The building's first musical claim is not a band at all: it housed the karate studio of Kang Rhee, the master who trained Elvis Presley to his black belt. Growlers, at 1911 Poplar Avenue across from Overton Park in Midtown Memphis, occupies the space that later became the Hi-Tone Cafe - one of the most storied rooms in Memphis rock history - and has carried the corner's live-music torch since 2017. The Hi-Tone made the address nationally famous in the late 1990s and 2000s: the White Stripes, a pre-fame Yeah Yeah Yeahs and virtually every garage-rock act passing through the South played the room, and Craig Brewer filmed parts of Hustle and Flow there. When the Hi-Tone relocated to Cleveland Street, the space cycled briefly before Tony Westmoreland - a veteran of Memphis bar operations - opened Growlers in 2017 as a venue, restaurant and sports pub in one. The room holds roughly 300 with a corner stage, a serious tap wall of craft beer - the growler-fill trade gave the bar its name - and a kitchen running wings and burgers alongside the show calendar. Bookings lean loud: punk, metal, garage, hip-hop and Memphis's own underground rotate through most weekends, with matinee all-ages shows and touring packages filling the calendar up to seven nights a week in busy seasons. The venue recalibrated in the mid-2020s: when two of its main bookers moved operations to Minglewood Hall in 2025, Westmoreland pivoted the room back toward local bands and community bills - a return, as he framed it, to the venue's roots as a neighbourhood stage. The building itself was listed for sale in 2026 by the Rhee family, its owners since 1980, though the venue's calendar has continued uninterrupted. The location is prime Midtown: Overton Park's golf course and the Memphis Zoo are across the street, the Crosstown Concourse tower is minutes away, and street parking plus a small lot serve show nights. Few 300-cap rooms anywhere sit on ground with this much rock-and-roll compost in the soil.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 1911 Poplar Ave, Memphis, TN, United States, 38104

Website: https://www.growlersmemphis.com

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 300

Opening Date: 01/06/2017

Serves Food