Road Trip to Memphis

I had been to Memphis, Tennessee, once before for a brief trip. I didn’t get to see much. When I had the opportunity to go back and spend four days, I couldn’t wait.

It’s only about a five-hour drive to Memphis from here.  I left early with my friends Angela, Kylie, and Brittany for jam-packed girls getaway. They hadn’t spent much time in Memphis either and we were all anxious to arrive.

The one thing that became abundantly clear to me when looking at the itinerary is the vast difference between Memphis and Nashville, though the two cities are not that far apart. The difference is in the music that was started: country for Nashville; rock, soul, and blues in Memphis!.

We would be dividing our stay between two hotels and our first was the Madison Hotel.

The Madison Memphis is a beautiful modern hotel that we enjoyed exploring, but the definite highlight for us at the Madison were the elevators. We had fun during the rides checking out all the album covers of great musicians. We found new ones on each ride.

After we settled in and freshened up, we took an Uber (readily available and inexpensive in Memphis) to Celtic Crossing restaurant. It’s an Irish Pub in the Cooper-Young district.

They had live music out on the patio and lots of corned beef (my favorite meat) in various forms.

We started with some delicious cocktails. The Irish Redhead was a mixture of Absolute Vodka, raspberry liqueur and cranberry juice, with a splash of soda. It was very refreshing on a hot night.

My next cocktail was a bit sweeter, though equally good. The Jamison Jewel is made at Celtic Crossing with Jameson Whiskey, Peach Schnapps, Pineapple Juice, and Blue Curacao.

While Angela and I were sipping cocktails, we were also all nibbling on the Corned Beef Bites, a Reuben in the round, coated and fried, and the Irish Nachos.

These were probably the best Irish Nachos I’ve ever had, made with hand-cut fries and topped with melted cheese, corned beef, and tomatoes.

It was more corned beef for most of us for dinner, with Kylie and Angela getting the dinner and me with the Celtic Corned Beef sandwich. Brittany decided on the Salmon and was not disappointed.

The dessert menu at Celtic Crossing was nothing short of spectacular and we could resist ordering a little bit of everything: Slainte Pie, an icebox pie covered in caramel, pecans, and coconut; Dublin Brownstone (the favorite), a fudgy brownie topped with cream cheese ice cream and cherry sauce; and raspberry cheesecake.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. We finished the night with a cocktail and great view at the Twilight Sky Terrace at the Madison Hotel. Then it was off to bed. Our second day in Memphis was going to be a full one, complete with museums and Graceland.