8 things I loved about Memphis (and 2 I didn’t)

Down in Memphis

I had a long weekend at the end of June. It came about a month after my trip to Europe that took me to Andorra and Lithuania, amongst other places. I wasn’t supposed to go away, but I had the yearning to travel. I didn’t think that I could wait until my next planned trip at the end of July, so I looked for a cheap trip for the long weekend. An inexpensive flight to Memphis, Tennessee was the winner and with about a week’s planning, I was Memphis bound.

I had not been to Tennessee before, but I wanted to go.  I wanted to see Graceland and I was generally curious.

The flight to Memphis was cheap, but the hotels were not so. Hotels in the centre were all pricey (especially when paying with my meagre Canadian dollars) but I would only be there for three nights, so I booked the best of the lower-priced options (and dismissing from contention and of the budget motels the reviews of which were full of stories of late night parking lot gun play). A funky little Moxy Marriot that had pinball machines, was walkable to everything, and had a trolley stop out front.

I took the Friday off work and left Thursday night, which meant that I arrived in Memphis Friday morning and I left early Monday morning. Three terrific days. I haven’t stopped talking about how much I loved Memphis. Here’s why…

Music

If my Memphis famous for anything, it’s for music. It has a pretty convincing claim to being the “birthplace of rock’n’roll and the home of the blues.” Even aside from the fact that Elvis is from Tupelo, Mississippi, not far away ,and built Graceland in Memphis, it seems that pretty much every early rock performer got their start in Memphis. The town is filled with monuments and memorials and markers for these early rock pioneers.

As someone who grew up loving 1950s rock music I was very excited about this. Of course I went to Graceland (more about that later), but I was very excited to visit Sun Records (aka Sun Studio), the original record label and recording studio where artists including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison recorded. You can visit the actual recording studio which is connected to a building next to it that has a good collection of memorabilia and information. It’s not possible to visit Sun Records without a tour, and you need to book ahead, but the tour is excellent. Even if you don’t know a lot about early rock music, it gives you a lot of context, and it ends in the place where all these amazing records were made. I’m not going to lie; I got a little emotional standing in the place where Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and the like recorded their early records.

You could also do a similar tour of Stax Records which recorded more of the soul artists from Memphis, including personal favourite Otis Redding. I didn’t have enough time to get to Stax, which is just one of the reasons why I wish that I had had four days in Memphis instead of three.

But the music is not just in the history books and museums in Memphis, it is alive and well in the city today. Beale Street, which calls itself the Home of the Blues, is a pedestrianized street lined with live music venues and bars. You need to show ID to enter the street, as police control either end, but once you’re in, you can get a drink and wander around from venue to venue, and each venue has terrific music. Mostly blues with some R&B and funk. It’s just terrific. Most of the places didn’t even have a cover so you could just wander in and order a drink and watch for a bit. Best of all for me, many of the places allowed smoking. Some of them only allowed smoking of cigarettes not cigars, but that’s OK, I still managed to smoke a cigar indoors in a couple of places on the patio or a couple of others, but the idea that I could smoke a cigar while watching excellent live Blues music was incredible.

And it wasn’t just on Beale Street; there was live music throughout the city, with buskers and music at lots of other scattered venues.

On Sundays, you can take in a service at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church and, if you are lucky, the founder of the church, none other than soul legend Al Green will be there preaching and singing.

If that isn’t enough proof of Memphis’ musical importance, there are over 1000 recorded songs with lyrics about Memphis.

Cigars

Memphis was a tremendous cigar city. There aren’t an abundance of cigar stores and lounges, but there are good cigar stores and lounges. What makes it a great cigar city is the combination of people in the lounges and the loose smoking laws. I already mentioned how I was able to smoke indoors at one place while watching live music (incredible), but I spent a lot of time smoking at lounges. On my first day I went to the Tinderbox on South Main Street, which had a great selection of cigars. I bought a bunch and chatted with the guys working there before taking a seat in the lounge. It was one of those lounges that wasn’t super fancy but was comfortable and had a collection of guys who were all regulars. Sometimes in those situations you can feel like the outsider, but in this place, everybody was chatting with me and were so friendly. One of them even asked me what I was doing later. I said I didn’t have any definitive plans, and he said, well why don’t you come back in the evening because when the store closes they bring their chairs and sit out in front of the Tinderbox smoking and drinking. I did go back later that night and I hung out with them; some of the guys had met earlier in the day and some new guys. They had folding chairs and rocking chairs, a portable speaker playing music, and bottles and bottles of whiskey and bourbon. They were so welcoming. I felt like I instantly had a group of buddies to smoke with.

