Author: Lesley Young

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

A taste of Colombia from El Sabor Latino and Arepas Deliciosas

I feel almost certain that when the folks at Memphis in May were deciding on which country to feature in 2017, someone had recently eaten at either El Sabor Latino or Arepas Deliciosas, two Colombian restaurants that opened in October 2015 along the Summer Avenue corridor.

When asked what distinguishes Colombian food from other South American or Central American cuisine, both owners replied with similar descriptions — fresh, homemade, and healthy.

Blanca Simpson, who owns Arepas Deliciosas, first replied “delicious.”

“Many people think that Colombian food is hot and greasy, but it’s more natural and homemade,” says the Pereira, Risaralda, native.

Esnet Acevedo, who owns El Sabor Latino with her son-in-law, Samir Restrepo, her daughter, Yuri Restrepo, and her husband, Carlos Ruiz, provided a similar description.

“It’s home-cooked with quality — fresh and healthy,” Acevedo says, with Samir translating.

El Sabor Latino, located just off Summer at 665 Avon, offers an extensive menu, including a daily plate plan. For $37.99, patrons can come in for five days and receive a different full Colombian meal each day.

Plates can come with steak, rice, fried plantains, arepas, a salad, and soup, or any sort of variety thereof. There are several dozen options to mix together.

Their biggest seller is the Bandeja Paisa, or “Typical Colombian Platter” ($14.25), with grilled steak, Colombian sausage, pork rinds, a fried egg, rice, arepa, sweet plantains, avocado, and red beans.

“We sell that every day,” Samir, who was born in Cali, Valle del Cauca, says.

Simpson first opened Arepas Deliciosas in Bartlett in October 2014 and a year later moved the restaurant to Summer. She uses the arepa as a base for most of her dishes, such as the Arepa Rellena con Aguacate y Guacamole (stuffed arepa with guacamole and avocado, $5.50), or the Arepa con Carne (arepa with shredded meat, $7.50).

Simpson and her staff make everything from scratch, including the pork sausage and the arepas.

“We buy whole white corn, cook it, then grind it, then we make the patties,” Simpson says.

Both restaurants offer hamburgers.

At Arepas Deliciosas, located at 3698 Summer, the hamburger comes on an, wait for it, arepa! and the customer can dress it with tomato, lettuce, avocado, what have you ($7.50).

At El Sabor Latino, they offer it on an American bun but topped with potato chips and pineapple, along with all the other typical fixings ($8.75).

They do the same thing with their hot dog, topped with potato chips and pineapple, as well as bacon, cheese, ketchup, and mayonnaise served on housemade bread ($7.99).

Samir and team — his daughter, Mayerlin Restrepo, waits tables — prepare specialty plates on the weekends, typical Colombian dishes that are a bit more complicated and more difficult to prepare on a daily basis.

Including tamales.

“Our tamales are big,” Samir says. “They come on a big plate. Different states make them in different ways. Ours is from Cali.”

They wrap it in a plantain leaf and stuff it with pork, potato, carrot, onion, tomatoes, and their own special seasoning.

Arepas Deliciosas serve up daily soup or salad specials, such as Cazuela de Frijol, Arroz, Tajada de Platano, or bean casserole with rice and a slice of plantain ($7.99).

Both restaurants serve breakfast.

No one can talk about Colombian cuisine without mentioning the juices. Both offer a long list of juices to choose from maracuyá (passionfruit), mango, guanabana (soursop), and many more.

“These are all my mother’s menu,” Simpson says. “This is what I ate growing up.”

“In Colombia, my mother-in-law cooked, and when she moved here, she worked in a restaurant,” Samir says.

“When we first moved to Memphis, when I would go to Florida or Georgia, I would go straight to a Colombian restaurant because there was nothing here. We took a chance opening a strictly Colombian restaurant. Nobody knew what it was.

“I think it’s good what the city is doing [with Memphis in May], so that we can know different cultures. Memphis is growing, and we have more cultures coming in. It can open people’s eyes.”

El Sabor Latino, 665 Avon, 207-1818. Open Mon.-Sat., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. to
7 p.m. Find them on social media.

Arepas Deliciosas, 3698 Summer, 409-3396. Open Mon. – Thurs., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fri.,
11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sat., 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Sunday. Find them on Facebook.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

From ping pong to fancy ice cream, Railgarten offers something for everyone

People always say you have to have a lot of money to enjoy New York. Not true. All you have to do is walk out of your front door. On one of my jaunts that involved little planning and a lot of wandering with my camera around Williamsburg, I stumbled upon Rough Trade Records, of London punk and post-punk fame and reported to be the largest record store in NYC.

Besides its size, what was most mystifying was the sheer beauty of the design. There were stacks of old rail cars, some of them suspended in the air, beautifully lit with proper windows installed, serving as coffee shops or an office stacked above the check-out counter. I wanted to curl up and live there. It was magical.

There are some groups in Memphis that are working to bring similar types of magical spaces to Memphis, namely It’s Fine, the management group behind Rec Room, Loflin Yard, and, most recently, Railgarten.

