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2006 "Best" of Memphis
Every year at this time I write a long rant on the nonsense that is The Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis selections. This year I think I’m just too tired. I don’t have the energy to list what’s wrong with the list itself or the process it takes to accumulate the list. So here it is, this year’s Best Smokeshop category:
1) Tobacco Corner
2) Wizard’s
3) Young Avenue Deli
Now, I could tell you again how I approve of Tobacco Corner. It’s an institution in Memphis. I could explain to you again that Wizard’s is a head shop, yet their clientele is probably the most accurate cross-section of The Memphis Flyer reader demographic. And I could probably spend hours explaining that Young Avenue Deli is a restaurant and bar with some Swisher Sweets for sale if you’re really desperate. But, again, the wind is out of my sails and I’m too exhausted from keeping up with what’s new in the cigar - the actual cigar – world, like the new Authentic Corojo from Camacho (an actual cigar company) and from stocking just the right sizes of Montecristo White, CAO Soprano and Gran Habano Connecticut #1. I should also spend my time restocking the pipe tobacco that flies off the shelf here and making sure the hand-made pipes are displayed well. These are all pursuits of more interest than imploring my hard-working customers to vote for me next year.
I’ve also, over the years spent an inordinate amount of time and resources creating two comfortable seating areas for those cigar and pipe enthusiasts to sit and relax. Spots where they can watch television and listen to the newly-installed satellite radio. I put in a coffee and espresso bar so the patrons of a real smokeshop don’t have to leave to get their caffeine fix. They also have access to free wireless internet and I welcomed Midtown Books (number three on their list, congratulations), now Downtown Books, into the building so there is even more to do in one location than ever before.
But none of this seems to matter to the few people who bothered to fill out the Best Smokeshop portion of the ballot. So, stay tuned, Memphis Flyer devotees, because coming soon this 57-year-old stalwart downtown oasis will be clearing out the quality and filling up the space with peach-flavored Phillies and bongs. If you can’t beat ‘em…
Posted by Richard Alley at September 27, 2006 11:06 AM
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