We, the writers at the Flyer, know we’re cool. Our definition of cool may vary from yours; it may even vary from writer to writer. But we know there’s a reason why you pick up a copy of our paper or click onto our website: It’s because we’re cool … right? Please say yes — our egos are fragile. We are sensitive journalists who hide behind the written word. But it is also because we are journalists that we are able to bring you the best ways to stay cool and, well, be cool this summer with the coolest things to do, people to see, and places to go. Read on, and keep your cool.
Cool Treats
You would think ice cream, rich in fats and sugar, would be bad for you. But numerous studies have pointed to the opposite conclusion. People who ate ice cream about twice a week have about a 10 percent lower rate of serious cardiovascular disease, as well as lower rates of diabetes and fatty liver disease. Most doctors don’t believe it’s the ice cream (correlation is not causation, after all), but it’s a result that won’t go away.
Personally, I believe ice cream helps you live longer because ice cream gives you something to live for. Memphis, as we all know, is hot as Hades in the summertime, so we’re a frozen treat town. The granddaddy of cool is Jerry’s Sno Cones. The Bluff City landmark is famous for its decadent shaved ice creations, available in exotic flavors like Hurricane Elvis and Legit. The populace was shocked when owner David Acklin announced the closure of their original location on Wells Station in Berclair, but the Cordova location at 1601 Bonnie Lane is still going strong, and the owner is canvassing his patrons for suggestions as to where to open a new Jerry’s.
Mempops’ mobile unit is a familiar sight at concerts, games, and festivals. Their two locations, in the Crosstown Concourse and in East Memphis at 1243 Ridgeway, are the places to go for some chilled goodness. Mempops comes in cream (keep it simple with the vanilla, or go with cookies-and-cream if you’re feeling uppity) or fruity sorbet (I’m a raspberry lemonade man, myself, but don’t sleep on the spicy pineapple) varieties.
Another pop option is La Michoacana, the Mexican ice cream shop at 4091 Summer Avenue. Their butter pecan pop is to die for, and they’ve got a wide selection of ice cream flavors like tres leches and tequila.
The newest entry in the creamy game is Zio Matto Gelato. The Italian creamery’s products have been available all over town, from South Point Grocery to Villa Castrioti in Cordova, and you’ve probably seen their stand in the FedExForum. Now, they’ve opened a new home base in Central Station Downtown. If you’re a little sweaty from visiting Tom Lee Park, pop in for a bowl of the tiramisu gelato. Life is better when you keep it cool. — Chris McCoy
Cool Beats at Eight & Sand
In summer’s swelter, nothing spells relief like a tall drink on crushed ice in a chill bar. Eight & Sand, in the Central Station Hotel, has all that, and the fresh jams to keep you there. Hearing the unmuddied bass and pristine highs of the space’s custom EgglestonWorks speakers, any music lover is likely to exclaim “cooool.”
The bar is practically a temple to the art of DJ’ing, thanks to its towering shelves of vinyl records, ready to be spun in a deluxe DJ booth they’ve dubbed “Elmertha.” Elmertha’s a veritable pulpit of funk, especially considering that the vinyl amassed around her is packed with Memphis jams from all eras. Chad Weekley, Central Station Hotel’s music curator, says the focus on Memphis music was baked into the bar’s design from the start. “There’s probably 4,000 pieces of wax there, and it’s all connected to Memphis, some way, somehow. And we’re steadily adding to it.”
That collection alone, and the chance to play through an advanced hi-fi system, makes Eight & Sand an attractive venue to DJs from all over the city — and many from beyond. The bar has booked many world-class platter spinners, including Skratch Bastid and DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill (on 4/20, no less). Their international draw will be especially apparent on June 1st, when the featured DJ will be Rich Medina. His appearance will be a full-circle moment for Weekley and the bar, now in its fifth year.
“Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest and Rich had a legendary DJ night in NYC in the early 2000s, and Rich now runs the best vinyl bar in Miami, Dante’s HiFi,” says Weekley. “I definitely modeled Eight & Sand a little bit off of Dante’s, for sure.” Other notable DJs appearing at the bar this summer will be DJ DāM-FunK and house music giant Mark Farina. — Alex Greene
Global Cafe’s Fruity Cocktails
You know what’s cool in the summertime? A big, refreshing, ice-cold, fruity cocktail. You know what else is cool? Helping refugees and immigrants who are trying to acclimate to American culture and lawfully enter our society. And you know what is really, really cool? Doing both of those things at once.
