If you think you know Memphis – think again!
There is so much art, music, dance, history, culture and scrumptious food to be found that when it comes to discovering all that this southern city has to offer, it’s hard to know where to begin.
You like Memphis, but you don’t know whether to make the city your next meeting destination? Well, that’s a no-brainer and here are just a few reasons why.
Lets start with Memphis being the Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
In 2000, Memphis, which has more than 60 tourist attractions, made major league strides in the world of professional sports, as the city opened
AutoZone Park, a brand new retro-style ballpark for the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, the Memphis Redbirds.
GETTING THERE
Memphis International Airport (MIA) is the largest air carrier airport in the Mid-South region, servicing more passengers than Nashville, Jackson, MS or Little Rock, AR. Memphis
International is also a hub for the new global airline Delta Airlines/Northwest. MIA, reportedly a leader of on-time departures and arrivals, has the shortest connection time of any connecting hub in America for both domestic and international connections.
TIME TO MEET
Need a host hotel? The Peabody (www.peabodymemphis.com), considered the South’s Grand Hotel, is another no-brainer. It’s a one-stop shop!
Located only 20 minutes from the Memphis International Airport and literally two blocks from the famed Beale Street, this national historic landmark, which has been considered the south’s grand hotel for more than 14 years, will probably surpass all a group’s needs.
The convention facilities offer 80,000 sq. ft. of ballrooms and meeting spaces, which can accommodate groups from 10 to 2000. The Grand Ballroom: 16,000 sq. ft., divisible into six separate meeting rooms, seats over 1,200 banquet-style and 2,100 theater-style; the Continental Ballroom: junior ballroom, over 4, 200 sq. ft., Mezzanine Level room and breakouts: eleven spaces on the ballroom level. The Peabody Executive Conference Center: specially designed to fit small meeting needs, from 300-1,100 sq. ft.
A highlight and popular attraction at the hotel is the tradition of the famous Peabody Marching Ducks, which began in 1933. Every day at 11 a.m. they are led by the Duckmaster Jason Sensat, down the elevator to the Italian travertine marble fountain in the Peabody Grand Lobby. A red carpet is unrolled and he ducks march through crowds of admiring onlookers to the tune of John Philip Sousa’s King Cotton March. The ceremony is reversed at 5 p.m. when the ducks retire for the evening to their palace on the roof of the hotel.
There are several restaurants including Chez Philippe and Capriccio Grill Italian Steakhouse. There is a Peabody Sunday Brunch as well as a Peabody Deli & Desserts that offers quick sandwiches, pastries and coffees.
There are 464 guest rooms, including 15 suites. Each of the guest rooms and suites are architecturally unique, yet all include 24-hour room service, an athletic club, Gould’s Day Spa and Salon, guest parking, concierge service, shopping and more.
THE MEMPHIS COOK CONVENTION CENTER
Considered one of the nation’s most flexible multi-use convention centers, the Memphis Cook Convention Center offers 350,000 sq. ft. of space designed especially for conventions, tradeshows, and performing arts. The center is located in the downtown convention district on the Trolley Line, convenient to hotels, attractions, shopping, and entertainment, and is only 12 miles from the Memphis International Airport.
The Convention Center hosts more than 500,000 visitors and generates over 100,000 hotel rooms nights annually. The Ballroom is 28,000 sq. ft. and is divisible into five sections. The Special Exhibition Hall is 35,000 sq. ft. and is designed to house exhibitions, small public shows and trade shows. There are 31 meeting rooms offering more than 70,000 sq. ft. of meeting and breakout space (including the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts) The Performing Arts Center is a 2,100 seat state-of-the-art, acoustically superior center designed as the permanent home of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and an ideal location for
theatrical productions, concerts, the ballet, convention general sessions and large-scale
audio/visual presentations. There is 190,000 total sq. ft. of exhibition and pre-function show space and 31 breakout rooms ranging in seating capacity from 10 to 1,000.
MIRIMICHI
FORE!!!
If you’re in Memphis, you have to checkout Mirimichi, (www.mirimichi.com) a premier public golf course owned by none other than Justin Timberlake. Located just 15 minutes north of Downtown Memphis, the course is beautiful and challenging. Have a lot of fun with a Virtual Long Drive Contest and/or get analysis of your swing by one of Mirimichi’s pros.
THE CHEW
Memphis is known for its good food – especially it’s BBQ.
There is no shortage of BBQ in the city. Whatever way you want it, you’ll find it.
Corky’s Ribs & BBQ (www.corkysmemphis.com) is known for serving some of the finest hickory-smoked ribs and BBQ. The family-friendly restaurant is a local delight as well as a tourist favorite. Get beef, shrimp, pork, chicken or catfish. Lots of odds-n-ends, including Italian spaghetti, tamales & chili and more. Thankfully they are not stingy with the grub. You get lots of food. Desserts do not disappoint! There is chocolate fudge pie, karo pecan pie, apple or peach cobbler, homemade banana puddin’ and double fudge brownie sundaes. On this particular occasion the sausage/cheese and potato skins appetizers were incredibly tasty as are the dry rub ribs, cole slaw and beans, eatin while ‘Stubborn Kind Of Fella’ by Marvin Gaye wafted through the air.
You can’t go wrong with a meal at the Majestic Grille, (www.majesticgrille.com) which was built in 1913 in what used to be the Majestic No. 1 Theatre.
