Author: John Klyce Minervini

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Memphis wins acclaim for its craft candy.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Willy Wonka once wondered, “Where is fancy bred? In the heart or in the head?”

Or, he might well have asked, in the mouth? Here in Memphis, we know the answer to that question. Lately, the Bluff City has started winning awards and considerable acclaim for its craft candy scene — which, five years ago, was limited to a single boutique chocolatier.

“I love caramel, and I love making people happy,” Shotwell Candy Co. founder Jerrod Smith confesses.

Shotwell, which opened its online store in November 2012, recently won a Southern Living 2015 Food Award for “Best Sweets.”

In the beginning, Smith worked out of his home kitchen, cooking candies late at night. Today, Shotwell operates out of a commercial kitchen, hand-making about 300 boxes of caramels each day. They have lately branched out into trail mix and toffee.

What sets Shotwell apart are the high quality of its ingredients and the scientific exactitude of its process. When devising a recipe for his caramels, he experimented with a dozen different varieties of butter — French, Amish, American, organic — which varied based on fat and salt content.

Which did he end up choosing? Well, that’s a trade secret, of course.

“When you put heat and sugar together, you get these amazing flavors,” Smith observes. “Combine that with my innate nerdiness and my desire to figure things out, and you get a business pretty quick.”

How does it taste? In a word: excellent. The Hand-Crushed Espresso Caramels ($9.75) are my favorite — the perfect marriage of salty and crunchy, gooey and sweet. And the Tennessee Toffees are not far behind. You can find Shotwell candies in about 90 stores across the Southeast, including (locally) Porcellino’s, Whole Foods, and City & State.

They say that invention is 93 percent perspiration, 6 percent electricity, 4 percent evaporation, and 2 percent butterscotch ripple. It’s a proprietary formula, one with which chef Phillip Ashley Rix is intimately familiar.

“I want to create things that no one has begun to imagine,” Rix, owner of Phillip Ashley Chocolates, says. “I’m like Willy Wonka. I want to put the whole world in a stick of bubble gum.”

Like Jerrod Smith, Rix is an autodidact. He never took a class on how to make ganache; he taught himself. Yet somehow, he has started turning out some of the tastiest — and most visually shocking — chocolates in the country.

Shocking enough to win acclaim from publications like Forbes and USA Today, not to mention celebrities like Tom Brokaw and Morgan Freeman. Have you ever tasted a truffle flavored with fig jam, goat cheese, and port wine?

“What Kate Spade did for handbags,” Rix says, “what Louboutin did for women’s shoes … that’s what I wanna do for chocolate.”

Rix’s latest venture is vegan chocolate, and it started with a celebrity encounter. Last month, Rix was catering an event at Pearl River Resort in Mississippi, and he was asked to bring a gift bag for country music legend Tim McGraw, who would be performing.

There was just one catch. McGraw is vegan. So Rix began experimenting, and before long he had cooked up a dairy-free truffle flavored with spicy Mexican sipping chocolate.

These confections must be seen to be believed. High-gloss hemispheres that have been painted with dancing flames, each is a little work of art. And they taste as good as they look, with a smooth, chocolaty crème and a satisfying, spicy finish. Rix says they are the first in a vegan series that will include bourbon and lavender vanilla.

Justin Fox Burks

Of course, you can’t write about craft candy in Memphis without covering Dinstuhl’s Fine Candies. Family-owned since 1902, they were making cashew brittle when Smith and Rix were twinkles in their fathers’ eyes. More recently, they’ve been acclaimed by People magazine and Cooking with Paula Deen, who judged Dinstuhl’s fudge “The Best in America.”

Not too shabby. President Rebecca Dinstuhl says her company’s consistent, high quality comes from having had five generations of Dinstuhl’s in the kitchen.

“It makes us cautious with our recipes,” she confides. “We’ve got people who have been customers for 70 years, so we want to make sure it tastes as good as it did when our great-grandfather made it.”

You can taste the difference in confections like the Peanut Butter Square. Impossibly rich and creamy, it’s as though Alice Waters cooked up a Reese’s buttercup.

For summer, Dinstuhl’s is rolling out a line of chocolate-dipped fruits, including raspberries, blackberries, pineapples, and grapes. They’re actually pretty marvelous. Before being enrobed in chocolate, they are rolled in a sugar fondant, which means that instead of a gooey filling, there’s actually a little raspberry in there.

And so a good deed shines in a weary world.

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Now open: Sabrosura and Burrito Blues.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Sabrosura claims to serve Mexican and Cuban food; in fact, its scope is even broader. I spotted Peruvian and Ecuadorian dishes on the menu. But don’t let that scare you. The different strands are brought together in the person of Sabrosura’s owner, Karen Otero.

Originally from Ecuador, Otero married a Cuban man and moved to Memphis, where she has worked in Mexican restaurants for the past 12 years. She says she decided to step out on her own because she knows the business and because you can’t get good Latin food in the Medical District. About the second point, at least, she’s right.

