Author: Christopher Smith

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Taste Washington Wine Event Set for April 24

TASTE_WA_Poster2.jpg

Have a hankering to taste 24 of the most acclaimed wineries from the state of Washington without traveling to the Pacific Northwest?

Lucky for you, Joe’s Wines & Liquors will host Taste Washington from 4:30-7 p.m., Thursday, April 24th, at the University Club of Memphis. Tickets cost $50 and are available now at the store or at the door the night of the event, if it isn’t sold out.

“I think it says a lot about the caliber of wine lover and food lover here in Memphis,” Joe’s Wines & Liquors general manager Michael Hughes says.

“Having [a tasting] of this scale has never happened before, and I think it’s the perfect opportunity to really showcase a lot of these wineries to a broader audience in the city of Memphis.”

Hughes stressed that this contingent of wineries from the state of Washington isn’t going anywhere else as a group — not St. Louis or Nashville or Atlanta. Joe’s owner, Hughes, and another staff member each have made multiple visits to Washington.

As a result, many of the wineries are sending a representative.

Will Camarda, the son of winemaker/owner Chris Camarda and the namesake of Andrew Will Winery, will be in attendance.

“He has never been to Memphis before so this is a real coup,” Hughes says. “Andrew Will Winery is one of the most respected wineries in all of Washington, if not the U.S.”

Sleight of Hand Cellars is sending winemaker Trey Busch, whom Hughes describes as a vibrant, approachable character.

Seven Hills, represented by vice president Erik McLaughlin, is one of the original founders of the state’s wine industry and has eschewed trends for decades, marching after their own unique flavor profiles and maintaining quality.

“I’m kind of a kid in a candy store with this lineup because there’s not one winery that’s coming that I’m not excited about,” Hughes said. “We’re a business. We run it as such. But we also do these events because we want to make Memphis a better place and give people an opportunity to experience things that they might only be able to experience in other cities.”

For tickets, call Joe’s Wines & Liquors (725-4252), stop by the store at 1681 Poplar, or take your chances at the University Club of Memphis the night of the event at 1346 Central.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

News Feed

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

When Bob Loeb approached Jimmy Ishii about bringing an Asian concept to Overton Square, Ishii considered the prevalence of sushi in the area as well as the proximity of Sekisui Midtown. Ultimately, he decided to add Robata Ramen & Yakitori to his list of restaurants, rather than allow someone else to infringe on his territory or duplicate a saturated concept.

“Authentic” is Ishii’s buzzword for his newest venture. He will encourage diners to start with a selection of small communal dishes to share with the table, then progress to more heavily flavored items like the yakitori (skewered meats) and individual bowls of ramen.

“I hate to say this, but right now, sushi, anybody can do, but authentic, nobody can do,” Ishii says.

“Robata” translates literally to “as by the fire,” or it can refer to a specific kind of restaurant. Ishii will incorporate the charcoal grill but not a robata’s usual “use every part” approach, postulating Memphians may not take to eating grilled chicken gizzards and livers.

After grilling, a chef will dip yakitori into a big container of sauce, which they top off, but never throw out, adding flavor night after night.

Ishii’s friend has owned a yakitori restaurant in Japan for about a half-century and will ship a portion of the 50-year-old sauce to Robata Ramen.

In addition to ramen and yakitori, Robata will also serve sake and tapas, a combination known as “izakaya” in Japan.

Chef Tetsu Ogasawara will serve food to customers using a wooden paddle, following a centuries-old technique. Japanese fishermen used to spend days in the ocean, cooking their catch at night and passing it to other boats on their oars.

Ishii brought a similar concept to the Humphreys Center more than two decades ago, when Japanese food was still a novelty to the area. He’s hoping people will be willing to adapt to a style of dining that’s a bit different.

“There’s an etiquette to eating noodles: Make noise. But Americans don’t want to make noise. You have to suck the noodles with the soup,” Ishii says. “Americans want to enjoy the conversation with the meal, but we [Japanese] hurry up to eat because it doesn’t taste as good if it’s soggy.”

Located in the historical Griffin House, Robata Ramen will also offer patio seating and a visible cooking area inside. Scheduled to open in May, the restaurant doesn’t have set hours yet, but it will serve a quick lunch featuring ramen, rice bowls, and sushi rolls, in addition to dinner.

