Rizzo’s, a South Main staple for several years, is shutting its doors at the end of March.
“We’re going to close at the end of the month,” says chef/owner Michael Patrick. “It’s just a numbers game again. I can’t have a better quality living doing what we’re doing. Labor costs, food costs. And everything is out of whack.” Patrick says he and his wife, Angel, talked it over. The issue: “What do we do to somehow find a way I can make more money?”
“I’m having to increase pay to my employees,” he says. “I’m having to increase costs to the menu. Things are not what they were or could be.”
Rizzo’s originally opened October, 2011, on G. E. Patterson Avenue near Main Street. It moved to its current location at 492 South Main in March, 2015.
Patrick originally moved to Memphis from Ohio to open the now-defunct Elvis Presley’s Memphis on Beale Street. He then worked for chef Erling Jensen before going to work at McEwen’s on Monroe, where he stayed for seven years. “That’s where I kind of cut my teeth in the city,” says Patrick. He then worked at EP Delta Kitchen and Bar before opening his own place.
Patrick, who describes the food at Rizzo’s as “Southern-inspired,” says, “We always gave consistently great food and consistently great service. If the food is great and service is great, people are going to come back.”
Patrick, who comes from a fine-dining background, says, “I took that and tried to make more homey-type food. Comfort food. Just executed at a chef’s level.”
Patrick says he believed in giving impeccable service, which included “crumbing tables, switching out wine glasses, not letting the entree hit the table before the appetizer has been cleared. Rizzo’s is definitely a little more relaxed than fine dining. I call it ‘casual fine dining.’”
Patrick plans to stay in the area. “My wife’s got children in Mississippi and we’re not going anywhere. If I went anywhere it would be Southaven or here in Memphis. I don’t see myself leaving Memphis.”
And Patrick can’t say what’s next, at this point. “I don’t know. I’m talking with some folks, trying to get things in line. But right now I’m just focusing on the close here, and I’m quite sure my reputation and good name will make something happen.”
