Restaurant SOB and Allison Krauss Concert

A catch-up post about my few days at home in Memphis. It was lovely. The respite from constant care-taking is always so welcome. I left KY on Wednesday afternoon, spent Thursday and Friday there, and drove back to KY on Saturday evening. That drive back was one of the easiest I've had; there was next to no traffic on the roads.

While I was home, we combined my birthday, our anniversary, and Max's birthday for a little celebration that took us out to eat and to a concert by Allison Krauss and Union Station. All of our events are about a week apart starting August 21st.  This time the weather cooperated - not blistering hot nor raining cats and dogs - and we had a lovely evening.

We started off by going to a "gastro pub" named South of Beale in downtown Memphis.
http://www.southofbeale.com/uploads/files/SOB_Menu_2011.pdf
It was an okay restaurant. The decor wasn't anything to write home about, a little dark for me, but I'm one of those weirdos who doesn't like to be surrounded by black and dark colors. The height of the tables was perfect. Being a shorty, I'm continually battling tables whose tops are at boob level and make me feel like I can just shovel the food into my mouth straight off the plate.

We ordered an appetizer of assorted meats and cheeses which was wonderful. The meats were salami, pepperoni and andouille sausage; the cheeses were caramelized onion, sage, and "Red Dragon." Everything was made in-house. The andouille and pepperoni were too hot for me; although, they tasted good. The salami was delicious! The cheeses were creamy and delicious. The Red Dragon was as suspected, a hot cheese, but I saw no pepper flakes only small round seeds. I'm stumped as to what they were.

Max got fish and chips, and I had duck breast and bok choy. His fish was perch, and he enjoyed it but said it was fishy tasting; so I wouldn't have enjoyed it. Shaking head at myself - as long as it doesn't taste like fish, I quite enjoy fish. His chips were cajun chips, so too hot for me. My duck and bok choy were delicious. There were little slices of duck and braised, halved, baby bok choy. Sad to say, I couldn't chew either. Damn denture. The duck wasn't tough; it just wouldn't chew down. And those of you with dentures know how hard it is to chew greens.

I got butterscotch mousse for desert, and it was fantastic. However, right after it was served, Max froze in his seat and exclaimed he'd left the tickets at home. So I didn't get linger over the mousse. We dashed home and back and made it in plenty of time for the concert.

The concert was absolutely fantastic. I think they were the best musicians I have ever seen. The dobro player was jaw dropping - Jerry Douglas. You can check him out in wikipedia by clicking here. He was the singing voice of George Clooney in O, Brother Where Art Thou. I was stunned at the amount of notes he could coax out of that dobro.

The Orpheum in Memphis

The organ at the Orpheum in Memphis

The concert was at the Orpheum (click here to check the wonderful old theater out,) and our seats were perfect. We sat on the first-level balcony in the last row in the center section. With a wall behind us, we had no worries at all about blocking anyone's views. I was lucky, and no tall huge person sat in front of me; so I could actually see the people on the stage.

The rest of the trip, I relaxed and recuperated. It was great.

Updated 9/5/11 to add pictures of the Orpheum