Author: Andy Ashby

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Family Business

At Conte’s Italian Restaurant, pictures of the New York City skyline and Frank Sinatra line the walls. Near the kitchen is a picture of a young Mike Fratello with Old Blue Eyes himself, right next to a more recent photo of the Memphis Grizzlies head coach standing beside a tall woman with light blonde hair and an easy smile.

That’s Pam Conte (pronounced con-tee), the owner and operator of this 65-seat Italian restaurant tucked into 149 Madison Avenue, the former site of the Cupboard II.

The dining area also features a picture of Conte’s grandmother, Rose, which hints at the family connections that permeate the restaurant and the food.

The Conte family originated in Ischia, an island in the Bay of Naples. They settled in Manhattan but moved to Staten Island in 1935.

The family ran a meat, produce, and grocery store called Conte’s Meat Market, while Pam Conte’s grandfather had a dairy farm in New Jersey. Pam Conte was always helping to prepare food.

“I’ve been working since I was old enough to shuck corn or pack tomatoes,” she says. “I love it. It’s just something that I’ve always enjoyed doing. It’s in my blood.”

When she was a senior in high school, her family bought a corner bar and grill which operated for 20 years. It was a small place with 10 tables, and it was where Conte had some of her earliest experiences working in a restaurant.

Conte’s father, Salvatore, moved to Memphis in 1980 to open a restaurant called the Hearth with her cousin, Michael Pietrangell. Conte visited the city often, and when her father got sick in 1988, she moved here for good.

She operated an Italian restaurant called Clementina’s (named after her aunt) in Tipton County, but in December 2005, she opened up her own place on Madison Avenue.

The family connections continue at Conte’s. Pam Conte’s husband, Chuck, handled all the remodeling. Her daughter, Sarah, helps run the restaurant, while her son, Anthony, is the only person besides Pam who cooks.

“My son is a natural,” Conte explains. “Where I’m more traditional, he’s more innovative. He’s more into experimenting with different dishes.”

There’s a lot of work to be done each day in the kitchen. Conte whips up a pot of gravy and marinara as well as a sauce made from whole Roma tomatoes. She also makes her own Italian sausage.

“I only use the best and freshest ingredients,” Conte says. “If we’re out of something, we’re out of something, and we make it again tomorrow.”

Conte’s gets its ravioli, manicotti, and stuffed shells from a Brooklyn company called Pastosa’s, the same place her family bought ingredients when she was a child.

The only kind of pasta she uses for spaghetti and other dishes is De Cecca, which is made in Italy. She gets her bread locally from La Baguette.

“Sunday Morning Meatballs” are one of Conte’s specialties. They earned the name years ago, when mothers and grandmothers in Italian families would make rich meatballs on Sunday morning to be added to a large pot of simmering gravy for that night’s dinner.

The restaurant also features New York-style cheesecake, made by Conte’s cousin’s wife, Nina.

While running the business hasn’t always been easy, Conte thinks she has found a culinary home.

“I love Memphis’ downtown, and I think that it is going through a great resurgence,” Conte says. “Every month, business has grown. Even if it’s only by $50, it has grown. I would like it to grow a little faster, but we’re going to be here for the long haul.”

In addition to running a business five days a week, Conte also caters private parties and opens the restaurant during off days for special occasions.

“You’re married to it,” she says. “We’re closed two days a week, but I find myself down here on one of those days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., just cleaning and ordering supplies.”

And while she now calls Memphis home, Conte gets a lot of New Yorkers. “They know this is the place to eat if you grew up in an Italian family, and you want to eat like you’re at your mother’s house.”

Conte’s is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; dinner from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10 p.m. on Friday, and 5 to 10 p.m. on Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

“This Is It”

The Majestic Grille is a hard restaurant to define. Its menu has a grilled cheese sandwich across from quality steaks. Its tables have white linen covered by paper tablecloths. Its décor is understated, yet there’s an eclectic rotation of bossa nova and funky jazz playing in the background.

These contradictions, however, might be what make the 10,000-square-foot bar and grill at 145 S. Main work. Owners Patrick and Deni Reilly come from different backgrounds too, but they’ve worked to create a classy meeting place with room for everyone.

