Jerry's Sno Cones owner David Acklin in a 2021 photo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Owner David Acklin says Jerry’s Sno Cones is not coming back to its 1657 Wells Station location.
“I’m not going to re-open Jerry’s there,” Acklin says. “We’re going to move forward.”
Acklin, who still owns the Jerry’s Sno Cones at 1601 Bonnie Lane in Cordova, won’t say why he closed the old location. “I really can’t say anything about anything. I’m just taking the high road. We needed a change and we’re moving forward with Cordova.”
Asked if it was a safety issue, Acklin says, “I never had any problems. But I may be a different kind of guy. I’ve been in Memphis for 54 years and I love Memphis.”
Acklin believes the store opened in 1967. In a 2021 interview in the Memphis Flyer, Acklin says, “I used to go there when I was a teenager.”
He got to know the owners L. B. and Cordia Clifton, whose son Jerry was the namesake of the business. Acklin, who was working at a printing company at the time, worked for the Cliftons for free after he got off his other job.
Acklin eventually bought Jerry’s Sno Cones, but he continued to work at the printing company. As he says in the interview, “I used to change clothes at red lights. Take off my tie and put on my shorts … I used to wear penny loafers. I’d pull my socks off and slide into my flip-flops.”
There would already be a line when he got there at 3:30 p.m., he told the Flyer.
And in the interview Acklin recalls going outside one July. “The line went straight out around the sign and two houses down.”
He asked a youngster in line to count the people: there were 220 lined up.
Acklin is going to ask customers in the next couple of weeks to begin voting on another location for Jerry’s Sno Cones. “We’ll pick it out by people coming to Jerry’s and voting.
“We’ll have a list. Like Arlington, East Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett — whatever areas we feel like a lot of our customers come from. Maybe let them nominate an area.”
So, will the old Jerry’s Sno Cone location become something else? Maybe a cafe? “Man, I guess anything is possible.”
Pollard’s Bar-B-Que owner Tarrance Pollard first started his own restaurant in 1996. (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Tony Pollard preferred throwing the pigskin to selling the pig skin.
Pollard, a running back with the Tennessee Titans, is the son of Tarrance Pollard, owner of Pollard’s Bar-B-Que at 4560 Elvis Presley Boulevard. He worked at Pollard’s one summer, but he preferred playing football to working in a restaurant, says his aunt, Denise Plunkett, who was working behind the counter the afternoon I visited. It was my first visit to Pollard’s, although I’ve driven by it many times.
Tony was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2019 National Football League draft. Recalling a statement he made when he was in the third grade, Plunkett says, “He told his mom he was going to be in the NFL one day.”
A poster featuring a picture of Tony clutching a football and the words “Home of Tony Pollard” hangs on the wall near another poster that reads, “Featured on Food Network.” The restaurant was featured on Restaurant: Impossible, Plunkett says.
Tarrance tells me he worked at other barbecue restaurants, including Gridley’s Bar-B-Q and A&R Bar-B-Que, before opening his own place in 1996.
When I ask Plunkett what sets their barbecue apart from other places, she says, “It’s absolutely amazing. It’s tasty. It’s tender. You have to be careful not to bite your finger off.”
She’s noticed children who usually don’t like barbecue “really eat this.”
They give her “two thumbs-up.”
I sit at the counter, which has a countertop covered with sheet music that has been enclosed. Songs include “Walking in Memphis” and “Love Me Tender.” The latter could apply to my jumbo Pollard’s barbecue sandwich.
Like the kids, I’ll also give the two-thumbs-up recommendation for this delicious sandwich. I could have bitten off my finger or one of my thumbs.
I also ask Terrance what sets his barbecue apart. “Love and time,” he says.
Next, I travel to a barbecue restaurant I’ve also passed many times, but never stopped to go inside.
Jimbo’s Brickhouse BBQ in Byhalia, Mississippi, features pitmasters Brandy McNeese, Jimbo Dalton, and Toni Whitt.