Cigar prices were very good in Memphis. Much cheaper than in many other states. Of course there are no Cubans, but there is an excellent selection of non-Cubans.

I also went to another lounge called the Havana Mix, which was a fancier lounge, but at the time that I went it was a little bit quiet so I didn’t chat with anyone, but it was still a comfortable place to smoke cigar and have a drink.

And just generally in the city you could smoke on most patios and in some of the restaurants and bars. It just felt very free.

Trolleys

By far one of the most charming public transit systems I have encountered is the network of trolleys in Memphis. They don’t have the broadest range, but they do go to some useful places. What makes them charming however is the fact that they are 100-year-old refurbished trolleys. Right down to carved wooden interiors and antique light fixtures, they are unbelievably charming. Even if you’re not taking them to go from point A to point B, a ride on one is a must. There’s even one route that takes you on a scenic journey through downtown Memphis and along the Mississippi river. Best of all, a ride is only $1.00, or you pay $2.00 for unlimited rides for the entire day.

Even better, on the last Friday of the month during the summer they have what’s called Trolley Night. On Trolley Night, all the trolleys are free and all along the routes there is sort of a street party. The businesses all stay open late and provide live music and cocktails and special arts events. It’s terrific. I was just lucky that I happened to be arriving on the last weekend of the month, so when I read about Trolley Night, I made sure to arrive on Friday morning as opposed to Saturday morning so I could enjoy the evening. I rode the trolleys, stopped off at various galleries and shops, and hung out smoking cigars in front of the Tinderbox.

Civil Rights Museum

I wouldn’t tell people what to do when they go to a city, but I think that if you’re going to Memphis you must visit the National Civil Rights Museum. Yes, I know about the civil rights movement, but I don’t know about everything. And this museum does such a good job of not only giving you the overview of what happened but giving you very specific stories about people that you may have not heard of. And seeing all of the photos, and spending time with it, was very moving. There were several times where I put sunglasses on in the museum just to hide the fact that I was starting to cry.

The museum is attached onto The Lorraine Motel, which is where Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4 April 1968. The motel looks as it did in the day, but there is a small monument in front of the balcony where he was killed. In the museum, your journey takes you to the exhibit about the Memphis sanitation workers protests, which brought Martin Luther King to Memphis in April 1968. You then walk to his motel room where the wall has been replaced with a window, and you can look in and see it as it was. It is a very moving experience.

Lucky Ducks

The “South’s Grand Hotel,” The Peabody, was built in 1869, and it’s an impressive building. It is probably lovely to stay in, but it was well out of my price range. But the reason that you need to know about the Peabody is because of the ducks. In the 1930s, the manager of the hotel and a friend had been hunting and they were drunk and they thought it would be funny to put their live duck decoys in the fountain in the middle of the lobby. This started a tradition that carries on to today.

From the 1940s to 1991 bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal worker, provided ducks to the fountain every day until he retired in 1991. Since then, there is still a Duck Master who is in charge of ensuring that there are ducks in the lobby from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day. That’s a bit quirky and fun right? It gets even better.

In 2008, the hotel spent $200,000 US to build a “duck palace” on the roof of the hotel. I didn’t view the duck palace myself, but I understand that it includes a replica of the hotel and a swimming pool. Each day at 11:00 AM, the Duck Master, who wears an elaborate outfit with tails, a top hat, and a black cane with a silver duck head on it, walks the ducks from the roof into the elevator and on a red carpet to the fountain in the middle of the lobby and does so to Sousa march. At 5:00 PM, the Duck Master escorts the ducks back to the rooftop.

If you plan accordingly, you can be there to witness the duck procession. And I think you can make some special arrangements to view the ducks on the roof. I arrived at the hotel just after the ducks were brought to the lobby, but I saw the Duck Master in the lobby talking to some families. I stayed and had a cocktail and watched the ducks splashing about. This is one of the most charming and whimsical things I’ve ever heard of. And it’s in Memphis.

