John Vergos with the Rendezvous ham-and-cheese sandwich (Photos: Michael Donahue)
If you’re like me, you usually order your favorites at your go-to restaurants.
You order the ribs and the cheese plate at the Rendezvous. Maybe lasagna or spaghetti at Pete & Sam’s.
Well, guess what? There are a lot more items on the menus at those restaurants as well as others that have been around a while. People just don’t realize they’re there.
The ham-and-cheese sandwich at the Rendezvous is something that gets overlooked, says owner John Vergos. His dad, the late Charlie Vergos, began his restaurant in 1948 with that sandwich. “Gosh, he’d sell 200 or 300 a day,” John says. “That’s what really started the restaurant going. That’s how he supported his family.”
Fineberg Packing Co. used to smoke his dad’s hams because he didn’t have the pits in those days, John says. Charlie would cut the slices of ham off the bone. Now, John says, “We don’t cut it off the bone. We haven’t been able to find a good ham to do that with. We buy boneless hams.”
The original sandwich was “ham-and-cheese on rye with either regular mustard.”
They used French’s mustard, but now customers can get French’s as well as a sweet glazed mustard that blends Tiger Tail mustard with Rendezvous seasoning.
The ham sandwich began to be overshadowed when his dad introduced ribs “sometime in the ’50s” at the Rendezvous. “We still served a lot, even up until the ’70s. Then we added a lot more different products and we just took our eye off the ball.”
They stopped making the sandwich the way Charlie made it. “We got away from it for years. We started grilling it. Not making it the way he did.”
The ham wasn’t “nice and thick in the middle.” Instead of rye bread, they served it with white bread or Texas toast and mayonnaise. “We let it slide. We didn’t take it seriously.”
About a month ago, they went back to the original way of making the sandwich. John announced, “I’m determined to serve the original ham-and-cheese sandwich the way my dad built it. Stacked the same on rye with mustard.”
Shoulder sandwich at Rendezvous
Surprisingly, another “little appreciated item” at the Rendezvous is the shoulder sandwich, John says. “I’ll match it with anyone.”
The barbecue is smoked for 12 hours, he says. “It’s all pulled by hand and minimally chopped — no fat, gristle — clean. I hate when I eat a shoulder sandwich and bite into a thumb-size piece of fat. It’s jumbo size with beans and our slaw on the side.”
Meanwhile, an item that isn’t a big seller at Mortimer’s is their “Pecan Ball,” says owner Sara Bell. It was a huge hit at the legendary Knickerbocker Restaurant, which her father, the late Vernon Bell, owned.
It’s vanilla ice cream rolled in chopped pecans with chocolate sauce. The Mortimer’s version includes whipped cream and sometimes a cherry on top.
They sell a ton of their banana pudding, but Bell doesn’t know why they don’t sell a lot of the pecan balls. “Once they try it, it’s addictive,” she says.
Another item along that same line is their Knickerbocker Shrimp Salad, Bell says. “That was huge at the Knickerbocker. It’s just shrimp with a little mayonnaise, celery, and a dash of Worcestershire. It’s like a chicken salad, but it’s made with shrimp.”
Even Pete & Sam’s includes items hidden in plain sight on the menu. Many people are surprised to discover the restaurant, which also opened in 1948, sells fried chicken, says Sammy Bomarito, one of the owners. Or steaks. “In general, people don’t necessarily think of us as a steak place,” he says. “And we’ve got some of the best steaks in the city.”
Other longtime items aren’t top sellers. “The bacon-wrapped chicken livers are one of the things we’ve had on the menu forever.”
A lot of people don’t try that, Bomarito says. “But that’s a little hidden gem, if you will.”
Stuffed celery at Pete & Sam’s
Another is the “stuffed celery,” which has been on the menu for decades. It’s celery stuffed with a bleu cheese, Gorgonzola, and mayonnaise mixture and green olives. The four celery sticks come with black olives, peppers, and lettuce with paprika sprinkled around.
