You can have your home baked bread and other foodie fineries. In MY version of heaven, there is always the smell of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls baking.

And West Tennessee BBQ cooking. And my dad’s hamburgers on the grill.

There is also a never-empty casserole dish of my mom’s asparagus casserole. And billions of my grandmother’s pecan pies, and it’s perfectly okay if I eat all the pecans off the top if I want to.

So Friday night I met up with Scout and her friend at that old standby of mine, Cafe Ole’ in Cooper-Young. I had been working and not had anything to eat all day so I indulged in fajitas for dinner, while the two of them just snacked on some chips & dip, since they had been snacking down at the big annual BBQ contest on the river all day (who eats crawfish at the Memphis BBQ contest?!? Scout!!!! Ha!!!).

We had a great time chatting and lots of laughs, and she is, indeed, sweet as can be and just absolutely fascinating. And it’s always fun to hang out with folks from “back home” (our hometowns are about a half hour away from each other) who know this place and that place and, sometimes, some of the same people (much like ‘Coma, who used to work with my cousin Jay way back when). Hopefully we’ll get a chance to hang out again and spend a little longer time next time, either down here or maybe over some coffee at Jack’s Java in my hometown, since Scout’s a big fan of that fine establishment.

Always kind of both weird and comforting really being out and about in public back home, maybe mostly a small town thing. It’s always kind of strange running into someone you literally haven’t seen since third grade or seventh grade, and they just say, “Hey, Lynnster,” (well, they don’t say Lynnster, but you get it) like you just saw ‘em last week.

Anyway, next up for meeting - Finn. Whether up there in Nashville or sometime when she’s visiting West Tennessee, at least before the end of the year, I hope!

I wanted to hurry up and get this food meme done because I was tagged by Merrie Olde England’s most ardent Big Orange supporter, The Vol Abroad, who is likely going to be going into labor just about any minute now, so I wanted to finish this before she winds up knee-deep in nappies and such and still has time to read.

This one’s all about your five fave places to go out to eat in your own general locale. I find myself kind of grasping here because most unfortunately, nearly all of my very favorite locally owned, non-chain places in the metro Memphis area have closed - some long closed now, some relatively recently. Cafe Roux, The Fish Market, vegetarian joint Babylon Cafe, and five legendary Memphis haunts - Gallina’s (Italian spinach to die for), the Buntyn Restaurant (Southern home cooking and the best yeast rolls ever), and Captain Bilbo’s, Pappy & Jimmie’s, and Anderton’s (all seafood) - all gone.

So here are my five still alive & well in Memphis:

1. Paulette’s on Overton Square in Midtown - Best Sunday brunch ever, with the world’s most delicious crepes of all kinds, strawberry butter for your croissants, and what would Sunday brunch be in the South without a Mimosa? (Well, unless you’re doing the Bloody Mary thing.) Brunch is awesome, though I pretty much have crepes of some sort there no matter what time of day it is.
2. Cafe Ole’ in Cooper-Young - The ex and I dined there the first week it was open (now quite a long time ago) and for a few years after probably ate there once a week at least. It’s still a fave place to go and fave meet-up place for me, having met up there with Hutchmo, and ‘Coma & Squirrelly on a couple of different occasions last winter. One of the reasons we used to go so often in the early years was because it is very vegetarian-friendly and was a fave of a vegetarian friend of ours, and my mom and I used to go pretty much anytime she was in town (for the shrimp, see next sentence). Decent Mexican Tex-Mex type fare, and the bacon-wrapped stuffed shrimp are to die for.
3. Huey’s (all over but the original is in Midtown) - Legendary in all its dive-y goodness, anyone who lives in or visits Memphis regularly will likely regale you with the virtues of the Huey Burger if asked. It’s one of those things that people just tend to crave. Whether the original or one of the many variations, it’s dependable - you can always count on it to be exactly the same every time. The potato soup is also excellent, and they had stuffed jalapenos before everyone and their brother and the grocery started carrying them, and these are done RIGHT (though the East End Grill’s are pretty great too).
4. Brother Juniper’s College Inn off the Highland Strip - I actually haven’t been here in quite some time, but that’s mainly because I am rarely up in time for breakfast, which is what anyone should go for. It opens at 6:30 a.m. now, but I think back in the days when the ex and I used to hit it for breakfast it was open even earlier; it was a frequent stop before long road trips for us, including when we drove to Kansas City to see the Hoodoo Gurus in ‘91. The breakfast fare is just so indescribably good, I couldn’t even begin to tell you. The biscuits - you would not believe.
5. The Rendezvous, Downtown, and Corky’s (several locations, but the original on Poplar in East Memphis) - I’m cheating here by putting two restaurants here but (A) surely I couldn’t do this without mentioning BBQ, and (B) I am partial to both. And lots of you outside of Memphis are familiar with Corky’s since it has branched out to many other locations statewide and nationally and therefore it’s actually a chain now, but since it’s a Memphis original, I’m keeping it here. It’s my meme and I can do what I want! So anyway, yeah. I love both for different reasons - for dry ribs made with dry rub, I prefer the Rendezvous; wet ribs with lotsa sauce, Corky’s. And the Rendezvous is a Memphis legend and has been there forever and the atmosphere is pure Memphis, you just can’t beat it. I love to take first-time visitors to Memphis to both when possible.

