Royalty in many venues
King, queen reign from horse show to wrestling
Virginia Elizabeth Barron
is queen of the 2017 Germantown Charity Horse Show. She was presented at the Queen’s Ball, held March 24 at Woodland Hills.
Elizabeth, daughter of Dan and Sally Barron, majors in psychology at University of South Carolina. Her cousin, Alston Foster, was her escort.
She will represent The Germantown Charity Horse Show Associtation at the 69th anniversary show, which will be held June 6-10.
Twenty-five princesses were presented during the ball, which included dinner and dancing to music by Jeremy Shrader and the Quintessentials.
Mike Montana was master of ceremonies. Mary Aubrey Stafford was chairperson.
The Exchange Club Family Center is the horse show beneficiary.
Mama Gaia arrives
Mama Gaia made its debut with a soft opening March 23. It’s the first restaurant to open its doors in the new Crosstown Concourse.
“It’s an organic and vegetarian fast-casual concept,” said Philipp von Holtzendorff-Fehling, who along with his wife, Cru, are the owners. “We offer a lot of vegan and gluten-free options. It’s freshly made without long wait times.”
And, he said, the food is “affordable.”
About 300 people attended the opening, during which the owners served a buffet that included their “Diva Petitzza,” a smaller version of a pizza; “Cena Bowls,” which are quinoa bowls with creamy mushrooms and asparagus; Asian slaw with sesame-crusted tofu; and chocolate nut brownies.
For now Mama Gaia is serving lunch and dinner from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. “We want to offer breakfast during the week starting at 7 in the morning, but we don’t know exactly when we’re going to start with that,” Philipp said. “It may be as early as next week or the week after. It’s definitely going to happen in April.”
In addition to the restaurant, guests toured other parts of the Concourse, including the West and Central atriums.
Wrestling and food
Remember when Jerry Lawler wrestled Dangerous Doug Gilbert in an outdoor ring in front of his restaurant, King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille, on Beale Street?
That was in September. Well, the King did it again, but this time he wrestled Derrick King in front of Lawler’s newest establishment, King Jerry Lawler’s Memphis BBQ Company. A ring was set up in the rear of the restaurant at 465 N. Germantown Parkway. Other wrestlers participated in the event, which was held March 26.
“Today was our official grand opening for Jerry Lawler’s BBQ out on Germantown Parkway,” Jerry said. “We’ve actually been open for six weeks, but today was a perfect day, beautiful weather. So, we brought the ring out here. We set up a ring. We had two or three wrestling matches. We had Grandmaster Sexay here. We had Eric Wayne. We had Derrick King. And, of course, the King got in the ring.”
It wasn’t all wrestling. “We had a barbecueeating contest and just all sorts of things. Giveaways. It was just a big day here for the restaurant. And we got hundreds and hundreds of people that had never eaten here before to come out and try the barbecue. And I didn’t hear one complaint. That’s a good thing.”
Shawn Berryhill won the barbecue eating contest. He ate about eight barbecue sandwiches. To get him shape for the eating contest, the night before the event he ate “an entire watermelon, a loaf of bread, two cans of northern beans and a whole celery,” said Shawn’s wife, Katie. He also ate a plate of nachos at a Mexican restaurant, she said.