Construction on the new Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Downtown can continue “full steam ahead” after a court ruling Friday.
Shelby County Chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson denied a request from Friends of Our Riverfront (FOR) to stop the build. The group has long contended that land at the top of the bluff, where the new museum is being built, is public.
“Neither the city nor Brooks owns this property,” the group has said. “Memphians have an easement to use the property as a public promenade and the city is the trustee. This means that the city can use this land only for the specific purpose of a riverfront greenway.”
With this, the group sued the city and the Brooks in September to halt construction. The court ordered the group to post a bond of $1 million to offset damages to the project should it be temporarily halted. FOR urged the court to waive the bond. The Brooks and city officials asked the bond to be set at $5 million.
The group never posted the bond. So, the judge dismissed its request to stop construction.
“This victory paves the way for us to bring Memphis one of the greatest cultural institutions in the country,” Brooks Chief development Officer Melissa Whitby said in an email to museum members. “This achievement would not have been possible without the unwavering support of our community, patrons, and partners. We are deeply grateful for your trust and commitment throughout this journey.”
Credit: Memphis Art Museum
FOR made no immediate public comment on the decision. In a Facebook post Thursday, the group said, “hard to believe a huge Soviet-style building that blocks the riverfront is actually good for anybody, Brooks included.”
The group has long fought projects along the bluff. It wants to conserve the riverfront from Big River Crossing to the Wolf River Greenway “as green space for public enjoyment, preserving its historic, natural, and authentic character.”
Credit: Friends for Our Riverfront
The Brooks broke ground last year on the new museum at the corner of Front and Union, the site of the former Memphis Fire Services Division headquarters. The museum will have a new name, the Memphis Art Museum, and is slated to open next year.
In her email, Whitby said the facility is expected to attract 150,000 new visitors to Memphis, generate about $100 million in economic impact, and “provide transformative experiences to more than 30,000 school-age children annually.”
“For years, our goal has been to establish for the people of Memphis one of the greatest cultural institutions in the country,” said Carl Person, chair of the museum board. “Today, thanks to the unwavering dedication of many, many supporters, we are closer than ever to making that dream a reality. This portion of our riverfront will soon be home not only to a world-class art museum, but acres of new, open, art-filled, and accessible public space for everyone to enjoy.”
Grind City Brewing Company will host a fireworks display from this view on July 4th (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Pyrotechnics fans can go uptown for the Downtown Memphis Fireworks @ Grind City Brewing Company on July 4th.
Grind City Brewing Company at 76 Waterworks Avenue will host the event with fireworks, live music, food, and drinks. “Everything is ready to rock and roll for the fireworks,” says Grind City president Hopper Seely.
The event will be held in the tap room and on the brewery’s two acres from noon to 10 p.m. “We have the Memphis skyline in the background. We have the bridge. We have the Pyramid. It is quintessential Memphis.” And, he adds, the brewery features “a beautiful natural landscape along the skyline.”
Seely describes the event as a family occasion. It’s for “people from uptown, downtown, Mud Island, the Pinch, and the medical district.” Or anywhere.
Seely believes the last time a Mud Island July 4th fireworks display was held downtown was in 2021. “The first Fourth of July for the brewery, we had just a really great day. Everybody was lined up with blankets and chairs along the fence line watching the fireworks. It was awesome.”
It “has just been kind of a downer in Memphis” after they stopped doing the July 4th downtown fireworks, he says. “Then it hit us. It was a Hail Mary. What if we do it?”
They shared the idea with the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), which “helped us understand the legality of doing it. Permits. Coding. That kind of stuff. The Commission gave us their support to have the fireworks here and we’re very excited.”
Seely is planning for a crowd. “We are expecting at least 1,000 people to be here. We are able to have up to 5,500 people on site. We’ve got just under two acres of space, so people will be able to sit, play, and watch the fireworks.”
There are picnic tables on the grounds, but attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and chairs.
Hopper Seely (Credit: Michael Donahue)
“It’s going to be a slightly elevated Fourth of July experience,” says Grind City marketing director Anna House. “It almost becomes like a courtyard/backyard experience with food on one side, games and inflatables on the other side.”
A lot of shows are designed for people to just watch the fireworks and go home. “We wanted this to be a party.”
People can bring refillable water, but other drinks, as well as alcoholic drinks, will have to be purchased from the brewery and food from the food trucks. “To make sure the food vendors do OK,” Seely says.
Grind City will feature “a few drink options,” including its popular seasonal drink Krispie Treat that they will re-launch at the event. “It is our rice lager that tastes like a home-made krispy treat.”
They will be launching their “Southern Suga’” on July 4th. “It is our newest seltzer and is like a spiked sweet tea, served with a lemon wedge.”
Krispie Treat and Southern Suga’ (Credit: Anna House)
Participating food trucks are Chi Phi Food Truck (Chicago-style hot dogs and Philly cheese steaks), Mempops, El Mero Taco (Mexican), and Champs BBQ (Memphis-style barbecue).
Two lots of paid parking will be available on a first-come-first-served basis but, Seely says, “We will have the police monitor the street for any street parking.”
“We are excited about the fireworks at Grind City,” says Milton Howery III, vice-president of marketing, communications, and events for the DMC. “This event will bring great economic activity to the uptown neighborhood, the north Memphis community, and those communities that connect to downtown and uptown.”
Also, he says, “The DMC is working with other downtown partners to bring the fireworks back to the riverfront in 2025.”