Now here’s where I make up two more of my own categories, because I can:

Honorable mention of places I’ve been to: Zinnie’s East in Midtown - for the spinach nachos, which I haven’t had in a very long time but now my mouth is watering just thinking about them. If you’re a spinach lover, you won’t be disappointed. Yum.

Honorable mention of places I’ve not yet been to: Memphis Pizza Cafe on Overton Square, Midtown (other locations too) - Practically everyone I know, including Lesley, loves it and I’ve been thinking for years I’d get down there eventually, but just never have. Maybe sometime when Lesley is in town again I’ll break my missing streak on this one and we’ll meet up there for lunch.

OK, so now that we’re basically done, here are the actual rules and regulations for this particular meme:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you (if you get tagged for it, you can probably copy and paste it to make things easier - I did). Include the state/city and country you’re in:

Nicole Tan (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
Yianna (Athens, Greece)
Melusina (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Vol Abroad (London, England)
Lynnster (Memphis, Tennessee, USA)

2. List your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location with as much or as little info as you’d like to share. (See above.)

3. Tag five other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

Since I’m interested in places I might wanna check out someday (who knows!) or already hit on occasion, I’m gonna tag five people I know stop by here fairly often and are from different places, and going to just choose one Nashville/Middle Tennesseean. Most of my Nashville area friends seem to be hot spicy food fans (which I wish I could but cannot do) so I’m just going to select somebody else at random, and skip East Tennessee altogether (no offense but I already am familiar enough up there). Take your time if you get tagged, no hurry. Here goes:

1. Megan can probably tip me off to some good Nashville/Middle Tennessee spots.
2. Churlita (I might need to know where’s good to go in Iowa, you never know)
3. Margaret (seeing as how I am in Birmingham rather frequently tho not as much lately, good info to have on hand tho)
4. Kathy P. (traveling to St. Louis is always a possibility when you live down here)
5. And Sara to cover the Wild Wild West.

As mentioned in the previous post, Nashville blogger fave Mothership BBQ is on the verge of closing its doors.

Location has always been an issue, being on a side street in Berry Hill that just doesn’t get much drive-by traffic at all. Here in Memphis, where BBQ is the only other King besides Elvis, I don’t think our major BBQ places could survive without being in a good location for driving weekday business lunch traffic (or within walking distance downtown for the lunchtime crowd), plus most are in fairly high traffic areas anyway, day or night. I’m sure most do well in the evenings too, but the lunch crowds are probably the meat (pun intended) of the business for many.

Other factors include zoning laws that disallow beer being sold at the establishment. In Memphis, no cold brew with your ‘cue would be flatly unheard of and probably result in a riot.

