Category: Food & Drink

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis In May Adds Steak to Cooking Contest

Credit: Maverick Barbecue via Facebook

The Memphis In May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest (MIM) is adding steak to its competition list with a top prize of $3,000.

MIM announced the addition of the Steak Cookout Competition Thursday morning. It’s a partnership with the Steak Cookout Association and a first for MIM.    

“For 47 years now, the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest teams have continued to bring excitement and immense competition during the Memphis in May International Festival celebration,” said Mack Weaver, MIM president and CEO. “We are thrilled to partner with the Steak Cookoff Association (SCA) to expand opportunities for our teams to earn more cash and notoriety.”

The total purse for the steak contest is $6,000. The prize money is broken down like this: 

• 1st place – $3,000

• 2nd place – $1,500

• 3rd place – $1,000

• 4th place – $500 

Winners also earn an automatic entry into the Steak Cookoff Association World Championship in Fort Worth, Texas. 

“It’s long been a goal of ours to have an SCA Cookoff at Memphis in May,” said SCA founder Ken Phillips. “The cooks and judges are very excited about the opportunity. I look forward to a long and successful collaboration.”

The Steak Cookoff Competition will take place during the Memphis in May International Festival on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at Liberty Park. Cost for teams to compete is $150.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Good Times Set for Hard Times Deli

Bailey Patterson, Cole Jeanes, Harrison Downing, Schuyler O’Brien (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Hard Times Deli is slated to open in February. And that means good times for foodies.

“We’re doing an upscale sandwich shop,” says Harrison Downing. “It’s our take on classic deli sandwiches.”

Downing is the executive chef as well as owner/operator of the upcoming restaurant at 6555 Marshall Avenue near Sun Studio in the Edge District. His other owners are his Secret Smash Burger Society pop-up cohorts Cole Jeans, owner of Kinfolk, and Schuyler O’Brien, City Silo food and beverage director.

Their bread will be made at Josh Steiner’s Hive Bagel & Deli. The beef and pork will come from Home Place Pastures in Como, Mississippi.

“We’ll have, of course, an Italian on the menu.” The classic sandwich is made with salami, pepperoni and mortadella. And, Downing says, “We’ll be making our own mortadella using Home Place Pastures pork pepperoni salami.”

They’re still doing their smash burger at pop-ups and special events, but the one at Hard Times Deli will be another version of their standard. It will be a “chopped cheese” burger, which is “a big New York deli thing. Picture a Philly cheese steak. But it’s ground beef instead of steak.” You put the meat on the flat top, cheese on top “and then you chop up the sandwich.”

The chopped cheese is a spin on a New York deli classic. (Photo: Cole Jeanes)

They will have a smoker in house for their sandwiches, Downing says. “We’ll have four hot sandwiches and four cold sandwiches. And a couple of vegetarian options.”

Downing described the type of bread he wanted to Steiner. “I gave him the bread I really fell in love with — ‘Dutch Crunch’ — in the San Francisco area. Over the past year we’ve been doing some tinkering and working on it.”

“It’s a sweet bread between a brioche and baguette with a slight sweet crust,” Steiner says. “Harry had one bread on his mind when he approached me about helping him with his fresh bread. We worked back and forth for a couple of months and I think we nailed it.”

A native Memphian, Downing says his mother was “a ridiculously good cook.” His first restaurant job was at Jim’s Place Grille in Collierville. “Once I started really getting into it at Jim’s Place, I just never got away from it,” he says.

He also worked at Greys Fine Cheeses & Entertaining and Hog Wild BBQ. But, Downing says, “I’ve always wanted to open a sandwich shop.”

When his sandwiches began getting popular at Greys, Downing pitched the idea to open a sandwich shop to Jeanes and O’Brien. He said if they were going to open one, now was the time. That was more than two years ago. “We’ve been putting our minds together and finding a space and getting it built up.”

Architects John Halford and Patrick Brown of cnct design helped everything come together. “I was looking for a place to do something and I stumbled across this with John.”

Halford told Downing about his building, which once housed the old Escape Alley bar. “The building was abandoned and completely cinder-blocked up.”

Downing, who frequented High Cotton Brewing Company, wanted his own place in the area. “I’ve always loved the Edge District. You’re close to everything. Especially with a sandwich shop and doing what we’re doing, there’s no one in that area doing it. You’re surrounded by hospitals and colleges. People that eat that kind of food.”

