Immerse Yourself into The Genre's Speakeasy Cocktail Experience

The Genre Memphis The Garage

We are on the air at the Genre Memphis, your “musical timeline passport,” and we are soaring through time with multi-genre music and a good ole’ meal.

But this transit doesn’t stop with eras, if you take a couple of steps out of the Genre, you will find yourself at their adjacent speakeasy, The Garage: The Cocktail Experience.

Get to Know the Growing Voices of I Love Memphis Blog

group photo of ILM Blog contributors

Providing Memphians with ideas on what to do each week, where to eat, what’s new, giving you more reasons to love Memphis, and so much more would not be possible without the help of our growing number of contributors.

It's essential for the I Love Memphis Blog to represent the true tapestry of our community. So I’m proud to share that we are taking steps to amplify our city's culture by welcoming an ever-growing number of voices to contribute to our platform.

Take a Trip to the Lost Cantina in a Neighborhood Not Far, Far Away

shop owner holding a vintage Star Wars character helmet

Midtown is hiding a secret toy store pulled straight from another galaxy

The rumors have been spreading for a while now, orange stickers on light posts and street signs from Summer Avenue to South Main. Here and there, vigilant Memphians could see signs of something mysterious, something new—The Lost Cantina.

Ever one to seek out the lost, dusty corners of our city that somehow fall off of the tour maps, I set out in search of this fabled establishment on a recent autumn afternoon. 

What I found was no bar. 

Shop Local: Mili’s Flowers + Gifts Bring Flower Power To Crosstown Concourse

milli's Flower Truck

If you’ve ever seen an extremely cute, vintage mobile flower truck popping up at events around town, it belongs to Miriam “Mili” Cordero, owner of Mili’s Flowers & Gifts.

A lover of flowers since she was a little girl—she developed her passion for making floral arrangements with her mother and grandmother while growing up in Reynosa Tamauilipas, Mexico—Mili decided to take the leap and launch her business in 2019 after her and her husband found and renovated the “peachy” VW truck. 

Alice Faye Duncan: A Memphis Writer for Young Readers

author holding children's book

Alice Faye Duncan: A Memphis Writer for Young Readers

Being a child of two educators, it only made sense that children’s picture book author and activist Alice Faye Duncan would become a writer who teaches as well as entertains with her writing. While she didn’t follow in their footsteps and become a teacher, she DID see the gaps in the education system when it comes to history, thus beginning her journey as a writer. 

More Than Mocha: Turkish Coffee At Qawha Cafe In Downtown Memphis

fred making turkish coffee

Farhat Othmani, 56, wants nothing more than to have a conversation with you. He looks mild-mannered and maybe a bit shy—his square-framed glasses, clean-shaven face, and broad figure brings to mind Clark Kent with less of a superhero coif. But, he’ll talk your ear off if you let him. Even his adopted American name has stuck around because he believes it makes good conversation. He prefers to go by Fred.

Haunted: The Many Ghosts of Memphis and Where to Find Them

Mollie Fontaine Victorian Home

The living aren’t the only beings you can find walking in Memphis.

A bitter chill blasted through the balcony of the Orpheum Theatre. It seemed to pass directly through me as an Opera Memphis cast rehearsed for an opening night just days away. Immediately, I bounded down the nearby stairwell in a sprint. 

At age nine, I had just experienced my first encounter with one of the most well-known ghosts of Memphis.