Dino’s Grill is famous for its spaghetti, ravioli, and other Italian fare. But their muffuletta is another story. “People are sort of surprised we have it,” says owner Mario Grisanti.
They’ve had it on the menu for “as long as I can remember,” he says.
“We get our bread from Gambino’s [Bakery] in New Orleans, so it’s traditional muffuletta bread. And we do ours a little bit differently. We just do salami and ham and cheese. Most people do salami and mortadella with cheese. Then the olive dressing we put on top is the same dressing we put on our Italian salad. It’s green olives, black olives, banana peppers, celery, onions, oil, vinegar, and Italian seasonings.”
It’s a “New Orleans-style muffuletta. We just have our own little take on it. The way we’ve been doing it forever and ever.”
Finally, Coletta’s Italian Restaurant, which opened in 1923 at its 1063 South Parkway East location, has an extensive menu. Ravioli and its barbecue pizza are famous at Coletta’s Italian Restaurant, which opened in 1923 at 1063 South Parkway East. But not everybody is aware of other items on the menu.
“We have hamburger steaks, which are real good,” says owner Jerry Coletta. “Well, it’s basically about a half pound of ground beef we cook.”
It comes with “fries and a little slaw. And that’s a good meal. Not many people get it.”
Also, he says, “A lot of people don’t know we sell hot wings and honey wings. And they’re real good.”
In other words, in addition to your knife and fork, bring along a magnifying glass and dig into your menus when you go out to eat.
When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore. It’s true that a good pizza, fresh out the oven, is akin to that warm, fuzzy feeling of love, but there’s no need to take one to the face to enjoy Italy’s culinary magnum opus. Memphis has long been cultivating its approach to the pizza game, with restaurants showing off their take on New York-style, to Chicago-style, to Bluff City-style (we’re always down for a barbecue chicken pizza).
For our 2023 pizza issue, we sent our intrepid reporters across the city to try out 10 different pizza joints. Their conclusion? Any way you slice it, Memphis’ pizza game is going strong.
Photo: Jon W. Sparks
Slim & Husky’s – P.R.E.A.M.
If you often think to yourself that “Pizza Rules Everything Around Me,” then you’re ready for Slim & Husky’s P.R.E.A.M.
The artisanal pie’s highlight is a splendid white sauce along with the S+H cheese blend on top of a perfectly prepared and crunchy thin crust. It’s festooned with spinach, pepperoni, pulled Italian sausage, mushrooms, and red onions.
As the onion bits were sparse and the mushrooms merely present, it was up to the other elements to carry the day. The sausage was particularly good, with a distinctive flavor, and the spinach and pepperoni rounded out the appeal of the dish.
The elongated pie is cut into squarish shapes and invites the hungry diner to dig in. If you eat inside, the atmosphere is welcoming, with soul music in the air and delightful artwork of luminaries such as Aretha Franklin and Isaac Hayes on the walls.
The staff is friendly and helpful, and it’s clear a lot of thought has gone into making dishes that go far beyond the standard offerings of the big chains. Nashville-based Slim & Husky’s is also a chain, but you’ll feel right at home chowing down on a well-made pizza. — Jon W. Sparks
Remember the pizza they served in elementary school? It was square because it baked on the cookie sheets the school kitchen already had. It was not great (or even good) by normal pizza standards, but it was the pinnacle of school kitchen culinary creation. Maybe, if you’re lucky, your grandma tried to recreate that magic at home with a scratch-made crust and an assist from Chef Boyardee.
Imagine that pizza made by a real pizzeria. That’s the Grandma’s Pizza at Little Italy.
“It’s a New York thing,” says owner Giovanni Caravello. “Somebody’s grandma used to make it like that. It’s a lot more popular up there than it is down here. If you tell people from the North it’s a Grandma’s pizza, they know what it is.”
On the menu, it’s listed as thin crust, but in practice, the Grandma rises a bit more than the standard thin crust. It comes basic with fresh mozzarella patches and exposed sauce, but it’s substantial enough to load on the toppings, if that’s what you’re into.
Another good thing: It has more crust (thanks, geometry!). And if you ask for it to be cut in smaller pieces, it can be good finger food for a party.
