Author: Lesley Young

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Peek at Zaka Bowl

Vegetarians take note: There’s a new restaurant in town.

Soon.

South of Beale owner Ed Cabigao recently experienced a transformation, and he wants to extend it to his community. First for ethical reasons, which then turned into health-related incentives, Cabigao became a vegetarian and later, vegan.

His passion for this lifestyle and the impact he would like to have on the world caused him to consider opening a vegetarian restaurant, and a trip to D.C., where he discovered a successful build-your-own bowl-style restaurant sealed the deal for him.

Cabigao and his wife will open Zaka Bowl in late July/early August at 575 Erin Drive, with the concept of using locally produced food to create build-your-own veggie bowls with ingredients such as quinoa or wild rice, tofu or meaty vegetables. banished such as roasted corn or apple slaw, and a choice of house made sauces. 

Cabigao is working with Loaded for Bear for his branding and design. The 1,500-square-foot property is leased by Loeb Properties. He hopes to begin construction June 1st.

Stay tuned for more information in the Memphis Flyer coming soon.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar and Grill and the Dixon’s Park and Cherry.

There are many sides to Jerry Lawler.

In addition to appearing on television sets across the Mid-South every Monday night and Saturday morning as wrestling phenom Jerry “The King” Lawler, winning several world heavyweight wrestling championships, and becoming an international wrestling commentator as well as a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, Lawler is an artist, a musician, an actor, and an author.

Lawler is also now a bar owner.

In April, Lawler opened King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar and Grille in the old Flynn’s location at 159 Beale, next door to A. Schwab.

“This is something I never envisioned. It’s a lot of fun,” Lawler, now 66, says.

Lawler opened his doors April 28th in anticipation of the downtown crowds for Memphis in May.

The menu offers Mid-South favorites with an edge, such as the deep-fried ribs ($14.95 for a half slab), the Slamburger — triple-stack burger with secret sauce on a gourmet bun ($14.95), hickory-smoked chicken wings with jerk seasoning ($8.95), and the King’s personal favorite, Crawfish Corn Chowder ($6.95).

“Our deep-fried ribs are amazing. You can’t find them anywhere else,” Lawler says.

As soon as their liquor license goes through, they will be serving up wrestling-inspired drink specials, including the Piledriver and the Body Slam.

They offer music every day of the week and karaoke on weeknights starting at 8 p.m., as well as music by the house band — the Jabronies.

The VIP room is open for rentals, quite the spot, because, as the name suggests, it ain’t just old guitars and other ephemera hanging on the walls.

That’s where this journey began for Lawler.

“I had all my wrestling memorabilia in a museum at Resorts Casino in Tunica, and almost a year ago they came to us and told us they were expanding, so we moved everything out and into storage,” he says. “We were looking for a place to use as a museum space to display everything, and I told a friend that the ideal space would be on Beale Street.”

There are the championship belts; there are the crowns; there are the robes and outfits and even childhood toys such as a pedal tractor and a drum set.

There’s an Andy Kaufman section, and there is the artwork.

“People come in from all over the world who have seen me on TV,” Lawler says. “Memphis wrestling has a great history. So many people followed it every Monday night and Saturday morning. We would pack 10,000 people into the Coliseum. I get to meet so many great people. It’s a lot of fun.”

King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar and Grille is open 11 to 3 a.m. every day.

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens has had food trucks. It’s had caterers. It offers a weekly brown-bag Munch and Learn series. And there’s always the picnic option. But up until recently, it has not had a restaurant.

The 40-year-old museum underwent some renovations of late and developed a master plan, and administration decided now was as good of a time as any to add this glaring omission.

In mid-April the Dixon unveiled Park and Cherry, its first on-site restaurant, situated just north of the gift shop.

The powers-that-be did not play around when they made their decision and brought in the dynamic duo of Wally Joe and Andrew Adams, of Acre.

“They were our first choice, and they were interested in doing it,” Dixon communications associate Amanda Gutknecht says. “It’s been a good fit.”