That changes when I walk in the door to order a jumbo barbecue sandwich at Jimbo’s Brickhouse BBQ at 8600 MS-178 in Byhalia, Mississippi.
First of all, a Jimbo’s jumbo is just gigantic.
“Knock a dent in it and tell me what you think,” says owner Jimbo Dalton.
It is fabulous. As are the wet ribs Dalton brings to the table for me to try. They are delectable. Some of the best ribs I’ve ever eaten. So tender. They also serve dry ribs.
“We just cook slow with wood the country way.”
Dalton says he’s self-taught when it comes to barbecuing. “Burning up meat till I got it right.”
This all began when he barbecued at his house when he was a teenager.
People (about 200) then began gathering at his house on weekends for his barbecue. It turned into a party. “We’d float a keg. Listen to music.”
And, he says, “I know a lot of people and a lot of people know me.”
People began ordering barbecue. They’d come to the house to pick it up.
Dalton then got a food trailer, which he operated for six years.
He and his late wife, Lisa, began their brick-and-mortar restaurant, which was the brick-and-mortar office for the old brick factory that was in Byhalia.
Dalton is constantly adding to the building. He’s built patios and just about four weeks ago built the bar on the front patio. “All built with hard work, sweat, and blood.”
He serves barbecue pork, chicken, brisket, ribs, as well as other food items, including hamburgers and salads. Dalton introduces me to his fellow pitmasters Brandy McNeese and Toni Whitt. The gigantic cooker is in a separate area.
The walls in a small room up front are covered with signatures of Brickhouse visitors from all over.
Dalton features live music and karaoke at Jimbo’s Brickhouse, which is open Wednesday through Sunday.
And, hopefully, those karaoke singers will occasionally belt out the Commodores song, “Brick House.”
Madison Tavern, where they will serve pasta jambalaya. (Photos: Michael Donahue
Tim and Tarrah Quinn own )
Madison Tavern will open May 10th at the site of the old Local on the Square at 2126 Madison Avenue.
Tim Quinn, who owns the bar/restaurant with his wife, Tarrah, hoped to open last November, but it took longer because of technicalities involved with starting a new place.
They chose the name “Madison Tavern” because of “the feel of the building. It’s got two fireplaces upstairs. It’s just a cozy, comfortable place.
“When I think of ‘tavern’ I think of some movie where people are walking down the road in the Middle Ages. They stop in and get a beer and something to eat. It’s nice and quiet. Candlelight. The owner who works there all the time serves them the daily special. And then back on the road they go.”
Why a new name? “Just a fresh beginning with a new family,” says Tim, 42, adding, “It’s been around 12, 15 years. Sometimes it’s just time to have something new.”
The Quinns, who bought Local on Main Street about four years ago, says they’ll “start working on a rebrand for Downtown as well.” They plan to change the name to “Quinn’s.”
Tim wanted to buy Local on the Square as soon as he began working there as general manager in 2017, when Jeff Johnson was the owner of both locations. “When I first worked in this building I was there one week and I asked Jeff how much to buy the place. He kind of laughed.”
Johnson gave him “a large number” as the selling price. Tim told him, “Woah. That’s a big number. Let me work on that.
“Within three years he sold me the Downtown location. And here, three more years later, I’m moving into the old spot.”
The Quinns gave the old Local on the Square a facelift, but they’re not changing the personality. They painted over the purple walls. They’re now blue with red accents, and they redid the floors. “Not a whole lot as far as the footprint of the place goes is changing. We cleaned it up to make it look fresh. Some new light fixtures, new tables, new equipment behind the bar.”
And, he says, “We took out the old games — the old Skee-Ball. We’ve got new dart boards coming in. Bubble Hockey. It’s like foosball, but it’s hockey. I’ve never played that before.”
The walls will feature “all consignment artwork by local artists.”
As for the food, Jose Reyes, who was kitchen manager when Tim worked at Local on the Square, will be back. “He took a leave of absence and went back to take care of his mother in Mexico. He’s from Mexico City. While he was there he purchased an avocado farm and opened another restaurant with his brother.