With Railgarten, the group offers their own take of using old rail cars as creative spaces, such as a stage, a bar, a seating area, and on and on. That’s just the beginning. Railgarten is a campus of “the largest sandbox in Memphis,” depending on whether it’s being used for volleyball or by a bunch of kids; a massive playground; quite possibly several hundred lawn chairs; a Ping-Pong bar with professional-level tables that is adults-only after 6 p.m. and can be used by league players or on a first date; a tiki bar with drinks conceived by cocktail artist Mary Oglesby, who also came up with the Jameson and coffee Slushee and the whiskey and Coke Icee for the Ping-Pong bar; as well as a traditional diner and an ice cream shop. Yes, that means boozy milkshakes, and they even have a gin-and-juice flavored ice cream.

But we’re here to talk about food.

The group brought in Aaron Gardner of Monkey Train Grazing Co. food truck fame. Gardner served time at California’s The French Laundry, New York’s Daniel as well as La Grenouille, and Hillstone Restaurant Group, which eventually brought him to Memphis to help run Houston’s.

“With the diner, I went with food I liked to eat, staples of any diner but with a twist,” Gardner says.

What he means is, he puts pork belly on a burger and puts the burger on a Hawaiian bun.

By pot roast, he means short ribs, or rather double-milk stout-braised short ribs, over three-cheese pimento mac and cheese ($18.50).

And by French dip, he means Gotta Get Up to Get Down stout-braised short ribs, gruyere cheese, sriracha fried onions, horseradish cream, served on a French baguette with their secret au jus ($14.75).

They have a veggie burger that rivals any regular burger, according to director of operations Mason Jambon, who has worked at restaurants all over the country, including Commander’s Palace.

“What we have here is finer diner food,” Jambon says. “It’s a twist on traditional diner fare, exciting but accessible. That’s what we strive for throughout the property.”

Next door to the diner they serve 16 flavors of gelato or sorbet by High Road Craft Ice Cream (“made by chefs for chefs,” according to their website), with flavors such as the above-mentioned Gin and Juice, Bananas Foster, Thai Street Coffee, and Cheesecake Brownie. They also make their own toppings and even heat up cobbler if you so choose to add to your Caramel Pecan ice cream. I am anti-exclamation point, but they have a real SnoWizard SnoBall machine from New Orleans!

As you may have heard, parts of the property were shut down by code enforcement after the opening. As reported by the Flyer‘s Toby Sells, “The next council meeting will feature an evidentiary hearing on whether or not the council should take back the permit it gave Railgarten owners back in February to operate their entertainment complex in Midtown.”

According to the council’s attorney Allan Wade, Railgarten owners did not tell council members they were going to use parts of the property, and “the hearing will likely be a public review of the facts in the case in which council members will weigh the pros and cons of revoking the permit” given in February.

The next hearing will be held May 23rd.

“We are talking to valet companies to address any parking issues, and we’ve reached out to our neighbors and are talking to them,” Jambon says. “We had no idea what we would do our first weekend open. We have a willingness to do what is necessary to be good neighbors and accommodate and make concessions to what code asks us to do.

“We want this to be a space that offers something to almost everybody. Families can walk here and bring their kids, or college kids can come and play games. We feel like there is a need for a venue like this,” Jambon says.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Dave’s Bagels and Benefizz

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Dave Scott of Dave’s Bagels knows a good bagel when he tastes one.

The breakfast food to this Pennsylvania-by-way-of-New Jersey native is like grits are to many a Southerner.

“They are a staple breakfast food, and they’ve always been my favorite,” Scott says.

A backpacking trip across the country that landed him in Portland, Oregon, left Scott feeling a little malnourished in the boiled bread department, so he decided to just make his own.

“Portland has a lot going on, but their bread game leaves something to be desired,” Scott says.

Luckily for him, his best friend was a Jewish girl from Brooklyn.

“She was my best critic,” Scott says. “It took me a year or two of messing with recipes until she said I should sell them.”

Justin Fox Burks

Dave Scott of Dave’s Bagels

Bagel-making remained a hobby to the property manager and event coordinator, until he followed a girl to Memphis and needed something to do.

He got a similar response from his Memphis friends that he did in Portland — he should sell his handmade bagels.

He first took his breakfast breads to Curb Market on Cooper, where he would sell out of four to six dozen bagels every Sunday. He worked up to quadrupling his products and would sell out in under two hours.

The bagel guru has since moved to a bigger commercial kitchen in the Edge and hired a part-time employee, and he has gone from producing 500 bagels a week to 800.

He should receive a bagel former machine any day now, which will kick up production to 500 a day.

Then devotees can look to find him in more grocery stores across the city.

Right now his bagels are served at Otherlands, Strano!, the Bayou, Coffee Central in Southaven, and Broken Cup Cafe in Senatobia as well as at the Memphis Farmers Market on Saturdays.

Flavors include plain, poppy, sesame, garlic and onion, everything, Italian herb, Cajun, chocolate, cinnamon apple, and cinnamon raisin.

“I use all natural ingredients and no preservatives,” he says.