In the meantime, in addition to Grind City’s show, the Red, White & Boom Celebration will be held July 3rd at AutoZone Park. And the “Liberty For All” festival will be held July 3rd at Liberty Park.
“The fireworks that were on the riverfront the people could see shoot up from Mud Island, those fireworks were typically a joint effort between multiple entities,” Howery says. Those displays ended a few years ago because of Covid and downtown construction.
To get to Grind City Brewing Company, go north on Second Street by way of Main Street or Front Street to Waterworks Avenue.
Best Actress winner Emma Stone stars in Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness. (Courtesy Searchlight Pictures)
There’s plenty of great stuff on the big screen in Memphis, so quit doomscrolling and go see a movie this weekend.
Kinds of Kindness
Best Actress winner Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and director Yorgos Lanthimos reunite for another absurdist comedy after the triumph of 2023’s Poor Things. They are joined by Jesse Plemons (whose performance earned him a Best Actor nod at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival), Margaret Qualley, and Hong Chau for a triptych of intertwined stories about love, death, and healing.
A Quiet Place: Day One
The third film in the series goes back to the beginning, which is the end of civilization. Blind space monsters with extremely sensitive hearing land on Earth and start eating up all the tasty people. That’s not so yummy for Lupita Nyong’o, a New Yorker who witnesses the invasion, and must escape very quietly. But don’t worry, she’s got a plan.
Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1
Kevin Costner directs Kevin Costner in this epic tale — a saga if you will — of American expansion in the West during the pre- and post-Civil War period. Expect horses, hats, and guns from this highly punctuated title.
Inside Out 2
This brilliant sequel is the biggest box office hit of the year. Head emotion Joy (Amy Poehler) must keep her human Riley (Kensington Tallman) on track as the ravages of puberty take hold, and a new emotion named Anxiety (Maya Hawke) arrives at headquarters. Beautifully animated with stealthily profound screenplay, Inside Out 2 is a must-see. (Read my full review, which, spoiler alert, borders on the rapturous.)
Kalki 2898 AD
Malco has been getting a lot of Indian movies over the last couple of years. This one promises to be different. It’s not a Bollywood song-and-dance film, as much as we love them. Kalki 2898 is the most expensive film ever made in India, weighing in at an impressive $6 billion rupees (approximately $72 million). It’s a sci fi epic inspired by Hindu mythology which is intended to kick off a Marvel-style cinematic universe. And it looks pretty cool.
While the city of Memphis has allocated $30 million to Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) for fiscal year 2025 (FY25), questions remain regarding the organization’s $60 million deficit.
During the June 2024 MATA Board of Commissioner meeting on Wednesday, several members of the public expressed their concern for the deficit. Prior to the meeting, organizations such as Citizens for Better Service and Memphis Bus Riders Union said they were unhappy with the organization’s previous ways of addressing the issue.
“MATA owes the city of Memphis, especially bus riders, an explanation of how it is going to solve the deficit without hurting bus riders,” Johnnie Mosley, founding chairman of Citizens for Better Service, said.
These comments came after MATA administration presented their budget proposal earlier this month to the Memphis City Council for consideration.
During the meeting, the transportation agency did not directly address the deficit. Instead, MATA said they were committed to increasing revenue and “refining [their] process of spending.” At the board meeting, MATA interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin said the council would be “more involved” with all organizations and agencies receiving money from the city.
Mauldin also said, with the city being their primary funding source, they want to make sure they are being as “transparent” as possible.
Shelby County government has allocated $1.2 million towards MATA for FY25, which Mauldin said is “consistent with where they’ve been for the past few years.” She noted that while it may seem like a small amount, their consideration in the budget means there is still the “opportunity to move forward.”
As the city has wrapped up its budget season, Mauldin said she is focused on building relationships with county commissioners and administration to procure a “higher level of funding” in the future.
“We know that the money that we have from the city of Memphis as well as Shelby County will not plug the entire hole,” Mauldin said. “We’re going to continue to work with those funding partners, but in addition we’re going to look into some other ways to get funding to close that gap. Most importantly, we’re going to look in the mirror and we’re going to tighten our own belts, and we’re going to spend smarter on the right things at the right time.”
She added that they are putting safeguards in place in order to ensure they’re being “good stewards of all the taxpayer’s money.”
Hamish Davidson of J.S. Held LLC has been retained by the organization as an external CFO and presented on “financial controls” during the board meeting. Davidson remarked that finance is “an area where if you don’t have the proper controls then your finance department can leak like a sieve.” To prevent this, Davidson said they are working to “spend smarter” and make sure they know where every dollar is spent.
Davidson said they currently have an understanding of MATA’s “historical processes and procedures” as well as their accounting systems. They also have gained the trust of employees.
However, he said they still need to identify their risk profiles and “current and future state of their budget and headcount,” and “determine the appropriate controls, reporting, and policies necessary.”
“A lot of these processes need to be updated,” Davidson said. “They’re totally out of date and more importantly they also need to be followed to the letter.”
Davidson said when he was retained in February, he thought they would be “long finished” by now in addressing these things, but he said it’s been put on the back burner due to more “pressing issues” related to MATA’s financials such as preparing the budget for FY25.
He said over the next few weeks they could create a timetable to present to MATA’s Board of Commissioners.
Close to the end of the meeting, the board opened the floor for public comment. They noted that this portion was for receiving comments and that they would not engage in a “spirited debate.”
Some participants made comments about bad service from both the agency and bus drivers; however, most complaints were about the agency’s finances.