Patrick, originally from Ireland, has worked in restaurants in London, New York, Chicago, and Florida. Before starting up the Majestic, he worked nearby at Swig, the martini bar.

Deni, who hails from New Jersey, has been involved in the hospitality industry for a long time, working at hotels or as a meetings planner.

“My skills and his skills blend well, and that’s why it works,” Deni says.

The building that houses the restaurant was constructed in 1912 as the Majestic No. 1 movie theater. It’s easy to imagine how it looked back then, with the mezzanine above the front door taking the place of a projection booth. Original railings surround the second floor.

Warren Jordan, whose father owned the theater, gave the Reillys a photo taken of the property in 1920. The picture features the theater’s employees and a young Jordan. The Majestic Grille’s staff recreated the photo and included the 88-year-old Jordan in the same spot he stood all those years ago.

The Majestic No. 1 operated until 1936. Then Julius Lewis Men’s Shop moved from Beale Street to the site and operated until the 1950s. The building opened again in the 1970s as Blue Light Studio.

It entered its restaurant days about 10 years ago. That’s when Breckenridge Brewery came in and installed beer-making equipment, now covered by a mural at the back of the restaurant. Breckenridge gave way to another brew pub, Gordon Biersch, which in turn closed a couple years ago, making way for the Majestic Grille.

“Conceptually, it’s a 1940s bar and grill, an old- fashioned, nice American restaurant,” Patrick says.

The Majestic Grille seats 220 inside, with room for 50 more on the front patio along the trolley line. The food is straightforward, with a variety of big salads, hamburgers, steaks, seafood, and pasta.

“It’s not meant to be complicated,” Patrick says. “There are no fusions here.”

Cooks prepare a meal for employees from 3 to 5 p.m. each day. The night crew comes in early to eat, while the day crew sits after a hard day of work. While this might not be the way staff breaks are handled at most Memphis restaurants, it’s a high-end style of management.

“It’s just the way it is,” Patrick says. “Everybody sits down and breaks bread. It’s crazy to work in a good restaurant if you can’t eat.”

That philosophy extends to other areas.

The Majestic Grille offers its employees health insurance and is setting up a 401(k). It also requires that staff have direct deposit. It makes for a stable work environment.

“We want this to be a career, not just a fly-by-night job,” Deni says. “We want people to have a good place to work where they can earn some money but also learn things along the way. We want them to have the same passion about this that we do.”

The interview process is lengthy. Prospective employees meet with three or more managers, with at least one of them a supervisor. Hired applicants then train on everything from wine selection to service.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. But it’s been worth it so far.

Deni recalls the restaurant’s first Saturday night. There was a party of 30 on the mezzanine, the bar was full, and every seat in the house was occupied. The lights and music were perfect. Patrick and Deni had been at the restaurant all day. Still, they enjoyed the controlled chaos in front of them.

Remembers Deni: “We sat in the back and said to ourselves, ‘This is it. This is our restaurant.'”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Desperately Seeking Catfish

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When Raymond Williams and Tiger Bryant were planning Soul Fish, their new restaurant in Cooper-Young, they noticed a conspicuous absence among the otherwise diverse offerings from the neighborhood’s establishments: Southern-style catfish.

“We’re not in here wearing straw hats and overalls, but we’re big fans of Southern food,” Bryant says. “We both grew up in the South, and when you find yourself driving somewhere like Olive Branch Catfish Company to find something that should be pervasive in this area … that’s what steered us that way.”

Williams and Bryant opened Soul Fish’s doors on March 11th, but the idea was a long time coming. Both have been in the restaurant business for a while: Williams has corporate experience and Bryant has owned the Young Avenue Deli for eight years. They knew they would eventually go into business together.

Soul Fish serves traditional meat-and-vegetables dishes. The most expensive dishes top out at $9, with most of them in the $5 to $6 range. That’s by design.

“There are enough high-end places in this area, with the Tsunamis and Dishes and all that,” Williams says. “We wanted to fill a different niche.”

While Soul Fish does have a variety of sandwiches, Bryant is quick to point out that it is different from the fare at the Young Avenue Deli. Soul Fish has more of a Southern flavor, with smoked chicken, catfish, and fresh vegetables.

