Michael Donahue joins Chris McCoy to talk about his cover profile of Mempops, the local treatmaker that is celebrating 10 years in business. Plus, Chris McCoy on The Naked Gun and It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.
Category: Hungry Memphis
Tonight will be the last time you can get Branon Mason to personally prepare his chicken Marsala, shrimp boscaiola, or smoked chicken ravioli as executive chef at Ciao Bella Italian Grill. Mason, who has been with Ciao Bella for 17 years, is leaving after dinner service July 30th at the restaurant at 5101 Sanderlin Avenue Number One in Sanderlin Centre.
His “quality of life needed to change,” says Mason, 41, who says it’s been “nothing but nights and weekends” since he began.
“I wanted to have a career where I can also benefit from being an executive chef, but also move up and in a more corporate role while also working on my art, my creative outlet.”
He and Akil Davis, a former Memphian and a longtime friend who has been living in New York City, are going to open Once in a Blue Moon Supper Club.
It won’t be a brick-and-mortar building, a least for now, but, rather, “an immersive event that incorporates performance, such as singing, dance, spoken word, all while combining whatever theme that we decided to put out.”
Blue Moon, which will feature food prepared by Mason and cocktails during the three-hour-or-so event, is “like a catered show. More of a showcase of talent that’s local.”
It will be an event that travels to various locations that have a kitchen. “We don’t have a residency yet.”
The first Blue Moon event is slated to take place in late fall, Mason says.
It was “extremely difficult to leave” Ciao Bella, Mason says. “I’ve been attached to the Tashie family. David, Judd, and the late Paul Tashie. We’ve gotten really close over the years.”
And, he says, “They brought me in without any management experience. They saw how eager I was to become a chef. They put a lot of faith in me. That’s the reason I’m able to do what I’m doing now.”
Mason never went to culinary school. Instead it was “books and internet.” But, he says, “I was able to learn tons and tons of things working with Ciao.”
In addition to Blue Moon, Mason is taking the executive chef position at Robin Wood Resort in Bartlett. The luxury retirement community is a nationwide organization with more than 60 properties, Mason says. “This provides me with weekends and evenings off. And it’s a more controlled environment.”
Mason will be sad to leave his regular Ciao Bella customers. “A lot of my reputation comes with just having great clients. That’s how the reputation grows. I’ve got good people that come in and eat with me. And it’s been a wonderful, wonderful time.”
A piece of Memphis history will come alive when the legendary Hotel Pontotoc opens to the public in mid-August.
The circa 1906 building at 69 East Pontotoc Avenue began life as a small hotel before becoming a bordello, then turning back into a hotel, before it eventually became a residence/recording studio.
It’s now back to its roots as a boutique hotel. Owners Joseph Lewis and Tony Kuhn spent the past three years renovating the building, which many Memphians probably remember as a mysterious heavily vine-covered building with the old neon sign reading “Hotel Pontotoc” on the front.
Owning the old hotel (they reversed the wording of the hotel’s name) was a shared dream for Lewis and Kuhn. Now, after extensive renovation, they’re ready to open the place. They’re also ready to open the bar, The Dame, which is on the hotel’s lower level.
Each of the 10 hotel rooms has a different theme.
The Pontotoc also features a patio with stately trees, as well as a lawn, both perfect for live entertainment.
Memorabilia from the old building include an iron bed, which now hangs above a stair landing; a beautifully-dilapidated old pump organ that resides in one of the bedrooms; and a vintage pinball machine mounted on a wall.
Legend has it that Elvis Presley supposedly lost his virginity at the Pontotoc, Lewis says. And the hotel is porportedly the bordello featured in the William Faulkner novel, The Reivers, and in the 1969 movie of the same name, which starred Steve McQueen.
You can get hungry watching other people play golf.
So, thanks to a news release from PGA tour headquarters, here is the skinny on fare you can order during FedEx St. Jude Championship tournament week, which will be August 6th through 10th at TPC Southwind.
Tacos from Torchy’s Tacos will be available at the 18th and Mane fan zone.
Smackers Restaurant & Eatery, which is known for its wings, burgers, and grilled salmon club sandwich, will be represented at the 18 Green Courtyard.
And, according to the release, “They join a fan-favorite lineup of returning vendors,” including The Rendezvous and Germantown Commissary. Other local favorites mentioned are Pronto Pup, Snowbirds Frozen Treats, and coffee from Cxffeeblack.
“Fans can also look forward to the return of Birdies & Bubbles, serving up an exclusive tournament-week menu of Southern-meets-Italian dishes from James Beard Award finalists Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman, the chefs behind Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Hog & Hominy, and Catherine & Mary’s. “
And to wet your whistle, “Coca-Cola Consolidated has signed on as the official soft drink provider of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.”
Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers just keeps rolling along.
Literally.
The company, which currently has 17 Mid-South locations, now has a food truck, slated to hit the road in about two weeks.
Standing in front of the 22-foot step van with pictures of a big red pig and “Tops” on the sides, Tops executive Randy Hough says, “This is Tops’ first food truck. And the reason that we decided that we needed a food truck is a couple of reasons. One, we want to get our great brand into our guests’ mouths and into where we’re not, areas of Memphis where we currently don’t have a store.”
And, he says, “We thought if there was a part of Memphis or a town where we’re not, we could also go over there and park for a little bit before we find a location.”
Like Downtown Memphis, where they currently don’t have a location. “Maybe that’s an avenue for us to get a brick-and-mortar store down the road in that particular area.”
A food truck is also a great way to bring Tops to an event, Hough says. “Take Collierville, for example. Or Whitehaven. An event down there. It’s a way for us to go down and be able to give them a great cheeseburger or a great barbecue.”
And a food truck can save the day if there’s a problem — anything from power outages to plumbing problems — at one of their locations. “We’ve now got a way to have continuity in that store. Be able to bring the food truck, open up, and service our guests even though we may be without power or maybe without that location operational for days or weeks.”
The food truck won’t feature the entire Tops menu, Hough says. “Usually, on a food truck you can’t bring everything on board.”
They have to be selective, he says. “But know this: That great cheeseburger and that great barbecue sandwich will certainly be part of it.”
The food truck also will carry sausage, which is something new, and hot dogs, Hough says.
They can use the food truck when they want to introduce a new product. “When we have an item like our quesadilla we just did and want to try that ahead of time before we get into our brick-and-mortar stores, the food truck’s a great way to see what the guests, what our folks in the Mid-South, are going to want to eat. This will give us an avenue to try it out with them and they can tell us what they think before we put it on the actual menu in our stores.”
The Tops food truck won’t be traveling all over the United States. “You typically want to stay relatively close, for the most part, so I’d say the Mid-South is our arena. If we had a particular event that we want to drive for a day, we’ll do it. Like if we had to go to Nashville or Jackson or, certainly, down to Corinth. But, primarily, we want to stay right here in the Mid-South.”
More Tops food trucks may be on the horizon. “I think the plan is there’s room for that,” Hough says. “As we learn and grow, I think there could be more in the future.”
Hough didn’t give any definite locations yet as to where the food truck will be set up, but, he says, “I’d say we’re about two weeks away but you will certainly see us down at the Rhodes [Avenue] store.”
The Tops at 3970 Rhodes Avenue closed after a fire. “While we’re renovating and getting back open we’ll be parked down there for our Rhodes guests here pretty soon.”
A second location of Marshall Steakhouse is slated to open in January or February, 2026, in Oxford, Mississippi.
The new location, which will be called “Marshall Steakhouse Oxford,” is owned by Randall Swaney and his wife, Lori, who are the owners of the original Marshall Steakhouse on Hwy. 178 West between Red Banks and Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Ground-breaking has already been done for the new 18,000 square-foot building, which will be “right across the street from Trade Park, off College Hill Road and Sardis Road,” Randall says. “It will be on the new West Oxford loop, which is a bypass that goes around Oxford.”
The Oxford location, like the Holly Springs location, will seat 320 people. It will feature steaks and other fare during the week, and Italian cuisine from chef Judd Grisanti on Wednesdays and Thursdays. (Grisanti cooks on Mondays and Tuesdays at the original location.)
The Oxford location will feature heavy timber flooring and rafters and white oak tables, similar to the decor at the original Marshall.
Randall opened the original restaurant eight years ago. It was originally going to be a sawmill. Then Randall considered making it a feed store, then a combination gun store and feed store. He built the tables before he thought about opening a restaurant. “I was making all those tables to sell, basically, and hadn’t sold any.”
That’s when he got the idea to put a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a screened porch in front of the store and cook hamburgers at lunch on a Weber grill. Then an employee told him, “You might as well have steaks one night.“
At that point, Randall scrapped all the other plans and opened Marshall Steakhouse. He has plans to open more Marshall Steakhouses, including one in Lebanon, Tennessee, near Nashville. Marshall says the Lebanon location will include 100 RV sites and 50 overnight cabins. “That will be ‘Marshall Steakhouse Resort,” he says.
Categories
FOOD NEWS BITES: The Elvis
I just happened to notice “The Elvis” while perusing the menu one afternoon at Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers.
