The Peabody Ducks

The Peabody Hotel is the Memphis version of New York City's Waldorf Astoria - a traditionally classic luxury hotel that stands out as an icon against an ever changing landscape of increasingly modern style properties.

Of course, while it's often nice to walk through the lobby of these grandiose properties for photos and glimpses of history, my parents do indeed favor the more contemporary hotels with more technologically advanced amenities.

But one thing that the Peabody has that the Westin will never is the world famous march of the ducks. According to the Peabody Hotel's website:

Back in the 1930s Frank Schutt, General Manager of The Peabody, and a friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas.  

The men had a little too much Jack Daniel's Tennessee sippin' whiskey, and thought it would be funny to place some of their live duck decoys (it was legal then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain. Three small English call ducks were selected as "guinea pigs," and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiastic. Soon, five North American Mallard ducks would replace the original ducks.  

In 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day and taught them the now-famous Peabody Duck March. Mr. Pembroke became the Peabody Duckmaster, serving in that capacity for 50 years until his retirement in 1991. The original ducks have long since gone, but after nearly 80 years, the marble fountain in the hotel lobby is still graced with ducks. The Peabody ducks march at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.

So no trip to Memphis would be complete without at least one visit to the Peabody Duck March. My first failed attempt was Saturday afternoon just before 5PM. We happened to be walking past the Peabody Hotel just as the ducks were going to return back to their penthouse suite, so we tried to get a peek last minute. Unfortunately, the lobby area was already very crowded, and I was in no mood to wait around, so I started crying hysterically. My mother and I just gave up and returned to my father who was patiently waiting by the doors with the stroller.

But the next morning, my father knew we needed to arrive early and stake out our positions. Even though we arrived around 10:20AM on a Sunday morning, all the lobby chairs and tables were occupied. Fortunately, there was still plenty of standing room along the red carpet where the ducks would walk across as they came out of the elevator towards the lobby fountain. By 10:40 AM, the area was full and kids were allowed to sit on the floor alongside the carpet.

Remember that we originally arrived at 10:20 AM. By the time it reached 10:59, I had been sitting there waiting for almost 40 minutes. For many adults, that would be long. For New Yorkers, that would be a lifetime. But for a soon to be 2 year old, it was an eternity. I was pretty much freaking out from boredom and crying loud enough to bother those around me. Unfortunately, there wasn't much my parents could do to console me. Each of their attempts was soundly rebuffed as I threw their bottles, toys, candy and smartphones on the ground in frustration and spite.

Fortunately, however, the elevator doors opened and I saw my feathered friends sprinting along the red carpet past me and into the fountain. Despite my father being 100% Asian, he wasn't able to get a good photo of the ducks racing past him. In fact, he pulled the trigger too early and by the time the camera reset itself, the ducks had already made it to the fountain.

But I forgave him since I was happy to see ducks so close. We then got to go near the fountain and take some photos of them swimming around and around.

Central BBQ

According to many Memphis locals, the best barbecue restaurant in town is Central BBQ.

Central has a few locations including a downtown location within walking distance from the Westin Memphis hotel, but we were lucky enough to also visit the original location (shown here) on Central Avenue about 5 miles east of downtown.

If you're not a barbecue expert, then here's a little BBQ 101 to orient yourself.

1. BBQ is probably the truest authentic American cuisine as hamburgers and hot dogs trace their roots to Germany (Hamberg and Frankfurt?) and pizza has its origins from Italy.

2. There are 4 primary barbecue styles in the United States - Texas, Carolina, Kansas City and Memphis.

3. Memphis BBQ is primarily pork ribs (both dry and wet) and pulled pork sandwiches (as well as other dishes like nachos and pizza).

4. It goes well with cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans and a large sweet tea.

5. BBQ is delicious.

Central Avenue Location
Central BBQ is one place on a long list of popular Memphis BBQ restaurants, but just about every local we asked told us we had to go to Central, so it was an easy choice. Since we rented a car on Saturday to visit Graceland, we decided to stop by the original location (2249 Central Avenue) for a late lunch.