2116 Madison

robatamemphis.com

The Memphis location of Lost Pizza Co. opened its doors March 21st, the eighth location of a pizza chain high on aesthetics.

Jim Hunter Walsh is director of operations for JJ Brothers, which bought the Memphis franchise rights. He’s standing in the East Memphis restaurant pointing over his left shoulder.

“I guess one question is, ‘Can you walk in anywhere and see a VW bus mounted on the wall?'” Walsh says.

“[Lost Pizza Co.’s founders] are from the Mississippi Delta, so it’s got a real bluesy kind of feel the way they decorate them.”

The first Lost Pizza Co. was opened in 2007 in Indianola, Mississippi, and has since expanded into Cleveland, Grenada, and Tupelo.

Featuring pizza choices including Kujo, FatBoy’s Bacon Cheeseburger, and Hot Chick, Lost Pizza Co. offers thin or thick crust, both made from scratch. The menu also features similarly branded pastas, salads, and sandwiches.

An individual-sized pizza fills a dinner plate with wide, stubby slices and a thick layer of toppings. For $9.99, patrons can treat themselves to Otis, “the daddy of all meat lovers,” which includes bacon, hickory ham, pepperoni, Italian sausage, pork sausage, ground beef, and grilled chicken.

A few elements cut against the grain of a chain restaurant, including the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamales. The original Lost Pizza Co. is in a town of fewer than 15,000 people and employed a man who made tamales for a few area restaurants. He now makes tamales for all of the Lost Pizza Co. locations.

“[On opening weekend] we were making extra, walking around and giving one tamale to each table,” Walsh says. “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who sat back up and said, ‘Hey, we’d like an order of tamales.'”

The Memphis location straddles the line between family-friendly business and full-service bar, the first Lost Pizza Co. to offer the latter. Blues music plays constantly. Antique-looking light fixtures accentuate several disparate old doors, a few of which form a barrier between the bar half of the restaurant and another seating area.

Half of the restaurant’s ceiling is covered in tin, and a plywood jigsaw painted in several colors covers the rest.

JJ Brothers (named for owners/brothers Will and Jones McPherson) plans to open a second location in Jackson, Mississippi, and a third location somewhere in the Memphis area.

Lost Pizza Co. is open Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

2855 Poplar (572-1803)

lostpizza.com

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cookies & Cakes

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

In a recent Friday afternoon, a customer — male, well-dressed, mid-20s — picked up some cookies at The Whimsy Cookie Company. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But as the woman behind the counter started to close out the order, the man grew nearly frantic.

“I need a cookie on the side so I can eat it myself!” he blurted.

Moments later, a middle-aged woman walked into the store to modify her order for an upcoming party. Those familiar with Whimsy convinced her they’d need six dozen cookies instead of the three dozen she had ordered.

These are strong endorsements for the small custom-order business Laurie Suriff started years ago with her mom’s sugar cookie recipe.

Collins Tuohy joined the company about two years ago, investing as co-owner and director of sales and marketing.

With Suriff keeping an eye on the scaled-up production, making sure the cookies still taste like they came from her mom’s oven and look adorable enough to melt the toughest of party planners, and Tuohy acting as the hard-driving businesswoman, orders have soared.

Whimsy recently moved from Germantown to a new, very pink building on Poplar in East Memphis to accommodate a larger production facility and a blossoming retail business.

Whimsy offers an endless selection of cookie designs — school logos, musical instruments, baby buggies, mermaids, and on and on. Cookies start at $3 a piece.

The pair also does custom designs. One woman recently walked in and said she was throwing a 50th birthday party for her husband with a James Bond theme. So they quickly designed some 007-themed cookies.

Justin Fox Burks

Whimsy’s tasty treats

They credit their commitment to taste for the national attention they’ve received. They’ve supplied treats for red carpet events in Los Angeles, a fashion show in New York, and the Super Bowl. They filled a custom order for Reese Witherspoon on the set of the yet-to-be-released The Good Lie and replicated Tim McGraw’s faith-inscribed heart tattoo for the country singer. (Tuohy’s family is depicted in The Blind Side. McGraw played Tuohy’s father in the film version of the book.)

The pair is turning their office into a “photo with the Easter bunny” setup in April, and the adjacent room will host parties for children or decorating classes for adults. Eventually they hope to franchise.

While they do get excited about celebrity clients, small local orders can be rewarding too, as Tuohy illustrates with cell phone pictures.