That’s where the Global Cafe comes in. Located in Crosstown, it’s a business that pours all its proceeds back into its employees — paying them a living wage, offering English lessons, free shoes, profit-sharing, and helping to integrate them and their families into Memphis.
Now, about those cocktails. … Cafe manager Juan Viramontes, himself an immigrant from Mexico, specializes in crafting Global Cafe’s famous fruit-based drinks, created using fresh seasonal fruit, including pineapple, kiwi, mango, peaches, and watermelon. “Whatever’s in season.”
The Global Cafe’s most famous — and most Instagrammed — drink is its “Mangorita,” which features an entire mango carved into a rose sitting atop 20 ounces of Juan’s Famous Margarita. They are indeed terrific, but for something equally delicious but a little less over-the-top, I recommend the cafe’s Kiwi Lime Drop. It’s a variation on the classic lemon drop, but decidedly more complex and, yes, more delicious. The good news is that whichever drink you have, you can be assured that you’re helping immigrants and refugees while getting your drink on. What could be cooler? — Bruce VanWyngarden
Free, Free, Free
Money burning a hole in your wallet? Cool it with something free, and there’s always something that’s zero dollars and zero cents to do in the 901 in the summer.
Wanna get fit? Baptist Health and Wellness Series at Overton Park Shell offers yoga and pilates, Zumba, and more — all for free. Meanwhile, Shelby Farms Park’s Get Outside! Fitness series includes free yoga and Kidonetics for kids, free mat Pilates, free mental fitness, and more. And Memphis River Parks Partnership has free fitness classes popping up seemingly everywhere.
If you want to catch live music this summer, how about a free concert? There’s Overton Park Shell’s Orion Free Concert Series and Overton Square Music Series, where you can bring a picnic blanket or lawn chairs and settle down for live music. Germantown Performing Arts Center has its Happy Hour in the Grove on Friday nights where you can enjoy free music, drink specials, deals on local beer, and $5 wine, and Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center has its Music by the Lake concert on Friday, June 14th.
If you’ve got a kid (K-12), sign them up for a 901 Student Passport at 901studentpassport.com. The passport gets students and a parent free admission during summer months (through August 2nd) to 12 cultural institutions including the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
If you’re not a kid but like free admission to places, don’t you worry! The Dixon Garden & Gallery always has free admission. The Brooks has free admission (and sometimes art-making activities) on Saturdays at 10 a.m. to noon. Stax has its Free Family Day on the second Saturday of every month that offers free admission plus activities. And for the summer the Metal Museum has brought back its Whet Thursdays, which includes free admission, live demonstrations, and more after-hours on the last Thursday of the month.
And, get this, there’s still more free and very cool stuff that I could go on about, but I’m at my word count, and my words, like Dickens’, aren’t free. So keep up with these organizations at their websites. Okay, cool? — Abigail Morici
DJ Nico
Your best bet at catching one of DJ Nico Hatchett’s legendary sets locally is after TONE’s Juneteenth weekend. Hatchett is the chief event coordinator for TONE Gallery and helped book Erykah Badu for this year’s Juneteenth celebration. “I love that a lot of the local performers get to say, once they leave the stage, they were on the lineup with Erykah Badu in their city.” However, the fun doesn’t stop there for Hatchett, as she and her best friend, will keep the late night vibes going afterwards on the premises with a set after Badu performs. “It’s going to be packed, and it’s going to be fun.”
The classically trained musician-turned-DJ specializes in mixing house, techno, Jersey, and jungle music with sweet throwbacks featured in her set. “I play a lot of music that is nostalgically known, like R&B music or even church samples… stuff that is uniquely Black.”
This summer presents a “Where’s DJ Nico” type of vibe as Hatchett will be leaving her mark on a number of cities. She recently made her Atlanta debut at BrainWorld on May 24th, and DJ’d at the renowned dance and night club, Le Bain, in New York the next day. On May 31st she’ll be at Poor Boys Bar in New Orleans. She’ll also be playing Los Angeles Pride on her birthday, June 7th.
“I’m surprised, but not surprised at my growth. I’ve been a musician my whole life so the way I apply myself and work with other people just makes sense,” she says. “I really try to build community, like it’s not just to get booked. It’s meant to be a continued, running, nurtured relationship.” — Kailynn Johnson
Pinball at Flip Side
The heyday of the pinball machine was the 1950s, when every decent dive or halfway sizeable corner drugstore had one of the jingle-jangle contraptions, usually located near its entrance or, maybe, a back exit.