The description reads, “Creamy peanut butter, applewood bacon, & Tops delicious banana pudding between two pearl sugar waffle halves.”
Say what?
It also read, “Available All Day.” This isn’t just a breakfast item.
This little sandwich, which sounds perfect for the Elvis commemorative festivities coming up in August, sounded intriguing. It’s not exactly what the King probably had in his kitchen at Graceland, but it sure sounded like something he’d enjoy — fit for The King.
There’s a photograph of Elvis outside at a table at one of the Tops locations. It looks like it was taken in the 1950s, which makes sense because Tops opened in 1952.
I was all shook up. So, I ordered The Elvis along with some Brim’s plain potato chips and a sweet tea.
The Elvis, to me, looks a little bigger than a conventional breakfast sandwich like a sausage and biscuit. But there’s a lot there. I just picked it apart with my hands and ate every savory morsel. I thought about ordering another, but one delicious sandwich was enough.
I asked Tops executive Hunter Brown to give me some history on the little sandwich.
“We started looking at different avenues for our pearl infused sugar waffle,” Brown says, “‘Cause it’s such a good product. We just wanted to get this into customers’ hands.”
It’s the only breakfast item they serve all day, “Considering it’s kind of a dessert.”
The Elvis is “a throwback” to Elvis’s favorite sandwich, Brown says. That’s the famous grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. As far as I know Elvis’s sandwich was on bread instead of a waffle. And I don’t believe he had banana pudding on it.
“There’s no secret that Elvis Presley was a huge Tops fan,” Brown says. “He ate primarily at the Union location since it’s been open since the mid ’60s.”
Part of that location is designated The Elvis Room. “You go in there and it’s got memorabilia and pictures.”
The Tops sandwich sounds a little over the top, but I thought it was great. “We’re very generous, but also aware of the amount we put on it so it’s not overkill.”
Now Tops needs to introduce a chicken tender, which they can call “Love Me Chicken Tender.”
I got a cup of coffee and a jelly doughnut at Gibson’s Donuts on Memorial Day.
I also got a bowl of “Britton’s Black Bean Soup.” And it was one of the most delicious culinary items I’ve eaten.
This isn’t on the menu. You can’t order this when you order a “maple bacon” doughnut or an apple fritter. This was whipped up by Gibsons’s manager/owner Britton DeWeese as a treat for the employees on the holiday. I was just lucky enough to get some. And, by the way, I am pictured gobbling a doughnut in DeWeese’s great children’s book, The Donut Shop That Never Sleeps.
“It’s a recipe my mom got from a restaurant in the Cayman Islands when I was a kid,” DeWeese says. “I was probably 13, 14, 15. That’s when we were going there in the summers.”
DeWeese liked the soup when he had it at the Cayman restaurant. “I’ve always been a good eater. I’ve always been into cheffing and stuff. I was always in the kitchen with my mom while my brothers were out in the backyard playing football and stuff. So, I’ve always had a spot in my heart for food.”
His mother “liked this black bean soup so much that she begged the chef at this restaurant to give her the recipe. I guess since we were from America and he didn’t have to worry about her stealing his recipe and opening another restaurant he gave it to her and she taught me how to make it.”
DeWeese took the recipe and ran with it. “I’ve tweaked it a little bit.”
The original recipe was very simple, he says. It includes carrots, onion, garlic, broth, and the black beans. “I do vegetable broth. Then I add the black beans. You mash up some of the black beans to kind of thicken it up a little bit. I’ve added jalapeño into my saute mix. And I’ve added corn, and bacon just as, ‘Why not?’ I’ve kind of Southernized it a little bit, you know. And I like to serve it with cornbread.”
The cornbread I had with the soup at Gibson’s tasted like sweet Jiffy cornbread, which I thought was a good touch instead of a blander mix.
The restaurant didn’t serve regular cornbread, DeWeese says. “They served it with this stuff called ‘Cayman cornbread’ that my mom used to make. It’s basically cornbread, but you use half cornmeal and half flour. So, instead of two cups of cornmeal, you do a cup of cornmeal, a cup of flour. And it’s got cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice in it. So, it eats more like a cake. Like a birthday cake than a cornbread. It’s not as dense as cornbread, and it’s got this island-y flavor ‘cause of the allspice and the nutmeg in it.”
DeWeese has the Cayman cornbread recipe. “When I make it at home, I make the Cayman cornbread. And, dude, it’s so good with that Cayman cornbread. But when I cook it up at work I Southernize it and just get the cornbread they have at the store. ‘Cause I don’t have an oven here. So, I can’t really bake cornbread at work.”
