Rum Boogie Cafe, Memphis

Rum Boogie Café is a unique restaurant and bar established in 1985 as the cornerstone of the Historic Beale Street and Highway 61, in the mid 1980’s Renaissance of the famed Entertainment District. It blends down-home Delta dining with smokin’ Memphis blues played live seven nights a week, hence their saying “Down Home Cookin’, Down Home Blues”. It sits right in the middle of the musical melting pot that first stirred together the ingredients of poplular music today; blues, country, gospel and rock n roll.

So it’s only fitting that Rum Boogie Café houses some of music’s most sought-after memorabilia, including more that 200 autographed guitars from some of the greatest performers in the music industry including Elvis, Bo Diddley, Joe Walsh, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Billy Joel, Rufus Thomas, Billy Gibbons, Albert Collins, Bon Jovi, Leon Russell, Carl Perkins, Booker T and the MGs, Luther Ingram, Ike Turner, Sting, Scotty Moore, The Memphis Horns, Gregg Allman, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith….the list goes on and on.

Other treasures include the Isaac Hayes Cape, worn while accepting the Best Score Academy Award for “Shaft”, Two of the Three original STAX record Company neons that adorned the famous studio, The Mirrors from Charlie Rich’s famous Steinway piano, an original letter written by Bessie Smith, as well as countless original Memphis concert posters from the 20’s-80’s including the 1930’s Memphis Cotton Carnivals and such legendary venues as Club Handy and the later Club Paradise.

But music isn’t the only thing that makes Rum Boogie Café noteworthy. It’s seafood gumbo is a two-time winner of the International Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival and Gumbo Cookoff in Memphis, a city that takes its cooking contests seriously. Also on the menu are signature dishes like Red Beans and Rice, Fried Catfish, Hickory Smoked BBQ Ribs and Pork Shoulder and their famous Southern Style Blue Plate lunches featuring Mississippi Delta-style vegetables.

Rum Boogie Café is the one place where ALL the music and ALL the food is “Memphis” ALL the time.