Most of the food is hand-prepared. The vegetables are fresh-cut, with the potatoes hand-mashed and salads tossed every day.

“The cooks get here in the morning, and the vegetables are started,” Bryant says. “Whatever is decided, we set up and cook that day. We don’t cook stuff up tonight, put it in the refrigerator, and then reheat it.”

They also limit the number of vegetables they offer each day, but they always have cole slaw and mashed potatoes on the menu, plus a handful of mostly seasonal vegetables.

“There is no way you can have 10 or 20 vegetables and do it right,” Williams says. “So we do three a day, maybe four, but that’s it.”

When it comes to the meats, Bryant likes Soul Fish’s chicken, which is roasted and hickory-smoked on the bone. Of course, he’s also partial to the catfish.

“As many brands and types of catfish that we’ve tried over the past several months, I’m still not tired of it,” Bryant says.

Williams recommends the Memphis po’boy: smoked pork tenderloin, barbecue sauce, bacon, and cole slaw served on bread made in New Orleans.

“I guess it’s our version of a barbecue sandwich but with pork tenderloin, which makes a big difference,” he says.

Soul Fish’s menu is about five or six items short of what Williams and Bryant initially came up with.

“We purposely narrowed it for the opening,” Williams explains. “We wanted to do it right.”

“If you have 40 items on the menu, that’s fantastic,” Bryant says. “But if you can’t do those 40 items impeccably and someone tries an item on an off day, you may not have a second chance to try to please them again.”

Soul Fish has a 1950s diner look with a few modern twists. The owners say they were going for a clean, uncluttered look for the 2,000-square-foot space. There is a mixture of tables, booths, and bar seats in the 60-seat restaurant. There are fishing lures beneath the lunch counter’s laminate.

The most eye-catching feature of Soul Fish is the sculpture on the front of the restaurant, which is backlit with light-blue neon. It’s a collaboration between Memphis metalworker Jerry Carter and Bryant’s wife, Glennys, who is a designer.

“It looks fantastic at night,” Bryant says. “When they first put it up there, we were sitting out front with a six-pack just looking at it. We thought it was the neatest thing in the world.”

Early business has been strong, with to-go orders accounting for more business than Williams and Bryant anticipated. They look to do deliveries down the line. And if things go well in the first year, Soul Fish could expand to other locations.

“It’s a concept we can package,” Bryant says. “Restaurants with multiple locations around town have an idea that transfers well. Over the next couple years, we hope to have another one or two stores.”

While Soul Fish brings something different to the Cooper-Young neighborhood, it shouldn’t be hard for it to fit in.

“It seems like 90 percent of the people we know on this earth have come to eat here so far,” Williams says. “We both live and work in this area. Our kids go to school in this area. So it’s important that, for the long haul, this is someplace we can be proud of.”

Soul Fish is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Out of the Ordinary

On busy New Byhalia Road in Collierville, there’s a typical shopping center with a Target, a Schnucks, and various other businesses. In the corner space is Lee Kan’s Asian Grill, a Chinese restaurant which appears to be as ordinary as its environs.

Look closer, however, and Lee Kan’s Asian Grill is much more. Kan and her husband, Simon Huang, opened the 4,500-square-foot restaurant in October. Since then, business has been steady, and it keeps picking up.

“When they first come in, they think we’re a regular Chinese restaurant,” Kan says. “Then they see our presentation and how we prepare our food, and they’re surprised.”

For one thing, Lee Kan’s is not simply an Asian grill. The food is nontraditional, mixing and matching cooking techniques from different Asian countries. Many of the dishes have American and European influences as well.

Two of Kan’s favorite examples of this are the grilled jumbo shrimp and scallops and the pan-seared sea bass. Both are prepared with an Asian/French soy/beurre-blanc sauce, or a white wine sauce mixed with soy.

“It tastes clean from the white wine,” Kan says. “Then you can taste the Asian influence, and it’s like, ‘Is that soy sauce or what?’ People guess and try to figure out what it is.”

The presentation of the dishes is also unconventional.

“The French influence is not only about the taste but also the presentation of the food. It’s always so gorgeous,” Kan says. “It’s interesting to take a Chinese dish and add a French sauce or to present it in a way the French would.”

