Category: Restaurant Reviews

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Dinner, Jazz and Dessert in Nashville

The South Central Chapter meeting of the American Musicological Society was held in March at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, and the trip gave me an opportunity to spend a Friday evening in Nashville, as I was not scheduled to give a presentation until Saturday.

So after checking into my hotel in Murfreesboro, I drove up to Nashville to go to my favorite pizza place, Emmy Squared, which specializes in Detroit style pizza. But as I arrived in The Gulch district where it is located, it began raining, and I had to walk through showers to make my way to the restaurant. The place was crowded, and I had to wait nearly an hour, but the pizza was just as good as I had remembered from my first visit several years ago.

After dinner, I decided to go to Rudy’s Jazz Room, which is the new jazz club in the Nashville area, after the venerable F. Scott’s closed some years ago. I had not heard of the jazz pianist who was playing, but he was quite good, and I enjoyed the entire experience. Rudy’s Jazz Room is in fact a room for listening, and despite the place being crowded indeed, I was able to be seated comfortably and to hear the music. Low lighting and the ambiance of a living room characterized the club.

Afterwards, I wanted to grab a dessert, and fortunately Nashville has a branch of Atlanta’s great Cafe Intermezzo. Although it closes earlier than the original location in Atlanta, I was able to get in and to enjoy a piece of chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and a Viennese coffee. It was a great way to end a fun night in Nashville before driving back to Murfreesboro and to bed.

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“We Had Some Fun On The Holiday”: Mardi Gras on the Backstreets of New Orleans

“Mardi Gras” to most Americans conjures up images of crowds on Bourbon Street and girls pulling up their dresses in the hopes that someone will throw them beads. But the real Mardi Gras in New Orleans takes place far away from the French Quarter, where actually no parades take place on Lundi Gras or Mardi Gras. Most of the bigger parades occur uptown along St. Charles Avenue, but even that is not to be compared with the holiday that occurs in the city’s Black neighborhoods along the backstreets. There the day begins with groups of youths in macabre costume known as the Skeleton Men, and groups of women called the Baby Dolls, who are followed by the Black Indian tribes, whose elaborate suits are true works of art. Accompanied by drummers, these tribes march through the neighborhoods, challenging other tribes to a competition ritual involving dance and bravado.

Although the tribes are usually accompanied only by drums and tambourines, this year the Black Mohawks had hired the To Be Continued Brass Band to accompany them on the holiday, and they met at Verret’s Lounge on Washington Avenue to begin the day. As is usually true on Mardi Gras day, the weather was warm and pleasant, with a blue sky and plenty of sun, and quite a few of the different tribes and their drummers were out in the Third Ward where much Black Indian activity takes place.

Later the TBC Band made their way to a private house party uptown, where they had been hired to play in the backyard, which featured an outdoor bar and deck. When that was over, my friend Darren Towns and his family and I headed to the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood Company in Terrytown, one of the few restaurants to actually be open on Mardi Gras Day. The fried seafood turned out to be really good, and I ended the holiday as I usually do each year, pleasantly tired from a day of parading and fun.

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A Welcoming Mardi-Gras Barbecue in New Orleans

For Mardi Gras 2022, I decided to ride the Amtrak train down to New Orleans instead of driving my car. I learned that train travel is slow, and at least at the lower fare level, fairly uncomfortable. Worse, dining car service has been eliminated on most routes, and the snack bar food is atrocious and highly overpriced. On the other hand, one gets a very different view of the countryside and small towns from the train.

Upon arrival at New Orleans’ 1950s-style terminal, I was extremely hungry, but limited to something within walking distance, and there was really only one choice, Central City BBQ. To be sure, barbecue is not my usual first thought when I think New Orleans, although there are a number of well-regarded barbecue places about in the Crescent City. But Central City proved to be an inspired choice. Here it was the Saturday before Mardi Gras, and they were open, and not even crowded, which was peculiar, to my way of thinking. The building was attractive, and the smell around the building was delightful. And I got daring; I decided to try the brisket. Brisket is hard to do well; rarely have I had good brisket outside of Texas. But Central City passed the test, with possibly the best brisket I have had anywhere other than Austin. The bacon mac and cheese that came with it was equally pleasing. My food was served promptly, and my meal and drink came to less than $20.

