Snow Post

It was 70 degrees yesterday which seems unbelievable today as the predicted winter snow has set in. The weather report says to expect snow and ice until 6am tomorrow morning. I have taken quite a few photos, the first one below is from Midtown and the rest are downtown. Keep warm.

Move It Memphis

Well, it turns out that running in the Move it Memphis 10k/5k was not to be for me. I did run, but much earlier this morning before this race started at 9 am. I have to go Out East today as we say to meet a friend before noon. I would have liked to run in this since it was the 1st annual. I did get some photos from my window as part of this race went right by my building. I felt a little like the "shooter on the grassy knoll" snapping these from up here! We are supposed to get some snow and ice later today and I wonder if the prospect kept some people away from the race, though there did seem to be a pretty good stream of people rolling by Monroe. Memphians get a little jittery and like to dash off to the grocery store at the mere thought of a snowflake. If we do get some snow I hope it's enough to be blanket the ground and look pretty for a while.

Speaking of jittery Memphians, Poppy is taking stock of our food supply and is worried we may not make it through a bad winter storm.

I've Been Worlds Away

In a nondescript building at 397 S Front St. there is a little outlet shop called Worlds Away. I've been in before a couple of years ago and only looked around for a minute. I went back in today and spent a lot more time, the place is bigger than it looks. It is fantastically well stocked with lamps, light fixtures, side tables, consoles, bolts of some gorgeous fabric, pillows and even a few baubles like bracelets, scarves and necklaces. They are a designer wholesale company to the trade but this outlet store is open to the public. They will even make drapes, tablecloths, etc for you. There are some damaged items but most of what I saw was in great shape. They have lots of mirrored items like lamps, side tables and wall scones that look unbelievably expensive yet are a fraction of their retail price. Visit their website, http://www.worlds-away.com/ to get the idea of the style of the pieces they carry, some of which you will find in the outlet. They are open Monday - Friday 8am - 4pm and Saturday 10am - 3pm.

What to Eat with Your Fish on Friday and Calvary's Lenten Luncheon Series

A lot of us are eating fish today and some are cooking fish. But what are you eating with it? I have a great brussels sprouts recipe that I got from Mantia's a while back. This is so easy and so good and perfect with any kind of fish.

Mantia's Brussels Sprouts
1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts
2 tpsp olive oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 medium purple onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse sprouts and cut in half through the stem end. Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the sprouts. Boil for 3 - 4 minutes. Drain and place cut side down on a buttered baking sheet, roast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Separately, saute the onion in olive oil until starting to brown. Whisk the mustard, sugar, juice and thyme together in a bowl and add to the onions in the saute pan. Remove the brussels sprouts from the oven and add to the onion mixture, stirring well to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.


If cooking's not your thing you can have someone else feed you this Lent at lunch time. Calvary Episcopal Church at 102 N. Second hosts the Lenten Luncheon Preaching Series and Waffle Shop through April 3rd. Throughout Lent Calvary hosts speakers from many denominations to speak Monday - Friday from 12:05 - 12:40; Wednesdays also from 6:30 - 7:30. The Waffle Shop at the church is open 11am - 1:30 pm as well. You must, must, must go to the Waffle Shop and have lunch at some point during Lent to have the fish pudding and tomato aspic. I cannot describe the fish pudding, you just have to taste it yourself. I believe the Waffle Shop is set up to take cash and checks only. This is a good and authentic downtown Memphis experience, Calvary has been doing this since 1928! Here is the Waffle Shop at Calvary Church menu: http://calvarymemphis.org/media/docs/wsmenu09.pdf

And for your perusal, the Lenten Speakers Series schedule: http://calvarymemphis.org/news/lentenseries.htm#Preachers

Converted Historic Homes Downtown and This Weekend Downtown

As a follow up to the post a few days ago about Victorian Village, I wanted to post some photos of the pretty houses on the downtown core side of Adams between Danny Thomas and Third. I forget these are here. One of them is vacant and the other three are all lawyer's offices. The location of these is a bit off a purely pedestrian path. Unless you're going to church at St. Peter or you have an appointment with one of these attorneys you may not find yourself on this part of Adams. A couple of them do have markers if you're inclined to learn a little about them. The unpainted brick one (third photo) has a marker that reads "First Lee House". If you start doing some research you'll find there a quite a few Lee houses scattered about. The blue/green one (I'm not color blind that's just an odd color) has a National Register of Historic Places marker.