What makes his bagels so yummy?

“I use the boil-then-bake method. I don’t do steam. I like delicious, chewy bagels. I don’t like the cakey stuff,” he says.

For more information, find him on Facebook at Dave’s Bagels.

Steve Cantor has always been a software guy, since age 19, as a matter of fact.

Fast forward a few decades, and who knew he would be talking about bacterial mothers, probiotics, and second brains?

“I’ve been perfectly happy doing software,” Cantor says. “I never considered doing anything else until now.”

Cantor is the brewer/scientist behind the probiotic water kefir drink Benefizz, formerly Memfizz, which can now be found in more than 30 locations in both Memphis and Nashville.

It started with Memphis’ favorite pastime — porch-sittin’, with a friend from Arkansas who was bemoaning the fact that she didn’t have the time her water kefir drinks deserved as far as meeting the requests from her Arkansas clients.

“Two days later, I woke up and thought wait a minute, I can do something with this, so I emailed [my friend],” Cantor says.

At first he sold bottles at his wife, Karen Lebovitz’ coffee shop, Otherlands, under the name Memfizz. The popularity of the naturally carbonated, healthy beverage garnered him a business partner in the form of Southern Growth Studio.

Benefizz comes in three flavors — ginger, cranberry, and lemon. He hopes to offer grapefruit soon, but not until he can meet those demands with time and labor.

Changing the name to Benefizz not only creates a more globally marketable product, but it also celebrates the ultimate purpose of drinking something that’s made from bacteria that likes to eat sugar.

“I don’t make any health-care claims, but through all of my questioning and searching, I’ve come to accept that we are just hosts for bacteria,” he says. “There’s good and bad, and if you put more good bacteria in [i.e. probiotics], you can fight off the bad. There’s only so much space and energy for bacteria to live in.”

“They say the second brain is the gut,” Cantor says. “I like to think that we offer something that tastes good that’s good for lots of different things.”

For a list of where Benefizz is offered, visit drinkbenefizz.com.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now Open Downtown: The Vault and Lisa’s Lunchbox

Say you want to grab a nice meal and glass of wine, and your boyfriend wants to watch the game. Or you’re looking for some good music. Or you want to bring the kids along.

Business partners Michael O’Mell, Tyson Bridge, and John Kalb have spent the last four months putting all the right bells in all the right places and all the right whistles in the other right places so that you may do any or all of these things.

The three men purchased the property at 124 GE Patterson, formerly the site of the Double J Smokehouse, back in November and debuted the redesigned spot as The Vault mid-March.

Aaron Winters is now at The Vault.

“We were looking to do something, and we love the South Main area. You can tell it’s growing, and they’ll have the new movie theater and hotel coming in,” O’Mell says. “This space became available, and it was the right opportunity at the right time.”

After acquiring the space, which was originally a bank in the ’50s, complete with a still-standing vault, they stripped everything down to its bare bones, even taking out some columns and resupporting the building. They completely redid the kitchen, extended the bar six feet, repainted, and amped up the stage with new lights and new sound.

They installed TVs with their own remotes at every custom-made booth, made available an app to listen to the television on personal devices, installed charging stations along the bar, and offer the only Frost Rail in Memphis — a three-inch trough full of snow-like frost for to keep your beer cold.

And yes, they still have that killer upstairs patio in the back.

But their real secret weapon is the man behind their made-to-order pork rinds, their Cornish Game Hen, their Bacon Wrapped Chicken Roulade, and their Steak and Pommes Frites.

That would be Aaron Winters, of Porcellino’s and Miss Cordelia’s fame.

“I tried to come up with an eclectic menu with roots in Southern cuisine,” Winters, who was classically trained as a butcher in Italy, says.

He brings in produce from Wilson Farms, beef from Claybrook Farms, and catfish from Lakes Catfish.

“We’re so close to the farmers market, they’ll swing by here when they’re done, and I shop off the back of their trucks,” Winters says.

In addition to the entrees mentioned above, he offers a flat breads menu, sandwiches, starters including a daily selection of charcuterie, and an oyster menu.

“We’re getting in some really good oysters from around the country,” Winters says.

Plans include hosting crawfish boils during season and pig roasts in the fall, as well as Memphis’ favorite meal — brunch.

“Brunch is forthcoming,” O’Mell says. “We want to make sure we do a few things really well, then add more.”

Look for the building with a silver vault door on the front.

The Vault, 124 GE Patterson, 591-8000, vaultmemphis.com. Open 11 a.m. daily for lunch; dinner 5 to 10 p.m.; late-night menu 10 p.m. to close.

What’s that quote about “The day I got sacked was the best thing that ever happened to me”?

Whatever it is, it rings true for Lisa Clay Getske.

After working for Houston’s for 14 years, she went on to manage a chain restaurant that, after two years, ended up letting her go “for a less expensive, younger model.”

Clay Getske took it upon herself to leverage her experience and do her own thing.

That thing has grown into the empire that is Lisa’s Lunchbox.

And in mid-March, the empire spread to the downtown area into the former Tuscany Italian Eatery at 116 S. Front.

