Downtown businessmen Ed Bell and Jonathan Byrd were
frustrated with their lunch options, so they opened a restaurant two
weeks ago across the street from their office.
Their restaurant, called Market Café, features a
changing selection of seasonal food in a cheerful, casual setting. It
serves lunch only, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“It’s everything we wanted in a lunch place,” Bell says. “The food
is high-quality, fresh, and reasonably priced.”
The cafe is located on the south side of Madison between Second and
Third streets in the storefront formerly occupied by Smitty’s Place
Restaurant. Kjeld Petersen is the café’s culinary
consultant, and D.J. Pitts, formerly of Interim, is the
chef.
“We don’t know anything about running a kitchen, but we know what we
like to eat,” Byrd says, crediting Petersen’s expertise in developing
the menu. “We also want to support other local businesses and be
sensitive to the environment.”
To accomplish both goals, the restaurant is becoming Project Green
Fork-certified and buying local when possible. A chalkboard near the
front door lists daily soup specials (last Wednesday: mushroom barley)
along with the restaurant’s regionally sourced foods.
The menu’s salads, plate lunches, and sandwiches are simple but
sophisticated. Try an apple salad with petite greens, sweet onion,
bacon, cheddar, and grit cake for $8; sweet-potato ravioli with sage
cream sauce and toasted pumpkin-seed garnish, also $8; or a
mushroom-stuffed chicken breast with prosciutto, roasted potatoes, and
brioche toasts for $9. Sandwiches (chickpea fritter, chicken-curry
salad, pot roast and cheddar, and smoked chicken and brie) range in
price from $7.50 to $8.50.
On the way out, don’t miss the baked goods by the register. I went
for a marshmallow-topped brownie. Think granola bar meets s’mores, but
don’t think about sharing. You’ll want every bite for yourself.
Market Café, 149 Madison (577-0086) memphismarketcafe.com
Last summer, when Jeff Corrigan and Les Carloss
relocated Bluff City Bayou from the Medical Center to Midtown,
they swore off lunch.
“We only wanted to serve dinner,” Corrigan remembers, laughing. “But
we underestimated how many of our customers would keep clamoring for
lunch.”
In early October, Corrigan and Carloss finally relented to customers
and added lunch to their New Orleans-centric eatery. “It’s been busy
and fun, and it gets me out of bed in the morning,” Corrigan says.
The lunch menu, available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., duplicates dinner
fare, except for entrée and appetizer specials, offered only in
the evening. Po-boy and muffuletta sandwiches, along with seafood soup
du jour and gumbos, are popular at lunchtime, says Corrigan, especially
during wet and cool weather.
“Every week or two for lunch, we also rotate in
étouffée,” Corrigan says, which is served with rice, like
gumbo, but made with a lighter roux. Bluff City Bayou, 2117 Peabody
(274-8100)
Click on downtowndiningweek.com, and the
number of three-course dinners, all priced at $20.09, is a little
overwhelming. How about this from Felicia Suzanne’s: crispy Louisiana
oysters in barbecue sauce, wild Gulf shrimp and andouille sausage
sautéed in Creole sauce, and white chocolate and coconut bread
pudding for dessert? Or maybe you’d prefer these yummy courses from
McEwen’s on Monroe: soup of the day, grilled pork loin with apple
brandy sauce, and chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and caramel
rum drizzle?
In all, 20 downtown eateries are offering two fixed-priced dinners
for the Downtown Dining Week promotion. In addition to Felicia
Suzanne’s and McEwen’s, participants include Bangkok Alley, Kooky
Canuck, Automatic Slim’s, Circa, Sole, the Pig on Beale, Wang’s,
Rendezvous, the Majestic Grille, Bluefin, Tug’s, Bardog, South of
Beale, Mesquite Chop House, Spindini, and Itta Bena.
The dinner specials only last a week, from November 8th through
November 14th, and the $20 price tag does not include beverage, tax, or
gratuity.