Little Italy opened in Midtown in 2004 and recently expanded Downtown. And a third location is expected to open in early April to spread Grandma’s comfort to East Memphis. — Chris McCoy
When I first glanced at the menu at Slice of Soul Pizza Lounge, located at 1299 Madison Avenue, an instant feeling of FOMO fell upon me. I was bitten by the “New Year, New Me” bug, and this trickled down to my eating choices. There were so many appetizing options, with Memphis-themed names, such as the “Pyramid Parmesan Chicken” and the signature Bellevue loaded potato, that made my decision to settle for the vegetable pizza even harder. However, as I took a bite of the seven-inch Al B. Green slice, I realized I was far from settling.
According to Anthony Latiker, the owner of Slice of Soul, the Al B. Green is one of the most popular options, and it’s no surprise. Latiker explained that it can be hard to describe the style of their pizza, as it’s simply their own take on a classic food item.
The slice consisted of “obese deliciousness of spinach, black olives, green olives, mushrooms, onions, roasted red peppers, green bell peppers, and banana peppers.” Not only did this huge portion provide me with a filling dinner, but the presentation provided an aesthetic worthy of the “phone eats first narrative.” — Kailynn Johnson
In 2018, at my first visit to Dino’s Grill, I fell in love, not with my date sat across from me for my freshman year sorority formal — the one who didn’t know how to properly punctuate contractions and who didn’t take kindly to constructive criticism. Oh no, I fell in love with the plate of spaghetti with marinara before me. And while my standards for choosing a formal date were low, my standards for spaghetti with marinara have always been high. And let’s just say Dino’s is now my new standard. It’s my favorite thing in all of Memphis. Seriously.
Blobby chows down on leftovers. (Photo: Abigail Morici)
And so as my deadline for this pizza issue loomed ahead of me, I dreaded ordering anything but spaghetti at Dino’s. How could I betray my love? And yet I did. For the sake of journalism. I ordered a cheese pizza. And hot damn, have I been missing out! The pizza comes with Dino’s signature marinara, the marinara I already love, and the pizza crust is thin just like my grandpa would’ve made it. How could I not love it? It’s simply delicious, and I had to withhold myself from eating all eight slices. Now, I fear that the next time I go to Dino’s, instead of immediately ordering my go-to pasta, I’ll have to make a decision between pasta and pizza. Lord, help me. — Abigail Morici
Tamboli’s Cacio e Pepe is an extraordinary and unusual pizza — and well worth a trip to the funky and delightful mother-ship restaurant on Madison Avenue.
Cacio e Pepe is built on the premise that a pizza with courage and ambition can forge its own path, forgoing such conventional building blocks as red sauce, tomatoes, meat, or, you know, vegetables and stuff. This is a pizza with heart — and lots of chewy and spicy goodness that will win you over.
This is a pizza that begins its climb to greatness with a whipped ricotta cheese base which is topped by a thick, gooey layer of mozzarella, some edgy pecorino Romano, freshly cracked black pepper, and the piece de resistance — white truffle oil. Get back, y’all!
Let’s be real, here: This is basically a mixed-cheese dance party that’s oven-baked and wood-fired on top of Tamboli’s wonderful house-made dough. The pepper and truffle oil merely serve to elevate it to bliss level.
Pro Tip: Cacio e Pepe pairs beautifully with Tamboli’s Caesar Salad, which also features Pecorino Romano, plus toasted pine nuts with house-made dressing. — Bruce VanWyngarden
Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza, 1761 Madison Ave., tambolis.com
Photo: Izzy Wollfarth
Memphis Pizza Café – Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Memphis Pizza Café has built its reputation on being one of the few pizza places that has mastered perfectly crispy and thin crust. But achieving that perfect crust harmony isn’t the only thing Memphis Pizza Café is famous for. What elevates this pizza joint is the balance of unique flavors found in every variation of pizza. Whether this is through their traditional subs, calzones, or cheese sticks filling bellies during happy hour (Monday-Friday, 4-6 p.m.), there is not one place where flavor is lost. And one of the most popular flavors is their Buffalo Chicken Pizza.