“It’s fantastic,” she says. “AutoZone is a big customer that’s right across the street, and it’s been fun being down here during all the festivals.”

The move had everything to do with a ServiceMaster devotee, her managing business partner, and a little luck.

“At my original location at the Ridgeway Business Center, ServiceMaster is across the street,” Clay Getske says. “My friend works at the ServiceMaster downtown, and he kept saying, ‘Hey, there’s this spot downtown.'”

That spot was Front Street Deli, which didn’t work out for Clay Getske, but thanks to her business partner, Matt Reisinger’s, thirst for water, they found the space at 116 S. Front.

“We had the keys to the Front Street Deli, but we hadn’t signed the lease,” Clay Getske says. “They were feeling a little nostalgic, and didn’t want to change the name. When Matt was down there, he went into Tuscany for a bottle of water and got to talking to [owner] Jeremy Martin, and he said, ‘Why don’t you buy this place?'”

Lisa’s Lunchbox specializes in “really good, fresh, real food,” such as her Chicken Club Panini, her “massive” BLT “with real bacon, and we’re not stingy with it,” and her spicy pimento and cheese. She also offers frozen meals to go, which will be included in the new location in May, and breakfast sandwiches and smoothies.

“We go before the beer board this week, and I think that’s something I want to offer downtown for the tourists who are walking around and want something to eat and a beer,” she says.

She also plans on staying open later eventually.

Lisa’s Lunchbox, 116 S. Front, 729-7277, lisaslunchbox.com. Open 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Changes at LYFE downtown and Jim’s Place

According to Patrick Noone, LYFE Kitchen is more of a collection of neighborhood-specific restaurants rather than a chain.

“We have 14 restaurants across the country, and we try to serve each community in which we are located,” Noone, head of brand and marketing for the Memphis-based company, says.

Recently, the Carlisle Corp. collection turned their eyes on their downtown Chisca location and asked themselves where they could improve.

“We did a little soul-searching,” Noone says.

The answer came in the form of offering full service, an improved menu, a full bar, and a ramped-up patio.

“People wanted full service, a great bar atmosphere, and a great patio,” Noone says.

As far as their menu, Noone points to items such as the Cucumber Bites appetizer as a new favorite, offering seared tuna atop their edamame hummus balanced on a cucumber slice ($6); their barbecue chicken flatbread ($8); and their Turkey Meatball Martini — ground turkey covered in Pomodoro sauce and Asiago cheese, served in a martini glass ($6).

“We took a lot of dishes we were told our customers loved and tweaked them a little, and we added a lot of new dishes,” Noone says. “We made a big effort to offer a more upscale experience but keep it in the same price range.”

They now offer a full bar complete with specialty cocktails, most with names inspired by the historic space in which they are served.

“Most of the people on our staff are into hand-crafted cocktails, so they all collaborated on the drink menu,” Noone says.

In addition to offering full service — the only location in the country as of now (the East Memphis site will offer it, as well as the new menu, in August) — perhaps the most significant change they have made is leveraging their greatest asset — the killer patio.

Starting Thursday, the Chisca site will host Thursday Patio Parties with live music, drink specials, and free tacos with the purchase of beer, wine, or a cocktail as well as their very own farmers market.

“That is the other part of regionalism and serving our communities,” Noone says.

The first patio party, which runs from 6 to 8 p.m., will include complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

The Chisca LYFE Kitchen closed for a couple of months beginning in December and recently debuted its reimagined concept on March 9th after a series of friends and family openings to test-run the new model.

“We listened, and people have been tremendously responsive,” Noone says.

LYFE Kitchen, 272 S. Main, 526-0254, lyfekitchen.com. Open 10 a.m to 9 p.m. daily.

Alex Grisanti considers himself lucky to have a millennial for a son.

“They’re the ones holding the cards,” the veteran restaurateur says.

His ace of spades, Elfo, comes in especially handy after the father-son duo joined forces with the other century-old restaurant family, the Taras, who have been serving up Greek cuisine mixed with American standbys in the form of Jim’s Place since 1921.

You read that right. Two families of Memphis restaurant lore have joined forces. With Alex Grisanti as head chef, adding some of his delectable darlings to an already appetizing menu, Jim’s Place is holding a royal flush.

In early 2016, Alex closed the popular Elfo’s in Germantown and has been working in the restaurant consulting business ever since.

He had begun to look for a new space when he was told that Jim’s Place was looking to make a major change.

“We talked, and they weren’t ready to get out of the restaurant business yet,” Alex says. “They wanted to keep swinging, and I’m here to help do that.”

He brought in his team of consultants and watched and tallied numbers for a while, looking at what on the menu sold and what didn’t, and began implementing some new dishes where necessary, tweaking some others, and leaving some exactly the same.

“They have some of the best gumbo I’ve ever had,” Alex says.

They kept the jumbo shrimp and souflima and added the signature Grisanti Gorgonzola filet, Miss Mary’s salad, Italian spinach, and toasted ravioli.