About 5 miles east of downtown, the Central Avenue location is a standalone structure on a big street (similar to a McDonald's). There's parking available around the building as well as a covered outdoor patio for additional seating. We arrived just after 1:30PM so there was a line of about 10 people waiting to place their orders, but since the place is pretty small inside, half of the people in line were standing outside. Fortunately, there was a menu on the wall so new comers could think about what they wanted to order as they were waiting.

The place is very casual and is set up more like a quick service restaurant where you place your order with the cashier and then get a receipt with your order number and have a seat. As soon as your food is ready, a server will come out calling your number and will bring your meal to your table. Soft drinks are self-serve and free refill, though I think they they did offer some bottled beer choices as well.

Fortunately, they still accepted credit cards, though on the Saturday we went, they didn't take American Express cards, so have your Visa or Mastercard handy.

The wait wasn't too long and in about 10 minutes, our food was being delivered to us. We ordered a half slab of ribs (half wet and half dry), plus a pulled pork sandwich and 2 sides (beans and mac & cheese). The half slab is usually $13.89, but they were having a special that day for just $10. For some reason, it was cheaper to order the half slab of ribs and 2 sides a la carte instead of the Plate option (which came with 2 sides), so of course, that's what my father did.

The half slab was about 6 ribs, but with all the sides, the food was more than enough for an adult male. As you can imagine, the ribs were just amazing. Perfectly smokey flavored and the crispy outside paired perfectly with the tender juicy meat inside. The wet side was very tasty and had just enough spice to them, but we were glad that we ordered half dry as well, because the sauce can be overwhelming in excess. In general, we noticed (and loved) that Memphis food - fried chicken, baked beans and BBQ - all had some spicy heat to them.

And upon a strong recommendation from our Avis rental car associate that morning, we ordered a half order of the BBQ pork nachos. Crispy chips covered with pulled pork, spicy Central BBQ sauce, cheese and jalapenos. While delicious, it was VERY heavy and filling. We struggled to have more than a handful of bites along with our main meals. Even the half order of nachos was a massive portion, so definitely be very hungry if you dare to order the full serving.

Fortunately, they also have take away boxes to bring home any leftovers you may have. We definitely made use of those boxes at every meal because our eyes were oftentimes larger than our stomachs.

Downtown Location
On our last day in Memphis, we decided we wanted one last taste of ribs before we went back to New York, so we asked for a late 2PM checkout at the Westin and walked half a mile to the downtown location of Central BBQ (147 East Butler Avenue) for an early 11AM lunch.


Unbeknownst to us, we were actually walking in a pretty bad part of town.

The complete lack of pedestrians, abandoned warehouses with broken windows, empty mattresses in the alleys and shattered glass on the ground should have given my parents pause, but they were pretty hungry and it was 11AM on a Monday morning, so they continued onward. On the way back, however, we made sure to walk along South Main Street where there were more tourists and commercial establishments.

But it was a short walk and we arrived at Central BBQ just before 11AM, but unlike our visit to Gus World Famous Fried Chicken a few mornings before, there was no line and the doors were already open. As soon as you walked in, you were in the hallway with the big green menu up on the wall. This location didn't have the $10 half slab special, but every item was exactly the same as the Central Avenue location.

As you can see, the downtown location place was very spacious including a bar area with beers on tap. They even had another large dining room area in the back.

My mother decided to be "healthy" that day and had the BBQ Brisket Chef Salad. But as you can see in the photo here, I don't know how healthy the salad was because they definitely didn't skimp on the brisket. My father went back to his favorite half slab of Memphis ribs (half dry/half wet) with a side of beans and mac & cheese.

I however, couldn't get enough of their french fries and sweet tea. I even took home the souvenir Central BBQ cup to remind me of our great Memphis barbecue lunches.

Graceland

We decided to spend Saturday doing touristy stuff, and you can't come to Memphis without paying homage to Elvis Presley at his Graceland Mansion home.

The Mansion is located about 9 miles south of downtown in a part of town that you probably wouldn't ever want to get lost in. Since we wanted to get there early to avoid the rush, we rented a car for the day at the downtown Avis location for about $37 total.

