Visit Memphis for Southern hospitality, great food and authentic Blues. We were both very impressed with Memphis.
Memphis is about 1.5 hours north of Clarksdale, Mississippi, and three hours west of Nashville. It has a small-town feel, but is full of fascinating attractions, great music and some superb restaurants. It has a population of about 650,000. Memphis had a thriving post war economy with the world’s largest markets for cotton and lumber, and was a key port on the Mississippi River and a railroad hub. During the 1960s, the city was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement.
Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the American South. Many renowned musicians grew up in and around Memphis and, during the ‘20s and ‘30s moved north to Chicago and other areas from the Mississippi Delta, carrying their music with them to influence other cities and listeners over the radio. For more about the music scene and band videos, go to Southern Blues Road Trip
This city is one of my favorites. There is so much to see and I love the vibe!
Attractions:
- Graceland
- Sun Studio
- Arcade Restaurant
- South Main St.
- Memphis Train Station
- National Civil Rights Museum
- Gibson Guitar Factory
- Beale Street for live music
- Lansky’s “Clothier to the King”
- Lauderdale Courts, where Elvis once lived
- Peabody Hotel duck parade
- West Memphis (in Arkansas)
- Fine dining
Graceland
No trip to Memphis is complete without a visit to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley. The lines are long to get over the mansion. You start at the Graceland tourist center where you buy a ticket and a place in line for the shuttle bus that takes you over to the house.
Built in 1939, the original owner of the land named the property after his daughter Grace. Elvis purchased Graceland in 1957 for $102,500 as a farmland retreat outside of town. It is now owned by his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. Graceland is the second most-visited house in America with over 650,000 visitors a year; second only to the White House.
Elvis grew up very poor. We drove through a neighbourhood where he lived when they first moved to Memphis from Tupelo. It was a public housing development built in 1938 under President Franklin Roosevelt’s WPA. Lauderdale Courts was one of the first U.S. public housing projects.
Graceland isn’t ultra luxurious by today’s standards, but it was pretty swanky for the day. Apparently, he did this mostly for his mother. He was very attached to her and wanted both parents to have a nice home. I love the fabulous 70’s design! Very much worth seeing. Plan on spending at least half a day.
The yellow TV room has three TVs so Elvis could watch all three network news broadcasts (ABC, CBS, NBC) at the same time. Apparently, he did this because that’s what the President did. Just imagine Elvis and the “Memphis Mafia” hanging out here.
The modern kitchen of the day. The stove looks high end. Big fridge!
The basement lounge with an exotic theme. Love the green carpet and leopard chair!
His airplane dining table. He had a full bedroom on the plane with a regular size bed and gold-plated bathroom sink.
The famous pink Cadillac he bought for his beloved mother.
His final resting place, along with his family, is in the garden at the back of the home.
Sun Studio
One of the must-see destinations for music fans. Sun Studio, arguably where rock n’ roll started.
Beale Street
Famous and historic Beale Street in Memphis. This is where BB King got his start – home of the blues. A lot of bars with a lot of great music. One of the best bar hop streets on the planet. Apparently, it can be dangerous, but there’s a visible police presence and it’s very crowded, so it should be relatively safe. This is one of the US cities where you can drink on the street, and carry your drinks from bar to bar if they are in a plastic cup.
Other Attractions
The National Civil Rights Museum is in Memphis. The Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, is part of the museum. The motel remains frozen in time, in the 1960’s style of the day. The museum re-opened in 2014 after renovations that increased the number of multi-media and interactive exhibits, including numerous short movies to enhance features.
South Main St. has artisan shops and it’s a unique part of the city. You can take a streetcar from near Beale Street to the Memphis Train station then walk back toward Beale. You will pass the Arcade, Earnestine & Hazels, The Civil Rights Museum and it’s a nice walk.
The Earnestine & Hazel’s building originated in the late 1800s, when it was built as a church. Then it was a pharmacy and sundry store, and then an old jazz café / brothel before it became a bar. Many blues and jazz musicians used to hang out here. Apparently Ray Charles used to stay upstairs. It is still a juke joint, but now it is famous for its Soul Burger and good music.
