Michael Donahue began his career in 1975 at the now-defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar and moved to The Commercial Appeal in 1984, where he wrote about food and dining, music, and covered social events until early 2017, when he joined Contemporary Media.
Contrary to rumors going around, Belmont Grill isn’t going anywhere.
“We’re not closing,” says Belmont owner-manager Jeff Anderson. But, he says, “We may be selling soon.”
It will remain the Belmont Grill, he says.
And that’s all he can say right now.
But, he reiterates, they’re not closing.
The menu gives the Belmont’s history. The beloved restaurant/bar at 4970 Poplar Avenue and Mendenhall Street, with its famous hamburgers and hot wings “was constructed between 1910 and 1920 and was originally operated as a general store by Italia Bianchi and her family on what was known as Poplar Pike in the town of White Station.”
Belmont owner-manager Jeff Anderson (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Businesses on that corner included Bianchi Bros. Grocery and Louie’s Grill, which became Louie’s Bar & Grill in 1948. Then “sometime in the early ’60s the property was leased to Bob Lloyd, who turned it into the (infamous?) Sir Robert’s, where apparently half of East Memphis ate ham sandwiches, drank beer, and played shuffleboard.
“Alan Gary (who also founded Huey’s) acquired the business in 1974 and renamed it The Half Shell.” And, the story goes on, “10 years later, in 1983, The Half Shell moved to its current location on Mendenhall and the former Half Shell became The Belmont.”
Erica Haskett, Will and Bethany Goodman, and Gali Du (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Trolley Night kicked off with a bang. The March 31st event, the first of the season, was “the busiest Friday night we’ve had in years,” says South Main Association president Joe Simon. “Almost every shop and restaurant and bar was completely crowded. To where there were many stand-up areas, it was so busy.”
Janice Singleton and Brandon CoxJosh and Brenna Clark and their dog RangerRobert JohnsonTawanda PirtleMax Kaplanwith their dog MaxCamilla Curran and Maxx Redd
Trolley Night is held from 5 p.m. “until” on the last Friday of every month on South Main. People stroll up and down and drop in on establishments, some people buying, some just looking.
The only change this year was moving the starting time up to 5 p.m., Simon says. “Just to get an early start. Happy-hour style.”
Mike, Nora, Michael, Rami, and Armina McCaffrey
They were “highly successful” with the time move, he says. “A lot of bars and vendors appreciate that. People getting off early on Friday, it gives them a chance to start the night early.”
Simon adds, “We’re still partnering with DMC [Downtown Memphis Commission] even with the trolleys not running. MATA says they’re going to have them back up and running by late summer.”
Susan Holloway and Glynn HollowayIzy Tran with Travis, Nidya, and Pete BradyMigueal Grandberry
Brooke Starnes and Tyler MitchellMarvin RoddeyIzzy Brewer and William TrotterJohn Bowers and Tawnie Simpson
Four Weddings and a Funeral was already taken as a movie title, but caterer Ann Barnes says that could also be the title of the book she’s planning to write one day.
“I did four weddings and a funeral on the same day,” she says.
During her almost 50-year career, Barnes has cooked for movie stars, musicians, famous authors, ambassadors, royalty, one archbishop, and five United States presidents.
She’s prepared meals for two (a candlelight engagement party in a park) and for up to 3,000 people (the opening of Wolfchase Galleria in 1997).
“My jaws are still dropping,” Barnes says. “Just wild and wonderful opportunities. One thing led to another.”
In addition to catering, Barnes, who is owner of Corinne’s Very Special Catering (named after her mother, Corinne Batson), owned Just for Lunch restaurant, which had three locations: 4730 Poplar, 4706 Spottswood, and 3092 Poplar Avenue. Her sister Susan Overton, who owned A Very Special Tearoom in Little Rock, Arkansas, was the inspiration for her Just For Lunch restaurants.
A Dignified Start
Born in Little Rock, Barnes initially learned to cook from The Essential New York Times Cookbook, the Neiman Marcus Cookbook, and Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. “I never cooked one time until I got married. I got all those for wedding presents.”
Barnes moved to Memphis in 1967. Three years later, she began doing cooking jobs for friends and family for fun. Her criteria has always been: “If it doesn’t look pretty and taste good, I won’t serve it.”
Dixon Gallery and Gardens was where she did her first public catered luncheon. “It was an ordinary lunch — an avocado with shrimp salad and fruit, some good rolls, muffins, and maybe aspic.”
She didn’t realize until the day after the luncheon that she’d cooked for the French ambassador, who was the honoree. “If I’d have known, I would have thrown in an extra strawberry,” she jokes.