There are “four art studios” and “a couple of tattoo shops,” he says. “It’s the next cool, artsy neighborhood.”

They began working with cnct design a year ago. Brown “showed us 3-D floor plans. We just kind of gave him our vision and what we wanted to do and we all worked through it together.”

The new space is “really, really pretty inside,” he says. The interior features cobalt blue and cornsilk yellow tile floors and dark stained woodwork and shelving.

Says Brown: “The last time the building was occupied it was Escape Alley. It was a dive bar. We looked at it for years for possible tenants.”

They wanted it to be “an active space [with] food, drinks. And the tenants [being] active in the community was important for us. We got really lucky when we ran into Harrison, Cole, and Schuyler. They’ve got their hands in a lot of projects.”

He describes them as “a great group of younger, energized people” who “have an eye for what they want.”

And, he adds, “They knew they liked these vintage style diners. That’s where the checkered floors come in. Very mid-century, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Darker stained woods, checkered floors. We brought in some of that lighter yellow. The canary yellow in the tile. So, looking into all those design features and bringing it into an industrial building and trying to modernize it for today’s world was pretty much the main scope.”

Kinfolk went with the “old-school diner” look, Downing says. Hard Times Deli went with the “old-school sandwich shops” look.

The name Hard Times Deli came from the three owners going through hard times, including “trying to run restaurants for other people,” he says, adding, “The industry is rough. Long hours. Not a lot of pay.”

They also have been getting used to becoming “new dads,” Downing says. “All of us are pretty new to the married game and new to the dad game.”

The restaurant, which will feature lunch every day except Sunday, will seat 40 inside. It’s too small to do live music inside, but when the weather gets nicer, outdoor events with music can be held in the spacious parking lot, Downing says. “And if it’s 6 and people are still hanging out, we’ll keep slinging food.”

Helping him in the kitchen will be Bailey Patterson and Cody Boswell. “We’re all sandwich artists here,” says Downing. “All of us have done crazy food.”

Transforming the old building, which previously was “an eyesore,” is helping to improve Memphis. “We want to be a part of making the city better.”

And this won’t be the only Hard Times Deli location, Downing says. “We are looking to grow. I’m kind of building this model. Making it scalable. We’d like to get multiple businesses open. And we have other concepts in the works.” 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Jake Behnke Takes the Helm at Belle Meade Social

Jake Behnke (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Jake Behnke is heating up the kitchen at Belle Meade Social.

Behnke, 33, who became executive chef a year ago January at the restaurant at 518 Perkins Extended, is receiving praise from customers as well as his employers.

He took the job after leaving the now-closed IBIS, where he also was executive chef. “I left IBIS because business was slow,” Behnke says. “Honestly, it was nauseatingly slow. It was the type of slow where you kind of see the writing on the wall.”

But he was able to create a lot of dishes there. “The menu was absolutely eclectic at IBIS. We had Greek. I had Roman. I had Asian. I had quail dumplings: purple cabbage slaw, crispy wontons with pickled ginger.

“Some of the things I did at IBIS I’m doing at Belle Meade. Like the short rib I do is pretty much the same short rib I did there. We take it off the bone and then we run beef stock with the bones and trimming for about 18 hours. We take the meat and we get a good sear on it with just salt, pepper, and olive oil. And then we braise the meat with a classic mirepoix: carrots, celery, bay leaf, thyme, all that. 

“But the nuances that make it ours are the addition of Worcestershire and soy sauce, ginger, tomato, and jalapeños. All that goes into the braise, so the short ribs are taking on those characteristics.”

Executive chef Jake Behnke added the short rib and beet carpaccio to the menu. (Photos: Courtesy Jake Behnke)

Describing another dish he brought over from IBIS, Behnke says, “I used to do a smoked chicken thigh with the twice-baked sweet potato and the blistered green beans.”

But, he says, “The chicken is no longer like the smoked chicken, though. I now do a citrus-and-herb chicken.”

Behnke was given “full autonomy over the kitchen” at Belle Meade Social. “For a chef, that’s a big deal. You want room to express yourself.”

He likes the fact he can make whatever type food from any region instead of sticking to only one type of dish. “I would never want to be a chef at a barbecue joint or an Italian restaurant.”