Interstate Barbeque (www.interstatebarbecue.com) is crazy good. Ever heard of the Neelys. Yeah, those Neelys. Well, this place was the first to put the Neely name on the Memphis BBQ scene. Specially built pits keep the meat fall-off-the-bone moist.
Charlie Vergo’s Rendezvous (www.hogsfly.com) is located in the alley across from the Peabody. The restaurant is known for its unique ribs, which are cooked over charcoal, based with a vinegar “juice” and sprinkled with a special seasoning.
NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
HIGHLIGHTS
The National Civil Rights Museum (www.civilrightsmuseum.org) is a must see!
Housed in the Lorraine Motel, site of he assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this museum is a walk through history. Exploring the Legacy adds 12,800 sq. ft. of exhibition space and connects the main campus of the Museum to the Young and Morrow building and the Main Street Rooming House where James Earl Ray allegedly fired the fatal shot the killed Dr. King. Be warned: this is an emotional experience.
LORRAINE MOTEL
ROOM #306, LORRAINE MOTEL
Whether you’re into music or not, you’ll probably still enjoy the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (www.staxmuseum.com). The facility is located on the original site of Stax Records and it pays tribute to all of the artists who recorded there. There is a rare collection of more than 2,000 interactive exhibits films, artifacts, items of memorabilia and galleries. Included are the original Stax recording equipment, the organ used in the recording of “Green Onions” and Isaac Hayes’ restored peacock-blue 1972 Superfly Cadillac El Dorado.
STAX MUSEUM
Beale Street is history! Beale Street is culture! Beale Street is music!!
No visit to Memphis is complete without a trip to the Beale Street Entertainment District (www.bealestreet.com). You can hear the music blaring from the establishments for blocks. It’s blues, it’s jazz, it’s cool, it’s hot!
Take in a show at the Orpheum Theater (www.orpheum-memphis.com). Regardless of what’s playing, it’s sure to be entertaining. And there isn’t a bad seat in the house.
HISTORY LESSON
If you want to know more about the history of Memphis, contact Elaine Turner or Joan Lee-Nelson with Heritage Tours. She’s a walking encyclopedia filled with incredible knowledge about African Americans in Memphis. Heritage Tours was founded by two sisters in November 1983 as the first and only African American owned, historical city sightseeing tour agency in the state of Tennessee. Tour highlights follow:
W.C. HANDY HOME & MUSEUM
Go to the home of W.C. Handy, who moved to Memphis in 1905. The W.C. Handy Home & Museum is where he and his family lived and where Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, wrote some of his most famous blues songs including: Mr. Crump Don’t Low, Memphis Blues, St. Louis Blues and Beale Street Blues. The home had been burned out, abandoned and forgotten until Harry Godwin, a blues historian rediscovered Mr. Handy’s Memphis home. Mr. Godwin spearheaded a successful campaign to save the landmark. On October 7, 1985, the home was moved from 659 Jeanette Street to the Beale Street Historic District.
INSIDE SLAVE HAVEN ON BURKLE ESTATE
SLAVE HAVEN
There is also the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum on the Burkle Estate (www.slavehavenundergroundrailroadmuseum.org).
The home of Jacob Burkle is one of the latest discoveries of Heritage Tours. It has become one of the most intriguing and popular sites on the tour. A German immigrant, Burkle championed the cause of assisting slaves to freedom.
Burkle was a wealthy livestock trader who also opened the first bakery in Memphis. But to his family and fellow conspirators, Burkle was one of the conductors on the "Underground Railroad. "
The old Burkle mansion is now known as Slave Haven.
Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum, located just north of Downtown Memphis, served as an important link in an intricate network of safe houses along various routes of the Underground Railroad. Lining the walls are historical documents and displays which paint a vivid picture of the past and reflect the harsh realities of slavery. A walk through the home reveals trap doors and a cellar that would have been perfect hiding places for runaway slaves. The secret hideaway can be reached by entering a trap door and descending the stairs to a small-bricked cellar. That’s where runaway slaves once huddled waiting for a signal that it was safe to leave on their journey to the north.
Drive pass Clayborn Temple AME Church, a well-known meeting place for civil rights activists in the 1960s.
“We hope someone will preserve this place with history in mind,” said Elaine Turner, one of the owners of Heritage Tours.
The Hunt-Phelan Home, owned by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, was a haven for slaves who, while there, were taught to read and write and then helped to escape.
Other tour sites include: Graceland, the Memphis Zoo, Sun Studio, the Memphis Rock n Soul Museum, First Baptist Beale St. Church (built by slaves), Mount Olive CME Church, Cotton Row, antebellum homes, the slave market district, civil war history and black business history. There is also a Music Heritage Tour that includes Beale Street, Soulsville, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, W.C. Handy Memphis Home, Memphis Rock ‘N Soul Museum, Royal Studio, Sun Studio and BB King and Elvis statues. There is also a Memphis Civil Rights Tour, which includes the National Civil Rights Museum, sit-in protest locations, Dr. Martin Luther King Memorials and the route of King’s last march. There is also a Memphis City Sights Tour, an Elvis Blues Suede Tour, a Memphis Nightlife Tour and a Beale Street Walking Tour. For information: www.heritagetoursmemphis.com
How do you like Memphis now?