“After that I had the good future of cooking for many ambassadors,” she says. For a particular Russian ambassador, Barnes made “ice bowls out of ice with flower petals in them so we could serve borscht. We put a little cream with the beet juice. It looked exactly like Pepto Bismol.”
Fit for a Prince
Among other dignitaries she cooked for was Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II. Prince Edward was at an event Barnes catered in Oxford, Mississippi, where she’s done many catering jobs. (She was told she “had done weddings for anyone who had a street named after them in Oxford.”)
The event for Prince Edward featured “an elevated Southern menu,” she says. She remembers making pecan-encrusted catfish. She may have made a “grits cake” (with cooked grits, butter, and cheese). And, she says, she probably served “eggs Creole,” which is made with andouille sausage and eggs with crawfish sauce poured over it.
Barnes and her staff weren’t supposed to speak to Prince Edward. “They told us, ‘Don’t talk to him. He’s very formal.’ Well, he wanted to talk. It was a fancy, seated dinner. He wanted to sample a lot of Southern dishes. He talked to servers. He talked to me.”
The dessert buffet was in another room. They served peach pan pies (aka “fried pies”), bourbon pecan pie, and banana pudding. The buffet also included crème brûlée, but not served in the thin little ramekins like those favored at restaurants, Barnes says with a bit of distaste. They were “served in casserole dishes. Served at the table. The old-fashioned way.”
“The Scotland Yard people said, ‘We’ve been all over the world and this is the best food we ever had,’” she says.
Prince Edward gave her a brass bookmark with a ribbon tied to it. “I thought that was nice.”
Barnes cooked for many former presidents, including the conversational Bill Clinton. (Photo: Courtesy Ann Barnes)
A Presidential Path
Other notables Barnes catered for include Jehan Sadat, wife of Anwar Sadat, then-president of Egypt. She prepared a high tea for her at “an intimate gathering in someone’s home.”
Barnes did a reception for 2,500 people for writer/commentator William F. Buckley Jr., host of TV’s Firing Line. It was to celebrate the episode of the show taped in Oxford, Mississippi. “He was very nice. Kind of very Harvard proper, you know what I mean? Very blue blood.”
One of the show’s guests who attended the dinner was former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He talked to Barnes like they were old friends. “He took his shoes off. He said he was more comfortable with his shoes off.” He also took the tops off the different little sandwiches on the buffet and looked at them, Barnes says. She asked if there was a problem. “He said, ‘No, no, no. I just wanted to see.’”
Then, she said, “He would politely put them back on and pop them in his mouth.”
Barnes has cooked for former presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Gerald Ford, but she didn’t get to talk to them like she did Bill Clinton, who was the guest at the home of Gwen and John Montague. He went back in the kitchen and “smiled and waved,” Barnes says. “He looked up at me. I had an apron on. [He said,] ‘What’s going on back here?’ I was trying to look dignified. He took a bite of something as he left the kitchen and said, ‘Good groceries.’”
Meeting and cooking for the Dalai Lama was one of her most cherished memories, Barnes says. “He never quit smiling.”
She made chive dumplings for him — he’s vegetarian. She made flowers out of vegetables as garnishes.
The Dalai Lama’s entourage — “big, burly men” — didn’t use plates at the buffet, Barnes recalls. “They reached into the chafing dishes and scooped it up and ate it. I tried to hand them plates. They said, ‘No, no. It’s good.’”
Chef to Stars
The laundry list of celebrities Barnes has fed includes Marlo Thomas and her husband Phil Donahue, Julie Andrews, Tiger Woods, and race car driver Dale Earnhardt.
She cooked for Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange at Just For Lunch. “Somebody called me and said, ‘These people are in town. Can they come and eat lunch?’ We were packed.”
When she learned it was Shepard and Lange, she asked some friends who had been at their table for a long time if she could have it. “Most of my customers were my friends.”
Shepard and Lange “couldn’t have been nicer,” Barnes says. Lange wanted a cappuccino, but “I didn’t have a cappuccino machine, or it was broken or something, so I put on a clean apron and walked out and said, ‘Oh, gosh. Our cappuccino maker is broken, but we have really good coffee. We have great beans.’” Lange smiled at her and said, “That will be fine.” “She was gracious about it.”
At a Southern writers conference in Oxford, Barnes cooked for Eudora Welty, John Grisham, and Willie Morris. “Willie Morris signed one of his books,” she says.
Barnes also “did a lot of backstage catering” for people. She didn’t get to talk to all of them, but she cooked at events attended by Al Green, Justin Timberlake, Aerosmith, Journey, The Temptations, Dan Aykroyd, Barry Manilow, Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, Al Roker, and Joe Cocker.
