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.”
Jimmy Gentry with bartenders Mitchell Marable and Austin Weisendorm (Photo: Michael Donahue
The spacious patio on the south side of The Lobbyist restaurant was where the Donahues used to swim back in the 1960s. My parents were members of The Variety Club, which was housed at the old Chisca Hotel, where the restaurant is now located. Members could use the hotel pool.
The Lobbyist’s chef/owner Jimmy Gentry has now added an impressive-looking outdoor bar to that beautiful patio at The Chisca on Main. “It can seat eight at the bar, but it’s capable of handling that whole patio area,” Gentry says.
As for patio seating, he says, “Depending on configuration I can put almost 70 people out there.”
The Lobbyist patio (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Gentry says he built it so servers wouldn’t be “running cocktails from the main bar to the patio. You can have a bar outside and not worry about how long it takes or anything like that.”
The bar is slated to officially open probably in about two weeks, he says. “It has been open, but we haven’t necessarily officially opened the patio this season.”
Gentry showed me the bar when I ate at The Lobbyist last week. Red fish with greens, couscous, and pot liquor was my dinner choice. It was so delicious. I wish I had another one right now. And I can’t get enough of the yams Gentry serves.
Red fish at The Lobbyist (Credit: Michael Donahue)
But after eating at the restaurant many times, I never knew why the restaurant was called “The Lobbyist.” I thought it had something to do with politics. But, Gentry says, “That whole space used to lead into what was the lobby.”
So, he did what he did with his former restaurant P. O. Press in Collierville. “I tried to tie the restaurant into the space like I did the P.O., which originally was the post office in Collierville and then turned into the newspaper, P. O. Press. Paying homage to the space itself.”
Hence, The Lobbyist. “Instead of calling it ‘The Lobby,’” he says, adding, “‘The Lobbyist’ makes you think twice about it.”
But Gentry says he still gets people coming in the restaurant thinking it’s the “lobby of the hotel.”
The Lobbyist is at 272 South Main, Suite 101, in The Chisca on Main
Damion Lumsden wants people to have “an authentic Jamaican experience.”
Without leaving Memphis.
Lumsden, 37, wants people to say, “I’ve never been to Jamaica, but I’ve had this experience in Memphis.”
The experience is JamRack Restaurant and Bar, Lumsden’s Caribbean restaurant at 150 North Avalon Street. The restaurant is in the heart of Midtown in the group of businesses near Home Depot at Poplar Avenue and Avalon. He features “the raw authentic Jamaican experience,” including food, and on the weekends, reggae music.
On my first trip to JamRack, I tried Lumsden’s tantalizing MaMa’s Stew Chicken (also known as Brown Stewed Chicken) encircled with my side order of fried plantains (I ordered mine ripe, not green). I can’t wait to go back for more of this sweet-and-savory dish.
I also ordered the tasty jerk chicken, which is the Jamaican version of barbecue. Lumsden tells me he plans to offer jerk pork at a future date.
Lumsden’s story is fascinating.
“I’m from Portland, Jamaica,” he says. “I’m a country boy. My dad is Wayne Lumsden, a survivor of 9/11.”
His dad was an accountant in the World Trade Center in New York. “He had just turned the corner, about to enter the building, when the first explosion happened. He said he just ran as fast as he could trying to dodge the debris that was falling at the time.
“Me and my little sister wouldn’t have made it to America if he hadn’t survived.”
His dad’s business relocated its employees. He got a job as an accountant at Flextronics in Memphis.
Damion, who was 18 when he moved to Memphis with his sister Khadine, didn’t like the city at first. He spoke English, but when he tried to play basketball with the neighbor kids, he says, “They couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand them because they were speaking so fast. They were using this Memphis slang, so I wasn’t familiar with it.”
He got a job at Jabil Circuit Inc., where he “climbed the ranks” to assistant manager.
Creating Jamaican food experiences for others began when Damion helped his dad do a birthday party at their home. “We cooked and invited a bunch of people from work.”
Guests tried jerk chicken and curry goat for the first time. “They went crazy.”
People asked how they could get more of that food. “We would cook and sell food at the house. He used to deliver almost 30 to 50 plates to Jabil every week.”
One of the dishes was MaMa’s Brown Stewed Chicken. “It has a very savory and flavorful sauce. The chicken is pan-seared first, and then we add that sauce. It does have a sweet base to it. And it goes really well with rice. It’s usually a leg and a thigh cut up.”
Damion and his dad continued to throw parties at their home, where they featured Jamaican food. “We would set up a grill outside, and my dad would be on the grill.”
