Author: Meghan Stuthard

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Bring Your Favorite Bar Home During Quarantine

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Wooooo boy, ain’t we in the throes of it now? Feels like it was just last week when my assignment was simply to go to a bar and let y’all know that service is good and drinks are delicious. Well, shit’s changed, and frankly, it’s our duty to change with it. So let’s go to a bar, virtual-style.

I’ve not been able to go to an actual bar (because quarantine is the responsible thing to do, son!), so I’ve explored many options, including delivery, curbside service, and controlled irresponsibility, which is a thing you do with Clorox wipes, growlers, and general intelligence.

Unless you have written it off because your best friend from high school is an anti-vaxxer or your in-laws are trying to friend you, Facebook has been an astoundingly solid resource for restaurants and bars doing some cool stuff. Most any restaurant that you call is willing to make you drinks to-go, offer wines at a discount, or at least try to offload their selection of beer. They mostly let their deals be known on Facebook, so ignore the friend request from your mother-in-law and check out a menu.

“I don’t have the Facebook!” Neat. You can still navigate to the page and see their specials, you catastrophic moron.

Buster’s Liquors & Wines is doing curbside pick-up from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Place an order by 5:30 p.m. and patiently wait outside, and they’ll bring it to you. This is a great option if you haven’t begun drinking yet but plan to before the sun goes down. Shake up some local vodka and a squeeze from a lime you got from the Blue Monkey walk-in cooler. Log into Google Hangouts and play Jackbox with friends.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Wiseacre Brewing Co. is doing delivery. I recommend ordering a couple six-packs of Ananda between 1 and 6 p.m., tipping the person who drops it off, and pressure-washing your driveway with your roommates. If there’s any left over, wipe it down real nice with some industrial wipes you got from Highbar Trading and offer it to the gentleman walking his dog down the street. Afterward, settle down on the couch and have a Zoom conference with all your friends that don’t have a pressure washer. Rub it in their faces.

Justin Fox Burks

Drinking local with hurricanes in pouches from Bayou Bar & Grill.

It sure is nice outside! Use the weather to your advantage and walk to your neighborhood watering hole. Mine is Bayou Bar & Grill, which is doing take-out from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Things you can get include incredibly cheap growler fill-ups (especially if you’re in their Mug Club) and drinks in pouches. Because it’s spring break, I opted for a couple hurricanes in pouches and a growler of a local IPA, which I then drank in my front yard as I yelled about the nuances of flight patterns during a pandemic.

Not to be outdone, Slider Inn is doing car bombs to-go, which include a pouch of Guinness and a ramekin of Jameson and Irish cream liqueur. This is great if you want to find out what it’s like to drop a plastic ramekin into a plastic pouch and drink it as fast as you can while watching 30 Rock for the millionth time and playing Hearts on the computer with the people living with you. You get extra points if you then order curbside delivery of a locally owned restaurant and tip outlandishly. My selections the past few days? Bari, Tamboli’s, Huey’s, Young Avenue Deli, Restaurant Iris, Casablanca, and Little Italy.

You know the best part about being asked to stay at home and stop the spread of a lethal virus? First off, it’s responsible at-home consumption of booze acquired from local restaurants, but the second-best thing is camaraderie. No, I’m not advising having a damn parade with children and spit-covered instruments marching through a neighborhood (get your shit together, Central Gardens!). I’m talking about all of us being in this together. And together, we can support our local establishments and, of course, safely consume booze off-premises and in the comfort of our meticulously clean living rooms and/or porches, or really anywhere you can pour a tall one. Cheers to staying safe, everyone.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Slide on In: A Visit to the Downtown Slider Inn

When it comes to building restaurants that are the embodiment of a guy in a baseball cap with a rescue dog, no one does it better than Aldo Dean, who has taken eye-rolling double entendres and clap-back food descriptions on menus and elevated the concepts to become some of Memphis’ most beloved dining and drinking establishments. Some of his best work is on display at the second location of Slider Inn, located Downtown at 363 Mulberry.

Dean, the man behind Bardog Tavern, Aldo’s Pizza Pies, and others, went grandiose with the new Slider, taking everything that works at the Midtown location and amplifying it into an indoor-outdoor playground of Jameson slushies, dog-friendliness, and ample bar offerings. One hardly knows where to start the journey through the Downtown Slider, but I’ll start at the downstairs bar.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

The bar in the downstairs portion of the main building is Slider’s largest and, on the rainy night I visit, still full and being tended by Rondi McNeal. The main downstairs dining area has massive garage doors that can and will open to the outside on nicer days. Above it lurks the “Lift,” more of a private dining option for parties who want to get weird on its sprawling leather couches.