Joe Kent of the Taxpayer Justice Institute criticized the agency for saying they lead with transparency when he said they are “anything but transparent.”
“If you want to collaborate with the public you need to answer questions,” Kent said. “How are you operating with a negative $10.1 million in cash? I just don’t understand that.”
Another participant suggested that the organization was “being investigated and some indictments were coming down.”
The board said that while they were not going to go back and forth with participants, they would follow up with them individually.
Dance the night away at OUTMemphis’ Queer Prom. (Photo: OUTMemphis)
Goner 20th Birthday Cruise Memphis Riverboats Friday, June 28, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Going, going, gone down the river for Goner Records special 20th birthday party cruise. Goner DJs will get the party started, and New Orleans’ Quintron and Miss Pussycat will perform live on the boat. Drinks and Wiseacre beers will be available on board. Your ticket also includes a Memphis-style barbecue dinner. Tickets ($60) must be purchased in advance here. Boarding begins at 5:30 p.m., with the boat departing at 6:30 p.m. Afterwards, head to B-Side for the Post-Quintron Cruise show with New Orleans’ DJ Matty and Jack Oblivian & The Sheiks. Cover is $10.
Mid-Summer Jam at The Ravine Memphis Made at The Ravine Saturday, June 29, 5:30 p.m. It’s not really a jelly, but it sure is a jam — the Mid-Summer Jam that’s coming to the Ravine in the Edge District, featuring After the Rain, the Contradictions, and Macrophonics, all to support Clean Memphis. These bands are hard-rocking homages to grunge and alt-punk from the ’90s featuring local young musicians from the emerging Memphis rock music scene. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and music starts around 6 p.m. Good Groceries Mobile Diner will be parked in the Ravine and Memphis Made will handle the beer. It’s a $10 cover benefitting Clean Memphis
Queer Prom: A Night Out with OUTMemphis Crosstown Arts at The Concourse Saturday, June 29, 6-11 p.m. Celebrate queer resilience and Pride by joining OUTMemphis for an evening of drinks and dancing. Queer Prom is for anyone 18+ that considers themselves a part of or an ally to the LGBTQ community, however you define it. Bring your joy, your looks, and your dance moves to benefit the nonprofit’s life-saving services for LGBTQ youth and adults. Tickets are $35 in advance and $50 at the door. Purchase here. But the celebration doesn’t stop when Queer Prom ends — the official Queer Prom Afterparty will take place at Black Lodge, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Cover charge is $10 (Queer Prom wristband holders get $5 off!).
The 24 Hour Plays: Memphis TheatreWorks at the Evergreen Saturday, June 29, 7-9 p.m. We all have the same 24 hours in a day to work with — which is a trite and completely not at all nuanced take on life — and for some of us, those 24 hours are just enough time to create and perform a full-on play. That’s right: This Saturday, you can watch as 24 actors perform in six different plays, which they, along with six directors and six writers, only had 24 hours to write, direct, and rehearse. This is a one-night-only event, and tickets are only $15. Musician and composer Eileen Kuo will perform for the crowd before the show and between the plays. Arrive early and buy a beer, wine, or soda at the bar, and there’ll be fresh popcorn and cotton candy available just for you.
Glam Rock Picnic: Fundraiser, Art Market, & Interactive Sculpture Party Off The Walls Arts Sunday, June 30, noon-5 p.m. Few things are more noteworthy than seeing a photo of your coworker in the crotch of a 10-foot, papier-mache sculpture of David Bowie in progress. That coworker is, of course, Michael Donahue, one of our writers here at the Flyer. In fact, Mike McCarthy, creator of the sculpture, has covered Bowie in Flyers. We’re honored to say the least, but this sculpture is not in honor of us, but rather of David Bowie’s visit to Memphis in 1973. This Sunday, McCarthy invites the public to start the process of covering Ziggy in clay at what he’s calling the Glam Rock Picnic. The day will also have DJ Kitschy Kat spinning entire Bowie albums, a Bowie bar, Eat at Eric’s food truck, face painting by Kasey Dees, and vendors curated by Jana Wilson of Vintagia. Entry free is $10, and kids get in free. Read more about the project here.
Wednesday Wellness Art Museum University of Memphis Wednesday, July 3, 5:15-6:15 p.m. Inspired by its current exhibition “Becoming More Myself: Reclamation Through Tattoo Art,” The Art Museum of the University of Memphis (AMUM) has been hosting free yoga classes as part of its first Wednesday Wellness series. Sign up for the last one-hour yoga class taught by local instructor Tedra Smothers here. Space is limited with a max of 25 participants per session and registration is required to participate. Bring your own yoga mat, closed bottle of water, and any props that you might like to use during the yoga class (i.e. straps, blocks, etc.) For questions, contact Adriana Dunn at ardunn@memphis.edu. Also read about the exhibit here.
Fourth of July Hear ye, hear ye, it’s Independence Day. Here are some of the events happening around town for the holiday:
Memphis’ Largest Fireworks Festival: Take in an Independence Day festival and the official City fireworks show in Liberty Park. This event is free with free parking and will have a DJ and live music, kids’ inflatables, face painting, carnival games, family-friendly movie showing, local food trucks, and biggest fireworks show in town starting at dusk. Liberty Park Memphis, Wednesday, July 3, 5-9 p.m.