A few things, including the spinach dip and the steak and noodle salad have remained from the old Belle Meade Social menu. “None of those have changed dramatically, but they’ve been improved.”

Behnke’s creations for Belle Meade Social include his beet carpaccio. “It’s roasted beets sliced thin. And we shingle them on the plate, going around the edges with beets and arugula pesto. And we do a spritz of red wine vinegar and then feta cheese, toasted almonds, and fresh dill over the top.”

He also uses beets in his seared salmon with risotto dish. “How many places can you go where they feature beets on the menu?”

As for what’s coming up on the menu, Behnke says, “My next push for menu changes is going to be family-focused salads and desserts.”

Belle Meade Social’s current grilled chicken salad comes with pineapple, peanut sauce, and a wine vinaigrette. “The honey lime vinaigrette is now too sweet, in my opinion. I’m going to use all the components but just retool it.”

He plans to make a grilled chicken and pineapple kabob, which will go over the salad. “Instead of tortilla strips over the top,” he says, “I’m rolling around the idea of doing a tortilla bowl.”

Behnke will rub the inside of the bowl with spicy peanut butter powder. “So, it’s basically the same flavor combinations, just applied differently to kind of elevate the look and the experience of eating it.”

He also plans to add some dairy-free, gluten-free vegan desserts. “There’s just not enough of that stuff out there.”

Behnke wowed Belle Meade Social owner Paul Stephens and manager Chad Weatherly when he arrived for his interview. They asked him to make something for them. So, he made fresh focaccia bread; an arugula, strawberry, bleu cheese, and candied nuts salad; a butternut squash bisque; short ribs; a Yukon Gold and sweet potato gratin with garlic cream; and, for dessert, an orange and tarragon crème brûlée and a mixed berry cobbler. “I did a seven-course meal in three hours,” Behnke says. “I just wanted to show them my chops.”

He says, “Those are all things that have skill, method, technique, and finesse all wrapped up in them.”

Behnke knew if he was “to be able to juggle all those” along with “time management,” he would impress the higher-ups.

He did. Benhnke was offered the job on the spot.

A native Memphian, Behnke studied at the Chef Academy Italy in Terni, Italy. His first restaurant job was a dishwasher at The Grove Grill, where he later became a pantry cook. He also worked at the old Interim, Acre, Restaurant Iris, and Sweet Grass restaurants.

Ryan Trimm, who worked at The Grove Grill before opening his own restaurants, including Sweet Grass, was one of his mentors, Behnke says. “Ryan taught me a lot of the basics: cutting, chopping. And he also taught me about the mother sauces.”

He adds, “Ryan also taught me whole hog butchering, charcuterie, and pickling.”

Trimm has played an important role in Behnke’s job as executive chef at Belle Meade Social. “Anything I do there is always an influence from him.”

But maybe one of the most important lessons Behnke learned from the veteran chef was Trimm’s motto: “Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance.” 

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

FOOD NEWS BITES: Mahogany Memphis to Close in February

Mahogany Memphis in Chickasaw Oaks Mall

Mahogany Memphis in Chickasaw Oaks Mall is closing in late February, says owner Carlee McCullough.

But her other restaurant, Mahogany River Oaks, will remain open.

Mahogany Memphis is “only open for special events through February 28th,” McCullough says.

Discussing the closing, she says, “I said, ‘You know what? Let me close it and focus all my energy on River Terrace,” adding, “We were doing everything we could to drive traffic to it. But it just wasn’t there. Once we opened up River Terrace, everybody’s there.”

Mahogany Memphis, which is at 3092 Poplar Avenue Number 11, opened in November 2018. It features “upscale Southern with a dash of Creole.”

Mahogany River Terrace, which opened in October on Mud Island, features “upscale Southern with a dash of Creole, and with an emphasis on seafood.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Restaurants Ring in the New Year

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh with his new pulled pork sandwich (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh introduced his new menu January 7th at his Poke Paradise restaurant at 6343 Summer Avenue, Suite 110.

He’s added more items, including some of his weekly specials. “I’m doing the same thing I always do,” Sinh says. “Fusing my food up a little bit. Asian fusion.”

Sinh plans to add another item in about a week. “We’re a city that loves barbecue, and I have this cool pulled pork sandwich that will be really good for Memphis.”

