Earnestine & Hazel's, Memphis, TN
531 S Main St.
So much history, some of it probably apocryphal. Originally the site of a church. In the 1930s, it was a pharmacy run by Abe Plough, who would invent Coppertone suntan lotion. He gave the building to cousins Earnestine and Hazel, who had been running a hair salon on the second floor. They eventually turned the downstairs into a cafe while a bordello operated out of the upstairs.
Little Richard lived here for three weeks at the start of his career. Local and national touring musicians, including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, and Ray Charles, stopped by after playing at the nearby Club Paradise run by Earnestine’s husband, Sunbeam. Purportedly where Mick Jagger met the “gin soaked barroom queen” who inspired “Honky Tonk Women.”
Repurposed as a bar in 1992 by new owner Russell George, who killed himself in his upstairs office in 2013.
Want to know more? I cribbed some (but not all) of the above info from www.thrillist.com/eat/memphis/earnestine-and-hazels-memph...
Earnestine & Hazel's, Memphis, TN
531 S Main St.
So much history, some of it probably apocryphal. Originally the site of a church. In the 1930s, it was a pharmacy run by Abe Plough, who would invent Coppertone suntan lotion. He gave the building to cousins Earnestine and Hazel, who had been running a hair salon on the second floor. They eventually turned the downstairs into a cafe while a bordello operated out of the upstairs.
Little Richard lived here for three weeks at the start of his career. Local and national touring musicians, including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, and Ray Charles, stopped by after playing at the nearby Club Paradise run by Earnestine’s husband, Sunbeam. Purportedly where Mick Jagger met the “gin soaked barroom queen” who inspired “Honky Tonk Women.”
Repurposed as a bar in 1992 by new owner Russell George, who killed himself in his upstairs office in 2013.
Want to know more? I cribbed some (but not all) of the above info from www.thrillist.com/eat/memphis/earnestine-and-hazels-memph...