Jim has found a location in Nashville that is available, where he can sell beer, and that is in a high-traffic area where folks are lined up out the door at lunchtime at other restaurants in the area, among many other improvements. The faithful regular crowd of bloggers and their families, as well as other regulars, will most certainly follow him to his new location as well. There are people in the Nashville area who eat there every single week and some, multiple times a week. This great place, which has gotten consistently excellent reviews and publicity since it opened, has a definite and loyal following, but a move to the new location would likely increase that regular crowd immensely, and bring in new customers constantly.

I’ll let him tell you the rest about the situation and the fine details, just click here.

And here’s a brand new update to the above from Jim with some more specific details. Be sure and read both for a look at the big picture.

In any case, if you’re always looking for potential investments or know someone who might be interested, I urge you to get in touch with Jim ASAP and find out more. Fondly known among the Nashville blogging community as Knuck, Jim’s a good, straight up, and honest guy who always just tells it like it is, which he did on the Mothership’s blog this week. And if you’re interested in possibly investing in Nashville’s best BBQ, he’s got lots more information to share and can answer any questions you may have.

The details are on the Mothership BBQ blog or you can contact Jim directly at (615) 269-7150.

I can guarantee you that if you are interested and can help save the Mothership, you can count on having not only the constant and consistent business, but also undying gratitude, of a bunch of Nashville and other Tennessee bloggers - a group in number that is already large and consistently growing, and reaches across the entire state - their families and friends, and some other regulars (like a top news dude in Nashville who I hear eats there constantly) - as well as many other new regular customers, I’m sure, that just haven’t found the place yet due to its location issues.

Thanks for reading!

I started this post about last weekend days ago and it somehow turned into the Great (?) American Novel, plus it took me five billion years to e-mail to myself and download all of my crummy cell phone pictures from the weekend the other night. And many of you have already read everyone else’s accounts of the weekend anyway, so now by the time I’ve gotten around to posting mine, it’ll be like old news. Or it’s been so long now, you can just pretend you didn’t read about it before and it’s brand new news. Or whatever. (And by the time I get around to posting about my L.A. trip, it’ll be like ancient history before dinosaurs roamed the earth, apparently.)

So most everyone else has written about the weekend more beautifully than I ever will, but since I got home so late Sunday night and have been going like mad all week long, and haven’t really had a chance to share much other than all of our (mostly mine & Ivy’s) drunken Twitter posts, and had the crummy cell phone pics to share (most of which Ginger and Squirrelly have the same pics, only better and less blurry), here goes.

I actually started off my day with lunch at the Mothership, and arrived only to be pleasantly surprised by who all had shown up, some of whom I knew were coming (Kerry Woo, Ivy, and the famous Mrs. Katherine Coble), some of whom had been maybes (Lesley), some I had no idea were coming and was so pleased to see (Malia & David and their kids, as well as Malia’s sister and fellow Nashville blogger Emily, who I’d not had the pleasure of meeting in the past, so that was great). Mr. Ivy and all three of the kids were there as well, and I’d not met hubby nor Ivy’s eldest before so that was cool too. Then the pleasant surprise of all surprises appeared when Sarcastro showed up with baby in tow, who is just so tiny and adorable and was so very good and pleasant and darn near silent, contrary to his father’s previous reports regarding the largesse and lengthy duration of the little angel who I never heard make a peep’s noise level. I should have thought to take some pictures there, especially of the baby (and ESPECIALLY of a nervous about holding babies Kat holding the baby, but she did great). But I’m not sure they would have come out, as there was some discussion about whether or not the child might in truth be a vampire. But it was the middle of the day, so probably not.

As always, it was great to see Knuck as well, and I truly enjoyed my first ever Mothership BBQ eating experience, having had the combo plate (with the pulled pork requested Kerry Woo style - I love my BBQ a bit crispy as well), the legendary crack-n-cheese, and the also legendary pinto beans - which I don’t generally like pinto beans but just as everyone had been telling me, these were great. And a special thanks to Knuck for donating the end-of-the-day veggies for our chick thing in the country. I was also extra glad I made it for lunch this weekend as, unbeknownst to me at the time I was there, it may be closing very soon. NIT bloggers may not just be Bloggers Without Borders, but Bloggers Without BBQ soon, and that is very sad. If you’re a potential investor who might be interested in helping expand this restaurant business into a better location, get in touch with Jim at the Mothership.