Next door to the main building, accessible via covered walkway, is the “Garage,” which houses yet another bar, more TVs, and, like its sister bar nearby, the ability to open to the elements. Finally, there’s “Slider Out,” an outdoor area featuring the Tapbox, Slider’s mobile beer cart, and the Slider Rider, their food truck.

Emboldened by the massive amount of space they now have to sling food and beverages, Slider’s Downtown menu is also larger. It features lobster popcorn, made of tempura-fried chunks of lobster served over popcorn, and vegan buffalo wings made of tofu and cauliflower, among several other new menu items.

Though Slider has a new, additional location and new menu items, the Jameson stays the same. As it should.

Not to be outdone, the slushie machine is also larger to accommodate for the popularity of their Jameson slushies. “It’s bigger, and we’re still constantly filling it up,” assistant manager Ariana Geneva says with the confidence of a woman in charge of a larger slushie machine.

The new Slider will also feature a chilaquiles bar, opening in the spring, where the weekend brunch crowd can pay a set amount and build custom chilaquiles.

Beyond the name recognition, it’s the location’s décor that gives it away as one of Dean’s thoughtfully planned restaurants. The Downtown Slider has an industrial feel owing to its former existence as the Kisber truck garage. Marketing manager Eric Bourgeois points out that it’s a great example of adaptive reuse, and I agree because, any second, I’m afraid that Rammstein will come out and play a set.

All its restrooms are unisex, lit by dangling mannequin hands clutching bulbs. The theme is wrought iron, the window treatments are Jameson bottles, and the thoughtful details can best be described as toolbox-chic.

Slider Out is its most notable game-changer, as it will operate as its own entity once the weather warms, the South Mainers descend from their loft spaces, and Memphis in May plunges the city into chaos and beer.

Food will be handled by the Slider Rider and beers by the Tapbox, freeing up the indoor bars and kitchen to cater to a separate set of masses. Tabs will not translate between the outdoor and indoor spaces; outdoor tabs will be handled via a different payment platform. Soon Slider Out will morph into its own event space with a stage for music and screenings.

Much remains the same when sliding out of Midtown and into Downtown, though. Happy hour still includes $1 off select drafts, domestic bottles, well booze, and house wines from 5 to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. The bar caters to its canines with an outdoor dog water fountain and dog biscuits available.

And the staff of Aldo Dean’s bar empire, over 200 strong now, is still content to lube up the city with a Jameson slushie or five as we rapidly approach Patio Season 2020.

Slider Inn Downtown is located at 363 Mulberry Street.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Bingo! Chickens, Whiskey, and Music at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

I’ve been excited for World Famous Hernando’s Hide-A-Way to reopen ever since I read the news that Dale Watson, honky-tonk hero and purveyor of Ameripolitan music, was not only setting up residence in Memphis, but purchasing the club that sits just blocks from Graceland.

The building has been standing since the early 1900s but has been shuttered with its secrets for well over a decade. Beautifully restored to its former glory, it sits at 3210 Hernando, just off Brooks, taunting us Memphians to darken its saloon doors once again.

Are you familiar with Watson? If not, it’s time to acquaint yourself with the man who moved out of Austin because it got too full of dickbags, tech dudes, and Californians selling tacos out of trucks (my words, not his). Memphians will delight in his epic shunning of Nashville as a potential new hometown. Don’t believe me? Check the lyrics of his song “Nashville Rash” to read the series of sick burns yourself, issued from one of country’s last strongholds to the pop-country artists who now infest Music City.

Justin Fox Burks

“It’s called Hernando’s Hide-A-Way.”

And while I could talk Dale Watson all day, I’m here to talk about drinkin’ and dancin’. Hernando’s Hide-A-Way is what a lot of bars wish they were and only a small handful pull off. It’s dark as hell, save for lights behind the bar and up on stage. There are no windows on the first floor. There’s a dance floor laid out in front of the stage, a welcome sight for those who are into the Hide-A-Way brand of Western swing and outlaw country. Each Sunday night, Watson or one of his friends hosts Chicken Shit Bingo (it’s listed as Chicken S#!+ Bingo on the website, but this is the Flyer, not a church program).