Barnes remembers catering for Aaron Neville and his band at Germantown Performing Arts Center. “I won the joke-telling contest,” she remembers. “We all prayed together.”
She made “something Russian” for ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov at the old Ellis Auditorium in Downtown Memphis. Barnes isn’t sure what she made, but it might have been little blinis and caviar with sour cream.
Of all the celebrities Ann Barnes has cooked for, Julia Child stands out the most to her. (Photo: Courtesy Ann Barnes)
But of all the celebrities she’s cooked for, noted chef Julia Child stands out the most. “That was really the highlight in my culinary life,” she says. “Julia Child and Jacques Pépin, all those people taught me everything.”
Barnes “watched every episode” of Child’s The French Chef TV show. And at one time or another she made “every recipe” in her Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook.”
“Cooking is just magical. And what she taught me is it’s not always going to come out right. So just be fearless. And do it again until you get it right.”
She told Child, “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. And I heard you make a good chicken salad.”
For the luncheon, Barnes prepared stuffed eggplant, tomato aspic, fresh fruit, and quiche, but she also made her chicken salad, which impressed Child. “She pointed to the chicken salad and said, ‘Now, that’s a chicken salad.’ It wasn’t all chock-full of grapes and stuff. It had poached chicken, a few crunchy greens like celery in it, and our homemade mayonnaise dressing. She appreciated the simplicity of it. And said so.
“No president, no queen from Egypt, or any of the top dignitaries could compare with me getting to serve lunch to Julia Child. ‘Am I in a movie? Is this real?’ But this is too real. She was as down-to-earth as you could imagine.”
Barnes gave Child some leftovers to take with her. “We wrapped some rolls and muffins in Saran wrap.”
Four Weddings
Finally, there was the memorable “Four Weddings and a Funeral” day in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
She catered three weddings that day and was turning into the driveway at a home, where the fourth wedding was to take place. “A woman came out frantically waving her arms. Kind of hysterical. I said, ‘We’re just coming to unload.’ And trying to keep her calm, I said, ‘I’ll move the truck.’ She said, ‘No, no, no! She’s dead!’”
Barnes said, “I’m so sorry. How awful. The bride?’ She said, ‘No, no. Her mother.’ I said, ‘Oh, dear.’”
Barnes was backing up the truck when another woman came out and said, “We have people from all over the world here, a lot of people from Germany and France. We are moving to the Bottle Tree Bakery and we are calling it a ‘wake’ or a ‘remembrance.’”
She ended up unloading the van “and had it all set up before the guests arrived. Put the wedding food all along the bar. All the finery, all the silver. It was unbelievable when it was happening.”
As for the couple who was going to say their vows, Barnes says, “They did not get married then, but I understand they got married the next day.”
So, technically, she says, “I guess we couldn’t count that as a wedding.”
Cooking With Purpose
Barnes doesn’t just cook for the rich and famous. “It’s never just been about the food. It’s been about the people and participating in this wild adventure.”
They had a strategy worked out for people who couldn’t afford to eat at Just for Lunch in Chickasaw Oaks. “If someone walked in and asked, ‘How much does lunch cost?’ we’d pretend they had won a contest.”
She would tell the head waiter that this person had just won that day’s contest. As the “winner,” they were treated to a free lunch. And they were treated “like they were the finest diner. I’m as proud of that as feeding the Queen of England.”
Barnes is also part of the Project Green Fork food rescue, where she gives leftover food to Church of the Holy Communion, which repackages it immediately for people who are hungry. “There are so many ways to not waste food and let people who need it, have it.”
And she’s now part of The SOW Project with chefs Ben Vaughn and David Krog. “[It’s] a completely free culinary program to teach disadvantaged people the hospitality business.”
Barnes hired one of her friends, retired restaurateur and consultant Mac Edwards, to be the manager at Just For Lunch in the ’80s. “She is one of my mentors and has always made herself available for advice and counseling,” Edwards says. “The only reason she has not had more public recognition is because she is so humble and just goes about her business of throwing great events. Ann deserves to be considered in the same light as any other prominent Memphis restaurateur or caterer over the last 50 years.”
No matter who she’s cooking for, that person stands out, Barnes says. She likes to say, “My next bride is my next most important customer.”
And she will treat her like she’s the most important customer she’s ever had.
Louis Connelly and Mickey Blancq at Kickstart Bar & Grill (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Louis Connelly, owner of Louis Connelly’s Bar for Fun Times & Friendship in Midtown, is continuing his brand of buying “dive bars” with his latest addition, Kickstart Bar & Grill at 5960 Highway 51, about 10 minutes from Millington, Tennessee.
