Earnestine & Hazel's has one of the more colorful histories in Memphis nightlife. The building on South Main Street operated as a pharmacy and brothel in the 1950s and 1960s, frequented by musicians from the nearby recording studios and clubs. Today it is a bar with bare floors, dim lighting, a soul food kitchen upstairs that serves into the night, and a jukebox that locals consider one of the best in the city — deep in blues, soul, and R&B, with no irony about it.
The bar draws a mixed crowd that ranges from regulars who have been coming for years to visitors who read about the place. The Soul Burger, served out of the upstairs kitchen, has a devoted following. The haunted reputation — staff and patrons report various phenomena attributed to the building's former inhabitants — adds atmosphere, though the bar is worth visiting regardless of your feelings about ghosts. It is at the southern end of downtown, close enough to the South Main arts district to work as a late stop on a First Friday evening.