Clay’s Smoked Tuna – Memphis Flyer

Abrian Clay, owner of Clay’s Smoked Tuna, never thought he’d end up in the fish business. Or be selling his tuna salad in restaurants and stores, and from a food truck.

“It started when I was in Orange Beach, Alabama, on a vacation and I went to this restaurant on the beach,” says Clay, 36. “I wanted to try something different, and I tried the smoked tuna salad. And it was so good. I asked the waiter, ‘What’s going on with the tuna salad, man? What’s up?’ He said, ‘This guy out here has a tuna farm and he wholesales it to us.'”

Clay thought about it. “No one in Memphis is doing this. No one is wholesaling it. I can do the same thing.”

He went home and made his first batch. “It was delicious. I gave out free samples and never looked back.

“I marinated it in white wine and I smoked it,” Clay says. “I chopped up my ingredients to make the salad [with] the mayo and everything. It was an instant hit.”

Abrian Clay

That was five years ago. He used his Facebook business page to get the word out, and he began delivering the eight-ounce packaged tuna salad to the Mid-South.

His first vendor was the Curb Market in Crosstown Concourse. “I think in four hours we sold $600 worth of tuna.” Then, “Stores started reaching out to me,” he says.

Clay uses yellowfin, also known as “ahi” tuna. “We use fresh tuna made from tuna steaks. Not your canned stuff at all.”

He originally was “going to the Gulf in Louisiana to get the fresh tuna.” Now, he says, “It comes from the Gulf, but I have someone who drops it off.”

Clay, who initially thought about strictly doing wholesale, moved to a commercial kitchen with a drive-through pick-up window. People could pick up individual orders of tuna salad as well as his smoked chicken dip. “We expanded our menu to hot foods as well,” Clay says.

He began selling smoked wing plates, catfish plates, salmon plates, lamb chops, and T-bones. “Everything is smoked on a rotisserie smoker with pecan wood.”

The tuna salad takes nine hours to prepare. “We marinate our tuna steaks in white wine, and we put it on a rotisserie smoker at a certain temperature and let it smoke five hours. It’s a strenuous process.”

After two and a half years at the commercial kitchen, Clay transitioned to his food truck, where he continued selling his salad, dip, and hot plates.

His truck is at East Parkway and Summer. “That’s a busy intersection,” he says. “A lot of people are getting off Sam Cooper and going to and from the zoo.”

Growing up in North Memphis, Clay helped his dad cook before he took on the job of cooking breakfast for his parents on weekends. “I would always experiment. Like I would give them eggs, toast, and orange juice, but I would add nutmeg and parsley to the eggs.”

His parents suffered through those experimental breakfasts, but Clay says, “They boosted my confidence and acted like they enjoyed it.”

He got his bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in business administration, but he was interested in making and selling a product.

Clay still is surprised at his career path. “I had an epiphany with myself when I started,” he says. “I noticed all day I was going to people’s houses, delivering them containers of tuna salad. I was like, ‘This is going to be my history? This is what I’m going to tell my children I was doing at that age? Driving to people’s houses and bringing them tuna salad?'”

Clay’s food truck is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. He also delivers. His smoked tuna salad is in stores, including Cordelia’s Market and DeeO’s Seafood.

For more information or to order, call (901) 848-5640 or go to clayssmokedtuna.com.
To see a video of a Clay’s Smoked Tuna, watch it below:

Clay’s Smoked Tuna Salad is Smokin’

Alex Farms sells chicken salad out of its shop in Hickory Hill. The “Alex” of Alex Farms is the daughter of Darwin and Kyra Henderson. Kyra says that Alex has always liked animals and the family joke was that she would one day have a farm. But it is son Darrius who proved to be the impetus for this business.

As Kyra Henderson explains, Darwin made some chicken salad for his son’s fifth grade graduation and it was a big hit. And when it was time for Darrius to go to college, Kyra began to sell the salad at local beauty shops and barber shops to help defray the costs of Darrius’ education.

The Hendersons then opened up a shop in Hickory Ridge Mall in 2015. “We were very successful in the deadest mall in the city,” she says. They moved to their current shop near the Kroger on Riverdale last November.

The key to their success, says Henderson, is their smoked, all white-meat chicken they use in the salad. In fact, their motto is, “Where the smoke changes the game.” There are no eggs in the salad, and it’s not very mayonnaise-y. The secret ingredient, she says, is love.

Alex Farms sells three signature sandwiches — chicken salad on toasted white bread; croissant minis with three croissants; and the chicken salad BLT. The addition of bacon is about as fancy as it gets. Eight ounces of the salad are available for $6; 16 ounces, $10.50; and 32 ounces, $20.50. Platters and pans are sold as well, ranging from $35 to $75.

On the Alex Farms’ logo is a super buff chicken. “Faith is the family’s strength,” Henderson says. The Hendersons vowed to put this strength to work. First, they would help people eat better. Second, they would help other businesses. To that end, the shop hosts pop-ups and gave Bluff City Crab a leg up. “It’s okay to help someone,” she says. “We don’t have to get it all ourselves.”

Alex Farms has thrived on word of mouth. Henderson says they have regulars as from far away as Dallas and Atlanta. Henderson says she appreciates all their customers. “If I’m here,” she says, “they get a ‘thank you’ before they are out the door.”

Alex Farms, 4780 Riverdale,

alexfarms.net

Clay’s Smoked Tuna‘s journey began in Orange Beach at a place called the Pony. Abrian Clay ordered the Pony’s smoked tuna dip, and he thought, “Nobody in Memphis does that.” So he decided to do it himself.

He bought some ingredients and started working on his recipe. Clay’s Smoked Tuna uses rotisserie-smoked yellowfish tuna, which is first marinated in white wine. Clay says, all in all, it’s about a nine-hour process. The results, he says, are “to die for.”

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Abrian Clay drops off dip at Curb Market.

In fact, according to Clay, his dip has a cult following, which Clay has nurtured over the past three years on social media. Clay says an illustration of this was when he pitched the dip to Curb Market. He was told to give out samples at the store and they would see how it goes. He put out the call and ended up moving $600 worth of product in three hours. Needless to say, the product, along with Clay’s Smoked Buffalo Chicken dip, is now sold at Curb Market. You can also find his products at Snappy Sacker Grocery and DeeO’s Seafood.

Clay works out of a commercial kitchen on North Parkway. On the weekends, he sells other smoked foods like chicken wings, salmon, lamb and pork chops. Folks can pick up his dip there, too, but he also makes deliveries.

Clay says he would like to get into more grocery stores and restaurants. (Those interested can call 901 848-5640.) One thing he’s not planning to do is expand his product line. His thinking is pretty much, why mess with perfection? Of his tuna salad, Clay says, “It’s a masterpiece.”

Clay’s Smoked Tuna, 726 N. Parkway, facebook.com/clayssmokedtuna