Red, White & Boom Celebration: What’s more American than baseball, barbecue, and fireworks? Join the Memphis Redbirds for patriotic bucket hat giveaways for the first 1,500 fans, free inflatables and face-painters, and fireworks. The Redbirds are playing the Nashville Sounds. AutoZone Park, Wednesday, July 3, 6:05 p.m.
All-American Weekend: Join Graceland to celebrate America’s independence and 70 years of rock-and-roll with music, food, fun and fireworks. Graceland, Thursday-Saturday, July 4-6
Cooper-Young 4th of July Parade: Join the Cooper-Young Community Association for a very chill 4th of July block party and mini parade around the block. Bring your kiddos, their little wheels, and enjoy frozen treats, music, face-painting, and a special appearance by the Memphis Fire Department. Peabody Elementary, Thursday, July 4, 10 a.m.
There’s always something happening in Memphis. See a full calendar of events here.
Bianca Phillips and Joe Yester (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Loving Local returned this spring in a new location : Grind City Brewing Company.
And, to make things even more festive, tap room manager Ashley Creecy created a special drink, “Peach, Please,” for the Project Green Fork event. It’s made with black tea, peach juice, lemon juice, and a Grind City seltzer base, all garnished with a lemon wheel and fresh mint sprig.
Jon Van Hoozer, Will Coleman, Donna Van HoozerAli Manning and Beth WilsonDaniel Taylor and Daishu McGriff
“The staff was fantastic to work with,” says Leann Edwards, Clean Memphis/Project Green Fork program director. “And the location is a great backdrop, with a lot of places for people to roam.”
Guests also dined in the tap room where they could “get a respite from the heat.”
Kevin SullivanSelah and Darius NelsonKofi Asare, Khendra Lucas, Ashley Peterson, Meredith Woloshin, Nathan Woloshin
About 300 people attended the event, which featured fare from Biscuits & Jams, Good Fortune Co., Kitchen Laurel, Lulu’s Cafe & Bakery, and Shroomlicious Meals.
“Our chefs really love to be part of this event,” says Edwards. As a press release states, “This community event celebrates the creativity of Project Green Fork certified chefs, breweries, and bartenders who create custom, small-plate appetizers, desserts, and cocktails for the evening.”
Lina Beach live in Australia (Photo: Bianca Holderness)
Growing up in Franklin, Tennessee, Lina Beach came to love playing music, but she never imagined that her playing would go as far and as fast as it did once she moved to Memphis. “Since I was born, both my parents sat me at the piano, and my dad started teaching the violin at 5 years old,” she says, “and I wanted to be around that however I could. But when I got to college, I didn’t necessarily believe in myself enough to pursue a career as an artist and musician.” These days, all that has changed.
As a teenager learning guitar, Beach knew what she liked: Joe Walsh, U2, classic rock, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles. Then one day a new sound seized her imagination. “I was out eating lunch at a hot chicken place in Franklin and they played ‘I’m Still in Love with You’ on the speaker. And it literally stopped me and my friend mid-conversation and we got out our phones and Shazam’d it.
“That became one of my all-time favorite songs. I found the vinyl LP in a shop in Downtown Franklin and that was a heavily rotated album for me. When I got to Rhodes, I made that Memphis connection and I started to learn that that’s where that music was made. This was before I knew about the Hi Rhythm Section. I just knew I was in Memphis.”
That changed in the spring of 2021 when she landed an internship at Royal Studios, where Al Green and other Hi Records artists had recorded with the Hi Rhythm Section. Suddenly she was working directly with Boo Mitchell, whose father had produced those hits for Hi.
“When I got to Royal I was soaking it all in: how to make records, learning the engineering side, and watching Boo work,” she recalls. “Boo allowed me to get my hands dirty, wrapping cables, learning how to match the mic to the channel in the [mixing] board. And he let me sit at the board and learn commands in Pro Tools, and I just felt so empowered. I took that back to Rhodes and would help lead the live sound events all over campus, and helped teach other students, too.”
About six months into her time at Royal, a fellow intern had brought an acoustic guitar to the studio and Beach started idly playing it. “I’d been inspired to soak up all I could at the studio and go home and learn the guitar riffs. I was playing a lot at home. But it wasn’t until halfway through the summer that Boo first heard me play guitar in the lobby. He came in and asked, ‘Who’s playing that guitar?’ That was a life changing moment. Boo said, ‘Okay, I didn’t know you could do all that.’ And then he looked kind of puzzled and said, ‘It doesn’t make sense. I’m looking at this girl, and she sounds like a 70-year-old Black man!’”
Mitchell began incorporating Beach’s playing into sessions, most notably on his son Uriah’s track “Exotic Love,” released last year. And then came a game changer: Beach received a grant from the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies, which contributes $3,000 to each fellow for summer projects and research. Beach, who had just begun writing her own songs, decided that her “research” would be recording an album, and Mitchell was all for doing it at Royal.
For the past two years, that’s been at the center of Beach’s life. The songs began to pour out of her, and, in another watershed moment, her backing band for some of those sessions turned out to be the Hi Rhythm Section. That group still includes brothers Rev. Charles Hodges and Leroy “Flic” Hodges, plus Archie “Hubbie” Turner, who all played on Hi’s hits half a century ago, not to mention Steve Potts on drums, cousin to original Hi drummer Al Jackson Jr. And until his death 10 years ago this month, Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, with his uniquely stinging guitar lines, was also central to the group.