“I like Cuban food the best,” Otero confesses. “The way they cook is like the way we cook in Ecuador. Lots of bold flavors.”

Justin Fox Burks

Karen Otero

Despite having been open for just a month, Sabrosura seems to be hitting its stride. When I visited for lunch, there was a decent-size crowd of doctors and nurses from Le Bonheur, as well as construction workers and elevator mechanics from a site down the street.

When it comes to Tex-Mex, Otero has her bases covered. Want nachos? She’ll make you nachos. But if you’re interested in what sets Sabrosura apart, venture into the menu’s less-frequented quarters, especially the section marked “Specialty of the House.”

There you’ll find the Arroz Tapada de Pollo ($11.99), a fragrant rice dish of grilled chicken, mushrooms, onions, and poblano peppers. I should note that, like Peter Piper, I’m picky about peppers. Add too many and they take over, overwhelming other flavors with a sharp bitterness. But Otero’s Arroz Tapado is just right: piquant and sizzling and seasoned to perfection.

Or hey, why not order a steak?

Yeah, you read that right. Otero’s Steak Mexicano ($13.25) is one of the better things I’ve eaten this month. A skirt steak that’s been marinated in Mexican mojo criollo, it’s grilled à la ranchera and served with pickled onions and avocado. Squeeze a little lime over it, and remember to thank God — or your lucky stars, or whatever — for the geopolitical forces that bring talented cooks from Latin America to Memphis.

Picture this: It’s 11:30 p.m. You’re at a bachelor party on Beale Street. You’re tipsy, it’s noisy, you need a break. Where will you go?

You could definitely do worse than Burrito Blues. After the fashion of a Chipotle or a Qdoba, this fast-casual Mexican joint offers build-your-own burritos and bowls. The food is fresh; it’s made from scratch daily; and for Beale, it’s distinctly affordable. There’s even a local product on the menu — the rice is from Windmill in Jonesboro, Arkansas).

You know the drill. White or brown rice? Black or pinto beans? To top your burrito, you can choose from a variety of proteins — beef, chicken, sautéed veggies — but I liked the beef options best. The steak is salty and satisfying. And the brisket — seasoned with peppadew peppers and house-smoked — is actually kind of special.

The restaurant occupies the former site of Johnny G’s Creole Kitchen. With its earth tones, exposed brick walls, and relaxed blues music, Burrito Blues is a little oasis in the neon desert. Along Beale, the pace is frantic, but in here, the vibe is chill.

Burrito Blues is open for lunch during the week, and manager Richard Magevney says he’s already seeing crowds from AutoZone Park and FedExForum. On weekends, the dining room stays open till midnight. After that, they’ll serve burritos and margaritas to drunken stumblers through a service window until 3 a.m.

Because on Beale Street, that’s how it is. You have to do high-volume; you have to do sweet drinks. Considering the framework within which they’re operating, Burrito Blues has come up with a fresh, tasty, affordable option.

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Now open: Tin Roof and Red Zone Midtown.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

For us, being a music joint,” says owner Bob Franklin, “being on Beale Street is pretty cool. Live music is what we do.”

Franklin is the co-owner of Tin Roof, which opened last week in the former Hard Rock space at the east end of Beale. Founded in Nashville in 2002, they are a regional chain that operates in 13 cities. But Franklin says he has long dreamed of coming to Memphis, and that reverence is reflected in the way this new Tin Roof has been customized — everything from décor to menu to programming.

They’ve even gussied up the peanuts. Cheekily christened “On the Trail of Elvis” ($4.50), the bar mix includes salted peanuts, banana chips, bacon, and popcorn spiced with dark chili cayenne. It’s the brainchild of chef Will Zuchman, who comes to Tin Roof from Garces Restaurant Group in Philadelphia.

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Tin Roof

I’ve got to say, the food is a pleasant surprise. The cheddar mac ‘n’ cheese with jalapenos and tobacco onions ($5) is creamy with the right amount of spice. And the Chili Bang Bang Shrimp ($9) is a clever combination of Creole seasonings and Japanese Ebi Mayo.

But I reserve special praise for the Pickled Four Bean Salad ($7.50), quite possibly the tastiest thing on the menu. And — a new direction for Beale — actually pretty healthy.

Justin Fox Burks

On the Trail of Elvis

“I grew up vegetarian for 21 years,” confesses chef Zuchman. “My parents were both painters. I used to eat this stuff right out of the jar.”

The space has been completely redone, and the results are barn chic: Exposed concrete meets bare brick and rough-hewn wood planks. What used to be the Hard Rock’s gift shop has been converted into a wide-open bar, and the walls are adorned with vintage signs and hand-painted murals. Add a few string lights — and, of course, a tin roof — and you’ve got Beale Street’s take on a farm party.

