I'm late to this thread. Here's a few thoughts...
First (and off-topic somewhat), state and president streets are OK these days. Heck, lots of new residential units on state streets.
OK, back to topic.
There's lots of great info in this thread.
Beale Street is the touristy thing to do. It will be packed and it may get a bit rowdy.
The Midtown area includes Overton Square and Cooper Young. These two areas are kind of a tame version of Beale St. Lots of locals hang out here.
Overton Square
Hot Spot Guide: Overton Square
Visit these sites to learn what to expect at OS. You can check out the restaurants and their menus. Keep in mind that
Lafayette's Music Room has live music. Check the link to plan ahead.
Cooper Young is a bit more, hmm, artsy. Is that the word? Eclectic, maybe? Check out the link for restaurants and menus.
As someone mentioned, the
Cooper Young Festival is Sat 9/17/16 9:00 am - 7:00 pm. It's like a huge outdoor block party (they expect over 130,000 this year) with arts, music & crafts from all over.
While Overton Square and Cooper Young are both in Midtown, they're about 1.5 miles away. No problem, though.
Ride the Roo is a convenient and economical way to shuttle between the two areas -- and various points between. (Yes, there are some pretty cool places along the way.) A ride is $2. An evening pass is only $5. You can't beat that for safe passage around entertainment districts.
Oh, and to put it in perspective, the Overton Square/Cooper Young areas in Midtown are only about 4.5 miles from Beale St.
And no trip to Memphis would be complete without a visit to
The Memphis Zoo. It's listed as one of the nation's Top 10 Zoos in the country:
- Top 5 in USA Today's Reader's Choice
- Top 10 by Fodor's Travel
The Memphis Zoo is proudly one of only 5 zoos in North America (one of only 4 in the US) to house pandas.
Back to Downtown...
The
South Main Arts District has some great restaurants and art galleries. The
National Civil Rights Museum and
The Orpheum Theatre are here, too.