He also kept some of the longtime Jim’s Place people, including the 30-plus veteran Wayne Scott, who hand cuts all of the steaks and is the genius behind that gumbo.

“They have unbelievable steaks,” Alex says.

They have daily specials, including soup, pasta, seafood, and beef, and Alex intends to have the best hamburger in Memphis.

“My son says it’s all about the bread,” Alex says.

They have new beers on tap, exotic and local, and Alex is working on building up their bourbon and Scotch collection and has already had his way with the wine list.

Another big change is the hours. No longer open for brunch, they now offer only dinner starting at 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They’re closed on Sunday.

“They’re really great guys. They’re restaurateurs, like my family,” Alex says. “I’m here to give 100 percent.”

Jim’s Place, 518 Perkins Extd., 766-2030, jimsplacememphis.com. Open Mon.-Sat. 4 p.m. until.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Coming up: Memphis Veg Fest and Bacon & Bourbon.

While attending nursing school, Carolyn Mallett was moved to make a major lifestyle change while working on a special project.

“I was taking a community health course, and we were each assigned a zip code,” Mallett says. “Mine was Orange Mound. I knew there was a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, but until I actually went into the neighborhood and did field research — I was shocked at how limited their options are.”

This research sent her on a course that resulted in her becoming vegan in an effort not only to lead a more healthy lifestyle but also to have an impact on her world.

“I found out how much water was used in animal agriculture and all the deforestation that goes into all the land that is needed,” Mallett says. “The amount of people that livestock can feed is far less than grain or plant-based, meanwhile millions of people go hungry.”

Now, she and her friend Angel Jackson, who is transitioning to a vegan diet, are taking the next step in their efforts to impact their world — they’re putting on a vegetarian festival.

On Saturday, April 22nd, Memphis’ first Veg Fest will take place at the Levitt Shell, an ideal day and location for a festival celebrating animal humaneness and environmental sustainability (that’s Earth Day in Overton Park).

“It was completely coincidental, and it’s awesome,” Mallett says.

The festival kicks off with free yoga, presented by Sumits Yoga, at 10 a.m. followed by festival activities including food vendors, who will offer $3 sample plates, food trucks, live music, food demos, and speakers.

Food vendors include Zaka Bowl, City Silo, Seasons 52, Imagine Vegan Cafe, Merge Memphis, Phillip Ashley Chocolates, Ms. Lillie’s Z-Muffins, Nikki’s Products, Guilt-Free Pastries, Lydia’s Healthy Edibles, and others.

One of the highlights of the event is a vegan cook off, which is open to anyone and offers prizes in entree to dessert.

“No experience is needed,” Mallett says. “We have high schoolers doing it.”

Those interested in entering the contest can sign up online at memphisvegfest.com until April 14th.

“We have had people ask if this is an effort to aggressively convert people, and that is absolutely not the case,” Mallett says. “This is simply for learning about and shedding light on the benefits and the impact of incorporating even a little more plant-based food into your diet.

“This is to promote the elimination of nutritional disparities in our city,” Mallett continues.

The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit memphisvegfest.com.

Memphis Veg Fest, Saturday, April 22nd at Levitt Shell.

Memphis is nothing if not diverse. On the other end of the spectrum of celebrating and promoting plant-based foods and living a healthy lifestyle there is The Memphis Flyer‘s Bacon and Bourbon festival.

It’s just what it sounds like — a celebration of pairing two of the South’s best exports — meat candy and whiskey.

Saturday, April 15th will mark the Flyer‘s second annual festival, and if last year is any indication, it will sell out.

“It’s always a happy day at Bacon and Bourbon,” Molly Willmott, chief operating officer of the Flyer‘s parent company, Contemporary Media Inc., says.

A $35 ticket will get you 15 bourbon tastings and free food samplings.

Bacon experts include Central BBQ, The Casual Pint Highland Row, Maximo’s on Broad, Spindini, Tops Bar-B-Q, Pete & Sam’s, Memphis Pizza Cafe, Celtic Crossing Memphis, Marco’s Pizza, Kooky Canuck — Memphis, Pimento’s Kitchen + Market, and others.

Think bacon-topped pizza, bacon soufflé, bacon-wrapped bacon. …

Some of the bourbon being offered to taste and learn about includes Eagle Rare Bourbon, Stillhouse American Whiskey, American Born Moonshine, Four Roses Bourbon, Bird Dog Whiskey, Chattanooga Whiskey Co., Wild Turkey Bourbon, 1792 Bourbon, Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Belle Meade Bourbon, Coopers’ Craft Bourbon, Jim Beam, as well as other adult beverages presented by Athens Distributing Company of Memphis, Southern Glazer’s of Tennessee, Budweiser of Memphis, and Ghost River Brewing Co.

There will also be live music and vendors, including a cigar station, as well as a cash bar for those of the craft beer or martini persuasion.

All activities will take place at the Memphis Farmers Market at S. Front and G.E. Patterson from 6 to 9 p.m.

Sponsors this year include Henry Turley Co., Gossett Fiat, Another Broken Egg Cafe, and Memphis Farmers Market, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Farmers Market.

