One Hot Summer Getaway

Memphis Tennessee, Home of the Blues!!!
by Cheryl Eldridge

If you have passion for music, soul and fun, come on down – just a short drive down Highway 78 West from Birmingham, Alabama to Memphis, Tennessee.

Felicia Suzanne’s  Restaurant

Once I arrived and got settled at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown,  I spent a night on the town with Mrs. Marty Marby, West Tennessee Regional Manager at  Felicia Suzanne’s Downtown Memphis Restaurant.
Felicia Suzanne specializes in fine dining and with the nicest staff in the world starring Feleicia Suzanne. She is the best chef in Memphis! She is full of energy and makes you feel right at home.
She puts her elegant take on the classic entrees and side dishes from across the region by using food sourced locally whenever possible. Her talent for creating authentic Southern foods with a twist, paired with her friendly and charming personality, has made her one of the region’s most respected chefs.
Felicia Suzanne was the most  upscale  place that’s topped off with the best that downtown Memphis has to offer. The scenery outside was inviting while watching the horse-driven carriages and the trolleys/streetcars.
Marty and I ate deviled eggs that were stuffed with house smoked wild salmon and topped with domestic caviar. Ms. Felicia will definitely fill you up at reasonable prices. I would also recommend the following: the Gulf Oysters of Love (Crispy Lousiana Oysters, creamy grits and New Orleans BBQ Sauce), BLFGT Salad (Benton Bacon, fried green tomatoes, baby greens and Tennessee cheddar spread), Shrimp and Grits(Wild Gulf Shrimp, andouille sausage with Creole sauce, crispy grit cake, just to name a few. There is also the sweet potato casserole (to die for) that’s whipped sweet potatoes with a pecan topping.
If you are in the downtown area and I’m only a journalist, not a food critic, I would definitely recommend dropping by and treating your palate to some of Memphis’ best.
Now on the history side of Felicia Suzanne’s, according to her website, Felicia’s culinary career kicked off in her hometown of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Felicia knew she wanted to be a chef at a young age, and she began to make her dream come true by taking the classic curbside lemonade stand to a new level by making cheesecakes for family, friends and neighbors when she was only 12 years old. The top quality of her cheesecakes began to earn a reputation around the community, and she began experimenting with new recipes and styles of cooking.
Selling cheesecakes was only the start of a career that includes being the chef of her own restaurant, which is now in its 11th year. Her tenacity is what launched her career and continues to drive her success. Though she had numerous job offers after completing culinary training at Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, S.C., Felicia wanted to learn from the leader in her field. She began making daily phone calls to Emeril Lagasse in hopes of securing an internship. After 30 days of phone calls, she finally secured a position. Felicia’s commitment soon earned her a position as Lagasse’s assistant, co-author of his cookbooks and producer of his “Good Morning America” segments.
While building her experience with Lagasse, Felicia resolved to open her own restaurant. Felicia Suzanne’s Restaurant was opened in the beautiful Lowenstein Building in downtown Memphis in 2002. Felicia considers the Southern dishes she creates to be puritan representations of the region’s culture and signature foods. She draws inspiration from the places of her past: the cheesecakes she made and sold as a child growing up in Jonesboro, Charleston’s fresh seafood, the Gulf Coast at New Orleans, the towns along the drive down Interstate 55, Alabama’s back roads and the barbeque style of Memphis.
Since the opening, she has taken being a local chef to a new level. She is an expert in cooking with the locally-sourced food of the South. Though many assert a devotion to locally-sourced food, Felicia makes it a top priority to shop at producers within 90 miles of Memphis, and she meets new farmers on her weekly farmer’s market trips. The tomatoes she uses in her Bloody Marys are from Tennessee, additional produce is from Mississippi and the ingredients used in her ice cream desserts are sent directly to her door from Oleo Acres Farm in Tennessee. This expertise in local food has led to the creation of her product line, called Flo’s. She cans each product seasonally, and makes enough tomato jam, pepper jelly, chow-chow and pickles to keep her customers happy the entire year.
Felicia is also an ambassador for the Memphis and Tennessee culinary community. She’s a local leader who is always willing to sell Memphis by selling everyone. She has participated in the Memphis BBQ/Winemaker Dinner in Santa Barbara, Calif., and “Memphis Goes Hog Wild in Oregon” in Portland, Ore.
