Weekend Wrap Up: Downtown Thursday, Redbirds and more

My arm was twisted and I joined a couple of friends Downtown for drinks Thursday night. We started out at the Flying Saucer and we were surprised to see how busy it was. We had a couple of beers and decided to go to Country On Beale, a weekly free country concert held at Handy Park.

Country On Beale was packed. The only problem is that an easy 80% of the attendees were under 18. Not good for my single friends. So we went back to the Saucer for more beers.

We then headed to Atlas. Word on the street is that this place is cool on Thursday nights. Apparently we were misinformed. It was pretty lame and the crowd was a bit old for me.

On Friday we went to the Redbirds game. Baseball is one of my favorite sports, so I was excited to go. The hapless Rebdirds managed to pull out a win against Salt Lake City. After the game they had a nice fireworks display that we all enjoyed. My only comment about Autozone Park is that they need to upgrade the payment options the concession stands. Many people, including myself, were surprised to see they did not accept credit cards. Luckily, I had cash. Others did not.

On Saturday, we went to the Memphis Farmer's Market. There has been lots of hoopla about the latest South Main activity, but I cannot justify why. It was very overrated. There were only a few vendors and their offerings were very limited. I'll try it again in the future, maybe it will get better.

Saturday night I made dinner at my house. The menu included a grilled chicken spinach salad with a honey mustard vinegarette dressing and deep fried corn with spicy honey butter (I had to try and recreate the Seattle delicacy). Both were excellent. I poured a 2004 Sterling Vinter's Collection Pinot Noir (Central Coast) with the meal. It was a simple wine with cherry flavors and it adequately complimented the meal. For dessert we enjoyed some fresh berries and the remainder of the wine.

I planned for Sunday to be a relaxing day, but it was far from it. We went to the teapot exhibit at the Dixon. I was expecting basic painted teapots, instead the teapots were decorative, outrageous pieces of art. I definitely recommend this exhibit. I think it runs through September.

For lunch I took NL on her first visit to Gus' Fried Chicken on Front Street. As always, the folks at Gus' did a wonderful job. NL enjoyed the chicken and mentioned that we should visit at least once per month. Not a bad idea!

After a some quick shopping, we headed back to my neighorhood for the 2nd annual Lea's Woods picnic. I'll have more details on the picnic in tomorrow's post.

Time for bed. Have a happy Monday!