With influences from Memphis, Asia, and Hawaii, the sandwich will be “the normal jumbo pulled pork sandwich we love here, but the sauce and seasoning will have more of an Asian twist to it.”

The Hawaiian influence is “how the sauce is cooked. The ingredients in the sauce. It will also have a slice of pineapple on it as well as the pulled pork.”

In the coming weeks, Sinh, who has served lunch to patrons who requested it since the restaurant opened, will introduce his official lunch menu featuring smaller portions from the dinner menu. “And we are also offering soups and salads with our lunch menu.”

Sinh also is beefing up his catering business. He plans to do “more than sushi and poke” and to offer a pho bar featuring Vietnamese cuisine.

Sinh’s catering business isn’t limited to corporate events or large venues. “It can be anywhere. If you don’t have a kitchen, no worries. We can bring everything there.”

• Executive chef Nate Henssler has a lot going on in 2025 at Amelia Gene’s Restaurant at 255 South Front Street.

They’re going to take advantage of the success of their special Thursday Tasting Dinner by continuing their thematic approach to the five-course dinners, Henssler says. In homage to the Lunar New Year, which is coming up at the end of January, they’re going to offer a “fun tasting menu” featuring a Chinese-Thailand tasting menu “but using Amelia Gene’s products and Amelia Gene’s presentation.”

The Thursday night tastings are “very popular,” Henssler says. “Every Thursday, we’re seeing between 30 and 45 of these guests coming in for a five-course meal.”

He says, “We’ve also started to put a wine pairing on the tasting menu, and we added a cocktail pairing. We’re continuing to evolve that. We’re going to expand our spirit-free cocktails as well.”

Henssler adds, “Our guests have really enjoyed discovering our expansive wine list, thanks to our general manager Jessica [Henssler].”

Henssler plans to offer rare or special wines by the glass or half glass, like the popular 2015 Dom Perignon champagne they served during the holidays. “On weekends we will open a special bottle. And we’ll let people know.”

Diners will be able to enjoy this wine by purchasing a glass instead of the whole bottle. 

Amelia Gene’s, which does two menus a year, will launch the new one in the latter part of January.

They’re working on getting some live lobsters in and, instead of shrimp and grits, maybe doing a lobster and grits dish using a whole live Maine lobster.

They are currently offering a special hamburger at the bar. Henssler is thinking about offering a “New England-style lobster roll” instead of the burger for a limited time. “Something for the guests that they can only get at the bar.”

“I’ll be sourcing live lobsters from New Bedford, Massachusetts. I’m from New Hampshire, so that’s mother’s milk to me.”

During the holidays, they turned their cheese cart into a dessert trolley for a couple of weeks. It was “wildly popular,” he says. He’s planning to do more limited-time dessert carts. Their dessert chef Jessi Derenburger is “super creative.”

In short, Henssler says, “For 2025, we want to keep pushing creativity. We want to show our guests that fine dining can be very fun. Quirky dishes. And that starts on the Thursday tasting menu.”

His goal is to “just keep pushing forward. We’re got an amazing team. I truly believe we have the best team in Memphis. And we’re just going to keep getting better.”

• Carlee McCullough is looking west during 2025. Not as in cowboy hats and boots, but sunsets.

McCullough is the owner of Mahogany River Terrace, which arguably has the best view of sunsets on the Mississippi River. It’s the ideal place to sip wine or a cocktail and dine on an elegant meal while viewing the waning sun.

“Sunset and Champagne” is slated to launch in the middle of January at the restaurant at 280 Island Drive, McCullough says. “Basically, what we’ll do every day is we’ll check and see when the sunset is expected,” she says. “We’ll be posting on social media.”

They will feature discounted rates on champagne and appetizers.

They’re currently focusing on their prix fixe dinners, which they will feature on Valentine’s Day at Mahogany River Terrace as well as McCullough’s other restaurant, Mahogany Memphis at 3092 Poplar Avenue, Suite 11, in Chickasaw Oaks mall. They always have steak options at both restaurants, but for Valentine’s Day they will offer a rib eye and lobster pairing at Mahogany Memphis and a tomahawk steak and lobster pairing with crab cakes at Mahogany River Terrace, where the fare is more seafood-oriented.

McCullough also is getting ready for the warm weather. “In summertime we are poised to be very popular because of the patio.”