Taking a bite of their Buffalo Chicken Pizza will have diners begging for more. The secret of these flavors can be found in their marinated chicken tossed with mozzarella and cheddar on an olive oil-based pizza served with Frank’s special sauce and ranch dressing. While the contents of Frank’s sauce might not be known to us yet, our hunger for more will soon reveal the truth. — Izzy Wollfarth
Walking into Boscos on Overton Square, I feel a bit of nostalgia. Not only were they the first brew pub in Tennessee when they opened their Germantown location in 1992, they had the first wood-fired oven in the city. Pizza and beer are a sublime combination, and Boscos perfected both a long time ago. More than 30 years later, how well I remember the first wood-fired pizza I had there: It was a revelation.
I’m happy to report that Boscos hasn’t lost their touch. The only difference is that now you can see your pie being made at the pizza bar. Ordering a Palermo, I settle in to watch Chef Ashley roll out the crust, trim the edges, and apply the sauce, cheese, and other toppings. Then she slides it into the roaring heat of the wood-fired oven behind her. What emerges is transformed. The hard wheat crust rises ever so slightly, taking on an airy crunch, while the sauce tastes as fresh as farmers market tomatoes. The pepperoni and sausage crisp up nicely, but it’s the succulent portobello mushrooms that really make this pizza. Add a pint of Boscos’ own Famous Flaming Stone steinbier, and there you have it: a classic pairing done right, withstanding the test of time. — Alex Greene
I invited singer-songwriters Dylan Dunn and Ava Carrington to try a deep-dish pizza from Izzy & Adams.
Only one slice of the 14-inch Chicago Dude pizza was left when we finished. Dunn took that slice with him in a to-go box to a band rehearsal. The pizza, obviously, was a hit. “It’s the best pizza I’ve ever eaten,” he says.
Carrington, who doesn’t like pizza, loved the Izzy & Adam’s pizza we tried. The Chicago Dude, which includes pepperoni, onion, garlic, and giardiniera pepper mix, is so mouth-wateringly delicious. It’s dense, thick, and so full of flavor. It’s one of six speciality pizzas from Izzy & Adam’s.
Owner Ryan Long, who named the restaurant after his sons Isaac and Adam, describes the two-inch-or-so deep-dish pizza as a “cheese lover’s pizza.”
As Long told me in an earlier interview, “There’s a lot of cheese on it. It’s kind of a different pizza. There’s more filling. And it’s just unique to Chicago because it was invented there.”
With deep dish, “you put ingredients on the bottom, then the cheese, and the sauce goes on top of it all. And it’s garnished with Romano cheese and Parmesan.”
They use raw Italian sausage on their deep dish, as well as their thin-crust pizzas, Long told me. “We put on quarter-size pieces and it cooks in the oven. The grease from that pork gets released into the sauce. That’s what makes it damn good.”
Long knows whereof he speaks. He grew up in Rolling Meadows in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. — Michael Donahue
Izzy & Adam’s, 6343 Summer Ave., Suite 110
Photo: Samuel X. Cicci
Silly Goose – Farm Daddy
So many bars turned to pizza as their solution to the Covid-induced financial and operating woes. I was surprised as anyone several years ago when I discovered that Downtown’s Silly Goose — a bar/lounge where I’d before unwittingly stumbled into a sleazy-esque late-night poker tournament and had several shots bought for us by a blackout patron dressed as Woody from Toy Story — had reemerged as a gourmet pizza destination. (Don’t worry, it’s still a late-night hot spot.)
I posted up at the bar and ordered a Farm Daddy, which brought the farm-fresh tastes directly to my seat with a bevy of ingredients: scallions, mushrooms, smoked bacon, wood-fire baked chicken, mozzarella, and Parmesan tossed in a house-made roasted garlic cream sauce. Silly Goose’s pizzas are the perfect bar snack, enough heft to stave off that impending hangover, but just light enough to avoid feeling stuffed while downing beers at the bar.
