When it comes to food, it’s all Greek to JoBeth Graves.
Graves is the owner/founder of The Grecian Gourmet Taverna on South Main. Customers dine on traditional Greek food, including spanakopita and moussaka. They also take home the restaurant’s products, including bottled infused olive oils and Greek vinaigrettes, which, along with her frozen Greek dinners, are commercially sold in stores. And they can take classes on Greek cooking from Graves.
For the record: Graves isn’t Greek.
“My first husband was Greek and we did a lot of entertaining,” Graves says. “I basically had to teach myself how to cook Greek food.”
Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Graves grew up on “just Southern food like you would normally eat when you grow up in Jackson. Green beans, white beans, cornbread, fried and roasted chicken.”
She and her first husband had the traditional big fat Greek wedding at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. Graves and relatives cooked all the food. “We would get together every Sunday for six weeks. We made 1,000 Greek wedding cookies, 500 stuffed grape leaves. We hand-made spanakopita. We rented a freezer on Southern and put everything in there.”
(Photo: Michael Donahue)
Graves loved everything about the food, which is a reflection of the Greek people. “Greek people are just naturally vibrant and the food is expressed through that. Food is a part of every experience, every occasion. When someone comes to your house, you have food. Lots of food.”
Over the years, she was given recipes for Greek food, but she put her own spin on them. Graves, who doesn’t fry any of her Greek food, designed her own dishes, figuring out what flavors work best.
Her cooking extended to other functions, as well. “I would cater weddings for my friends.”
Around 2016, Graves, a nurse practitioner who worked for 30 years at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, began selling her Greek bottled products at St. Jude’s farmers market. She also sold her hummus, feta dip, and homemade feta chips. “It snowballed from there.”
She began setting up at flea markets all over Memphis. Graves, who remarried, and her husband, Jeff Watkins, ended up renting an industrial kitchen at Arkansas State University, where they prepared their food.
In 2018, they decided to open a restaurant. They found a space that belonged to artist Ephraim Urevbu, whose studio is next door. “He liked the vision of food as art.”
The restaurant was an instant success. “We had people lining up from the street to the door and people waiting on tables. Trolley Night would be crazy. Ephraim would have music playing out on his patio, and we would have people outside. We set up additional tables. The buzz and the energy was exactly what I wanted when we considered having a restaurant. We just felt good to be here.”
During the pandemic, the restaurant “never closed,” Graves says. “We stayed open. During that period of time when they went into the initial lockdowns, so many restaurants just shut down. Jeff and I had a really long conversation. We came back and told the employees, ‘We want you to go home and shelter in place and stay there.’ We paid them. We never laid anyone off. Jeff and I worked the restaurant every day. We did a big pivot and changed everything to online ordering and to-go.”
The restaurant is now open for indoor dining.
In 2019, Graves and Watkins moved to South Main. “I live a block away. We love South Main so much, we bought our home in this neighborhood. We walk back and forth to work. This community and the South Main Arts District, it’s home to us. We enjoy the people here. Our customers are also our neighbors and friends.”
The Grecian Gourmet Taverna is at 412 South Main Street; (901) 249-6626.