“This is just OG dive bar feel,” Connelly says. “You can tell it’s been around for many years.”
People are going to see motorcycles parked outside. “It’s always been a biker bar. Back in the day, it was probably pretty rough, but from what I hear, all the bikers consider it neutral ground,” says Mickey Blancq, Connelly’s business partner. “So they won’t be aggressive to each other while they’re there. Iron Horsemen or Outlaws or whatever biker club has claimed its own territory.”
Small diamond-shaped windows flank the entrance to Kickstart. A 15-foot Miller High Life beer glass made out of concrete stands on one side of the building. “There’s two wooden doors,” Connelly says. “And the door is incredibly heavy. You kind of yank it to pull it open.”
Inside, the place explodes with the colors of the neon beer signs that dot the walls along with photographs and old album covers. “Weasel,” one of the regulars, attached various things to the walls over the years, Blancq says. “Every inch is covered,” he says. “All kinds of stuff. Old beer signs, license plates. You name it. Elvira cutouts.”
“You look around and you’re in a totally different world,” Connelly says.
Two pool tables stand in a separate room to the right of the bar. And a “really beautiful shuffleboard table” stands to the left when you walk in. Adam Phillips, who, along with his wife Mitzi, previously owned Kickstart, “services shuffleboards all around the city,” Connelly says.
The clientele ranges from “young 30s” to people “in their 80s,” Connelly says.
“Everyone here looks out for everybody else,” Blancq says. “If they have a bad character, they all band together: ‘You’re not welcome here’ kind of deal. ‘This is our house,’ you know.
“They have a list of people who have been banned over the years,” Connelly says. “It’s passed down. People who currently work there have never met them. They’ve been banned in previous administrations, so to speak. We’re keeping that list going. Somewhere in a file are pictures of some of those old characters that have received lifetime bans.”
Outside, a lone truck door stands next to the giant concrete Miller High Life beer glass. The door belongs to one of their regulars, says Kickstart manager Nate Cox. “He was getting body work done at a body shop and it got absconded by some people who didn’t need to abscond it,” Cox says. “And we had to go on a little recon mission and get his door back for him.”
They found the door “at a meth head’s house,” Cox says. “We’re a ‘family network’ out here. I’ll use quotation marks on that. If something happens to one of us, we go take care of it. We handle business ourselves.”
Connelly is impressed with his customer base. “Every time we’ve been out here, everyone is so super nice,” he says. “They all know each other and they’ve all got names for each other. That’s how they introduce themselves: ‘My name is this, but people call me this.’”
One guy goes by “Bobby Two Hats.” Another goes by “Dog.” “He barked at me,” Connelly says.
Another “Bobby,” Bobby Crisel, goes by his “Bobby Big Head” nickname. “Ever since I was in elementary school I’ve been called ‘Big Head,’” Crisel says, adding, “I’ve had it my whole life. I just have a big head.”
Crisel, 56, who lives in Shelby Forest, owned Kickstart for about four years around 2016 when it was known as The Point. But he’s been around the bar most of his life. “I kind of grew up in that place.”
He’d go to the bar with his dad. “I’d go to work with him doing construction and we’d stop by. It’s always been like a buddy bar. Everybody hangs out there, drinks a few beers, stretches the truth about a few things.”
Then, he says, “Got to the age where I was driving him home. And next thing you know, I got to the age where I’m hanging out.”
“If Bobby gets too drunk, he calls his son and his son comes and picks him up in the tow truck and takes his car home,” Connelly says. (Bobby’s son has a tow truck.)
“If I sit there a little bit too long, I call him up and say, ‘Come get me, boy,’” Crisel says.
Kickstart Bar & Grill went by other names over the years. It was known as The Point before Crisel owned it. Then it changed to Tom Cat’s and then Chuck’s before going back to The Point. “It’s an old dive bar,” Crisel says. “Been that way my whole lifetime.”
It was called The Point because it’s at Old Millington Road and Highway 51, Crisel says. “Right there at the point of them. Still today, all the old people say, ‘We’re going to The Point.’”
For now, Kickstart serves “just beer and a couple of nice hard lemonade-type drinks,” Connelly says. “We have applied for a liquor license, and we’ll be adding liquor in a couple of weeks.”
As for its cuisine, Connelly says, “There’s a small food menu. All bars are required to serve food.”
Kickstart’s menu is “not as extensive” as their Midtown bar at 322 South Cleveland Street in Midtown. “They don’t have fryers. It’s pizzas and nachos. We may end up changing that a little bit. We just bought a new pizza oven. The current pizza oven was Bobby Big Head’s dad’s pizza oven they were borrowing.”