“Watching a 2-year-old who can’t get two feet from the register before he slams one down and it’s all over his face,” Tuohy says, referencing the photo of a young boy, “You stand there and go, ‘We sell a great product.’

“All the way from how our girls are sweet and treat you to our fun cookies to the color of our building, it’s all supposed to be very magical. You should feel like you’re in Disney World at Whimsy Cookie Company.”

4707 Poplar (343-0709)

whimsycookieco.com

If you’re going to buy a pie, cake, or bread pudding, reasons Dan Weaver, owner of Weaver’s Slice Of Heaven, it should taste as delicious as possible.

“We want to use 40 percent fat in our heavy whipping cream. We want to use real butter. That’s how we get our taste. All of the icing that you see is butter. Butter. All of these. BUH-TER,” Weaver says, waving his hand across the displays.

The volume of options is surprising for a bakery that consists of Weaver and a single employee. All of them originate in Weaver’s “recipe bible,” which he keeps in the back of the bakery. Weaver’s offers a daily bread that rotates with each day of the week, more than one dozen varieties of cheesecake, baked pies, cream pies, muffins, all sorts of puddings, brownies, bars, and more.

Everything comes by the slice or whole.

The bread pudding (offered in several varieties) is the best-selling item, followed closely by the turtle fudge brownies. On one recent day, Weaver touted the Snickers cheesecake featuring homemade caramel, homemade ganache, peanuts, and Snickers candy bars ($29.99 for a 10-inch cake).

“I’ve baked since I was a pre-teen. My mom used to call me ‘Dan, Dan the Baker Man.’ So these recipes span over 25 years of baking,” Weaver says. “We want everything at Weaver’s Slice Of Heaven to be super delicious. That’s how we get them hooked to come back and see us again.”

4287 Summer (552-4232)

weaverssliceofheaven.com

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Producers

After more than two years of planning and one year of construction, The Grocer at SMFM is on the verge of a soft opening.

Overseen by the Works, Inc. as part of the South Memphis Revitalization Action Plan, the full-fledged grocery store, located at the corner of Mississippi and South Parkways in an old fish market, will give local residents access to produce and other food items beyond the once-a-week South Memphis Farmers Market that takes place in the parking lot from May to November.

Many of the market’s farmers and vendors will contribute produce and other items to the Grocer, which will be open six days a week. The Grocer will also stock wholesale items during non-growing season.

“The goal is to provide a supplement to the farmers market where you can buy everything you need to make a full meal,” says Curtis Thomas, deputy executive director at the Works, Inc.

Wooden produce bins line a rack to the left of the store’s entryway, dividing the space in half. There are also hexagonal wooden produce displays dotting the right half of the store. These have false bottoms and will hold items like watermelon or greens displayed in crushed ice.

Past the produce bins is a mini grocery, which will carry dry goods such as cereals as well as supplies like paper towels.

All of the produce in the store will be labeled so patrons will be able to distinguish between wholesale items and, say, greens from the Richardson Vegetable Farm, one of the most popular vendors at the farmers market.

The Grocer also will employ only residents of the neighborhood. Though the growing season is several weeks away, the soft opening planned for late March or early April will include greens, salad mixes, onions, and garlic from a local farm.

The Grocer’s demonstration kitchen

The adjacent demonstration kitchen has expanded and will offer more educational opportunities.

“Realistically, this was all born out of that neighborhood planning process. It’s not like this is some outside group coming in saying, ‘You guys need to eat better food,'” Thomas says.

“This is what people asked for. They designed it. So there’s a level of buy-in before we even started that really gave us a huge leg up as a market.”

1400 Mississippi (946-9675), somefm.org

As an instructor at L’École Culinaire, Jake Miller would sometimes encounter students who were grasping at straws to find a career and often ill-prepared by the public school system for college-level courses. This experience led him to start Cultivate Memphis with a few of his former students.

Cultivate Memphis has a broad vision, much of which can’t be realized until the IRS processes their application for 501(c)(3) status. In time, Miller would like a facility and the infrastructure to offer expansive education, small-business incubation, a mentoring program, job networking, a full-scale cannery, restaurant, farmers market, and more.

For now, the organization and its principals operate out of pocket and in Miller’s and his volunteers’ spare time, offering nutrition education for organizations like the House: Orange Mound Women’s Resource Center and SRVS. The organization has taught healthy cooking practices to expectant mothers, those with functional disabilities, and more.

