Memphis, explained
Access Memphis Editorial Team 
The World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is a judged pork-cooking competition held each May in Memphis as part of the Memphis in May International Festival. Hundreds of teams cook whole hog, shoulder and ribs overnight in a temporary encampment, judges score entries against a fixed set of criteria, and the public can buy tickets to … Read more
A dry rub is a mixture of spices — typically some combination of paprika, black pepper, cayenne, garlic, salt and other seasonings — applied directly to meat before and sometimes after smoking, with no sauce involved. Memphis is identified with it because dry-rubbed ribs, alongside sauced “wet” ribs, are one of the city’s two defining … Read more
Memphis barbecue is pork, cooked slowly over indirect heat, most often shoulder or ribs, and served either “dry” — coated in a spice rub with no sauce — or “wet,” basted or finished with a tomato-and-vinegar sauce. That combination, plus the “plate” as the standard way of serving it, is what sets Memphis apart from … Read more
Yes, but only with a plan. Beale Street, Sun Studio and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music sit in three different parts of Memphis, none within walking distance of the others. A car or a rideshare, a realistic order — Sun in the morning, Stax midday, Beale Street last — and roughly six to … Read more
Sunday in Memphis is not a diminished version of the week — it runs on its own logic. Several major museums that close on Monday are open, Tennessee’s alcohol laws treat Sunday differently from every other day, and some of the city’s oldest congregations hold services in buildings that are also, separately, sites of civil-rights … Read more
A weekend built around Graceland works best if the mansion is treated as one long visit on one day, not a quick stop — it sits about nine miles south of downtown, in a neighborhood called Whitehaven, and the rest of Memphis’s music and history sites are clustered elsewhere. The two halves of the city … Read more
A rained-out day in Memphis works because the city’s core attractions are almost entirely indoors. Museums, the Lorraine Motel site, Sun Studio, Graceland’s exhibit buildings and Crosstown Concourse all operate under roof, and downtown’s grid is short enough to move between them by car, rideshare or the covered stretches of the trolley without much exposure … Read more
On a hundred-degree day in Memphis, the heat itself becomes the organizing fact of the day. Humidity pushes the heat index well above the air temperature, outdoor plans compress into the early morning or after sunset, and most of the city — visitors and residents alike — moves indoors from roughly late morning through early … Read more
A day in Memphis with children works best around two or three fixed points — one indoor institution built to hold a child’s attention, one open outdoor space, and unhurried gaps between them. The city’s family-oriented museums, its largest park and its riverfront sit close enough together that a car is useful but not strictly … Read more
A car-free day in Memphis works if it stays inside one compact zone — downtown, South Main and the riverfront — using the Main Street Trolley, MATA buses and walking, plus rideshare for the gaps. It does not work as a plan to see Graceland, Stax and Sun Studio in the same day; those sit … Read more
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