To this day, Hi Rhythm remains in demand, especially as the core band in the musical documentary series Take Me to the River, and as the touring group representing the film on the road for the past 10 years. “When I was in the studio with them recording my album, it was a dream come true,” says Beach. But by 2023, fate was about to give her another undreamt-of boost.
“I think it was in May, right after I graduated,” she recalls. “The guitar player that was filling in [for Teenie Hodges] moved out of town right before this big Hi Rhythm show and Boo was like, ‘Uh, Lina, do you think you could learn these 20-plus songs in the next two weeks?’ From that point on, I was listening to the songs in all my free time. I listened to all those Teenie parts — really studied them. And I don’t even think Boo told the band that I was the guitarist! I just showed up at sound check with my guitar and I had to kind of breathe in my car for a second before I went inside. Then I walked in and they saw me and were like, ‘Lina! Are you going to be playing with us today?’ I was like, ‘Apparently so, yeah.’ So I get up there and plug in, and Charles is playing Al Green’s ‘It Ain’t No Fun to Me.’ As Charles was playing the organ, I jumped in and he was like, ‘Oh man, that’s amazing!’ He said, ‘I can feel that!’ All my nerves melted away then; it was a huge validation from the band themselves.”
The rest, as they say, is history, as Beach has proved herself a worthy addition to this legendary group. As Boo Mitchell noted before their appearance at the RiverBeat Music Festival, “Hi Rhythm features Lina Beach, who is officially filling in the Teenie Hodges guitar spot. The band has adopted her as their sister. She’s the official guitarist and she’s also an artist.”
And so, even as she still puts the finishing touches on her debut album, Beach has ascended to the heights of Memphis soul royalty, holding her own with Hi Rhythm, even leading them through her own songs as they’ve toured Australia, England, and the U.S. this year, not to mention accompanying the likes of William Bell at England’s Red Rooster Festival. Not bad for a 23-year-old (who sounds like a 70-year-old Black man).
Night owls get hungry, too. So the Memphis Flyer once again selected a few places where those birds of a feather can savor delicious cuisine until midnight or later while the early birds concentrate on catching the worms.
We headed to three restaurants that don’t shut their doors at 10 p.m. These places accommodate people out on the town who might be hungry after a movie, a concert, or a play. Or even if they’re hungry again because their early dinner has worn off.
Madison Tavern
Madison Tavern was always supposed to be a place that could accommodate people who wanted to eat a meal later in the evening, at 10 p.m. or after.
Tim Quinn, who owns Madison Tavern (the former Local on the Square) with his wife, Tarrah, wanted the restaurant/bar at 2126 Madison Avenue to be available for people who might be hungry after they’ve seen a play or heard some music in Overton Square. It opens at 11 a.m., but people can order food until last call, which depends on how late they stay open. It could be 1:30 a.m. or later.
They feature “an America menu” with “Southern-influenced” fare, Tim says.
Previously, people could only order appetizers after 10 p.m., but Tim recently added a “late-night menu” with more items.
Our writers dug into Madison Tavern’s char-grilled fruit and a sausage-and-cheese board for late-night apps, and a bit of breakfast. (Photos: Michael Donahue)
On our visit for this story, we tried several culinary delights, including the sausage-and-cheese board, hot wings, and, my favorite, the “Char-Grilled Fruit Board,” which includes a grilled watermelon with agave syrup and finished with sea salt. It’s now one of my top favorite things to eat in Memphis. I want to fire up my grill and make these every night.
People can order all of their appetizers late at night. These include fried green tomatoes served with horseradish, pretzel sticks served with Dijon and queso, elote queso and chips, a fried shrimp basket served with cocktail sauce and house slaw, and cheesy toast served with marinara and a choice of shrimp or crawfish.
The tamales with a choice of queso, tomatillo, or red chili sauce, are no longer on the appetizer list. They’re now on the new late-night menu, and they’ve been improved. They still come with the same sauces, but the new ones are made by their chef, Jose Reyes. They’re handmade and come from Reyes’ grandmother’s recipe.
Tim recently began Tamale Tuesday, which features the new tamales.
The tamales on the appetizer list were replaced with braised beef egg rolls. Also on the new late-night menu are tacos, a smash burger, sliders, and their famous grilled cheese sandwich, which Tim describes as “a staple in American history.”
Tim began making grilled cheese sandwiches with Adam Hall and friends with their team at the Memphis Grilled Cheese Festival. Hall came up with the sandwich, which is made with grilled chicken, buffalo sauce, white cheddar cheese, and regular white bread. He puts a mixture of butter and Miracle Whip on the bread and toasts it.
Courtnee Wall, who was with us the night we dined at Madison Tavern, tried some of my “Breakfast Plate,” which is on the entrée list. You get a choice of steak (that was my choice, and it was superb) or fried chicken breast. It’s served with a waffle, eggs, and home fries. She thought that should definitely be on the late-night menu.
The happy news is I recently learned that breakfast is available all day. And Tim tells me that the steak I liked so much is “tallow-injected rib eye.” Tallow is beef fat. “The good fat.”
“We cut those to order,” he adds.
When I ask if people can order other menu items besides appetizers and late-night items, Tim says, “Hey, you know what? If it’s not busy and we’ve got the opportunity, there’s no reason to say no.