“I just knew, ‘Oh, their lives sucked. That’s so sad. Oh, well,'” Miller says. “When I dealt with students who were living through those circumstances, it’s not that they’re lazy. A lot of them care a lot. They don’t know where to start.

“What would serve some of these individuals better is if … [they] got a real trajectory toward bigger and better things. Not just, ‘Hey, we landed you a fry-cook job at McDonald’s. Congratulations. You’re welcome.'”

Miller hopes Cultivate Memphis will provide a pipeline for local food businesses as well as employment in a field that doesn’t require a college degree and isn’t ever going to go away.

It could still be months before Cultivate Memphis obtains nonprofit status. Meanwhile, Miller is laying the groundwork to shift into a higher gear once it can accept tax-exempt funds.

Cultivate Memphis always will revolve around education and career opportunities.

“While I applaud the efforts of people who are bringing high-quality nutrition to these underserved areas and I think it’s important, I think one of the missing areas is teaching people how to cook in a way that doesn’t render all of those nutrients completely null and void,” Miller says.

cultivatememphis.org

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Supply Side

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Whether you’ve been brewing beer at home for years or never have mustered the courage to try, Bernoulli Brew Werks is geared toward providing convenience and customer service to beer enthusiasts.

The shop, located at Chickasaw Crossing in East Memphis, is designed to fill what Brooks Sease saw as gaps in the Memphis market. “Engineering the perfect brew is what we try to do,” Sease says. “Just start throwing some stuff together and find out what you like and don’t like. Start tweaking it and trying to make a better beer all the time.

“That’s what everybody coming in here is trying to do,” Sease continues. “They want to make beer, they want to make it cheaper, and they want to make better beer. For $25 to $50, you can probably make five gallons of beer with a little bit of investment in the equipment. It’s really not that hard, either.”

Nearly 40 different grains in plastic tubs line shelves on the left wall. Custom labels include the price, the flag of the country of origin, and the lovibond, a scale used to measure grain colors.

Bernoulli Brew Werks has a brew station inside the store. The store’s five partners have engineering backgrounds, take a precise approach, and are adept at guiding newbies through the process: cleaning equipment, steaming grains, creating wort, adding hops and yeast. They can help you sort out partial-grain mashes, dry malt extracts, the alpha acid levels of hops, and so on.

“We want to be able to actually walk people through it,” Sease says. “We’ve had people in here for an hour, just hanging out, bringing in beers for us to try. They’ll say, ‘What do you like about this? What do you want to change?’ We try to help them out.”

The store is holding a barbecue and brew day April 12th in the parking lot, and there are plans to offer plenty of education to new brewers in the future.

Bernoulli Brew Werks is open Monday through Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m.; Thursday and Friday from 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

2881 Poplar (256-273-9766)

www.bernoullibrews.com

In a city known as one of the country’s barbecue epicenters, Memphians still must frequent multiple stores to collect the necessary supplies for a proper cookout.

But not for long. Jimmy Shotwell, who’s head cook for the Memphis in May team P-Funk and the Fatback All-Stars, is set to open Memphis Barbeque Supply in Bartlett on May 2nd.

Shotwell, a district sales manager for 10 years, often traveled to places like Kansas City and St. Louis, where the conversation inevitably turned to barbecue. The like-minded pointed him to shops dedicated to rubs, charcoals, woods, utensils, and grills.

In May 2013, Shotwell decided to turn his long-held idea to duplicate such a shop in Memphis into reality.

There are several big-box stores in Memphis with barbecue-related items, and many independent stores have dedicated barbecue departments, but the new store aims to provide unmatched variety and knowledge.

“We’re the one-stop shop for everything you need but the meat,” Shotwell says. “When you walk in the front door and you don’t have anything in your backyard, you’ll walk out of here with everything to put on a first-rate barbecue at your house.”

The store will carry about 250 barbecue rubs and sauces, enough to fill 16 five-tier shelving racks. The options will include gluten-free, MSG-free, and kosher rubs and sauces. Patrons can select items focused on Carolina-, Texas-, Kansas City-, and Memphis-style barbecues, including a locally produced, award-winning barbecue rub called Smackers.

“You could come in here, walk out with four or five bottles of rub, go home, and take a barbecue tour of the U.S.,” Shotwell says. “But the thing we want to do is focus on Memphis.”