And again, tickets will likely sell out, so go to memphisbaconandbourbon.com.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Cafe 7/24 and Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe

Charisse Gooden works in the health insurance industry. Her sister, Shan, is a teacher. Her father, Charles, is a retired firefighter. Now, they’re all restaurateurs.

The three of them plus Charisse’s brother, Charles, decided to open a restaurant after the matriarch, Charisse’s mother Rosalind Martin, passed away in early 2015.

“The inheritance was taxed so heavily, my sister said we need to do something,” Charisse says.

Her sister also noticed the old Prohibition Lounge space at 94 S. Front was up for lease and urged Charisse to go look at it.

A meeting with Prince Mongo and his bare feet and the Zambodia Ambassador’s rapport with the Chief (Charisse’s dad’s nickname), and they were signing a lease.

The family debuted the restaurant, named Cafe 7/24 in honor of Martin’s birthday, in December of last year with its grand chandeliers, its New Orleans-style balcony, and its old-world exposed brick and ironwork and the kind of fanfare it, and Martin, deserve.

Charisse Gooden and family debuted Cafe 7/24 in the old Prohibition Lounge space.

“We had a pop-up shop downstairs and a DJ,” Charisse says. “It was packed out. It was beautiful to see so many people come out and support us.”

They built the menu around the Chief’s experience cooking in the station house.

“Dad has always been a griller,” Charisse says. “He would grill stuff for people for the holidays and call it Chief Gooden’s Smokin ‘Cue.”

They added his knock-out catfish, burgers, fried chicken, a sampler platter, and Charisse’s creation, Loaded BBQ Fries — crinkle fries topped with chopped pork, the Chief’s barbecue sauce, cheese sauce, and a dusting of dry rub ($9).

They offer a menu of signature drinks and a special for Grizzlies games, the GrindTime Grub, served from 6 p.m. to close during Grizzlies home games which includes their special Delta burger, fries, and a domestic bottled beer for $10.

Charisse looks forward to hosting poetry slams in the downstairs area, which is also available for rent, as well as trivia nights and karaoke.

Most of all, she’s glad she’s found a way for the whole family to honor the woman a whole community looked up to.

“My mom was a principal for Memphis City Schools for 30 years,” Charisse says. “When she was in Frayser, which was run by gangs, she turned it around in one year. She was a boss.”

Cafe 7/24, 94 S. Front, 590-3360, cafe724.com. Open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

It’s all about family for Tamra Eddy, too.

She had been looking to branch out and open her own restaurant, putting feelers out with family and friends, and someone suggested she take a look at the old Imagine vegan restaurant space on Young.

She did, and decided against it, but one more trip to the house-turned-restaurant space and a car-sitting session, and something sort of miraculous happened.

“I looked up, and at the cross street I saw my father’s name,” Eddy, known as Chef Tam, says.

Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe sits at the corner of Young and Bruce, at 2299 Young, and has hit the ground running.

“We opened a day and a half before Memphis Black Restaurant Week, and we took on that beast,” Eddy says. “We had cars parked all the way back down the street and 30 or 40 people standing waiting on a table.”

They were waiting to get their hands, and mouths, on Deep Fried Ribs ($15), the Donut Burger (yes, that’s a burger on a glazed donut, $10), and her signature Deep Fried Muddy Balls, macaroni and cheese with crawfish, crab, and shrimp, deep fried for $8.

Or her butter rum cake that’s “ridiculous” and her honey butter yeast rolls that “everybody goes crazy for.”

Eddy has taken the spot and made it her own, repainting the walls, redoing the electricity, and recently updating the patio, and she’s looking forward to offering curbside service as well as delivery, by the end of April for the former and the end of the summer for the latter.

Her favorite feature is the community table in the front room, which is covered and sealed with her grandmother’s handwritten recipes.

“I had that built with the thought that nobody sits and talks to each other any more,” Eddy says. “It has happened that people ended up sharing food, and they didn’t even know each other.”

She learned from the best. Her grandmother was a baker, her grandfather a barbecue pit master, and her father a chef with his own restaurant.

“My slogan is Legacy Is Intentional,” she says. “If we can just bring everybody together, we have the opportunity to change the world.”

Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe, 2299 Young, 207-6182, cheftam.com. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Opening soon: Mama Gaia and Area 51

On Saturday, the first commercial sign in decades will hang in the Sears Crosstown building.

Mama Gaia, a startup organic vegetarian restaurant, will hold a ribbon-cutting on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. near the west atrium of the much-anticipated renovation project, Crosstown Concourse.

“We couldn’t imagine a better place to do this,” Philipp von Holtzendorff-Fehling, who designed the restaurant with his wife, Cru Peri, says. “We heard they were restoring the building, and at some point we took a tour. Then we heard the philosophy and mission, and we felt a connection. It is such a great fit.”

Philipp and Cru Peri von Holtzendorff-Fehling

Mama Gaia, which means “Mother Earth” in Greek, will be a fast-casual restaurant that serves locally sourced vegetarian cuisine at an affordable price and in a timely manner.

