Changing Landscape
New tenants, enhanced focus for Beale Street
JON W. SPARKS | Special to The Daily News
Beale Street’s recent announcement that it is welcoming three tenants goes well beyond having a few cool new places to hang out.
“Beale Street is where the blues was born and W.C Handy was the father of the blues. Young people can’t come at night, but in the day they get a perspective of why Beale Street is important to Memphis.”
– Elaine Turner, Beale Street tour operator
“We’re as close to capacity as we’ve ever been,” said Ken Hall, spokesman for the Performa Entertainment Beale Street management company.
Increasing capacity has been the goal since Beale’s rebirth in 1982, and now the primarily nighttime entertainment area is moving into the sunshine with an increased emphasis on daytime attractions.
Two of the new tenants are familiar venues from around the corner: Ground Zero Blues Club is moving from Lt. Lee Avenue into the former Pat O’Brien’s at 310 Beale, aiming for an early April opening. Its former neighbor, Red Rooster, is its new neighbor now at 340 Beale.
The third is a new enterprise, Little Anthony’s Soul Food, and is remodeling 341-45 Beale to serve Southern cuisine and breakfast.
Breakfast on Beale isn’t new — Miss Polly’s Soul City Cafe has been there a couple of years — but never have early risers been of such interest to Beale Street.
Performa is encouraging daylight marketing to tour groups, conventioneers – and children.
“I recently did a tour with four busloads of high school students from Missouri,” Hall said. “They had breakfast at the Hard Rock Cafe, which is not usually open for breakfast, but for 150 kids, yes we certainly will.”
It’s becoming common to see school buses lined up near Beale, bringing youngsters on field trips. Elaine Turner’s Heritage Tours operates the W. C. Handy Historic House and provides walking tours of Beale.
“Beale Street is where the blues was born and W.C Handy was the father of the blues,” Turner said. “Young people can’t come at night, but in the day they get a perspective of why Beale Street is important to Memphis. They look, of course, at Handy and the blues, but also at how other genres and musicians developed.”
The Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame introduces students to new names while historical markers dotting the street reveal worlds in business and culture, such as Ida B. Wells, Robert Church and the Hunt-Phelan Home.
“Beale Street is inundated with history,” Turner said. “And you can spend hours talking about it.”
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