Other inventory will include five types of charcoals, 13 different types of wood (dried in a kiln in Missouri), about 200 accessories (tongs, thermometers, etc.), and an array of grills, including charcoal, gas, ceramic, and pellet.

Shotwell attended the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Expo in Salt Lake City last week to shop for inventory and make sure he’s up-to-date on industry trends. All the store’s employees will have at least two years of competitive cooking experience and be certified to judge Memphis-style or Kansas City barbecue.

Whether you’re looking for the basic Weber One-Touch Gold charcoal grill or a $3,000 smoker, Memphis Barbeque Supply will carry it.

“At a big box, there’s an 18-year-old kid picking his nose going, ‘That’s a gas grill and that’s a charcoal grill, and that’s all I know,'” Shotwell says. “Well, here, we’ll be happy to leave you alone and let you shop, but if you have questions, a big part of our store is educating the customers.”

7124 Stage, Suite 111, in Bartlett (833-2029)

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Mardi Gras Events

CREDIT: blog.carnivalneworleans.com

Mardi-Gras-Beads.jpg

  • blog.carnivalneworleans.com

Forgot to order a king cake? Can’t make it to a parade in New Orleans, but still want to celebrate Mardi Gras?

Memphis has several Cajun-themed restaurants and bars, many of which are planning specials for Fat Tuesday, March 4th.

You may associate Mardi Gras season with beads and costumes. And yes, we have Thanksgiving feasts, Halloween candy, and Christmas cookies, but no other holiday is quite as rooted in food and drink as Mardi Gras, as Fat Tuesday’s religious roots stipulate a final celebration and indulgence before the season of Lent.)

Again, Memphis offers plenty of delicious-sounding options to partake on Tuesday. Here are a few.

Bayou Bar & Grill
The Mighty Souls Brass Band will play live music while customers can down $3 pints all night and chow on plenty of boiled crawfish.

Owen Brennan’s
The Lannie McMillan Jazz Trio will play live music from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, while customers can enjoy $5 Hurricanes, $3 Abita beers, and $5 wines.

In addition to bead tosses from the balcony and king cake for dessert, chef Jody Moyt will offer a variety of appetizers and entrees like fried crab claws, oysters Dunbar, and trout Rex (pecan-encrusted rainbow fillets over a Mardi Gras vegetable medley, squash zucchini and purple cabbage, with hollandaise and crab meat).

The Boiling Point
No theme party this year, but there will be plenty of $5 Hurricanes, $3 Fireball shots, and $5 Jager Bombs.
For the food-inclined, The Boiling Point offers live crawfish, po-boys, red beans and rice, gumbo and frog legs.

The Second Line
According to chef Kelly English, the restaurant will offer fried chicken for Fat Tuesday, which he calls “real, actual Mardi Gras food.” The bartenders are coming up with some fun drink specials for Tuesday as well.

Want to celebrate, but can’t do it on a weeknight? The Second Line will offer a boudin hot dog this weekend.

Local Downtown
For $35, you can enjoy a four-course beer dinner featuring Wiseacre beer. There’s a reception at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.

The courses include oyster soup with Kerfluffle Oatmeal Stout, deep-fried pork terrine with either Fleur Verte Belgian Pale Ale or Holy Candy, boudin-stuffed quail with Ananda and beignets with Gotta Get Up To Get Down Coffee Milk Stout. Reservations are required: 581-0541 or kari@localcaters.com.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Home Plate

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Three months ago, Steph Cook was a single, 49-year-old convicted felon and sober drug addict with a respectable but unfulfilling career as a sous chef.

Chef Steph, who’s now in a relationship with a woman he calls wonderful, owns Memphis Mojo Café, a Bartlett gastropub cultivated from years of obsessive dreaming. Originally interested in a law career, Chef Steph stumbled upon cooking while waiting tables at Willie Moffatt’s as a Memphis State University student. He talked his way into the kitchen, where the staff tried to discourage him.

“I must’ve peeled every shrimp in the ocean,” Cook says. He became a line cook and sous chef at several trendy spots in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Miami’s South Beach. Cook says he had an offer lined up as the sous chef at a casino in Las Vegas.