The food is fast casual, including salads, soups, hot and cold sandwiches, coffees, and pastries.

In addition to the overwhelmingly popular pastries, the two best-sellers are the grilled cheese ($9), with cheddar, Swiss, and Parmesan, and the Shortrib and English Cheddar panini ($10).

Perhaps the main attraction, though, is the seating.

The Dixon’s new Park and Cherry offers garden seating.

Patrons can sit outdoors at the entrance, inside the museum in the foyer, in the cafe, the outdoor covered blue-chair seating area, and throughout the many styles of garden.

“It’s been going well. We have a consistently busy lunch, and Saturdays are really busy,” Gutknecht says. “We’ve heard nothing but rave reviews for Wally and Andrew.”

Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with lunch served 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and select sandwiches, coffees, and pastries available until 4:30, and Sunday 1 to 4:30 p.m. with select sandwiches, coffees, and pastries available.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Two New Barbecue Books Hit Shelves

It’s that time of year again when the skies of Memphis take on a similar look to that of L.A., but instead of smog generated from an overpopulation of single-occupancy vehicles filling the atmosphere, an inundation of smokers, pits, and cookers cover the Memphis skyline in a haze of heavenly swine-scented smoke.
Two books just hit the shelves, and the matrix, Tuesday, and they offer a couple of ways you can contribute to the seasonal pork-infused smog, either by way of cooking cob roller yourself or by educating dilettantes on original authentic barbecuing.

As if winning multiple world barbecue cooking championships, opening several successful barbecue restaurants, and publishing her own cookbook weren’t enough, pitmaster Melissa Cookston is at it again, this time with a new cookbook. Smokin’ Hot in the South (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $22.99) serves as a collection of grilling recipes that takes traditional Southern ingredients and recipes and approaches them from a new angle.

There’s grilled coconut cake, green tomato pizza sauce (with smoked chicken and truffle crema!), butterbean pate, and green tomato salsa.

“I’ve taken simple Southern ingredients and kicked it up a notch so that they are used in unique ways,” Cookston says. “For most people, the kitchen is their comfort zone. I like to take cooking outside. That’s what it’s all about.”

Before there were divisions and categories and sections and parts, and before there were options such as gas and electricity, there was wood and coal and a 200-pound hog and a man (and probably a woman, too). And with those minimal elements came stories and scars and hazards and a culture, and Louisiana native Rien Fertel fell in love with all of it.

Fertel recently released The One True Barbecue: Fire, Smoke, and the Pitmasters Who Cook the Whole Hog (Touchstone, $25), a hybrid travelogue, history, and homage to the disappearing culture of pitmasters who cook whole hogs over wood-fired coals.

“I fell in love with and romanticized what they did, and I became obsessed with the barbecue that they made,” Fertel, of New Orleans, says. “The book is about the process and the food, but really it’s about the people who stick with the tradition and stubbornly adhere to a culinary art form that doesn’t really make sense.”

There are stories of scarred arms from grease splatters, exploding pigs from a combination of grease hitting the fire in just the right way, and the fact that there are only 10 traditional whole-hog pitmasters left in the U.S., including the two children of Ricky Parker who run their father’s barbecue restaurant, Scott’s Parker’s BBQ in Lexington, Tennessee.

Fertel will appear at the Booksellers at Laurelwood Sunday, May 15th at 2 p.m. for a book signing.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Canvas and Dirty Crow Inn.

After two long years of putting in some long hours, their dream has been realized for business partners Rob Coletta and Brandon Knight.

The pair recently opened Canvas, a bar-slash-music venue-slash-gallery-slash-live art forum.

“It’s an interactive arts lounge,” Coletta says. “It’s a place where we invite musicians, artists, and creative people to perform and create under the same roof.”

Robert Coletta (left) and Brandon Knight

This is not their first go-round with the concept.

The two operated a similar venture downtown, Memphis Rehearsal Complex, for a few years until the opportunity “expired,” according to Coletta.