They will feature food specials. And, she says, “We’re going to be very big on champagne.”

She’s partnered with a distributor to offer Veuve Clicquot champagne. “We’ve talked about ‘Veuve Clicquot Wednesdays.’”

That will include appetizers and live music, she says. And, of course, “There’s not a bad seat in the house.”

As for Mahogany Memphis, McCullough wants people to know that the restaurant hasn’t closed just because she opened Mahogany River Terrace. The restaurant is “still going strong,” she says. “We’ve still got fabulous food.”

Chickasaw Oaks is “such a quaint mall,” McCullough says. “You don’t even know you’re in Memphis when you’re in that mall.”

• The dining room is open again at SideStreet Burgers at 9199 MS-178 in Olive Branch, Mississippi.

“It closed for Covid, obviously, a long time ago now,” says owner Jonathan Mah. Customers picked up their orders outside. Mah used the dining room area for storage and as a prep area. “Since then we made room for the storage and prep area. And we renovated the dining room with some tile floors.”

They opened up the dining room last August to make room for more tables. It now seats 20 people.

Mah plans to get a vent hood for the stove. “So, we can do grilled burgers. And possibly add a fryer.”

They’ve never sold grilled hamburgers, he says. “We’ve always baked our burgers in a convection oven, which is very unorthodox in a burger joint. We started 13 years ago and that’s all the money we had. So, we just kind of stuck with it. That’s what we had to use, so we had to be more creative with how we season our burgers.”

Baking the meat “keeps them juicy, for sure.” But a griddle would help sear the outside of the meat and keep the juices in, he says.

They want a fryer so they can start selling French fries, which they’ve never offered. They use roasted potatoes instead, which they will continue to offer as well as the fries.

In addition to hamburgers, Mah says, “We want to completely revamp our menu and put some more fun stuff on the menu. Maybe Philly cheesesteaks or Cubans. Or bring back some sandwiches like the bánh mì, a Vietnamese sandwich. You normally would have pâté on there, but we would do some sort of Vietnamese marinated pork, pickled cucumbers, jalapeños, pickled carrots, and cilantro.”

Mah adds, “The economy is so tough you have to be creative to draw in more customers and new customers.”

As for his other restaurant, OB Pizza Company at 9215 MS-178, Mah says, “In addition to our pizza and our wings and pizza by the slice, we’re hoping to add some gelato up there.” 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Belle Meade Social Scene

Chad Weatherly, Paul Stephens, Jake Behnke (Photo: Michael Donahue)

What’s going on at Belle Meade Social?

A lot. The restaurant at 518 Perkins Extended has a new chef and a new direction, says owner Paul Stephens.

Belle Meade Social, named after the nearby residential neighborhood where Stephens grew up, opened in May 2023. It had formerly housed two restaurants, Jim’s Place and Strano by Chef Josh.

Jake Behnke joined as executive chef last January 1st. “He came in and didn’t make a bunch of noise at first,” Stephens says. “He just wanted to get to know everybody and wanted to know the space.”

But Behnke’s first menu was “a huge success,” he adds. “Since then, the items coming out of the kitchen have been extremely consistent and extremely good.”

“He basically focuses more on trying to get local food,” adds general manager Chad Weatherly. “Getting locally sourced items.”

“We’ve got a lot more sources for our food products and, I would say, our ingredients, actually,” Stephens says. “We make everything in-house. We prep all day long. And the sourcing of the food was something he was very big on.”

Wild mushroom risotto with scallops; grilled pan-seared fresh salmon (Photos: Chad Weatherly)

Behnke also made sure “his hands were on every plate before it came out,” Weatherly says. And Behnke doesn’t hesitate to try to improve on a dish to make it better, like his wild mushroom risotto with scallops. “That’s one of our favorites now. One of our top sellers.”

When they first opened Belle Meade Social, the vibe was casual, Stephens says. “I opened to compete with Houston’s.”

Weatherly, who previously worked at Colonial Country Club, the Flight restaurant group, Coastal Fish Company, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Fayetteville, Arkansas, joined Belle Meade Social in August 2023. “I walked in and I didn’t feel like we had a true identity of who we were and where we’re going,” he says. “I just didn’t feel like we knew where we were.”

They were making “a wider variety of food” than they needed to, he says. He thought they could narrow the menu down to more items people wanted. They ended up “shrinking it down and doing a more intimate menu.”