But after a weekend of partying, on May 4, 1999, he blacked out and plowed into two patrol officers. He went to jail for several years, was released, and bounced in and out of rehab in Florida before moving back to Memphis in 2011. He got clean and job-hopped at several local restaurants, looking for fulfillment.

Cook didn’t enjoy the “Hell’s Kitchen” communication he endured as a subordinate and felt stifled creatively. In October, he ran into a former neighbor, and the two hatched an idea to launch a food cart. Soon the idea evolved into a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Justin Fox Burks

They found the current location in December and Mojo Cafe opened January 2nd. Cook’s creations come with a self-titled slogan: FUNky SOULicious. The menu hovers near the $5 to $10 mark and features traditional food cart items spruced up with Memphis branding and compulsive detail.

Chef Steph’s “Elvis Dips” may classify as an eighth deadly sin. The dish essentially combines funnel cakes, banana pudding, and peanut butter — the fried dough contains Nutter Butters and banana slices and is served with banana whip for dipping.

His $8 Angus beef sliders include chorizo, bacon, tomato chutney, and chipotle aioli. The in-house sauce enhances the bite-sized meat before ushering in a moderate kick. The accompanying seasoned fries are a cross between the shoestring and steak versions.

The three-piece Tiger tenders ($6) are a reference to the University of Memphis as well as Tony the Tiger, the mascot that graces the box of Frosted Flakes, which Cook also uses to coat his chicken. He also offers chicken tenders coated in Fruity Pebbles.

Cook has many ideas, including healthier items: “I’m like a ‘Rain Man’ of taste,” Cook says. “I can visualize anything I want, figure out whether people will like it, and then put my spin on it.”

7124 Hwy 64 Suite 101 in Bartlett (207-6041)

memphismojocafe.com

After nearly 10 years in Michigan, Cheryl Burns remarried the father of her child,

rekindled her on-again, off-again TV show, and returned to her roots in Memphis.

The show, Fox In Tha City Memphis, first aired locally after Saturday Night Live in 2001 with a hip-hop music video theme. It’s evolved into part entertainment, part reality show, airing again last summer on CW-30.

“Being here, I needed something tangible for me to do,” Burns says. “I had some restaurant gurus in the family and we decided to open up FoxCee’s Overton Park Bar & Grill.”

The restaurant, named after her TV character, features a wall painting of a lipsticked fox with long lashes and brown hair. A block from the Sears Crosstown Development Project, FoxCee’s is as much a neighborhood hangout and entertainment venue as it is a restaurant. Equipped with a small stage and soulful decorative theme, it features live music from local bands in addition to Thursday karaoke.

Southern comfort food like Red Carpet Fried Catfish ($10.75, with onion rings or fries, slaw, and toast) and pulled pork spuds ($8.50) highlights the menu.

Burns is also preparing to shop the TV show again. After an entertainment career, she earned a master’s degree in marketing and worked as a college enrollment advisor and in federal procurement.

But Memphis drew her home, and she opened FoxCee’s on January 23rd. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

“[Entertainment] is an itch you can’t get rid of,” Burns says. “You have to create your own opportunities. It’s something I never want to give up. The show will give me that avenue. It’s like a dream, but nothing comes to sleepers.”

394 N. Watkins (207-4328)

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Eat Well

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

What if you could eat a healthy variety of meals and snacks all week without ever cooking, doing dishes, or even leaving home?

That’s the concept behind Ultimate Foods, launched six months ago by Nick Harmeier and Rick McCracken.

The pair offers several weekly 20- and 25-meal plans delivered each Monday, ranging from $125 to $172.50. They provide small, medium, and large plans with an average of 1,850 calories per day for the middle size. The average daily breakdown includes 40 percent protein, 40 percent low-Glycemic carbs, and 20 percent fat.

It matches the convenience of fast food with solid nutritional values and creative home-cooked options.

“People are absolutely dependent on us,” McCracken says. “Once you get accustomed to us, you get spoiled.”

McCracken, who has a cooking background, oversees several qualified chefs working out of Whitton Farms Cannery. Every dish comes in a plastic black tray, clearly labeled with nutritional information, a “best by” date, and microwave instructions.

Ultimate Foods now also offers meals and snacks à la carte at 1 N. Main St. in Memphis. “Happy Meals That Won’t Supersize You,” a sign on the glass storefront window says. The small corner shop is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The weekly plans include items like Good Morning Memphis (ground turkey, brown rice, egg whites, fat-free cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos, and salsa), Rise And Grind (egg whites, turkey sausage links, and red potatoes), and Kickin’ Jerk Chicken (sliced chicken breast, brown rice, pineapples, mandarin oranges, red pepper, and jerk sauce).