Central City BBQ is also apparently something of a destination at times. There is an extensive outdoor area complete with stage, outdoor bars, colorful painted murals and plenty of tables and chairs, all of which were somewhat reminiscent of Memphis’ Railgarten club. I am not sure when Central City features live music, but it would clearly be a fun place to catch a band. While visiting America’s greatest city, don’t miss out on Central City BBQ.

Central City BBQ

1201 S Rampart St

New Orleans, LA 70113

(504) 558-4276

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Coffee, Books and More in Little Rock’s River Market District

Little Rock’s River Market District lies along President Clinton Avenue, and is the city’s premiere entertainment district, equivalent to Beale Street in Memphis, except for the fact that the River Market has a far better selection of shopping options as well as the clubs and restaurants. On a cold December Saturday, just down from the diner where I had eaten breakfast, I encountered a coffee bar called Nexus Coffee and Creative, and, on the theory that you cannot have too much coffee on a cold day, I headed inside. The inside was in fact warm and cheery, and the place has their own roastery where they roast their coffees. There is also a sort of local art/antique market inside, which had some interesting items, including cigar-box and coffee-can guitars. The intent of the place seems to be to function as a community hub, sort of the “third place” between home and work that Starbucks often talks about. But locally-owned entities like Nexus are better equipped to do this successfully than large corporate chains. And Nexus’ coffee was very good.

Down the block, I found the large Central Arkansas Library, but what attracted me inside of there was a used book store. Our library in Memphis has a good store of that sort, and the one in Little Rock was as well., There weren’t as many old books in Little Rock’s store, and the prices seemed a bit higher, but I left with four books, Unlike a lot of other entertainment districts, the River Market has something for day and night.

Nexus Coffee and Creative

301B President Clinton Avenue

Little Rock, AR 72201

(501) 295-7515

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An Upbeat Breakfast in Little Rock At The Corner Diner

I was in Little Rock on a Saturday morning for a gig with Hill Country bluesman Garry Burnside, and it was downright chilly after my previous weekend in New Orleans. I am the kind of person that cannot start the day without breakfast and coffee, so I had scouted out a place online called At The Corner Diner, which is located right at the entrance to the President Clinton Avenue/River Market area downtown, but I feared it would be outrageously crowded. It did prove to be somewhat crowded, and yet, I was able to get a table fairly quickly, and I was impressed with the modern, stylized decor, the cheerful touches of red throughout the interior, and the general festive atmosphere.

At The Corner calls itself a “modern” diner, and I am not sure what that entails, but like a similar establishment called the 24-Hour Cafe in Austin, it seems to mean diner food with a bit of a gourmet accent. Prices are not as cheap as an old-fashioned traditional diner, but they are fairly reasonable, and there are plenty of familiar comfort foods on the menu. I chose an Arkansas Breakfast Sampler, which is a typical bacon and eggs and biscuit breakfast, but even here there was a neat gourmet twist, a cup of fresh fruit; I’m not always the biggest fan of fruit but the fruit in the cup was so fresh and so sweet that it made a pleasant addition to the meal. As any breakfast establishment should, The Corner had several coffee options as well, and as cold as it was, people were definitely taking advantage of it.

For those not in the mood for breakfast, At The Corner also has a fairly diverse selection of hamburgers, other sandwiches, and salads. When in Little Rock, it is definitely worth a visit.

At The Corner Modern Diner

201 E Markham St

Little Rock, AR 72201

(501) 400-8458

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A Day In New Orleans with the TBC Brass Band

After breakfast, my friend Darren from the TBC Brass Band and I headed into the Central Business District of New Orleans. I had always wanted to go to the rooftop bar on the Troubadour Hotel called the Monkey Board, but unfortunately, we learned that they didn’t open until 4. I had thought that the views of the city from there would be worth photographing, but since the band had a full day of shows, we would not be able to go back later in the day.