It’s the same question each time: “What the hell is Chicken Shit Bingo?” Pal, here’s the deal. You head to the bar any Sunday from 3 to 7 p.m., order some drinks, and take in a crazy-good rockabilly band. Buy a couple of numbered tickets and hang until one of the Hide-A-Way’s two chickens is brought into the bar, where we wait for it to shit on a numbered mat. Did she christen your ticket’s number? Congrats, you’re a winner.

On the Sundays that Watson himself hosts bingo, winners are invited to the stage to play “Let’s Make a Dale,” where the winner can either keep the winnings or give them up for whatever amount of cash might be in one of Watson’s pockets. The good news? It could be more than the bingo earnings. The bad news? It could be some loose change and your total humiliation onstage in front of your friends.

But bingo, while the most outside-of-the-box reason to visit the bar, is just one in the Hide-A-Way’s bag of tricks. Each week, they host Honky-Tonk Wednesdays, typically with Watson and his band. Monthly, they feature Goner Records Night. Monday through Friday, happy hour lasts from 4 to 7 p.m. with burger and drink specials. When Watson isn’t touring, he’s there himself, even occasionally living in the upstairs part of the bar when his nearby Airbnb is rented out.

The menu is mostly burgers, hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches, and while I haven’t tried much of it, my friend declared the burger “phenomenal!” There’s also a menu item called My Girlfriend Isn’t Hungry, featuring a couple of wings and some fries. On bingo nights, plain hot dogs are complimentary.

The Hide-A-Way has a full bar, which I have explored at length from ordering wine to whiskey to beer. There are a handful of special cocktails, and everything is reasonably priced. As always, I report on the frontline of Jameson procurement, and here it is only $5.

Watson’s World Famous Hernando’s Hide-A-Way has a packed schedule in the coming weeks. Watson is hosting a kickoff party for his Ameripolitan Awards on February 21st, and the next night he’ll be onstage with special guests to host what I imagine will be a very raucous Chicken Shit Bingo. Let’s make a Dale: I’ll be there if you are.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Drinks at Bar Keough, Finally

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

When a Bar Keough sign went up at 247 Cooper but the windows remained covered, it was enough for the Flyer to name the space “Best Unopened Bar” in the annual Best of Memphis staff picks. Kevin Keough, owner of Café Keough Downtown, finally opened the doors in late 2019, revealing an intimate, eclectic space with a prize jukebox, recognizable staff, and what I believe to be the world’s only bar food menu featuring tartine.

On the night we visited, Keough himself was there to monitor additional repairs on the Claremont jukebox that looms from the rear of the bar. It houses 100 45s from Keough’s extensive personal collection, and he changes them out regularly. Currently, it’s home to some fantastic ’80s alternative and at least one Van Halen record, which we assume is responsible for breaking the jukebox in the first place. One dollar gets you 10 plays at Bar Keough, and a bonus for old jukeboxes is that no one can skip your track to play “Funky Cold Medina” 15 times.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Mike Hutsell at Bar Keough

It’s not just the music that sets the place apart, though. Bar Keough is nothing fancy until you notice the thoughtful details that make up the décor. The red diner-like counter that serves as the bar, for example. The Zenith speakers peeking out from behind whiskey bottles. The light fixtures above, which Keough tells me he ordered from Belgium from a German dude with an Italian name who designs racecars. This last fact fills me with remorse that the light fixture has already lived a more exciting life than I.

The drink menu itself is also beautiful in its simplicity, containing such college-kid classics as the Madras and Green Tea interspersed with “I’m an adult now” drinks like the Old Fashioned and French 75. Then there’s the most welcome addition of the Tom Collins, which I drank only before I was old enough to drink, but you better believe I sampled one at Bar Keough.

Bartender Mike Hutsell says his favorite drink to make is an Old Fashioned, and I’m delighted to see that he still uses the unnaturally pink maraschino cherries, which I’ve really started to miss ever since they began disappearing from bars in favor of that snobby-ass Luxardo cherry. There’s also a small wine list, local and domestic bottled beers, and Miller High Life ponies, for those who would like one more but do not deserve a full beer. On draft, there’s Newcastle, Stella Artois, and Guinness, which is a small, but mighty mix of beers. Fans and haters (who are really just closeted fans) of White Claw alike, join me in thunderous applause! Bar Keough also carries the coveted water beers.

