Beale Street Landing

What a sad sad sad town. We ended our trip in Memphis early because most places just seemed way to dangerous to walk around.

I really enjoy this riverfront walk way. While it offers the same sorts of panoramas as Little Rock and Baton Rogue, it's a little more vertical. Allowing for a more satisfying cityscape experience.

YES, finally there is a new Family-oriented attraction on the Riverfront! Including a Restaurant (apps, salads, sandwiches) & Bar, Sunset Views, & a Dock where 1.5 hour Riverboat Rides are available to the public. Beale Street Landing was in the planning stages for many years. The RDC aka Riverfront Development Corporation was formed in 2000 to create opportunities for the public to enjoy the Mississippi River up close & personal. Split-second glimpses of the river while driving over the Bridge or along Riverside Drive where there is no place to pull over, & almost no place to park, just wasn't cutting it. Island Play is an interactive play area with water features for kids 10 & under. Check out the Calendar of Events to see when luxurious Riverboats such as the Queen of the Mississippi & the American Queen dock @ the landing. Google::Riverfront Development Corp

I stopped by the restaurant after sunset on a Thursday to take in the riverfront view and ambiance. The best thing about BSL was Robbie, a staff member. There is great potential for this space, but the lighting was so harsh, it drowned out the beauty of the Mississippi River and the mosquitoes sent us back inside. The menu prices are very reasonable, but be prepared to pay for parking (you can get a small discount by validating your parking ticket inside the restaurant).Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!I will definitely try BSL again because Robbie was so professional. Perhaps, I will add more stars, if BSL irons out the wrinkles.

What another embarrassment for Memphis. The city approved this project without architectural plans, a budget, or any bids. It went over budget from $29 million to $43. Just like the $100 million or so federal and city tax payers paid for a trolley system that they knew damn well would cost more to operate than busses, that's been shut down a couple years because of fires and wrecks. Just like the Peabody Place mall and the Pyramid. Memphis is good at expensive building projects that lose money and close down. I'll start with the big sign out front saying you can park free with the purchase of a meal. This is a lie because the restaurant is closed until spring. Of course they didn't bother to take down the sign about free parking, so you are forced to pay $5 to open the parking gate after you've discovered you can't get a meal. The Riverfront Restaurant has lost money ever since it opened and they think it's a good idea to close for the entire winter? What does that do to the employees who are expected to work there? What about the moral of the city? Letting the building sit empty for months while it's losing money is a good way to do business and serve the city? When this was built, they had several problems getting restaurant owners to want to open business here because it's another money pit. It's another Memphis city failure! They didn't even bring a gas line into the kitchen for crying out loud! Now the Development Committee is in charge of it and they are losing even more money than before! It's one of the most expensive gift shops in the world! About that gift shop, all I saw was crap. There are key chains and shot glasses. Baseball caps and shirts. There's an elevator to the top, but the doors are locked. The sidewalk along the river was constructed so poorly that they didn't even take into account the mud and water it would hold unless it was built to drain away. There is an unkept garden and one of the stupidest playgrounds I've ever seen. What's up with the stripper poles? When you park your car, there is an electrical transformer and a garbage dumpster right in the way to get to the building! Couldn't they come up with a better design to avoid such an eyesore? The spiral dock is closed off and I haven't seen it in action. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. I do know they aren't using it for the river boats. They aren't using it for anything because there's no dock at all there. Closed down already? The grass roof is cool, but not for $43 million dollars! There are some spectacular views, but they have nothing to do with the Beale Street Landing.

The restaurant was nice the food was very good nice presentation service was great our waitress was great very down to earth had to dip in the bathroom and was very disappointed not clean at all needs to be special detail cleaned I just washed my hands quickly and left but my overall experience was pretty good.

Very hot inside for dinner. Not enough seating for outside. Food was not great, bones in bbq pulled pork they served my bbq pork on top of my coleslaw and not on the bun. Only want down the river just a little bit then turned around and went back really really really slow. Very disappointed for the money. We have been on other dinner cruises that were great. Don't want your money on this!!! Go to the bass pro downtown instead.

I think Beale Street Landing was beautifully done. The grassy 'roof' is a nice touch and offers great panoramic views of the river and city. Haven't had a chance to try the restaurant yet. Got to descend the spiral boat ramp during the Yelp Tours Niña & Pinta Replicas event. That thing is massive! Nice play areas for the kids. Hopefully the cobblestone (parking) area adjacent to the landing will soon be updated; its such an eyesore. This place has the potential for 'more' but I like what they've done so far.

First time to Beale Street Landing. Nice place. The event I went to was the Nina & Pinta ships that came into town. I went with other Yelpers which was my first time with them, which was nice. The tour guide was great to listen to and had some great information. The landing itself was nice. Great place to sit and just soak it in. Inside had the basic tourist time of stuff. Got to hit this at least once in your lifetime. http://www.thenina.com/

I'm bummed. They could have done so much better with this space and really made it a great area. There is a nice little play area. But the restaurant is super expensive and the events often shut down the entire parking lot without notice to people. So anyone who has tickets for the boat rides has to park a mile away. There isn't much to do at the BSL otherwise and it feels like a missed opportunity to have a nice little tourism spot alongside the river.