Author: Michael Donahue

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.

Remembering Children of the Holocaust

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date December 12, 2024

Sculpture by Israeli artist Rick Wienecke (Credit: Heather Strickland Photography)

Susan Powell and Melissa Wheeler were taken aback when they discovered many of their students at Horn Lake (Mississippi) Middle School didn’t know what the Holocaust was.

Instead of just telling them it was when 6 million Jews were killed during World War II, the teachers wanted to involve the students in a project.

“They felt like if they had a project to go along with what they were taught and learned, they would really understand,” says Diane McNeil, president of the Unknown Child Foundation. “And, oh my, did they.”

The children collected 1.5 million pennies. Each penny represents one child killed in the Holocaust.

To showcase the children’s efforts and to raise money for a memorial that will include the pennies, “A Night to Shine” will be held December 16th at the Landers Center. Priscilla Presley will be the special guest.

“When I was asked to serve as honoree of a gala to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Unknown Child Foundation, I learned the mission of the foundation is to educate the world on the importance of keeping children safe by memorializing the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust,” Presley says. “The Unknown Child Foundation will be the only memorial outside of Israel dedicated to these children. I have no doubt visitors will travel to the Mid-South from far and wide to pay their respects to these children.

“I have lost my daughter, Lisa Marie, and I have lost my grandson, Ben. I have a heart for all children.”

Priscilla Presley (Credit: Christopher Ameruoso)

McNeil got involved when Powell contacted her about helping them come up with a project for the students. She knew McNeil had been involved with Jewish/Christian relations. When asked, McNeil didn’t hesitate.

“I’d always wanted to know what 1.5 million looked like. And so I said, ’Why don’t we get the students to collect 1.5 million pennies? One for each child that died in the Holocaust. Then we’ll know what 1.5 million looks like.’”

Both teachers loved the idea. “So, the kids started collecting. We thought we would have it done by the end of that school year.”

Instead, she says, “It took three-and-a-half years.”

The pennies “weigh over four tons.”

During one point, they realized they might have a problem, McNeil says. “We’re sitting here with 1.5 million pennies. There’s something wrong with this picture. Why are we going to let people from the Holocaust be represented by the American penny? That makes no sense at all.’”

They then discovered a fascinating fact. “The guy who designed the penny came here as a 19-year-old from Lithuania. And he’s Jewish. Victor David Brenner.”

Also, she adds, “The penny is the most circulated piece of art in the world.”

But there was another question. “What are we going to do with all these pennies?”

“I had no idea. But someone had brought me these pictures of a sculpture of a child in the ovens of Auschwitz.”

She contacted Israeli artist, Rick Wienecke. “I called him and said, ‘We want to melt these pennies and make something out of them.’ He said, ‘No, you don’t. The power in the project is them collecting 1.5 million pennies.’”

He told them not to melt the pennies. He said, ‘I will make this sculpture for you.’ I said, ‘We have no money.’ And he said, ‘I believe in you.’

“He made the sculpture for us. It’s a life-sized sculpture in bronze. And it’s of a child in the oven of Auschwitz. The child is on the grate about to be burned.”

Some of the pennies are beneath the grate.

In addition to the life-sized statue, Wienecke told them he’d make 10 limited editions — some smaller sculptures or maquettes of the statue. He said he’d sign them, number them “and then break the mold. No more.”

As a result of the penny collection/sculpture project, McNeil, the two teachers, and some volunteers formed the Unknown Child Foundation.

The Desoto County Museum in Hernando, Mississippi gave the space for them to do an exhibit on the penny collection. The exhibit, “The Unknown Child Holocaust Exhibit,” which is still on view, includes a more than six-foot tall wall of pennies. These aren’t the pennies from the Horn Lake students, McNeil says. The pennies in the exhibit are less than two percent of 1.5 million.

Also included is a recording of Rabbi Levi Klein from Chabad Lubavitch of Tennessee and a student from the Hebrew Academy reciting names of children who died in the Holocaust.