They immediately began looking for their next spot, and the house at the corner of Madison and Evergreen became available when Echoes of Time antiques moved across the street.

“We were just driving by and saw it,” Knight says.

They immediately signed a lease, but the place was far from move-in ready.

The house is more than 100 years old.

“We took out part of the chimney and reinforced it with steel. We had to do new plumbing, electric work, heating and air. We put in a brand new sidewalk all the way around,” Knight says.

They also put in a patio, which seats 40 in addition to the 50-seat indoor area.

Canvas features a seasonal drink menu with the first incarnation including Mud Island Tea, Painted Mule, and Purple Drank, all around $8 or $9.

The menu is salads and sandwiches and flatbreads, with everything also hovering around $8 or $9.

“We want to keep the focus on the art,” Coletta says.

Every weekend showcases local musicians performing while artists create live art.

Shawna Gardner buys two Amy-Beth Rice paintings

Wall space is dedicated to local artists, where they sell their work, created both on- and off-site, for a small consignment fee, and every other Sunday is open mic night.

“It’s a great way for local musicians and artists to interact with the neighborhood and sell their work and music and merch,” Coletta says. “We’re having a good time.”

Canvas is open 4 p.m. to midnight every day, with the kitchen open late.

Paul Atkinson has worked every bar position available except one.

As of April 26th, he can now say he’s worked them all.

“It’s always been on my bucket list to be a bar owner,” the former Bayou Bar and Grill employee says. “I’ve held every position but owner.”

Just before Beale Street Music Fest, Atkinson opened Dirty Crow Inn, a combination of his favorite bourbon, Old Crow, and his nickname for it, “Dirty Bird,” at the corner of Crump and Kentucky across the street from the popular South Bluffs apartments.

“There are not that many places down here. There’s the new Loflin Yard, and I believe we can help each other out,” Atkinson says. “They’re building new apartments down here left and right, and they’re already at 90 percent capacity.”

Atkinson was working in Nashville when he found out about the space.

“I got a text out of the blue that asked if I would be interested in opening a dive bar. I was intrigued,” he says.

He came for a visit and left with a vision.

“When I looked at the spot, I immediately saw what it could be,” he says.

He describes it as a “five-star dive bar.”

It took him five months to build everything out, with a new bar and walls covered in old pictures and insignia he’s collected over the years.

“My mom has been going crazy finding everything she can with a crow on it,” he says.

The print of Cosmo Kramer came with the place.

“It was in the women’s restroom, but I thought his place was out here so everyone could see him,” Atkinson says.

As of press time, Atkinson is still waiting on his liquor license but says it should be any day now.

“I wanted to be open for Memphis in May,” he says.

His kitchen is up and running, though, featuring fresh ingredients and everything homemade, including wings cooked on the smoker ($8.50), a catfish basket ($8.50), Crispy Fried Pickle Chips ($5), a pulled smoked chicken sandwich ($8.50), and Poutine Fries ($7.50) — fries covered in smoked chicken gravy and mozzarella.

“It’s pub grub. Everything is scratch-made. I’ve always loved to cook, and I believe fresh is best,” he says.

Other plans include putting in a beer garden with a cornhole game, serving daily specials, and maybe some acoustic music here and there.

“I want to do a lunch business for Budweiser and Hershey’s and the businesses behind me and be a neighborhood bar to the apartments across the street,” Atkinson says. “I want this to be a fun, comfortable place to grab great food, a cold beer, and a good drink.”

Dirty Crow Inn is open 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., seven days a week.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

New ownership at Bluefin and Sean’s Cafe

After working through some internal miscommunication, closing the doors during holiday season for inspection, operating two months without a liquor license, and weathering other tweaks and construction, Bluefin‘s new owner James Woo is excited about what he has to offer his customers.

Woo purchased the Main Street sushi restaurant in December after visiting the Bluff City on vacation and chatting up his friend and the eatery’s former owner Jimmy Ishii.

