Juice has never been so much fun.
Just ask anyone who’s been drawn in by the delicious and natural offerings of Scott and Rebekah Tashie’s City Silo Table + Pantry restaurant. In fact, the healthy Southern eats and variety of juices and smoothies at the original East Memphis location proved so popular that the couple knew it was time to pull the trigger on opening a second location.
Samuel X. Cicci
The Sunshine Burrito, stuffed with crumbled silo burger patty, two scrambled fresh farm eggs, seasoned sweet potato, red quinoa, brown rice, sharp cheddar, cashew ranch, sriracha aioli, and wrapped in a chili tomato tortilla, served with a side of pico de gallo. In the background, the Green Light Go smoothie has just enough sweet fruity flavors to finely balance out the sourness of the granny smith juice base.
“We’ve been really overwhelmed by all the support we’ve had from Memphis since we first opened,” says Rebekah. “We’ve just gotten busier and busier since we opened the first City Silo, so we wanted to have a bigger space that could accommodate more people.”
At 3,500 square feet, the Germantown spot has plenty of space for extra diners, and even includes a bar and an outdoor covered patio. And with COVID-19 in mind, the large space makes it easy to abide by social distancing guidelines.
The pair originally signed the lease for 7605 W. Farmington Blvd, Suite 2 at Saddle Creek Shopping center back in February, but the pandemic meant that their initial timetable of an August opening had to be adjusted.
“Our landlord was awesome,” Scott says. “After COVID hit, we discussed things with them and they gave us a few extra months to really focus on adapting. So we were able to give our full attention to the new location without having to rush. It was a process, but we worked with a lot of great people, and that made things really easy for us.”
Diners who walk into the new City Silo, which officially opened today, won’t miss a beat. The Tashies made sure that they captured the essence of the original City Silo brand, with both the aesthetic and menu staying true to the first location.
“Our goal was to take our original store and bring a lot of the feel and textures over from there,” says Scott. “Our big question was how do we make this space feel awesome, feel safe, feel credible, but still have it feel like City Silo. So this new location, it’s an update on our first idea, kind of like a step up, but it’s still City Silo.”
“We’re going for an airy, fresh, light, happy, warm vibe,” Rebekah explains. “We have a lot of plants, a lot of wooden decorations, and wanted to bring in a lot of cool colors to really liven it up.”
Samuel X. Cicci
The Germantown City Silo’s spacious interior provides plenty of room and natural light, and crucially for this writer, a welcome sense of relief, relaxation, and respite after almost a year of working from home. The bar at the far end of the restaurant will soon serve City Silo’s specially curated cocktail menu.
In terms of food, the menu at the new City Silo will mirror the original. But the Tashies are working to slowly integrate new items here and there. “We put a lot of thought into new dishes,” Scott says. “If you go to our original store, you can see we just added tacos. It’s a limited-time menu item, so once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
“We’ll look to include more small plates and try out different things,” elaborates Rebekah. “And when we roll them out, we’ll do it in both places simultaneously.”
But a major change brought about by the new location is the inclusion of a new cocktail menu. Once City Silo gets its liquor license, expect to see an intriguing variety of cocktails that use the Tashies’ same clean, wholesome approach to their food.
“We’re not going to go crazy with our liquor selection, but we’ve carefully selected a vodka, a tequila, a mescal, a rum, and a gin,” Scott says. “And we’re going to incorporate our juices into the cocktails as well. When this is all ready, we’ll roll it out at our East Memphis location as well, and it will be the official City Silo cocktail menu.”
While the full cocktail menu hasn’t been revealed yet, a few hints from the Tashies point toward a potential beet margarita, or a carrot juice and mezcal concoction.
Samuel X. Cicci
City Silo owners Scott and Rebekah Tashie
City Silo Table + Pantry’s Germantown restaurant is located at 7605 W. Farmington Blvd., Suite 2. Open for dine-in, takeout, curbside pick-up, and delivery. Monday-Thursday 7 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. thecitysilo.com; 901-236-7223