Tag: Bill Ganus

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The return of Edible Memphis.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

There was one thing Bill Ganus promised himself for 2018: no new projects. But … an opportunity arose that he couldn’t pass up. “I had the chance to tell important stories about connecting people with food systems,” he says. The conduit for those stories was Edible Memphis, which was shut down a year ago by founder Melissa Petersen after 10 years in print.

Ganus, who is partner in such businesses as Flow Cryotherapy and the Rec Room, admits he has no background in media, but he plans to call upon his skills in leveraging and team-building. For the team, he recruited as his editor in chief Brian Halweil of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn. Halweil will work on Edible Memphis from New York.

“I’m ready to see potential Edible ideas, community-building ideas, in another area,” says Halweil. He sees a bit of Brooklyn in Memphis. But it’s a Brooklyn that no longer exists. He sees it in the breweries and coffee shops, in the logos. He finds the city’s energy exciting.

Justin Fox Burks

Bill Ganus (left) and Stacey Greenberg

Another key member is Stacey Greenberg, who will act as managing editor. “She lives and breathes Memphis food,” Ganus says, pointing out that Greenberg is about as an authentic foodie as they come. “Memphians demand authenticity,” he says.

“My vision for the magazine is that it really represents Memphis. All of Memphis,” says Greenberg. “I’ve tried really hard to find a variety of writers and photographers to help us create something special. I reached out to the MABJ [Memphis Association of Black Journalists] and the internet at large to find some new voices, and I’m really excited with who I found. They’re people I’d love to get all in one room someday — until then the magazine is that room.”

Petersen, for her part, says giving the keys to Ganus made sense to her. “We had several people who were interested in taking over the magazine, but several were only interested in one or two pieces of the process. There are not-as-fun parts of creating a magazine — selling ads, doing the bookkeeping, delivering hundreds of boxes in July — but they have to be done,” she says. “Bill Ganus really did the legwork to come up with a plan for the entire process. And he’s assembled a team of people to share the work and grow things exponentially.”

Part of that growth is upping Edible Memphis‘ online game — create a usable website and posting on Instagram and other social media. What was never in consideration, however, was to make Edible Memphis online only. Ganus says that there is no substitute for opening a magazine, turning the pages, and seeing a beautiful spread of food photography. “It works best in paper,” he says.

Another part of the plan is to introduce up to five food festivals to complement Memphis’ lineup of other food festivals.

Edible Memphis will be on a quarterly release schedule, and Halweil imagines profiling local farmers and highlighting locally made products. They will not do restaurant reviews. They will not break news. He defines the editorial approach as akin to boosterism. “It will be celebratory and educational, a little bit rah-rah,” he says.

Ganus sees Edible Memphis as an invaluable source to Memphians who care about food. (We all care.) He says, “Edible Memphis will be the go-to local outlet for food and agriculture-related news. I’m committed to doing it well.”

Edible Memphis will relaunch in early November.

One byline you can expect to see in the new Edible Memphis is that of Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence, aka the Chubby Vegetarian. Burks and Lawrence are the author of two cookbooks. They’ve cooked at the James Beard House and contributed their vegetarian recipes to several local restaurants.

Amy Lawrence and Justin Fox Burks, aka the Chubby Vegetarian

Their latest venture is a partnership with PeachDish, a meal kit delivery service.

According to Burks, PeachDish followed them on Instagram and became fans of the Chubby Vegetarian. Amy reached out to them and suggested a collaboration.

PeachDish suggested they veganize their recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes Po’boy with their Cold Oven Sweet Potato Fries.

Fried Green Tomatoes Po’boy

Burks says what sets PeachDish apart from other meal-kit services is their commitment to use only local produce. The company also keeps packaging waste to minimum.

Ultimately, Burks says, he’s for anything that gets people in the kitchen and cooking.

The Chubby Vegetarian meal kit will be available September 10th, peachdish.com.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Chilling Out at Flow Cryotherapy

I’m cold, and I’m naked, aside from my unmentionables and some thick socks, slippers, and heavy, oversized gloves. Yet, despite the -215 degree temperature and the swirling white smoke of liquid nitrogen inside this cryotherapy chamber, I’m feeling sort of invigorated.