“He was talking about selling, and I thought this was a very nice town and a very nice restaurant,” Woo says. “It is similar to my hometown in South Korea, Kongju. We had a river in the town similar to here where after school we would go and fish and swim.”

Bluefin’s new owner, James Woo

Woo, who has worked in the restaurant business since childhood — his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all in the business — endured a staff walk-out two days into his new ownership because of miscommunication concerning the staff reapplying for their jobs and working for lower wages.

He overcame the complications of living in a new city with no connections and managed to bring in some star sushi chefs, including Sang Park, who worked at Robert De Niro’s famous Nobu restaurant in New York and Nishino in Seattle, as well as Brian Seo from California and two new kitchen chefs.

“One is from Japan and the other worked at the casinos, preparing Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food,” Woo says.

Woo has launched a new menu that includes a hibachi grill and a continuation of its edgy sushi, and, after rebuilding the lobby bar, also has plans for the small side bar north of the restaurant.

There he plans to open a coffee and tea bar that also offers healthy smoothies and other alternatives.

“I want everyone to know we are ready and open for business, and we have a new menu,” Woo says.

Bluefin is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m., Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Sunday, 5 to 11 p.m.

Sean’s Cafe and Smooth Moves is also getting an overhaul under new ownership, and even getting a new name.

Californian Rickie Valentino took over the Mediterranean deli and smoothie shop eight months ago and has slowly and quietly added a few new menu items while tweaking some of the old standbys.

“I love this area, Midtown. The restaurants are so eclectic with so many options and styles and cultures. The opportunity came up for this place, and that attracted me,” Valentino says.

With a lineage of Lebanese, Sicilian, and Indian, Valentino has put his own stamp on some of the familiar dishes.

The swordfish, served either as a wrap, $7.99, or a platter, $11.99, which comes as a kebab with rice and two sides, is dusted with jerk seasoning, lemon juice, and peaches.

The turmeric rice is cooked in a chicken base and tossed with celery and carrots, and his shawarma, with either chicken, beef, or leg of lamb, is prepared with red wine vinegar, oregano, lemon juice, olive oil, paprika, and cardamom.

“Essentially, I wanted to create an atmosphere that offers light, good food,” he says.

He’s even come up with an alternative to French fries — zucchini fries served tempura-style and dusted with panko.

And vegans, take note. Balewa will be back, with his own room on the west side of the shop.

“I think he complements what I’m trying to do with my place really well. He has such extraordinary vegan cuisine, and I think the best-tasting wheatgrass in town,” Valentino says.

As of now, you can still find the restaurant in the e-world under Sean’s Cafe and Smooth Moves both on the web and social media, but not for long. Soon Valentino will see his own name in neon lights over the establishment under the moniker Rick’s Cafe Americain (yes, just like in the movie) and Smooth Moves and in all the incarnations online.

“There’s been a little buzz going around. I’m excited,” he says.

Rick’s Cafe Americain and Smooth Moves is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Valentino plans on extending his hours and hopefully including delivery.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It

When Diane Grover gave birth to her youngest child, Mary Ellen, more than a decade ago, she learned what it meant to be a champion for people with intellectual disabilities. Mary Ellen, or ME, was born with Down syndrome.

Over the years Grover advocated for her daughter and others with intellectual disabilities in a variety of ways, including founding the International Down Syndrome Coalition, but her most successful was handing out jam. On March 21st of last year — March 21st being world Down syndrome day — Grover handed out jam produced by a Colorado company, Steamers, that employed people of all abilities in an effort to create awareness of the disparity in employment rates for those with intellectual disabilities.

It has been reported that only 17 percent of people with disabilities were employed in 2015. Grover’s efforts to bring these numbers into the forefront took her on a path of advocacy she never anticipated. Requests for more jam grew into greater demand for gift baskets which transformed into developing her own coffee roast which turned into running her own company.

Grover now owns Dreamers Merchants, a business which facilitates the vend of products either created or sold by people with disabilities. It started when Grover included coffee in her gift baskets which she sold to raise money for the Down Syndrome Foundation. She contacted J. Brooks and told them about her efforts, and the company encouraged her to create her own blend to both raise awareness of her efforts and funds for her cause. The Dreamers blend was born, which she advertised on her Facebook page.

