Ann Barnes says her sister, Susan Overton, used to ask her every morning, “What are you doing sitting in your blue chair?”
Overton was tired of watching Barnes sitting in the blue chair in the living room and working crossword puzzles.
The only blue her sister probably wanted to see was the bleu cheesesteak sandwich Barnes served at her Just for Lunch restaurant in Chickasaw Oaks.
The words struck home for Barnes, who had been retired from the restaurant and catering business for almost 10 years. Barnes, who felt like “an old racehorse out to pasture,” thought, “Well, hell. That’s what I am doing. Sitting in the blue chair.”
So, she decided to get back to work instead of “sitting here doing nothing.”
She’s now owner of Corinne’s Very Special Catering, where she makes her signature dishes, including beef Wellington and homemade rolls, as well as new items, including her charcuterie displays and crawfish étouffée. Her business, named after her late mother Corinne Batson, is “a full-time big catering company” that she operates out of Memphis Kitchen Co-Op.
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Barnes moved to Memphis in 1967. She began doing cooking jobs “years and years ago in the ’70s for the people who would let me.”
One of them was her next door neighbor, who asked her to make something for a party. Barnes made coquilles Saint Jacques, which she still makes today. Her criteria? The food has to look pretty and taste good. “If it doesn’t look pretty and taste good, I wouldn’t serve it.”
Barnes got the idea to open her first restaurant after Overton opened her Very Special Tea Room in Little Rock, Arkansas. She took the menu items from her sister’s restaurant and opened Just for Lunch at 4730 Poplar in 1981.
One of Overton’s friends, who ate at Just for Lunch, told Overton, “Susan, somebody stole your restaurant. They’re serving your muffins. They’re using your china. Baskets with fresh flowers on the table.”
“Legally, anybody else would have had to pay something. I had an easy-made blueprint. Tea room chicken salad, ham salad, egg and olive, aspic, rolls, tiny muffins, fancy desserts.”
And, she says, “They evolved into my recipes. But the core menu was my sister’s.”
Her first Just for Lunch restaurant was an immediate success. “We filled up every day. I was so grateful.”
She concurrently ran Just for Lunch Catering.
Barnes moved the Just for Lunch restaurant to 4720 Spottswood Avenue in 1999.
Finally, in 2008, she moved it to 3092 Poplar Avenue. “Right before the housing market collapse, I borrowed a ton of money and moved to Chickasaw Oaks.”
The restaurant at her new location wasn’t exactly like her previous Just for Lunch restaurants. “I kind of expanded it to a little more sophisticated menu. Like we had specials of the day.”
Items included the bleu cheesesteak sandwich, oysters Benedict, and Mediterranean or “lamb” burgers.
She closed the Just for Lunch in Chickasaw Oaks in 2016. “I was tired.”
And she closed her catering business. “Thirty-five years is a long time.”
Barnes catered her first job in about eight years after she got out of the blue chair. She contacted the person in charge of Feast on the Farm, the Agricenter International fundraiser held last August, and said, “I’m a caterer. How do I participate?”
They asked her what she wanted to do. Barnes replied, “Cucumber soup with toasted almonds and cheese biscuits.”
When Barnes was told, “Would it throw you if I told you it was for 600 people?”, she said she had cooked for 4,000 people.
She followed that event with a catering job for the 30th anniversary of The Cadre, which is “such a beautiful old building. Banks had such fabulous lobbies. Now it’s an event center and it has been for 30 years. I’d done one of the first events there. Not the first.”
Whether it’s classic party fare or something unusual such as blackened salmon with apricot glaze or rum cream pie with Myer’s dark rum, Barnes helps customers plan the perfect menu for their occasions.
She makes everything from “upscale wedding/bar and bat mitzvah special occasion food” to “something as small as a family reunion. From soup to nuts. I’d say fried chicken to caviar.”
Barnes is happy to be back. “I want to make people happy with wonderful food. And that’s magical to me. That’s my goal. And I can. And I will.”
To reach Barnes, call 901-489-7812 or go to corinnesveryspecialcatering.com.