They’re considering putting in one of those “gas station hot dog grilling stations,” Connelly says. And bringing in food trucks is “probably something down the road,” Blancq says.
We don’t want to change too much, but we want to put a slightly more professional face on this,” Connelly says. “Make sure the equipment is up to code.”
Like its regulars, Connelly and Blancq love Kickstart Bar & Grill, which is about a 15- to 20-minute drive from Midtown. “We want it to succeed,” Connelly says. “This is a nice place to be when you’re not home or at work.”
Tradición Cultural Dance Group (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Overton Square in Memphis turned into the Plaza de Armas in San Juan for a few hours during Puerto Rican Night. The inaugural event featured music, dancing, and food.
Destinee and Zak Baker Sonya and Yvonne Johnson Bryan Rollins and Jeannette Gill Caleb Castillo, Justin Thomas, and Adriana Prieto Ivan Estevanott, Sonia Estevanott, Kenneth Estevenott, and Caspian Estevanott
More than 500 turned out for the free event, which was held March 22nd in Overton Square’s Trimble Courtyard, says Dorimar Cruz with Darts Productions, which put on the event. Darts also put on Colombian Night in October 2024. And Darts wants to put on more community events, Cruz says.
Leo Ramos and River Myers Lamont Nesbit Sr., Gabriela Nesbit, and Lamont Nesbit Jr. Nick and Remy Bogdanovich Wendy, Thiago, Veronica, Salvador, and Giovanni Alvarado
The event was a great opportunity for the local Puerto Rican community to “celebrate their own culture,” Cruz says, and at the same time let others learn about Puerto Rico as well.
Brad Walton and Genie Doty Rahul Kodali, Kayla Ibarra, and Zeus Ramirez Carlos EcosCheryl and Darrin Ruddy, Jonathan Marrero, Lucy Marrero, and Efrain Marrero
Mix Odyssey 2020 winners included Nick Lumpkin, Daniel Quinlan, and Mitch Marable. (Photo: Courtesy Volunteer Odyssey)
Mix Odyssey returns.
The Volunteer Odyssey fundraiser, where bartenders compete with each other to make the best drink of the night, will be back after a five-year hiatus. It will be held from 6 to 9 p.m., April 30th, at Baron Von Opperbean (BVO), the site of the old Mississippi River Museum at Mud Island.
Bartenders Mitchell Marable (The Lobbyist) and Nick Lumpkin (The Cove) were the instigators. “We wanted to start the competition back up,” says Marable, who is also a butcher at Buster’s Butcher. “We missed it and figured it was about time. The last one we did was the end of February 2020 right before everything started locking down.”
The event is “a fun time for bartenders to get together and see each other. We’re usually working on the same evenings. We can’t get out and have cocktails with our other comrades. We’re just working the same schedules. It’s a good cause. A good organization and just a fun night.”
Mitchell Marable (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Caroline Norris, Volunteer Odyssey president/CEO, is grateful for Marable and Lumpkin. “If I did not have their support and expertise, it could not have happened,” she says. “They have such big hearts and they’re really good at what they do.”
The previous Mix Odyssey was the last, or close to the last, big fundraiser before Covid hit in March 2020, Norris says. “We just want to make sure that people remember how much fun it it is. And they can come and vote for their favorite bartender.”
And, she says, “With each ticket you get a couple of votes. And with each donation you get another vote. You can cheer on your favorite bartender and support work to build capacity for our hundreds of nonprofit partners to provide technology platforms, recruiting, and best practices to manage their volunteers.”
Nick Lumpkin (Photo: Rachel Mary Harris)
Bartenders come up with their own cocktails with spirits provided by Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. “Each bartender will basically be crafting their signature cocktail to compete.”
Guests get six tastings. Snacks will be provided by Paradox Catering & Consulting, thanks to owner Jimmy Gentry, who also is chef/owner of The Lobbyist. Beer and wine also will be available.
Norris says, “The whole event is to celebrate the end of Global Volunteer Month,” which begins April 1st.
Barksdale's restaurant at 237 Cooper Street is coming back
Sunny side up, everybody! Barksdale’s will reopen Monday, April 14th.
The iconic eatery at 237 Cooper Street that closed after a fire in June, 2024 will be back in action with breakfast and lunch. It will be open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. seven days a week, says Ryan Glosson, one of the owners along with Bryant and Heather Bain. They also are the owners of Bain Barbecue down the street at 993 Cooper Street in Cooper-Young.
Heather and Bryant Bain and Ryan Glosson at the recent A Taste of CBHS (Credit: Michael Donahue)
The walls will feature “lots of memorabilia from before,” Glosson says.”We got the (Ameican) flag that’s back up in the hallway. New flooring, new ceilings, new booths.”