Tin Roof will offer live music seven nights a week: covers Monday through Thursday, original stuff on the weekends. On the night I visited, Brian Carrion took the stage. A snappy dresser from Nashville, he falls somewhere between Jason Mraz and Justin Timberlake. Franklin says that’s right in line with the kind of music they plan to offer: a mélange of rock, pop, and country.

Walt Whitman wrote, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.”

The same might be said of Broad Avenue. Although not terribly large, it does manage to contradict itself in some very interesting ways. Is it hipster (3 Angels) or divey (The Cove)? Is it highfalutin (Bounty) or salt-of-the-earth (Broadway Pizza)?

The appearance, last month, of Red Zone Sports & Cigar Bar does little to resolve Broad’s apparent contradictions. In fact, you might say it exemplifies them. Care for some spicy Buffalo wings with your cigar? But it does make things more interesting.

The first thing you’ll notice about Red Zone is its size. It’s easily three times bigger than The Cove, just down the street. The first floor is all about sports, with 10 projectors that turn the walls into movie screens, crawling with helmeted dudes and the occasional music video. At the bar, you can sit on a stool or opt for a swing — yes, a swing — hand-installed by owner Chris Sanders.

Upstairs, you’ll find the cigar bar, a glassed-in room decked out with leather recliners. But the main attraction is the mechanical bull — a menacing robot that you can pay to ride on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s only the second one in town; the first is at Red Zone’s other location, on Winchester. So what’s the deal with the bull?

“Ladies gotta have something to ride,” says manager Melissa Peters, with a grin.

Gender politics aside, the food is pretty good. The Southwestern Egg Rolls ($8.95) are bursting with corn and chicken, served with a sweet and sour sauce. And the Chicken Philly ($8.50) is well executed, a light take on a classic sandwich. Enjoy one on the porch or the upstairs patio, chiller alternatives to Red Zone’s digitally active interior.

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Jennifer Chandler takes the Farmers Market Challenge.

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

It was bound to happen. One of these days, the Farmers Market Challenge was going to get rained on. Fortunately, Jennifer Chandler has a good sense of humor.

“You should have been here earlier,” she quips. “It was like a wet T-shirt contest.”

In 1993, at the tender age of 23, Chandler gave up a career in international finance to attend one of the world’s top culinary schools, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. A whiz with a rolling pin, she graduated at the top of her class.

Since then, she’s written four cookbooks and appeared on Food Network’s Dinner Impossible. She runs a successful food consulting business, writes a recipe column for The Commercial Appeal, and produces a weekly radio segment for WKNO-FM. She’s as busy as anyone in Memphis, but somehow, she still finds time to cook healthy suppers for her family.

“That’s sacred time,” she explains. “It’s the one time every day when we can spend 30 minutes together without distractions.”

When I arrive at Memphis Farmers Market, Chandler is already there. She’s been signing copies of her latest book, The Southern Pantry Cookbook. Outside, the rain is really coming down, and she admits to being a little wet. But that doesn’t dampen her spirits; she makes a beeline for the asparagus at Ly Vu Produce.

“I was snooping around earlier to see who has the best ones,” Chandler explains.

I can see what she means. The spears are bright green and plump, with a slight purplish cast to the tips. The fresh mint looks good too; we pick up a bunch. Moving deeper into the market, Chandler selects goat cheese from Bonnie Blue Farm, butter lettuce from Bennett-Burks Farm, and strawberries from Jones Orchard.

Of course, it wouldn’t be lunch without a bouquet of fresh flowers, so Chandler rounds out our market basket with a sheaf of poppies, peonies, and Bells of Ireland from Whitton Farms. She does it almost without thinking, and I must admit, I am charmed.

Back at Chandler’s home — red brick, white columns — she takes out the butter lettuce and holds it up to the light. I notice that she is inspecting it very closely.

“A lot of times,” she explains, “when you buy lettuce at the farmers market, you’ll find little creatures in there. Which is good! It means they’re not using pesticides. But still, you don’t wanna eat those guys.”

I’ll say. To get the critters out, Chandler recommends turning organic lettuce heads upside-down in a salad spinner and refrigerating them for four to five hours.

While I blanch the asparagus, Chandler prepares some red fish from Paradise Seafood. We’re thinking salad — but we’ve both got big days ahead of us, so we’ve decided to pair it with a little protein. When the skillet is good and hot, Chandler adds the fish fillets, and they start to sizzle.

“When you’ve got a good sear, the fish will let go of the pan,” observes Chandler. “If you’re trying to flip it, but it’s not coming up — stop! That’s means it’s not ready yet.”

The delicious smells wafting from the pan act like a dinner bell. Before long, they summon Chandler’s husband, Paul, and their two daughters, Sarah and Hannah. I wonder aloud if they always eat this well. I’m thinking, no way. Right?

“Actually,” admits Hannah, “we kinda do.”