I missed seeing my Sista this trip, who was unable to make it for lunch or for the festivities at Chez Mack, and also hated missing Finn again, who was planning to come but got tied up unexpectedly. Hopefully next trip we’ll make up for it, ladies. Didn’t get to meet up with Smiley this trip either, which sucks, but he was in Sewanee this weekend and I could never begrudge anyone any opportunity to spend time on my favorite Tennessee mountain. Also missed seeing Hutchmo, who was my original planned lunch partner for the occasion and opted to go see baseball in Florida instead, but that was quite all right - I know better than to attempt to separate Hutch from his baseball, and he’ll just owe me another lunch or dinner anyway, heh.

Next, after what was a rather amusing shopping adventure on Thompson Lane, we headed out to Casa Mack. Ivy and Kat rode out with me and our short little road trip was probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend. You just can’t ride in a car with BadBadIvy and Kat Coble for 45 minutes and NOT have an absolute blast, I dare you to try. I’d have been perfectly satisfied with how my weekend had gone if it had all ended there - but wait! There’s more!!!

Most of the details have been outlined many other places so I’ll not rehash every single thing, but I will say that Mack and Aunt B. just totally outdid themselves planning and providing this little soiree celebrating the female contingent of Tiny Cat Pants regulars. In fact, I hesitate to even call it a “little” soiree because it really was not - THIS WAS HUGE! Tee hee. Who knows, maybe this was a test run and Mr. Mack has evil plans of kidnapping us all for his future harem - there was some discussion of everyone going and getting tattooed (after a few more drinks, of course), and it was just a little bit suspicious that Mack had “a place down the road” where we could all go and get ‘em done “right now”, I’ll say that much. But no, we all escaped - this time.

I kid - Mack was a wonderfully gracious host, abundantly so, and I appreciate more than they’ll ever know all that he and our kind hostess B. did to put this together. I had such a great time, and I am totally in love with Mack’s cabin and want to live there, and the woods, and the creek, and everything in the vicinity. And I also want his three awesome dogs while I’m at it. And a majority of the cool stuff he has around all over the place.

But seriously, Mack’s place is exactly the kind of place that my betrothed and I hope to have some day, probably with more mountain and less farmwork, but we could totally live in that cabin and I may have to steal some building ideas if we ever have a chance to build. It is a lovely, lovely place.

The food was incredible and people had brought enough to feed a couple of armies. I hate that I was unable to fully enjoy the real honest-to-goodness tamales Mack had procured from his connection, but I am wimpy about super hot spicy food and I took one bite and almost had a stroke, but no doubt they were unbelievable if you can handle the hot stuff.

And just as with the food, the company was totally incredible and amazing. Besides oh-so-generous and gracious Mack and the awesome Aunt B. (and can I just stop right here and say B.’s new haircut is just as cute as can be and so flattering and suits her so well), there were so many wonderful folks, many of whom I have met before and know well, several who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. I was somewhat awed by and felt as if I were in the presence of Tiny Cat Pants royalty meeting the legendary The Professor and equally legendary and veteran commenter NM, who were both just adorable and a hoot. I have heard much good about how wonderful and hilarious SaraClark is, and those rumors were totally true. And I was especially pleased to finally meet the world’s most awesome medical librarian, Rachel, who I have had many many e-mail conversations with but had had yet to meet in person, and am happy to report she is just the most cute and adorable little thing and so pleasant and funny. Those librarian types are wild party animals, don’t let anybody tell you any different!

