DATELINE: memphis, tn                                                    

Author: Andy

It's about 4am and we're at denny's north of beale. Eliot and karl are chatting up some random people. Ilteris is outside talking to a homeless guy. I find myself standing by the entrance for some reason. There's a security guard at the door, and old white guy, and I notice him tell some black guys trying to enter that the restaurant is closed.

"I didn't know Denny's closes" I asked the guard.

"It's too busy right now, the cooks can't keep up." The guard answers.

I look around and notice half the tables are empty.

"There's so much space," I said, putting on my consultant hat, "Why not just hire more cooks for saturday night when Beale st. empties out."

"It ain't that simple. It gets too wild. We get a lot of people leaving without paying." he said, just after turning some more black people away.

"OK, well my turkish friend is outside. Please let him in when he finishes his conversation. We have the hotel key so he needs to meet back up with us."

"Oh, sure. No problem." The guard said.

As I caught up with karl and eliot I realized what was going on. With all the hip-hop clubs emptying out, they could do a brisk business. They just don't want that kind of business. Weird.