Well I’ll be darned. We sit down to lunch and say grace.

John Klyce Minervini

The fish is everything I want it to be — warm and flaky with a well-seasoned crust. But the salad is the real show-stopper. In it, the ingredients play together like an experienced jazz combo. One minute, strawberries step to the front of the stage, while mint and goat cheese keep up a lively dialogue in the background. The next minute, it’s asparagus’ turn.

The whole thing is brought to a crescendo by the vinaigrette, from an original recipe by Chandler. Made with strawberry preserves from Jones Orchard, it echoes the fresh flavors in the salad while sweetening them — just enough, not too much. It’s the perfect lunch, the kind that fills you up without making you feel heavy.

So what’s the trick to a good salad? The answer, says Chandler, is actually quite simple: quality ingredients in the proper proportions. That’s the kind of radical simplicity you learn at Le Cordon Bleu — and a lot else, besides.

“My mother happened to be visiting when we learned to cook Lapin a la Moutarde [rabbit with mustard sauce],” Chandler recalls. “So they walk in carrying the bunny. And before we could learn to cook the bunny, we had to learn how to skin the bunny.”

“Mother was horrified,” she adds, with a wicked grin.

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Carl Awsumb planted a garden and grew a community.

Carl Awsumb and I are standing in McMerton Gardens, a community garden he founded at the corner of Merton and McAdoo streets in Binghampton. When he got here in 2007, Binghampton had a reputation as a dangerous place, rife with boarded-up shop fronts and marred by gang violence.

But by working together with people like Awsumb — as well as organizations like Grow Memphis, Caritas Village, and the Binghampton Development Corporation — residents have helped Binghampton turn a corner. These days, the lawns are neatly manicured, and children in school uniforms play in the streets. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting better.

“When we got here,” remembers Awsumb, “we had this one guy come up and say, ‘We know about people like you. You show up in our neighborhood, and you say you wanna get involved. Then, six months later, you’re gone.’ I remember thinking you don’t know who you’re talking to.”

Here’s how it works. During the week, Awsumb and about 15 volunteers do prep work and upkeep on the gardens. On Saturdays, neighborhood kids do their part. They weed, plant, fertilize, mulch, water, and harvest — and in return, they are paid $5/hour. The money comes from selling McMerton produce at the farmers market.

“When you plant strawberries, it’s really fun, and they grow quick,” observes Petero Niyomwungere, age 9. “It’s like you have a real job, and they pay you.”

The strawberries are divine, but McMerton is about more than gardening. The point is to teach these kids life skills that they will be able to use in high school, college, and beyond. Skills like hard work, consistency, punctuality, and focus. For example, kids who work hard for four weeks in a row are given a raise. At the end of the school year, those who have consistently worked hard are rewarded with a trip to the corn maze at Shelby Farms.

“At first I thought that stuff just grows without anybody’s help,” admits Neema Mariam, age 10. “But then I learned that people put a lot of effort into making the earth grow.”

McMerton started as six raised beds in the back of a church parking lot. Over the course of eight years, it has grown to two acres spread over six plots throughout the neighborhood. In many cases, these plots were blighted land that Awsumb has agreed to maintain in exchange for the right to grow crops.

Don Smith, who owns and manages an apartment building on Merton, says he’s a fan — so much so that he built a storage shed for the nonprofit. McMerton also receives material donations from Rhodes College, Aramark, Carriage Tours of Memphis, and Brussel’s Bonsai Nursery.

“It makes the neighborhood so much more beautiful, these gardens,” Smith reflects. “And I do believe it teaches these kids something about life. It teaches them that if you work hard, you get to share in the bounty.”

Awsumb says he started McMerton in response to a newspaper article about the rise of violent crime in Memphis. The solution, he thought, wasn’t more guns. It was more community: the kind that comes from kneeling next to someone and sticking your hands in the same dirt.

He experienced that community firsthand last year, after he was diagnosed with cancer. The prognosis was grim, and to help him get through, Awsumb formed a support group composed of his friends and neighbors in Binghampton.

“I was blown away by their generosity,” he confesses. “They were generous with their time, generous with their spirit. Generous with what they had. They quite literally helped me survive — and I’m a different person because of that.”

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Now open: Julles Posh Foods and Chef Shuttle.

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

To walk into Julles Posh Foods is to be pleasantly surprised. Nothing about the address suggests excellence. It’s wedged into a strip mall between a Lenny’s and Walgreens. But the owners, MK and Julliet Bhupesh, are doing something refreshingly different for East Memphis: They’re cooking light.

“There’s a lot you can do with a drop of oil,” muses Julliet. “You don’t have to fry it.”

MK and Julliet both grew up in India, but they didn’t meet until much later, in California. At the time, MK was working as a consultant at Accenture, while Julliet was a pastry chef at the Grand Hyatt in Monterey. Her culinary training is classically European: She has worked at five-star hotels alongside celebrity chefs like Anton Mossiman and Gordon Ramsay. So what drew her to MK?

