The Lamplighter

History

The Lamplighter Lounge at 1702 Madison Avenue was long a beer-only Midtown dive, with bartender Shirley Williams and later owner Ann Bradley behind the bar. In 2018 Bradley sold it to employees Laurel Cannito and Chuck Wenzler, known as Chuck Vicious, who told the Memphis Flyer they wanted the room the same, but cleaner. They took out the pool table to make space for bands. Within about a year they added the next storefront on Madison and more than doubled the capacity. The Flyer has since described a small room that books a wide mix of local music and still keeps the dive-bar lamps and clutter.