Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Little Big Town, Art on Tap, Stock Exchange, Morris Midway Carnival

Michael Donahue

Taylor James and Levi Clarkson at Art on Tap.

“Rooibos” may not be as common as “Bud” or “PBR,” but five gallons of the beer were downed at Art on Tap, which was held Sept. 8 at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

Jordan Raine, 24, who is from Johannesburg, South Africa, created and made the beer. “It’s a South African pale lager with orange peel,” he said.

It’s made with rooibos. “It’s a type of tea. It grows specifically in South Africa.”

The lager is a “milder, well rounded beer,” said Raine, who moved to Memphis last May to attend medical school at University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

“I started home brewing a couple of months ago. I decided to put some South African influences on it. I thought it just might be interesting. I gave it a try. It came out pretty well. Probably the third or fourth time I made that specific recipe.”

Art on Tap, which featured mostly beer stations, was the first time Raine participated in a beer event. “I’d given it to friends and family, but never really taken it to a festival or anything like this. This is my first trip out there to the big, wide world.”

Asked how Rooibos did, Raine said, “I brought five gallons and it was all gone. All the beer was pretty popular. I think we were all at the end of our kegs at the end of the night. I can’t really tell you if it was as popular as the others.”

But, he said, his beer was “something you wouldn’t see at a grocery store or a bar. And people enjoyed it just as much as the other stuff.”

Airside performed.

Michael Donahue

Robert Winstead and Megan Collins at Live at the Garden,

…..

Enough people to populate a little big town attended Little Big Town’s performance Sept. 9 at Live at the Garden.

A record-setting-crowd of about 8,000 attended the concert at Memphis Botanic Garden. Devin Dawson was the opener.

Executive director Mike Allen was pleased. “The evening was terrific from start to finish,” he said. “Spectacularly beautiful weather.”

And, he said, “The LIttle Big Town band was as nice and personable as you hoped they would be.”

The group originally was going to play June 23, but the show was rescheduled “because of Tropical Storm Cindy, which drenched Memphis that day with a couple of inches of rain and some power outages.”

Little Big Town was “so gracious to work with us to reschedule. Just a beautiful night.”

Pimento’s Kitchen catered the event.

…..

Michael Donahue

Jonathan and Ashleigh Bernhardt at Stock Exchange preview party.

The only thing that got broken at Les Passees Stock Exchange consignment shop – that made members happy – was the attendance record at the preview party.

It was “the largest attendance we’ve had and it was over 700 people,” said Stock Exchange chair Jennie Helm.

This year’s Stock Exchange, which runs now through Oct. 28, is held in the 35,000 square-foot space at 10337 East Shelby Drive in Carriage Crossing Market Place in Collierville.

“We have 4,000 consignors and I would say over half of those have already brought items,” Helm said.

People are encouraged to bring items to be consigned, she said. Items are flying off the shelves, so to speak. “We’ll run out of stuff at this rate,” she said.

Since items constantly are being brought to the floor, shoppers don’t know what surprises are in store. “We have this woman who bought this lamp. She had a pair when she was married 35 years earlier and had broken one. And here was the match to that lamp she had. Stuff like that is so bizarre. It was absolutely a perfect match.

“We have a lot of that. We could write a book.”

Judy Ashby is Les Passees president.

Michael Donahue

Morris Midway Carnival.

…….

“Morris Midway Carnival” was the theme of this month’s Morris Marketing Group’s Bar 456 Happy Hour.

Fair food, including deep fried Oreos, corn dogs and funnel cakes, were the buffet items. Guests could try their hand at ring toss or the “High Striker,” where you swing a sledgehammer and try to ring the bell on top.

The “big top’ was Morris Marketing Group’s office on Tennessee Street. “There are three fairs this month – Delta Fair, Mid-South Fair and Bluff City Fair,” said president Valerie Morris. “It’s fair season. So, we decided to give everyone a little taste of fair food.”

Bar 456 holds its networking events once a quarter, Morris said. The next one will be held Dec. 7.

It’s going to be holiday themed, but, Morris said, “I think we’re going to go a little bit crazy. It’s a different type of holiday. With an alternative holiday theme.”

[slideshow-1]

By Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue began his career in 1975 at the now-defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar and moved to The Commercial Appeal in 1984, where he wrote about food and dining, music, and covered social events until early 2017, when he joined Contemporary Media.