NEWS

Here are some Memphis gems we'd like to see in 'Bluff City Law'

Micaela A Watts
Memphis Commercial Appeal

“Bluff City Law” — the new NBC legal drama with Jimmy Smits that chronicles the underdog-championing exploits of a crusading firm of Memphis lawyers — will air in one of primetime’s most coveted slots, at 9 p.m. on Mondays, after the hit vocal competition program, “The Voice.”

With those episodes being filmed in the series' namesake city, we started daydreaming of essential Memphis spots we want to see on television sets in living rooms around the country. 

TV shows:NBC's 'Bluff City Law' to shoot in Memphis

Melrose Stadium

October 31, 2014 - Melrose Tony Pollard pulls in a reception against White Station Friday at Melrose Stadium. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

Melrose Stadium is Orange Mound. Orange Mound is Memphis. 

Football games at Melrose Stadium transcend a sporting event — they are a Friday night heartbeat and a must-attend event for any resident of the historic neighborhood that just turned 100 years old.

The significance of any scene shot in or around Melrose might be lost on the rest of the Bluff City viewers in the country, but that doesn't matter. The beloved stadium deserves a chance to shine on screen in all its historic glory. 

Happy Birthday, Orange Mound:Memphis hit 200 — but Orange Mound reached a milestone, too

Anywhere on Summer Avenue

Home to one of the last-standing movie drive-ins, a mile-long strip of international restaurants hawking cuisine from dozens of countries, and increasingly rare brick-and-mortar oddities like the Jun Lee Trading Company, Summer Avenue is arguably the most unique street in Memphis. 

Whether it's the Los Jarochos taco truck or Elwood's Shack or Hamilton's Fireplace Grills — most Memphians have a place on Summer Avenue they go to for something they can't find anywhere else in the city.

It's the funky international district that has stood the test of time and somehow still escapes commercial over-development, and it deserves every chance to make its presence known. 

The church facade of the Chick-fil-A on Union

The Midtown Chick-fil-A will close early next year for a kitchen renovation.

Need some chicken? Need Jesus? You can have both at the Chick-fil-A on Union. 

In 2008, the company planned to demolish an administration building at the former site of Cumberland Presbyterian on Union to make room for a Midtown location. They faced pushback from Memphis Heritage, but a compromise was reached.

Owners agreed to spend extra money to preserve the building's Gothic-revival facade  and incorporate it in the restaurant site plan. 

Imagine.

Actress Caitlin McGee bites into a nugget, looks up, squints and mutters, "I didn't expect to find religion in the Chick-fil-A drive-through, but I guess I should have." 

Crosstown Concourse

Visitors fill central atrium during the grand opening celebration of the Crosstown Concourse building in Memphis. Built by Sears in the late 1920's, the building employed thousands of workers until it was shuttered in the mid 1990's. In 2010 work began to transform the building into a "vertical urban village" which which is now home to dozens of tenants including art galleries, restaurants, fitness centers, education organizations, health care facilities, places of worship, banks as well as residential living spaces.

The former site of the Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog Merchandise Distribution Center has been internationally lauded for the design and reuse of a once-shuttered urban space. 

The staggering 1.5 million-square-foot behemoth building contains ample pristine lighting piercing through its atria, and from the small screen perspective, Crosstown could be any number of fictional settings. 

Crystal Shrine Grotto at Memorial Park Cemetery 

A look at the interior of the Crystal Shrine Grotto in Memorial Park Cemetery, June 03, 2019.

If a city has a Depression-era man-made cave depicting biblical tableaus flanked by quartz crystals and man-made concrete stalactites, hiding in the center of a cemetery, why would you not move heaven and earth to obtain a film permit for said cave?

The Crystal Shrine Grotto has been hiding out in Memorial Park Cemetery since the 1930s, when artist Dionicio Rodríguez was commissioned to beautify the cemetery grounds.

Rodriguez's planning allowed for several openings in the Grotto's ceiling, so sunlight beams through and illuminates the imported quartz crystals and stone figures of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and other Bible favorites. 

With its low lighting and ominous harp music piping in from hidden speakers, we think the Grotto is the premier location in Memphis to shoot any number of scenes involving anonymous sources tipping off embattled attorneys. 

Al Town Skate Park 

Brock Berriel (left), and Cookiee Sivad spend Wednesday afternoon cleaning up Al Town Skate Park, near the corner of Evelyn Avenue and Roland Street, before heading off to see artist Stevie Nicks perform at FedExForum. "Today, I'm cleaning the facility to kind of make it more presentable, easier to skate without all the garbage and stuff in the way," Berriel said. "Trying to make it cleaner for the future builds and gets it ready for this season coming up." Berriel says he is trying to organize a few shows for the year, with proceeds going back into the park to make it bigger and better. "Everybody that comes out here is pretty cool and we like to keep it that way," Berriel stated.

Al Town is the DIY skate park hidden in plain sight in the Rozelle neighborhood near Downtown. Skaters built the park one phase at a time, using the remains of an old building foundation as a start, then fundraising for needed materials as they went along. 

Gritty and cherished by its patrons, the street-art flanked skate park has the potential to create any number of cinematographic moods. 

Buff City Soap

Buff City Soap offers a variety of soaps, bath bombs, scrubs and other bath and body products.

Honestly, Buff City makes the list because we just want one scene where Smits palms a Mermaid Bar, brings it up to his nose and inhales slowly, pensively, while pondering on the meaning of justice in the Bluff City.