“He loves being in Memphis. Once his mom was up and good and everything was taken care of — one of his sons is running the avocado farm — he came back to Memphis.”
Tim plans to keep some of the old Local on the Square food items, including the sausage cheese board, which he will upgrade, and pretzel sticks. But he will now feature “an American menu” with “Southern-influenced” fare.
Most of the new items come “from conversations with the staff, with Jose, and some other managers, other food vendors.”
Tim is gathering his staff’s favorite family recipes, which he’ll “tweak a little bit.”
And, he says, “We’ll be, hopefully, doing a daily special: a paella. My brother’s wife’s family is from Zaragoza, Spain. Whenever we get together to eat, his wife makes her family’s paella. She’ll come in and show us how to make that.”
Tim plans to offer paella “a couple of times a week. It’s not really something you can cook on the fly. It’s something that gets better after it sits in the pot a bit.”
He also plans to serve grilled cheese sandwiches, which are popular at the Downtown location.
Tim began making grilled cheese sandwiches with Adam Hall and friends when they had a team at Memphis Grilled Cheese Festival, where they have been “fan favorites every year so far.”
The sandwich, which Hall came up with, is made of grilled chicken, buffalo sauce, white cheddar cheese, and regular white bread. “You put a mixture of butter and Miracle Whip on the bread and toast it.”
It was a hit from the beginning at Local on Main Street, Tim says. “Originally, we put that on the menu just as a special. It evolved into having grilled cheese on the menu all the time.”
The Downtown menu now includes various grilled cheese sandwiches, including ones made with duck and lobster — “different meats with different sauces.”
“We’ll do grilled cheese here as well. For the late-night menu we’ll slap a couple of grilled cheeses on there and a couple of egg rolls. And everybody’s going to be happy.”
When he was 6 years old, Ben Chavez used metal squares, circles, and triangles to create art in Montessori school. When he was 40, he used square and oval flatbread to create his “Barbecue Burnt End” and “Mediterranean” flatbreads at Terrace at the River Inn restaurant.
Whether it’s numbers, objects, art, or food, Chavez, who is chef de cuisine with the River Inn property in Harbor Town, has always been good at combining “ingredients.”
His stepfather was the cook in the family because Chavez’s mother worked long hours as a server in a restaurant. Chavez didn’t want to be a chef, but he liked to observe the cooking process. He liked to “see how it started and how it ended.”
He became more fascinated with cooking after his grandmother, who had Mexican roots, moved in with them and began making tortillas from scratch and other culinary items. “I saw a whole different side of cooking.”
Chavez, who worked in telecommunication jobs, didn’t get into cooking until he was 30. “That’s when I was sort of figuring out how to cook.”
His parents gave him a Crock-Pot. “I didn’t know what to use it for.”
He came up with chili after he went online to find out what he could cook in it. “After looking at a bunch of different cooks’ recipes, I arrived at my own.”
Chavez learned to cook by “trial and error.” Like “trying to cook a steak correctly. Cooking a pork chop right. Buying what was cheap and figuring out how to cook it.”
After he got furloughed from his job as merchandising coordinator for Levi Strauss during Covid, Chavez began painting and customizing shoes. “You put cold water in a bucket, spray paint the water, dip the shoe in, and it would create a design on the shoe.”
Chavez, who also painted his own designs on shoes, sold them for $200 and up.
His wife then discovered some of his old recipes. “She had been cleaning the house or whatever and found a bunch of old notebooks I had dating back into my 20s. I had been writing down recipes or writing down food I had liked and enjoyed or experienced.”
Looking up online culinary schools he could attend, Chavez’s wife discovered the online Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. Chavez said he’d give it a shot. “And then sort of ran with it.”
In 2021, they moved to Ripley, Tennessee, to live in a house his dad had just rehabbed. Chavez applied and got a job cooking “just very Southern old school” fare at the Old Town Hall & Cafe in Covington, Tennessee. “I worked there for free for the first 90 days.”
