Our Story — Memphis Nightclub & Shuck N' Jive

Some places open and close in a season. Memphis Nightclub has been the home of live music in the Dallas area for over four decades — seven nights a week, every single week, since New Year's Eve 1981.

Est. December 31, 1981 · Addison Walk · Dallas–Fort Worth

The Night It All Started

Memphis Nightclub opened its doors on the last night of 1981 — a New Year's Eve that would mark the beginning of something Addison hadn't quite seen before. A proper live music club, seven nights a week, built around the belief that great music deserved a great room.

From the start, Memphis was never a singles bar with a DJ and a cover charge. It was a stage with real bands, real sound, and an audience that came to listen as much as to drink. The format was simple and it worked: live music from ten in the evening until two in the morning, every night without exception.

"One of Dallas's hottest night spots" — and one of its most enduring.

Running since December 31, 1981

The genres that have played the Memphis stage read like a history of American popular music: jazz, R&B, soul, blues, rock, classic rock, top 40, oldies. Local and regional acts have shared that stage with polished touring bands, and the best nights — the ones regulars still talk about — happened when you couldn't tell the difference.

The venue is intimate by design. The stage is close to the crowd. The sound is loud. The drinks are strong. And the crowd — a loyal, multigenerational mix of regulars and first-timers — keeps coming back because there is simply nowhere else in DFW quite like it.

Over forty years later, Memphis still opens every night at ten. The formula hasn't changed because the formula works.

1981

Memphis opens on New Year's Eve

The doors open for the first time on December 31st. Live music every night from the very beginning — a format that would never change.

1980s

Addison's late-night institution

Memphis becomes the anchor of Addison Walk's nightlife. Local jazz, R&B, and soul acts find a regular home on the stage. A loyal base of regulars forms — many of whom will still be there thirty years later.

Late '80s

Shuck N' Jive opens next door

The Cajun seafood bar takes the suite right next door to Memphis. Fresh oysters, crawfish boils, gumbo, and po-boys — the perfect warm-up to a night of live music. Two separate businesses with one shared soul.

1990s

The music broadens

Memphis expands its programming across jazz, blues, rock, classic rock, and top 40. The roster of regular acts grows. The formula — live music, seven nights, no nights off — stays exactly the same.

2000s

Twenty years and counting

While clubs and venues across DFW open and close around it, Memphis reaches its twentieth anniversary still running the same program it opened with. Two decades of live music, seven nights a week.

2010s

A third decade

Thirty years in, Memphis is no longer just a bar — it's a landmark. Bands that grew up listening to shows here are now playing the stage. Happy hour at Shuck N' Jive, live music at Memphis: the ritual is embedded in Addison's DNA.

2020

Navigating a difficult year

Like every live music venue in the country, Memphis adapts to the challenges of the pandemic era. Programming adjusts, but the commitment to keeping live music alive never wavers.

Today

40+ years of live music

Memphis and Shuck N' Jive are still right here in Addison Walk. Still open every night. Still the same stage, same Cajun kitchen next door, same crowd of regulars and first-timers. One of DFW's longest-running live music destinations.

The Kitchen Next Door

Not long after Memphis found its footing, Shuck N' Jive moved into the suite right next door. The logic was simple: people who love live music also love good food and cold drinks, and Addison had no shortage of either appetite.

The menu was rooted in Cajun and Gulf Coast tradition from the beginning. Fresh oysters — raw and chargrilled. Crawfish boils in season, announced on a chalkboard and always gone before closing. Gumbo with a dark roux that took the better part of a day to build. Po-boys on proper French bread. Crab legs. The kind of food that makes you slow down and eat with your hands.

"Cajun favorites in a laid-back atmosphere perfect for meeting up with friends — or making new ones."

Shuck N' Jive · Suite 530 · Addison Walk

The bar became a neighborhood fixture in its own right. Happy hour from four to nine, Monday through Friday, draws the after-work crowd long before Memphis opens for the evening. The staff knows names. Orders are remembered. Regulars have their tables.

Shuck N' Jive opens at eleven in the morning and runs all the way to two in the morning — matching Memphis hour for hour on the back end. It's one of the only Cajun seafood kitchens in Addison open that late, which means it serves as both a starting point and a landing spot on the same night.

What Keeps People Coming Back

The Community

The Bands

Thousands of acts have played the Memphis stage across four decades. Today's regulars — Honcho the Band, the David Whiteman Band, Adam Schwem, Time Machine, Decadence, the John Adams Trio — represent the same depth of talent that packed the room in the eighties. The stage keeps the caliber high.

The Regulars

There are people who have been coming to Memphis and Shuck N' Jive for twenty, thirty, forty years. They have their seats, their drinks, their servers. They bring their kids, who bring their friends. That kind of loyalty doesn't happen by accident — it's earned, night after night, decade after decade.

Meet the Memphis Regulars →

Addison Walk

Memphis and Shuck N' Jive are anchored in Addison Walk, one of North Dallas's most established neighborhood shopping and dining districts. Free parking, easy access from the Tollway — and the kind of local character that chain restaurants can't manufacture. Just two doors, a shared wall, and forty years of history.

Memphis & Shuck N' Jive by the Numbers

Still Counting

1981 Year Founded

40+ Years of Live Music

7 Nights Every Week

365 Days a Year

2 Legendary Venues

OurStory