GATES OPEN AT 5 P.M.
Dirty Heads 6:20 p.m.
CHVRCHES 7:50 p.m.
Dave Matthews Band 9:30 p.m.
Ravyn Lenae 6 p.m.
BlocBoy JB 7:20 p.m.
Lil Dicky 8:35 p.m.
Khalid 10:15 p.m.
Khalid
Saving Abel 5:45 p.m.
In This Moment 7:10 p.m.
Good Charlotte 8:50 p.m.
Shinedown 10:30 p.m.
Brandon Santini 6:15 p.m.
Guitar Shorty 7:45 p.m.
Ghost Town Blues Band 9:25 p.m.
Bettye LaVette 11:05 p.m.
GATES OPEN AT 1 P.M.
Anthony Russo 2:10 p.m.
Everlast 3:45 p.m.
Simple Plan 5:20 p.m.
Big Boi 7 p.m.
Trippie Redd 8:40 p.m.
G-Eazy 10:25 p.m.
G-Eazy
Liz Brasher 2:30 p.m.
The Suffers 4 p.m.
Riley Green 5:35 p.m.
Moon Taxi 7:10 p.m.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise 8:50 p.m.
OneRepublic 10:30 p.m.
Kevo Muney & Action Pack 2:15 p.m.
Muck Sticky 3:15 p.m.
Echosmit 4:45 p.m.
Coin 6:15 p.m.
India.Arie 7:50 p.m.
Charlie Wilson 9:30 p.m.
Terry “Harmonica” Bean 2:15 p.m.
Gracie Curran & the High Falutin’ Band 3:50 p.m.
Blind Mississippi Morris 5:25 p.m.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram 7:05 p.m.
Southern Avenue 8:50 p.m.
William Bell 10:35 p.m.
GATES OPEN AT 1 P.M.
Fast Cash Boyz 2:30 p.m.
NLE Choppa 3:30 p.m.
Madison Beer 4:50 p.m.
Moneybagg Yo 6:20 p.m.
6Lack 7:50 p.m.
Cardi B 9:20 p.m.
Cardi B
Healy 2 p.m.
Everclear 3:20 p.m.
Rodrigo Y Gabriela 4:55 p.m.
Flogging Molly 6:30 p.m.
Lord Huron 8:10 p.m.
The Killers 9:45 p.m.
Keith Sykes & the Revolving Band 2:10 p.m.
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real 3:40 p.m.
St. Paul & the Broken Bones 5:15 p.m.
The Claypool Lennon Delirium 6:50 p.m.
Gary Clark Jr. 8:35 p.m.
Barbara Blue 2:15 p.m.
Super Chikan 3:45 p.m.
Hamish Anderson 5:20 p.m.
Will Tucker 6:55 p.m.
Joe Louis Walker 8:25 p.m.
Michael Donahue
Michael Donahue
A section of the new addition at the Arcade Restaurant.
In Greek, “arcade” means a “fun gathering place,” says Michael Zepatos, grandson of Arcade Restaurant founder, Speros Zepatos.
The Arcade Restaurant will open at 7 a.m. May 2 as an even bigger fun gathering place. The Arcade, founded in 1919 and known as “Memphis’s oldest cafe,” held a preview party on the eve of the expansion’s opening.
“We wanted to show it off to all our friends and family,” says general manager Jeffrey Zepatos. He and his wife, Kelcie, his dad, Harry Zepatos, and mother, Karan Zepatos, along with Michael Zepatos, welcomed about 325 guests for drinks and light appetizers.
Father Nicholas Vieron, 93, who was a friend of Speros and Harry, blessed the new addition, which is an extension of the South side room that adjoins the main dining room. A wall was taken out to combine the two rooms. Back in the day, the side of the new addition closest to the main dining room was the old Progressive liquor store. The other side was an art studio.
The extension, which features a full-service liquor bar and a coffee bar, adds 2,400 renovated square feet to the original ,500 square-foot-restaurant.
The restaurant has gone from 123 seats to 208 seats.
Instead of one small bathroom, the Arcade now has four spacious handicapped bathrooms.
A window from the coffee bar to the street saves walking time for outdoor diners.
The new addition includes an indoor waiting area for customers.
The entire restaurant now has a state-of-the-art sound system.
The expansion was done by Looney Ricks Kiss architecture firm and Tom Archer custom builders. Interior design was by Blas Betancourt, who is with LRK, along with Kelsey and Karan Zepatos. Krissy Buck with LRK was project manager.
The peach-and-teal color scheme in the main room was reversed in the new area. The main room has a terrazzo floor. The bar’s counter top in the extension is terrazzo. Part of the bar in the new area is the tufted vinyl that matches the tufted vinyl on the counter in the main room. The wainscoting in the main dining room is teal. The wainscoting in the new room is peach.
They found some surprises during renovation. When they took out the linoleum, they discovered a hardwood floor, Karan says.
They left the wood beams that were in the wall. It was as if they were “meant to be,” Jeffrey says.
They removed the brick that went up about five feet on the front windows in the extension and installed larger windows, which gives the room a much brighter look.