Weatherly wanted to cater to everybody with food that “looked good, tasted good” and had a “reasonable price point.”

He and Stephens “picked the brains” of customers and staff to see what items they wanted to see on the menu. Prime rib and crab cakes, both of which they now offer, were two suggestions. 

One customer “wants a good shrimp cocktail with the huge shrimp,” Weatherly says. “Jake is working with him on it.”

Behnke is “getting his feedback and rolling with it.”

And, Weatherly says, “Guest interaction is our biggest driver in making sure of the direction we go on food and features.”

Originally, they were looking for a kitchen manager, not an executive chef, when they found Behnke. “He was like, ‘Let me cook for you,’” Stephens says. “Kind of Gordon Ramsay style, he went back there and made a five-course meal that knocked our socks off.”

While preparing the meal, Behnke called his dad and asked him to bring him a blow torch so he could make crème brûlées.

“I said, ‘Don’t let him leave the building without giving him the job as chef,’” Stephens says.

“We basically all turned to each other and said, ‘We didn’t find a kitchen manager, but we found an executive chef,’” Weatherly adds.

A lot of the previous menu had to do with the kitchen equipment they already had, says Stephens, noting that it was “what was here in the kitchen that we could salvage and make work.”

They closed the restaurant for a week last July. “We did a deep clean and reconfigured the kitchen. And now it’s run more efficiently.”

Behnke told them what new kitchen equipment he wanted. “We had two large flattops. He wanted to get rid of that and bring in a chargrill. He sourced it and brought it in himself.”

They also added a vacuum sealer to preserve spices sous vide, new mixers, and a new meat grinder “to make our own burger meat and to help with breaking things down for the Philly cheesesteak and French dip.”

“We knew his background and ability to butcher meat,” Stephens says. “We’ve taken that to the next level.”

As for the new bartenders they’ve brought in, Weatherly says, “They’re smiling. And they’re nice to people. And they can make a good cocktail.”

The restaurant now offers more bar finger food, including “fried honey whipped feta balls.” Behnke “made them originally for the Greek salad and people kept wanting extras,” Weatherly says.

Belle Meade Social offers a “social hour” from 4 to 6 p.m. every day except Monday when the restaurant is closed.

They’re talking about opening for lunch during the week instead of just Sundays. “Now that Houston’s isn’t there to fill that void,” Stephens says.

And people can now order lunch and dinner items online at bellemeadesocial.com.

They also do a lot of catering as well as hosting private parties and events at the restaurant, Stephens says. And they’re “trying to get involved with the local community” by hosting fundraisers such as the one they did for STREETS Ministries.

Live music might be featured one night a week, Stephens says. “I thought about putting a piano where the high-tops originally were before we opened.”

He adds, “We’re working on something with our patio next year.”

The restaurant is still casual as well as elegant. “The bar side is the casual and the garden dining room is the more intimate side,” Weatherly says.

Belle Meade Social is still a neighborhood bar, but not just for the immediate neighborhood, Stephens says. “A lot of our regulars live close by, but we have some regulars that come in from Lakeland.” 

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Hungry Memphis

Cameo Owners Opening New Spots in Former Knifebird and The Public Bistro Spaces

Mary Oglesby and Paul Gilliam (Credit: Paul Gilliam)

Paul Gilliam and Mary Oglesby, owners of Cameo and Mary’s Bar of Tropical Escapism, are the new owners of the spaces formerly occupied by Knifebird Wine Bar and The Public Bistro.

“We did not buy their businesses,” Gilliam says. “We are opening new businesses in their spaces.”

Where Knifebird was located at 2155 Central Avenue will now be home to an establishment to be called “No Comment.” — with a period.

Why that name? “We thought it was fun. Kind of sassy. We like fun stuff,” Gilliam says. “Knifebird was a wine bar. And we are going to keep that space a wine bar.”

“The changes will mostly be vibe based and cosmetic,” Oglesby says. 

“Fawn” will be the name of the restaurant in the space formerly occupied by The Public Bistro at 937 Cooper Street. Gilliam says they just liked the name.  “It sounded warm and cozy.”

“We thought it would fit the vibe of what we’re doing,” Oglesby adds. “We’re very vibe oriented.”