The goal is for the exhibit to travel, McNeil says. “We can go through the state and tell about this and raise funds for a permanent memorial.”

The timing for the gala was perfect. “Christmas and Hanukkah coincide this year. And this happened to be our 15th year.”

Dabney Coors, a Memphis friend of Presley’s, contacted her about attending the gala.

Presley agreed. And, in addition to appearing in person, Presley will be featured in a video with about 10 of the children who collected pennies. The children will be saying, “It’s so much more than a penny.”

For more information, go to unknownchild.org

Tags Diane McNeil, Priscilla Presley, Unknown Child Foundation

We Recommend We Saw You

We Saw You: WinterArts

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date December 11, 2024

Steve and Lisa Mergen, Tony Thomas, and Susie Jabbour (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Even before all the turkey is gone, WinterArts is back in action, getting people in the arts-centric holiday-buying mood.

**Alex Russell, Diana, Donna, and Bill Hopper**

Greg Belz, executive director of the ArtWorks Foundation and founder of WinterArts, kicks off the annual event with an opening reception the Friday after Thanksgiving. “We do it at 5,” Belz says. “After everybody looking for plastic bargains from China has gone back home and vacated the streets, we open up.”

**Adam Cole, John Stanford, Debi Stanford, and**
**Hannah Cole**

This year’s WinterArts is at 7509 Poplar Avenue, in the old Brooks Brothers location in The Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown, Tennessee.

About 400 attended the reception for WinterArts, which is celebrating its 16th year, Belz says.

**Sarah, Cecil, London, Brandon, Sophia, and**
**Brandon Little**

It includes “everything one can think of in glass, metal, wood, clay, and fiber as well as a few other surprises,” he says. “We focus on 3D work in those disciplines.”

In short, WinterArts brings together “material and imagination” to create incredible gifts that “you won’t see anywhere else.”

WinterArts is open seven days a week through Christmas Eve.

Tags Artworks Foundation, Greg Belz, We Saw You, WinterArts

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cuisine in the Raw

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date December 11, 2024

Amy and Hannah Pickle spent their last Rawgirls Memphis day, December 1st, in its commercial kitchen.

For 14 years, they’ve operated Rawgirls Memphis, which included food trucks and a brick-and-mortar location Downtown. They sold the business to Laura Wegner in November, but they stayed on as advisors to help her get settled.

Starting Rawgirls about 14 years ago was “a complete accident,” Amy says.

She and Hannah met at Give Yoga Memphis. Hannah, who owned the yoga studio, was conducting a workshop on how to use super foods. Amy, a professional chef, says, “It was love at first sight.”

A native Memphian, Amy is a member of the Pickle Iron family, which her grandfather started in the 1950s. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in New York, Amy worked for famed chef, the late Judy Rodgers, at San Francisco’s Zuni Café, where she learned how to cook seasonally with local foods and make everything by hand. Amy went on to work for Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Mercer Kitchen in New York before moving back to Memphis in 2007.

A native of Paducah, Kentucky, Hannah says, “Food and diet were always a hobby and an interest of mine. … I would eat crazy things like algae and seaweed because I loved how I felt, but I didn’t have talent towards making them taste good.”

Amy, whom she married in 2011, “made them taste good. We started working together at home. Playing around with raw foods.”

Amy learned how to dehydrate foods. Using almond flour, she made gluten-free bread, which she baked under 118 degrees. “It kept all the nutrition intact, so you’re not cooking out the nutritional benefits of food.”

One night they made dinner for a couple of friends. The menu included raw cantaloupe soup and a parsnip and sweet pea risotto. One of their guests said, “I feel so good eating this food. … If I paid you, would you guys cook for us?”

“We weren’t looking for a job,” Amy says. “Hannah had her studio and I had an IT business.” They liked the idea of making things together just for fun.

Still, they made a meal in their kitchen and delivered it to the friend. “Within two weeks we had 10 regular home delivery clients,” Hannah says.

“We both closed our businesses,” Amy says. “We had to. We didn’t want to say ‘no’ to people. They were feeling so good. … It was becoming bigger than us and what we wanted for our life.”

