As we were standing in line for Gus’s on the Saturday night of our trip to Memphis, Mike told us about this remarkable milkshake that he’d enjoyed the previous night. He said that it was a – get this – cinnamon chocolate chile pepper milkshake, and that it came from a place in the Cooper-Young neighborhood called Beauty Shop. “Well, heck,” I thought, “I am definitely going to have to check that out.” As you might have guessed, I do enjoy good milkshakes. And weird ones, too. Continue reading “Beauty Shop, Memphis TN”
Category: tennessee
A & R Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN
Driving south down Elvis Presley Boulevard into what the blog Memphis Que describes as “one of the poorest urban areas in the United States,” it’s not possible to avoid the feeling of shellshock. Much of Memphis feels distinctly and troublingly unhappy and impoverished. My daughter and I stopped into a strip mall on Lamar about an hour before we had a meal at A & R, and the feeling there was one of gloomy malaise and malignance, too. Much of Memphis also feels bright and full of sunshine as well, but the sad parts are expansive and the feeling lingers. Continue reading “A & R Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN”
Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN
On the Sunday of our too-short visit to Memphis, the four of us started the morning at that city’s children’s museum, about which more in a later chapter, and then we dropped Marie and the baby off with her sister. My daughter and I then took off for Arkansas and a lot of barbecue. We soon turned around, because the first stop on our planned tour was, weirdly, closed, despite my phoning the day before to confirm they’d be open. Still, we crossed the Mississippi on the fantastic I-40 bridge and returned via the slightly less awesome I-55 bridge, which is how everybody should go to Arkansas and back. Continue reading “Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN”
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Memphis TN
It takes about nine hours to get to Memphis from Atlanta if you take a leisurely detour in Oxford along with three or four baby relaxation stops. Eventually, we found our hotel, which was nowhere near anyplace we wanted to be, or where Marie’s sister lives. The Memphis in May shindig, which seems to be embraced by at least half the locals, encompasses four weekends of festivals, food and fun. The first weekend of the month is the Beale Street Music Festival, which, unlike some that we enjoy like AthFest or Bele Chere, charges a heady admission price, thus keeping us away from the center of Memphis tourism, and also banishing us to the first reasonably-priced hotel in the area, just outside the I-240 perimeter on the road to Nashville. Continue reading “Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Memphis TN”
Kay’s Kastles, Soddy-Daisy TN
Revisiting Kay’s Kastles has reconnected me with another part of my past, and, reading up on the very small ice cream parlor, I’ve learned a lot about this very old company, and how its fortunes have withered so badly. There is only one Kay’s Kastles store left, north of Chattanooga up US 27 in Soddy-Daisy, and it is a shadow of its former self, but I’m so glad that I stopped by to say hello to an old friend. Continue reading “Kay’s Kastles, Soddy-Daisy TN”
Hillbilly Willy’s Bar-B-Q, Chattanooga TN
Hillbilly Willy’s was already several years old before I discovered them. George Foster started his business in a tiny little shack in Ooltewah, on the other side of Chattanooga from his present location, about eleven years ago, doing carry-out and catering. Around the same time that he was growing and thriving and looking for a larger space, I was stopping at a Bi-Lo just off I-24 on my way to Nashville for occasional twelve-packs of Double Cola. In time, the Bi-Lo closed, the shopping center’s owners lowered the rent on the smaller spaces to attract business to the mall as it lacked an anchor, and Foster moved in, setting up billboards letting people know about his great barbecue on the west side of town. Continue reading “Hillbilly Willy’s Bar-B-Q, Chattanooga TN”
Julie Darling Donuts, Chattanooga TN
Two weeks ago, we got on the road again for our third trip out of town in three weeks. This time, our destination was the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, about which more in the next chapter, with secondary stops in Chattanooga that I will come back to next week. The most direct route to Scottsboro from Marietta is through Rome and across Lookout and Sand Mountains, but I decided to make this as much of an interstate trip as we could so that we might get there and back quicker. We even thought that we might be home before sundown. Heh. I heard a radio spot at a restaurant in the morning that said, “From Soddy-Daisy to Sand Mountain…” and darned if that wasn’t precisely the range that we covered on this trip. Continue reading “Julie Darling Donuts, Chattanooga TN”
Marie, Let's Eat! 