But, he adds, “I was getting my foot in the door.”
He created “secret dinners” at the restaurant after it closed at night. He sold tickets to the three- or four-course dinners, but he wouldn’t reveal beforehand what the menu consisted of. “I had a lot of fun. That was me learning the craft.”
After Old Town Hall, Chavez moved to The Cellar Restaurant and Prohibition Bar next door. From there, he went to Brownsville, Tennessee’s Serendipity Bar & Grill, where he “moved the menu forward. Made some changes.”
He was working at Guy Fieri’s Tunica Kitchen & Bar at Horseshoe Casino when he landed a job at Paulette’s, which includes Terrace, also located in the River Inn.
Shortly after he landed the job, Chavez and food and beverage manager Daniel Clark went to work changing the Terrace menu. Instead of serving steaks, Chavez suggested they concentrate on “good food that came relatively quickly and could be shared.”
They kept the cheese balls, French fries, and beef and lamb sliders, but they went to flatbread pizzas, which were faster and less heavy. Chavez created the Barbecue Burnt End Flatbread and Mediterranean Flatbread. “We just add the ingredients and build it like a pizza.”
Summing up his culinary career so far, Chavez, who now lives in Memphis, says, “I’m very shocked I was able to move this forward this fast.”
But, he adds, “You force yourself to rise to the occasion.”
Josh and Emily Mutchnick (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Josh and Emily Mutchnick have arrived.
“It’s been a long road,” he says. “This is my dream becoming fulfilled.”
The dream is JEM, a dream of a restaurant that opens April 25th in the Edge District. Josh and his wife, Emily, are owners of the roughly 3,500-square-foot restaurant at 644 Madison Avenue. “She’s doing the back-end paperwork and all the fun stuff. Every aspect of it. And I’m doing the cheffy stuff,” Josh says.
“JEM” stands for “Josh (and) Emily Mutchnick.” It also stands for “Just Enjoy the Moment.”
“This is our restaurant and this is our food. This is our personality. This is it.”
Mutchnick, 37, was in the sixth grade in Mobile, Alabama, when he realized he wanted to be a chef.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Mutchnick worked at several prestigious restaurants, including Chicago’s Michelin-starred EL Ideas, where he was chef de cuisine.
When they decided to relocate in 2020, Josh and Emily ended up in Memphis, where his sister had gone to Rhodes College.
Josh was doing his monthly JEM Dining Supper Club dinners at the James Lee House in Victorian Village when he and Emily decided the time was right to “jump full in” and open their restaurant. “In the middle of 2022 was when I had my business plan and talked with the real estate broker and bank.”
His broker “found this gem in the Edge District.”
Josh kept the ball rolling. “I met with a lot of restaurant-style business owners. They gave me a lot of advice.”
John Halford and Patrick Brown with cnct. design, pllc, designed the space for the Mutchnicks. The ceiling features exposed beams and rusty tin. They kept the original concrete floor, which they covered with a clear seal. The “cracks and paint spots add a lot of personality and texture to the place.”
“This is an old building and we want to keep some of the personality,” he says.
But the old is juxtaposed with “some modern lighting, a lot of wood finishes, and a lot of warm colors that are going to add depth to it.”
“You come in and you want to snuggle up in the space with all this wood and rusty color and beauty.”
He adds, “It’s a completely open kitchen. You come in and see all the action. We have a kitchen counter, but every seat you get to see the kitchen in action. And, if you want, you can come up and talk to us.
“I think the main goal of this restaurant is to have an experience that is welcoming and shows hospitality through the food, physically through the space, but also through the service.”
They want JEM to be a place “where people come in and have exciting, delicious food, but feel welcome and relaxed.”
“We’re surrounded by a passionate staff that feels like we do. We want to show you a great time and make you feel right at home while serving you the best food and cocktails and wine that we can.”
So, what will Josh be cooking in that open kitchen? “Short answer is: modern American with global influences.