He’s been cooking for years, DeWeese says. He went to culinary school when he “was being a ski bum” in Colorado.
DeWeese also worked in fine dining restaurants. “I was actually a sous chef in a fancy restaurant called Blue Spruce Inn out in Colorado right before I moved back home to run the doughnut shop.
“Every job I’ve ever had since I was 15 years old has been in a restaurant. My first job was running food and bussing tables at Cooker Bar and Grill, where Ruth’s Chris is now. Cause my brother was a bartender. Then I got a job making sandwiches at McAllister’s. And every job I’ve ever had since then has been in a restaurant. So, I know my way around a kitchen.”
He makes the black bean soup “pretty often,” DeWeese says. “I don’t always make this. I cook for my employees probably once every week or two. Probably, realistically, every other week. If we have a slow day or I have some extra employees I’ll cook some. Sometimes I’ll make them tacos. Sometimes I make them chili. You saw my little pot over there. There’s only so many things I can cook in that pot.’
DeWeese likes to make grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. “I’ve got a crock pot. So, I’ll make tomato soup in the crock pot and cook grilled cheeses in that skillet. Like in the wintertime. On a nice cold day if it’s snowing and icy and we’re dead cause it’s like ice on the roads, I’ll cook grilled cheeses and tomato soup or some chili.”
He makes a lot of his black bean soup when he makes it. “Every time I make it there’s not enough. So, I keep upping my recipe every time I make it at work. And I think I finally made enough cause I sent a cup home to my mom and my dad and I gave you a cup and there’s still some out there.”
DeWeese used six cans of black beans for this batch. “The original recipe was like four cans. And I started doing five cans. And now I’m putting six cans. It’s still just a bag of carrots that I chop up. And one onion, one jalapeño, a couple of spoonfuls of — I cheat and I buy the already minced-up garlic. Just cause, again, at work, trying to simplify it a little bit.”
Britton’s Black Bean Soup has become legendary at Gibson’s Donuts. “One of my employee, his request for his last day of work was for me to make that black bean soup for him. And I did. Thats how much my employees like it.”
People who work at Gibson’s Donuts have been known to say, “You haven’t made your black bean soup in a while.”
“It really is one of my favorite things to eat, too. So, if they ask me to make it, I’m like, ‘Alright. Let’s do it.’”
Judd Grisanti prepared his first dinners on Monday, May 19th, at Marshall Steakhouse in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Or, as the restaurant’s owner Randall Swaney, dubbed it: “Marshall Grisanti.”
Grisanti, a chef whose restaurants include the former Spindini, is the son of the late restaurateur Ronnie Grisanti. He will be cooking his Italian cuisine at Marshall’s on Mondays and Tuesdays, the days the restaurant formerly was closed. Judd and Swaney, who are longtime friends, thought it would be a perfect fit.
Apparently, it was.
“I thought it was huge,” Swaney says. “It was more people than we anticipated. So, that’s a win. A little over 100, which was great. That’s what we would have on a Wednesday night or a Thurdsay night. So, to get that on a Monday, is really good.”
Instead of the usual background music, customers dined to vocals by appropriate-for-the-night songsters, including Luciano Pavarotti. “It went from classic country to classic Italian,” Swaney says.
The menu for “Marshall Steakhouse Italian Edition” includes filet, ribeye, and New York Strip steaks, and Judd’s iconic “Filetto di Menzo Con Gorgonzola,” an eight-ounce prime filet with, according to the menu, “roasted encrusted applewood bacon wrapped and stuffed with gorgonzola, served with veal demi red wine reduction.”
The rest of the menu features Grisanti dishes, some old favorites and some new.
I wanted to be the first diner Monday night, so I got to the restaurant about 4 p.m. I ordered some of my personal favorite Grisanti items, at least a couple of which I’ve written about over the years.
While looking over the items, I stopped at “Pasta Alla Elfo,” popularly known among Grisanti fans as “Elfo Special.” I knew that was going to be my entree. The taste of that dish is so memorable. The menu reads, “The Original Recipe created by my grandfather ‘Elfo.’ Jumbo shrimp sautéed in garlic and butter and tossed with mushrooms, hint of white pepper over vermicelli with parmigiana Reggiano.”
I was very happy when I saw one of my all-time-favorite soups, “Zuppa Di Isabella,”which Judd created and named after his daughter. The menu describes it as “Asparagus bisque with butter poached Maine lobster.” It was delicious.
The famous “Miss Mary’s Salad” — tomato, lettuce, onion, with the traditional Grisanti’s chianti vinaigrette dressing — also was part of my order. And, for dessert, I selected Judd’s cannolis: “A crispy tube-shaped shell filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta-based filling.”