As a bonus, it turned out I’d stumbled into Silly Goose during its Thursday “2 for $20” pizza deal, so I also snagged The Roni, their take on a classic pepperoni pizza with Grana Padano, mozzarella, and marinara sauce. All in all, it was a pretty good deal, and I think these pizzas make for a perfect late-night snack. And it’s easy to enjoy them in Silly Goose’s lounge area, combining the ski lodge aesthetic of rustic stacked log pillars with an airy walled garden vibe from a colorful sea of hanging wisterias. — Samuel X. Cicci
Pizza and beer make for an iconic duo. And the crossover between two big names in Memphis’ hospitality scene made that combination even more enticing when Wiseacre’s Kellan and Davin Bartosch teamed up with Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman.
Little Bettie’s Pizza and Snacks, open at Downtown’s Wiseacre HQ, focuses on New Haven-style pizzas: thin-crust, wood fired pies with a bit of char and a chewier texture, almost made in a similar vein to classic Neapolitan pizzas. There are plenty of interesting choices to pick, but one pizza reigns supreme above all: the Thud Butt.
I haven’t quite found another pie around town like the Thud Butt. Whisking together both sweet and savory tones, the pizza blends the silkiness and rich, fatty taste of mortadella drizzled with black pepper honey and a pistachio stracciatella, with a heaping dollop of homemade cheesy mayo in the center for good measure. That’s a whole lot of different flavors combined together in a pretty innovative way.
But if, like me, you’re allergic to pistachios, fret not! Every pizza is a good pizza at Little Bettie’s, with the added perk of being able to enjoy a slice alongside Wiseacre’s top-notch brews. Now that’s amore. — SXC
Little Bettie’s Pizza & Snacks, 398 S. B.B. King Blvd., wiseacrebrew.com
Barbecue sushi from Poke Paradise (Photo: Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh)
If you’re a Memphis chef, chances are you’ve thought about creating some kind of barbecue. Or maybe you already have.
But what would be your “signature” barbecue? Even if the idea is still in your imagination?
Tamra Patterson, chef/owner of Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe: “If Chef Tam created her style of barbecue/meat, it would be barbecue catfish stuffed with a barbecue jambalaya. No matter what I cook, I always have to infuse my love of Cajun food and Cajun culture.”
Jonathan Magallanes, chef/owner of Las Tortugas: “My style would be twice-cooked for an extra texture. First, braised like carnitas with whole orange, bay leaf, lard, lime, and green chile. Then flash-fried in peanut oil. At Tops Bar-B-Q, I ask for extra dark meat on the sandwich. That bark and meat crust is divine. Then I would use a chipotle salsa. Pork is braised in a huge copper kettle. Chipotle, cilantro, lime, and onion for garnish. I like to do the whole rack of ribs this way, or shoulder. Crispy pork is the best pork, as it accentuates and concentrates the porcine flavor.”
Mario Grisanti, owner of Dino’s Grill: “I make my own barbecue sauce, but I make it sweet. I would make a beef brisket and smoked pork barbecue lasagna with layers of meats, mozzarella cheese, etc. Thin layers of each covered in barbecue sauce.”
Chip Dunham, chef/owner of Magnolia & May: “One of my favorite barbecue dishes I’ve created is our Tacos con Mempho. I smoke my own pork shoulder for 12 hours and serve it on two corn tortillas with American cheese melted between them, avocado salsa, and tobacco onions. At brunch, we simply just add a scrambled egg and it’s a breakfast taco. Another one of my favorites was our barbecue butternut squash sandwich. We roast butternut squash and toss it with some Memphis barbecue sauce. It’s a vegan sandwich that satisfies the biggest meat-eater.”
Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris and The Second Line: “If I were to try to put my own fingerprints on what Memphis already does perfectly, I would play around with fermentations and chili peppers. I would also explore the traditions of barbacoa in ancient Central American and surrounding societies.”