“Most definitely if you slide in there and you’ve seen a show at Lafayette’s and didn’t have a chance to have dinner — they have great food, but should you have missed out — if we can make it, why would we say no? We’d like to stick to our menu. That’s where you find consistency. But, hopefully, we’ve got enough talent in the kitchen to knock something out for you if we’ve got the demand.” — Michael Donahue
Blues City Café
In the quest for good grub during the wilder hours of the night in Memphis, one option is too often forgotten by anyone living east of Danny Thomas. Sitting at the entrance to the heavily peopled Beale Street, this fine eatery is so obvious that you might say it’s hiding in plain sight: Blues City Café.
But if you’ve ever dined there while having a night on Beale Street, you already know that its name is synonymous with good grub; after all, it started out under the venerable name “Doe’s Eat Place,” back in the ’90s. At this café, as with all the joints on this late night eats quest, the food is dynamite.
Another draw for me is that Blues City Café is on the periphery of Beale proper, and thus amenable to a quick bite or take-out order even if you’re not feeling Beale-tastic. If Beale is raging the way that only Beale can rage, but you’ve just had one of those days, you can simply pop into the restaurant’s Second Street entrance without running the gauntlet of the cobblestone crowd. Once you’re there, however, there’s no guarantee the convivial spirit and swinging, rootsy music won’t turn “one of those days” into “one of those nights,” and you find yourself feeling very Beale-tastic indeed.
The food alone could accomplish that, of course, evoking as it does every backyard hootenanny and barbecue party of your dreams. I’ve dined at other establishments where that party could be from Anywhere, U.S.A., but it’s not for nothing that Blues City Café’s motto is “Put Some South in Your Mouth.” It’s a virtual tour through the Mid-South, with top-notch ribs, catfish, turnip greens, tamales, and a “Memphis Soul Stew,” but it also makes stops in Louisiana, for gumbo, and Kansas City, for steak.
Blues City Café is synonymous with good grub, like its tamales, cheese fries, and catfish. (Photos: Jay Adkins)
But I usually go for the Mississippi-Arkansas-Tennessee tamales. That unforeseen hybrid of Latino and rural Southern culture that became a thing in itself, the Southern tamale is a delicious echo of Mississippi Delta culture, and it pairs well with the music that fills the air at Blues City. That, in turn, goes back to Blues City’s very origins.
“Doe’s Eat Place” is a veritable institution in Greenville, Mississippi, at one time Dominick “Big Doe” Signa’s grocery store, morphing into a restaurant that challenged segregationist conventions due to the cross-cultural appeal of their food, especially their tamales. That reputation has carried on unabated in the hands of Big Doe’s descendants, as when Doe’s was named an “American Classic” restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2007.
Entrepreneur George Eldridge was aiming to carry on in that tradition when he opened a new “Doe’s Eat Place” on the corner of Second and Beale in 1991. Though it was only two years before other investors joined and redubbed the place “Blues City Café,” Eldridge’s commitment to good tamales lived on.
As Blues City general manager Jason Ralph tells me, “George Eldridge started serving the tamales, and he still has the Doe’s over in Little Rock. Then he has a place called the Tamale Factory over in Gregory, Arkansas. So we circled back to him a few years ago, and since then it’s come kind of full circle and we use tamales that he produces at the Tamale Factory in Gregory. That was a pretty cool day when we went back to serving the original tamales that they used to make here.”
So there’s a credible back story behind Blues City’s claim to serve the “World’s Best Tamales.” And I guess my purchasing habits would be Exhibit A in support of that statement. When I sometimes sit in on organ with Earl “The Pearl” Banks and The People of the Blues in the Band Box room (where you can dine or not, to your preference), I’m often picturing those tamales as my reward for a hard day’s night. Not only do you get three or six fresh corn masa tamales, steamed in their wraps, stuffed with beef, pepper, and spices, but you get homemade chili on the side. Hearty fare indeed for the people of the blues!
If you follow suit, look for Edgar among the servers there. “He has been here since the beginning. He tells me stories about it,” says Ralph. Edgar can also tell you about other favorite dishes at Blues City over the years, like the café’s most popular item, the pork ribs.
“The ribs came from chef Vonnie Mack, who was with Doe’s Eat Place originally as well,” says Ralph. “He developed the sauce and our style of ribs, and we kind of stay true to that. We slow smoke them in the smoker out back until they’re so tender they fall off the bone. The ribs are by far our most famous item, that and the catfish. And then for late night, people tend to order the golden fried chicken tenders or the catfish. Or lately we’ve seen a lot of orders of the cheese fries, where we put gumbo or the barbecue on top of it.”
Like I said, Blues City Café is the hootenanny barbecue party of your dreams, and they’re open Sunday through Thursday until 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday until 3 a.m. — Alex Greene
Momma’s
The revving of motorcycle engines grumbled in the air as we moseyed into Momma’s on a balmy Wednesday night. The first, or last, bar in Memphis, depending on which way you’re headed, sits just off I-55 at 855 Kentucky Street, the site of the former Dirty Crow Inn, and close to the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge. We’d wandered in during bike night, with plenty of motorcyclists sitting in the patio corner enjoying plenty of brews. The trucker-themed bar sees lots of visitors who are just passing through (there’s plenty of space to park a semi), but the menu has something for everyone.
Momma’s serves up lasagna, a fried chicken sandwich, burgers, and lots and lots of coffee. (Photos: Michael Donahue / Samuel X. Cicci)
It was getting fairly late when we arrived, but we were in luck. For when the hunger pangs hit long after dark, Momma’s has you covered. The bar is open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and the kitchen keeps the griddle hot until an hour before closing. Anyone hanging out past their bedtime Downtown will have a much better alternative to Taco Bell.