Our go-to move is to have a couple drinks each while writing about bars we go to, but Hutsell was having none of it. “This is a safe space for more than two drinks,” he says. This checks out. Bar Keough is nestled on the corner of Cooper and Peabody, a quick walk from Central Gardens, Cooper-Young, or the Overton Square areas. It’s important to note that it’s also stumbling distance to the CVS — because who knows what can happen to one’s body after a few Bar Keough Blue Hawaiians.

While Hutsell is normally bartending for happy hour, it’s Scott Miles who does the heavy lifting for larger crowds on Friday and Saturday nights, when I can personally guarantee you the Smiths and New Order will be played.

“I’m just winging it as I go,” Keough says when I ask what big plans he might have for the bar’s future. He’s already tinkering with the menu and curating the jukebox’s next rotation. He’s here, just days before Christmas, kicking it with Mike Snodgrass, area jukebox junkie and restoration expert. He’s still on the prowl for more 45s, a process augmented by his newly acquired skill of dinking records (look it up, pervert).

As I finish my final drink, the jukebox lights up and kicks back on. Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” blares. Bar Keough is going to be just fine.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Bari’s Sabato Sociale Isn’t Your Typical Day-Drinking Experience

Bari Ristorante e Enoteca is a longtime favorite of the cool Memphis crowd, from Midtowners to East Memphians to Marc Gasol, and now it’s kicking in the door of the daytime weekend bar scene. This isn’t your typical bar experience. It’s not your typical day-drinking experience, either, and it certainly isn’t brunch. It’s Sabato Sociale, an authentic, Puglian way to get your Saturday swerve on while the rest of your friends are slamming shots and screaming at a TV in a sports bar.

Morgan McKinney began bartending at Bari nearly three years ago. She’s well-known for her creations in both Bari’s enoteca (this is the Italian word for a “wine library,” which is actually just one facet of Bari’s bar’s depth) and its upstairs companion, Dodici. She’s the creator of #NOBADDRINKS, where she riffs on classic bar recipes. She’s also widely appreciated around town for her prowess in ass-beating, as a highly skilled student of both Shotokan karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Now, through her collaboration with Chef Jason Severs and manager Rebecca Severs, she’s kicking ass in a new special event occurring two Saturdays a month from noon to 3 p.m.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Morgan McKinney at Bari

Sabato Sociale differs from brunch in that there is no table service, just a bar. It’s an intimate experience where you can ask questions, learn more about cocktails, not look like an asshole for mispronouncing Italian words, and not step in puke in a bathroom stall before noon. The regular food menu isn’t served; instead, Severs designs new, innovative Puglian dishes for each Sabato Sociale. Recent creations have included octopus crudo, balsamic-cured calamari, and a three-cheese panini with bocconcino, robiola, and goat cheeses with caramelized onions and honey. For those intimidated by the fancy cheese names, you won’t be intimidated by the price: $6-$12 is the going rate.

McKinney is curating a very European drinking experience to accompany the menu. Though the full wine and cocktail lists are available for Sabato Sociale, her special low-ABV, house-made cocktails will ease you into your weekend. “You can smash three and not be drunk,” she says. Right now, she’s focusing on warm punches and spiked ciders for the chillier days but says her favorite drink to make at the moment is a caipirinha, courtesy of Bari’s new avuá cachaça. Something you won’t see anywhere else? A San Pellegrino Chinotto: a tiny, 200-ml soda made from the fruit of myrtle-leafed orange trees mixed with Cynar 70 and Campari. Her special Sabato Sociale cocktails cost anywhere from $10 to $12.

She’s also drawing inspiration from regular trips to New Orleans, where she noticed the simple nuances of stellar bar service and how it affects the customer experience. “Right now, I want to focus on the overall experience,” McKinney says. “I want it to be focused on the quality of service, creating an inclusive, service-based environment.” What does this mean for visitors? “It’s a good first exposure to Bari,” she says, but I heard, “You won’t sit at my bar for 10 minutes with a perplexed look on your face, trying to give someone your money in exchange for a beverage.”

So far, the reception has been terrific. Regulars and newcomers alike have flocked to Sabato Sociale for new dishes, approachable cocktails, and a cool experience that other daytime hangout joints can’t replicate. Here’s the thing about Bari when the sun’s up, though: “We’re open,” McKinney says. “Even if it doesn’t look like it. We can’t help it that the windows are tinted.”