“He had a sly smile,” recalls Julliet. “He cooked shrimp with coconut for me, and I thought that was very brave.”

At Julles Posh Foods, the menu changes weekly, according to the season and Julliet’s whims. On a recent Monday, the menu featured a Trio of Bean Salad with Lemon Dressing and Grilled Chicken ($14), as well as a Pistachio-Crusted Wild Salmon with Maple Mustard Vinaigrette ($20).

But I was pumped for the Spicy Shrimp ($20). Here, crisp white asparagus and a bean ragout make a zesty bed for some truly peppery crustaceans. For fun, pair it with one of Julliet’s cold-pressed juices. I liked the “Boost n Run” ($9), a gingery potion of beets, carrots, and kale.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Nearly all of these dishes are gluten-free, and several are vegan. That’s a perk, says Julliet, but it isn’t the point. Rather, it flows naturally from her philosophy of cooking light and using predominantly fresh, local ingredients. Recent examples include fingerling potatoes from Woodson Ridge Farms and amaranth microgreens from Rocking Micros.

If you have time, you really ought to dine in. Julles Posh Foods is executed in the sunny style of a Euro café: white and tidy with green and yellow accents. But for busy families who prefer to eat at home, there are actually two more ways to get this food.

First, you can pick up. Julliet prepares and plates each dish, then flash-chills it in an oven-safe container. (An aside: It’s rare to see this level of care taken with prepared foods. Even in black plastic, these dinners look immaculate.) Finally, you can arrange to have your meals delivered. Visit jullesposhfoods.com to order online.

You’ve probably heard about Seamless, the site that lets you order food online. It currently works with 8,000 restaurants in more than 600 cities. Alas, the list does not include Memphis.

But wait! Before you let fly with that familiar, world-weary sigh: Memphis now has its own, homegrown version of Seamless. Back in February, Chef Shuttle started delivering meals to six zip codes in the eastern half of the city. Founder Ryan Herget says he plans to add more neighborhoods in the coming weeks.

Here’s how it works: Go to chefshuttle.com and pick a restaurant (there are currently about 20 to choose from). Order from the menu; the prices are the same as dining in. And that’s it. The food shows up at your door within an hour, and all for a flat delivery fee of $4.95.

I had been meaning to try Chef Shuttle. Also, I had been meaning to check out Game of Thrones. So on a recent Wednesday night, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. At 5:30 p.m., I ordered dinner from 4Dumplings, a Chinese joint in East Memphis. Then I cued up season five, episode one, and pressed play.

5:32 p.m. Opening credits — followed by a dizzying, two-minute montage that attempts to summarize the past 40 episodes. Anyone who hasn’t already seen those episodes will be utterly confused by this. Confused, I open a can of Wiseacre Tiny Bomb pilsner.

6:08 p.m. Food arrives, well ahead of schedule. The friendly delivery driver, Nancy, confesses, “I’m a people person. I love meeting people.” Meanwhile, onscreen, a naked knight cuddles with another knight. I kind of hope Nancy didn’t see that part.

6:11 p.m. Do these characters ever actually meet each other? In a pyramid, a busty woman wearing white says she won’t reopen the fighting pits. I break into the food and am pleased to find that it is piping hot. First up: a bowl of hot & sour soup ($3.50).

6:18 p.m. The woman is in bed now, attended by her lover. They talk a lot, but that’s okay, because they are very attractive and very naked. I open another beer and move on to pork dumplings ($8), which I dip into a delicious, vinegary sauce.

6:26 p.m. A man being burned to death is shot through the heart with an arrow. According to the show’s unusual logic, this is supposed to be merciful. Really? As the closing credits roll, I lay into a bowl of homemade noodles topped with spicy Mongolian beef ($9). The show remains inscrutable, but the food, at least, was good.

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Majestic Grille, Celtic Crossing Mark 10 Years

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Patrick Reilly and DJ Naylor have beaten the odds. Ten years ago, each started a restaurant, and today, they’re going like gangbusters. Reilly is the owner and chef at the Majestic Grille on South Main. Naylor founded Celtic Crossing Irish Pub in Cooper-Young.

As it turns out, these two men share a lot more than an anniversary. Both grew up in Ireland, about two hours apart, and each is the 10th child in his large, Irish-Catholic family. Both came to Memphis by way of Boston and Orlando. Both married Americans, and today their kids are in the same class at school.

More to the point, each signed a second 10-year lease for their respective restuarants.

The Flyer recently caught up with them to talk about crossing the pond, tricycle-friendly dining, and why restaurants fail.

Justin Fox Burks

Patrick, Seamus, and Deni Reilly; Kayla, Jamie, and DJ Naylor

Reilly: It’s funny how our lives are kind of parallel. Do you remember how we met?