They began working out of a duplex in August 2011. “We had Rawgirls on one side and we lived on the other,” Amy says.

“Then we decided to become legitimate and we rented the old Another Roadside Attraction kitchen,” Hannah says.

They opened their first food truck in the parking lot of Hollywood Feed on Poplar Avenue and Yates Road. “It was an absolute success from day one.”

Popular items eventually included a sorbet made from açaí and their “Green Love Bomb” cold-pressed juice made with cucumbers, fresh ginger, lemon, spinach, celery, and romaine. Their menu was “always growing,” Amy says. “As we were creating the menu, we would create for each other at home and feel the benefits.”

She and Hannah planned to close the business when their daughter graduated from high school. “It broke our hearts a little bit, but we made a public announcement we were going to close. That day Laura, the new owner, wrote to us and said this was a dream of hers to have a business like this. And we felt she was a viable person to come in and take it over.”

Wegner is now calling the business “Rawgirls USA.”

As for their future plans, Amy says they’re looking at an organic farm in Spain, where they’d like to set up an artist and yoga retreat. Also, Hannah says, “We have a mushroom extract business as well that we will gear up once settled.”

So, where did the name “Rawgirls” come from? Since they were using raw foods and they both were women, they thought “Rawgirls” was “kind of cute,” Amy says.

“I don’t know if it was the best idea,” Hannah says. “We still get people thinking we’re a strip club.”

“I’m in my mid-50s,” Amy adds. “I’m not getting on a pole.”

Tags Amy and Hannah Pickle, raw food, Rawgirls Memphis, Rawgirls USA

We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Bourbon & Blues Cocktail Party & Auction

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date December 4, 2024

Alli Pierce, Emily Kroeze, and Tyra Taylor (Photos: Michael Donahue)

An autographed jersey from former Memphis Grizzlies player Mike Miller was one of the live auction items at the Bourbon & Blues Cocktail Party & Auction.

**Chris and Dana Cathey, Jennifer and Mike Miller**

The jersey went for $2,300, says Jim Meeks, who founded the fundraiser with his wife Natalie. “And then Mike matched that. So, it actually brought in $4,600.”

**Jim and Natalie Meeks, Brittany and David Spence**

Miller, a sports agent and former University of Memphis men’s basketball team assistant coach, and his wife Jennifer were among the 200 guests at the sold-out event, which also included a live auction of about 100 items. The silent auction featured “about 15 rare bottles of bourbon,” Meeks says.

The event, held November 21st, raised more than $70,000 for the Forrest Spence Fund, which assists with non-medical needs of critical or chronically-ill children and their families, and for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which raises money for pediatric research.

Meeks, a managing partner at Northwestern Mutual, says he and his wife began the fundraiser on a smaller scale three years ago. The first two were held at Ghost River Brewing Co.

The event also included an open bar, a buffet, and music by Wyly Bigger and Jad Tariq.

Tags Bourbon & Blues Cocktail Party, Jim Meeks, Mike Miller, Northwestern Mutual

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Emily LaForce Has Mastered the Art of Cooking

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date December 4, 2024

When Ben Smith, chef/owner of Tsunami, asked Emily LaForce to come cook, she could’ve said, “May LaForce be with you.”

LaForce, 35, who began working at Tsunami in Cooper-Young about two months ago, is also a force of nature. She hasn’t let anything stand in the way of expressing her creativity, whether it’s cooking or painting.

Art was first. She has a picture her mother gave her when she was 3 years old. It’s a “little picture of somebody painting on an easel,” she says. And on it LaForce wrote, “I want to be an ‘ardes.’”

LaForce was about 13 when she began looking at food in a new light. Her mother showed her how to make crème brûlée. “I was like, ‘What is that?’ We grew up with Southern food.” Not long after, LaForce successfully cooked salmon after watching a TV cooking show demonstration.