“Long answer: I’ve been cooking and working towards this my whole life. And I’ve always expressed myself through food. I know I can make the best food when I’m excited about the techniques and can put new and different things on the menu.”
Whether that’s “Asian, European, or American influences,” Josh says, “it’s going to be delicious.”
Describing one of his dishes, Josh says, “I’m taking traditional Italian arancini, but using Korean flavors by adding kimchi, scallions, and cilantro to it. Then serving it with charred scallion tofu aioli and pickled daikon radish.”
And, he says, “One of the coolest things is, it’s completely vegan.”
All their desserts are homemade. One was inspired by Waffle House pecan waffles, Josh says. It’s a “decadent waffle mousse with a maple gel, candied pecans, and a pecan cake base.”
He and Emily believe JEM is in the right spot. “Moving to Memphis, from day one we had our eye on the Edge District,” Josh says, adding, “It’s an up-and-coming neighborhood. We’re just out of Downtown. I think the location is perfect. Near Downtown and near Midtown.”
All the business owners in the neighborhood are trying to “build up this community,” he says. “And we want to be part of that energy and that action.”
Their neighbors include the new Rock’n Dough Pizza & Brewery as well as Inkwell and Sun Studio. “This community is about to explode. I love it.”
Justin Ash brought a touch of the old sod to Olive Branch, Mississippi. He recently opened Ash’s Irish Pub, which, he believes, is the first Irish pub in Olive Branch. “When you walk in, it’s like you get that heart-dropping moment,” he says. “Like a culture shock.”
For his pub, Ash created a “late-19th century, early 20th-century” spot, which he describes as “old world,” with “cobblestone brick, rough-cut timbers, and a walnut wood-looking bar.”
Decor includes wine barrels, street lanterns, stained glass windows, and a train station clock. Ash also features flags dating from as recently as the 2024 American flag to as far back as 762 AD, the earliest he traced his Irish lineage to on his dad’s side.
His grandmother taught him how to cook Irish cuisine when he was a teenager. “And I just remembered.”
His Irish fare includes “shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, bangers and mash, Guinness beef stew, chicken and chips, and poutine.” For now, Ash only serves beer, but he eventually will serve craft cocktails.
Ash also wanted a convivial place, which is what an Irish pub is, he says. When you sit down at the bar, whoever is on your left side and whoever is on your right side are “going to end up being your best friend whether you like it or not. In a traditional Irish bar, it’s disrespectful not to speak to others. If you sit there by yourself quietly, it’s disrespectful. It’s a public house. That’s just the way things work. There’s no such thing as a stranger.”
And, he says, “The biggest thing was to give that feeling of hope and, I guess, belonging. Like my friends did for me when I was in the hospital.”
Ash was in his fourth deployment in the Army when he was injured in 2018 in northern Syria. “We were on a mission and our vehicle struck something in the roadway and it caused our vehicle to flip. And a rifle ripped off the left side of my face. I wound up at Walter Reed [National Military Medical Center] in Washington. I had to relearn how to read, walk, talk.”
His friend Tara McShea, who worked in civil affairs for the Army, often visited Ash, who stayed in the hospital for two-and-a-half years. She took him to Philadelphia to visit her family’s Irish pub, which got him interested in Irish gathering spots. He got a notepad and in about 10 minutes made a checklist of what he wanted his Irish pub to be like.
After he got out of the hospital, Ash, who had been with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office before he left for his last deployment, retired from the Army and moved to Olive Branch. “I walked into an empty apartment in April of 2020 and started my life over.”
Over the next two years, Ash, who began working on his undergraduate degree in criminal justice when he was in the hospital, finished his associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees.
He found the exact location he wanted for his pub about two years ago. Originally, it was “an empty shell of a room.”
Ash used the money from his military and sheriff’s department retirements to open the pub. “I put all cards on the table.”
