I recently came back from a business trip to Little Rock, Arkansas.  In some weird way I was looking forward to this trip because I never made it to this part of the country before.  I had seen many photos of Little Rock’s skyline and was always surprised how built out it was for a metro population of only 640,000.  Little Rock is also within a two-hour drive from Memphis, which was another city I had always wanted to visit.  When I lived in St. Louis, I was a 4-5 hour drive away from Memphis but I never made it down there so I thought this was the best chance I was going to get for a while.  I ended up flying into Memphis a day early and would drive to Little Rock in the evening.  

The two things I wanted to experience while in Memphis were the Beale Street entertainment district and Memphis BBQ and I was not disappointed by either.  Every now and then you hear someone compare Beale Street to Over-the-Rhine’s Main Street in Cincinnati.  While both streets are historic in their own rights, they are distinctly different.  The Beale Street entertainment district is a single street about three blocks long in the heart of downtown Memphis.  Over-the-Rhine on the other hand is an entire neighborhood separated from Downtown by a six lane boulevard.  Memphis deserves a lot of credit for integrating the Minor League baseball stadium and the FedEx forum on opposite sides of entertainment district.  Memphis truly is one of the more walkable southern cities of America.

As for BBQ, I attempted to visit Charlie Vergo’s Rendezvous but it was unfortunately closed so I eventually made my way to Jim Neely’s Interstate BBQ.  Luckily they were open and when I arrived someone was taking a photo of the building and sign (something I would eventually do) so I knew I was at the right place for Memphis BBQ.  I ordered the ribs and pulled pork platter and was quite impressed.  I loved the sauce so much I bought a bottle of it to take home.  The BBQ was good and the sauce was fantastic but in all honestly the ribs didn’t come close to the Montgomery Inn in Cincinnati.  They were good and I enjoyed them but not on the level of Montgomery Inn ribs. I eventually had Corky’s while I was there and preferred Jim Neely’s Interstate BBQ over it by a wide margin.  

While in Little Rock, I had the pleasure of visiting the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.  I thought the museum was well done with a full-scale replica of how the Oval Office looked while President Clinton was in office.  I thought downtown Little Rock looked better on postcards than it did in person.  The River Market was decent but outside this little entertainment district, the downtown was filled with endless surface lots and little retail.  I tried to replicate my favorite skyline shot I have seen in postcards but there is now a river barge in the way and the weather didn’t cooperate much.  I might be back there again so I will try to improve upon the current set on my next visit.  You can visit the Memphis photo gallery here and the Little Rock photo gallery here.

Yesterday was my first visit to Boi Na Braza and I must say that the restaurant is certainly a welcomed addition to the Cincinnati restaurant scene.  I had made reservations earlier in the week and when I called to confirm the reservation, I mentioned that it was a special evening and I was interested in “a special table for a special occasion”.  My only goal in this was not to be crammed in a two seater in the middle of the floor. Well if it was luck or the restaurant taking care of us, we had a great table off to the side, next to the window facing Tiffany’s and Fifth Street.  It offered a great view of the street, the salad bar and the fireplace.  The staff asked if we had been to a Brazilian steakhouse before and then went over the concept of a Churrascaria .  The interior was fantastic and the salad bar had a great presentation and the restaurant was packed with people.  Many of the servers that bring around the steaks were from Brazil with deep accents.  I had struck up a conversation with one of them and asked him if he had enjoyed his stay in Cincinnati and he said he had enjoyed Cincinnati so far.  During the Churrascaria experience, the servers brought around 15 different cuts of meat.  I believed we might have tried all of them with my personal favorites being the Picanha, which is the house special, and the Costela.  The dinner included the salad bar and unlimited amount of steak for $44.95 per person with drinks and dessert extra.  Be ready to be teased with a dessert cart of amazing desserts.  

After dinner we walked outside to hear what appeared to be opera music.  I was initially surprised until I found out it was a movie on the jumbotron across from Fountain Square.  We walked over to the square and sat down at an open table and were pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable a movie on the square could be, the volume from the speakers was adequate and the brightness from the screen was just right.  Many people walked on the square with the same initial thoughts that we had.  I was “people watching” during the movie and realized that the only thing keeping the square from being busier were the lack of seating.  It was great to see the square filled with people that were there for more than just a photo with the Genius of Water.  There was a concessionaire that sold soda and popcorn and a vendor that sold beer.  I would request that the beer vendors offer some local great tasting beers such as Christian Moerlein and Sam Adams instead of the typically horrid Bud Light.

After the movie we walked down to see the new Cadillac Ranch bar when I heard a live band playing down Vine Street.  We continued to Cadillac Ranch and were pleasantly surprised.  I had been vocal to many of my friends about my dislike for country music but this place was well done.  Take note future developers, this is how you put together a lively street scene in a city.  The bar was very open with much of it overflowing onto Sixth Street.  I couldn’t help but imagine what the corner of Sixth and Walnut would be like with Bella reopened as Nada, Bootsy’s new place on Walnut and the new seafood restaurant going in at the newly expanded Great American Insurance retail space.

After a brief stop at the Cadillac Ranch , we went off to investigate the live music down Vine Street to discover Vince Neil jamming with his band in the Back Stage area of Vine Street.  He actually sounded better than I thought he would live.  The sound of live music heard throughout the Backstage area of Downtown was energizing. The concert was sponsored by the Lodge Bar & McFaddens and was dubbed Seventh Street Summerfest .  Now if only this was going on every Saturday night.

Downtown Cincinnati has come along way since Fountain Square has closed for remodeling.  While it was hard to feel optimistic about downtown last year, now that things are coming together and many businesses have reopened I can’t help being excited about the future of downtown nightlife.

I didn’t take any photos last night, but I leave for a business trip tomorrow so you should see photos of two new cities in the next week.