For now, the restaurant isn’t open late every night. “Not quite yet,” Jeffrey says.
But business as usual – breakfast, lunch and dinner – will continue at the iconic restaurant, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
MIchael Donahue
The new 2,400 square-foot addition.
Michael Donahue
The full-service liquor bar in the new addition.
Michael Donahue
The coffee bar.
Michael Donahue
The Zepatos family with Father Nicholas Vieron.
Storyboard/WYPL
I recently visited WYPL FM for a conversation about Memphis media with Storyboard Memphis publisher, Mark Fleischer. Though the interview was inspired by Going to Pieces, a Memphis Flyer cover story about the state of print media in Memphis, we stumbled down some deep rabbit holes in a detailed account of how daily newspapers like The Commercial Appeal lost revenue, relevance, and readers they are unlikely to reclaim.
I’m honestly not sure that I ever really answered any of Mark’s questions, but we cover a lot of history, and context that’s not addressed in the original reporting so I wanted to flag the interview for interested readers.
SB 30 Episode 9: Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer
For our show April 28, we sat down with journalist Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer and took an in-depth look at the current landscape of the print newspaper and how we got here, based in part on Chris’ great reporting for his Flyer series Justice in Journalism, and his March 14, 2019 story ‘Going to Pieces’ (link below).
How Corporate Ownership Changed Memphis Media
UrbanArt Commission
An art installation on Broad Avenue
The UrbanArt Commission (UAC) is looking to make three community groups’ neighborhood art project ideas come to life.
Through the Neighborhood Art Initiative, three public art projects will be awarded a total of $120,000. The idea is for community organizations to incorporate public art into their current initiatives.
“We believe that creative expression has the power to unlock opportunity and transform communities,” the UAC said.
The UAC is looking for project proposals from neighborhood associations, community groups, art organizations, and nonprofits that are already engaged in a specific community.
The proposed projects should support an ongoing project or initiative in a neighborhood. The UAC suggests projects such as a mural in an existing community garden, a sculpture in a greenspace, and creative signage.
The UAC, along with a six-member selection committee, will ultimately choose projects that “enliven public spaces, highlight neighborhood identify and history, and address the needs of residents.”
[pullquote-1]
Finalists will also be selected based on the level of support they garner from their community, the strength of their application, and the potential value of adding public art to its ongoing initiatives.
The commission notes that it is especially interested in applications from neighborhoods which have not recently received public art projects: “People of color, differently-abled persons, indigenous peoples, youth, LGBTQ+, seniors, and women are strongly encouraged to apply.”
Groups have until Wednesday, May 8th, to send in a proposal. More details on how to do that can be found here.
This initiative is funded largely by the Assisi Foundation, a nonprofit that financially assists other nonprofit organizations in the city.
When I cover the Porter-Leath Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival, I don’t want to sit on a railroad track while I pull crawfish apart and suck the heads and bite the tails. Nothing wrong with that. It’s fun. Unless you’re working. I don’t want to go up to people all afternoon smelling like mudbugs while I’m sticking my phone camera in their faces.
So, I was delighted to discover Alex Grisanti’s crawfish pizza at his 9-Dough-1 food truck. I could just take a slice and eat it. The crawfish tails already were out of their shells and ready to be consumed.
The crawfish pizza now is available at his food truck, but Grisanti, who manned 9 Dough 1 with his wife, Kim, and Igor Kobas, says he created the crawfish pizza for the Rajun Cajun festival. “’Cause of the crawfish theme, of course,” Grisanti says.
Fran Carpenter with Main Events, which produces the event, suggested he do a crawfish pizza. “I started twiddling around with the plan and that’s what I came up with.
“I kind of wanted it to have an etouffee taste and feel to it. So, that’s the flavor. I did a butter base on it, sort of a pizza sauce base, mozzarella cheese, and then I did a roasted corn-tomato-onion chutney on there. And then I had the remoulade sauce on it.”
And crawfish tails, of course.
Grisanti went through 150 pounds of crawfish tails during the festival.
What makes it so great is “the sweetness of the corn with the spicy crawfish flavor,” he says.
“It’s like a real crawfish boil. That’s what I was trying to replicate.”
So, instead of dumping crawfish, potatoes and corn on a newspaper, the crawfish, corn, and other toppings are poured on Grisanti’s home-made pizza crust, which includes Budweiser (heavy, not light) as an ingredient.
Originally, the crawfish pizza was going to be a one-shot deal for the festival until, Grisanti says, “I tried it out on a couple of people a couple of days and they were going crazy over it.”
His mudbug pizza will be available this summer, he says. “I can do it all year ‘round, but in summertime people think of crawfish and shrimp boils and barbecue.”
Grisanti’s crawfish pizza is “a little play on summertime.”
Rob Hughes, Porter-Leath vice-president of development, says, “It’s kind of like barbecue pizza over at Coletta’s. Out-of-towners won’t get it, but once you try it, you’re hooked.”
To track the Grisanti food truck, go to @9_dough_1 on Instagram or 9DOUGH1 on Facebook.
Michael Donahue
Igor Kobas and Alex Grisanti with a freshly-baked crawfish pizza.