Walking in Memphis

My husband and I decided very last minute to go to Memphis for the holiday weekend, so I got on and got $150/night rate for The Peabody. I was thrilled!!

We got there Friday afternoon and checked in, but our room was not ready. I will warn you, it's $21 per day for valet parking and $16 for self park. We decided to duck across the alley to Rendesvouz to have some ribs. Husband and I shared a full rack and I must say we were less than impressed. Now we are bbq fans from way back, but these ribs were dry and not very meaty at all. The service was almost non-existant and seemed part of the show. After that, we walked back to the Peabody and got our room on the 9th floor which was very nice. The rooms are a bit smaller than some would expect, but we're used to it as we go to New Orleans quite a lot. The bathroom was VERY tiny, but nice. Very nice towels and plenty of them. Nice ammenities too, even duck shaped soaps! We relaxed a bit and decided to hit Beale street.

We floated from bar to bar to visit some places we had been to on previous trips to Memphis. I had a Call a Cab at Wet Willey's. Very nice! We then went to Silky O'Sullivans where Silky himself was holding court at a table in front of the bar. We had a drink there called a Diver. This thing is a gallon concotion of something they won't tell you the contents of. Hubby and I shared this over the course of the rest of the night. We were a little hungry by this point, but just wanted a snack. We shared some bbq nachos at Silky's and these were to die for!! Silky's has a great menu with very affordable prices. We listened to some music and singing there and decided to go over to Pat O'Briens for the dueling pianos.

We got right up front in the piano bar and were kind of shocked. It was almost 10pm and it's usually standing room only in there. Most places were like that. It seemed that people were just buying cheap drinks from the stands and walking the streets. I couldn't believe there were so many people with small kids and strollers! Beale Street isn't really the place for kids. We listened for a couple of sets and then walked around a bit before calling it a night. We did browse through all the neat shops as well. Also saw fireworks too.

Saturday we had breakfast in the room from room service which we had ordered the night before. Peabody was right on time with when we asked to be served. The breakfast was hot and good. We then went down and caught the Duck March and that was nice. We then went to Graceland with directions we got from the concierge.

As everyone knows, Graceland isn't in a great part of town, but not bad during the day. We chose the Platinum tour at $32 each so we could see the planes and cars as well.

What a tourist trap!!! Every exhibit exits through a gift shop. There are also restaurants there across the street where you load onto the busses serving overpriced, greasy food. Face painting and tattoos can be had as well while you wait.

We had to wait about 45 to get on our tour bus to cross the street, but it was a nice tour. The headphones are nice because you can start or stop if you need to if you haven't gotten to the next room yet. The meditation gardens are beautiful as well. Very informative tour.

We went back across the street and saw the Lisa Marie and the cars. The plane was gorgeous!

By this time, we were tired and ready for some FOOD! We decided to try Neely's bbq as I had read some reviews here and it was highly recommended by our concierge. It wasn't far from our hotel and we found it easily. Now this was about 3pm Saturday, so definitely not lunch rush by any means. It wasn't very crowded at all, however, we couldn't seem to get seated. There was no hostess, but the sign said "Hostess Will Seat You". I finally had to grab a server and she seated us. All around us were tables that hadn't been bussed. We sat there for over 10 minutes before someone came and took our order. We ordered a sausage and cheese plate for an appetizer. I had pork ribs and hubby ordered beef ribs. They brought out our entrees, but never the appetizer. They soon brought it out and comped it off the bill. No attempt at drink refills or anything like that. I will say the bbq was AMAZING! By far the best I have ever had. It made up for the lack of service!

We went back to the hotel and decided to have a few drinks in the hotel bar. Not very strong drinks and overpriced, but I expected it as it is The Peabody.

By this time hubby is quite tired so we decided to retire to our room after we had explored all the shops on the first floor, and that took awhile!

The Peabody charges a 9.95 service fee each day for all the various ammenities it provides such as daily paper, etc. One of these ammenities is shoe shining. You call down by 10 pm to have your shoes picked up and then call after 6am the next morning to have the shoes delivered. I called around 8pm, set out the shoes as instructed.

I got hungry by about 9pm and ordered up a club sandwich through room service. It arrived around 930 and the server noticed the shoes hadn't been picked up yet and said she would tell the bellman to come and get the shoes. The sandwich was nothing special, but good.

Sunday morning we are packing and preparing to check out. I go to retieve the paper and see that my husband's shoes were never picked up. I called the bellman and they appologized. I asked if they could be done by check out and they said there was no one there that could do the shoes.

I then get out of the shower and grab my Peabody robe only to discover there are no belts on either robe! Very frustrating. I notified them of these issues at check out and the 9.95 fee was removed for both days, which I thought was more than fair.

We checked out and wanted to eat breakfast at a cafe on Beale, but it was closed so we had breakfast at Miss Polly's on Beale. I had an omelet and hubby had the chicken fried steak. Hubby's was excellent, but my omelet was over done and lacking in filling. Also, the biscuits weren't handmade. How can you call your self a Soul Food restaurant in Memphis without homemade biscuits??? Still a good meal with good service.

All in all we had a great trip and did everything we wanted to. I will say the panhandlers were on the rise as compared to previous trips and more aggressive too.