“It’s deliciously prepared, delivered in a reasonable time frame, and is affordable,” Philipp says. “That’s not out there and it is hard to do, but we’ve worked through all of that for a very long time.”

They will offer five different flavors of pitas, such as antipasti, mushroom and quinoa, or Asian, some of which can also be turned into salads and some of which can be converted into quinoa bowls. They will also serve petizzas — miniature pizzas, using the same ingredients.

Baked potato fries — nothing is fried — soups, side salads, organic sodas, homemade green tea lemonade, cold-pressed juices, homemade chai tea, and coffee are some of the other offerings. They also plan to begin serving breakfast at the end of April.

Philipp says he and his wife got the idea after his wife turned vegan when Lyme disease had taken control of her life.

“She loved to play tennis, but after playing for five minutes, she was done,” Philipp says. “She changed her diet significantly, turned vegan, and only bought organic foods. She changed some other things, too, but diet was one of the main factors so that now she can play tennis for hours.”

They found the food landscape in Memphis didn’t offer many options for the two, so they did a lot of cooking at home.

The German couple have lived in Memphis for five years after living in Seattle and Europe. Philipp says he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

“We fell in love with Memphis,” he says. “We want this to be a Memphis story.”

Mama Gaia, 1350 Concourse Ave., #137, (901) 352-9616, mamagaia.net. Opens March 25th at 9:30 a.m. Hours will be 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Speaking of fresh, homemade, and locally sourced, imagine if it was ice cream.

That’s what recent entrepreneurs Steve and Karin Cubbage were thinking when they deciding to go out on their own and develop their own business.

“We were in the casino business, and they downsized and got rid of my position,” Steve, who was in marketing in Lula, Mississippi, says. “We didn’t want to move our kids, and we thought if we didn’t open our own business now, we were probably never going to.”

After tossing around some ideas, one morning Karin said, “What about ice cream?” and Area 51 Ice Cream was born.

The couple opened their first shop close to three years ago in Hernando at 117 W. Commerce and have met with great success. So much so, that they’re expanding. To Crosstown Concourse.

Using only the freshest ingredients and local when available and making everything by hand, the duo offer unique flavors such as Mexican Hot Chocolate and Snickerdoodle.

And when they say Snickerdoodle, they mean Karin is in the kitchen making Snickerdoodle cookies from scratch to add to the ice cream.

The same goes for chocolate chips — made from scratch — or brownies or chocolate sauce or carrot cake.

“Our goal was always to offer something unique and high-end,” Steve says. “We make sure we use high-quality ingredients, and we don’t freeze anything.

“We get as many comments on social media about the quality of our service as we do the ice cream,” Steve continues.

He says this business model fits seamlessly with that of the Crosstown Concourse building.

“It’s an experiential thing,” he says. “It’s a historic building full of great people making connections there. It’s a more organic experience, which fits in well with us. We are part of a community.”

Area 51 Ice Cream will be located in the middle atrium in a 600-square-foot space with some seating in the shop and additional cafe-style seating outside of the space. They plan on offering 12 flavors every day with daily updates of what they are serving posted on their Facebook page.

They hope to open in May, but plans are still being negotiated.

“This is going to be really cool, and it’s very exciting,” Steve says.

Area 51 Ice Cream, 117 W. Commerce in Hernando and in the Crosstown Concourse building, (662) 298-3028.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Two new Memphis food truck parks

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

After mortgage banker Kevin Payne and his wife were blown from Hilton Head back to Memphis by Hurricane Matthew, Payne found himself at a crossroads.

He could either continue banking, or he could fulfill his desire to become an entrepreneur.

The perfect mix of family connections, previous experience, and passion colored his decision. He determined to open a food truck park in Memphis.

“I was real active in the food truck scene in Hilton Head as an advocate,” Payne says.

His family has owned Golf and Games Family Park on Summer and Bartlett for more than 50 years, and Payne saw the perfect opportunity for a food truck park at the putt-putt property’s southeast corner.

Justin Fox Burks

Kevin Payne, the mastermind behind 901 Food Truck Park

“I interviewed some of the food truck owners, and they said they had been looking for a place like that, that there was a need,” Payne said.

Payne celebrated the grand opening of 901 Food Truck Park last weekend with, well, food trucks, along with live music and karaoke.

The former parking lot now has electrical posts for six trucks — making the food truck park a silent park, as in no generators — picnic tables, and a stage for bands. He hopes to book bands regularly and host events, such as battle of the bands and other family-friendly activities.

“Memphis has such a mix of good music, so we can have food, music, and fun on 40 acres,” Payne says.

Payne envisions artists selling their work on the lot as well as farmers selling their produce.

“They say I’m about three weeks early, that April 10th is the magic day,” Payne says. “I hope to build up to four trucks during lunch and four during dinner, with special events and vendors on the weekends.”

901 Food Truck Park, 5484 Summer, facebook.com/901foodtruckpark, (901) 568-0746

Payne’s efforts follow right behind those of Daniel Praytor, who opened the Memphis Food Truck Park at 3803 Winchester just over a month ago.

