Police have discovered a body at Earnestine and Hazel’s bar on South Main in downtown Memphis. Sources are saying the body is that of the bar’s owner Russell George, and a Memphis Police Department spokesperson said that “it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
As police investigated the scene this morning, staff from the restaurant, famous for its greasy Soul Burgers, stood outside the building. A few people appeared to be crying. Earnestine & Hazel’s has been open at the corner of G.E. Patterson and S. Main since 1993. There is no word on how George’s death will affect the bar’s future. In July, the bar was named one of the best dive bars in the country by CNN.
