Carolinas, Georgia & South Trips (Lonely Planet, 1st Edition) - Alex Leviton [132]
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken
This concrete bunker is home to some of the best fried chicken in the universe. 901-527-4877; 310 S Front St, Memphis; mains $5-9; 11am-9pm Sun-Thu, to 10pm Fri & Sat;
Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que
Try the oddball barbecue spaghetti at this homey “pork house”. 901-775-1045; www.interstatebarbecue.com; 2265 S Third St, Memphis; mains $5-9; 11am-11pm Mon-Thu, to midnight weekends;
Leonard’s
Hungry downtown office workers fill up at the plentiful buffet at Leonard’s. 901-528-0875; www.leonardsbbqdowntown.com; 103 N Main St, Memphis; mains $4-19; 11am-8pm Sun-Thu, to 9pm Fri & Sat;
Payne’s Bar-B-Q
This south Memphis storefront is your place for post-Graceland pork sandwiches. 901-942-7433; 1393 Elvis Presley Blvd, Memphis; mains $4-6; 11am-6:30pm Mon-Sat;
SLEEP
Talbot Heirs
Each suite in this small brownstone hotel has its own personality, plus a full kitchen. 901-527-9772; www.talbothouse.com; 99 S Second St, Memphis; r $130-275
USEFUL WEBSITES
www.memphisflyer.com
www.memphistravel.com
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LINK YOUR TRIP www.lonelyplanet.com/trip-planner
TRIP
1 A Taste of the South
56 Memphis Music Tour
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Return to beginning of chapter
TRIP 55
Going to Graceland: Touring the Shrine of Elvis
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WHY GO When Elvis wiggled his hips, women fainted, preachers screamed hellfire and damnation, and the National Guard had to storm in to keep the peace. Come on down to Memphis to visit the King’s home, his studio, even his favorite diner, and find out what the madness was all about.
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TIME
2 days
BEST TIME TO GO
Apr - Jun
START
Memphis, TN
END
Memphis, TN
ALSO GOOD FOR
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Elvis Aaron Presley lived most of his life in Memphis - this sultry, gritty city on the banks of the Mississippi River. He was raised here on the hallelujahs of Pentecostal Holiness choirs and the rhythms of the blues singers in the Beale St clubs, sounds that would later inform his genre-bending rock ’n’ roll.
Graceland Mansion lies about 7 miles south of downtown on Elvis Presley Blvd, a seedy thoroughfare of fast-food restaurants and cash-checking agencies. The white-columned Colonial-style mansion - smaller than one might have imagined - sees 600,000 visitors a year. A then-22-year-old Elvis bought it for about $100,000 in 1957, the year after his self-titled debut record was released by RCA.
Press play on the free audio tour and enter. Graceland, as you’ll see, is as much a shrine to ostentatious 1970s decorating as it is to Elvis. Highlights include a hideous wood-paneled kitchen where housekeepers once fixed vats of banana pudding; a stairwell covered entirely - ceiling included - in pea-green shag carpet; and, of course, the tiki-styled Jungle Room, with its faux waterfall and leopard-print furniture.
Out back, you’ll find the movie memorabilia-filled Trophy Room, the racquetball court, and Elvis’ old office. The Platinum admission includes tours of Elvis’ private planes, the Elvis jumpsuit collection and the Graceland Automobile Museum.
If you feel like the tour’s over rather quickly, it may be because you can’t go upstairs. Elvis always greeted visitors on the 1st floor, keeping the upper bedrooms his private space. Priscilla and Lisa Marie have left it that way (plus, the volume of visitors means the estate would have to knock a hole in the wall for an exit staircase, potentially angering the King’s ghost).
Elvis died here, face down in the bathroom, on August 16, 1977, felled by heart failure likely brought on by chronic drug abuse. He was 42. He’s buried out back with his parents and grandmother in the Meditation Gardens, next to the kidney bean-shaped pool. There’s a grave marker here for Jesse Garon, Elvis’ stillborn twin brother, though his body is buried some 100 miles away in Tupelo, Mississippi.
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THE KING IS DEAD
During Elvis Week (www.elvisweek.com)