Complex City Guide: The Best Bars in Memphis

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Memphis is a drinking town. It's a sad drinking town, a happy drinking town; it's a celebratory drinking town and a mourning drinking town. This isn't to say that's all that goes down there, but Memphis is one of the funkiest places on the planet, and sometimes you've got to have the juice flowing to keep it funky. Last week we told you about the best live music venues in a place that knows from live music; this week we're back in M-Town for its best bars. Bottoms up!

By Benjamin Meadows-Ingram

Picture a haunted house. Then picture yourself drinking there. Now, you’ve got an idea of what it’s like to slide up to one of the two bars at this turn-of-the-century mansion-turned-restaurant/bar in downtown Memphis’s historic Victorian Village. Great drinks, good food, and the feel of True Blood gone mod, this multi-story bar is unlike anything else around.

What this bar lacks in style it makes up for in selection, convenience, and reliably blonde clientele. The downtown Memphis outpost of this southeastern chain of pubs offers a bevy of draughts (over 140), a centralized location just steps away from Beale St. and the Fed-Ex Forum, and a covered patio that offers a pool table, a stage for live bands, and the perfect place for people watching while knocking back a cool one (or 100) on those hot southern summer nights.

Tucked deep into the pocket of a once forgotten neighborhood, The Cove is an arty dive with character, class, and, believe it or not, a nautical theme. The Cove’s literally ship-shaped bar and seafaring decor are relics reclaimed from Anderton’s, a much-loved, now-shuttered Memphis institution that specialized in oysters and cocktails, and its oyster-first menu of light fare owes a debt to Anderton’s as well. But with a specialty cocktail menu that runs over 50 drinks long, it’s the booze that's the draw. Try the Vampire, a tequila-based twist on the Bloody Mary served with red pepper garnish that’s got serious bite.

A neighborhood institution, the Lamplighter Lounge is a no-frills beer joint known for slinging cheap PBRs in frozen mugs and a jukebox that plays (mostly country and rockabilly) 45s. If you’re looking to stunt, go somewhere else. If you’re looking to drink and shoot the shit, and maybe a little pool, this is the place for you. [Trivia: the video for Cat Power’s “Lived in Bars,” was shot at the Lamplighter.]

Today, home of the “Soul Burger,” back in the day, home to a dry goods store and a brothel, this ramshackle burger/juke joint in downtown Memphis is a fixture of any local bar crawl. Come for the drinks and the food—grilled up right behind the downstairs bar—and stay for the soul. Tip: don’t skip the opportunity to explore the rooms (and the hidden bar) upstairs.

A newer addition to the city’s bar scene, this pub is far enough from Beale St. to give the locals a downtown bar to call home. Think Central Perk soaked in Southern Comfort—this is where all of the young doctors and lawyers helping to rejuvenate downtown go to let loose and get laid.

A stylish haunt in the heart of Memphis’s hip Midtown neighborhood, Beauty Shop is where the city’s beautiful creative types go to knock back martinis and get weird. Drinks run stiff and steep, the vibe is sexy and low key, and the girls skew suicide. Don’t sleep on the longstanding Monday night party. It runs late and rowdy.

A cornerstone of Midtown Memphis’s bar scene, Young Avenue Deli is everything you want in a neighborhood bar striving to be more than just another local dive—an impressive beer selection (well over 100), a commitment to sports, several pool tables, a solid jukebox, a stage built to hold more than the occasional music act, and a menu that boasts what USA Today called one of the “Top Ten Fries in the Nation.” The crowd runs from families to singles and everything in between and beyond. Hard to complain about that.

Okay so you don’t go here for the drinks—they only serve 40s—but you do go here to drink. And to dance. And to drink some more and to dance some more. Basically, you just go here because you’ve never been anywhere else like it. A longtime Memphis institution relocated recently to a new downtown space, Raiford's is what might happen if Prince never made it as a performer and just decided to convert the basement of his parents’ house into an underground nightclub where he could throw parties every night and play whatever music he damn well pleased because as long as it was funky he knew folks were going to have a good time and lose their minds.

The last stop of the night, Alex’s Tavern is a family-run afterhours bar that’s been around since the ’50s and feels like it. This is where you land when the rest of the city’s already hollered last call. Grab a seat and a drink (and a burger if you’re hungry) and watch the locals pour in looking for the same while the bar’s rich jukebox sets a mood that always makes Memphis feel like America’s forgotten broken home.