Then there were all those I know but was equally happy to see, like Ginger, who is always so much fun to hang out with AND makes maybe the best mac & cheese I have ever eaten in my entire life (apologies to Knuck, but Ginger’s M&C is pretty unbelievable stuff, man). Malia, who I’d seen earlier at the ‘Ship but was thrilled to see again, and is such a nice person and whose always-gorgeous hair I totally wish I had. Kate O’, who is such a sweetheart and hilarious and is just one of those wonderful kinds of people who once you’ve met her, it’s like you’ve known her for years and years. KathyT, who is always just so warm and welcoming and you just can’t help but love her to death. The aforementioned Kat Coble, who I was thrilled to finally get to spend more time with getting to know this trip (we got to talk for maybe 30 seconds last time I was in town) and is just an absolute pleasure to know, fun and funny! And the also aforementioned Ivy, who was her usual meek and mild, quiet as a mouse self (yeahsureright)… good lord, I wish Ivy lived with me ‘cos not only would I be laughing my ass off 24/7, but I would be able to get my house finally clean and in order once and for all. As you already saw, Ivy and I were doing quite a bit of Twittering Under the Influence throughout the evening. And last but never least, my fellow West Tennessee sisters, Newscoma and The Squirrel Queen, who are just the most fab and made the party complete.

Another big high point for me was meeting the lovely and friendly and pleasant Mrs. Mack - she had had to work that night, otherwise I would have loved to have been able to hang out with her ‘cos she seems really cool - and Mack’s kids, who I had met before but not really spent much time around, are just awesome and two of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet. But I’ll let Mack keep his kids when I usurp his estate for myself, I just want the dogs.

There were times it was a little hard for me to hear everything and everyone around me ‘cos it was just pretty much non-stop talking and laughter the whole time, which was great - but as near-deaf as I am after so many years of loud music, when I wind up in a group that big and it gets kind of noisy it’s really hard for me to follow everything sometimes, but there was just so much funny and hilarious stuff going on the whole time it really didn’t matter - I’m surprised I didn’t fracture a rib or three from laughing so hard and so much. And even whatever I didn’t hear or hear well, it really didn’t matter - the friendship and fellowship and the whole experience of it all was the same and wonderful.

So, the rest of y’all that were there but didn’t crash overnight missed one of the best parts of all, which was something only ‘Coma and Squirrelly and myself were treated to the next morning - Mack made us the most awesome delicious waffles for breakfast that were just divine! I think I will keep him around as a cook when I take over his estate.

I also saw a bigass Cottonmouth swimming in the creek, which was not so divine - I’m not wild about snakeage - but he was kinda cool to look at, and I was standing on the wooden bridge above him and out of harm’s way so that was okay.

If you want to see better photos (many of the same shots but with better cameras than my crummy cell phone camera), check out Ginger’s, who has the BEST pic of Aunt B. with the Campfield toilet seat (bwahahaha), and Squirrelly’s (who outdid herself with the graphics once again, that banner is so rad).

Leaving Mack’s on Sunday, I didn’t make a turn I should have and wound up in Goodlettsville, but finally found my way back to I-40 and westward and traveled to my Mom’s, where we went out for a yummy lunch and to look around at some cars. Got back to Memphis really late and the rest of the week has been a real bear, but that’s all right

Anyway, a very special and grand weekend, and much thanks to Mack & B for making it all happen. It was awesome and memorable, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

Just a quick note that at least a few people will be enjoying delicious Mothership BBQ for lunch - and each other’s company - tomorrow (Saturday) around noonish, so if you’re so inclined, come on down and join us. The WonderDawg, K-Co, Ivy, Finn, and I, and maybe Paul C., will be partaking, and whoever else shows up. Possibly Lesley will join us for a nice vegetarian plate of crack-n-cheese as well.

Grace, I would about pay you to show up and meet Knuck in person, but I don’t wanna spoil you guys’ comment dating or anything…

ARRRGH. I know everyone that still bothers to read here is tired of reading me griping. I’M tired of reading me griping. It’s probably going to last a little longer, though. All of this post-wreck car stuff and insurance stuff has turned my brain to mush, and I can just barely deal with blogging right now, I’m so whacked out. I just want to go stand somewhere and scream for about ten hours, and this is one of those times it would be nice to live more conveniently to Hooterville so I could go stand in Newscoma’s corn field or whatever the hell kind of field it is she has up there that’s so good for standing and screaming in, and I would do it.