The Center City Commission has posted this weekend's and the upcoming week's events and highlights, go to http://www.downtownmemphis.com/domain/news/html/thisweek.html to see their listing. A few things popped out at me:

1. Art Trolley Tour Night is tomorrow night

2. Speaking of historic places and art, there is an Artist Market on Saturday the 28th at Slavehaven/Burkle Estate, 826 N. Second from 10am - 4pm. For a little background on this place, click here: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM264H

3. The 20th Annual Zydeco Festival on Beale Street, Saturday the 28th. $10 wristbands - a bargain.

4. The 1st Annual Move It Memphis10K/5K race, hosted by the Greater Memphis Chamber. Race day is Saturday, February 28th at 9am. Autozone Park.

Opening Soon: Midtown Bike on South Main and Paula Raiford's Disco at 14 S. Second

Midtown Bike Company appears to be working on opening a downtown store at 509 South Main next to Bluff City Coffee. While I'm not a cyclist myself, I do own a bike. However, it's so old and neglected it may no longer actually be considered a real bicycle. The City has posted bike routes on its website, click here: http://www.cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=480 and the MSTA posts information about mountain bike trails and events, http://www.midsouthtrails.com/midsouthtrails/index.html.

A funny thing happened on the way to work this morning.... I had to do a double take as I drove down Second and saw that a Raiford's discotheque (I just love to spell the whole word out) will be opening soon. Stranger things have happened. My hope is that they will mix in some current dance music along with the already classic and great songs they have had in heavy rotation since Hector was a pup. I suppose the original Raiford's (now Hollywood Disco) will stay open on Vance but I'm not sure.

The Orpheum: A Varied Repertoire

The Orpheum is offering a variety of great shows that run the gamut of tastes, in short the Orpheum is rockin':
Tonight is the great comedian Robin Williams

Tomorrow night (26th) is the Ne-Yo concert ("Miss Independent", I love that song, along with his others) with Jazmine Sullivan (the "Bust Your Windows" songtress). These edgy songs come around (ala Alanis Morissette) from time to time and while you would never do anything the lyrics suggest, it's so much fun to sing along with the jilted Jazmine:

"You see you can't just play with peoples feelings
Tell them you love them and don't mean it
You probably say that it was juvenile
But I think that I deserve to smile

I bust the windows out your car
You know I did it cause I left my mark
Wrote my initials with a crowbar
And then I drove out into the dark"

Ah, Cathartic.

Saturday, February 28th is the Solid Gold Doo Wop Reunion
The musical Legally Blonde runs March 5 - March 8

Flight to Open in Old Stella Space

The Memphis Business Journal reported a couple of weeks ago that a new bar/restaurant called Flight will open in the recently vacated Stella spot at Main and Monroe. Flight, as the name implies, will serve wine flights as well as liquor flights with notes. For wine lovers who nonetheless know very little about wine like myself, this place offers the potential promise of educating us. According to the article their food menu will be small plates like tapas that can also be served as flights and the bar will be open until 3am, just as Bardog is down the street. Monroe is tending toward becoming a late night hot spot. Opening during the spring would be ideal with that great patio and I'm glad to see this space has a new tenant.

Beale Street: Mardi Gras Pub Crawl, Zydeco Festival, The Corkscrew

It's Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, a day to eat and drink and party with abandon in anticipation of the six weeks leading up to Easter known as Lent. Lent kicks off tomorrow with Ash Wednesday, Mardi Gras' polar opposite if ever there was one. It is that most sobering day that many Christians observe. If you are Catholic, you trudge off to Mass to receive ashes which the priest smears on your forehead in the shape of a cross while saying, "remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." The ashes come from the burning of the previous years' palms from Palm Sunday. My personal mantra for this Lenten season is to remember to pray then:

With all this Penitence and Mortality to ponder for several weeks, it's no wonder Mardi Gras is so necessary. It all makes me want to watch Chocolat again.

Tonight Beale Street celebrates Mardi Gras with a pub crawl and shopping cart parade (if I see this I'll let you know how that goes). Silky O'Sullivan is the parade leader and the festivities start in the early evening. The Carnivale masks I noticed for sale in the window at Schwabs on Beale Street made me think about how great it would be to be in Venice during this time. Here is a description from the Carnival of Venice website of one of the final balls they will be having tonight:

"Renaissance Grand Ball, Troubadours & Minstrels at the european courts, Gala Dinner & Entertainment
Start time: 21:00. The Ball will be located in the 14th century Palace, Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, with its precious gothic facade & its elegant quadriform gothic windows overlooking the canal of the Misericordia. The palace will be illuminated entirely with candlelight to create a memorable atmosphere. Seated Gala Dinner wines included, followed by the spectacle of Renaissance music and dances.

