogan for the competition a few years ago. Nevertheless, if the opening riff of this Deep Purple song doesn’t get you pumped to eat some ‘cue, you might be vegetarian.

Oblivians — “Call the Police”: “We don’t give a damn where you’re from,” sings Greg Cartwright on this cover of the Stephanie McDee classic. Let those lyrics serve as the welcome anthem to all travelers hitting Barbecue Fest, because you’re all Mid-Southerners this weekend. There are references to plenty of Southern and Cajun food, including chicken wings, crawfish, and jambalaya, and when Cartwright sings “You better call your wife, call your bossman, cuz we ain’t ever comin’ home,” you better believe he means it.

Oblivians

Creedence Clearwater Revival — “Proud Mary”: No barbecue is complete without a little Creedence. While many of their songs would fit perfectly in a pork-centric playlist, this one is especially fitting for cleaning a plate down by the mighty Mississippi.

Wendy Rene — “BBQ”: “I like barbecue, you like barbecue, we all like barbecue,” sings Wendy Rene on this Stax Records single from 1964, and sometimes it’s just that simple. This classic Rene track was made for every summer cookout, so add some Memphis flavor to your party and dig in.

Frayser Boy — “It’s Da Summa Tyme”: This might be a “deep track” from Frayser Boy’s catalog, but it’s arguably one of the best songs about spending the summer in Memphis. His line “Y’all about to barbecue, shit, I’m ’bout to roll through” perfectly captures the sentiment felt by most, if not all attendees at this year’s World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Ted Nugent — “I Love My BBQ”: I’m only including this song in the playlist because it is so completely terrible that it must be heard to be believed. The Nuge loves his barbecue, so let him have it, I guess? Pull up a chair because ol’ uncle Ted has a beer for you, just don’t try to talk to him about animal rights while he’s eating. Best line: “A tossed salad might make you weak. I like to kill ’em and grill ’em.” Whatever you say, Ted.

Tom T. Hall — “That’s How I Got to Memphis”: This classic Tom T. Hall song is fitting for any trip to the Bluff City, but the lines “I haven’t eaten a bite or slept in three days and nights” are especially relevant to this weekend’s festivities. While I’m not suggesting you fast until the competition begins this Thursday, it may be good to lay off the barbecue while you wait for the gates to open at Tom Lee Park.

— Chris Shaw

Shop Like a Pro

Mid-South pitmasters shop off the beaten path, a sort of Diagon Alley in the magical world of Memphis meatcraft. But those shops are mostly wide open to regular customers, too.

Memphis Barbeque Supply

The shelves at Memphis Barbeque Supply are stocked with bottles of local sauce and dry rubs, most of which is from local barbecue teams with names you know if you pay attention to Memphis in May results: Sweet Swine O’ Mine, Killer Hogs, Porkstars, and others. The latest and greatest (and biggest) smokers are presented on the showroom floor like upscale automobiles.

A wall of wood ensures you can get any smoke flavor profile you’d like, from standards like apple, mesquite, and cherry to blends like “Memphis Smoke,” a mixture of pecan and hickory. The wall on the other side is covered in any piece of cooking hardware you can imagine, from high-tech digital meat thermometers to spatulas emblazoned with the LSU logo.

Jimmy Shotwell and his business partner, Chris West, opened the store two years ago because, well, it just made sense in Memphis.

“We had furniture places [that sold smokers] and had outdoor fireplaces and your big box stores, but we did not have [a store with] everything but the meat — charcoal, wood, run, sauces — just a place dedicated to barbecue,” Shotwell said.

The Charcoal Store

Pert Whitehead has been involved in the charcoal business since about 1975 and has run the Charcoal Store in its current location on Florida Street since 1999.

“I’ve had people standing right here from Norway, Belgium, Denmark, a bunch of people from California, probably about every state,” Whitehead said.

He said “all the tops” in Memphis will cook with his Chef’s Delite brand, but he also carries lump charcoal, blended briquettes, and wood of all types.

He sells mostly to restaurants (noting Tops Bar-B-Q and the Rendezvous as customers) and to shops like Memphis Barbeque Supply. He does sell to individuals and some barbecue teams, but he doesn’t push that part of the business, he said. — TS

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Pets of the Week

CREDIT: Memphis Pets Alive

Each week, the Flyer will feature adoptable dogs and cats from Memphis Animal Services. All photos are credited to Memphis Pets Alive. More pictures can be found on the Memphis Pets Alive Facebook page.

Memphis Pets Alive

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

City Tasting Tours Take Off Saturday

“I love barbecue,” says Cristina McCarter. “That’s so Memphis to say, but it’s true.” 

McCarter (full disclosure: she’s a sales assistant at the Flyer) says she’s a foodie and a connoisseur of good food. And she’s taking that appetite to the streets with City Tasting Tours, starting this Saturday. 

Each tour stops by five downtown restaurants, where participants will split one of the establishment’s signature dishes. That may mean barbecue nachos at Central BBQ (a McCarter favorite) or the peach cobbler at Ray’z or the Soul Burger at Earnestine & Hazel’s. Along the way, McCarter shares points of interest.

Tours are Saturday, 1:30 p.m., and start on South Main, go north, and end up on Beale Street. They take about 2 1/2 hours. The cost is $55.  

City Tasting Tours is an offshoot of a tour that McCarter worked for back in 2010. “It was something to do every weekend,” McCarter says. “I got paid to eat.” Last fall, McCarter was contacted by the tour owner who suggested she take it and make it her own. 

So far, she has 12 downtown restaurants signed up. She hopes to eventually expand to Midtown and Cooper-Young.

Participants should come hungry. “You’ll definitely get full from this,” McCarter says.