It has really just been one thing after another over and over, and I’m tired of it. I was actually pretty satisfied - not only satisfied but very happy - with my insurance company until I learned yesterday that my rental car coverage is now over. I wouldn’t be so annoyed, except for the fact I asked at least twice, if not three times, about the timeframe of that. So now, not only have they left me hanging when I have plans for the weekend, but BECAUSE I had asked about the timeframe and thought they were covering that longer, guess what? I hadn’t really even seriously looked at replacement vehicles yet because we thought there was still plenty of time to do so! So now I’m stuck, in a major crunch, and pissed.

I think it’s all going to work out eventually but that just made things a much bigger pain than they already were, and it’s just been one thing after another and every little thing and I’m just, like, enough already. Tired of it. And there’s plenty of other things upsetting my little apple cart of life besides this car stuff right now, so I’m just really unhappy with a ton of stuff right now. But I will be SO glad when there is just SOME resolution, whatever it’s going to be, to this car junk. It was a tremendous headache I really didn’t need on top of all other frustrations with many other things right now.

And my brain really has turned to mush, even more so in the last couple of days that I have looked at ALL this new car stuff and used car stuff and more car stuff . Ugh. You know, all of my friends that ever moved to New York, the first thing they did just about was get rid of their cars. That would be SO nice. I thought car prices were getting a little ridiculous already back in the prehistoric times when I first started driving, but they’re just outrageous now. It’s insane. Necessary for the most part in this area (especially when you have responsibilities out of town), but insane.

I’m trying to look on the bright side of things if there is one, and I guess it stands to reason that I have had a car, and then two cars, neither of which I was very comfortable with driving out of town for various reasons for a few years now. So I don’t know that I’d go so far to say this was all a blessing in disguise, but there’s that. I just really wasn’t ready to start having to take on car payments again and late model car insurance and all that, but oh well, guess that decision got made for me.

And the IRS just screwed me so much it was insane, and then other things going on too - I just really could beat my head on the desk right now. That is, if I didn’t already still have a knot on my head from the wreck. At least the remaining black eye is finally going away.

What DOESN’T seem to be going away is our new little visitor. Which, you know, when you already have a bunch of pets, you don’t really notice another mouth to feed, so big deal, even though I really wish his owners would turn up. But if they don’t, we’ll manage. He really is very sweet but he’s completely psycho. He’s even wearing Quincy out (which is kind of poetic justice) wrestling and banging around the house playing with Quince. And he’s so funny looking. He’ll certainly make for humorous blog fodder and photos if he’s gonna stick around.

He’s also probably going to have a slight name change if he sticks around. His name was Tokyo, but there’s a Hoodoo Gurus song called “Tojo”, and I had a cat for 16 years that was named after a Replacements song, so it’s only fitting that this one gets a Gurus name, really.

Oh, and Buster and Petey apparently tried to kill each other while I was gone overnight this weekend, but though Buster’s fur is a nice shade of faded blood right now, I can’t find a wound on either of them except for a small one on Petey. Petey has a tendency to hurt his mouth when he gets too rough so that’s probably where the blood came from, but I really didn’t need to be scared to death like that when I got home Sunday night. But they’re fine, as they always are. And I was glad to see no signs of Bruiser having gotten into it, since he so often ends up inadvertently in the middle when he had nothing to do with it. Buster is just mad at the world because he’s smaller than his brothers and apparently hates Petey because he’s the biggest, and he and Petey are constantly growling at each other. Bruiser growls too, sometimes, but he really doesn’t know what he’s growling about.

So there you go, my big lame update for the moment. I know there’s lots more extremely important stuff going on in the world this week but I’m not even going to begin to address all that, many more people already have and so much better than I would have anyway.

One thing that IS important is that there will be at least a few of us having lunch at the Mothership this Saturday around noonish - nothing formal or planned, I just know Hutch and K-Co and I will be there, and maybe Finn, and I dunno who else - but if you want to join us for some BBQ or crack-n-cheese, come on down. We’ll probably be there until Knuck kicks us out at two-ish.

Now excuse me while I go bang the uninjured back side of my head against the nearest wall for a while. ARRRGH.