Memphis keeps its liquor licences in a state register that took a wrestling match to open and then gave up four of these five rooms, active and dated. The fifth is beer only and licensed by a city board that publishes nothing, which is the most Memphis sentence in this guide. On this road the operator channel of record is Instagram, because three of the five websites are dead, stale or hijacked.
- 1 · The Cold Open
Rum Boogie Cafe
Beale Street's most durable room, pouring since 1985 under a ceiling of more than two hundred signed guitars. James Govan fronted the house band from opening night for nine years, and the Boogie Blues Band still works the stage while FreeWorld holds Saturday nights. The whole street is a National Historic Landmark district, listed in 1966, and this is the bar that wears it lightest. Touristed and unbothered by the fact; the five dollar cover after six is the fairest ticket on the strip. The kitchen sells Championship Gumbo and ribs, but the move is a cold longneck under the signed guitars while the band settles in. Live music seven nights a week, lunch through last set.
est. 1985; the B.B. King guitar story belongs to another bar and we no longer tell it · daily 11am till 11pm, Fri and Sat till midnight; five dollar cover after 6pm · verified Aug 2026
the Boogie Blues Band works the stage most nights
- 2 · The Detour
Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous
Down General Washburn's Alley and into a basement that has smelled of charcoal since 1948. Charlie Vergos vented an old coal chute, seasoned pork ribs Greek style with paprika and vinegar, and invented the Memphis dry rib. He stayed downtown when others fled after 1968, was voted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame after his death in 2010, and his family still runs the alley; they counted seventy eight years this fall. Waiters in white shirts have heard every joke and will bring a cold pitcher without being asked. Order the dry rub ribs and do not raise the wet question; the argument was settled here decades ago. Closed Sunday and Monday, open Tuesday through Saturday from eleven in the morning.
est. 1948, and the family counted 78 years this fall · SHUT SUNDAY AND MONDAY; Tue to Thu 11am till 9pm, Fri and Sat till 10pm, and they open for lunch now · verified Aug 2026
- 3 · The Anchor
Wild Bill's
A cinderblock juke joint on Vollintine where the Juke Joint All Stars play soul blues at a volume that settles disputes. Big Don Valentine opened it in the mid nineties with bluesman Big Lucky Carter and a cab driver named Willie Story, the Wild Bill of the sign, gone since 2007. The room survived its founders and a long slide until Manny Williams took the keys in 2018, and Big Don still sings most Sunday nights. Beer comes as a forty with a stack of plastic cups; sit at a long table with strangers, that is the format. Ten dollars at the door, five if you carry your own bottle in, and the kitchen fries catfish and wings late. Music Thursday to Sunday from around eight; closed Monday.
- 4 · The Wildcard
Lamplighter Lounge
Midtown's stubborn dive, lamp lit and low ceilinged, where Miss Ann Bradley kept the room for some forty years before handing it to two working musicians in 2018. Miss Shirley tended the bar from 1983 until 2010, tolerated no cursing, and flipped burgers whose method the kitchen still follows. The state finally licensed liquor here in May 2025, so the beloved beer only fact is dead, but the beer is still cheap and the room still runs on cash. Order that cheap beer and a grilled cheese from behind the bar and take the night as it comes. Punk bands, drag nights and comedy share a stage the size of a rug. Every Memphis musician has played here or slept it off here. Open nightly, Sundays from noon.
the Midtown dive; Miss Ann's forty years ended in 2018, and the liquor licence only arrived in May 2025 · Mon to Wed 6pm till 1am, Thu to Sat till 2am, Sun from noon; over 21 after 6pm · verified Aug 2026
- 5 · The Last Call
Earnestine & Hazel's
A drugstore from 1929 that became Earnestine Mitchell and Hazel Jones's cafe, then the loosest bar on South Main, with a brothel's worth of small rooms upstairs. The Soul Burger still comes off the upstairs griddle the way it has since the nineties, one item and no menu required, and money for the jukebox is not optional; regulars swear the machine answers your thoughts. Sunbeam Mitchell's Club Paradise money built the legend, and the South Main Historic District paperwork holds the fabric. Sold in February 2021 and reopened that August by a group who promised to change nothing, and largely kept the promise. Ghost stories are told by agreement, not evidence. Lunch from eleven Wednesday to Sunday, evenings the rest of the week, late on weekends.
the 1929 drugstore, Earnestine and Hazel's from the 1950s, sold 2021 and reopened unchanged · Wed to Sun from 11am, Mon and Tue from 5pm; midnight early in the week, about 3am at weekends · verified Aug 2026