Sabato Sociale dates are announced via social media each month. Check Bari’s Facebook page, or find them on Instagram @bariristorante. McKinney posts her creations and Sabato Sociale announcements @morganthesparrow.

Best part about Sabato Sociale? At the 3 p.m. cut-off time, you have two hours for a nap before Bari opens for dinner service.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Underground: The Lounge at 3rd & Court

Memphis has welcomed a handful of new spots to the Downtown area in recent weeks, and I took it upon myself to find the one with the dimmest light and richest jams.

The basement bar of 3rd & Court, known simply as The Lounge, opened a couple of weeks ago but held its official grand opening on November 7th. They were kind enough to invite some of us Memphis Flyer folks, marking my first time being on a list since dating guitarists.

The Lounge was formerly home to Memphis Sounds before that bar moved to Mud Island. Those who went to Memphis Sounds will remember it as dark, smoky, and echoing with great tunes. Ryan Trimm, who opened The Lounge, hasn’t changed much besides nixing the smoking. The carpet is new, the paint is fresh, but Memphis sounds, if not Memphis Sounds, still reign supreme in this underground space.

Justin Fox Burks

Craft cocktails — just don’t gouge your eye out with a cinnamon stick.

Like all of Trimm’s places, there is booze to be had! The shelves are full of whiskeys and Scotches, and while the bar leans on mixology, it’s not dependent upon it. For as many craft cocktails as they offer, there were plenty of folks ordering whiskey neat.

We tried three cocktails: the Esperanza, the Hi Fi Manhattan, and the Crosseyed and Painless, each $10. The Esperanza is made from gin, lemon, ginger beer, demerara, and fresh mint. The Hi Fi is rye whiskey and Punt e Mes. The Crosseyed, made with Jamaican rum and allspice dram, was a hit with everyone.

What caught my eye was the Grapefruit Collins, made with — get this — Squirt. You know Squirt! It’s the old-school citrus soda that your grandmother used to keep in the garage refrigerator. Bartender Nick Lumpkin says he’s not only a fan of it, but an admirer of it as a mixer. For you Squirters (snort laugh), Lumpkin says it’s available at the Kroger on Union.

As earlier reported, Trimm wanted a live DJ spinning vinyl in the space. The DJ booth is an extension of the bar, and DJ Capital A was on deck for the opening. I underestimated how much I’d enjoy seeing and hearing an actual DJ as opposed to listening to whatever lame-o playlist someone put together.

A couple hours after opening the doors, The MD’s took the stage. Lumpkin mentioned that they’d be hosting more local acts onstage but that they wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an out-of-town act in the future.

The dark atmosphere is, in a word, ideal. It was dark in a warm sense; people bustled around everywhere, and I felt cozy and anonymous (which was great, since I nearly gouged myself with the cinnamon stick in my drink, and no one bore witness to my humiliation). It was like if Alex’s Tavern was wearing a bowtie, and no drunk assholes had access to the jukebox.

The Lounge has table service as well as bar service, but the bar was the popular option for the opening night crowd. It’s open from 5:30 p.m. until 1 a.m. on Thursday through Sunday, making it a bitchin’ post-work happy hour spot for later in the week.

Check your cares at the door, friends, because halfway through the evening, the fire alarm went off and not a soul stood up to leave the bar. What’s a fire when you’ve got drinks in front of you?

As the grand opening party raged on, more people poured downstairs to check out the spot. I’ll by no means be the only person to write about The Lounge, as by the time I left, I was one of several columnists on hand for the festivities. But I’ll say, as many others likely will, it’s a cool place. The Memphis music, the darkness, the sway of the crowd, and the drinks all work wonderfully together in a way only a Memphis lounge can do, and this time without your drunk friend at the jukebox.

Visit The Lounge, downstairs in the 3rd & Court Diner at Hotel Indigo, 24 N. B.B. King.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

A Beale Street Bar Tour

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

There are two things about Memphians that I know to be true when seasons change: They Instagram a selfie with a leaf emoji and caption it, “It’s autumn, bitches!” and they drink copious amounts of alcohol in a place they do not normally go. And while spring might find you sprawled out on a blanket in Overton Park with a cooler, and winter might find you sipping wine in a fancy bar, fall finds you on Beale.

Justin Fox Burks

It’s football, it’s basketball, it’s cool air, and it’s Memphians’ civic duty to make it to Beale at least once a year to take a photo and text your friends, “lol we’re on Beale.” So that’s where we went. We didn’t go to a bar because going to one bar is for grandmas! We went to several bars because we’re young, we’re wild, we are simply unhinged, and it’s autumn, bitches!