Midnight: modern music and dance (Paying Open Bar)
Dress Code: costume and mask
Cost: 200 € per person
I love this part: Do not hesitate to consult us for the rent of costumes, our Atelier will be at your disposal for costumes, masks and accessories.
The Palace is reachable by 5 minutes walk from Ca D’Oro vaporetto stop: Calle Racchetta, Cannaregio 3764. Reachable also by its water door (in front of the Church of the Misericordia). "
Good Lord, Beale Street should be made reachable by vaporetto and have a Mississippi River water door entrance as part of the new Beale Street Landing project. In lieu of any water doors, you can still get on Beale Street by car or on foot for the Zydeco Festival this Saturday, February 28. $10 wristbands get you into several clubs. I have been to this in the past and it's really fun.

Also, as if on cue for Mardi Gras, it's Ladies Day at the Corkscrew - 10% off all wines.

Getting Back to Millionaire's Row

I went to a fun birthday party this past Saturday night at the very hip Mollie Fontaine Lounge on Adams and had the opportunity to walk past some of the city's most beautiful historic homes. Mollie Fontaine Lounge, formerly Cielo, is a Karen Carrier creation housed in the Mollie Fontaine Taylor house at 679 Adams which was built for Mollie by her father as a wedding gift and is across the street from the Woodruff-Fontaine House. I drive down Adams quite a bit but being on the sidewalk and having the chance to take in the deep set lawns and the wide, welcoming porches naturally gives a much different and more personal perspective. The faded beauty pictured above is the Lowenstein Mansion, circa 1891, one of a handful of surviving homes in what is called the Victorian Village district. It's east of downtown, not quite in the Edge but still in the shadow of the Medical District. This area is part of the Center City Commission's Central Business District and there is a redevelopment plan in the works. At one time the stretch of Adams where most of the remaining homes are located was called "Millionaire's Row" as several of the city's prominent families lived here. Click the link below to see the Victorian Village Master Plan and it's recommendations for streetscape and infrastructure improvements, better land/public space uses and development opportunities: http://www.downtownmemphis.com/downtownmemphis/documents/victorian_village.pdf

Running to the Basement

Yesterday morning was miserably cold and rainy. Running outside seemed like a remote possiblilty as I burrowed deeper under the blankets and started to picture myself staying in and watching movies all day. I have a guilt complex about running though which is why I run first thing in the morning before I'm actually awake so I don't realize what I'm doing until mile 2 and by then I'm psyched. I don't question my process, it's mystical. If I don't run or workout in the early morning I think about it all day: when will I get a run in? should I do it on my lunch hour? what about after work? should I just take the day off? no, I can't take today off, Friday is my off day and it's not Friday, etc, etc. So on mornings when it's terrible, like yesterday, I am overjoyed by the fact that we have a junior olympic size pool in the basement of our building as well as an ellipitcal and two treadmills. All I have to do is take a short elevator ride and Voilà!, I'm instantly in a mini gym. Happily today the basement ameneties will not be required as it is clear, cool and sunny - perfect for a run along the riverwalk.

Move It Memphis and 365 Posts

The 1st Annual Move It Memphis10K/5K race will be downtown and it's hosted by the Greater Memphis Chamber. Race day is Saturday, February 28th at 9am. The start will be at Autozone Park and the 5K course goes from there, winds it's way through downtown south to G.E. Patterson then back north down Front and back to Autozone.

The 10K course goes south to G.E. Patterson and then back north down into Uptown before turning back to Autozone. To me, the winter months are the perfect time of year for races as the cooler temperatures make for a more enjoyable run. Click the link above for all the details and to register online.


This is, by the way, my 365th post so I'm celebrating. I don't know how I'm celebrating but I'm starting by posting that it's my 365th post.

Happy Friday

Folk Alliance, Mardi Gras, Soup Sunday, Robin Williams

Every Thursday the Center City Commission's Livin' It Up webpage is updated. It pretty much covers what's happening downtown for the upcoming week. Click the link above to see all events and information. Some highlights for this weekend and beyond:

The Folk Alliance Conference runs today through Sunday.