As for the food, Bryant says, “It’s the same type of food, it’s just updated to be fresher and scratch made every day. Some new items on the menu, but I don’t know what they did on their daily lunch menu off the top of my head. Just tell people to come in and eat.”
Asked in an earlier interview why they wanted to buy Barksdale’s, Bryant said, “We’ve all eaten there. And it’s been in the community for so many years.”
They weren’t going to let Barksdale just belong to the ages. They wanted it open again. It was “Hey, if we can do something about it, we’re going to,” Bryant said.
Kelly English has added a new business to his roster of eating establishments, which include Restaurant Iris and Second Line.
Meet “Rocket Greens & Things.”
Think “salad food truck.”
I asked English a few questions about this new endeavor.
What made you decide to open a salad food truck?
“We saw an opportunity to put our company and our employees in a better position filling what we found to be a voice in Midtown. There are plenty of places to get a salad, but no spots that center around salads.
We named the truck “Rocket Greens & Things” because we all love arugula, which means ‘rocket.’ The salads will come out fast like a rocket.”
What’s on the menu? Is this an ever changing menu or will it stay the same? Anything other than salads on the truck?
“We have a bunch of different signature salads and a build-your-own option. We plan to add a lot more in the coming weeks. Including non-salad items. That is where the ‘& things’ comes in. Those are the ‘things,’ but we are starting with salads because that will always be our core.
“Our guests will dictate by what they buy with what stays and what evolves. But we expect to have a good solid handful of mainstays with lots of seasonal options.”
What makes these salads special? How will they stand apart from other salads?
“They are special because we spend days talking about just salads. And we have personal nods to people and places that mean things to us on the menu.
What color is the truck?
“Our colors are green and orangey red.”
Where will the food truck be located?
“We are located at the corner of Cooper and Linden behind CVS and across Cooper from Fresh Market.”
Will this be in operation daily?
“We are open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday and lunch on Friday and Saturday and open into the afternoon but not for dinner on Saturday.”
Is there a Website people where people can find menu items and where the truck will be?
“The truck won’t move, so that is easy. Our menu will be on Instagram at @rocketgreens.”
Who is doing the salad preparation? Are you going to ever be working on the food truck?
“Derk Metzler will oversee it along with the Swamp Bar and Second Line. Derk is such an important part of our entire company. And I feel so lucky he is on our team. I worked there both days this weekend and am scheduled there during lunch this Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. So, yes. Sometimes.”
Is this the first food truck you’ve ever done?
“This is the first food truck in this restaurant group (Iris Restaurant Group), yes.”
Just about the time brave daffodils are beginning to appear, the red Crazy Crawfish & Seafood food trailers owned by Bryan Freeman and Gary Rapp are stocked and open for business — at 8271 US-72 in Byhalia, Mississippi, and 2053 Houston Levee Road in Cordova, Tennessee.
Freeman and Rapp sell crawfish Fridays through Sundays beginning in February and running through the Fourth of July.
People, who travel from as far as Nashville to their trailers, also refer to the crawfish as “mudbugs” or “crawdads,” Freeman says. “I never heard it called ‘crayfish’ ’til I moved to Memphis,” he says. “That’s a new one on me.”
They get their crawfish from Louisiana. “We pride ourselves on the freshest and the best quality crawfish,” Freeman says. “We pride ourselves on quality and customer service.”
Gary Rapp (above) and Bryan Freeman (below) serve up crawfish and more at their food trailers.
He and Rapp feature an extensive menu at their food trailers. “We do crawfish, shrimp, gumbo, crab legs, all the fixings.”
They also sell boudin. “It’s chicken or pork with sausage and some other ingredients — I don’t even know, but it’s so good — in a casing.” And it’s a popular item. “We sell probably 300 sticks a weekend.”
His dad and uncle taught him how to cook crawfish when he was about 8 or 9 years old, says Freeman, who is from Petal, Mississippi, just east of Hattiesburg. They cooked crawfish on weekends, “just for family.”
Freeman was about 14 when he cooked crawfish solo for the first time. And it “wasn’t so good,” he recalls. “It just wasn’t the same taste as my dad’s and uncle’s.”
The number one thing to remember when cooking crawfish is “making sure the crawfish is clean. You have to wash them really good. You want to get all the mud off. Make sure the water is clear before cooking.”
Next is getting the water hot. “Put in butter and seasoning.” Their seasoning is a secret, of course. “We have our own ‘home seasoning.’ We’ll just put it that way.”