It was an excellent meal.
I called Judd the next day to see how he felt about his first night.
“I think it went great,” he says. “I was overwhelmed with all the response. Social media and everybody calling and making comments has been overwhelming. So, expectations were high. You get excited, but it’s almost like, ‘Be careful for what you wish for.’”
Asked what dishes were the most poplar Monday night, Judd says, “The Elfo was very popular, of course. The rigatoni and peppers. And the chicken parmigiana.”
More items will be added. “Some things we’ll change and we’ll be adding on more traditional Grisanti items as well.”
Swaney surprised him with the Italian music at dinner, Judd says. “It made me feel at home. It made me feel like I was back at Grisanti’s on Poplar. It was a nice touch. All I could do was think of Pop.”
It’s a marriage made in Mississippi.
Beginning May 19th, chef Judd Grisanti will begin cooking his cuisine on Monday and Tuesday nights at Marshall Steakhouse in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He’s known for his cuisine at Grisanti restaurants, including the old Ronnie Grisanti & Sons and Spindini restaurants.
He and Marshall Steakhouse owner Randall Swaney are longtime friends, Grisanti says. They also have farms close to each other. “We’re always talking farm business,” Grisanti says. “Both talking about the hogs he was raising, and the stuff I was doing, cattle and horses, and whatnot.”
About two weeks ago Swaney asked Grisanti, “How would you like to do a Grisanti’s at Marshall Steakhouse on Monday and Tuesday nights?”
Grisanti answered in the affirmative. He said, “Man, I think it’s a great idea.’
For one thing, it would get him back cooking in a restaurant a couple of days a week, which was perfect, Grisanti says.
It also was perfect for Swaney. “Because the economy has been kind of bad for the past year,” Swaney says. “My business for seven years was up until August ’24. And then it went down. Like the rest of the country. We’re down about 10 percent.”
He was racking his brain — as well as praying about — how to get more business. Then, he says, a lightbulb went off. He ran into Grisanti four times last month. He thought, “Wait. I’ve already got a building. A whole kitchen. And nobody’s in there. What a perfect opportunity to open up a completely different restaurant on Monday and Tuesdays.’”
And there are all those people who follow Grisanti on social media “who would love to eat at a Grisanti’s restaurant. And now we have one inside Marshall Steakhouse. This is a huge winner for everybody.”
Grisanti’s dad, the late Ronnie Grisanti, was one of his inspirations when he opened Marshall Steakhouse, Swaney says. Ronnie would go into the dining room and speak to the customers. Swaney does the same thing. “The owner acknowledging the customers is something I learned and never forgot.”
Grisanti says his “biggest battle” was picking the dishes. “There are so many. Right?” Grisanti says.
“The first couple of days we’re going to start off doing what I call ‘chef’s picks.’ Judd’s favorite all-time classics dishes.”
Guests can expect to see Grisanti’s pan-seared “Halibut Rombo” with roasted red pepper pesto over white wine risotto topped with peekytoe crab and micro arugula.
He also will feature the meatballs in rustic pomadoro sauce, topped with hard ricotta salata cheese, a dish he and his dad came up with.
Grisanti also will be doing some steaks, including his “Filet de Manzo con Gorgonzola.” It’s the one I’ve been doing for 40 years,”Grisanti says. “We could never take it off the menu. An eight-ounce filet — roasted garlic encrusted, bacon wrapped, and stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, and served with sautéed mushrooms and veal demi glaze.”
Appetizers will include prosciutto-wrapped grilled jumbo shrimp with roasted garbanzo beans, and a play on Italian humus, with roasted red peppers and ‘black olive salt.’ (I take) Kalamata olives and I dehydrate them and they become hard as stone. I put them in a coffee grinder. My own salt.”
Grisanti say he’ll have his tiramisu and his “Miss Mary” or “Mia Nona” salad, his Caesar Salad with black garlic, and, for dessert, his home-made tiramisu.
And, Grisanti says, “We will have wines we normally have at Grsasnti’s.” These include a Badia a Coltibuono Cetamura chianti.
Later on, he will add more classic Grisanti dishes, including manicotti, lasagna, and ravioli. For now, he wants to “just give a little taste of what we can do and, hopefully, just grow from there.”
The restaurant will seat “only 130 guests each night because we don’t want it to be overwhelmed. We want everybody to have a good experience.”
People can make reservations on Yelp! or the Marshall Steakhouse Facebook page. But, Grisanti says, “We’re not going to turn you away at the door.”