Memphis Day 5 - Sun Studio and BBQ Food Tour

Our first stop of the day was to have breakfast at The Arcade.  The Arcade is the oldest cafe in Memphis.  It was also one of Elvis' favorite spots.  They even have a plaque in his favorite booth.   I had the sweet potato pancakes and they were awesome!

We then headed to Sun Studio.  This is where Elvis recorded his first record.  

You can only visit Sun Studio by guided tour.  They leave at the bottom of every hour.  

There were about 20 people and the first stop is an upstairs room where they have an exhibit of various items from different artists that recorded there.  They had the original machines used to record and then create vinyl records by Sam Philips, the owner of Sun Studios in the 50s.

They also had the original DJ booth of Dewey Philips who was the first person to play Elvis on the radio.  The booth was found in a building that was going to be remodeled.  The booth was set to be demolished but it was saved and moved over to the exhibit.  

We then went downstairs to the recording studio itself.   

Sam Philips had sold the building and moved to a bigger studio after about 8 years.  The building was used for a barbershop and other retail stores until it was bought back by the current owner who made it Sun Studio again.

When he bought it, he had Sam Philips come in to look at it.  Sam confirmed that all the rooms, including the floors, ceilings and lights were the originals.  You can still see the hole in the floor where the bass player would put his stand.
   Sam donated the original microphone that Elvis and many other great performers used to record there.   His only request was that it never leave the recording studio.  I was very excited that we were able to take a photo with it.

   There is an X on the floor where Elvis stood.  The guide played many recordings of records that were made there, including the original of That's Alright Mama, Elvis' first.
 
   Sun Studio is still an operating recording studio and many famous artists have come there to record.

 Our next stop was a Memphis BBQ food tour through Tastin' Round Town.   We met up with our guide just off of Beale Street.  It was just us and another couple.

It was a beautiful day though a little on the warm side.  We ended up walking about 2 1/2 miles by the time we were done.

  We had 5 stops and it was all good!!   Our guide was great as well.  He was born and raised in Memphis.  He did a great job of giving us the history of Memphis as well as talking to us about the food.  He cooks BBQ himself and he is a judge at the big BBQ contest they have in Memphis.

    One attraction that we didn't get to do was the Civil Rights museum.   We didn't know that the location was a stop on our tour.  We didn't get to go inside but we did get to see the location where Martin Luther King was killed as well as the window where James Earl Ray was when he shot him.  
   They have a line in concrete that shows the path the bullet took from the window to where it killed Dr. King.  
   The cars that are parked outside have not moved since that day.  Our guide said that the inside of his hotel room as also not been touched since that day.