On Monday, January 12th at 6 p.m., there will be launch party at Sweet Grass for Feeding Memphis: A Celebration of the City’s Eclectic Cuisine, a new book by Michael Glasgow.
The book includes profiles of 28 of Memphis’ best restaurants and features recipes. Ten dollars of every sale of Feeding Memphis, which costs $45, will go to the Mid-South Food Bank.
Glasgow is a Nashville-based writer, which begs the question: Why Memphis?
“I like finding new stories,” Glasgow says. “This is more fun for me to learn things I don’t know.”
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Justin Fox Burks
Restaurant Iris’ Corn Bread Pancakes with Crab Ravigote
Glasgow has a son living in Memphis, and through him, he hooked up with local chefs. He then asked them where they like to eat, which led him to places like Lunchbox Eats and the Cozy Corner. What he sought for Feeding Memphis is “the new, the iconic, and the emerging.”
Among the restaurants are the Second Line, Hog & Hominy, Felicia Suzanne’s, Memphis Pizza Cafe, Huey’s, Tsunami, Muddy’s Bake Shop, the Half Shell, and the Beauty Shop.
Some of the recipes in the book are the Arcade’s famous sweet potato pancakes, Folk Folly’s Maker’s Mark medallions, and McEwen’s on Monroe’s sea bass with shiitake risotto.
The book has plenty of food porn and great archival images as well.
Andrea Behrends
Hog & Hominy’s Johnny Cakes Masa
While all of the restaurants in Feeding Memphis are familiar to Memphians, the book underscores how many of them are securely grounded in family: the Boggs family of Huey’s; the Vergos family of the Rendezvous, the Koplins of Brother Juniper’s. There are Thara Burana and Dottie Cull of Bangkok Alley and Raymond and Desiree Robinson of the Cozy Corner — both couples leaping into unknown waters of the restaurant business.
Glasgow proves adept at rooting out interesting asides and charming anecdotes. Felicia Willett has a degree in marketing and business from the University of Memphis. Kevin Keough struggled with coming up with a name for Cafe Keough. Molly Gonzales’ (the Molly of Molly’s La Casita) nickname for Robert Chapman was the Tortilla Man.
The driving idea behind the Feeding Memphis, says Glasgow, is “Dine Local/Give Local.” His goal in teaming up with the Mid-South Food Bank is to provide 150,000 meals. His next step is extending the Feeding brand to 8 or 10 more cities, with the ultimate goal of providing one million meals.
The Feeding Memphis launch party at Sweet Grass is $100 per person and includes a three-course dinner prepared by Ryan Trimm and a signed copy of the book. Huey’s will host a Feeding Memphis Day at all of its locations Monday, January 19th. Copies of the book will be available for purchase throughout the day.
The book is available for purchase at Social gift shop on Perkins, the South Main Book Juggler, the Booksellers at Laurelwood, Burke’s Book Store, the Stovall Collection, and Oxford Floral in Oxford, MS.
A number of restaurants will also have the book for sale: the Rendezvous, Muddy’s Grind House, Muddy’s Bake Shop, Porcellino’s, Gibson’s Donuts, Molly’s La Casita, Folk’s Folly, the Beauty Shop, Caritas Village, Bangkok Alley, and Brother Juniper’s.