I’m testing out the new East Memphis cryotherapy sauna, Flow Cryotherapy. It opened to the public on Monday, and it’s the first of its kind in Memphis. Cryotherapy is supposed to help with everything from chronic inflammation and joint pain to insomnia and psoriasis. I’m hoping it helps ease the runner’s knee pain I’ve been struggling with for months.

According to one of Flow Cryotherapy’s co-owners, Bill Ganus, I might get a little natural high. That must be the invigorating feeling I’ve got going on.

“You’ll get this amped-up feeling that comes from the adrenaline, endorphins, and super-oxygenated blood that’s being filtered and oxygenated in your core. It’s a great feeling. That effect is fairly short-term, about two to four hours depending on the person,” says Ganus, who opened the business with partners Taylor Berger, Jeff Seidman, and Jake Lawhead.

And there’s another bonus. Ganus says the cryotherapy session burns between 300 and 400 calories in the three-minute treatment, but some sources online claim cryotherapy can burn up to 800 calories per session. Supposedly, the calorie burn occurs afterward, as your body tries to regain its normal temperature.

“You can go from here to Muddy’s, and it will be calorie neutral,” Ganus jokes.

While it sounds a little like new-age, hocus-pocus, cryotherapy has some serious believers. Several Memphis Grizzlies are known to use cryo treatments before and after games. It’s also used at the Olympic rehabilitation center in Spala, Poland.

Since it’s supposed to help with joint pain and inflammation, it’s ideal for athletes looking to boost performance and recover quickly from injuries. And since it only takes three minutes, it’s much quicker and less painful than the old 30-minute ice-bath treatment.

“It has benefits that range from athletes being able to perform harder or longer or more often to elderly people with joint pain who want relief from the inflammation to people who want faster skin regeneration,” Ganus says. “There are a lot of people who do this purely for cosmetic reasons. It helps you regenerate collagen faster, and your skin gets stronger and tighter.”

Bianca in the cryo chamber

Here’s how it works: You undress and change into Flow Cryotherapy’s robe, socks, and slippers. For women underwear is optional, but men are advised to leave their tighty-whities on.

“Dudes should wear underwear because you want to keep everything close to your body,” Ganus explains.

You enter the chamber and ditch the robe over the side. An attendant hands you gloves, and then the platform is raised so that only your head sticks out above the top. The machine whirs and creates white nitrogen smoke that looks like something from a sci-fi movie. Inside, the temperature cools down to -215 degrees. The session only lasts for three minutes.

Flow Cryotherapy welcomes one-time users, and they sell monthly memberships that allow users to frequent the spa as often as they want. But Ganus says even loyal customers are limited to using the treatment twice daily.

“That frequency is not recommended for long-term use, but if you have something, [like a race], you’re trying to get ready for or recover from, you might want to get in the unit as often as you can,” Ganus said. “If you just finished an Iron Man [triathalon] and you need to recover quickly because you’ve got a marathon coming up, you’d want to come often.”

The first session at Flow Cryotherapy costs $20, and additional, individual sessions are $49. An unlimited monthly membership ranges from $199 to $239, depending on whether or not you sign a contract.

As for me, well, a week later, I am still having knee issues. But the pain in my knee did subside for several hours after the treatment, and Ganus tells me multiple treatments are needed to help with chronic pain.

Flow Cryotherapy (flowcryo.com) is located at 5101 Sanderlin, Suite 106.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Rec Room Bar-arcade Opens on Broad

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Sure you were good at Street Fighter II in your old teenage mall arcade days, but can you still get that K.O. after a few craft beers?

Beginning this week, fans of retro arcade games will have the chance to brush off their skills at the Rec Room, a new arcade bar inside a warehouse at 3000 Broad Avenue. The venture — spearheaded by a partnership group that includes entrepreneur Taylor Berger and Buckman chemical sales executive Bill Ganus among others — will feature a number of 1980s and ’90s arcade games as well as mini-living rooms set up with retro gaming consoles.

