Last weekend, thousands flocked to the Radians Amphitheater at Memphis Botanic Garden for Mempho Fest. The Memphis Flyer‘s own Michael Donahue was on hand to take party pictures for his We Saw You column. I tagged along with a video camera to record the legendary newsman in action. But don’t take my word for it — watch him get swarmed by fans and charm the masses with his easygoing style.
On Wednesday, Sept. 18th, the day our Best of Memphis 2024 list was released to a waiting world, the winners gathered at Railgarten for a celebration.
I was there with my trusty iPhone camera to record the event for posterity. Thanks to Salo Pallini for the music, and for everyone involved in making this party a raving success.
In Part 3 of his We Saw You interview, Jared “Jay B.” Boyd talks about his journalism career, which began with an internship at the Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press magazine and continued with The Commercial Appeal, the The (Mobile, Alabama) Press-Register, and The Daily Memphian newspapers.
Boyd’s goal when he returned to the Bluff City was to be chosen to be in the Memphis Flyer’s 20 < 30 list within five years. “I wanted to be on that cover,” he says. “By the time I’m 30, I’ve done enough to deserve that.”
Along the way, Boyd wore many hats, including “public safety reporter” and “sitting in courts,” as well as covering music and food for newspapers.
Jared “Jay B.” Boyd tells me in Part 2 of his We Saw You interview that he wanted to rap and skateboard when he was growing up in Memphis. He has done both, while also becoming the program manager of WYXR, a DJ, a co-host of radio’s Beale Street Caravan, and a board member of BRIDGES. He was previously a reporter for The Daily Memphian.
You can catch up with the first part of our interview here.
If you’ve wondered why something you eat pairs perfectly with a particular wine, you can find out at Science of Wine, the annual fundraiser at Memphis Museum of Science & History (MoSH).
About 400 people attended the event, which was held March 8th. Eighteen food purveyors participated.
Usually, about 600 people attend, says MoSH special events coordinator John Mullikin. “We had to limit the number of ticket sales,” he says. “Only because of Sue.”
Sue is the full-scale Tyrannosaurus rex cast in MoSH’s current “SUE: The T-rex Experience” exhibit. Sue takes up three rooms.
The VIP area featured fare from Erling Jensen: The Restaurant, The Grecian Gourmet Kitchen, Pete & Sam’s, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and The Blue Room Restaurant.
Guests paired duck and amarena tartlets from Erling Jensen’s with a 2018 Rockmere cabernet, and learned from a poster at the booth: “The wine boasts red and black fruit to marry well with the cherry tartlet, while having soft tannin and enough acidity to support the richness of the duck.” Jensen has participated in all eight of the Science of Wine events.
“Karen, what are you doing?”
Karen Carrier has heard that phrase more than once during her long, fascinating career.
If you’ve ever wondered about all the hair dryers in Cooper-Young’s Beauty Shop Restaurant, Carrier gives you the lowdown in the final We Saw You episode featuring the Memphis restaurateur/artist. And as a bonus, you’ll hear the history of her underground music club, Bar DKDC.
We’ll be back with more interviews with interesting Memphians and Mid-Southerners soon on We Saw You. But first, here’s Karen.
In this We Saw You episode, Karen Carrier, the Memphis artist and restaurateur who owns Beauty Shop Restaurant, DKDC, Mollie Fontaine Lounge, and Another Roadside Attraction catering, talks about meeting her husband, the late Bob Carrier. “I go to to New York to meet a guy from Memphis,” she says.
This is one of my favorite episodes of the new We Saw You video series. Restaurateur/artist Karen Carrier tells me how she got into cooking. In the 1980s, she was living in New York, where she was going to go to graduate school. But she had to “figure out a way to make a living.”
You need to hear Carrier talk about all this. Her life sounds like a novel I’d like to read. And re-read.
We continue our interview with restaurateur/artist Karen Carrier. This is episode four, which is part of the We Saw You video series — hosted by yours truly — about Memphians and Mid-Southerners.
In this episode, Carrier and I sat down at her home while she talked about her aunt, Gloria Sklen, who lived in New York.
Sklen, who sounds like the eccentric bohemian Auntie Mame was a mosaic artist and “just wild,” Carrier says. “I was just mesmerized by her.”