At 16, LaForce got a job as a dishwasher at New York Pizza Cafe in Bartlett. The owner taught her how to make sauce and dough and how to throw pizzas using a kitchen towel. She later worked at another pizza parlor, but, she says, “This is the only job I was really fired from.

“It was a rainy Sunday. We were bored. One of my managers was like, ‘Do something to make me laugh.’” LaForce made a little sculpture out of dough scraps. “I made it look like Wendy from the Wendy’s restaurant. But then it was R-rated. It involved a sausage and two meatballs.”

She posted a photo of it on Facebook, thinking she shared it on a private group page that included the restaurant’s name. But LaForce accidentally posted it on the restaurant’s corporate page. She was fired from the pizza restaurant and was banned from working at any of the other restaurants in the chain “in America.”

LaForce moved on. She learned how to make hibachi and sushi at the old Rain restaurant. She continued to honing her skills as a student at Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee, where she worked at The Grill at school and another pizza parlor. She continued to paint, but her style changed. “I started doing a bunch of acid and it started changing after that.”

“I started doing just whatever people wanted at the time because I needed money. So I would just do commissions and murals. I painted the gas pump at the gas station in McKenzie.”

After graduating with an English degree, LaForce returned to Memphis.

In 2013, she set up a booth with her original paintings and prints at Cooper-Young Festival. Business wasn’t so good until LaForce found a way to get noticed. “This guy dressed as a banana was walking around and handing out condoms to people.” LaForce, who brought a cooler of beer with her, told him, “I’ll give you beer all day long, as much as you want, as long as you stay around my booth.”

“Because he was attracting attention,” she says, “I ended up making double what I was selling it for because of this banana.”

LaForce also worked for a time on two different pot farms. Her job at one was “keeping the goats from eating the weed.”

She got into cooking big time after moving back to Memphis in 2014 working with chef Kelly English when he was at The 5 Spot at Earnestine & Hazel’s. “It was the first time I really got my eyes opened to different kinds of foods, like a real chef.”

There, she met Majestic Grille owners Patrick and Deni Reilly and eventually landed a job at Majestic Grille — another eye-opener. “I knew basic stuff, but I didn’t know the proper way to do things.”

Two years later, LaForce went to chef/owner José Gutierrez’s River Oaks Restaurant. She was there seven years. “I started as a line cook and left as chef de cuisine.”

LaForce and her wife Ashley ate at Tsunami after Smith offered her a job. When he paid for their dinner, Ashley told Emily, “When a chef does that, that’s a good sign.”

Emily is impressed with Smith. “His flavors are very different from anything I’ve experienced. It’s like a perfect balance.” And, she says, “He’s badass.”

Asked her long-range goal, Emily says, “To be an artist.” Emily, whose murals grace Saltwater Crab and Meddlesome Brewing Company, wants to have an art show titled “Back of House,” which will be “paintings of things you don’t normally see in restaurants. Just in the back of the house. Just the crazy shit that happens. The beautiful things, but also the horrifying things.”

Mostly, Emily says, “I want to show the beauty of it.”

Tags Ben Smith, Emily LaForce, Memphis artists, Tsunami, visual arts

We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Orpheum Soirée

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date November 27, 2024

Tonya Dyson and Chef Eli (Photos: Michael Donahue)

“Soirée” is French for “evening party,” so the “Orpheum Soirée” was a perfect name for the event held on November 15th at the Orpheum Theatre.

And to make it more perfect, the theme of the event was the Moulin Rouge, in a nod to the musical of the same name that recently played the Orpheum.

**Brandon Arrindell, Ebony Arrindell,**
**Dr. Robin Hobbs-Carter, Patrick “Trey” Carter, and Jonathan White**

“This sold-out event, inspired by the legendary Moulin Rouge dance hall in Paris, transformed the entire theater and transported our guests to Paris for the evening,” says Tracy Trotter, Orpheum Theatre Group’s vice president of development.

More than 800 people attended the event, which included 12 live auction items and hundreds of items in the online auction.

The event, originally known as “The Orpheum Auction,” began in 1980. The name changed to “Soirée in the Spotlight” in 2017. In 2018, it was rebranded to “The Orpheum Soirée.”