The parties eventually evolved into his dad’s restaurant, the old Evelyn & Olive at 630 Madison Avenue. “He didn’t open it. He bought the business in 2018.”
His dad changed up the menu “but he kept a good amount of what they already had.”
Evelyn & Olive’s cuisine was “more like Jamaican and Southern cuisine” as opposed to the raw Jamaican cuisine.
When the restaurant’s lease ran out, his dad bought the Evelyn & Olive food truck he still operates. “I got a building that same year, which is the one I’m in now, and I started to build that out.”
Damion, who held his grand opening last August, named his restaurant “JamRack” as opposed to “Jamrock,” the Jamaican spelling of the word. “I just wanted it to be unique.”
And in Jamaica they don’t pronounce it “jam-ROCK”; they say “jam-RACK.” he says.
“Jamrock” is “another way of saying ‘Jamaica’ back home.”
It was popularized in the Damian Marley song, “Welcome to Jamrock”— “Which is ‘Welcome to Jamaica.’”
Damion didn’t want a “clichéd look” of a Caribbean restaurant with the traditional Jamaican colors of red, gold, and green. Entering JamRack, which seats about 64, customers see a colorful mural depicting Jamaican “heroes” — “impactful people from our time and before our time.”
They include singer-songwriter Bob Marley, Nanny of the Maroons, Michael Manley, and Marcus Garvey.
“The look inside is very generic but has the island feel to it. The bar is made from zinc, which is what many roofs and fences are made of in Jamaica,” Damion says.
The food is made from a fusion of recipes from both his dad and his mom Lorna Brown, who still lives in Jamaica. “More raw Jamaican authentic cuisine.”
It’s all fully cooked. What makes it “raw” is the imported seasonings they use. One of these is “season to the bone,” a seasoning that is “made of a combination of a few different spices combined together to create a unique flavor.”
Damion uses the seasoning in his two most popular items, the brown stew and his red snapper.
He’s already coming up with ideas for new dishes. “One thing we’re going to do in the near future is introduce a Jamaican-style mac-and-cheese. Without going into too much detail, think of a rich, flavorful mac-and-cheese.”
The dish will have a “crispy edge on it.” And, he adds, the different spices of the Caribbean will create “different notes and flavors.”
They have a full bar, but their signature cocktails are rum based — that’s their specialty. Their favorite rum is Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum.
JamRack also features “traditional sodas from Jamaica. The most popular is Ting. It’s like a grapefruit soda. Our version of a lemonade.”
Currently, JamRack is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday. “We almost see a new face every day,” Damion says. “A lot of people are coming in saying, ‘Hey. I heard your food was good, so I’m going to try it.’”
General manager Dorothy Vazzano and manager Trent Wicker (Photos: Michael Donahue)
The Half Shell’s second location at 9091 Poplar Avenue, Suite 101, is slated to open at the end of March.
And, yes, they’ll still sell oysters on the half shell just as they do at their location at 688 South Mendenhall Road.
And, yes, the toucan mascot is back — in many forms, including statues and paintings.
And, yes, the second location still feels like the Half Shell, which people have known and loved for a half century or so.
But customers are in for some surprises.
“I think it’s comfort chic, with a little play in the seafood scene,” says John May, COO of Forest Hill Partners, the umbrella group that includes Forest Hill Grill and both locations of the Half Shell. Gene and Rhonda Barzizza are the majority stakeholders in the partnership. “It looks nice. But it’s not too uppity, per se. It’s nice enough where you still feel comfortable. We just wanted to up our game a little bit as far as a local food dive.”
Forest Hill Partners already owns the nearby Forest Hill Grill, so, when former owner Danny Sumrall decided to sell the Half Shell, they decided to buy it, May says. “We were always interested in Half Shell because we love the seafood concept. We don’t think Memphis has enough seafood readily available.”
May was general manager for Flying Fish at one time. “I have a little history on that end. When Danny reached out to us — he was getting ready to retire — we wanted to pick up his legacy and run with it. We knew it had a great brand, had a great following.”
But, May adds, “As much as we love the legacy of Danny Sumrall, we want to pave our own legacy.”
Part of the new legacy was brightening up both places, beginning with the Poplar location. The Half Shell on Mendenhall has “the dark and local dive hole” look, May says. “But I think it’s time to turn the page and put our little touch on it, making both restaurants feel the same way, which includes the look and the menu.”
The second location “is not so dark and gloomy. I think that’s a little bit of what older restaurants used to look like in the early ’90s. We just updated.”