Cooper-Young

I’m sure Memphis has a lot of cool areas outside of downtown, but I didn’t have time to visit a lot of them. But I did visit Cooper-Young. It was a short bus or taxi ride. I went first to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, which was in a park just outside of Cooper-Young. It was good museum with excellent permanent exhibits and, when I was there, it had a really cool fashion exhibit.

From there I walked down the street into Cooper-Young. The neighbourhood is just kind of a funky, hipster-y, historic neighbourhood with lots of cool independent bars and restaurants, book and gift shops, and beautiful houses. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours looking around. It made me curious what other neighbourhoods of Memphis there were that I didn’t have time to get to.

People

Without a doubt, the people that I met in Memphis were some of the friendliest people that I’ve met anywhere. From the cigar people who felt like instant friends, to the trolley drivers who chatted with me, to people I met in bars and restaurants, everyone was so friendly. This isn’t a place where people are minding their own business; people are engaging in conversation, they’re curious and talkative, and they are polite. I’m not always someone who wants to talk to other people, and truth be told, when I’m at home in Vancouver, I have my headphones on constantly, but the people in Memphis were just so charming and genuine that I was won over and couldn’t help but engage in conversation.

Atmosphere

Memphis is interesting. It’s not polished and perfect. It’s not a Charleston, for example. It feels like a city that’s been through some rough times. Parts of the downtown feel a little rough around the edges. While I never felt unsafe, I understand that it’s not a good place to be out late at night. (The latest I was out was about 11:30 PM and I didn’t have any problems but I can’t necessarily recommend it.)  It’s not super beautiful, although it does have some nice old buildings and great street art, and away from places like Beale street, this streets don’t feel necessarily lively and welcoming. And parts of Memphis, like when I walked to Sun Records, felt quite economically depressed. But it is very interesting and I feel like it’s a city that is on the rise, economically. I feel like in 20 years, Memphis could be one of those places that everyone is going, like Nashville. But right now, it feels like a place that is kind of an insider destination. I’m not saying Memphis is a secret; clearly, millions of people go there, drawn by the music and Elvis and history, but it still feels a little like you’re getting in early on something that’s going to be great again. I like that about it.

The two things I didn’t like about Memphis

Not everything is perfect and I wouldn’t want it to be. There were two things that I did not like about Memphis.

The Heat. I was there in the middle of summer, and it was fucking hot. I’m used to heat. I traveled to some of the hottest countries in the world and I used to live in Miami, so I usually deal with that thing that sort of thing okay, but something about the heat in Memphis at the time that I went was insufferable. Even the locals couldn’t stop talking about how hot it was. It was over 100° and really humid. Walking around, I had to buy a handkerchief just so I had something to mop the sweat off my face. Even at midnight, there was no relief. This might have contributed to the streets feeling kind of empty during the day as nobody wanted to be sitting outside. It didn’t stop me from walking everywhere, but it did mean that I was constantly overheated and uncomfortable.

The Food. If you like BBQ, you’re all set. But I don’t eat meat or fish or fried things, so Memphis was kind of a disaster for eating. There was one restaurant I found in Cooper young that was a vegan restaurant, and I had some vegan collard greens and cornbread, which was delicious, and there was a Caribbean restaurant downtown that had a vegetarian curry that was very good. But other than that, there were not a lot of options. I went to this one classic diner, The Arcade, for breakfast and there was really nothing on the menu that I would eat apart from a very lacklustre veggie burger. (I also don’t eat pancakes or waffles or eggs. I know, annoying…) I kind of expected this, so I’m not really complaining, but I have said so many glowing things about Memphis I just wanted knowledge the couple of things that weren’t the best.

Summing up

I loved Memphis. I want to go back. I want to smoke more cigars and see more music. I want to revisit Graceland. I want to do the things that I didn’t have time to do and just generally hang out. This is high praise from me because I don’t usually want to go back to places, but Memphis was a good vibe and close enough to Vancouver that I think it’s worth a revisit.

This post is really long, so I have put Graceland in a separate post. Read on here…