For the players themselves, the machines were an indoor sport which, then as now, could be played au solitaire or as a group event. At a nickel per game, competitors took turns to see who could rack up the most points or, better yet, free games, which signaled themselves with a loud and mellow TONK sound that, to the usually adolescent devotees, was rewardingly orgasmic.
All that is still the drill at Flip Side, the self-described pinball bar on Autumn Avenue in the neighborhood of Crosstown Concourse, where some 15 of the machines — with thematic names (and corresponding narrative structures) like “Foo Fighters,” “Jaws,” and “AC/DC” — line one long wall of the establishment. You pay for the games not with nickels but with reasonably inexpensive tokens, and the experience is still satisfyingly addictive.
Flip Side doubles as a sports bar, with five big screens tuned to such athletic events or game shows or whatever as happen to be going on. There are electronic dartboards, too, and a decent menu featuring pizza, burgers, mac-and-cheese, and beers, including some interesting sour varieties of the latter. Service is as good as you could ask for, given the crowds on hand, and conversations — at the bar, at the tables, or at the machines — are remarkably possible even amid the streaming background music of the place and the nonstop dings and dongs and bells and, hopefully, TONKs of the pinball action.
Cool. Way cool. — Jackson Baker
Cool Off With a Cold One
Vacation and beers go together like Memphis heat and humidity. But if you can’t get away, these three Memphis watering holes have vibes (and beers) dank enough to take you there even if it’s just for a little while.
• Birdie’s: Hit the links without that Memphis heat and humidity. Birdie’s offers local craft in cans and on draft. Grab a cold one, head into a virtual golf bay and swing away. You can even ask staffers to set you up on some iconic courses. Oh, and the food is great, too — tater tots, pretzels, chicken sandwiches, and more.
• Mary’s Bar of Tropical Escapism: Truly escape to the sandy shores of your beach fantasy right on South Cooper. Mary’s B.O.T.E. takes tiki drinks seriously with tons of tropical tipples to melt in your hand. The bar’s draft towers carry local craft, too, if a beer floats your boat. Escape at the amazing bar or to the great flamingo-ed patio outside.
• Momma’s: Roll down the truck window, hang your arm out, and get back to your roots at Momma’s. The “blue-collar diner’s destination” really is the first and last bar in Memphis (if you’re traveling Crump or I-55). And Momma’s brags it’s the only trucker-themed bar in America.
Drink laid-back beer. Sing along with Travis Tritt on the juke. Ain’t nobody gonna laugh at you. This is Momma’s. That food, tho. Momma’s nails Southern staples like chicken biscuits, smokestack chili, meatloaf, burgers, wings, and more. — Toby Sells
Sunglasses Are Cool
Everybody looks cool in sunglasses. Not just Jack Nicholson, Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, and Morris the Cat. All you have to do is put on some shades, and you’ve become mysterious, sexy, interesting, and rebellious.
Sunglass Hut, which leases a space at Macy’s Oak Court, has hundreds of sunglasses in stock for sun worshippers or nightspot habitués. Brands include Versace, Gucci, Prada, Oakley, Balenciaga, Ray-Ban, and Maui Jim. “We have kids’ sunglasses also,” says Terriese Williams, manager of the Sunglass Hut at Macy’s.
What’s the attraction of sunglasses? “They’re fashionable. Sunglasses are an accessory to your outfit,” she says. With sunglasses, “You’re all put together.”
Men’s and women’s sunglasses are not alike. “It’s the shapes and the cuts.”
A lot of women want cat-eye sunglasses, she says, as well as different colors of tortoiseshell. And, she says, “Women like big glasses. They’re oversized.”
The guys? “Men’s are more sleek and more neutral.”
If people don’t know what type of sunglasses they want, Williams provides some help. You can also try on sunglasses digitally before you buy them.
Sunglass Hut also carries polarized sunglasses, which provide extra protection from the sun’s glare. Those are popular with truck drivers, people working outside, or those who have light sensitivity.
Finally, if you want to look even cooler, you can invest in a pair of the new Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses, which Sunglass Hut exclusively carries. Sunglass Hut has six locations in Memphis, one in Collierville, and two in Southaven, Mississippi. — Michael Donahue