We could have also just jumped on a free shuttle bus from the Rock & Soul Museum, but then we'd be stuck on someone else's schedule (first pick up was 10:30AM) and would be stuck going during the busiest hours. Hiring a taxi was another option, but that would cost about $30-35 each way, so renting a car was a much better choice for us.



After renting the car at Saturday 9AM, the drive only took about 20 minutes, but we took a detour out of the way to get some breakfast. After finding a Burger King, we got back on Elvis Presley Boulevard and eventually found the Graceland parking lot just before 10AM.

The parking lot is really easy to miss if you're not paying attention. After getting off the highway, you'll drive about 2 minutes down Elvis Presley Blvd. There you should see a green sign for "Graceland Parking" at the intersection immediately after you see big signs for the Heartbreak Hotel on the right side of the road if you're heading south. Parking cost $10, but you could pay with a credit card as well as cash.

Arriving that early, we were able to park very close to the entrance and walk easily over the small bridge to enter the ticket center. We didn't have to wait in line at all, but by 11AM, there were some pretty long lines. You have a choice of 3 different Ticket Packages, though we recommend getting the Platinum Tour Package ($37/adult) which will include the Mansion tour, but also the Airplanes, Cars, and several other period exhibits. My father brought his AAA membership card and got $3 off each ticket. Not an amazing savings, but an extra $6 gets you some good eating in Memphis.

When you purchase your ticket, it will have a time and group number assigning you to a specific Mansion shuttle bus boarding time. Strollers have to be folded up when boarding the shuttle. You will also receive an audio guide/headphones where you can listen to commentary as you walk through the home.

The 30 second shuttle bus ride will just take you across the street to the mansion where you will be briefly oriented and led into the house. My stroller was taken from us as we got off the shuttle. They brought it to the car park behind the house since strollers are not allowed inside the mansion and we picked it up as we left the interior portion of the tour.

The Mansion tour is self-guided with your audio headset. You basically walk in a line from room to room following the people in front of you, sectioned off by colored ropes to prevent adorable toddlers from making a mess. While you have the chance to linger in a room for a bit, you're really supposed to continue moving forward.

 

After the interior, you will see a few more of the exterior structures including the Trophy Room (where all his awards are highlighted along the walls) and the Racquetball Court (which is now a showcase of Elvis' Las Vegas sequined jumpsuits). The tour finishes at the grave site where Elvis is buried (with his parents and stillborn twin brother).

 

 

By the time you finish the Mansion tour, it will probably have been about 45 minutes and you're back on the shuttle bus taking you back across the street to the rest of the Elvis exhibits. Here's a map of the Graceland Attraction area:

Our Platinum ticket package had about 6 different tickets for the various exhibits. We ended up only seeing the Airplanes (a short tour through Elvis' two custom private planes) and the Vegas exhibits.

By then, it was almost 1PM and we were trying to get lunch at Central BBQ before heading back to return the rental car. So we gave away our remaining tickets to the '68 Special Exhibit, Tupelo Exhibit, Hawaii Exhibit and the Automobile Museum to another family with kids and took off in search of some good Memphis BBQ ribs...

Gus World Famous Fried Chicken

My father is pretty adamant about making sure his first meal in a new city is something indicative of that city. So when we visited Memphis, TN, we had our choice of either BBQ or Fried Chicken. Fortunately, with options like that, we couldn't go wrong either way.

We took Friday off to fly down from New York on the early 8:30AM flight, so we arrived downtown just after 10:30AM. Since our hotel room at the Westin Memphis Beale Street wasn't ready yet, we decided to walk a few blocks over to Gus World Famous Fried Chicken (310 South Front Street) when they opened at 11AM.



As you can see from the photo, there was already a line of devoted patrons at 10:50AM when we arrived. While we were probably the 3rd group there, we didn't realize there was a queue forming on the other side of the door, so we got in line. People must have been die-hard fried chicken fans, because no one even offered us to go ahead of them in line even though they clearly knew we had arrived before them. But we didn't care, we just enjoyed the delicious aroma of fried chicken wafting through the air.