Soon friends across the country were asking to sell the coffee too, and Dreamers Merchants was born. That grew into selling artwork created by her vendors, or Dreamers, or products made by other advocacy companies, and most recently, Grover’s first brick-and-mortar shop.

Sometime around Valentine’s Day of this year, Grover and team cut the ribbon on their first coffee shop, Dreamers Coffee, located at the Vantage Point Golf Center on Macon Road in Cordova. Grover now works to help her merchants develop skills running their own businesses, either setting up tables at events to sell their wares, and Dreamers coffee, working in the coffee shop, learning how to frame their artwork, and other tasks. She now works with 25 Dreamers across the country, eight of them locally, and helps with 26 online stores in nine national locations.

For more information, visit dreamersmerchants.com or call 849-7111. Dreamers Coffee is located at 9580 Macon.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now Open: Catfish Blues and Pickle & Jam.

Josh Tucker could not wait for his daughter to come visit him in Houston last year.

He had not seen her in eight weeks.

When he asked her what she wanted to do, her reaction stopped him in his tracks.

“She sat down in the middle of the floor, and said, ‘I want my dad back,'” Tucker says.

That night, Tucker had everything he owned packed in a U-Haul, and he was headed back to Memphis.

Not knowing what he would do, he called up one of his oldest friends, Justin Turner, and talked shop.

“Josh and I have been friends for 15 years,” Turner says. “We’d been talking about doing [a restaurant] together for a long time, and then this fell in his lap.”

By this, Turner is referring to Catfish Blues, Tucker’s new catfish and Gulf Coast seafood restaurant in DeSoto County that opened March 14th.

Located at 210 E. Commerce in Hernando, the 5,000-square-foot restaurant features Pride of the Pond catfish out of Tunica, all the fixings, and some Cajun-inspired dishes such as gumbo and po’boys.

“We serve Mississippi food with a Cajun twist,” Tucker says.

They use the “Middendorf’s cut” for their catfish, a thinner, more sushi-like slice that is lifted directly from the Louisiana seafood institution. Diners can get a platter with two sides for $15.95.

They also serve Pork Belly Sliders with braised pork belly, smoked pimiento cheese, and tomato jam on Southern biscuits, three for $9.50.

For dessert, they pack strawberry shortcake with a Southern biscuit or grandma’s banana pudding into eight-ounce Mason jars for around $4.

Drink specials such as the Mississippi Mule, using locally distilled Cathead Vodka, or the Muddy Waters, their own take on the Old Fashioned that incorporates vanilla bean, are served for $10, and they offer $2.50 draft beers all day.

Gastronomes may recognize Turner from a long list of local favorite eateries including Erling Jensen, Cafe Society, and Majestic Grille, or from the Houston food truck phenomenon Bernie’s Burger Bus, an empire of three food trucks and three brick-and-mortar shops in Houston that have taken the city by storm.

Or perhaps his name rings a bell from a recent episode of Chopped, which aired March 17th on the Food Network.

After having worked together at Majestic Grille and Bernie’s Burger Bus, when Turner was approached about designing the menu and helping out occasionally with Tucker’s new enterprise, Turner did not hesitate.

“I’m with Josh 110 percent. He’s one of my best friends,” Turner says. “I love Memphis. I love the new culinary scene going on. Even though I’m in Houston most of the time, it’s home.”

Catfish Blues is open Sun. through Wed., 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thurs. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 12 a.m., and Sat. 10 a.m. to 12 a.m.

After 20 years of the same, the powers that be at Gold Strike Resort and Casino thought it was time to give some attention to the food court, and so in December they launched Pickle & Jam.

Modeled after the Panera Bread chain, the casino’s new fast casual restaurant is going for a more social, immersive environment.

“Before we had a food court with three different venues that was very dated. It hadn’t been renovated in 20 years. We needed to keep up with the trends in the industry,” Anthony Caratozzolo, Gold Strike’s executive director of food and beverages, says.

