Remember those days when you dined at the River Terrace on Mud Island, with the view of the Mississippi River and the sunsets? Remember how you felt?
Well, you can feel that way again when Mahogany River Terrace opens October 2nd at 280 Island Drive, the space once occupied by the River Terrace.
Owner Carlee McCullough, who also owns Mahogany Memphis restaurant at 3092 Poplar Avenue Number 11, describes the downtown location as “elegant dining.”
“I think it’s elegant, modern, and it really gives Memphis something to be proud of.”
Describing the food, McCullough, a native Memphian, says, “We are upscale Southern, with a dash of Creole, and with an emphasis on seafood at this location.”
McCullough adds that they will be “playing off the river” at the downtown location. The lunch menu will feature a soft-shell crab slider and a crab Caesar salad. “For dinner,” she says, “we’ll have everything from a ribeye to a tomahawk. We’ve got alligator bites, alligator pasta, flatbread, but we also have our signature dishes from Mahogany Memphis, which would be our oxtails, our grits, our Cajun egg rolls, and our most popular item, beignets.”
“We do some great vegetarian dishes,” McCollough adds, including vegan pastas, barbecue, and even a vegan catfish. Future plans include opening a restaurant called Mahogany Vegan Plus.
Asked how she happened to open at the old River Terrace spot, McCullough says Carol Coletta, former president and CEO of Memphis River Parks Partnership, came by Mahogany Memphis. “She was there for an event someone had hosted. We just really started chit-chatting about that place. It was empty for quite some time. We had an interest, and it kind of became a good situation for both parties.
“It required a lot of work,” McCullough says. “No one had been in it for quite some time. Pre-Covid, actually. The front windows had to be redone. The roof had to be redone. It was really in a state of disrepair.”
McCullough brought in designer Bonnie Yates, owner of Mackiona. “Everything was beige and brown,” she says. “It’s hard to work with concrete. That’s where the challenge came in.”
“I wanted to set a mood with the river and the light coming into the room,” says Yates. “I wanted to bring the light inside. I used a lot of gold because I think gold is so rich. And I wanted to bring a dark element because I wanted it to be moody upstairs where it’s more romantic, and bring in some of the greenery to coordinate with the river.”
“It’s beautiful in the evening with the sunsets,” Yates says, adding, “It’s the best view in the city, because you have both bridges at night.”
Photographs by Justin Fox Burks 