When you visit Ash’s Irish Pub at 9200 Goodman Road, you’re probably going to see Ash. “I’m the owner. I’m a cook. I’m the bartender. I’m the waiter. I’m everything. … I’m all over the place back there. Cutting potatoes. Cutting carrots. Making stew. And making fish and chips. I might be out here wiping tables. I’m doing everything from 10 a.m. till 1 a.m. every single day.”
He plans to feature Irish music played on “traditional Gaelic instruments,” including violins and guitars, at his pub. Patrons will be able to “sit around the table and play together.”
Already, though, Irish — and everybody else’s — eyes are smiling at Ash’s Irish Pub. “Oh, my God. This past Friday night every seat at the bar was filled and they were singing, ‘No nay never,’ and slapping the top of the bar,” he says. “They were sitting there laughing together. And I said, ‘This is beautiful.’”
JEM restaurant opens April 25th in the Edge District. (Photo: Courtesy JEM)
Get ready for JEM, a new restaurant slated to open April 25th at 644 Madison Avenue.
According to the news release, the restaurant, manned by chef/co-owner Josh Mutchnick, will feature a “modern American menu” that is “globally inspired and prepared by a world-class chef. The atmosphere is warm, inviting, and decidedly unpretentious.”
The food and menu will “represent Mutchnick’s attitude towards food, with a focus on local and seasonal ingredients, as well as recognizable flavors.”
Mutchnick is co-owner with his wife Emily. “JEM derives from the initials of both of their names and is also an acronym for their slogan, ‘Just Enjoy the Moment.’”
According to the release, “Josh Mutchnick is no stranger to the world of haute cuisine. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, he has worked for some of the best chefs and restaurants in the country, including the Michelin starred El Ideas, Tru, Sixteen, and North Pond in Chicago.”
Located in the Edge District, JEM “offers approachable dining. … The restaurant operates with the philosophy that food can be fun and comforting while still being refined and luxurious.”
117Prime will close April 20th. Belle Tavern will remain open. (Photo: Courtesy of 117Prime)
No more prime steak or oysters after April 20th at 117Prime. That’s when the Downtown steakhouse at 117 Union Avenue closes.
But food lovers will still be able to get steak frites at Belle Tavern. The cozy bar/restaurant immediately behind 117Prime will remain open.
“The menu will get a little bigger,” says Ryan Trimm, chef/owner of both places. But, he says, “You won’t be able to enter through Union any more. You’ll have to enter through 117 Barboro Alley.”
Belle Tavern has been open longer than 117Prime, Trimm says. The bar, which opened around 2015, “closed during Covid” and reopened after they rebranded.
Asked about the attraction of Belle Tavern, Trimm says, “I always wanted a little bar. A place where I feel like I can hang out. And it’s just relaxing and low level and fits a need.”
He describes Belle Tavern as “a borderline dive bar. It’s not a dive bar. But it’s a little hole in the wall.”
Belle Tavern is a place where he can hang out with his friends with a good whiskey and beer selection.
Belle Tavern (Photo: Courtesy of Belle Tavern)
As for 117Prime, Trimm says, “Sales have not been what they were. A lot of fixed costs. A steak house, fine dining restaurant, it gets pretty difficult to keep that moving. And it just got to the point where we were like, ‘You know what? The environment downtown is getting more difficult to navigate. And we just need to try something else.’”
And, he adds, “I don’t think a steakhouse was a good fit for Downtown at this moment.” It was hard to stay open with “valet and linen tablecloths and heavy staff and food costs.”
Trimm isn’t sure what they will do with the 117Prime space after the restaurant closes at the end of this week. They might open something “a little more fitting” or “lease it to somebody else.”
Aika Renzo wants people to think “Japanese sweets” when they think “Wagashi Japanese Bakery.”
“‘Wagashi,’ in the literal translation, does mean ‘Japanese sweets,’ but it’s more than that,” says Renzo, 29, owner/baker of Wagashi Japanese Bakery.
They’re Japanese desserts that can be made of mochi, which is a glutinous rice flour, or red bean paste. “Traditional confections usually eaten during tea ceremonies or eaten with tea in general.”