In 2014, Felicia continues to find ways to improve her restaurant and dishes with the same tenacity that has brought her success. Her patio is undergoing renovations through construction of a new bar and updated outdoor seating. Using local partners, she’s creating a new cocktail menu and expanding the Flo’s product line. Felicia has a passion for finding new partnerships and being an ambassador for Memphis’ culinary community. She especially enjoys learning about the traditions and history of the Southern Foodways Alliance and attending SFA events. These experiences will continue to fuel inspiration for her Southern menu, products and projects.
Thanks to Felicia, Marty and I were stuffed . Thanks Marty for a night on the town. I definitely slept well that night.
Stax Museum
My second day was even better for my sisters LaTanya and Charmaine arrived from Chicago, Illinois. Pure elation and adrenaline started pumping because we had a ball.
Once everyone got settled we travelled to the Stax Museum via concierge/shuttle thanks to the staff at Crowne Plaza Memphis Downtown Hotel. We really enjoyed our favorite driver, Dee who treated us like queens and thank him for his expertise in ensuring our arrival and destinations. He was always right on time and friendly.
The Stax Museum  was  a sight to see and it is known as the Museum of American Soul Music. If you are familiar with the great Pioneering soul artists such as Aretha Franklin, Ike and Tina Turner, Al Green, Little Milton, they and others are highlighted among the labyrinthine exhibition space in the museum. BB King, Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson,  The Barkays, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Eddie Floyd and other artists who set the standards for good finger-snapping, hand-clapping, toe-tapping  soul music: you must visit the Stax Museum.
After a  20 minute video on the history of the Love of Soul in Memphis, you will definitely enjoy Stax. Stax was the place where everyone came regardless of race and religion.
Soul, believe it or not, started in the church, so after watching the video you will get a nice view of the authentic 100-year old Mississippi Delta church that exemplifies the importance and position that gospel has within the origins of soul music – Hoopers Chapel AME Church’s actual church pews and  pulpit, surrounded by videos and music that were sung in the church.
The Stax Museum opened in May 2003 and is a replica of the original recording studio that was the site of many history-making recordings. The museum, which also includes the Stax Music Academy, was the brainchild of a group that wanted to ensure that the legacy of the studio and the surrounding area of Memphis, dubbed “Soulsville,” was kept alive. The Stax Museum is a 17,000 square feet facility that contains a number of videos, interactive exhibits, films, artifacts, photographs, instruments, costumes, and other items cataloging the studios importance in soul music. The museum even replicates the sloping floor of Studio A from the original Stax Records, which had a sloping floor because the original studio was in the old Capitol Theater Building. Studio A is legendary for being the site of many famous original recordings that have gone down in soul music history.
Once you enter the doors of the Stax Museum, you will find that the Stax Museum not only features the music and history of the artists that recorded on the label, it also highlights soul music and the music’s roots in gospel and blues. The museum also focuses on other soul music institutions such as Motown Records, Atlantic Records, Muscle Shoals, and Hi Records. The Stax Museum gives you the full experience of this musical heritage.
Other soul music artifacts include Isaac Hayes’ Peacock-blue Cadillac El Dorado with the legendary gold trim, refrigerator, and television; Tina Turner’s gold sequined dress, Ike Turner’s silver suit; Otis Redding’s brown suede jacket, Booker T. Jones’ organ, and Albert King’s purple Flying V guitar. Other exhibits that should not be missed are the Hall of Records that contains displays with more than 800 45 records and 300 albums and the Soul Train dance floor.
There is a disco ball spinning over a dancefloor with epic songs playing from re-runs of soul train’s Dance Line. You know you want to – plus, you can’t really help yourself, move your feet to the beat! I had a ball and went down my own soul train line!!!!
By the way, before you leave, there is a really nice gift shop with some great items and even includes a clearance table with reasonable prices.
This place is doing great things to preserve the history of soul music in the U.S., but also educating the future of soul music here too, with the academy next door.  After I left, I asked myself, what happened to good old soul music. I will definitely be back!