“Tickets, sponsorships, and donations help power the Orpheum’s education and community engagement programs to provide unmatched arts access and top-tier education opportunities for Memphis and communities across the Mid-South,” Trotter says.

Tags Orpheum Soirée, Orpheum Theatre, We Saw You

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Over the River and Through the Drive-Through

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date November 27, 2024

Turkey breast at Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers (Photo: Courtesy Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers)

Maybe you don’t want to pull out grandma’s tarnished silver turkey tray and gravy boat this year.

Maybe you don’t want to hold a big frozen turkey under a sink faucet for an hour because you forgot to thaw the bird.

Maybe you really just want a “happy” Thanksgiving this time.

So, here are a few places that can redress Turkey Day stress.

Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers

Just in time for the holidays, Tops is offering its Pit-Smoked Turkey Club as well as whole turkey breasts.

The sandwich comes with pit-smoked turkey breast slices, “barbecue mayonnaise,” applewood bacon, American cheese, lettuce, and tomato.

That barbecue mayonnaise — Tops’ original sweet barbecue sauce blended together with some spices — is a special component, says Tops CEO Randy Hough.

“Guests have been asking us for years — around the holidays, especially — ‘What do you have in terms of a turkey for the holidays?’” says Tops exec Hunter Brown.

They ask, “Are you going to have anything like a seasonal ham or turkey this year?” Hough adds.

This year, the restaurant chain has obliged. The five-pound breasts, which serve up to 10 or 12 people, are “100 percent usable,” Brown says. “You don’t have to carve around any bones.”

Tops will be closed on Thanksgiving, but customers can preorder the turkeys or just pick them up at a Tops location. “It’s already ready. We’re serving it as a sandwich and are able to get them one.”

And, Brown says, “Where else can you roll through a drive-through on your way home and say, ‘I want to get one of those pit-smoked turkeys,’ and several minutes later have it in your car on your way home as if you’re getting a cheeseburger combo? And we will hand it to you out the window.”

“We’ve got you covered until 9 at night,” Hough adds. “I could have used this a couple of times in my lifetime.”

Another Tops Thanksgiving option? Their turkey burger, which they offer all year round. “What’s cool about turkey burgers is turkey burger eaters love it, but cheeseburger eaters also love it,” Brown says.

Chez Philippe

This might not be the year you want to whip up truffle-stuffed squab and Chateaubriand for your Thanksgiving feast. So, let Keith Clinton make it for you from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Thanksgiving night at Chez Philippe at The Peabody.

Clinton, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, and Konrad Spitzbart, the hotel’s executive pastry chef, created an elegant four-course prix fixe Thanksgiving dinner.

“At Chez, we are detail-oriented,” Clinton says. “We want to emulate the nostalgia and memory of a family meal by way of taste and service. We have familiar staples of holiday tradition. We just tweak the approach and keep it interesting.

“I’m going to use cranberries, turkey, and sweet potato. But I’m also going to use truffle, squab, and edible gold.”

Clinton also is also paying tribute to his own Thanksgivings past. “My grandmother has a patch of persimmon trees on her land. I’m going to use them in our opening canapé sequence as kind of a memory of those family gatherings of my own.”

That will be his persimmon and merengue, which he is featuring with pear and port gelée.

There will be sweet potatoes: Clinton’s “sweet potato and chèvre with sauce poivrade,” which he will serve with Heritage Farms turkey. “I have a distinct memory of watching the marshmallow bubble on top of the sweet potato casserole when I was a kid. I’m leaning on that memory to cook a course for our guests this holiday season.”

Spitzbart is offering pumpkin bavarois along with chocolate brûlée with brown butter and micro sponge crisp honeycomb for the dessert course.

Neil’s Music Room

If you want a more laid-back Thanksgiving dinner, but still desire traditional turkey and all the trimmings, head over to Neil’s Music Room at 5725 Quince Road. Owner Neil Heins is continuing his more than 30-year tradition of offering Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day.

