Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sacred 8 Dinner Series, and more news

• Friends, this may be the only culinary event in Memphis, if not the world, inspired by the movie Point Break — and not the infamous Patrick Swayze/Keanu Reeves vehicle but the remake. 

Chef Phillip Levy has created a series of eight supper club dinners called Sacred 8, which is a nod to a Japanese philosopher character and his eight feats of nature in Point Break, Levy says.

The dinners will be titled — “Master of Eight Lives,” “Emergence of Ice,” “Illuminating Earth,” “Ultimatum,” etc. Each will have a menu reflective of the season. For example, Levy says he’s considering for the first dinner, held on August 13th, serving as one of the courses a quail egg with the yolk representing the sun. 

The dinners are limited to 35 guests. Location and menu will be revealed on the day of the event.

Levy, who is 27, trained under Andreas Kisler at the Peabody before moving to San Diego and then making his way back to Memphis. He now works as a personal chef.  

The tagline for Sacred 8 is “Are you ready for the challenge?” and the last dinner is called the “Ultimatum.”  It’s at the beginning of the summer, and I’m thinking of serving a tricky dish you don’t want to try.” 

• Attention barbecue lovers, Chef Shuttle announced Tuesday that they are now delivering Rendezvous. 

* Boscos Squared will reopen tomorrow after being closed since July 4th for renovations. A rep calls it a freshening up with new paint for the bar and the floors redone. 

• Picked up this big little cake from Bluff City Coffee. I guess it’s about 3 or four slices. They have chocolate, carrot, and strawberry. Cakes are $10. 

Y’all must not want Mrs. Winner’s, after all. The crowdfunding campaign has raised only $285 out of its $32,000 goal. Nine days are left in the campaign. 

• Sammy Hagar sighting at Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill. (Is that bear Sammy Hagar too????) 

Hagar was in town to present checks, totalling $50,000, to the local charities the Mid-South Food Bank, The Boys and Girls Club of Crittenden County, and the Steudlein Learning Center. 

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Guess Where I’m Eating Contest 88

And we’re back … 

The first person to correctly ID the dish and where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize. 

To enter, send your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com

The answer to GWIE 87 is the Duffin at Bluff City Coffee, and the winner is … Kim Gullett!

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Starting Over from Scratch

When Griffen Wall graduated from St. Agnes Academy and went to the University of Colorado, she had every intention of becoming an architect.

“I got into architecture school and was there for two years when I realized I was not cut out to be an architect,” Wall says. “I was really bummed out about it. I would come home and to get the stress and tension out, I would cook and bake for [my friends]. It’s like therapy for me. Then it occurred to me: Why not make a career out of this?”

So Wall decided to attend Culinary School of the Rockies instead, earning her professional certification as a pastry chef. When she moved back to Memphis, Wall was looking for more work experience in hopes of opening her own bakery. She applied for jobs at various local coffee shops until David Adams, owner of Bluff City Coffee on South Main, discovered her passion for pastries.

When Bluff City Coffee opened in 2006, the baked goods were almost exclusively purchased wholesale — pre-made by other companies and baked in-store. Adams is on a mission to change all that.

“Dave wanted to start everything from scratch and eventually expand into a full bakery,” Wall says. “I came in to help him do that.”

With Wall’s baking expertise and Adams’ business sense, the two have begun to change over the menu from wholesale products to homemade items, one recipe at a time.

“Dave and I collaborate quite a bit,” Wall says. “I have my recipes that I like to play around with, but if he finds something he’s interested in, I’ll go in the kitchen and test the recipe and say, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to work for this reason’ or ‘We can fix it this way.'”

One such recipe is the “duffin,” something Adams brought to Wall’s attention a few months ago. His wife had heard about a donut-muffin combination, and Adams wanted Wall to create the mysterious hybrid for their customers.

“It’s one of those things that people aren’t sure about until they’ve tried it. It’s got a neat flavor. It reminds me of cornbread in a weird way, but definitely more of a dessert,” Wall says. The duffin is almost like an old-fashioned cake doughnut and comes in cinnamon sugar and glazed. But like any truly mystical foodie creation, this elusive crossbreed is available At Bluff City Coffee only on the weekends.

During the week, you will find muffins, scones, cookies, granola bars, danishes, turnovers, yogurt rolls, and sandwich breads — each made according to Wall’s recipes, and each recipe a work in progress. For instance, Wall is currently focused on providing some gluten-free options for patrons with wheat allergies.

“There’s not a lot of places that sell these kinds of breakfast pastries in Memphis,” Wall says. “It’s neat because more and more people are hearing about us, people from Collierville and Cordova who come all the way in here to get coffee and a pastry. We’re kind of out of the way, so we depend on word of mouth and our regulars.”

Adams and Wall are planning to open a second location for Bluff City Coffee, one with a full bakery that will supply the South Main store. Wall hopes to have something open within the next year, but there is still much to do.

Regardless of the progress of that second store, rest assured Wall will be baking.

“This is the first thing that I’ve ever felt like I could do for a living. It’s obviously not about making money because there’s not much money in it. This sounds cheesy, but I just love to nourish people, give them something that makes them feel good.”

bluffcitycoffee.com