The Super Bowl of Swine:
Introduction & Festival
Eatin' Our Way Through Memphis
Beale Street
Wrapping It Up
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Beale Street
No visit to Memphis would be complete without an intoxicated stroll up and down and up Beale Street. Think of it as a short, wide Bourbon Street without the drunken, naked women. The street is lined with bar after bar, each blaring its own particular brand of Memphis blues.  The largest and most popular of them all (read: the perfect tourist trap), Silky O'Sullivan's offers indoor and outdoor drinking with a large-ish outdoor stage. B.B. King has his original club there and a Nawlin's-style Pat O'Briens is also under construction... however, we gravitated to the smaller, seedier joints that did not cater quite so much to the tourists.
A word of warning- Memphis is not famous for their beer selection. We struggled to find anything more exotic than Bud Light on the street- as far as we know Memphis has no "local" beers (maybe this is why they sing the blues). However, across from B.B. King's in the middle of the block we found our favorite joint- the Beale Street Tap Room (168 Beale Street). This was our favorite place on Beale Street that served "real" beer including a few favorites of ours from neighborhood states, like Shiner Bock from Texas and Louisiana's Abita Turbo Dog. Additionally, just off Beale is the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium (130 Peabody Place). It is home to 75 taps and a beer garden.
Acrobatic street performers provide a nice diversion from the never ending thumping of blues riffs. Also, every corner has some form of street musician or another. All these fun entertainers were drowned out however, by the bellowing of Bible bangers who showed up to try and save the souls of all the good people having themselves a fun time. Ah, the South.
As you make your way home from Beale, do not be afraid to negotiate with the taxi drivers as they all but admitted to shutting off their meters and overcharging drunk tourists as much as double the normal fare. Not us though... we were only taken for a 50% "dumb tourist fee" on top of the fare.
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