P & H Cafe   

One of the city's most beloved nightspots, the P&H Cafe has served burgers and beer to countless generations of Memphians. Operating at this midtown location since 1965, the friendly joint -- which those in the know call "the Poor and Hungry" -- features a restaurant in front and a spacious back room with several pool tables and pinball machines. On lazy fall afternoons, the booths out front fill up with studious young lovers from nearby Rhodes College, who nosh on tamales and cheese fries while cramming for tests. Thursdays belong to area thespians, who lay claim to the long tables in the middle of the room. Their patron saint is Wanda Wilson, who ran the P&H until a few years ago (that's when Nancy Heaton, whose family originally owned the cafe, took over). Wanda, a real Midtown character, is immortalized in the hundreds of paintings and photographs from her adoring coterie. After dark, bands take over the small stage that's just inside the front door. -- Andria Lisle