Naylor: Well, back in the day I consumed a fair amount of Guinness at Dan McGuinness, which is where we met. You would drift in at about 10:30 p.m. for a quick one. During your shift, I might add — isn’t that right?

Reilly: (Laughing) That’s very true. I used to have an old Nextel phone, and it never did work at Dan McGuinness. So if they were trying to get a hold of me, they would call John Moyles behind the bar.

Naylor: And here we are, 10 years later, and your son Seamus is riding his tricycle around the restaurant.

Reilly: (Laughing) I never thought I’d run a tricycle-friendly restaurant, but I do. (Pause) So how do you think you made it to 10 years?

Naylor: My thought — and this is where I fell out with some of my partners — was that we needed to take a portion of what we made and put it back in the restaurant. This idea that you always take the money out — I think a lot of restaurants fail because of that.

Reilly: That’s what people don’t realize. The bulk of restaurants don’t fail because they aren’t making good food. They fail because they don’t have enough cash. The truth is, there are months when, for whatever reason, you don’t make any money. And you can’t live through that if you don’t have cash reserves.

Naylor: If I were to ask you to look out over the next 10 years, what do you see?

Reilly: I’ve fielded offers to run other restaurants, but I’m reluctant. If I do another project, it has to be a step up. I’ve spent so much time and energy and emotion on the Majestic. If I did something new, it’d have to be just right. How about yourself?

Naylor: We’re looking to become more family-oriented. More of a restaurant, a place where families can come for lunch or brunch. Maybe not as reliant on that business that comes in after 11 p.m. on a Friday or a Saturday night. We’re also looking to become a better neighbor.

Reilly: That’s what I like about running a restaurant: It never gets old. It’s always changing, the parts are always moving.

Naylor: And when the day’s over, it’s over. You can have a big night, and it’s busy, it’s crazy. But at the end of the night, everybody goes home, everybody gets fed. And then the next day, you start all over again. It’s a blank canvas. It’s a new opportunity.

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Five Spot’s new menu; Aldo’s Midtown now open.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

A restaurant in the back of a dive bar doesn’t seem like a promising place. But when it involves chef Kelly English, you rethink things.

The restaurant is Five Spot. The dive bar is Earnestine & Hazel’s. And English did the menu.

“I would describe it as fancy shitty bar food,” English reflects. “The kind of thing I would wanna eat in college when I was drunk.”

Must have been quite a college. Take the Watch Yo’ Head sweetbreads ($12). For those who don’t know, sweetbread is another name for the thymus gland, a brain-like organ in the neck.

In other words, as SNL‘s Linda Richman might say, neither sweet nor a bread.

But in this case, quite tasty. English’s bright idea lies in treating the spongy organ like a buffalo wing — double-frying it and dousing it with all manner of tasty sauces: buffalo sauce, buttermilk drizzle, and crumbled blue cheese. Personally, I had never really gotten into sweetbreads. But these will remind you of fried oysters. Try them.

At least as interesting as the menu is the space itself. Back in the ’20s, before it was a dive bar, Earnestine & Hazel’s was a pharmacy, the place where entrepreneur Abe Plough developed his revolutionary hair-straightening cream. And then, of course, there was the brothel, which started around World War II.

“When we bought it in the ’90s,” remembers owner Bud Chittom, “there were still whores upstairs. Russell [George] and I were worried they would go on strike.”

Five Spot’s interior carries traces of both the pharmacy and the brothel, but it has been pleasingly updated for the new millennium. Rustic brick walls and brass table tops are offset by modern furnishings and globed light fixtures. The design, says Chittom, is an homage to Earnestine & Hazel’s proprietor Russell George, who died in 2013.

“We took our cues from what Russell would have wanted it to be,” he says.

Before you ask: The Soul Burger ($6) isn’t going anywhere. English says it has saved his life far too many times for that. But if you’re feeling adventurous, you might instead try the Chicken Skin BLT ($10). Here, deep-fried chicken skin replaces bacon in the classic formulation, and the results are frankly dreamy.

“I think Earnestine & Hazel’s is a lot like Memphis,” muses English. “Everything here is broken, but it works. Nothing is perfect, but there’s a lot that’s really special.”

In recent years, a clutch of food businesses have opened along Cooper: Tart, Soul Fish, Philip Ashley Chocolates, Cooper Street 20/20, Memphis Made Brewing, and Muddy’s Grind House, to name a few. And you know what that means?

It means Memphis may finally knit Overton Square and Cooper Young into a single shopping-dining district. Call it Overton Cooper. Call it Cooperton Squang. Call it whatever you want — but let’s make it happen.

The latest stitch in this promising tapestry is Aldo’s Pizza Pies. Its new location occupies the old Two Way Inn, just across the street from Memphis Made Brewing Co. Formerly a forgettable beige box, the building has been heavily remodeled, and the results are contemporary and inviting.