“This is about the last 40 years of pop culture. Video games trigger such visceral memories of being a teenager or even younger than that. We have Nintendo Power. We have old [school gym] bleachers where you can sit and have a beer,” Berger said. “All of these things trigger these really cool memories.”

Justin Fox Burks

Vintage arcade games at the Rec Room

Standing arcade floor games include Pac Man, Street Fighter II, Donkey Kong, Tron, Burger Time, and Road Blasters, among others. But groups can also rent one of six mini-living rooms — complete with couches and chairs — by the hour to play games on gaming consoles. The games, everything from Atari 2600 to Xbox 1 and PlayStation 4, are projected onto a wall.

“We were standing in this 6,000-square-foot warehouse, and we knew it could be an arcade,” Ganus said. “But even with the [floor] games in there, you’re staring at this huge concrete slab wall. We thought, ‘It would be really bad if we projected old-school consoles up on the wall, so your friends could come in, sit on a couch, and play two-player Contra on a 25-foot screen.”

Video games not your thing? In true rec room fashion, the bar has darts, foosball, ping-pong tables, air hockey, and cornhole boards.

Berger said they lucked onto the massive warehouse space because a friend of his is planning to open another business in part of the space.

“He had 6,000 extra square feet that he wasn’t using,” Berger said.

At first, the bar will serve four rotating styles of beer from Wiseacre Brewing Company, as well as some nationally distributed beers by Sweetwater and Oskar Blues Brewery. The Truck Stop food truck, which debuted at last year’s “Untapped” event at the Tennessee Brewery, will be on-site at the Rec Room peddling tacos. Bluff City Biscuits will sell biscuit sandwiches. The bar is open seven days a week, opening at 4 p.m. on week days but earlier on weekends.

“We’re opening at 10 a.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday so people can ride over on the [Shelby Farms] Greenline in the morning, eat and play, and ride home,” Berger said.

The bar, near Tillman and Broad, sits on the soon-to-be-constructed Hampline bicycle path, which will run from Overton Park to the Greenline. The partnership group behind the venture, which includes 12 people including Berger and Ganus, is hoping the bar’s location near Tillman will help spur revitalization of the eastern side of Broad.

“There’s definitely room to expand Broad Avenue, especially as the Hampline is developed. It’s made this a really important corridor to connect the High Point area with Overton,” Ganus said.

Though the bar-arcade concept isn’t new, Berger said the Rec Room is different because it’s about transforming an outdated industrial park into something new and fun.

“This ain’t no Dave & Buster’s. This is a warehouse in Binghampton,” Berger said.

Categories
News News Blog

Rec Room Bar-arcade Opens on Broad April 1st

On Wednesday, fans of retro arcade games will have the chance to brush off their skills at the Rec Room, a new arcade bar inside a warehouse at 3000 Broad Avenue.

The venture — spearheaded by a partnership group that includes Taylor Berger, Bill Ganus, Barry and Blake Lichterman, Andy Cates, Michael Tauer, and several others — will feature a number of 1980s and ’90s arcade games as well as mini-living rooms set up with retro gaming consoles.

Standing arcade floor games will include Pac Man, Street Fighter II, Donkey Kong, Tron, Burger Time, Road Blasters, among others. But groups can also rent one of six mini-living rooms — complete with couches and chairs — by the hour to play games on gaming consoles. The games, broadcast from everything from Atari 2600 to Xbox 1 and Playstation 4, will be projected onto a wall.

At first, the bar will serve four rotating styles of beer from Wiseacre Brewing Company, as well as some nationally distributed beers by Sweetwater and Oskar Blues Brewery. The Truck Stop food truck, which debuted at last year’s “Untapped” event at the Tennessee Brewery, will be on-site at the Rec Room peddling tacos. Bluff City Biscuits will sell biscuit sandwiches. The bar will be open seven days a week, opening at 4 p.m. on week days but earlier on weekends.

Check out this week’s Memphis Flyer for more details. Until then, check out these pics from Flyer photographer Justin Fox Burks of Rec Room’s Monday night soft opening.

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