You should probably go to the Arcade, a vintage diner where some scenes from "Mystery Train" were shot. i.e. "This...is Elvis' comb!" It's been redecorated since then, but still has the old-school diner ambiance and I had a great diner breakfast there. A block or so down there was a vacant lot where the motel used to be that a lot of the scenes were filmed in and Screamin' Jay Hawkins was the desk clerk. It's also fairly close to the Civil Rights Museum. It has a nice old neon sign too.
"The Arcade Restaurant is a landmark treasure lying in downtown Memphis, across from Central Station. The food is wonderful with great breakfast and hand-tossed pizza. The ambiance is familiar as the restaurant has a "diner" feel to it. If in downtown, make sure you stop by the Arcade for either breakfast, lunch, dinner, or all three. 540 S. Main"
My friend and I enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Beauty Shop, followed by a set by a band I don't remember at the Hi-Hat.
"Beauty Shop, The 966 South Cooper, Memphis, TN 38104, 901-272-7111, Set inside an old 1940s-style beauty shop, patrons of this restaurant can dine in refurbished hair-dryer chairs. An eclectic array of chairs and tables from antique stores keeps up the beauty shop theme and the menu, which is globally inspired, provides a wonderful range of culinary influences sure to please all customers. They are open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner and open on Sunday for brunch."
Rendezvous downtown is upscale BBQ, been there for decades, they specialize in ribs. It's close to the Peabody so you can go there for dinner after the happy hour "show" in the hotel lobby.
I'd like to go back to the Rock & Soul Museum. We spent a good 3 hours in there, looking at cool memorabilia and listening to great rock & soul tunes on headsets. Also Gibson has a factory museum there, we didn't make it but have heard it's interesting.
Sun Studio is another place I might go back to, not for the tour necessarily, which is kind of cheesy, but just to stand in the room again where all that great music was recorded. I don't think anything has changed, same linoleum same ceiling tiles. Looks that way in all the photos anyway. And I got some CDs in the gift shop.
