Beale Street

Tonight after work Sherry and I decided to head down to Beale Street for a drink and a bite to eat. Now this was my first real (I’ve gone running through Beale St.), and I was curious to see what a Friday night there was like. I really wanted to check out BB King’s Blues Café and Sherry agreed to check it out. We go in and sure enough it was a pretty sweet place. It really reminded me of this small bar in Kalamazoo called Wonderful’s. That bar is actually in the basement of a bowling alley, has no sign out front, and the ceiling is so low that some musicians that come to play have to sit because they’ll hit their head. Now obviously BB King’s place is nicer, but it still served your beer in jars, food was simple and good (just as if it was homemade), and had sweet live rhythm and blues music playing. I suppose the only difference is that everything is twice expensive, but if it wasn’t for that I would love to have that place be a regular bar for me (actually for BB King’s bar on Beale St. the prices weren’t that bad).

Anyway, what really made the night interesting was when I see this guy walk in and right away I knew it was Justin Timberlake. I actually thought it was kind of cool how quietly he came in and went to the back of the bar without anyone even noticing. I told Sherry that he had just walked in, but she didn’t see him and after I told her he was out of view. About five minutes later I see him walking back into the bar, but this time has a camera following him with a spotlight on him. Well there goes the whole impressed with coming in unnoticed. This time tons of people in the bar are pushing towards him trying to see him, and Justin now has a few bodyguards close by. Perhaps there was some point that I’m unaware of for his two entrances, but man it seems like he wanted to make sure that everyone knew he was there. I then got to see him do some dancing as well as sing a song, which I would have to say he did a pretty good job with (even though his voice really isn’t best suited for soul music).

I’ll admit that it was pretty neat to being just hanging out in a bar and have a celebrity walk in. This may surprise some people, but up in Pigeon that kind of thing just doesn’t happen everyday. Actually that wasn’t my only great experience of the day. It would be a crime to leave out that I finally got a taste of the best barbeque in Memphis…Rendezvous Ribs. Seriously those ribs were awesome, and I’m not even a big rib lover. We got them because a VIP from DARPA came for a visit so Steve and him went out to lunch there, and then ribs were brought back for Sherry and me. I had heard this placed talked up for awhile, but it still exceeded my expectations. I now see why President Bush took the Prime Minister of Japan to eat there after visiting Graceland.