Our first stop was where your sober dreams go to die: Wet Willie’s. Justin asked for something that “wasn’t too sweet,” and our bartender said, “If it ain’t sweet, it’s sour,” and in your face, Memphis! You will drink this sugar, and you will like it! We aren’t enjoying pâté on the captain’s deck; we are on Beale Street, we are partying, we are simply unhinged!

Justin Fox Burks

I went with a Monkey Shine, which is banana and alcohol. Justin had a Pink Dazed, which is strawberry, alcohol, and a donation to breast cancer awareness. Alex enjoyed a Shock Treatment, which is blue and mixed with alcohol. The décor in Wet Willie’s is made up of mirrors so that you can see exactly how much of an asshole you look like drinking double-digit ounces of frozen daiquiris next to a tourist wearing a shirt that says “Gone Squatchin’.” Our brain freeze count is at seven, our diabetes is inevitable, and I’ll say this for Wet Willie’s: It gets the job deliciously done.

What do rambunctious youths want?! Great deals on cheap booze! When do they want it?! From 4 to 7 p.m. during the Rum Boogie Café happy hour! We are fiscally responsible and simply unhinged! We’re enjoying $3 bottled domestics and $3.75 drafts in a bar whose whole mood is old guitars! I’m about to hit you in jaw with some hardcore Memphis trivia: Those guitars do not belong to the musicians whose signatures they bear. They are purchased or donated, and when a famous musician comes in, Rum Boogie asks them to sign the guitar so they can hang it up with a nameplate denoting it as an actual guitar signed by Alice Cooper! Or Joe Walsh! Or … yes, that’s right, Robin Thicke! I’m going to piledrive you with more Rum Boogie facts. Rum Boogie offers a 3.9 percent discount for customers paying in cash, so if you pay with a card, a surcharge gets added on. Is it sneaky? Nah, it’s written on your check because Rum Boogie properly informs their customers, bitches!

Justin Fox Burks

We cruise down to Blues City Café where a total bummer awaits us. There’s a line to get in because tourists love ribs and cheese fries topped with gumbo. Not deterred, we go next door to The Band Box, which is the non-restaurant part of Blues City that has a stage and a bar. There are two women at the bar visiting from Vancouver, and they love Beale, too!

We’re partying with Canadians, we’re thanking them for the Grizzlies, we are solemnly recommending that they visit Stax and the National Civil Rights Museum, and we are simply unhinged! Our Canadians tell Justin “good for you,” when he tells them he’s vegan! He’s validated, I’m drinking Bud Light draft, Alex is racking up compliments on his Jaren Jackson Jr. jersey, and we are running amok on Beale!

Justin Fox Burks

Beale is not just for tourists, and real Memphians know that because they’ve picked up a book and read about its history! You can hear live music seven nights a week! You can drink in the street! You can hit multiple bars before a game! There’s a nip to the air and you’re simply unhinged because it’s autumn, bitches!

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Giddy Up, 409: The Bar at Puck Food Hall

Three friends and a dog on Prozac walk into a bar. The bar this time around is Bar 409 inside of Puck Food Hall at 409 South Main. The dog is a well-medicated Italian greyhound named Tiger. The friends, probably also well-medicated, are just here for the drinks and conversation.

Puck Food Hall is a collection of various types of cuisine, including places that serve pizza, pasta, gelato (and vegan sorbet!), coffee, Chinese fusion, baked goods, and salads, but tonight, friends, we are here for the bar. We’re choosing spirits over sustenance.

Bar 409 is no dank hole in the wall. It’s a bright, airy space painted the deep reds, dark blues, and bright whites of a Memphis riverboat.

Bar 409 is bright and airy — and well-stocked with makings for fine cocktails.

Harvey Grillo is our bartender, and this man, when we walk in, is hard at work squeezing 100-plus oranges for drinks. He’s a Memphis transplant, having been here about seven years, but he eases into conversation with us like a born-and-raised Memphian.

Two of Bar 409’s featured drinks are the Purple Rain and the Kentucky Palm Tree. The Purple Rain is Wheatley vodka with Campari, hibiscus syrup, and a flowery liqueur, and it is as delicious as it is purple.