Heins began doing the dinners when his club was on Madison Avenue. “I started doing them ’cause I was broke,” he says. “Everything was closed on Thanksgiving. I said, ‘Shit. I’ll open up.’”

His menu includes smoked turkey, homemade dressing, “real mashed potatoes,” cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, English peas, and rolls. “And then we give them a dessert. And most of the time it’s pumpkin pie.”

Dinner is served until they run out. “We start at 11 in the morning. And we normally close at 1 in the morning. It usually dies down at about 4 or 5. We’ll serve all day as long as we have it.”

John Williams and the A440 Band will perform.

Neil’s also is selling its Thanksgiving meal to-go.

Dale’s

Dale’s is continuing its 20-year-tradition of serving dinner on Thanksgiving. It’s featured from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the restaurant at 1226 Main Street in Southaven, Mississippi.

Customers get a choice of chicken and dressing or baked ham along with three vegetables, homemade rolls, and cornbread. “And it comes with a piece of sweet potato pie,” says owner Larita Mathis.

They normally serve the same items on their regular Thursday and Sunday menus. “So, we thought, ‘Why don’t we open on Thanksgiving?’” Mathis says.

Customers include “regulars that come every year and new people that just heard about it — or that we do everything from scratch.”

Dale’s also offers to-go orders to feed approximately 10 or 20 people. “All our vegetables and pies are available. So, that’s a big part of our business. People can place orders a few days before Thanksgiving.”

The dressing is made from her grandmother’s recipe, Mathis says. They boil the chickens to make the broth. And they make the cornbread that goes in it.

“We don’t use turkey because the turkey broth has a wilder flavor. If you try to make dressing with that, your dressing has a totally different taste. We tried that one year and it’s just not the same.”

Mathis and her family may grab something to eat that day. But, she says, “By the time we feed everybody, we just want to eat a hot dog or something. We don’t want to look at chicken and dressing.”

Tags Chez Philippe, Dale's, Dining out for Thanksgiving, Neil's Music Room, Thanksgiving dinner, Tops Bar-B-Q and Burgers

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Patrick Collins Has Made A Honey of a Deal

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date November 20, 2024

Patrick Collins with his products and beehives (Photo: Anna Grace Palmer | Morris Marketing Group)

Patrick Collins is COO at Morris Marketing Group. That’s where he wears business casual and suits.

He’s also the owner of Ol’ Cappy’s Bee Products. That’s where he wears protective clothing, including a jacket with a hood and canvas pants.

Collins, 49, sells his locally-made honey as well as his products made from beeswax. On the weekends, he cranks up his 1985 Ford 150 and tootles down to Coldwater, Mississippi, with all his beekeeping supplies in the back.

And, yes, he’s been stung “many, many times,” Collins says, adding, “They don’t really want to sting you, but they do it for protection.”

He got into beekeeping about six years ago after he heard stories from a client who keeps bees at his RV park. “I got really interested in it,” he says.

Collins went to a meeting of the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association at Agricenter International. “It’s a half day and they teach you everything you need to know about beekeeping.”

He was amazed to find about 250 people at the meeting. “I thought it would be me and three old guys. Instead, it was an auditorium full of people.”

Collins was one of the winners in the drawing for a beehive, which was given away at the end of the meeting.

They also gave him bees. “You get a box of bees, a small hive. It’s ready to go.”

And those bees lay eggs. “And you end up with 30,000 bees.”

Collins now owns 25 hives, which he keeps on land he owns in Coldwater. “I go down there at least once a week. Usually on weekends.”

He spent hours online “reading about bees and watching videos about how people keep bees and things.”

Collins also learned from “the bees themselves.”

“They’re doing their own thing and you’re going to learn whether you want to or not. You have to learn how to manage them or they’ll all leave.”

Collins was fascinated by the different flavor profiles of local honey. “You can almost really taste the floral notes of it. And the other thing is it changes throughout the seasons. We have a spring, summer, and fall harvest. And the color and the flavor changes with each harvest.”