Justin Fox Burks

Aldo’s Pizza Pies

Chief among its charms is the rooftop patio — the only one in Midtown, says owner Aldo Dean. Kissed by the sun and cooled by breezes, it’s the kind of place where you can forget about work for an hour.

Aldo’s menu — consistently tasty — remains largely unchanged from the downtown location. Everyone talks about the garlic knots, but have you tried the stuffed peppers ($8)? Loaded with goat cheese and marinara, they make an appealing crostini for summer.

Justin Fox Burks

Stevana Mangrum

As far as the pizza, I stand by old favorites like the Vodka Pie and the Trippy Truffle. But lately, I discovered a new winner in Bring Out the Gump ($17). Here, a savory poblano cream sauce is complemented by fresh basil, onion, and sun-dried tomato. The grilled shrimp only sweetens the deal.

Looking to take in a Grizzlies game? Order a pint of the Memphis Made Plaid Attack ($5) and belly up to the bar. This limited-edition Scottish ale combines a solid malt backbone with notes of cherry and chocolate — perfect for a tense fourth quarter.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

April Food Festivals

To paraphrase TS Eliot: April is the coolest month, breeding food festivals out of a hungry land.

Healthy Memphis Food Festival

Where: Water Tower on Broad

When: Saturday, April 11th, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday, April 12th, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.

As a general principle, those preparing for beach vacations might be advised to avoid food festivals — but Healthy Memphis is the exception to the rule. At this two-day shindig on Broad Avenue, funnel cakes are out and grilled sweet corn is in.

Healthy Memphis is transforming the Water Tower into a mini marketplace filled with healthy food, music, art, and fitness. Forget hot-dog eating contests. They’ve got yoga, reflexology, aromatherapy, acupuncture, and personal training classes. Admission is free, and if you bring a bag of nonperishable food, you’ll be entered to win healthy prizes from participating vendors.

Come for: Tasty food from local vendors like Belly Acres and Cosmic Coconut

Stay for: Gospel music on Sunday, performed by East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church

Overton Square Crawfish Festival

Where: Madison Avenue, Cooper to Morrison

When: Saturday, April 11th, noon-6 p.m.

Money can’t buy happiness. But it can buy crawfish, and — the Overton Square team assures me — that’s pretty much the same thing. Now in its 20th year, this crawfish festival has gone from humble beginnings in the parking lot of Bayou Bar & Grill to shutting down Madison Avenue.

Known for its hot lineup of regional musicians, this year’s event also features booths from Memphis businesses — 46 in all — including Memphis Roller Derby, Makeda’s Butter Cookies, and Bikram yoga. Pro tip: Bring a good hat and come prepared to hula hoop.

Come for: Custom cocktails made with Memphis’ own Pyramid Vodka

Stay for: The Juke Joint Duo, featuring Lightnin’ Malcolm and Cedric Burnside

Mid-South Food Truck Fest

Where: Tiger Lane

When: Saturday, April 18th, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

In a world where diners demand food that is innovative, cheap, and quick, the food truck reigns supreme. So it’s no surprise that Memphis is getting a food truck festival. What may surprise you is the sheer number of food trucks at this event: 73. They’re coming from all over the region, serving everything from Cajun to Cuban to Chinese.

Participating trucks will compete to win prizes in five categories, including Finger Food, Sweet Treat, and People’s Choice. There will be live music and bouncy castles for the kids — but be forewarned, this is a dry event. A portion of proceeds will be donated to Literacy Mid-South, which will be handing out free children’s books.

Come for: Gourmet grilled cheese from St. Louis food truck The Meltdown

Stay for: Spicy beef empanadas from Jackson, TN, food truck La Cubanita

Memphis Brewfest

Where: AutoZone Park

When: Saturday, April 18th, 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Looking to slake your thirst after Food Truck Fest? Head on over to Memphis Brewfest, where they’re celebrating America’s great craft beers, plus exotic beers from around the world — more than 100 in all. Tickets start at $45, but a $75 VIP ticket will get you express entry, a goody bag, and access to a classy buffet. No pets or children allowed, and that’s probably a good thing.

Come for: Terrapin Tree Hugger Amber Ale — light and malty

Stay for: Wiseacre’s new Avast! Pirate Porter — notes of molasses and coriander

Porter-Leath Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival

Where: Wagner Place and Riverside

When: Sunday, April 19th, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

You may not need a reason to get down with some spicy boiled crawfish, but in case you do, here’s a good one: Every dollar you spend at Rajun Cajun goes to support Memphis’ at-risk children and their families. That means field trips with foster grandparents and warm coats in winter. How’s that for enabling?

Each year, Memphis nonprofit Porter-Leath fetches 18,000 pounds of crawfish from Louisiana and serves it to about 25,000 festival attendees. This year, they’ve added an hors d’oeuvre: 2,000 pounds of spicy Gulf shrimp. Crustaceans not your thing? There will be food trucks, three stages of live music, and a gumbo cook-off.