In fact, on a typical Saturday, TBC can have upwards of ten gigs or more. These are typically short, no more than 15 to 20 minutes; people hire them for funerals, wedding receptions, birthday parties and sometimes holiday parties, and they may have to traverse the whole New Orleans area from one end to the other. As it was my birthday weekend, I enjoyed nothing more than traveling around the city with my favorite band.

However, the day started off sadly, as the band had been engaged to play at a Catholic school out in the Holly Grove area in memory of a little girl who had drowned in a mop bucket at a daycare when left unattended. The case had been publicized locally, and a fairly large crowd was present to remember her. How the relatives can dance and buckjump at such a tragic time is something I have never fully understood about New Orleans, but I suppose that people can recall the good times and celebrate the lives of those who passed.

Other gigs were scattered around the city; one was in a ballroom at the Jung Hotel where we were kept waiting for a significant period of time. But perhaps the best one was for a birthday party at a neighborhood spot called the Sportsman Bar and Lounge on Odeon Avenue on the Algiers side. There TBC assembled on the corner of Odeon and General Meyer Avenue and then paraded down Odeon to the bar, where a large crowd of people had gathered to honor someone’s birthday. As is typical at such events, the band paraded through a side door into the bar, played for about 15 minutes and then went back outside. But the whole neighborhood seemed to be out as if there had been a second-line. The weather was warm and people were in a festive mood.

From there Darren and I headed to Lakeview to my favorite restaurant The Steak Knife for my birthday dinner. As always the food and atmosphere were great, and it did not take us long to get our food and eat, which was important, because TBC had yet another gig.

That final gig of the night was not far from Canal and Broad, and was yet another party, in a fairly small room that was packed to the walls. When it was over, I would have liked to grab some beignets and coffee or a dessert somewhere, but the pandemic was still having an effect on New Orleans. The Cafe du Monde had closed at 8 PM, and Morning Call at midnight, and Tommy G’s Coal-Fired Pizza, which once stayed open until 4 AM was now closing at 10 PM. It was all disappointing and demoralizing, but still, the Saturday of my birthday weekend had been fun.

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Great Seafood at Morrow’s in New Orleans

Having been away from New Orleans for nearly two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I finally got the chance to return for my birthday, I was eager for some seafood. I don’t recall how I became aware of a restaurant on St. Claude Avenue called Morrow’s, but by the time I arrived in the city, I decided to go there for dinner. Unfortunately, so did everybody else, and the wait was longer than an hour. But, with it being my birthday weekend, I decided to wait anyway; it was Friday night, and everything else was likely to be crowded too. The weather wasn’t unpleasant, and I was able to walk around the neighborhood and take pictures; I especially enjoyed walking around the St. Roch Market, although sadly the Coast Roast Coffee location inside it was closed. Morrow’s called me when my table was ready, and I walked back to sit down and order my food.

Morrow’s has a very classy and upscale vibe; lighting is fairly dark, but the restaurant still seems cheerful, and when crowded, somewhat noisy. In the later hours, there was a DJ playing R & B music. I ordered a fried shrimp dinner with fries. The prices are not cheap, but the food came out quickly, and it was very good indeed. In addition to seafood platters and fried, grilled and raw oysters, Morrow’s also has po-boys, some soul-food type meals and sides, and also desserts. I was thoroughly pleased and will be back.

Morrow’s

2438 St. Claude Avenue

New Orleans, LA 70117

(504) 827-1519

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A Big, Good Breakfast at Memphis’ Big Bad Breakfast

Oxford restauranteur John Currence opened the first Big Bad Breakfast in Oxford, Mississippi in 2008. A few years later a second location opened in Birmingham, Alabama, but more recently the chain has expanded rapidly, with locations opening in the Florida panhandle, elsewhere in Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee. Although Memphis was once a fairly challenging city to find outstanding breakfast in, that situation has changed over the last decade or so, and the city is now virtually saturated with breakfast spots, most of them quite good. How will Big Bad Breakfast compete?