At 11AM, the doors opened and people flowed in and took their seats at the checkered tables. It was a very casual place with laminated menus and young waitresses. For a second, my father didn't know if they even accepted credit cards (but they did).

We chose a table in the back corner by the 1950's style jukebox. The waitress offered me a high chair which I stayed in for the first 15 minutes while my parents and I ate our appetizer of fried pickles ($5.75).

 

Then I decided I wanted to sit next to my father in a normal chair as the 8 Piece Family Meal ($20.95) came out. Each of my parents got to try one breast, thigh, leg and wing as well as the BBQ beans, cole slaw and white bread. But no Southern meal is complete without a side of potato salad, so we ordered one of those as well along with a sweet tea (which was WAY too sweet even for my father).  

And the food lived up to the hype. While many people will wonder what made Gus taste so different, I have to say it was the thin crispy skin. Most of the fried chicken you get in NYC has a thicker skin that is almost a meal in and of itself. But here, the skin was paper thin and spiced with just the right amount of heat (more than KFC's Spicy but not as hot as Korean Fried Chicken). We had hot sauce available, but Gus' fried chicken didn't need any at all - the true sign of quality cooking!

In case you wanted to see what else they served, here's a snapshot of the laminated menu.

Full disclosure: on our cab ride to the Memphis Airport, our driver wasn't a fan of Gus Fried Chicken. He said, and I quote, "You can get just as good fried chicken at any gas station around here." Well, if that's true, we're going to have to check out some more gas stations.

Westin Memphis Beale Street

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: Westin Memphis Beale Street
Dates: October 11-14, 2013
Rate Paid: 10,000 SPG points/night 
Suite Upgrade: 2 Suite Night Awards
Regular Room Rate: $249/night
Regular Suite Rate: $1,099/night
Total $ Benefit: $3,297
Point Redemption Value: 2.5 cents/pt

This past Columbus Day weekend, my parents and I traveled down to Memphis, Tennessee to enjoy a long weekend of Southern food - lots of fried chicken and BBQ.

Fortunately, we were able to score some direct flights out of Newark to Memphis on United (free using our Citi Thank You points). Since we'd be spending most of our time in the downtown area, we didn't need a rental car either. Then add the fact that we used SPG points for our 3 night stay, we were looking at a pretty cheap weekend.

There's a handful of hotels in the downtown Memphis area, but there's really only two quality ones - The Peabody and The Westin. While both are pretty high end properties, the former is more of a traditional classic hotel and the latter being more modern. There are also a handful of other chain hotels (Sheraton, Doubletree, Holiday Inn), but my parents love their Westin, and I love my collection of Westin rubber ducks.

Suite Night Awards
The week before we arrived, my father decided to use some of his Suite Night Awards on our stay. For reaching 50 nights at Starwood this year, he received 10 Suite Night Awards for any Starwood stays through 2014. Basically, he can apply an award to any stay as long as he has enough SNAs to cover the entire stay. Then Starwood will start searching for suite availability starting 5 nights before the check in, and if there is a suite available, then you'll be automatically upgraded.

This approach takes a lot of the "risk" away from being subject to the whim of the front desk associate when you check in, especially since Starwood Corporate is handling the upgrade process and not the hotel itself. If you get to your check in date and the upgrade has not cleared, then the SNA is re-deposited back into your account to use for another stay.

So our SNA cleared this weekend and we were able to get an Executive Suite for the 3 nights. Hard to see someone actually paying the cash rate, but these rooms were going for $899-1,099/night on weekend stays. Given the hotel is situated 1 block away from famous Beale Street, you can imagine it's a popular weekend place to stay.

Check In
We were quite excited to have a large comfortable room, but unfortunately, we landed at Memphis Airport at 10:30AM, so we weren't expecting our room to be ready when we arrived at 11AM. The front desk pre-checked us in and told us they would call us when the room was ready.

We went over to Gus World Famous Fried Chicken a few blocks away for an early lunch (though to be fair, it was 12PM in New York). After our delicious first Memphis meal, we meandered around the shops of Beale Street for a bit before heading back to the Westin to check on our room a bit after 1PM.