The Kentucky Palm Tree “tastes like the end of summer,” Harvey points out, and it does! It’s made with Buffalo Trace, Passoa, and fernet. We also tried the Ancho & Lefty, a drink with mezcal and Japones pepper syrup.

Like most brilliant mixology bars in town, Bar 409 employs homemade bitters and syrups and sets drinks off with unique garnishes. And unless the mountain of fruit before us is a mirage, the drinks’ fruity ingredients are freshly squeezed.

This is a bar made for some people-watching. It’s the first thing you see when you enter the food hall, and it’s a good place to park it if you want to take it all in. The place must be a circus with South Main’s monthly Trolley Night events since it can accommodate so many people, but, unlike most other places, it’s built for a large crowd.

It’s a multi-level hall that beckons to be occupied to the max on busy nights. On a date? Ditch them in the throngs! Have a kid? Plop them in the pop-up library adjacent to the bar! Have more than one kid? Stuff a $20 bill in one of their grubby fists and send them to get some ice cream! Have an affinity for fine drink? Venture no further than the bar!

A contained crowd in a place where there’s something for everybody is a nice change from spilling wine in a gallery, like we are wont to do most Trolley Nights, right? On top of that, Bar 409 has just installed a projector to show movies on the vast, empty wall behind and above the bar.

The bar staff is envisioning themed movie nights for bar and food hall guests, and suddenly drinking alone while watching a movie seems way less lonesome. This is now our city’s big opportunity for a collective Big Lebowski/White Russian gathering.

Bar 409 is not just accommodating of the liquor drinkers among us. They also offer a variety of local beers on tap and a small wine list, and those who want to dine can order food from any of the restaurant spaces and bring it to the bar to eat.

The night I visited, it was the middle of the week and not every restaurant space was open, but there was a decent crowd of people hanging out. It’s also an air-conditioned inside space that allows dogs, so no more heatstroke on a patio for our canine friends!

Three friends and a dog on Prozac walk out of a bar. One, a photographer, accidentally leaves his camera but, thankfully, remembers the dog. We’ve enjoyed some drinks in a place that was left empty for many years, only occasionally used as a wedding venue.

It’s another great new space for Downtowners and another beautiful building repurposed into something we can all get behind: spirits and sustenance.

Bar 409 is located inside Puck Food Hall at 409 S. Main.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Unique Drinks at Sage on S. Main

I barely made it in the door of Sage Memphis when the thunderstorm hit. It’s a full-on monsoon outside, and Sage, despite being a reliable shelter and serving alcohol, is relatively empty. Because I don’t let thunder and lightning spoil my good time, I am determined to find out more about this adorable bar tucked in at 94 S. Main. I have eyes — I’ve seen their Instagram. I’ve perused Twitter. And I am pissed no one told me about this place.

“It’s a slow night,” says Khadijah, the bartender. This works out well because then she lets me monopolize her time and find out all about Sage’s drinks, menu, and future plans. Saturdays are their busy nights, with Sunday brunches close behind. It’s not difficult to see why: Despite being a kick-ass bar bathed in green light (sage!), the food is way beyond that of a humble bar. Pair the food with the kind of drinks Sage is serving up and you’ve got a winning combo in Downtown Memphis.

Justin Fox Burks

The Molly Spaulding martini is served with a rock candy lollipop.

Because thunderstorms make me a little squirrelly, I order the Allure martini, which is a chocolate-based drink with Bailey’s and amaretto. My friend and I also try the Esquire, a mix of Old Dominick’s Huling Station bourbon and Grand Marnier, and the Mane Street Mule, which has Jack Daniel’s, ginger ale, and a strip of candied bacon.

These are all off-brand drinks for me, but if a restaurant is going to put candied bacon and Bailey’s martinis on a menu, by God, I will drink them. The brunch menu has a specialty mimosa, the Triple C, made with Camus cognac and prosecco, and for those with a sweet tooth, the cotton candy mimosa made with rosé champagne and elderflower. The fun drinks aren’t just for brunch; Khadijah says her favorite drink to make is the Molly Spaulding, a martini made with whipped cream vodka and served with a lollipop.

Khadijah is also a spectacular ambassador of Sage’s food. She fascinates with descriptions of the beignets (made from homemade biscuits), the Soul Waffle (two waffles stuffed with fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and greens), and the daily lunch specials (tilapia with gouda grits some days, crawfish mac and cheese the next).