National Civil Rights Museum

If you go to Memphis and don’t visit the National Civil Rights Museum, you will miss a big part of history.
The National Civil Rights Museum begins with the Lorraine Hotel where the great Dr. Martin Luther King,  Jr. was assassinated.
While visiting the newly renovated  Museum, which was built in 1925, originally named the Windsor Hotel and later the Marquette until its purchase in 1945  by African-American businessman Walter Bailey. Mr. Bailey renamed the hotel for his wife Loree and the sweet song made  by Nat King Cole Titled “Sweet Lorraine.
During segregation it was an upscale accommodation that catered to a black clientele. He added a second floor, a swimming pool, and then drive up access for more rooms on the south side of the complex converting the name from Lorraine Hotel to Lorraine Motel. Its guests included musicians going to Stax Records including Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Aretha Franklin, Ethel Waters, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers and Wilson Pickett.
The original 7,000 lb. bronze signature statue, Movement to Overcome, has been returned to the museum, prominently positioned in the new lobby in front of the new grand staircase. Sculptor Michael Pavlovsky was commissioned to create the statue for the museum’s opening in 1991 and it has been synonymous with the struggle since the beginning. The second floor is opened up to reveal the lobby below, and flooded with light from the skylight ceiling above. The retail shop has moved to the second floor and is visible from the lobby.
Throughout the new exhibitions, visitors will learn about more individuals; ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things. Visitors may see themselves in this history. Following are some of the new exhibitions:
A Culture of Resistance:  Slavery in America 1619 – 1861
Rise of Jim Crow and I, Too, Am America: Combating Jim Crow 1896−1954
Separate Is Not Equal:  Brown v. Board of Education 1954
The Year They Walked:  Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955–1956
Standing Up by Sitting Down:  Student Sit-ins 1960
Strategies for Change
We Are Prepared to Die:  Freedom Rides 1961
For Jobs and Freedom: The March on Washington
Is This America?  Mississippi Summer Project 1964
A Triumph for Democracy: The Voting Rights Act of 1965
How Long? Not Long:  Selma Voting Rights Campaign 1965
I Am A Man: Memphis Sanitation Strike 1968
What Do We Want? Black Power
Say It Loud:  Black Pride, 1966−1975
World in Transition
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to complete  the tour due to sentimental emotions, but I recommend schools, politicians,churches and other organizations to visit.

Beale Street
If you are ready to get down and enjoy love, blues and good food, head on down to Beale Street.
Most tourists visit Beale Street for its entertainment district for it’s known at the Heart of Memphis Music and Entertainment. At night, all of  the restaurants, bars and shops and other places are lit to perfection.
Beale originally was home to traders and merchants that used the convenient location to move goods along the Mississippi River. By the 1860s, many traveling musicians began performing on Beale and over the next few decades, Beale began to flourish. The Orpheum Theatre, “The South’s Finest Theatre” was added in 1890 and in 1899 Robert Church (the first black millionaire in the south who purchased the land around Beale) created Church Park at the corner of 4th and Beale. Church wanted to give musicians a place to gather. At that point, Beale slowly began transforming into a recreational and social center, where folks could unite and listen to music.
In the early 1900s a young man by the name of W. C. Handy made his mark on the city by creating hit songs like “Blues on Beale Street” and “Mr. Crump” (for a local mayoral candidate). Handy’s influence ran deep and from the 1920s to the 1940s, other blues and jazz legends like Albert King, Louis Armstrong, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King (B.B. stands for Blues Boy) all performed on Beale. Their influence created a style known as Memphis Blues.
In 1966, Beale Street was declared a National Historic Landmark and in 1977, Beale Street was officially declared the Home of the Blues by an act of Congress.
Today, all you need to do is take a stroll down Beale Street’s neon row and you’ll hear music spilling out of clubs and restaurants like Rum Boogie Café, B.B. King’s, Silky O’Sullivan’s or the Hard Rock Café. Beale Street is serious about its music, and jam sessions at many of these clubs tend to go deep into the night. For a good time, grab a drink, soak up the sounds and throw a few bucks in the tip jar for the Beale Street Flippers.
The downtown Memphis music scene isn’t just about the blues. The New Daisy Theatre located at the north end of Beale Street is home to visiting national alternative acts like The Raconteurs, The Strokes and Cat Power. The New Daisy is the perfect size venue – big enough to bring well-known artists, but intimate enough to feel like a club.
Every May, the Beale Street Music Festival brings major music acts like Wilco, John Mellencamp, Snoop Dogg and John Legend to Tom Lee Park at the end of Beale Street on the Mississippi River. The festival launches a month of festivities citywide known as Memphis in May.
One place that I would not recommend, even though everyone states that it’s great, was  “Jerry Lee Lewis Cafe and Honky Tonk” whose theme is ” Where There’s Always A whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On.”
Jerry Lee Lewis built his name in Memphis and now he showcases Delta musicians where you can enjoy Southern favorites with live music. My sisters and I were invited in by an intoxicated man who sat us at a  dirty table implying that there was a cover charge to see the band. He personally didn’t know what we had in our pockets. Therefore, we moved to the bar and placed our orders. The people were friendly, but the food was definitely not up to par. Everything that we had was burnt.We ordered chicken tenders and fries, catfish fillets, cole slaw and fries, and grilled chicken sandwich and fries served with water. If we were intoxicated, it would have been different, unfortunately we weren’t and were very displeased. The food was distasteful.! However, the waitress took my burnt grilled chicken sandwich back and brought me a new piece of bread on the same dish. In s nutshell, I won’t be back, should have gone with my first mind to get Barbecue.