Another dish that Kan’s customers appreciate is “Fried Rice for the Brazen Fool,” a medley of Asian dry red pepper, Thai pepper, jalapeno pepper, red pepper, and bell pepper with sweet onions, carrots, and egg. It’s very hot. “People order that, and we look at them and ask, ‘Are you crazy?'” Kan says.

The range of foods extends to the children’s menu, which features both grilled chicken with teriyaki sauce and macaroni and cheese. A nice touch to the children’s menu is the inclusion of instructions for making an origami swan.

Kan got much of her inspiration for cooking while traveling.

“Because I traveled around, I saw many other different countries’ food,” Kan says. “I always thought about how to arrange it differently and make it fun and not just traditional Chinese food.”

Kan is from the Chinese city of Canton. Her family moved to Memphis when she was 17 years old to join an uncle who lived here. Growing up, she helped out in the family kitchen. During the summer, she worked as a waitress in Chinese restaurants, learning about the restaurant business.

Kan and Huang also own the Hunan Gourmet Buffet on Germantown Road in Bartlett.

The main room of Lee Kan’s has a large fish tank. The restaurant walls showcase original artwork, including paintings by Memphis artist Billy Price Carroll and Collierville artist Rene Platten. One of those paintings features Kan and her daughter, Vivian.

Huang and Kan also have an 8-year-old son, Kevin. The family lives nearby. They decided to open Lee Kan’s in Collierville because they saw a need for unique dining in the area, the sort of place that feels like home.

“When I’m working at a restaurant, it’s not just about making money. It’s about developing relationships with the customers. You make friends with them,” Kan says.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Philly South

At South Philly, there is a sign that hangs above the counter. It reads: HOW TO ORDER A CHEESE STEAK.

Step 1: Specify if you want your steak with (WIT) or without (WIT-OUT) Onions. (If you are not a rookie, this should come naturally.)

Step 2: Specify Plain, Cheez Whiz, Provolone, American Cheese and/or sauce.

Step 3: Have your money ready. (Do all of your borrowing in line.)

Step 4: Practice all of the above while waiting in line.

When Corey Miller and Mike Dinwiddie decided to open a restaurant specializing in Philly cheese steaks, they wanted to be authentic but not so authentic as to be rude.

“It’s like the Soup Nazi up there,” Miller says of cheese steak shops in Philadelphia. “If you get in line and don’t order it a particular way, you have to get in the back. Those guys do so much business, they can treat you like crap and get away with it. You’ll come back anyway. You’ll be there at four in the morning in 30-degree weather.”

Miller, 24, and Dinwiddie, 27, hope to be that busy someday. They opened the 3,000-square-foot restaurant, located downtown near W.C. Handy Park, in August. Inside, the walls are a mix of metal beams and brickwork. In the back, there are framed pictures of Philadelphia landmarks, places like Geno’s Steaks and Pat’s Steaks.

“Cheese steak in Philadelphia is like barbecue down here. There are a thousand joints up in Philadelphia. They all do it a different way, and everyone has their favorite place. They all take it really seriously,” Miller says.

So seriously, says Dinwiddie, that the staff at South Philly is already used to being called out by their customers.

“Everyone who comes in here who is from Philadelphia … none of them buy it at first. They say, ‘No way. You guys can’t do it like up there.’ We get lots of challenges.”

According to Dinwiddie and Miller, they have yet to fail a taste test.

One reason is that they get their bread and meat from a Philadelphia company that has been in business for more than 100 years.

“The roll is probably 90 percent of the sandwich. If you get a bad roll, it starts falling apart. These really hold it together,” Miller says.

“The cheese, the onions, the mushrooms, the peppers … they’re all chopped in,” Miller says. “It gives it a more consistent taste. Instead of just laying it down, it’s all mixed in so you’re getting that same amount of cheese in there.”

You can order American or Provolone cheese, or go really Philly and ask for the Cheez Whiz.

“People get confused,” Dinwiddie says. “Cheez Whiz is cheese sauce. A lot of people hear Cheez Whiz, and they think we’re getting it out of spray can. It’s similar to stuff they use in nachos, like orange liquid cheese.”

