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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Planned Crosstown Hangout Touts Fresh Bar Concept

The new owners want a fresh bar with Southwestern and tropical cuisine plus entertainment.

Midtown is slated to get a sweet spot around the holidays.

Tandem Restaurant Partners with Tony and Stephanie Westmoreland and Dr. Michael Muhlert will open a new bar/restaurant in the old The Doghouzz at 1349 Autumn Avenue across from Crosstown Concourse.

“We’re going to change the concept to a fresh bar concept,” Tony says. “Fresh fruit mixed drinks and cocktails. We’ll use pineapple, orange juice, and things like these. Squeeze our own juices from the bar.”

As for food, Tony says it will be “Southwestern and tropical” cuisine. “We’re working with Duncan Aiken on the menu.

And there will be music. “We’ll probably put in some small stage.”

He wants the new place to be “a hangout spot. Food, drinks, comedy shows, some acoustic sets, pinball  machines, pool table, and darts if we can fit it in.”

And, he says, “We’re probably going to keep it a little bright and vivid and put some comic book stuff in there. Game days. It’s just an interest of mine and a lot of guys I’m working with on the concept.”

The Doghouzz concentrated on hot dogs. “They were like predominantly a hot dog bar. That’s all they did on their menu.”

The former owners “just decided to sell the building. And we heard about it through the grapevine before it hit that market and got with the agent.”

The building is “around 3,000 square feet. Not too small.”

They plan to buy new furniture. And they need get licensing and permits. So, Tony believes it will take about two months and they’ll be “ready to go. That’s our hope. To try to hit the holidays.”

They haven’t picked a name for the place yet, but Tony did come up with “The Flip Side” as one idea. “There’s always a flip side to everything. It pulls in the tacos, burritos, pinball. The concept in general — a fresh bar — is little bit different.”

By Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue began his career in 1975 at the now-defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar and moved to The Commercial Appeal in 1984, where he wrote about food and dining, music, and covered social events until early 2017, when he joined Contemporary Media.