The color scheme is now neutral colors of brown and tan. Light fixtures, which resemble jelly fish, hang from the ceiling. Lots of paintings and artwork, including a tall wood carving of a mermaid, are featured.
Along with toucan images, the new Half Shell also has netting on the walls, including in the bathrooms, as well as gecko figurine lamps and a ceiling light fixture shaped like a whale.
“It’s almost the size of the Mendenhall location, but it’s more open. It’s about 3,600 square feet. Instead of all the little nooks and crannies that Mendenhall has, this is just a square block.”
They converted the area, which formerly housed Mike Miller’s golf simulators when he owned the Let It Fly sports bar, into a private dining hall that can seat 55 people.
As for food, the Poplar location will still offer the popular Monte Cristo sandwich, but only on the brunch menu, May says. They won’t sell the popular steak sandwich, but it will be available on Mendenhall’s menu.
And never fear: The lobster bruschetta remains on the menu.
The new slant? “Taking a lot of the old recipes — what people are familiar with as far as the flavor of the Half Shell — and putting our little twist on it. Putting our touch on it. Having the old and new combined. The recipes are the same.”
The menu at Mendenhall is six pages. “All we’re doing is compressing it. We’re able to offer the majority of the same menu items.”
Both locations will eventually feature the same items, May says.
Sumrall recalls how he got involved in the Half Shell.
The restaurant used to be on the corner of Poplar Avenue and Mendenhall, where Belmont Grill is now located, then moved to its current South Mendenhall Road location in 1983, Sumrall says.
The late founder of Huey’s, Thomas Boggs, was the instigator. “He said, ‘We need to buy a restaurant,’” Sumrall says. “And then he calls and says, ‘How about the Half Shell?’ I said, ‘I’ve never been there in my life.’ I said, ‘Let me go check it out and I’ll let you know.’”
By then, the restaurant had already moved to South Mendenhall Road.
Sumrall had been in the restaurant business for some time. He opened the old Captain Bilbo’s, which overlooked the Mississippi River and is now fondly remembered for having hosted shows by such luminaries as jazz guitarist Garry Goin and singer Wendy Moten, back in the 1980s.
Sumrall and his wife went to eat at the Half Shell. “We ordered some dinner. And I noticed the server just dropped off the food and ran away. And when I tasted the food I knew why.’”
The food wasn’t very good. Sumrall thought, “Well this is an easy fix. I can fix the food.”
They brought in chef Darrell Smith to rework the menu. Smith, who “improved the quality,” worked at the Half Shell until he retired about five or six years ago.
Around 2003, Sumrall opened the second location of the Half Shell at 7825 Winchester Road. That location is now closed. “It was declining in sales,” May says. “The lease was up for renewal and we didn’t want to re-sign.”
Sumrall finally decided to retire. He thought, “It’s time for me to put it down and take a break.”
He enjoyed his years at the Half Shell. “I got to know all the customers and their kids and their families,” Sumrall says. “We had families that started coming here when they were dating or before they were married.
“They had kids. Now these kids have graduated from college.”
But there is one thing Sumrall experienced that won’t change at all at either location of the Half Shell. “We really cared about the guests. Wanting them to have a good experience. And it was about the quality. I wanted the food to be really good.”
A new collaboration between Cxffeeblack and Castle Retail Group will expand the Black-owned coffee brand’s reach, but the deal goes beyond the shelf, principals said.
Cxffeeblack’s products will now be found in Cash Saver stores, High Point Grocery, and South Point Grocery. The deal will also make Cxffeeblack the wholesale coffee provider for the in-house coffee shop at Castle Retail Group’s upcoming location, South Point Grocery at Silo Square in Southaven.
“This isn’t just about coffee on a shelf,” said Bartholomew Jones, founder of Cxffeeblack. “This is about partnership. About seeing each other. About making sure our kids and grandkids don’t have to fight the same battles we did. And most importantly, it’s about Memphis. Because Memphis is not just a place where things happen — it’s a place where the future is being built.”
The partnership “ensures that Memphis-grown Black coffee culture continues to expand,” the companies said in a statement.
“This is the kind of partnership that can change a city,” said Rick James, owner of Castle Retail Group. “Too often, we let barriers divide us — race, neighborhood, history — but at the root, our stories are more connected than we think. We’re all tied to the land, to labor, and to the pursuit of dignity. That’s what this is about.”
Except for a few years when I was little, I’ve never met a banana pudding I didn’t like.