Rock N Soul Museum

Rock N Soul Museum puts you in the mind of Stax, but more of the rock and roll type of atmosphere.
When you arrive there is another short video and then on to headsets which are worn and visitors can punch in the number on the display and get the history or music that you are engulfed in at the time.
These are places where you can find clothing and information on Elvis,  Johnny Cash, Rock n Roll Trio,  Jerry Lee Lewis, The Barclays and Al Green to name a few. It was the birth of rook n roll. During that time music brought people together. It was an integrated company that was like family and the spirit of Blackness was as safe as a beautiful flower.
This rock and roll museum offers not only a cohesive tour of early Memphis music, but gives an insight into where this regional style may be heading. “The Beat Goes On” Gallery exemplifies the endurance and success of performers throughout recent decades and pays tribute to the stars of today and tomorrow, including  Justin Timberlake, Three 6 Mafia, North Mississippi Allstars, Amy LaVere, and others. Other galleries in the museum pay respect to talent from times past. For music enthusiasts and history buffs alike, these Memphis attractions are both enlightening and educational. The street and club performers on Beale Street and in downtown Memphis also offer further insight into the city’s musical roots and future.
Labels like STAX, HI and Satellite recruited musical artists from the Black community, and some of its stars literally walked in off the streets.  Memphis music was a product of collaboration – and sometimes tension – between Black and white musicians. Soul music embodied African-American cultural identity and aspirations in the volatile 1960s and became an important voice of expressing Black pride, and demanding political change. Just as white teenagers expressed themselves through their speech, dress, and rock ‘n’ roll, soul was a part of a larger identity for African-Americans. Soul music changed from popular entertainment to a vehicle for political expression and community activism.
In Memphis, as in many cities throughout the nation, the 1950s and ’60s were years of turbulent change. Ideas and music, once revolutionary, are now foundations of institutions. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a nation through a civil rights revolution, the music that erupted from the streets and studios of Memphis led a cultural, social and civil rights revolution of its own. The Memphis sound interacted with and reflected the city’s dynamics, and made an indelible imprint upon world culture.

Other places that I would recommend are Graceland,  B.B. King Blues Club, South of Beale, The Rendezvous, The Arcade, Miss Polly’s Soul City Cafe, Eighty3 Food and Drink, Memphis Zoo, Pink Palace Museum, Central BBQ, Autmoatic Slims,Rizzo’s Dinner and the Classic Soul “Saturday Night Live” Nightclub in South Memphis which we were treated by the best, Mr. Duck Goose.
My four day journey in the City of Soul was planned by such a gracious and hard-working lady, Ms. Tiffany Langston. My itinerary was set for a Queen or King. She had everything timed from the beginning to end of my stay.
In a nutshell, I enjoyed my four day trip and would recommend Memphis, Tennessee to all ages.