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, Poke Paradise food truck owner: “I made a roll with barbecue meats a long time ago. Made with Central BBQ ribs. I made them plenty of times when I hung out with my barbecue friends. I did it in my rookie years. Inside is all rib meat topped with rib meat, barbecue crab mix, thin-sliced jalapeño, dab of sriracha, furikake, green onion.”
Armando Gagliano, Ecco on Overton Park chef/owner: “My favorite meat to smoke is pork back ribs. I keep the dry rub pretty simple: half brown sugar to a quarter adobo and a quarter salt. I smoke my ribs at 250-275 degrees using post oak wood and offset smoker. … The ribs are smoked for three hours and spritzed with orange juice and sherry vinegar every 30 minutes. After three hours, I baste with a homemade barbecue sauce that includes a lot of chipotle peppers and honey. Wrap the ribs in foil and put back on the smoker for two hours. After that, remove from the smoker and let rest in the foil for another hour. They should pull completely off the bone, but not fall apart when handled.”
FreeSol, owner of Red Bones Turkey Legs at Carolina Watershed: “I am already doing it with the turkey legs. We are smoking these legs for hours till they fall of the bone. … We [also] flavor them and stuff them.”
Ryan Trimm, chef/owner of Sunrise Memphis and 117 Prime: “Beef spare ribs are a personal favorite of mine. A nice smoke with a black pepper-based rub followed by a fruit-based sweet-and-spicy barbecue sauce is my way to go.”
And even Huey’s gets in on the act. Huey’s COO Ashley Boggs Robilio says, “Recipe created by Huey’s Midtown day crew: Huey’s world famous BBQ brisket burger. Topped with coleslaw and fried jalapeños.”
Continuing to celebrate barbecue month in Memphis, more chefs share ’que ideas in next week’s Memphis Flyer.
Dino’s Grill owner Mario Grisanti and his dad, Rudy Grisanti, gave basically the same answer to my question: “Is Dino’s the only Italian restaurant in Memphis that puts chicken and spinach in its ravioli instead of ground beef and cheese?”
“As far as I know, we’re the only ones doing it,” Mario says.
“To be honest, as far as I know we’re the only ones that make a chicken ravioli,” Rudy says.
Mario Grisanti and Dino’s ravioli
“To my knowledge, that’s the way we’ve always done it,” Mario says. “Even going back to my great-grandfather Frank Benedetti at the State Cafe at Beale and Main. Everybody else’s, it seems, is beef and cheese.”
Dino’s doesn’t make beef raviolis. “It’s not an option,” Mario says.
That can surprise people. “I had a lady call me. She had a to-go order. About 30 minutes after she picked up her order, she called and said, ‘I just want you to know everything was great, but the inside of my raviolis were green.’ I just started laughing. ‘It’s chicken and spinach that makes it green.’ She said, ‘Okay. I feel so much better.'”
“We have a lot of people who come in and say, ‘Well, we want beef ravioli,”’ Rudy says. “I tell them, ‘I’m sorry. Our ravioli has spinach and chicken in them. Try them.'”
The response is, “These are great. These are fantastic.”
“It really is lighter, for one thing,” Rudy says. “Since we make our own pasta for it, it makes a lighter dish because sometimes raviolis can be pretty heavy.”
And, he says, “In a sense, it’s better for you because it’s less cholesterol and stuff like that. The chicken is really a better choice than trying to add a lot of beef to your diet.”
They’ve made other raviolis, Rudy says. “I’ve made seafood raviolis, and I put a tarragon cream sauce on them. We’ve made salmon raviolis with saffron sauce. But, traditionally, when we make ravioli, it’s always chicken and spinach.”
“We used to make a cheese ravioli with parmesan, ricotta and eggs, and seasonings, but there was just no real call for it,” Mario says. “It’s labor-intensive to make. We’re making probably 20 dozen a day. I don’t have the time to make several different fillings and put them all together.”
Asked how chicken ravioli came about, Rudy says, “I guess it was because beef was a lot more expensive during the Depression than chicken was. That’s just his old recipe, and that’s the way we’ve always made it.
“The main ingredient is the chicken, and then we add spinach to it,” Rudy says. “The spinach naturally makes it greener. But he never really said why, and I never questioned him about it.”