Growing up, I went from liking bananas to hating them. I couldn’t stand the taste or the texture. But tastes change. As time went on, I still preferred the custard to the bananas in the pudding, but I gradually became more accepting of the other half of the dessert’s name.
Over the years, I’ve taken banana pudding for granted. But now I want to know more about it. And I knew if anybody could tell me about banana pudding and its place in Southern cooking, it would be the James Beard Award-winning author and chef Martha Foose, whose cookbooks include Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. Plus, she lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Foose told me that Gulfport, Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast is a “super major” banana port. “If it’s got ‘Chiquita’ on it, it’s coming up from the coast,” she says.
As for the origin of banana pudding, Foose says, “Once bananas got their stronghold, and polite society figured out ways to put them in their mouth without it looking like a banana, that’s kind of how banana pudding started gaining popularity.”
She believes banana pudding originally was a “back of the vanilla wafers box” recipe. But banana pudding recipes changed over time. Like when the “fluffy dairy topping” products like Cool Whip and Dream Whip were introduced. This enabled dairy toppings to stay whipped instead of dissolving in desserts like banana pudding.
“Banana pudding is one of those things that keep evolving. There’s a big whipped cream vs. meringue school. I’m a total meringue school. I like meringue. You’ve already got extra egg whites from putting the yolks in the custard if you’re making it homemade.”
Plus, she adds, “I don’t like dairy on top of dairy. The custard is dairy enough.”
Then there’s the “controversy” over vanilla wafers in banana puddings. “There are two schools of thought on the whole Nilla Wafer vs. vanilla wafer.”
Nilla Wafers are the Nabisco brand. The “common man’s” wafers are Jack’s Vanilla Wafers and the cheap generic food service type of vanilla wafers, she says. The food service varieties were the ones used in banana puddings in elementary school cafeterias. They’re “a little more yellow and squishy, where Nilla Wafers have got a little more snap to them.”
There are other options than just using vanilla wafers in banana puddings, Foose says. “If you want to go completely crazy at Thanksgiving, use ginger snaps.”
She adds, “Now the big in-vogue thing is for you to use those little Pepperidge Farm Chessmen.”
These domino-shaped short bread cookies, which are imprinted with chess figures, can be arranged on top of a banana pudding “like a little chessboard.”
Another controversy is the “sweetened condensed milk school of thought” as in “It needs to be in banana pudding,” Foose says. “I think, ‘No.’ Banana pudding should be like it is.”
Foose also isn’t a fan of big pans of banana pudding. She likes the individual serving dishes. Otherwise people are going to pick out the cookies or pick out the bananas. Then you just “end up with a swamp.”
As for the bananas themselves, Foose says the Cavendish banana is the most popular commercial variety. “It’s the quality that makes it shipped the most,” she says. “It’s one that can be shipped green. And its skin is sturdy enough. All those things.”
But Cavendish bananas might not be so prevalent in banana pudding as in the past. “They’re having problems with blight,” says Foose. “They’re trying to find a replacement mass market banana. They’re trying different varieties.”
If you want to whip up your own banana pudding, Foose includes a banana pudding recipe in her Screen Doors and Sweet Tea cookbook.
As for me, I’ve personally never made a banana pudding. I rely on restaurants to do that.
Also, banana puddings, to me, are like barbecue. They all have their nuances that make them different.
Here are my impressions of just a few (there are plenty more) made-from-scratch banana puddings in and around Memphis.
Cole Hix at One & Only BBQ (Photos: Michael Donahue)
One & Only BBQ: I think Millie’s Banana Pudding is“magnificent.” It’s an over-the-top banana pudding, which is almost like a pie. Everything, from the bananas to the vanilla wafers, tastes fresh. According to the menu, it’s “house-made daily with fresh meringue.”
The menu also states that “last year alone, our guests devoured over 8,000 half-pans of Millie’s Banana Pudding.”
Ashley Anderson at Mortimer’s
The banana pudding at Mortimer’s reminds me of eggnog at the holidays. There’s no bourbon in it, but I conjure up a taste of that brown water when I eat this delightfully delicious banana pudding. It makes me wonder what banana liqueur would taste like in a banana pudding. I’m sure that’s been done a billion times. The closest I’ve come to that is probably in bananas Foster.
Tyler Clancy, owner of Clancy’s Cafe in Red Banks, Mississippi, says his “secret ingredient” in his banana pudding is sour cream. “We put sour cream in it to kind of give it that cheesecake richness,” Clancy says. And it’s so delicious. Perfection. This is where I began topping his banana pudding with vanilla ice cream. Believe me, it doesn’t need it. It’s great as it is.