The menu boasts plenty of easy comfort options; think all the dishes that, er, momma used to make. On Wednesdays, the chefs whip up their lasagna special, a comfortable glob that combines a warm blanket of ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese, ably abetted by a smooth marinara sauce and a big helping of ground beef. Coupled with a small plate of deviled eggs, supported by bacon bits and a healthy sprinkling of smoked paprika, it made for a fine start to the evening.
Of course, with this being another late-night excursion, Michael Donahue requested several cups of coffee, while I deferred to the Express-O Martini for my caffeine kick, a mix of Smirnoff vanilla vodka, cream, Disaronno amaretto, and a ground espresso shot, topped with three coffee beans for good measure.
The main courses arrived to our table just as the toll of another after-hours jaunt hit our weary bones. There’s never not a good a time to order a fried chicken sandwich, but that crispy, spicy crunch just hits differently after wandering around Downtown hopped up on the buzz of a few beers. The Firebird slaps a hefty chunk of chicken between two buns and spruces it up with bacon slices, pickles, fried onions, melted Swiss and cheddar cheese, and slathers Memphis Mojo sauce atop it all. I needed another jolt to avoid a food coma, so my attention turned to the Diablo burger. Cooked medium rare, the patty provides the foundation for this “one hot momma,” mixing several different hits of spice with sauteed jalapeños and ghost pepper cheese.
For those craving the most important meal of the day while under the moonlight, the Bacon-Egg-N-Cheeseburger comes as advertised, reminiscent of nocturnal treks to CKs or other all-nighter breakfast places. By the way, if you find yourself out and about so late that night has turned to dawn, Momma’s does have a full breakfast menu from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
A lot of truckers and bikers pass through, but weekly events have pulled back a decent group of regulars. There’s the aforementioned bike night, but Momma’s also holds Redneck Trivia (Mondays), Industry Night (Tuesdays), and Ladies Night (Thursdays), among others. And it’s safe to expect some sort of live performance most nights per week to offer late-night snacks and a show.
Momma’s fell off the radar a bit when it closed in 2021, due to a mixture of Covid and renovations. It opened back up in August of 2023 with a few improvements: namely, a much-expanded patio overlooking Kentucky Street, decked with extra tables and, crucially, a music stage. During our visit, singer-songwriter Max Kaplan took to the stage and serenaded diners with a mix of popular covers by request. It’s probably the first time I’ve heard a solo blues-tinged take on Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time.” But there was no loneliness killing us, or any diners, as we all enjoyed smooth tunes, some fried chicken sandwiches, and a fun night out under the stars. — Samuel X. Cicci
Rent is too high for most Memphians. (Photo: Designer491 | Dreamstime.com)
The gap between the haves and the have-nots gets larger every year. Some effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are still being felt by the masses. One of those is the rise of rental prices. Rent will never be the same.
We could not predict a virus interrupting our economy or U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Now that we are here, we have been subjected to inflation. Everything is more expensive now, but one’s biggest expense is housing, especially with rent increases. It is taking increasingly more money to live comfortably.
SmartAsset did a study earlier this year based on the 50/30/20 rule that 50 percent of your income goes toward necessities (bills, transportation, groceries), 30 percent on entertainment, and 20 percent on savings and investments. Based on this metric, they compiled a list of the 99 largest cities, ranking them in terms of the lowest salary needed to sustain a comfortable life (not living paycheck to paycheck). Memphis was ranked 25th, listing $85,696 as the lowest salary needed to sustain a single person.
According to the 2022 census, the per capita income in Shelby County was $36,230. Most residents only have a high school diploma, but the SmartAsset study suggests that these same residents need to make $85,696 a year to live comfortably. It is suggested that no more than 30 percent of your income go toward rent, but half of all renters in Tennessee are spending more than that.
Affordable low-income housing exists, but the requirements often include making less than $30,000 to $40,000 a year. This leaves those in the middle in a bind. Your income is above the poverty line, yet you do not make enough to be comfortable.
Because of rent increases, some people have to resort to finding roommates or are forced to relocate to a less desirable neighborhood. Rent increases promote the displacement of loyal tenants for those more well-off. This affects proportionally more low-income and middle-class tenants.
The need for rent control regulations in Tennessee is paramount. In 2021, lawmakers tried to amend TCA Title 66, Chapter 35, which prohibits local government authorities from enacting rent control. The amendment was withdrawn.
In a county where most have not completed undergrad or graduate school, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to survive in this inflation-riddled economy. There needs to be a union organized to allow the community’s voices to be heard. Legislation for rent control should be introduced and passed. Locally, we should have the freedom to give tenants more rights instead of all the power belonging to the landlord. Opponents say rent control would suppress new housing construction. One could argue that supplying affordable housing to the average American exceeds that risk. Fewer evictions and more stable tenants able to pay rent prevent homelessness and time spent in civil court over evictions.
In the meantime, it’s understood that one must do their own part to sustain a lifestyle that can comfortably afford a nice place even with rent increases. One must consider going back to school, getting another degree (potentially raking in more student debt) so they can potentially get promoted to a higher paying job. Nevertheless, the middle class deserves to live in safe neighborhoods with reasonable rates. Without any rent control protections, a landlord or property owner can raise the rent as soon as the lease expires to match the market, irrespective of the local county’s average income.