South Philly also serves cold hoagie sandwiches, burgers, and salads. For dessert, it features a Northeastern treat, Italian ice, in 20 flavors. It even has Tasty Kakes, another Pennsylvania specialty. (“We have a guy who has a standing order for a case a week,” Dinwiddie says.)

South Philly is busiest at lunchtime, but it also does well late-night. On the weekends, the restaurant is open later to take advantage of its proximity to Beale Street.

“There’s not really a lot of places downtown to eat that late at night, especially with the good bar crowd you have here,” Dinwiddie says. “For people who drink, this is great sober-up food. It’s even better than a big, greasy cheeseburger, and it’s safer than driving to Krystal because we’re right across the street from the bars.”

South Philly offers daily sandwich specials and runs beer specials during Grizzlies and Tiger basketball games at the FedExForum. It takes orders online or via fax and phone and makes deliveries within walking distance.

While they remain busy, Miller and Dinwiddie are considering expanding.

“We want to grow, obviously,” Miller says. “We think this concept could work anywhere, except Philadelphia.”

southphillycheesesteaks.com

South Philly is located at 250 Peabody Place (527-0007) and is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

ashby129@hotmail.com

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We Recommend We Recommend

You In?

The Poker Lounge has been spreading the game of No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em all across the Memphis area. The local company has set up poker tournaments from downtown to DeSoto County. They’ve even worked a few bar mitzvahs.

“You have parents setting up tournaments for 12- and 13-year-old boys,” says Ira Lipsey, one of the founders of the Poker Lounge. “It’s strange, but the kids see it on TV, and they play it on the Internet. I was talking to the mom of one of the kids, and she said the kids play all the time. They know all about it.”

The Poker Lounge came about last fall after Lipsey’s cousin, David Kaplan, began pushing the idea of setting up free poker tournaments in Memphis bars. He’d seen it work in the bars around the University of Kansas, where he was a student.

“Honestly, in the beginning, I told David there was no way it would work, that the bars would not pay us to do it,” Lipsey says. “He said to give it a shot and see what happens.”

They recruited Kaplan’s high school friend Lawson Arney to run the Web site (ThePokerLounge.net), handed out flyers after Grizzlies games, and started a weekly tournament at Newby’s. During the first few weeks, they drew about 20 or 30 people to each tournament.

“It took off from there, and we’ve been adding locations ever since,” Lipsey says.

They now set up the tournaments in about 13 area bars and are expecting to add more in the upcoming weeks.

This is how it works: The Poker Lounge provides all the equipment for a game — the tables, the cards, and the chips — charging the bar a fee for each table that is filled. A pit boss makes sure the rules are being followed. There is no entry fee for the tournaments, and no money is bet, only chips.

Each tournament has a first-place prize, such as a poker-chip set or a hand-held poker game. The winner also qualifies for the Tournament of Champions, which is held every six to eight weeks. Whoever wins that gets a weekend stay for two in Las Vegas, including airfare and hotel.

“I think the beauty of it is that when you play in these tournaments, it doesn’t require you to spend a dime. You can come in and learn, although experienced players have fun too,” says Gary Munyan, general manager of Celebrity’s, a Poker Lounge client.

“They even taught me,” Munyan says. “I was at the table with three professionals and a couple of other guys who, like me, were novices. By the end of the night, you felt pretty comfortable about what you’re doing. I think it’s a chance for people who don’t know anything about poker to learn.”

The only poker game played at the Poker Lounge’s tournaments is No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em. “That’s the game everyone knows right now,” says Lipsey, who’s been playing poker since he was 12. “My friend and I used to go to the poker rooms down in Tunica, and it consisted of five tables. There were two Seven-Card Stud tables, two Omaha tables, and one Texas Hold ‘Em table. Now you go and there’s about 30 tables and 25 of them are Texas Hold ‘Em, four of them are Omaha, and one of them, if you’re lucky, might be Seven-Card Stud. It’s absolutely ludicrous how popular it is.”

According to Lipsey, there are generally two types of players.

“We have a core group that comes four nights a week to various locations. They know they’re going to go to the Sports Pub on Sunday and the Fox & the Hound on Monday. They’re going to take Tuesday off, but they’ll be at Gill’s on Wednesday and then Buffalo Wild Wings on Friday,” he says.

