Even without live music and outdoor stages, Beale Street still has a soundtrack. For the moment, it’s a Taylor Swift song pre-recorded and piped through a sound system at Silky O'Sullivan's.
“I can deal with a CD playing over and over until everything is back to normal,” says EuDarius Jones, a regular at the Irish-style pub known for its patio.
Saturday was the 5th grade math teacher's first night out since local Safer-at-Home orders took effect in March.
“The only difference is we’re all outside in a very distant seating arrangement,” he says, joined by two friends.
He goes on to note several other striking differences. Servers are wearing facial coverings, closing time is 10 p.m., there’s no drinking outside restaurants and no congregating in the street.
Also absent: live music and even livelier masses. Beale Street restaurants began welcoming guests back to their dining rooms last Thursday after a weeks-long COVID-19 shutdown, but under new temporary regulations, they have to do it without their iconic noise and crowds.
“It’s just our time to have gone through a struggle, and it’s our time to thoughtfully move forward and hang in there,” says Silky’s owner Joellyn Sullivan.
The past two months have been stressful for the business, but she’s happy to be open, even if it’s just at a mandated 50 percent capacity. Social distancing rules require tables spaced at least six-feet apart and prohibit parties of more than 10 people.
“It’s been very important for people to trust us, and to realize that if they can go out, we’re safe places to be,” Sullivan says. “We all have our guests and our staff’s interests at heart...so we ask for patience and cooperation.”
Some employees aren’t ready to return to work at Silky’s, which Sullivan understands. She supports a phased reopening.
“Do it at your pace, and what you’re comfortable with, and that is absolutely the way it’s supposed to work,” she says.
Several popular restaurants and music venues such as B.B. King’s Blues Club and Blues City Cafe are still closed. Some shops plan to open soon, but owners worry that without tourists, there won’t be enough customers to justify bringing employees back.
For out-of-towners, like Tequila Coleman, a hair stylist from Alabama, a less raucous Saturday night on Beale Street—for the moment—is it’s own attraction.
“If it would have been crowded when we drove though, and if it would have been a lot of people, we probably wouldn’t have stopped," she said. "But just the fact that the whole parking lot was empty, and it was only two cars, I knew it was kind of limited with who was here."
Memphis resident Kristina Henderson says a night out doesn’t feel quite right without the throbbing cacophony.
“It’s blues. It’s hip-hop. It’s an atmosphere, and I definitely miss that,” she said while out celebrating a friend’s graduation.
A century ago, when pickpockets roamed the street, the father of the Blues, W.C. Handy famously wrote that business there never closes “'til somebody gets killed.” Death is exactly what health officials wanted to avoid in March, when the coronavirus became Public Enemy No. 1.
“We want you to come out and have a good time, but we want everyone to be safe,” says Wesley Reed, a manager at the live music restaurant, the Tin Roof. “I just want everyone to understand, just, keep your distance.”
Sales at the restaurant last Saturday were less than 10 percent of what they are on a typical weekend night. Reed knows officials and the public are monitoring the soft reopening to ensure Beale doesn’t become renown for a coronavirus outbreak. He encourages patrons to speak up if they spot guests starting to congregate.
“That’s our job to—you know—make sure that these people feel comfortable...and say, ‘Hey, we went to Tin Roof, and everyone...separated out and everyone was...distant,’” he says.
The district’s bars and restaurants, along with officials, are thinking through what the return of live music might look like. Sullivan says it could happen in June.
“It won’t be a light switch that goes from the music schedules that we had before,” she says.
One option might be ticketed performances with limited attendance or Sullivan adds, “whether we just won’t have bands at night, and we’ll stick with single and one or two musicians that are playing at a time so we get back in some measured way.”
While Beale Street isn’t known for being measured, a bit of temperance might just be what it takes to avoid singing the Coronavirus Blues.