Come for: Hurricanes and margaritas made with real rum and tequila.

Stay for: Memphis “swamp soul” band Marcella & Her Lovers

Southern Hot Wing Festival

Where: Jefferson Davis Park

When: Saturday, April 25th, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

What’s the best way to get ready for a balmy summer? Load up on hot wings, obviously. At this off-the-wall competition, team names tend toward the absurd. Examples: Winga Linga Ding Dong, You Are The Ranch Beneath My Wings. But it’s all for a good cause, so we can get behind it. Each year, all proceeds are donated to Ronald McDonald House. Tickets start at $10.

Come for: Blues guitarist Eric Gales on the Jack Pirtles Chicken Stage

Stay for: The messy awesomeness that is the hot-wing eating contest

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: City and State and Pyramid Vodka

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

City and State is a shop full of things that demand to be touched. Waxed canvas bags and creamy porcelain bowls; Navajo blankets and end grain butcher blocks. Founder Lisa Toro says she planned it that way.

“We’ve gone so far into digital, but we need the tactile,” says Toro. “When you’re online, you’ve got four senses that you’re not using.”

Toro ought to know. In 2007, she co-founded Rocket Fuel, a Memphis-based web development and design firm. For almost their whole professional lives, she and Luis Toro, her husband and business partner, have been sitting in front of computers.

While we talk, Toro makes me a cup of coffee. City and State is half café, half dry-goods store. She’s using the pour-over method, which involves carefully weighing your ingredients and brewing by hand over a period of five minutes.

Folgers, it ain’t. But when she serves me a cup ($4) — presented on a silver tray with a pretty glass carafe — I suddenly don’t mind the wait. The coffee, a Colombian Tres Santos from Intelligentsia, is fragrant and well balanced. It’s naturally sweet, and if you squint, it kind of tastes like cranberries.

“I think we’re living through a shift in consumerism,” says Toro, blowing on her coffee to cool it. “Increasingly, it’s about craftsmanship. It’s about knowing who made this – where, with what, and how.”

City and State represents a new direction for the digitally inclined Toros. Both the name and logo are meant to evoke a frontier trading post, a place you go to get things you otherwise couldn’t. That lines up pretty well with City and State’s mission: to take artisan goods that are local to other cities and give them visibility here.

On the food side, that includes things like paleo chocolate bars from Hu Kitchen in New York and hand-crafted nut butters from Big Spoon Roasters in Durham, North Carolina. There are also local offerings like Memphis-based Shotwell Candy and Paper & Clay ceramics.

Although City and State plans to launch an e-commerce site next month, I recommend that you visit the store. The aesthetic is appealingly Instagrammable: spare and modern, littered with interesting trinkets, warmed by natural light. And anyway, you’ve got five senses — why not use them?

Justin Fox Burks

Pyramid Vodka: robust and smooth

Most people conceive of craft brewing and distilling as passion projects. They think of beer nerds in garages, boiling malt in smelly kettles. So it’s interesting that brothers Alexander and Winston Folk, scions of Folk’s Folly and founders of Pyramid Vodka, say they never set out to make booze.

They set out to start a business.

“We wanted to create jobs,” says Winston. “We wanted to do something that would bring young people back to the city and get them excited about living in Memphis.”

What drew them to vodka was the way it features fresh, local ingredients — things like field corn from Wilson, Arkansas, and fresh water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Because vodka is not barrel-aged or otherwise flavored, it allows the sweetness of the corn to come through in the finished product.

Last week, the Folks cut the ribbon on their production facility in North Memphis. In an emotional speech, Alexander acknowledged that getting here has been a long and difficult journey.

But the fledgling distillery is off to a promising start. Since its launch in November, Pyramid has gone from two full-time employees to five. It is currently carried by about 75 liquor stores and 100 bars and restaurants, including the Pyramid Vodka Studio in FedExForum.

The Folks credit their success to fresh ingredients and a craft distilling technique they learned from “an old moonshiner in Walnut, Mississippi.” The corn for Pyramid vodka is ground and fermented in-house. It is then distilled 51 times and filtered through at least 24 feet of activated charcoal.

You’ve heard of farm to table? Well, this is grain to glass. Pyramid turns out just 160 cases a week, and there’s a person involved in every step. In a moving demonstration, Winston showed the assembled crowd how a bottle gets labeled: A human being pulls a sticker off a sheet and carefully applies it.

So how does it taste? Really good, actually. Robust and smooth, with a hint of vanilla in the nose and a nice, clean finish. The kind of vodka that you could drink straight or with a splash of soda. Other people seemed to agree.

“In the beginning,” said Schuyler Dalton, who attended the ribbon cutting, “I wanted to support Pyramid because they’re local. But now I can support them because it tastes good. It tastes really expensive and nice.”