Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis Chicken and Beer Festival

Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival/Facebook


Memphis festivals keep on keeping on.

The Memphis Chicken & Beer festival will be held from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. August 3rd on the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium field. A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit Dorothy Day House.

Local restaurants will offer their finest chicken cuisine, which will be for sale in snack-size portions for $2 to $3, along with regular portions at their menu price.

Restaurants will include Hattie B’s, Chicken Salad Chick, Characters Bar & Restaurant, Laura’s Kitchen, Grecian Gourmet, Southern Hands, and Smurfey’s Smokehouse.

The festival is partnering with Ajax Distributing (formerly known as A S Barboro) for all alcoholic beverages.

Live music will be featured during the event. Performers will include Kevin & Bethany Paige, Chris Hill, and The Marcus Malone Band.

General admission tickets are $40 plus tax per person. Ticket price will include a souvenir glass and more than 90 different beverage samples.

VIP tickets are $70 plus tax and will include admission into the event, a souvenir tasting glass, more than 90 different beverage samples, a VIP lanyard, and access to the VIP lounge in the newly-renovated University of Memphis locker room. They also will receive exclusive drink samples and heavy appetizers.

Tickets can be purchased online at MemphisChickenAndBeer.com or at the event entrance if tickets are not sold out.

All attendees must be 21 or over.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Hattie B’s at Wiseacre

Hattie B’s, the Nashville-based hot chicken restaurant, is set to open next month on Cooper.

For those who want to know what the fuss is about should head to Wiseacre Saturday, March 31st, 3-9 p.m., where the Hattie B’s airstream will be selling its tenders in all heat levels (Southern, mild, medium, hot, damn hot, and shut the cluck up!).

An order of chicken tenders (3) with fries will cost $10.

Jeff the Brotherhood, along will Crystal Shrine, will perform at 7 p.m.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Yep, Hattie B’s Coming to Midtown

Nashville-based Hattie B’s Hot Chicken will open a location in Midtown Memphis late summer or early fall, according to Nick Bishop Jr., who co-owns the restaurant with his father Nick Sr.

In fact, says Bishop, Memphis was the first city considered when they began talking of expansion. Hattie B’s has two locations in Nashville and one in Birmingham, Alabama. Another location will open in Atlanta.

Originally, they looked at Overton Square, but then were told that the Curb Market location on Cooper might be available, so they jumped.

Bishop estimates that the new restaurant will seat 120. He envisions outdoor seating as well and doing something cool with the large sign on the building. He’s thinking about cornhole.

The point, he says, is “to make it fun, make it an experience you don’t forget.”

Hattie B’s in Nashville is, indeed, an experience. Folks line up for the chicken and sides like black-eyed pea salad, collard greens, and pimento mac and cheese.

Hattie B’s is considered a newcomer, alongside such stalwarts as Prince’s, having opened in 2012. It all began at Nick Sr.’s Bishop’s Meat & Three restaurant. Hot chicken was added to the menu in 2010 and did so well as to prompt its own spinoff.

Like Memphis has barbecue, Bishop says Nashville lays claim to hot chicken with each place having its own spin to the dish, so  that you might go to Prince’s for this, or Bolton’s for that. Hattie B’s chicken, says Bishop, is designed so “the youngest, oldest, and bravest can try.” They have undoctored fried chicken for folks that like things on the mild side. Then the dish is ramped up bit by bit, with options being from “hot” to “damn hot” to “shut the cluck up.” (The latter, says Bishop, is for “thrill seekers and bet losers.”)

Bishop says that, via chicken, he sees himself as sorta an ambassador of the city, which is not a bad gig at all. He notes, “Gus’s is different, but in a great way. We complement each other.” Ultimately, Bishop says, “Fried chicken — it’s the universal food.”

Bishop also says he’s quite aware of the Memphis vs. Nashville thing, and he’s ready. “We’re very pro-Memphis on the Hattie B’s team,” he says. “We’re looking forward to meeting our neighbors.”  

Images: Joseph Woodley