After his secret ingredients, Freeman adds potatoes and sausage and brings the water to a rolling boil. “Dump your crawfish in. Let them boil for three minutes. Bring back to a boil. Cut the heat off. Put in your frozen corn and let it soak for 25 or 35 minutes. Then it’s done. [It takes] about an hour.”
Freeman moved to Memphis in 2008 and eventually opened his own construction company, Freeman Builds and Designs, which he still owns and operates. He’s also national director for Wow Factor Baseball, a travel baseball organization.
He got into the seafood business four years ago after a friend of his, who owned Southbound Seafood, told him he was getting out of the business. He wanted to know if Freeman wanted to buy it. “I called my good buddy Gary Rapp and asked him if he wanted to invest in a crawfish company, and he said, ‘Yes.’ So we bought Southbound.”
Rapp, who is from Bartlett, Tennessee, was the football coach for Freeman’s son Caden Freeman, 20. Caden, who now plays college baseball at Jones College in Ellisville, Mississippi, “helps a little bit when he can.”
A year after the Southbound purchase, Freeman and Rapp bought their first Crazy Crawfish trailer in Cordova from John Stanford, who was moving to Pickwick. “When we bought Crazy Crawfish, it was already established. We just took it over. It already had a customer base.”
Two years later, they bought another trailer, “Cajun Crawdads,” from Jimmy Pegram. Now, both trailers have the same name, Crazy Crawfish & Seafood.
Owning a crawfish food trailer was a good fit, Freeman says. “I love crawfish. I love cooking it. That and just the camaraderie and getting to meet new people. Doing festivals. We do Overton Square Crawfish Festival. We cook a lot of crawfish down there. This year it’s May 3rd. We’re doing 6,000 pounds. We do catering and all that good stuff.”
Rapp says he knew “nothing” about crawfish when he got in the business. “I had them a time or two at some events, but that was about it,” he says.
“The thing I like about it is being able to serve the people in the community,” Rapp says. “I have worked in the food industry through high school to college in my 20s, and then I got into sales. It’s serving the public and providing them good quality, tasty food.”
That also goes for his It’s a wRAPP restaurant, where he sells deli wraps, salads, and quesadillas.
Their cookies come from a recipe by Rapp’s sister-in-law Rachel Rapp.
They eventually want a brick-and-mortar location for Crazy Crawfish, Freeman says — and they want to expand.
All of their Crazy Crawfish items are online at crazycrawfishandseafood.com. “Customers can order their live crawfish sacks and all the sides and items they need for a crawfish boil,” Rapp says. That includes their newest item: Cajun boiled eggs — “a boiled egg we soak in water and our seasoning,” Freeman says.
So, just what is the proper way to eat a mudbug?
“I don’t know if my way is the proper way, but you pinch the tail and pull it away from the head,” Freeman says. “Then you twist off the head. “Take the first ‘ring’ or ‘shell’ off the tail. Squeeze the back of the tail and pull out the meat.”
Finally, you can “suck the head,” he says. “If you want to get the juice out.”
The quote Rapp came up with for their website says it all: “Tastes so good it makes your lips go Flippity Floppity Flip Flop Flop.”
Not many bands can say audience members created a dance to one of their songs.
The Narrows can, thanks to their song, “The Wheel.”
“I think it’s still the crowd favorite,” says singer/rhythm guitarist Owen Traw, 23. “I think people like how it sounds. People know some of the lyrics.”
And, he says, there’s “a dance during that song.”
“It’s like a bunch of little hand movements that fit whatever the lyrics are saying,” says bass player Bella Frandsen, 22.
One of the lines is “Don’t fall asleep,” says Traw, who wrote the song. “People make a negatory motion with their hand, like wagging their finger. Then when I say, ‘Fall asleep,’ they fold their hands under their heads like they’re sleeping. ‘At the wheel,’ they make a driving motion.”
People teach other people the dance at their shows, Frandsen says. “There’s an ever-growing number of people doing this silly dance.”
There’s also an ever-growing number of people going to shows featuring The Narrows. The Memphis rock band also features Aidan Smith, 25, on vocals and guitar, and Chris Daniels, 20, on drums. The band will open for Juicy J on April 5th in the Bryan Campus Life Center at Rhodes College as part of the school’s Rites of Spring.
“The Wheel” was the band’s first single. “Our best song at that time,” Smith says. “The one that got the crowd going the most.”
“I wrote it when I was really sick,” Traw says. “I still have the voice memos of that moment when I was trying to make sure I didn’t forget it. “
He had a bad cold. “I was all hunkered up and all gross in my room. I had a chord change in my head.”
The lyrics originated from a drive Traw took to Nashville. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic, but people were speeding. “If anybody hit the brakes it would have been really bad. It’s basically just about the feeling that one’s decisions have really big impacts.”
