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57 48 Hours in Nashville

64 The Bourbon Trail

63 Kentucky Bluegrass & Horse Country

56 Memphis Music Tour

58 Country Music Capital: Nashville

65 My Old Kentucky Home

54 Pulled Pork & Butt Rubs: Eating in Memphis opposite

64 The Bourbon Trail

60 Outdoor Chattanooga

57 48 Hours in Nashville

62 48 Hours in Louisville

55 Going to Graceland: Touring the Shrine of Elvis

59 Tennessee Oddities

61 Mammoth Cave

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TRIP 54

Pulled Pork & Butt Rubs: Eating in Memphis

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WHY GO Memphians love their barbecue and will fight tooth and nail over which pit master reigns supreme. Truth is, it’s hard to find truly bad pig in this town. Tour the city’s shabby-but-fabulous barbecue shacks, strolling its quirky, colorful streets between meals to work up your appetite for more.

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TIME

3 days

BEST TIME TO GO

Apr - Jun

START

Memphis, TN

END

Memphis, TN

ALSO GOOD FOR

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In Memphis, barbecue means two things: pork ribs or pulled-pork sandwiches. The ribs - mahogany-tinted and the size of a keyboard - can be dry (rubbed with a dry mixture that usually includes paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper and garlic, maybe some cumin) or wet (basted in a sweet, tangy sauce). Pulled pork means soft shoulder meat mixed with crispy charred bits and doused in sweetish tomato-based sauce.

For a Southern breakfast, you can’t beat sunny Bryant’s Bar-B-Q & Breakfast, in a corner storefront of a Midtown strip-mall. On Saturday morning, the line snakes out the door, and the red and yellow tables are full of young couples, yuppie families and John Deere hat-wearing grandpas chowing down on biscuits with sorghum syrup, greasy omelets, grits and country ham. On a weekday morning, swing by for one of its famous fried fruit pies and a cup of coffee to go, or stop in at lunch for a dirt-cheap BBQ bologna sandwich.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Memphis on the third weekend of the month, head to the flea market in the Mid-South Coliseum on Central Ave and Early Maxwell Blvd. Here, you can walk off breakfast by perusing the tables and blankets stacked high with glorious junk - doll furniture, discontinued brands of sunscreen, old Dr Pepper signs, panty girdles and mannequin feet. Nearby, Overton Park is another good place to work up your appetite for lunch, with walking trails meandering through forests of gnarled hardwood trees.

Cozy Corner, on a rather bleak stretch of North Parkway, is a serious don’t-miss. More dumpy than cozy, with wood-paneled walls and shredded vinyl booths, this family-run place is rightfully renowned for its barbecued Cornish hen. Tear the little bird apart with your hands and suck every bit of sauce off its tiny wings - it’s not considered bad manners here. Cozy Corner also does barbecue turkey and a mean rack of ribs.

About 5 miles to the southeast is Central BBQ, with massive rib platters and cheap, smoky pulled-pork, chicken or brisket sandwiches served at long tables in a sunroom-like space. There’s even a vegetarian option - a portabella mushroom sandwich - rarer than hen’s teeth in carnivorous Memphis. If the dense, moist caramel cake with crunchy brown-sugar icing is on the dessert menu, consider it your lucky day.

Afterwards, take a walk in Midtown’s arty Cooper-Young neighborhood, named for its cross streets. There are several good bookstores, bistros and boutiques, as well as a number of funky antique/junk warehouses. A little to the southeast, the Central Gardens neighborhood blooms with crepe myrtle and heirloom roses. A streetcar suburb in the early-20th century, it’s now a showcase for Memphis’s eclectic architectural styles - Craftsman bungalows sit next to Queen Anne and Tudor Revival mansions. The annual Home and Garden Tour, held in September, is like stepping into the pages of Southern Living magazine.

Another good place for eatin’ and strollin’ is the up-and-coming South Main Historic Arts District, where art galleries and pricy, jewel box-like boutiques sit cheek-to-jowl with