Fawn will be the pair’s first restaurant. “Mary and I are both bartenders, so the places we have opened in the past  have been very bar-driven businesses,” Gilliam says. “And this will be a very chef-driven business.”Asked when they will open, Gilliam says, “I would say first half of  2025.”

Oglesby says, “We are aiming for the first half of 2025, but all of that is alway up to licensing and all of that. So, a lot of that is out of our control. So, we just wait on when we’re told by the state that we can open.”

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

FOOD NEWS BITES: Jimmy Gentry’s Corn Mash Praised by New York Times

Jimmy Gentry's Corn Mash (Photo: Jay Adkins)

This was some happy news in my inbox today:

“Memphis Chef Jimmy Gentry’s Corn Mash Makes New York Times List Today.”

It was named one of 26 Best Dishes Across the United States by The New York Times.

It makes me very, very happy, actually, because this is my all-time favorite dish at Gentry’s The Lobbyist restaurant at 272 South Main in The Chisca on Main.

It’s so good. The ultimate comfort food. Just reading this email at 9:44 a.m. makes me want a big helping of this super delicious dish right now.

The menu describes the dish, which is listed as “Corn Mash/Roasted Squash/Bacon Jus,” as “a bowl of decadently stone-ground grits topped with roasted squash with a bacon jus, drizzled with burnt-in oil, and topped with pepitas.”

The is what Brett Anderson of the Times wrote about it: “Jimmy Gentry built his reputation in Memphis for cooking Southern food that pushes vegetables in the center of the plate. This helps explain why there are twice as many vegetable dishes as there are protein dishes on the menu at the Lobbyist, the intelligent, accessible modern Southern restaurant he opened last year. It’s hard to say which is the star of this signature dish: the coarse Delta Grind Grits, made from Tennessee corn and enriched with mascarpone, or the roasted seasonal squash mounted on top of them.”

So, I called Gentry, who I’ve known for years, to tell me about the dish.

Jimmy Gentry (Photo: Jay Adkins)

“Everybody wants to know where it came from,” Gentry tells me. “The way it goes, my daughter growing up always loved my shrimp and grits. Right?”

But he transformed the dish when he was restaurant instructor at the old L’École Culinaire. “Everybody was doing shrimp and grits. It became the staple of the world.”

Gentry didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing, so he began making flat iron steak with the same grits and andouille sauce. His daughter loved it. “She would request it every year for her birthday. When we got ready to open P.O. [Press Public House & Provisions in Collierville, Tennessee], she looked at me and goes, ‘You have to put that flat iron thing on there.’”

Gentry told her he wasn’t putting that on the menu. “You know when you make something over and over again you get burned out on it?”

And he didn’t think it was “a showcase item.” It was good, but it wasn’t amazing, he says.

So, Gentry got fancier.

“I love the old French way of making sauces in pans,” he says. “We start off with squash, our house-made bacon. You deglaze with chicken stock, add shaved garlic, fresh thyme, and, after it reduces, we mound it with butter.”

He also uses “turkey neck and chicken feet to make it more gelatinous.”

“Place the roasted squash in the grits [mash]. Then spoon the sauce on top. Garnish with burnt onion oil and roasted pepitas.”

Gentry added his Corn Mash when he opened The Lobbyist, which will celebrate its second anniversary in January.

And I don’t need to worry about Corn Mash not being on the menu next time I visit Gentry’s restaurant. “I haven’t been able to take that thing off since we had P.O.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Keeping It Under $10

Jeffrey Dunham and wife Tracey (Photo: courtesy Jeffrey Dunham)

Jeffrey Dunham did a lot of construction when he was chef/owner of The Grove Grill. But he was using ingredients you could eat. Like meat and fish.

Now, he’s constructing things with ingredients you wouldn’t eat. Like wood and paint.

For the past six months, Dunham, who closed The Grove Grill in 2020, has been working on woodworking, plumbing, and painting jobs with his buddy Ben Homolka of Quality Painting. He’s also been looking for places to eat lunch under $10. 

“Most of his business is out in the Cordova-Bartlett area,” Dunham says. “So, every day it’s lunchtime and he likes to sit down and eat, so we just started going out to eat.”

It wasn’t anything planned days in advance. “It was just, ‘Okay. Let’s go get lunch.’ And you take a break and get in the car. ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know. Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know. Where do you want to go?’”

