An estimated 3,000 people visit Crosstown Concourse each day, most of them working for or a customer, client or patient of one of the building’s tenants. There are also more than 260 apartments on the property as well as a high school that just opened its doors for its first class of 125 freshmen.
In addition to all the people who visit Crosstown daily since it opened in August 2017, there is also a steady stream of people showing up to do freelance assignments or to work remotely from their employer’s or home office.
Shannon Little left her job in marketing with the Huey's restaurant chain in Memphis to start her own solo marketing and social media venture. Such ventures at first glance might seem like a dime a dozen, leaving her with a task that had to be addressed before meeting with her first client.
She now handles marketing and social media efforts for several small businesses and is able to juggle all the tasks that go with that because she took the time to form a plan for herself at the very beginning.
"Define your target audience, your offerings and what value those offerings can bring to that audience," Little said, "My business became stronger, and my processes more streamlined, when I was able to define those terms."
Muddy’s is the first to admit they are new to the coffee shop business, but over the past 10 years their creativity and baking skills have surpassed many of the coffee shops in Memphis.
The cupcakes melt in your mouth. I don’t know what type of icing they have, but it’s just as good as the cake part. My favorites were Cookies &Cream and Chocolate PeanutButter. cookies are heavenly. Basically, any of their bakery items are exquisite.
Happy Friday, Memphis! Welcome to March. Here are the five things you won’t want to miss in Memphis this weekend.
2. Bike To Brunch: The Liquor Store, Revolutions Bike Co-Op, Saturday, 10 a.m., free, all ages/kid-friendly
If you haven’t done a bike-to-brunch with Revolutions, what are you waiting for? This week, they’re riding from Cooper Young (Revolutions is located at First Congo) to Broad Avenue’s The Liquor Store. Read all the details here, including how you can rent a bike to participate.
Read the full article at I Love Memphis.
Good morning in Memphis, where Beale Street turns from blues to funk tonight, but first…
As we tend to do at The 9:01 when vacations don't coincide with the start of the month, we flip the calendar by gazing ahead at some (note: not all) of the more interesting things on tap this month:
Real Memphis Wresting at Rec Room (Friday, March 2nd): The arcade bar at Broad and Tillman will switch from the Rec Room to the Wreck Room (I didn't come up with this) for live wrestling on the first and third Fridays of each month. It's not Monday night at the Mid-South Coliseum, but it should be interesting.
See more at The Commercial Appeal
Spring Break Planner: Volunteer your time
Not everyone will or can go on vacation this year, so if you are staying in town there are still really good opportunities to do some good while having fun.
Sarah Petschonek with Volunteer Odyssey and Andrewa Hill with Volunteer Memphistalks about upcoming events you can sign up for today.
See more at WREG News Channel 3
It's around 4:30 p.m. on February 16th, opening day for Crosstown Brewing Co. Two lines stretched from the bar to the back wall. The place was packed.
Was this what Crosstown Brewing founders Clark Ortkiese and Will Goodwin pictured when they ditched their old lives — Ortkiese in something that has to do with chain-link fences and Goodwin in sand and gravel — to parlay their backyard brewing hobby into a livelihood?
See more at The Memphis Flyer
When your local food writer starts writing about Prozac — and recommending it for everyone — you could say times are tough all over or you could just give in to the craving you know you have for a chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream icing at Muddy's Bake Shop. Chocolate on chocolate, that's the ticket.
Hard to believe that Muddy's on Sanderlin opened 10 years ago, when owner Kat Gordon was only 26 years old. A year later, her bakery was named first in the annual Memphis Most poll and has won virtually every local best-of since in addition to receiving regional, national and even international recognition.
See more at The Commercial Appeal
Social media and the Web continue to be important for small organizations, freelancers, and entrepreneurs; in fact, more so than ever. Your website and online presence can make or break you as they are many potential customers’ first impression of you and your business.
We can learn a lot from large brands, most of whom have large-scale marketing operations or teams. If you’re like me, you’re a team of one, with too much to do and too little time.
See more at Beth G Sanders.
Memphis is closing in on its 200th birthday. The river town that gave the world rock ‘n’ roll and FedEx and epic slabs of Memphis-style barbecue — all from the rowdy spur jutting into the southwestern flank of the Volunteer State — is set to commemorate its bicentennial in 2019. Two hundred years of making history and making waves — which, of course, is certainly cause for celebration. But the thing about Memphis is it’s not just the big moments and the tourist magnets like Beale Street and Elvis’ palatial Graceland that give the city its globally resonant brand. It’s everything else, too.
From the indie music scene to the makers and artisans, the craft brewing community and the food culture here will render obsolete whatever you thought you knew about the place that once caused a writer for Esquire to declare, “Whoever said ‘Good things come to those who wait’ must have been in Memphis at the time.”
See more at Food and Wine
Karla Burr, left, boxes up a few cupcakes for Shannon Little, a customer of Muddy’s Bake Shop. Muddy’s opened on Leap Day in 2008 in the Sanderlin Center. The operation started small, with recipes from the home kitchen of founder Kat Gordon, using mixing bowls from her home as well as garage-sale furniture.