Central BBQ: I love the crushed vanilla wafers on top of this delicious, creamy banana pudding. Something about it made me recall the taste of the old banana-flavored popsicles I used to love back in the 1950s.
Raven Winton at Makeda’s Homemade Cookies Downtown
Makeda’s Homemade Cookies: Of course, this cookie palace isn’t going to use vanilla wafers in its banana pudding. This super creamy pudding is topped with yummy butter cookies. On the bottom is a “crust” made of crushed butter cookies.
The Cupboard Restaurant: This is the banana-iest pudding I’ve run across. It’s loaded with bananas. I think there are more bananas than vanilla wafers in this banana pudding, which is only available on Fridays and Sundays.
I remarked to my server Leodis Williams about the amount of bananas in The Cupboard’s pudding. He replied, “You’ve got to have a lot of bananas, or it wouldn’t be banana pudding.”
Nate Renner delivered the final word — for now — on banana pudding. He told me about the banana pudding at a Tennessee potluck he recently attended. He asked me with more than a trace of disgust in his voice, “Would you believe people would serve you warm banana pudding?”
Banana pudding should be cold, he said. “It should never be warm. Ever.”
Growing up, Alannah Williams watched her younger brother Joshua struggle with many food allergies that prevented him from eating certain foods her family and friends enjoyed. This devastated her — having to constantly watch her brother being left out.
Now, Alannah has her very own business, Dance Like a Cupcake, which provides her customers with sweet treats, including her popular gourmet cookies, that don’t contain eggs, dairy, sesame oil, or nuts for those with food sensitivities — or those who are living a healthier lifestyle.
And she’s doing it all at the age of 18.
Alannah comes from a military family, and for a while they lived in Seoul, South Korea. In Korea, they make most of their food with sesame and peanut oil, two of her brother’s allergens. So, at 10, she was determined to bake something allergen-free, and that is how Dance Like a Cupcake originated overseas. Once her family moved back to the States, specifically to Memphis, she revived her business.
Though Joshua is the biggest motivation behind Alannah’s business, its quirky and catchy name was inspired by her childhood friend. “I started when I was 10 and one of my friends came to an event that I was selling at. She had food allergies, too. She asked for a cupcake, and I gave her one. She was so happy because it didn’t have any allergens that she started dancing,” Alannah says. “So, anytime anyone eats my dessert, I tell them to dance like a cupcake because of how good it tastes.”
Alannah’s bakery has been in business since 2016, but she faced a few hardships in the beginning. “I think the biggest [challenge] would be my age because people don’t take me seriously, or they didn’t take me seriously when I started,” says Alannah. “And the second [challenge] would be the stigma around vegan desserts. They think it doesn’t taste as good or it’s too healthy.”
She did not let the criticism stop her because Dance Like a Cupcake has made a huge impact in her customers’ lives — especially those who have food allergies. “Just listening to her story about her little brother, I think that there’s definitely a population of individuals who would like to enjoy those type of sweets, but not have to worry about this type of ingredient that [they] can’t eat,” says Brian Ford, a loyal Dance Like a Cupcake customer who lives in Colorado. “My wife and daughter have food allergies, so that’s another thing that kind of drew me to her because they can’t eat certain things with different ingredients in them.”
Most of Alannah’s customers see her business as not only providing people with healthier treats, but also educating and making more individuals aware of people who have food sensitivities. “When businesses like this come and bring things to the table that we aren’t used to, we should embrace that. We should embrace the information, the knowledge that businesses like Alannah’s have because they are willing to share,” says Jasmen Richmond, a Dance Like a Cupcake customer and nutrition educator. “Not only is she selling a product, but she’s also giving back and supporting the growth of our community.”
For young bakers, ages 8 to 22, wanting to learn how to master vegan desserts, Alannah even offers an internship program. “It’s really [about] being creative, helping out Dance Like a Cupcake, and getting to know other people in the community,” says Alannah.
Right now, Alannah does not have a physical location, so she sells her desserts at events and several restaurants around Memphis, like City Silo and Cxffeeblack. And she ships her gourmet cookies nationwide through her website (dancelikeacupcake.org). She plans to branch out soon.
Alannah’s most supportive customer is, of course, her brother Joshua, the one who inspired it all. “I really like the fact that my older sister created a business in my image, thinking about me and my allergies. And about all the other kids around the world who can’t really eat desserts like me,” says Joshua.
His favorite cookie, he says, “has to be oatmeal raisin. I love the oatmeal raisin cookie, especially with the glaze on it.”