Spring honey is “really light and really yellow.” Fall is “very robust.” And summer is “really floral, but it is a little more delicate than the fall.”

There is no “winter” honey per se. But bees still make honey in the winter. They remain in the hive “to keep the colony warm during the winter. No matter what the temperature is outside, inside it’s 90 degrees.”

Bees keep that temperature warm by staying in a cluster and vibrating their bodies. They won’t leave the hive until the outside temperature reaches 55 degrees.

A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, Collins wasn’t originally a fan of honey. “I did not like honey growing up. It just wasn’t good to me. It was probably a matter of a real fall honey. Or sometimes when honey is processed, some people use heat in that process and that can change the flavor.”

Collins liked honey for the first time when he tried some local honey about six years ago. Now, he says, “I eat honey three times a day. I mainly eat it as dessert. And I use it with yogurt, peanut butter, and apples. That’s what I eat twice a day for lunch and dinner. In the morning, cottage cheese, berries and honey.”

He doesn’t cook with honey, but he does make “no-bake power balls that use honey.” They’re made with honey, oats, chocolate, and peanut butter. “You can’t get better than that.”

Local honey is made from the pollen from local flora within a 50 mile area, so the honey Collins sells would be considered local honey in Memphis. “Our beehives are on the backside of Arkabutla, which is a protected forest area. So it’s wild. Lots of wild vines and flowers and trees. The bulk of the honey comes from trees. But flowers, too. Trees produce larger plants, which produce large amounts of honey.”

When his beehives grew to about 10 or 15, Collins knew he had to come up with a name for his honey because he needed to start selling it. “That’s when the honey really started flowing in. I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat it or give it all away.”

He produced 55 pounds of honey at his first big harvest four years ago. “This year, I harvested over 2,000 pounds of honey.”

In addition to his regular honey, Collins sells a balm and a salve made out of beeswax. He also sells a creamy, spreadable honey.

Ol’ Cappy’s Bee Products is a family business, Collins says. He and his son Reed bottle honey, and his wife Jill bags and helps with the deliveries.

His honey products are now available at Berryhill Farm and Mrs. Hippie Eats in Hernando, Mississippi. They’re also available on his website olcappy.com. “We deliver it to your house for free,” he says. “We just drop it off at your front door like Amazon.”

Asked who is Ol’ Cappy, Collins says, “That’s me.”

“I love nicknames. And I have given myself nicknames over the years, going back to elementary school and junior high.”

Collins loved the name of the wrestler Porkchop Cash after he became a big wrestling fan as a 6-year-old.“You can pick any kind of meat and put another stupid word with it and that can be your name. Your favorite color. The street you grew up on. So, I adopted ‘Captain Porkchop.’”

The nickname was shortened to “Captain” when Collins was a server at the old Bhan Thai restaurant.

A 16-ounce bottle of his honey sells for $14, but keeping bees and selling honey and honey-based products is a hobby, Collins says. “If you don’t want to pay the price for the products, then I’m happy to eat the product myself. I’m kind of selling you my stash.”

Tags Honey, Ol’ Cappy’s Bee Products, Patrick Collins

We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Crafts & Drafts

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date November 20, 2024

Justyn Ward, Larry King, Daverix Cleaves, Zykel Pirtle (Photos: Michael Donahue)

About 4,000 to 5,000 people attended this year’s Crafts & Drafts, which was held November 9th at Crosstown Concourse and hosted by the Memphis Flyer and Crosstown Arts.

**Sage, Sheila, and**
**Rogers Sanders**

And, this year, the event was held completely inside, instead of half outside and half in.

“First time we’ve ever done it completely indoors because of the weather,” says event manager Molly Willmott. “It was a roaring success.”

**Max McClusky, Rain Wright, and Olive Stevens**

About 85 curated artists, makers, and crafters took part in the event.

As for the drafts, Willmott says, “We partner with Eagle Distributing. They give us a list of the most interesting and creative beers on tap at this moment. They do this for each of these events.”

The brews include some local and some regional, Willmott says.