The new establishment, which continues the brand of its sister restaurant, Buffet Americana, and features a rustic steampunk decor, utilizes a walk-up ordering station and the newest in technology in the form of radio frequency identification, which identifies customers’ tables with a pager and an iPad, and features a wide selection of grab-and-go items in addition to its breakfast and lunch and dinner menus.

Breakfast includes a variety of Eggwiches, with a choice of sausage, bacon, ham, or steak with eggs on a croissant, bagel, or biscuit.

At 11 a.m. the digital menu automatically switches over to lunch and dinner, which includes customizable 10-inch pizzas for $10, such as the Carnivore, with meatballs, pepperoni, sausage, and ham or barbecue chicken and the choice of gluten-free crust.

Popular so far is the Pickle & Jam burger, with a ground beef blend of short rib, brisket, and ribeye for $12, including fries.

“That blend of burger meat is made just for us. It has no filler,” Caratozzolo says.

They offer 10 beers on tap, most local, and all regional, and a variety of grab-and-go pastries as well as four- or six-inch cakes for $4 to $7, including carrot, chocolate, cheesecake, and red velvet.

They ramped up their grab case to include more Asian items, such as Pho to go, a Thai beef salad, and sushi, and the coffee lounge is a feature that patrons are coming to enjoy.

“It’s been very busy. It’s going excellent, actually,” Caratozzolo says.

Pickle & Jam is open 24 hours, with breakfast served from 5 to 11 a.m.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Curb Market.

Peter Schutt of the newly open Curb Market, has a long history of getting his hands dirty.

After earning his degree in psychology from the University of Memphis, he went to work at a halfway house in the Pacific Northwest that, in effect, was a working farm.

“It was a residential facility for mentally ill people where we grew our food, raised chickens and milk goats, and made our own bread. The person behind it was of the philosophy that nature has therapeutic effects,” Schutt says. “That was where I learned to garden and take care of animals, and it stuck with me. I have always done something with soil in my hands.”

Schutt now has two farms — a 1,600-acre chemical-free, sustainable, free-range livestock farm in Dancyville and a certified organic produce farm in Whiteville, both operating under the name Winchester Farm — and his own philosophy.

“I’m a long-term fan of Wendell Berry, and he says eating is ultimately an agricultural act. That has stuck with me,” Schutt says.

Berry’s quote reads, “and how we eat determines, in large part, how we use our world.”

Schutt has put the action part of the philosophy he shares with Berry into effect by going beyond the elimination of pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, steroids, growth hormones, or antibiotics in his own ventures.

He has created a venue where local growers and makers can get their products out there and consumers can fulfill their commitments to shop locally.

“I’m hoping word will spread that it’s good to shop locally not just because it feels good, but also because it’s the right thing to do. It’s rebuilding the food economy and shifting the paradigm,” Schutt says.

Curb Market, at 596 S. Cooper in the old Easy Way space, focuses on locally sourced food and products, with much success.

“It’s been pleasantly surprising,” Schutt says.

Pamela Rains welcomes Midtowners to Curb Market — the new grocery store.

“We almost sold out the first two days,” general manager Pamela Rains says. “We were here Sunday ordering all new stuff. The reception by the neighborhood has been so warm and welcoming. The enthusiasm is very touching.”

Meat from Schutt’s farm, processed meats prepared by employees of Sweet Grass, produce from six local farms, flowers, cheeses, non-homogenized milk, sauces, honey, pickles, jelly, coffee — nearly everything is grown or made within 100 miles of the market’s front door.

“In one case, it’s from three houses down,” Rains says.

Even their employees are about as local as they can get.

“We did our hiring straight out of the neighborhood. Most of our employees are able to walk to work,” Rains says.

They also carry soaps and other personal care items and serve up grab-and-go and deli food prepared on site with the idea of catching produce before it goes into the trash, and they plan on growing their offerings as more and more producers make themselves known.