Praytor and his employer, Aren Investments, purchased the former gas station six or seven months ago in an effort to do something productive with the property that would benefit the neighboring airport-area businesses.

“We knew there were not a lot of food options in this area, not a lot of variety, and we wanted to make something nice for the community and give the consumers some options,” Praytor says.

Praytor and his partners researched other food truck parks in Texas and Florida and decided to expand on what they saw.

The result is electrical outlets for 13 trucks — also a silent park — gray water and fresh water hookups, a 1,000-gallon grease trap, and an ice machine.

Consumers can expect covered seating, free Wi-Fi and charging stations for laptops and cell phones, and men’s and women’s restrooms with outdoor wash stations.

“We have 12 security cameras throughout the property,” Praytor says.

“We’ve gotten a lot of good responses,” Praytor says. “Trucks love parking here, and we get a lot of foot traffic from the warehouses around here. People can come with a car load, and everyone has something they like to eat.”

Hours vary, as the trucks and market tend to drive that component, but the park’s Facebook page lists participating trucks on a regular basis.

“Right now lunch is busier than any other time, and we’re trying to build the weekend crowd,” Praytor says. “We have around nine trucks on a consistent basis.

“This is a community affair. We want to provide the neighborhood with a service they can enjoy.”

Memphis Food Truck Park, 3803 Winchester, memphisfoodtruckpark.com, (901) 440-0558.

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News News Feature

The power of RESPONSE

CREDIT: Mark Adams

On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, much of the world awoke to a shared panic attack. Millions marched. Many feverishly took to social media.

Sheri Bancroft did something familiar to her. She gathered with her creative partners and danced.

From this backlash grew Up in Arms Collective and a compulsion to share their mutual reactions with other performers and with the Memphis community.

The outcome was RESPONSE, a showcase of performance pieces by 45 dancers and 21 other artists over the course of three days last weekend at Crosstown Arts.

Mark Adams

“Silent Night”

“Rebecca Cochran, Marie Dennan, and I were all very sad, and we met for brunch and decided we need to do something and we needed to do something right away,” Bancroft says. “[Rebecca] put a call out to dancers in the Memphis community, and we had a great response.”

After several meetings and opening up the dialogue, they decided to include other types of performance art and focused on a theme of responding to the election.

Bancroft’s piece, which she collaborated and performed with Erin D.H. Williams and Jenn King Hall, was titled “Keepers of the Light,” and the three, dressed in white, performed Friday and Saturday.

“It started with a dinner at Erin’s house, and we had a lot of conversation about ritual and religion and what we remember about going to church growing up,” Bancroft says. “Then we talked a lot about Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and what a badass she is and she doesn’t try to be. Then, during this process, Mary Tyler Moore died, which took us to a whole other level. She broke so many barriers with her show, being a single mom who was career driven and was focused on her friendships and work.”

Lauren Stallings choreographed a piece to music by Youth Lagoon during which five female dancers performed in their underwear. Rachael Arnwine took the lead while others lined up facing the back wall and clapping to represent “likes” on Facebook, until they eventually followed Arnwine’s studied movements.

My tears came during Kristen Osborne Lucas’ and Louisa Koeppel’s “Mixed Messages.” Theirs was a reaction to the cognitive dissonance currently plaguing our world, first explaining in their introduction that “truth” and “fact” no longer mean “the body of real things, events, and facts,” or “the quality of being actual,” as defined by Webster’s. We must all believe what the man himself says: “Bitch,” “Nasty,” “Piece of Ass,” “Miss Piggy,” and “No one loves women like me.”

There were call to actions in a piece by Wayne M. Smith and Orixa Henry Bowers that included fortune cookies.

The fortune cookies read, “Don’t argue with them. It doesn’t work.” And, “Resist, Persist, Resist.” As well as, “Take care of yourself,” followed with Bowers’ quick, “That’s white people shit.”

Bethany Bak combined a love of J. Peterman catalogues with her experience reading Women Who Run with the Wolves as well as a recent collaboration with dance partner Sarah Ledbetter called Rosa.

“We are constantly giving ourselves, just pouring and pouring,” Bak says. “It’s about coming to a point where I nurture my creativity and take care of myself so I can take care of those around me.”

Ledbetter’s piece, a duet titled “After Hours,” included wigs, Leggs “suntan-colored, control-top” pantyhose, knee pads, and brooms as one performer breaks down while the other encourages her to keep working to feel better.

“We have to do the feeling work, and we can’t do it alone,” Ledbetter says, describing the moment when the woman holding the broom, Bak, puts it down and begins to feel with the woman overwhelmed until they get to a place where they pick back up the brooms.

“It was important that at the end they go back to work,” Ledbetter says. “The relationship is the cure.”

Proceeds from the performance go to Planned Parenthood of Greater Memphis, the ACLU-TN, and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

“We projected all of our hopes and externalized them on Obama,” Ledbetter says. “We have to internalize them while the current president holds our nightmares.

“We are called to do more than we ever have been before. We have to be bigger and more voluptuous than ever.”