Renzo, who operates her business out of her home, grew up eating the type of traditional Japanese sweets she makes. “I am a Memphis native, but I am half Japanese and my dad is from Memphis and he is Black. So, I grew up with two different cultures.”
She would visit Osaka, where her mother is from, eat the food there, and surround herself with the culture.
Renzo always missed the cuisine when she returned to Memphis. “Now that I have kids, that’s something I want them to grow up and love. Something as simple as Japanese homemade sweets I want my kids to grow up with and share with their friends. Something I never had in Memphis.
Castella cake, melonpan, and matcha mochi bar (Photo: Michael Donahue)
“There is no homemade Japanese bakery around, as far as I know. It’s a good type of bakery to have. We have all sorts of shops here — French pastries, croissants, and doughnuts — but we don’t have a traditional Japanese bakery. And that’s a gap I want to fill.
“I’m a self-taught baker, so I kind of taste and experiment with different recipes and mold it into what I grew up with and how I remember that nostalgic taste.”
Renzo’s first baking effort was “the classic” chocolate chip cookie. “The quintessential American cookie.”
She used a mix out of a box, but she didn’t find that satisfying. She wanted to express her creativity. “Baking anything where you’re creating is an art that comes from the heart. I know that’s corny, but it’s something you feel and you put out for everyone to experience.”
The first Japanese dessert she made was melonpan — “a Japanese sweet bread that has a cookie crunchy crust scored to look like the skin of muskmelon.”
It didn’t start out as melonpan. Renzo was making bread from a general recipe when she thought, “What if I turn this into melonpan?”
It’s like a “fluffy bread with cookie crust on top. I just kind of tweaked it with spices I attributed to my childhood taste buds of eating melonpan.”
And, she says, “I do have a special sugar I use that kind of gives it that special flair. It also has a nice coating of sugar. It’s dipped in sugar once it’s scored.”
Melonpan is “essentially more like a biscuit in the English sense.”
She let her mother try it. “She loved it. I even think she might have cried the first time she ate it because it reminded her of her childhood.”
Renzo, who officially opened her Wagashi Japanese Bakery website last November, offers melonpan in its original flavor as well as matcha flavored, which is “just green tea flavor.”
She also sells “Castella cake,” which, she says, is “essentially like a Japanese-style sponge cake. It has a honey soak on it, which gives it that moisture. But it’s made with bread flour, so it’s springy. A lot of people tell me the texture is very similar to pound cake, but way lighter.
“It’s a pretty common Japanese cake. It’s usually in a rectangular block and lined with parchment on the bottom to keep that honey soak.”
Renzo also bakes “matcha mochi bars.” “These are not traditional, but something I wanted to add to the menu just to give people other options.”
Since they sort of have the texture of a brownie, Renzo refers to them as “a Japanese mochi blondie.”
As for a brick-and-mortar storefront, Renzo says, “I don’t really see it happening in the near future. Maybe within a year or two just depending on what life throws at us.
“I would love to have it be a bakery and also a tea house. The variations would be, we would primarily serve green tea or traditional Japanese tea. Because wagashi in the general sense is eaten during tea ceremonies or special events with tea or green tea.”
Renzo wants to pair the two so people will “get the full experience. We have a lot of bubble tea places and Asian restaurants, but I want to focus more on the traditional pairing that you would see in Japan.”
To order, Renzo says, “You can go online to our website — wagashibakery.com. You can place your order online at least 24 hours in advance, so we can bake those to order. And we deliver free anywhere only in the Shelby County area.”
Credit: Robata Ramen and Yakitori Bar via Facebook
Robata Ramen and Yakitori Bar will close Sunday.
The restaurant opened in 2014 on Overton Square in the former Paulette’s location. Robata was opened as a new concept by Memphis restaurateur Jimmy Ishii.
The closing was announced on Facebook Monday.
“We regret to inform you that our last day of business in Overton Square is Sunday, April 14th,” the post reads. “We would like to thank all of our customers that we have served over the years! Please come see us this week before our final day!”