“I had no idea the extent to which there are small craft makers. People have been coming out of the woodwork,” Schutt says. “It’s very gratifying.”

Schutt has known the value of a local meat market for local farmers for years.

“I’ve been trying to develop markets for chemical-free beef and selling to various restaurants, but it’s so difficult. The best way to do it is to have your own meat market,” he says.

It took his life coming full circle to finally take the leap.

“I was on vacation in the Pacific Northwest [last summer]. I was reading the newspaper online, and I read where the Easy Way on Cooper was for sale. I called my lawyer friend and said to make a really good offer,” Schutt says. “We got the deal done while I was 2,500 miles away. It was like it was laid there in front of me.”

Schutt, who also owns the Daily News Publishing Co. Inc., sees his endeavor as an opportunity to turn the tables on industrialized agriculture.

“From a food justice aspect, this is also social justice. I know that having a retail outlet for smaller growers to sell their products locally is a way to improve and create a local food economy where all the money stays in the local economy,” he says. “Most people don’t realize that because they want their food the fastest and cheapest they can get it, that our food system, our soil is being destroyed, and our water is being polluted.”

Curb Market’s hours are Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call 453-6880 or visit curbmarket901.com or their Facebook page.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Loflin Yard opens Thursday

The dream team behind the Tennessee Brewery Untapped project is at it again, this time with a professional landscaper, a marketing guru, a crackerjack mixologist, and a veteran chef on board for something a little more permanent and just as distinct.

Loflin Yard, a new restaurant concept hatched from the minds of Andy Cates, Michael Tauer, Taylor Berger, Doug Carpenter, and Brad Barnett, is set to open its doors Thursday, on the old Loflin Safe & Lock site in the South End.

“This is completely unique. There is nothing else like it in town,” Carpenter, principal of Doug Carpenter + Associates and an investor in the restaurant, says.

The establishment is spread across one acre situated at the corner of Carolina and Florida, backing up to railroad tracks, and across the street from South Junction Apartments.

Loflin Yard incorporates the ideas of a curated wine list with bottles corked on site, barrel-aged cocktails that rotate the spotlight, sharable plates that are all grill-inspired, and treating the landscape as the main character.

And the landscape is a diva.

The main site, called the Safe House, where the safe-and-lock business operated, serves as the bar, the food ordering station, and the wine “cellar,” with a customized wine rack displaying bottles for sale.

“You walk in and walk up to the cooler and shelves and pick out a bottle, take it to the counter, order your food, they cork the wine, and you go and sit and we bring you your food,” Carpenter says.

Behind the bar sit rows of tiny barrels housing custom, classic cocktails designed by Mary Oglesby, who five months ago emigrated from Milwaukee, where she worked in the craft cocktail sector for several years.

On first rotation of the barrel-aged cocktail concoctions are Sazerac, Tennessee Whiskey Old Fashioned, and Boulevardier, among others.

Ethan Wilson grills the goods at Loflin Yard.

All food is motivated by the tailor-made grill/smoker forged in the Smoke House area of the site.

“They made a custom grill for this place. It is a beautiful piece of equipment. It’s set on an angle so that the grease drips down for re-basing, or mop sauce,” Carpenter says.

Grilled beef brisket, grilled pork tenderloin, grilled asparagus, roasted tomatoes, smoked wings, street corn, charred watermelon, grilled romaine lettuce — this is the infrastructure on which the menu is built.

For dessert? S’mores, of course.

The chef? Andy Knight. You might remember him from Interim and Babalu and Bounty.

“It’s just cool folks across the board making this happen,” Carpenter says.

Patrons can opt to sit in the Safe House, with chairs salvaged from Christian Brothers University and fashioned for the bar, bistro-style tables, or dining tables, original tacking on the walls, and, of course, an old safe at the bar.

They can mosey outside onto the covered deck, complete with tin roof and a waterfall to set the mood.