The Grizzlies play the Kings tomorrow night at 7pm at the FedEx Forum.

Several Mardi Gras parties listed will be on Saturday night (Samedi Gras/Fat Saturday??) : Calhoun's, Phoenix Club Mardi Gras party and fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club at the Cadre Building, Orleans on Front

Youth Villages Annual Soup Sunday is this Sunday at 2pm, FedEx Forum

Comedian Robin Williams will be performing Wednesday, February 25 at the Orpheum

A Special Post for Downtown Dog Owners

I know you've seen these. USE THEM (if you already use them you get a gold star, this is not for you). Court Square is suffering from an unfortunate and avoidable surplus of poo at the moment. It's not good. These receptacles are conveniently and purposefully stationed along the Bluff Walk, along the sidewalk at Greenbelt park, in Confederate Park, THREE of them are in Court Square. Take a few plastic bags and tie them to your dogs leash so you always have them with you.

Here are the reasons why:

Removing dog poo prevents reinfestation of your dog from exposure to infective worm eggs and larvae.

Dog poo can transmit diseases from your dog to people.

Roundworm, hookworm and other parasitic worms may be transmitted to children and adults who play or work in an area where there is dog poo.

Ocular larva migrans, an eye disease caused by parasitic worms found in dog droppings can cause serious eye damage to young children.

After a day of baking in the sun, the odor from dog poo is yucky.

It can ruin a good pair of shoes. I know this one all too well.

Parks belong to everyone, not just our dogs.

Chocolate Month and The Peabody

February is Chocolate Month. I don't know when or how that came to be but I'm sure Valentine's Day was the springboard for boosting chocolate sales all month. I'm a fan chocolate so this is not a problem for me. I happened to receive some unusual chocolate bars over the weekend, including one with wasabi and another with dried kalamata olives. I haven't tried them yet, I think I'll have to be in the right state of mind to try the one with olives.

Throughout the month the Peabody Hotel is offering:

A chocolate buffet in the Corner Bar that includes a chocolate fountain, truffles, cheesecakes, tarts, cakes, and brownies. Every Friday in February, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m., $25 per person.

You can also try 12 kinds of chocolate martinis including a Girl Scout Cookie Martini, a Hot Fudge Sunday Martini and a Hazelnut Latte Martini. Available in the Lobby Bar and Corner Bar through February.

Chez Philippe is offering a Chocolate Dinner. The 5-course menu features chocolate in every course. $75 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

Blue Fin

A friend and I went to eat at Blue Fin (135 S. Main) last night. I have always liked the sushi at Blue Fin but not necessarily the loud, pulsating dance music they play which is a little unappealing when you're trying to eat and can feel the bass reverberating in your chest. But ah, I'm not as young as I once was so that accounts for my Methusaleh-like outlook. However, you can enjoy the sushi without the discotheque, at least on Monday night. If they had music on and I'm sure they did, it was so low and unremarkable that I don't remember it. The sushi was very good, especially the Jacksonville Roll (crunchy crawfish, cilantro and seared white tuna) and the Mika-Maki roll (fresh tuna, japanese cucumbers and japanese mint) and the service was great. I just noticed that the area in the back of the restaurant where there had been pool tables is now set up as two separate seating areas for large parties.

Very nice miso soup.

The artwork pictured at the start of this post and several other pieces in the restaurant are for sale. Call Blue Fin at 901-528-1010 for details.

Belz Museum Art Competition Winners, A Beautiful Day Downtown, A Version of the Chestnut Cake

I have been meaning to follow up on the Belz Museum Chinese New Year art competition winners for a while. Three winners in three categories were chosen at the end of January. See the names and artwork of the winning young artists at www.belzmuseum.org

It was a beautiful lunch hour today along Main Street...

In a post from last week, I mentioned I had more chestnut flour and just how exciting that was (as it's hard to find here) and how I would be making castagnaccio (chestnut cake). I feel maybe I don't deserve the chestnut flour as I adulterated the pristine Italian castagnaccio recipe by adding chocolate chips. We'll just say this is a version of the cake. I have to say, it's really good with the chocolate in it, though I've made this many times without any superfluous, lowly ingredients. Next time I think I'll swirl melted chocolate in with the chestnut batter which will look a little more respectful of the original recipe, rather than having those chocolate chips swanning around so brazenly in it.

Chestnut flour, pine nuts, olive oil, milk, sugar, rosemary and chocolate chips