It’s on her recommendation that we try the Soul Egg Rolls, which, like the waffle, are made with chicken, mac and cheese, and greens — and holy moly, they’re incredible. Sage doesn’t shy away from the alcohol infusion in their food, either; the rosemary and ginger peach cobbler has Hennessy-infused Georgia peaches! Hel-lo, dessert.

After finding out how packed brunches are at Sage, I’m already planning my second visit. Khadijah knows her crowd, too: She says her brunch crowd makes Sunday feel like a “slightly earlier Saturday night.”

“They have some drinks, have some brunch, maybe ride some scooters to another bar,” she says, and hey, South Main boozehounds, isn’t it nice to feel seen? Sage is exactly the type of place I’d kick off my Sunday because then, if so inclined, a person could make their way from one end of South Main to the other and hit up all the good spots and be safe at home by sundown.

It’s important to note that Sage isn’t the line-up-at-11 a.m. type of place because their brunch runs until 4:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday (sleep it off or just sleep in; you’ve got time, pal!).

Khadijah describes Sage as a social situation of a bar, which is exactly the vibe it has. It’s a great place to sit and people-watch from the patio, enjoy some unique drinks you won’t see most other places, and plan your scooter route for the day. It’s open at 11 a.m. daily and until 10 p.m. on weeknights, midnight on weekend nights, and 5 p.m. on Sunday. It’s going to be a go-to for pre-gaming Grizzlies games because, uh, there’s bacon in the drinks, y’all.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Bar Ware Brings Craft Cocktails — and a Juice Bar — Downtown

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

During these hot months, it’s important to drink lots of water and take care of yourself so you don’t stroke out on some patio in front of all your friends and their dogs. That’s why I support Bar Ware, Downtown’s newest bar, because they’ve mitigated the issue of the unhealthy habit of drinking by sticking a juice bar inside their place. The way I see it, they’ve damn near made drinking in a bar a step in the right direction.

The Ware in Bar Ware is Libby Ware Wunderlich, owner and founder. The where is 276 Front Street, near Old Dominick distillery. And the details? They’ve covered a lot of ground.

Featuring beautifully crafted cocktails, a state-of-the-art juice bar from JuiceBrothers, a delicious menu served all day, and Memphis’ only “frozen beer machine” that turns the head of your beer into a slushy (tried it, and it works: your beer stays ice-cold!), Wunderlich and her staff have thought of every conceivable way, short of an injection, for people to get food and drink into their bodies. Make no doubt about it, the Downtown bar scene lineup just got a little deeper.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

The vibrantly violet Madam Butterfly (above) and house-made tagliatelle

The bar manager, Jacob Leonard, developed the entire beverage program with the help of fellow bartender Sam Hendricks. The cocktail list is summery, with drinks based around fruit, light teas, and fragrant herbs. Leonard’s favorite drink to make is the current darling of Instagram, the Madam Butterfly, a blue drink made with butterfly pea tea and topped with flowers. “It’s delicate, but it has layers,” he says.

An added benefit of being a bar with a juice bar connected to it is incorporating fresh-squeezed juices into the cocktails. As Bar Ware continues to get up and running, Leonard and his staff will begin cultivating a drink menu that features their juices as well.

So sure, they’ve pulled off a juice bar and a full bar, but can they cook? Chef Kevin Quinnell, formerly of Southern Social and Itta Bena, is here to check that off the list, too. The menu has a little bit of everything, including a charcuterie and cheese plate, steamed sandwiches, a house-made tagliatelle pasta with vodka cream sauce, and Quinnell’s favorite, the beef Wellington.

But what of Libby Ware Wunderlich, who thought to pull all of this together under one roof? A woman of the people, she threw a central focus out the window and embraced the chaos of appeasing us all.

Bibi Janus, a friend of Wunderlich’s, helped her with JuiceBrothers. The concept, which Janus developed in her native Amsterdam and recently brought to Manhattan, and the recipes, are all hers. The Memphis location is just one of three in the United States (the other two being in NYC).

Wunderlich envisioned a place for people who enjoy drinking to drink, and she’s built it to suit. The interior is swanky without being pretentious. The ceilings and walls are dark, so one doesn’t feel very exposed while knocking a few back. The decorating is exquisite, from the gingko light fixtures to the Mongo for Mayor framed picture on the wall. The patio, which is under construction, will be a key addition once the weather cooperates.

And Wunderlich is back at work just days after having her first baby, because nothing makes one want a drink quite like childbirth. I respect this commitment, and have a drink in her honor.