The business has expanded to include a Midtown shop plus kitchen space on Broad Avenue. It is celebrating its 10th birthday with a week’s worth of events, including a midnight champagne toast on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 5101 Sanderlin Ave., plus a tour and tasting at Muddy’s Kitchen, 2497 Broad Ave., on March 1 and 2.
See more at Memphis Daily News
Spring is fast approaching, and we can finally feel that winter chill retreating — the Memphis social scene is warming up this March! From fundraisers and races to grand openings and galas, this month is packed with fabulous local events, and we’re ready to start celebrating everything the Bluff City has to offer. Get out your planners, because we’ve rounded up 18 of the hottest events to check out. Let’s get the March madness started!
March 1, 2018: Let’s Talk Design! at the Brooks Museum
Join the Decorative Arts Trust at the Brooks Museum to enjoy a glass of wine and lively discussion about interior design, architecture and creating environments in Memphis. Designer and Decorative Arts Trust board member Lana Zepponi will moderate the panel featuring Greg Baudoin of Greg Baudoin Interior Design, Ann Parker of Parker Design Studio and Barry Yoakum of Archimania. Free and open to the public, the event kicks off at 5:30 p.m., and the discussion begins at 6 p.m. decorativeartstrust.com
See more at Style Blueprint
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- When Shannon Little started her own public relations firm a few years ago, she quickly learned about the costs of being her own boss.
"I had one medication. When I had insurance, it cost me $50 a month. When I lost my insurance, my neighborhood pharmacy wanted to charge me $600 a month."
Little says $600 was a price she absolutely couldn't pay.
"That's a good percentage of my income, especially starting out as a new business owner, to be able to afford just one of my medications," Little said.
That feeling of sticker shock at the pharmacy counter is becoming more common.
Samantha Crespo, a travel writer and author of the book "100 Things to Do in Memphis Before You Die", says the Bluff City is the perfect place for a "stay"-cation.
See more at YouTube
If you love wine, food, and good company, you need to put Vintage 901 on your calendar!
In its second year, Vintage 901 is a 3-day wine, food, and music experience that is not to be missed.
I sat down with Vintage 901 organizer Stephanie Ferreira to learn more about this event.
“What guests will experience when they attend this event is 3 different days with 3 different venues and 3 different experiences. On Friday March 2, we will be at the Crosstown Concourse and that will be the Grand Tasting event, which is a more casual fun event where people can circulate and mix and mingle. You have Saturday – which is a little bit more formal event. It is at the Memphis College of Art and we will have our pairings dinner with our somm Laurie Forster and the dinner will be prepared by Chef Kelly English of the Restaurant Iris. And on Sunday, we will be at Shelby Farms at the FedEx event center, out there on the lake, and we will have a Sparkling Brunch and that brunch will be prepared by Chef Jimmy Gentry.”
See more at WKNO 91.1
With a "Fall 2018" sign now in place, site work should begin shortly on the Collierville Commissary, but operators of Midtown's The Bar-B-Q Shop say they still aren't ready to commit to a second location there.
There's heavy equipment on the property at the Gallina Centro shopping center at Poplar Avenue and Houston Levee Road and as soon as the weather dries up, they'll get to work, said restaurant owner Walker Taylor.
See more at The Commercial Appeal
Ongoing Events:
See more at Choose901
Next week, Muddy's Bake Shop marks its 10th anniversary of making this city a little sweeter. And owner Kat Gordon, with her always upbeat and can-do attitude, is the model of civic pride.
The spot named after Gordon's grandmother is known for its Prozac cupcake and Nancy's Boy pie.
See more at The Memphis Flyer
The Big Jump is a nation-wide project that aims to improve biking accessibility in specific neighborhoods. Together with Revolutions Bicycle Cooperative, The Works Inc. and City of Memphis Bikeway and Pedestrian Program, the Big Jump has brought its program to Memphis. In South Memphis specifically, the organization has appointed 10, teenage biking ambassadors from South Memphis to spread the positives effects of biking to others.
See more at Choose901
Montavious Dean, a 16-year-old from Hamilton High School, and Sequoia Campbell, an 18-year-old from Grad Academy, are among 10 South Memphis teenagers who’ve been volunteering their time for a singular mission.
They’re a group of “ambassadors,” participants in Memphis’ version of the national Big Jump Project, and have since November been attending monthly meetings to learn how to build and improve soft skills like leadership development. They’ve also been learning how to ride and maintain bicycles, which are the focal point of the Big Jump effort. On March 24, Dean, Campbell and their fellow Big Jump teen ambassadors will lead a community bike ride through South Memphis.
See more at Memphis Daily News
Stanley Bar-B-Que has closed, the ownership announced in a Facebook post.
The Overton Square restaurant had been operating in recent months while trying to reorganize its debt under bankruptcy court.
"With very heavy hearts we have to announce that we are closed,'' the Facebook post states. "Put everything we had into it. We want to thank our amazing regulars. Without you guys we wouldn't have made it this far. Only wish we could have convinced more of you to give us a try. You would have loved it.''
About a month after saying he hoped to keep his Overton Square barbecue restaurant open even though the business had filed for bankruptcy, Stanley Bar-B-Que co-owner David Walker said the eatery has shut its doors for good.
He confirmed to The Daily News the closure has already happened, and in a Facebook post Tuesday, Feb. 20, he noted that the team “gave it all we had.”
See more at Memphis Daily News