The Arcade Restaurant is the oldest cafe in Memphis (built in 1919) and where Elvis used to hang out. It is on the National Registrar of Historic Places and featured in the Jim Jarmusch movie “Mystery Train”. Filmed in 1988, Mystery Train, started a revival of film making in Memphis.
This area on South Main St. is in the film, as well as the Memphis Train Station. After falling into disrepair in the 1960’s, the Memphis Central Station gained a reputation as one of the worst stations on the Amtrak system. The property was eventually acquired by Memphis Area Transit Authority, and a massive renovation project was undertaken. The station was desolate when we went in, but it is operational and very clean. Great location for photos!
Lansky Brothers, “Clothier to the King” (that’s Elvis Presley, for those that may not know) is close to Beale Street and worth dropping by. They have some great shirts. Known for bright colors and silky fabrics, it became the place to shop for many musicians: Elvis, BB King, Isaac Hayes, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and others. In the film “Mystery Train”, Screaming Jay Hawkins (who plays the hotel night manager) says to the bell boy, who complains about his uniform: “Well, you should do like I do. Shit, go over and buy your own damn clothes over at Lansky’s… I mean, you know it’s like they say: the clothes make the man.” That line stood out for me when I saw the film and I wondered, “What is Lansky’s?” Now I know. And we bought a few shirts there, too.
We also visited the Gibson Guitar Factory and Showroom, however we didn’t have time for the tour (they only have a few tours daily and the next one was too late). Jimmy and I both have Gibsons so it would have been nice to see how they are made (I have a guitar that was made at this factory). We will have to go back.
Where to Stay?
We stayed at The Madison, one of the top hotels in Memphis. The Peabody Hotel is also a noteworthy luxury hotel known not only for quality, but for the daily live duck parade from their rooftop home down the elevator, and into the fountain in the lobby (escorted by the Duck Master).
The Madison costs less than the Peabody, and both are walking distance to everything. The Madison has a great roof top lounge overlooking the Mississippi River, which was the deciding factor for our stay there. You can see Arkansas on the other side of the river.
The next day we drove across the bridge to Arkansas just to get another state under our belt! West Memphis is on the other side of the Bridge. We noticed that there were many musicians from Arkansas playing at the Blues clubs.
Where to Eat?
The first restaurant we tried was McEwens Memphis. I picked this restaurant because of good reviews and, frankly, because I used to work for a chef named Mark McEwen in Toronto. He is a top chef in North America, with several Toronto restaurants, but he has no involvement in this Memphis restaurant. It didn’t matter. We went for lunch and ran into the business crowd – everyone was drinking iced tea. Apparently, it’s a Southern thing… The food is top quality so you can’t go wrong with what ever you order. Dinner has a robust fine dining menu.
The Majestic Grille is another well known restaurant in Memphis. Built in 1913 as a movie house, the interior is large and quite stunning. They have a movie screen that projects silent and classic films. The owner, Chef Patrick Reilly, is from Dublin and has an impressive bio. The restaurant and Chef have won several “best of” awards, however their web site does not address where they source the food from. In a fine restaurant they should not serve factory farmed anything. Everything should be ethically sourced. In my experience, if it is not explicitly stated (since that is a big feature) it usually isn’t so. I had the grilled mahi mahi and Jimmy had the roasted chicken. Both meals were tasty, but were not up to fine dining standards.
The restaurant we were most impressed with on the entire trip was Flight. They have a very unique “flight” option (a trio of smaller portions) for everything from wines, to appetizers, to mains, and deserts. What a great idea! They offer suggested pairings, but you can mix and match and you can order two small dishes instead of three, or just a main.
The service was good, and the food quality and prep was outstanding. We went all out and had appetizer flights with wine flights, mains, and a trio of deserts with recommended desert wines. It was heaven! I didn’t expect such quality dining in Memphis.
We were both very impressed with Memphis. I like the vibe better than in Nashville. It’s smaller and it feels more authentic and less touristy. But I didn’t spend enough time in Nashville to truly make that call – just first impressions.
For more photos go to Wonderland Photography.