Barnett, owner of the property and professional landscaper, took full advantage of the fact that the property includes an open basin of the Gayoso Bayou that runs under the city and is fed by a spring on the site, and created a waterfall using boulders and the existing culvert, calling it Loflin Falls.

The choices don’t end there. A large lawn with Adirondack chairs, bocce, horseshoes, and a possible badass sporting option that isn’t confirmed yet lead up to the Coach House, the old stable that once housed the Peabody Hotel carriage horses, which has been completely transformed with a covered porch and eventually with rolling glass garage doors.

“We’re not sure what we’re going to do with this yet. Possibly a live music venue or event space, or for overflow,” Carpenter says.

The can’t-lose location is just the sauce on the barbecue.

“The Harahan Bridge, which will open in October, is an easy route from here, as is Riverside Drive, so I think we will really strike a chord with folks down here as well as tourists. We’re nestled right in the middle of all of this residential down here, so we’re like an oasis around these apartments where they don’t have yards or greenspace or a running water feature,” Carpenter says.

“Everyone we’ve brought through here has been completely mesmerized. Where else can you go and hear the waterfall and smell the smoker. We look for it to be pretty exciting, and it’s definitely a long-term venture,” he says.

Loflin Yard opens Thursday, April 7th at 7 W. Carolina. Hours are scheduled to run Mon. through Thurs. 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fri. 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., and Sat. through Sun. 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. For more information, visit loflinyard.com, or go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/loflinyard.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Always an Excuse to Go to the Farmer

The Farmer was one of the first to show what farm-to-table means.

I try never to turn down an excuse to go to the Farmer, and what better reason to go than for a good cause. The farm-to-table restaurant — one of the pioneers in Memphis — recently held a benefit for the Bluff City Fellowship, a recovery community in the area, and my fellow Memphians couldn’t resist either. The event sold out with 90 Farmer fans getting on board. 

For $29 diners could choose between a soup or salad, one of three entrees, and from a choice of two desserts.

The soup offered was a sweet potato bisque with the crowd-pleaser, Benton bacon, and marshmallow creme fraiche. The salad was the SG Wedge, with crisp romaine, cherry tomatoes, pickled onions (the best way to eat an onion, IMHO), bleu cheese crumbles, and buttermilk Ranch dressing. I went with the salad, pretty much to save room for dessert.

For the main course, I picked the Savory Chicken Breast, oven roasted with natural jus, red skinned mashed potatoes, and sautéed green beans. I went with the chicken because I will forever be enamored with the Farmer due to my first rendezvous with the restaurant several years ago. My mother and I lunch together about every month, conquering the Memphis restaurant landscape one new establishment at a time. I had never tried the Farmer — back then it was the Elegant Farmer, but in the past year or so dropped the Elegant because of some copyright/trademark/patent/whatever issues — so we met up on Highland Street and were greeted by a warm, jolly “Hello!” from the owner, Mac Edwards.

The Farmer owner Mac Edwards

I will never forget the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast my mother ordered. One bite, and I had been transported back to my homeland, L’hexagone (I am an unapologetic francophile). That’s the thing about the Farmer. Everything is done right. Well. Correctly. And that is what makes it good. No need to wow with portmanteaus or whatever the fashionable import of the month is. The food is the upside of perfectionism.

I do kind of wish I had tried the Lake’s Catfish, a pan-seared filet with citrus orzo, sautéed green beans, and saffron aioli. Lake’s catfish is the best in the region, and I haven’t yet had the pleasure of being swept off my feet by the Farmer’s expertise on the dish. I’m not a big l meat-eater, except when it comes to barbecue, so the Smoked Pork Loin Chop didn’t appeal to me. Edwards and team served up an oven-finished center cut chop with sweet potato hash, sautéed green beans, and BBQ bordelaise. Sounded AMAZE. 

For dessert, there was no chocolate, but there was the strawberry cake recipe that I grew up eating, the one with strawberry Jell-O in the ingredients. It was so sweet my teeth curled. There was also the apple cobbler with cinnamon whipped cream, but I don’t really get cobbler. It doesn’t have any chocolate in it.