The pair discussed the idea for Ultimate Foods for a while, and one day McCracken called Harmeier with news: He’d put in two months’ notice as a manager at a sit-down burger joint.

“What are you doing?” Harmeier says, recalling his reaction in mock anger.

Just days later, Harmeier, inspired by a Steve Jobs quote he happened upon on his smartphone, quit his job in business development.

Justin Fox Burks

With no outside investors, the two poured every penny of savings they had into the new venture. They bought $500 worth of food the first week and sold it for $800, and business has accelerated since. They currently are working to standardize their operations to open up multiple small storefronts across Memphis, and they hope to expand even further one day.

“Don’t get me wrong, we want to be millionaires,” Harmeier says. “But this is more or less a passion.”

1 N. Main St. (654-6527)

goultimatefoods.com

While attending college in New York, Kelcie Allen became accustomed to eating at Chop’t, a quick-and-easy salad franchise.

Back in Memphis, she longed for a similar option, leading her to create Lettuce Eat, set to open in Germantown by the end of March.

“Sometimes it’s hard to make the right choice when you have to go to the store and buy everything. It’s easier just to run through Chick-fil-A than to make something healthy for yourself,” Allen says. “I got used to it in New York, so when I got home, I was like, ‘Oh, man. What am I going to do?'”

Each choice on the simple 10-item menu comes in a salad or a wrap, with prices ranging from about $7 to $10.

“My favorite’s the Southwestern,” Allen says. “It’s got a spicy chipotle ranch, avocado, corn, romaine lettuce, pepper jack cheese, and fried onions. It’s really good.”

Lettuce Eat also will offer a “build your own” wrap or salad for $6.99, including a choice of lettuce and four basic toppings. There are 57 ingredients, including six kinds of greens, produce, fruits, proteins, cheese, nuts, and “crunchies” like Chinese noodles, pita chips, and tortilla strips. All the dressings will be homemade.

The Lettuce Eat location is surrounded by offices, and Allen hopes to offer an alternative to fast food for business people on the go.

“We’re definitely going to wait and see how this one does before we sign any leases, but we’d like to open five to 10 in the next five years,” Allen says. “A couple more in Memphis, and then maybe Oxford or places like that.”

6641 Poplar

lettuceeatmemphis.com

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

East Meets West

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

What burgers are to Americans, dumplings are to the Chinese, but not many Americans are aware that the Chinese consider dumplings their national food.

4 Dumplings aims to change that, offering a healthy gourmet option to Memphians in the process.

The East Memphis restaurant’s slogan, “eat responsibly,” makes sense given that executive chef Gordon Wang is a practicing physician specializing in digestive issues.

Three of the four owners have a background in health care, and 4 Dumplings also offers four varieties of the specialized dumpling dish: pork, beef, shrimp, and vegetarian. The group chose not to offer pot stickers and to avoid frying.

Wang and executive chef Xiaoli “Shelley” Cui spent month after month trying to perfect four recipes, borrowing a strong medical philosophy: One can develop the best treatment plan in history, but it’s a failure if no one adheres to it.

Traditionally eaten as finger foods, 4 Dumpling’s dumplings ($8 to $9.50) are served with three dipping sauces. The dough for the dumplings is made fresh daily, with just enough made for that day’s dishes.

The pork and shrimp are traditional, and vegetables account for more than one-third of the filling. The vegetarian dumpling includes tofu and chickpeas for protein as well as mushrooms, celery, cabbage, and carrots. (It’s vegan.) And while beef is not common in China, according to Wang, there is a beef dumpling as well.

4 Dumplings also offers noodles or rice with grilled chicken or braised pork, iced teas like Lemon Honey Ginger, and Tapioca Red Bean Pudding.

Justin Fox Burks

Gokumiso ramen

The menu for each Sunday brunch is unique, as the chefs get creative and offer color-coded items à la carte for $4, $6, or $8. On a recent Sunday, sushi, fish cakes, and steamed buns were offered, and for the Chinese New Year, they had rice cakes symbolizing “fortune” or “getting richer.”