“The whole point of the event is to showcase the best local and Mid-South artists and makers and give them a venue to promote themselves and showcase their wares. And still stay true to the Memphis Flyer’s mission, which is to make Memphis a better place to live. Elevating and sharing people doing great things.”

Tags Crafts & Drafts, Crosstown Arts, Crosstown Concourse, We Saw You

Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

FOOD NEWS BITES: Everyone’s Favorite Irish Lass is Back

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date November 15, 2024

Jo Delahunty Chetter at Patrick's (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Jo Delahunty Chetter — aka “Josie,” “Irish Jo,” and “Irish Red Jo” — is back at Patrick’s.

The popular server from County Laois, Ireland, went back to visit her native Ireland June 16th.

She’s now back joking and chatting with the restaurant’s customers, who she sometimes calls “laddies” or “lassies” in her Irish brogue.

And diners love her.

She’s been at Patrick’s at 4972 Park Avenue for 18 years, Chetter says. But she worked and got to know people at other places since she moved to Memphis. “I came for a three-week holiday,” she says. “That was in 1992. I fell in love with the pub I worked in and the people.”

The pub was the old Kudzu’s. But Chetter didn’t stop there. “I got a job offer to go to Dan McGuinness Pub. I was there for about three years and then opened Celtic Crossing. And then came to Patrick’s.”

She loves her job. “I can be myself. I can chat with customers in my accent or my way of speaking and joke with them. Having the craic with them. That’s like having the fun with them.”

And, she adds, “It’s a great place to work. A lot of perks. Easy to work with. One of the easiest jobs I’ve had.”

People began calling her “Josie” about three years ago to avoid confusion with another employee. “We had a fellow in the back. His name was ‘Joe.’ I love ‘Josie.’ I wish I had been ‘Josie’ forever.”

Chetter suddenly interrupts the interview. “I need a potato salad,” she calls out. She then says to someone after a bit, “I went by the table and they didn’t have it.”

She resumes the interview.

Chetter says she loves being able to act up with the customers. “I can be a fool. Like laughing and joking and be kind of crazy. A bit of everything.”

And, she says, “It’s more like you’re making a fool of yourself. Really laughing and joking and taking the piss out of people.”

Asked where she gets her energy, Chetter says, “I eat loads of peanut butter and raisins. I’ve always been very active. And it pays off when you’re busy running around taking care of tables, customers’ demands. I built up a tolerance.”

Chetter is also known for her wild-looking red hair. “I think it gives me a lot of personality,” she says, adding, “It’s very Irish. Amadain. That’s Irish for ‘crazy.’ It’s very unmanageable. Very untamed.’

Whether they’re first timers or regulars, Chetter makes people feel at home at Patrick’s. “I have a lot of customers who specifically ask for me. A lot of them wrote to me in Ireland asking me when I was coming back.”

Chetter was away for about four months. “Longest I have not worked in 40 years.”

“I just wanted to go for a holiday and get reacquainted with my family. I haven’t really been at home for a long time.”

She’s gone home for a “quick holiday” on occasion, Chetter says. “To get a feel of what I left behind. I often regret not staying longer.

“I just got that again. I got that feeling of when I was younger and enjoying conversations with my family and sitting by the fire and going for walks. It was really healthy and good. Going down to the moors with the cows and calves looking at me like, ‘Who is this crazy redhead flying down the road?’ And being followed by the dogs and cats like the Irish Pied Piper.”

Her absence made customers a bit nervous, thinking she wasn’t going to return. “A lot of people kept texting me saying they missed me and couldn’t wait for me to come back. I was planning on coming back. I came back about the 16th of October.”

And people expressed their joy when Chetter returned to work. “Oh, my God. There was a banner from the owner’s wife welcoming me back. It was like the ‘prodigal daughter,’ really. I got a massive reception. Overwhelming.”

By the way, Chetter’s actual name is “Josephine.” But, she says, “The only time I was called ‘Josephine’ was at home when my mother was mad at me.”

Tags Jo Delahunty Chetter, Patrick's