Compared to many other breakfast spots, BBB is fairly upscale. The restaurant regionally sources its coffee, grits and pork, and prices are not particularly cheap. But the food is good, and unlike some fancy breakfast places, there are plenty of traditional breakfast items on the menu, including omelets. There is also a lunch menu which includes burgers, but the lunch menu can be ordered at breakfast, and the breakfast menu can be ordered at lunch. There is no dinner, as BBB closes at 2:30 PM.

As for the surroundings, the dining area is pleasant and bright, with plenty of glass windows open to the outside, and although the place seemed crowded, I was immediately shown to a table, and food was delivered fairly quickly after my order was placed. As for the food, it stacked up well against other local options; of course, it’s hard to mess up breakfast. But BBB has another nice twist. Many of its pork products are available to be purchased and cooked at home. Although Memphis has a lot of breakfast options, Big Bad Breakfast does not disappoint.

Big Bad Breakfast

6450 Poplar Avenue, #119

Memphis, TN 38119

(901) 881-3346

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Fabulous Brunch In A Pleasant Setting at Bartlett’s Biscuits and Jams

When a longtime Bartlett Mexican restaurant closed, I was curious what kind of restaurant would go into the space. I was quite surprised when a breakfast restaurant called Biscuits and Jams opened in the spot, and when I first attempted to try it, I found it quite crowded and open to those with reservations only.

My second attempt on a Saturday morning proved more successful, and I was quite pleased. Biscuits and Jams is a Black-owned breakfast and brunch restaurant, with live music on weekends, and quite delicious food. I ordered scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, hash browns and biscuits; all came out in reasonable time, and were quite delicious. If biscuits is part of the name of a place, the biscuits call for higher scrutiny, and those at Biscuits and Jams measure up to the standard—they are light and airy, almost reminiscent of Parker House rolls, and quite irresistible. On Saturdays and Sundays, there is also entertainment (the “Jams” part of the name) and on the particularly morning I was there, it was merely a female singer with a guitar. Whether larger bands ever play is unclear, but I did notice a beautiful outdoor sheltered patio space that would be perfect for such a band in nice weather. Biscuits and Jams is definitely worth a visit, but it can get extremely crowded, and when it does, the restaurant occasionally restricts business to those with reservations. Reservations are taken on the website, or it might be a good idea to call ahead, particularly on weekends.

Biscuits and Jams

5806 Stage Rd

Bartlett, TN 38134

(901) 672-7905

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Great Barbecue and a Fun Atmosphere at Oxford’s Lamar Yard

After my final performance at the Oxford Blues Festival with Duwayne Burnside, my friend and I were hungry for barbecue. Although there was a barbecue restaurant on South Lamar near the festival, we had been there before, and wanted to try a new spot. Lamar Yard, located south of Oxford on Lamar Boulevard is a new restaurant and outdoor venue which had served as the location for the blues festivals Thursday kickoff party, which we had been unable to attend.

When we arrived, a guitar duo was just wrapping up on the outdoor stage. The outdoor aspect of the place was truly huge, with plenty of picnic tables, and cheerful lights strung between a large tree at the courtyard entrance and the buildings on each side. Although we were quite late, the staff was cheerful about taking our order. I opted for two meats, pulled pork and beef brisket, which came with two sides, french fries and macaroni and cheese. Good brisket is hard to find outside of Texas, but Lamar Yard’s is quite decent, with a nice pink color and the smoke ring that should always be evident on brisket. The portion of pork shoulder was small, but it was also quite good. The french fries were OK, but the macaroni and cheese was extremely cheesy and quite delicious.

In addition to the large outdoor space, Lamar Yard has a spacious inside dining area as well, which is where we chose to eat, at least in part due to the humidity and bugs. All the same, the courtyard is available for special event rental, and would be a fun setting for a concert or a party. We found the experience enjoyable, the service attentive and the food good, and will be back.

Lamar Yard

2200 S Lamar Blvd

Oxford, MS 38655

(662) 371-1333