4 Dumplings is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

6515 Poplar (762-4184)

4dumplings.net

Let’s play a game of word association: ramen noodles.

If what you’re picturing is a college dorm room, a microwave, and some canned vegetables, chances are you’ve never visited a restaurant like Skewer in the Sanderlin Shopping Centre in East Memphis.

Not that you’re to blame — yakitori and fancy noodles aren’t staples of many restaurants.

Skewer, which chef Gai Klaimongkol opened the last week of January, also offers a large sushi selection, tempura, and rice bowls. Chef Klaimongkol also hopes to procure a liquor license for sake cocktails.

“When we were building, people would see us and say, ‘Oh! We really want this kind of place!'” says Klaimongkol. “They all had an idea of what it would be like [from past dining experiences].

“It’s very traditional Japanese comfort food. Try us and we will surprise you.”

Designed for the business crowd, lunch is available daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner is served Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.

Yakitori, which is central to the restaurant’s concept, literally translates as “grilled chicken” but has become synonymous with several kinds of meats and vegetables grilled on skewers. The restaurant’s chefs cook in front of the customers, dipping the meat into sauce that caramelizes with a delicate grill.

The bite-size pieces are available à la carte from $3 to $6.

Back to the ramen: Gokumiso is one of Klaimongkol’s favorite menu items.

The made-from-scratch stock is a blend of tonkotsu broth (muddy, with a pork bone base) and miso (Japanese soybean paste that’s fermented and pureed). It accents tender nickel-sized slices of spicy ground pork. The dish contains plenty of noodles beneath a floating salad complete with broiled eggs, cabbage, chopped green onion, and more.

The ramen selections run from $10 to $12.

5101 Sanderlin (682-9919)

skewermemphis.com

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Tart To Hold Preview Party Thursday

CREDIT: Tart

1376389_469489356500888_175606376_n.jpg

  • Tart

Heather Pike and Abby Jestis plan to open Tart in a converted duplex at 820 S. Cooper by the end of February.

For those who can’t wait, Tart will open its doors from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, February 13th, for a housewarming party with food, music, crowdfunding opportunities, door prizes, and an art exhibit with work by Mark Nowell, Mary Jo Karimnia, and Shea Colburn.

In addition to acting as a patisserie with French and New Orleans-based foods, Tart’s ambitious identity includes coffeehouse, breakfast stop, post-dinner dessert destination and full-scale art gallery.

Operating under the tag line “taste the art,” the life partners, who have known each other nearly a decade, decided to combine their two ambitions into a single idea. (Jestis is a chef and Pike is a designer and art aficionado.)

“It’s difficult to calculate the concept into a single detail. There’s going to be so many,” Pike says. “The passion is the glue.

“The bottom line of Tart: This is a place for sharing passions. We’re going to share our passions. We’re trying to create an environment where other people can share their own passions.”

[jump]

The food menu will be rustic French — hearty, but simple.

It will include items like ham and brie tartines, ratatouille, shrimp and avocado éclairs with a homemade cocktail sauce, croissants, doberge cake, and pralines.

The “baked eggs en brioche” will include two poached eggs baked inside a carved-out brioche roll topped with a slice of gruyère.

Tart will not offer brewed coffee, instead using a French press on the spot with some pre-made for customers on the run.

The art portion of the concept follows a worldwide art thrust called “guerilla galleries,” largely alternative, underground community-based art found in bookstores and restaurants in places like Milan, Italy.

Pike’s design expertise led to folding tables (so they’re removable) and gallery-quality lighting. She stresses Tart is more than a café with some rotating art.

“We’re essentially treating the gallery aspect of it as a completely different identity,” Pike said. “I don’t want to denigrate any other place, but it feels a little more incidental. ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve got art on the wall.’ We’ll have specific gallery-opening events.”

One of Tart’s most unique aspects, the CooperLoo Gallery, is a restroom that will serve as a walk-in art exhibit complete with its own address. It will open resembling the inside of a Japanese cookie tin, with bright and kooky Asian packaging.

Tart will even offer a monthly prize for the customer who posts the best bathroom “selfie” on Instagram (hashtag #tartbathroomselfie).

Tart still must pass a few inspections before an official opening, which should come in less than three weeks. But they’ve already held a “construction party” complete with a collaborative art piece created by attendees on one of the walls.

When Tart becomes operational, it will open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

820 S. Cooper, www.tartmemphis.com