Blind Bear

This place on a recent Saturday night was a lot louder than I expected a speakeasy to be. There was a band playing inside. Nevertheless, its a cool place to hang out downtown with friends and drinks. Check out their Facebook page for the code to get in free.

Favorite bar in Memphis. The runner-​up isn’t even close.
Out-​of-​towners are slow to catch on to this place, which makes it a nice place for locals. Don’t plan on going here to dance and get wild though. Blind Bear is a speak-​easy with a relaxed, mellow vibe. You say a password at the door (can be found on their Twitter account), and in you go for no cover.
They have the best drinks I’ve had in all of Memphis. They make a delicious Moscow Mule that tastes the same every time, and really that goes for all their drinks. The staff is very friendly, and the owner works behind the bar just as hard (if not harder) as everyone else on the staff.
Blind Bear is a great place to go if you’re pre-​gaming for a long night on Beale, or if you’d just like to relax in a cool environment and have good conversation, drink awesome drinks, and enjoy yourself.
The live music is always great and sets a terrific atmosphere. It’s a cozy environment, and meeting people is easy!

Blind Bear is a great place to go for drinks downtown! Their fish tacos are bangin’ also, they are one of those meals that I’ll get a craving for every now and then.
The ambiance is 1920’s era, which makes for a great date night in my opinion. You could go in dressed up or casual and feel like you’re dressed appropriately. It’s neat bar & I’m glad that I’ve stumbled across it.

Yes yes they have a pool table and great servers too– live
Music live band great time

Welcome to the modern version of Cheers!
They may not know your name, but they definitely know what you like and will get it for you. A perfect nook for getting lost for a few seconds in time or sipping slow. Speaking of sipping slow, the spirits are live and scattered throughout the whole place. Food is cool, better even late. The crew? Well, they don’t bluff.

I was not impressed :(I had a dismally long wait for a burger that was overcooked and mac and cheese that had separated. The milk surrounding my pale noodles? Not appetizing. The drinks are super pricey for me personally. The staff seemed quite biased toward the men (I get it… you’re looking for tips whatevs.) I would have walked out had this not been my second to last burger.

To the owner, please put jäger burger on the menu and pair it with crawfish Mac and cheese. Don’t make me grovel for it. OK, pretty pretty please? Also, please post it that you now have it so we know and come over for it.
To Unilocalers, go to this place for good food. It takes a moment for food to come, but they make it fresh for you. It also so worth the wait.

Ah, the speakeasy. Not as cool as a juke joint, but waaaaay cooled than a pub. You can just feel the nostalgia rolling off your tongue. Another thing that you may want to have ready on your tongue: the password. On weekends, Blind Bear charges a cover, but you can avoid paying the cover if you know the password. I think they typically post the password on their facebook page earlier in the week, so if you’re not cool enough to know someone you can rest easy. I’ve never been on a weekend but I’m really hoping the password is usually something awesome like «turpentine».
The inside of the bar, like all good bars should be, is dimly lit. Plan your selfie attack accordingly. There are a number of seating options available, most of them couches and chairs that will facilitate conversation among the guests. The music is always kept to a respectable level, and you can (gasp) actually hear what people in your party are talking about! There is no designated dance floor, and the word «turnt» does not exist as a verb except in the context of you may «turnt» the other cheek when I slap the shit out of you for saying «turnt». Sit at the bar, have a drink, enjoy some conversation.
Even though the bar is a speakeasy, it is not so uptight that there are 1,001 different kinds of whiskey that have been craft brewed in various caves or monasteries or whatever it is that whiskey snobs look for. They make a damn fine Manhattan, though, and they have a list of specialty drinks that you can decide on as well.
The food menu is pretty solid with a variety of good options, but two items stand out. One is the pepper jack mac and cheese. One of the people i went with is lactose intolerant and he scraped his plate and dealt with the consequences later. I actually agreed to help a buddy of mine move only because he lives a block away and I plan on getting this mac and cheese before and after the move. It’s ridiculously good.
The other is the Jäger BBQ sauce burger. I think this burger may only be available for Burger Binge Week, but I am appealing to the heavens to add this burger to the menu permanently. Until I tasted this burger, I only had terrible college memories of Jäger, so I was pleasantly surprised that something as good as that burger could come from something as foul as Jäger. This burger easily won the burger binge, in my opinion.
I’ve never seen Blind Bear jumping, so I’m not sure if this is the place for you to go if you like to throw down. If you like a more relaxed, lounge atmosphere, though, Blind Bear might be for you. They do trivia on some nights, and have a number of poker tables (in fact, all of the dining tables are poker tables which makes it really hard not to spill mac and cheese on your tie when you’re slurping it like a heathen) and host some poker night as well.
You don’t have to be blind to realize how awesome this place is.

We went to try the Yäger Burger as part of the #901 Unilocalburgerbinge. This was our first time going to The Blind Bear.
Food first: The Yäger Burger is a thing to behold. Beautifully presented, although the lighting is extremely dim (I’ll get to that later). Biting into the burger is a treat. The bun is to die for and, in my opinion, the best part of this burger. The meat itself was descent, but the preparation of it broke one of my cardinal rules in cooking a burger… it was MICROWAVED! Once I bit into it, I couldn’t get past that. Maybe they had a run on the burger since this is a special this week, but still… not the microwave!
The side Mac and cheese was delicious! Had a bit of a bite to it and it actually complimented the burger.
The atmosphere of The Blind Bear is dark and a bit smokey. If you are sensitive to smoke, beware. The waitress was friendly and very attentive. I liked her! The place is small and there aren’t many tables other than poker tables, but it didn’t effect our seating.
All in all, I would go back and give the burger another try. I hope it was a rarity that the meat is microwaved. It would be at the top if it were prepared differently. I’m telling you… the bun is worth it!

There are a few places in this town that I’m willing to put my body on the line for food. I’m lactose intolerant, and the mac and cheese here is to die for!
The mac and cheese came with the Unilocal special! Yeah, we Unilocalers get the good stuff! The other half of the special is a Jäger burger, which was awesome. I’ve already tried 3 other burgers in the Unilocal Burger Week event. And so far, Blind Bear is on the very top. I believe it was cooked fresh to order, because it tasted fresh and it took a while. Luckily the service was great and the company I kept is even better. I don’t think this burger is on the regular menu, but it definitely should be!
And what a cool concept with gaming tables and everything. So when is game night and how do I buy in?
P. S. I’m changing my review from 4 to 5 stars, after experiencing other places’ burgers with mac and cheese, I realized that Blind Bear is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME.

Décor was aswomne bartender was perfect. And the burger to die for hands down one the best burgers i have had in memphis. The $ 5 burger is worth $ 20

Nice bar with a friendly crowd.
Good drink specials. $ 3 bloody marys at brunch.
They turn up the sound for the game.
I had the cheesy grits & eggs over easy.
My beautiful girlfriend had chicken and waffles which include sausage. Sausage would be good on a sausage and biscuit. Chicken wings were great, dry rub covered. Waffles were ok, I noticed my girlfriend did not finish hers
Grits were a massive serving and noticeably great, definitely not instant.
Eggs were a little chewy, almost as f they had been pre-​cooked.
Service was great

Eh. I may be getting old, but I don’t want to yell at my friends over brunch. The music was way too loud for 11am. We asked a few times to have it turned down and finally got our request honored when we were almost finished eating and we were the only patrons for most of our