But we were still too early. Having no where to really go, we decided to have a seat in the lobby and wait. However, it was getting close to my nap time, and I was growing frustrated with the deliberate pace of the housekeeping staff. The front desk did their best and made multiple offers to get us something to eat/drink, but we were still stuffed from our Gus Fried Chicken. By about 3PM, we were finally given the keys to our room.

The Room
We were given room 713, which was the corner room on the Starwood Preferred Guest floor. We were lucky that we were upgraded to the Executive Suite (which is a real one-bedroom unit) as opposed to the Junior Suite which is just a studio unit that's slightly larger than the regular traditional room.

The first thing you saw when you walked into our suite was the massive living room area with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking FedEx Forum, home of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.

Despite the website mentioning that the Executive Suites come with a dining room table for six, we just had an extra set of chairs and a round couch/ottoman thing. The room also had a large 42" flat screen TV with a small mini-fridge in the cabinets below. I, however, was more focused on the decorative plate full of tiny pebbles on the coffee table.

Then through another door, we had a separate bedroom with massive king size bed, 32" flat screen TV, desk and chaise lounge. Again, the entire room was flooded with light from the wrap around floor-to-ceiling windows. There were so many windows that the shades were controlled electronically from switches on the walls. Otherwise, it would take me all morning to open the shades after waking up.

While the Westin Memphis didn't have a swimming pool, the massive main bathroom in the suite more than made up for it with a bathtub that could easily fit 2 adults simultaneously or be converted into a makeshift swimming pool for a soon to be 2 year old.

Platinum Amenities

The front desk associate who checked us in seemed a little flustered. While we normally have someone walk us through the various options we have (Platinum welcome amenity, free internet, late checkout, etc), we were just handed our keys and pointed towards the elevator. Perhaps they're not too accustomed to having SPG elites stay at their hotel, but in either case, we figured we'd just call downstairs later to get our benefits.

We connected to the wifi using a voucher code given by the front desk. It was good for up to 3 devices for the duration of our stay. We could have also logged in using our room number and agreeing to the $6.95 charge for 24 hours (and asking for the charge to be removed at check out), but figured the voucher was easier to use. The internet wasn't that great as it often would get slow during peak usage hours and one of our devices kept losing signal (though we're not sure if it was due to the wifi or the device). Nevertheless, we wouldn't recommend streaming movies or making Skype video calls using the wifi here.

The Platinum welcome gift is usually a choice of 500 SPG points (worth $10-15 to us) or a continental breakfasts (cereal, pastries, yogurt, juice) each morning. Some Starwood properties actually give you a hot breakfast or a $ credit for breakfast at the lobby restaurant. However, at the Westin Memphis, it was a straight cold continental breakfast. Given we wanted to save space in our stomachs for some real Southern food, we opted for the 500 SPG points instead of breakfast. I know many other families would pick the breakfast option (especially since it's for every morning of your stay), but my father's pretty crazy about his SPG points and big BBQ lunches.

Other Hotel Features
As I mentioned earlier, we didn't need a rental car for most of our stay, so we didn't need parking, but I figured some of you readers might want to know about the parking options here. Parking in any downtown city hotels can be quite expensive and the Westin Memphis was no exception. Daily overnight self parking was $18/day and valet was $24/day. However, that gave you unlimited in/out privileges. But if you weren't going to benefit from coming in/out multiple times, the local parking garage next door charged just $10/day (but without in/out privileges).

The hotel restaurant is called Bleu, but again, we didn't see a reason to waste a meal opportunity on "regular food" when we could have amazing Memphis fried chicken and BBQ just walking a few blocks from the hotel.

However, my father did find some time to sit at the lobby bar watching college football on the three 50" flat screen TVs (Michigan-Penn State, Alabama-Kentucky and Texas A&M-Ole Miss) on Saturday night.

Bud light bottles ran about $3 each, which is the expensive hotel price given that you could get a "Huge Ass Beer" (32 oz) for $3 on Beale Street. But since my father's accustomed to paying $5-6 in New York City, he was fine with paying $12 for his 4 beers at the lobby bar in the comfort of his own hotel (without dozens of drunk Beale Street tourists).