Benedetti added pork brains as a binder to the raviolis, but after he retired, Rudy began using eggs because he couldn’t find decent pork brains.
Unless a customer orders marinara sauce, Dino’s meat sauce includes ground beef, tomato sauce, water, garlic, Italian seasoning, onions, and celery, Mario says. “Marinara is the exact same thing minus the ground beef. And we add diced tomatoes.”
They make ravioli every day, he says. “We’ve done a lot of frozen ravioli, lately. It’s the exact same ravioli, just fried at a boil, with a side of meat sauce.”
Frozen raviolis were very popular when the pandemic began, Mario says. “When all of this first started, we sold a lot of frozen raviolis because one, people can make their own sauce. A lot of people felt more comfortable cooking their own food at their house.”
They’re still popular. “We sell them year-round frozen. I had three dozen go out yesterday, and four dozen tomorrow.”
Simplicity — in addition to flavor — might be one of the keys to the popularity of the food at Dino’s Grill. “None of the stuff we make here is real fancy,” Mario says. “Just good quality, simple, homemade stuff.”
Note: Dino’s still offers its all-you-can-eat spaghetti for $8.95 on Thursday nights.
If a place is known for its fried chicken, you order the fried chicken. End of discussion. Or… maybe there’s a restaurant widely revered for its specialty but offers a dish that is mind-blowingly incongruent and yet so very delicious. You’re going to want to try that too, right?
Elwood’s fish tacos
Fish Tacos at Elwood’s Shack
Elwood’s Shack is literally a shack adjacent to the Lowe’s parking lot on Perkins near Summer. It’s safe to say that it’s the last place you’d expect to find a mighty fine fish taco. The Steelhead Trout Fish Tacos ($11) come two to a plate. An eight-inch tortilla is baked with mozzarella to form the taco shell, and because the cheese coats the entire tortilla, it tastes as though the trout is wrapped in a crispy, deliciously gooey quesadilla. (Look out, Taco Bell!) Steelhead trout is a fish that spends part of its life in the ocean and can grow up to 55 pounds. The meat is very pink, and the flavor is not at all fishy. The trout is topped with fresh field greens, avocado, pico de gallo, and a creamy horseradish sauce. It’s really quite amazing. And filling. I have no idea how anyone could eat two. Sides are sold separately, so definitely hold off on those or get someone to share.
Clearly Jack Pirtle’s is known for their chicken, as they should be, but they also cook up a damn fine burger. The Old Fashioned Grilled Hamburger is not fancy, and it doesn’t need to be. All of the basics are there — a nice-sized patty (grilled to perfection), crispy iceberg lettuce, thick cut raw onion, thinly sliced tomato, generous pickle slices, lots of mayo, and tangy mustard. The kicker is the buttered and grilled bun. (Butter = love.) It’s reminiscent of the kind of burger you’d order late at night in a bar, but it’s available all day long and you don’t need a buzz to think it tastes good! And for $2.79, it’s a steal. With prices that low, you’ll want to order a side of fries to dip in their signature gravy. Go ahead, get a little chicken too. Put it the fridge and eat it later.
The tamales at Dino’s are listed under “Italian specialties” on the menu, but they are made in South Memphis especially for the restaurant. They come plain, with chili, or “3 way” ($7.95) — with chili and spaghetti. Of course, I had to go with the latter. The 3-way tamales definitely fall under the “Things I never thought I’d eat sober” category. Although, honestly, they may in fact be the perfect hangover food. The tamales themselves are tender, meaty, and pack a nice, spicy punch. Four of them serve as a base for the spaghetti and chili (a combination known as spaghetti red). You can’t eat chili without cheese and onions, so it’s like three meals in one. Dino’s chili isn’t far off from its traditional sauce (aka gravy). I’d bet they just add some beans to it. Whatever they do, I like it. There’s enough tomato-y goodness to get a traditional spaghetti fix with the noodles and enough bean action to get the full-on chili experience. It is way too easy to eat way too much of this!