It was Traw’s idea to form a band about a year ago. It became The Narrows. “I started the band basically because I really wanted to express myself artistically, but I didn’t know how,” he says. “I wasn’t a musician or anything.”
That changed after he saw Smith in One Strange Bird. “A band I formed with some friends from Rhodes a few years ago,” Smith says. “We were playing really shitty bars and stuff like that.”
“Aidan really blew me away,” says Traw, who thought, “Dang, he’s so good. I wish I knew how to play music.”
Traw already played some guitar. “I could play ‘cowboy chords,’ as they call them, on the guitar, but I couldn’t play barre chords or hold a pick.”
He was impressed with “the way Aidan played the guitar. It’s a really cool mix of rhythm and lead playing. The kind of stuff Jimmy Page does. Or Jimi Hendrix. Playing guitar and lead at the same time and it’s really melodic. Just really catchy and good, too. Tasteful.”
Traw originally met Smith when they were at Rhodes. “We met very, very briefly. We had one conversation, really, where I told him he looked like Kurt Cobain.”
He got Smith’s phone number, texted him, and asked him if he wanted to be in a band.
“He had a demo that was circulating through the friend group,” Smith says. “So I knew who he was. When he said, ‘Let’s jam,’ I was like, ‘Yeah. For sure.’”
As for Traw’s guitar ability back then, Smith says, “He’s being a little modest. He could play a little bit of guitar.
“I remember him playing four or five songs. I thought all of them were really pretty good.”
The songs “were all well constructed and sort of in a tradition I love from the ’60s and ’70s music. I saw the nuances and jumps from verses to choruses and back. And the way that the melodies would work with the chords when he was playing.
“That night I think we wrote a song together.’”
The song was “Waste,” Smith says “It was an idea that I had that we just fleshed out based on an experience with DMT, the psychedelic. A drug I had taken years before that. I really wanted to write a song about it. And Owen really helped me out with the lyrics.”
Recalling how he felt on the drug, Smith says, “It made me feel like all comfort and warmth was gone from the world. I was looking at the sunshine in my parents’ backyard and it was kind of frightening. It was a frightening and beautiful experience. I was doing a lot of it then. That was when I was 18 or 19.”
Traw eventually became comfortable playing guitar. “I definitely got to the point where I could play guitar a little bit better,” he says. “I almost learned through osmosis because Aidan is so good. The way he would move his right hand to strum and hold the pick. Or what he would do with his fingers on his left hand. I would basically just watch him and try to do that.”
He and Smith began playing together in public. “At that point Aidan and I were writing songs on acoustic guitars and playing open mic nights. We wanted a band, but we didn’t know who would be the drummer, who would play bass.”
They began auditioning drummers. Born in Memphis, Daniels began playing drums at age 5. “I was born in the church, so I always watched church musicians. My uncle [the late Bernard Wilson] played drums as well. He kind of got me into it.”
Daniels was in the jazz band at Ridgeway High School and Middle School. He’s currently in the jazz band at University of Memphis.
As for what makes The Narrows different, Daniels says, “You have your punk rock and stuff and all that jazz, [but] I think our music is different because we talk about real life events. And it’s basically like therapy, like you’re talking to a counselor or something like that.”
Traw was impressed when he learned Daniels played drums in jazz groups. “I played jazz drums but had long since quit. But I know jazz takes a lot of musicality, and it’s really difficult to play. And with Chris, you could tell he had serious chops.”
They then interviewed bass players. Frandsen, a Rhodes student from New York who already was a friend of Traw’s, felt confident when she auditioned for them. “I really just clicked. I got along with everyone and everything worked really well.”
Smith thought Frandsen was “super intuitive” when they were working on their song, “Ice About to Melt.” “I played off the bass line that she had dreamed up,” he says. “That became a main figure in the chorus of the song. I could tell she was really super musical and an overall musician instead of strictly a bassist.”
The band name came from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, twin suspension bridges spanning Puget Sound’s Tacoma Narrows strait in Washington.
“I also think ‘The Narrows’ is pretty evocative even if you don’t know what the body of water is,” Traw says. “In my head, it made me imagine scrawny figures.”
The group, which has been touring, recently played shows with their friends in Smokies, a band from Jackson, Mississippi. They’re planning a “more serious tour this summer.”
The Narrows also completed its first EP, Sloth & Envy, which the group recorded at Easley McCain Recording and Young Avenue Sound.
Describing the EP’s cover he designed, Eli Schwartz says, “It evokes a feeling of being lost, helpless, and feeling like a stranger to yourself. Wondering who you are and coming up empty handed.”