In the zip codes with the highest number of homicides, rent is cheaper. But the average citizen wants to live in a safe neighborhood where they don’t fear car theft, robberies, and violence. The safer areas in Memphis cost more. Do only those with the means deserve to live in a safe environment where their kids can ride their bikes without cause for concern? There is a price tag on having peace of mind when you go to sleep at night. There is an income level that dictates the probability of whether your car will still be in your driveway the next morning.
It’s understood that year after year price increases affect our lives, but it should be a reasonable percentage. It shouldn’t mean having to move because it became unaffordable. Years ago, one expected maybe $50 to $100 increase (monthly) after a lease renewal, but I have seen apartment complexes increase by the hundreds of late.
Hopefully there is further discussion on this topic with meaningful discourse toward finding common ground. There should be compassion toward low- and middle-income citizens who want to live in safe neighborhoods where they can raise their children. If more people speak to lawmakers, sign petitions, work together to get legislation signed, and raise overall awareness, we can find a solution to a growing issue that affects the have-nots.
Bria Michele is a native Memphian who has always had a passion for writing. Outside of publishing her first novel this year, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, dancing, skating, and crocheting.
Korean corn dogs will be featured on the menu along with egg rolls. (Photo: Jessica Hurdle)
After a tour of duty in Kuwait, Jessica Hurdle, a member of the Air National Guard, decided it was time to open the brick-and-mortar version of her food truck.
The restaurant, Pok Cha’s Egg Rolls, will open June 29th at 131 West Commerce Street in Hernando, Mississippi.
It will keep the Korean theme of the food truck of the same name that honors her mom, the late Pok Cha Chang, says Hurdle, co-owner of the restaurant with Brandon Jenkins.
She told her interior designer, Emily Chastain, items she wanted to incorporate in the restaurant. One of them was a “big Asian fan” like her mother had on a wall when Hurdle was a child. “She went to one of these antique shops and found the exact fan. She didn’t know it was the fan I was thinking about.”
Jessica Hurdle, Emily Chastain, and Brandon Jenkins (Photo: Shelby Hurdle)
Hurdle has a photo of herself as a child with the original fan.
“I just felt like, ‘Okay, this is a sign. This is so cool. What are the odds?’”
She got the idea to start a food truck in 2018 while on active duty at Little Rock Air Force Base. She visited a food truck operated by a Chinese woman who was serving Asian food. That sparked Hurdle’s memory of her mother’s egg rolls. So she decided to open her own food truck back home in Hernando and specialize in the type of egg rolls her mother made. It was a way to honor her mom. Plus, she didn’t know anybody else operating an egg roll food truck.
She also didn’t know anybody else who made egg rolls like her mom did. Her mother, who was South Korean, put three different kinds of meat — hamburger, chicken, and Spam — in one egg roll.
Hurdle found the perfect location for her restaurant — a 1,200-square-foot space near the Hernando town square.
In addition to the egg rolls, the restaurant will feature “more fusion items,” including kimchi grilled cheese: Mexican shredded cheese and sautéed kimchi between two slices of Texas toast.
Photo: Jessica Hurdle
They also will serve bulgogi nachos, which are wonton nachos with beef bulgogi a.k.a. “Korean barbecue.”
They’ll offer bibimbap bowls, “rice bowls with fresh veggies and a fried egg on top,” as well as kimbap, veggie rolls that resemble sushi rolls.
She also will feature Korean corn dogs, which consist of panko and sprinkled sugar on the outside and a Nathan’s beef hot dog and mozzarella cheese on the inside. Hurdle first tasted one of these in 2017 in South Korea. “I wanted to bring that to America,” she says, adding, “There was nothing like that here.”
It took a while for Hurdle to replicate the corn dog. “I just could not get the recipe right. It took me about a year of trial and error. And I finally have the recipe I’m happy with.”
She was amazed when she saw how Chastain, who owns Emily Chastain Interior Design in Hernando, transformed the look of the inside of the restaurant. “When I walked in, I felt like a little kid at Christmas time when they wake up in the morning and see all their presents under the tree. That’s the feeling I had. It was just awesome.”
Her food truck didn’t go away; Hurdle is keeping it “for social events. We won’t be going out as much.”
Hurdle doesn’t plan to stop with the food truck and the restaurant. She’s already done her “homework” on how to get their Korean hot chicken wing sauce and bulgogi sauce in the stores. “I’d love to be able to do that,” she says.
Overall, Hurdle is astounded at “the way this thing has blown up.”
She and Jenkins began with the food truck in 2021, and three years later they’re opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. “We have over 8,000 followers on our social media,” she says. Pok Cha’s “has grown into this really big thing.”
As a teenager growing up in Hernando, Hurdle never would have dreamed this could happen. She went to high school with “only two other Asian people in the school.” She knew other students would make fun of her if she brought “something weird” from home to eat in the cafeteria. “You wouldn’t dare bring kimchi to Hernando High School and bring it out at the lunch table.”
But now, she says, “People are lining up to eat our food.”
Speaking of signs, maybe it was a little birdy who told Hurdle to get into the food business. In 2016, she and a friend were about to sit down to eat at a mall in Japan when a bird flew over and landed on her head. She thinks that bird may have been her mother. “She was Buddhist at one point and she wanted to be reincarnated as a bird. She was fascinated with birds. She loved birds.”
Hurdle and that friend were recently writing to each other on Facebook. “I was talking about how proud my mom would be. She said, ‘But it’s your mother looking over you.’”
Her friend then added, “Please keep your door shut because a bird might fly in.” And that bird might be somebody Hurdle knows. “Your mother wants to visit.”