There are also players who show up only at specific locations.

“No matter what, on Tuesday night, I know I’m going to see certain people at the Sidecar Café or certain people are going to play at the Newby’s game on Sunday,” he says.

On average, the games draw between 50 to 60 people each night, about a third of whom are women. Since they’ve started, 3,300 people have played in tournaments hosted by the Poker Lounge. If nothing else, the company has helped Memphis grow its own poker scene.

“I’d say the scene here is very strong,” Lipsey says. “We have people who use our tournaments as practice for going to Tunica or in their home games. They can practice for free with us and then go out and play for money.”

ThePokerLounge.net

ashby129@hotmail.com

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Music Music Features

The Password Is Diversity

Ekundayo Bandele was going to bars, clubs, and coffeehouses all across Memphis, and he was sick of it.

“Pretty much I got tired of being the only black face in a white audience or seeing one white face among a whole bunch of black faces,” he says.

So he decided to do something about it. Bandele started the Speakeasy, a rotating group of poets, musicians, comedians, and actors who perform at 8 p.m. every Thursday at the Jack Robinson Gallery in the South Main Arts District.

If the Speakeasy really were a Prohibition-era bar, the password would be “diversity.” The goal each week is to have four or five completely different performers on stage.

“Different ethnically, racially, in age, gender, and even sexual preference,” Bandele says. “We want each program to be as diverse as possible, and we do that to pull a diverse audience. If the audience ever shifts one way or the other, I’m going to say that the Speakeasy is a failure.”

So far the mix has been balanced, with audiences of 80 or so being half white and half black. The type of performers has been varied as well. “It’s about integrating performance art and introducing spoken-work artists to folk musicians and comedians to classical pianists,” Bandele says.

Bandele, who splits his time between New York and Memphis, used to hold performances at his store, Threads Vintage Clothing, before it closed. He’s also had seven plays produced and runs a mobile car-detailing business called Bandele’s Washworks.

For the Speakeasy, Bandele searches for performers at places such as the Full Moon Club, Nappy by Nature, and Java Cabana. He found Keith Green, a guitarist who once played with Albert King, on the street.

“He was just sitting outside of Café Francisco picking the guitar,” Bandele says. “He was this old white cat who looked like a bluesman. I said, ‘Man, you sound good,’ and I told him what I did. He got excited, and now he’s going to play here.”

Before someone plays the Speakeasy, they must agree to a few ground rules. First, artists aren’t allowed to introduce themselves or talk about what they are going to perform. “We’re taking the ego out of it. It’s only your art. That’s it. Nothing else,” Bandele explains.

Second, the only way you can be included on the club’s roster is to come and pay the $5 cover charge on a night you’re not featured. It’s a way to show support for the other artists.

The Speakeasy is like an artist cocktail, with everyone getting paired up with their polar opposite. Bandele thinks about that when he’s making up a roster of artists. “I’m just sitting there looking at who I’ve got black, who I’ve got white, male, female, whatever,” he says.

That could mean Keisha, a black jazz singer, performing with Jobu Babin, a white musician who plays the bass and guitar and uses computer effects. Or maybe Brothas’ Keeper, a black poetry group, gets paired with Misti Warren and Davy-Ray, a white duo who play folk and other acoustic music. The mix depends on Bandele’s feel of the audience.

“I orchestrate it on the energy of the audience. When the audience is getting a little laid-back, I want to shock them,” he says.

And just as the artists change from week to week, so does the room. Bandele rearranges the couches, chairs, and tables. Sometimes there is one rug for performers. Other times there are two. Each set-up adds a different feel to that night’s performance.

While the Speakeasy might appear to have some attributes of an open mic, Bandele is quick to dismiss that notion. During an open mic, a lot of upcomingperformers are thinking about what they’re going to do instead of paying attention to what’s happening on stage.

Poets, musicians, and comedians are in the audience at the Speakeasy, but there is no anxiety because they aren’t performing. “They’re just there to watch,” Bandele says. But nervousness does strike some artists about to perform.

“I would attribute that to the makeup of the audience. We have such a diverse audience in age and race and gender. In Memphis, it’s hard to find places like that,” Bandele says.