Dunham says, “Being an interested observer in the restaurant business and industry, I started evaluating these places. With inflation and all the cost pressures that restaurants have, it’s tough to keep your prices down. As a customer, it’s quite a lot to go out and eat a $20 lunch every day.”

Dunham began looking for lunches under $10. And he found them. “I don’t know if I consider it a challenge. It’s not necessarily a budgetary motivation, but it’s fun to find places like that. Especially independents.”

He was happily surprised to find a great deal at TJ Mulligan’s. “You get two fried pork chops, a couple of sides, and a couple of rolls. And it’s a well-prepared, quality product.”

Dunham said, “Wow. Look at this. I can’t believe this is such a reasonable price.”

The pork chops were a half to three-quarters of an inch thick. They were seasoned with flour and maybe a little cornstarch because “there was some crispness to it.”

Dunham changes up his sides, which include a spinach casserole. “Their rolls are very good, as well. But, yeah, it’s just a well-done meat-and-three kind of meal.”

Dunham discovered another lunch under $10 at My Favorite Place. “It’s a Hispanic restaurant,” says Dunham, who’s known the owner Dennis Zamora for a long time.”

Dunham ordered one chile relleno for $9.99. “I love my grandma’s. She used to make them for me.”

The ones at My Favorite Place also are great, Dunham says. “They are roasted poblano chilis stuffed with cheese and typically pan-fried in an egg white batter.”

It has a “rich chili tomato sauce” on top, he says.

Dunham also likes the chili seasoning on top of the chips. “Then just a simple fresh picante salsa, which is, again, great.

“Everything I had over there is always on point,” he adds.

Waldo’s Chicken & Beer is another lunch favorite. “You can get three chicken tenders for $9.99.”

The tenders come with fresh hand-cut fries and a drink. “They have several cases of potatoes in the dining room.”

And, he says, “Their fried chicken is solid.”

Dunham was pleasantly surprised when he discovered Abbay’s. He thought it was a chain until he learned it was locally owned. “They’ve been going at it for a long time.”

“You can have chicken-fried steak and a side for under 10 bucks,” he says. “Apparently, a lot of folks in the area come and get their sides for the holidays.”

Dunham can see where Abbay’s could have been designed as a chain restaurant. “It’s set up like that. You order and it’s ready in five minutes. Again, good side, good center of the plate, and great rolls. It’s a classic meat-and-three. Bookend meat-and-threes here with Abbay’s and TJ Mulligan’s.”

In addition to local eating spots, Dunham says they’ve tried “some chain places that are solid for $10.”

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of them. “You can get three tacos that are enormous for $10. I generally eat just two of them and maybe have another one in the afternoon.”

Serving lunch under $10 isn’t difficult, Dunham says. “Lunches are not all that expensive. But it costs more money to do some things. They are trying to achieve a price point and selling that price point. At every one of the restaurants you go into, you can always get something more expensive: ‘Let me have the hamburger and onion rings.’ All of a sudden you spend $15. The ultimate objective is revenue. And sustainable revenue.”

Asked why he closed The Grove Grill, which he opened in 1997, Dunham says, “It shut down for Covid and we just never reopened.”

Dunham was one of the owners of Magnolia & May with his son Chip and daughter-in-law Amanda until Chip bought him out. Jeffrey also did a lot of the physical work on the restaurant before it opened, including knocking out a wall and putting in a bar. He and Chip built all the tables and chairs.

Construction isn’t something new to Jeffrey. “When I was a kid, I worked for a contractor. But that was a long time ago.”

He also worked on his grandfather’s ranch. “Whatever we needed to do.”

The only similarity between construction work and cooking is maybe the “prep work.” Like sanding the walls before painting, which is akin to cleaning a case of Brussels sprouts before cooking them.

Jeffrey still cooks elaborate meals from time to time. He and his wife Tracey recently drove to Jasper, Alabama, where he prepared a “Chamber of Commerce sit-down dinner for 30” for a good friend. “Tracey and I joked about how it wouldn’t be the Christmas season if we didn’t have at least one 40 top.”

By the way, customers could eat for under $10 at one point at The Grove Grill. “When we first opened, our hamburger was $9.13 But, as a rule, most of our stuff was over 10 bucks.” 

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cuisine in the Raw

(Photo: Michael Donahue)

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.”