What to do in Memphis?

Food! BBQ, to be more specific. If it's been in business for a while and serves Southern fare, you likely can't go wrong.

There are the big names like Corky's (original is in mid-Town) and Rendezvous (downtown).

Interstate BBQ was our favorite. Payne's BBQ does a mean pork sandwich.
Both are in sketchy neighborhoods.

Full disclosure, we moved out 20 years ago. I'd PM user @EastMemphis for the latest scoop.

T

 

As a general rule, I tell people who aren't "familiar" with Memphis to just steer clear. To safely navigate this city, one must have first hand knowledge of where NOT TO GO.

 

True that. I would not go to Interstate or Payne's after dark.
I would also be careful about rolling up to any place in a Ferrari.

@EastMemphis - how is downtown doing now? When we moved there in 90s, it was a dead zone apart from immediate vicinity of The Peabody. Then they put in the new stadium, and it took off.

T

 

My three recommendations:

1) See the changing of the duck guard at the Peabody. Better for little kids, but a great tradition.
2) Get a tour of FedEx headquarters and watch the night flights come in very 30 seconds only to be picked apart immediately so packages can be sent through their matrix.
3) Hit Beale Street for food and music.

Matt

 

Since Covid, I don't believe FedEx offers any sort of public access to their facility. They are pretty serious about it. Watching the planes land might be good fun. Beale Street is an open sewer but if you like that, it's great.

 

Memphis is scary, even to its residents.

 

Graceland is good for a quick tour. Marlowe's bbq is near there and was good when we went.

BB King's place was a lot of fun. It helped that The Blues Boy himself was playing the night we went. Food was so-so as I recall...T

 

I'm not scared of anything. I do respect the dangerous aspects.

Memphis as a place to live can be quite good though. Someone coming from another city, say in California or virtually any other city is in for a big shock when they start shopping real estate. Memphis is and will probably always be, a very low price city. We have the same restaurants and other amenities as a upscale city but it's all concentrated in a few spots like east Memphis along the Poplar/Germantown corridor. We have an Apple store, several Whole Foods, a Trader Joe's and recently, an Ikea. Memphis has excellent restaurants that can match the best New Orleans can muster and that's saying a lot.

So living here is good. Visiting, not so good. A tourist who takes the wrong exit or gets lost in Orange Mound is likely to have an experience they'll remember.