Has Longshot stopped evolving?
Not by a long shot.
The restaurant in the ARRIVE Memphis hotel has gone from serving homemade sausage and small plates to what executive chef David Todd calls “refined, approachable bar food.”
“We re-did the menu with some internationally influenced entrees. Some sandwiches. Some appetizers. Things like that.”
And, Todd adds, “As of January 1st, we’re open seven days a week. And we got lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.”
Longshot had its share of stops and starts after it first opened in November of 2019. “We opened about five or six months before the pandemic hit. The whole hotel. We tried to do the whole to-go food. What everybody did.”
It closed around April. “We opened for a few weeks around late June, early July. That would have been 2020.”
The restaurant was only open for a few weeks. “We had some people test positive for Covid.”
Longshot re-opened for the third time in April 2021. And stayed open. Todd kept a few items from the old menu but added more. Also, during those times the restaurant was open, Todd saw how “different food worked in the space.”
The restaurant had a definite culinary direction in the beginning. “When we first opened, we had nine different house-made sausages. We had small plates. It was really cool.”
But that “wasn’t robust and diverse enough to really capture a lot of repeat business.”
“One thing I’ve learned over the years opening restaurants, is you definitely pick your vision and your direction. Go down the path you want to go. But as you’re going down that path, you learn what customers are responding to and what the space dictates.”
Longshot “went to a more robust, sandwich-oriented food menu. It covered more ground.”
Todd refers to his Longshot fare as “inspired, elevated bar food. And that means there are still burgers and chicken sandwiches, and I’ve got nachos on the menu.”
But he also includes items like Tuna Poke Nachos. “Raw tuna marinated in soy and different spices.” And Pollo Asado Nachos — a “marinated chicken thigh I roast. And we chop that off and make nachos with a house-made queso.”
“We’ve got vegetarian options. We’ve got a Smoked Mushroom and Shishito Philly. And then we’ve got a KFC [Korean Fried Chicken] Sandwich on the menu. We did a Diner Burger, a fun take on a classic burger. There’s a crispy duck entree. A short rib entree.”
Last year, Todd also took over the pizza program upstairs at Hustle & Dough. He “rounded out that menu” a little bit. “I added a curry cauliflower dip, a quinoa salad.”
His philosophy was the same as for Longshot: “Lean into traditional things that people connect to and they enjoy. And they might be presented to you in an international way.”
Longshot can be referred to as a sports bar, but it’s not a typical sports bar, Todd says. “You got the shuffleboard tables in there, so when it’s busy it’s going to lend itself to a festive kind of fun, energetic atmosphere. So, it’s not quite like a sit-down dinner place.”
Todd adds, “If you’re in there having a sit-down dinner, you wouldn’t feel like a fish out of water. But if you want play shuffleboard and drink some beer, you’re not going to feel like a fish out of water, either. It’s like a melting pot space in there on some levels.”
Longshot and Hustle & Dough are in ARRIVE Memphis at 477 South Main Street.
