The Black Sheep might sound like an unusual name for a hot sauce, but founder/creator Lawerence Russell has a good explanation.
“There’s hundreds and thousands of hot sauces,” he says. “The idea was, ‘This is not just another hot sauce.’ Black sheep stand out in the crowd. We do things differently.’”
Russell, 40, owner of Black Sheep Bottling Co., is a hot sauce lover. “And I love cooking food in a smoker. Smoking food. So anytime I would be smoking ribs, pork shoulders, [and had] the extra room on the smoker, I’d throw some peppers on there and make hot sauce out of it.”
He would “just slow smoke the peppers. Once the peppers are smoked, get them off the grill.”
Russell adds roasted garlic, sea salt, tomato, onion, and distilled white vinegar. He then blends everything together and brings it to a simmer.
Born in Abilene, Texas, Russell moved to Memphis when he was six months old. He was introduced to grilling by his dad on camping trips. “Just being around fire and that sort of thing. I’ve always loved the slow-cooking process. Keeping the fire right.”
And “being in Memphis around barbecue” didn’t hurt, either.
“I think I got my first barrel smoker when I was about 25. Up until then I just had a grill. I’d just grill with friends. Cooking out on football Sundays.”
Russell came up with his smoky hot sauce “kind of on a whim. Part of it was what peppers I could get at the store. Most hot sauces you get peppers, vinegar, water, and salt.”
He wanted something different. So, along with garlic and onions, he began smoking the peppers, which gave a “smoky flavor” to his hot sauce.
Russell decided to sell his hot sauce commercially about five years ago. He liked the idea of starting a small business. “Learn the process and go through everything.”
He also loved visiting the local farmers markets. “I always enjoyed being there. I thought if I would have a product, I could be a part of the farmers market.”
Russell got his business license, and began bottling his hot sauce at a commercial kitchen at Crosstown Concourse.
He brought his hot sauce to a farmers market for the first time in 2019. “I thought I’d sell maybe five or 10 bottles. I sold over 60. We were offering samples: ‘Give it a try.’ Everybody who tasted it bought it.”
Russell now has three hot sauce flavors. Original is great on “everything from eggs and sandwiches to grilled meats and veggies.”
On Fire, a hotter version of Original, is for people with a higher heat tolerance. He kicked up the heat by adding more habanero peppers.
Gone Green, which includes smoked poblano and serrano peppers, is similar to salsa verde, Russell says. “I love it on enchiladas and black beans and rice.”
Russell uses his hot sauce “two to three times a day. I’ll put it on my eggs in the morning for breakfast. If I’m having fried rice or a sandwich at lunch I’ll put it on. And then for dinner whatever I’m having — grilled steak or veggies — I’ll add it to that.”
Among others who love his hot sauce are the cooks at Dory restaurant.
David Krog, who, along with his wife, Amanda, owns Dory, says he serves Black Sheep hot sauces with the staff meals at the restaurant. “We put out the green and then the red with our family meal most every day,” he says.
Krog discovered the hot sauce when Russell gave him a bottle. Their children attend the same school. “I brought it to the restaurant and put it out and we all tasted the red and the green. The response from all of those cooks was unexpected for me. These guys were over the moon with this product. This guy’s hot sauce. I told him, ‘I’m in shock. All of my guys think this is an incredible product.’”
Black Sheep hot sauces are available at High Point Grocery, Triangle Meat Market, and Doc’s Wine, Spirits & More.
The sandwich of the month began in September at Lucchesi’s Beer Garden: Deli, Package & Parlor.
“We tried to get it started in June, but we ended up having a baby,” says Tony Lucchesi, 41. “He was born July 7th. Giovanni.”
Tony, who co-owns the business with his wife, Basma, often combines eclectic ingredients for his sammies. Like September’s offering: The Memphisto.
“It’s a take on the Monte Cristo, but it’s not quite a Monte Cristo. I’ve been on a John Prine kick lately. And he has a song, ‘The Sins of Memphisto.’ It’s Italian rye bread with blackberry jam, ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese. But it’s pressed on a panini press. When we pull it off, it’s topped with powdered sugar.”
For October, Tony will feature his I’m From Memphis sandwich. “It’s a sub roll with peanut butter, pulled pork and a half-pound hot dog, and banana honey puree. And it’s pressed on the panini press.”
As for the logic behind his sandwich-making, Tony says, “We come up with stuff randomly here and there. And, eventually, they make it on the menu.
“I’ve never considered myself a chef. But I think I’m good at flavor combinations.”
Growing up, Tony made sandwiches. “I was obsessed with bologna and mayonnaise sandwiches. Simple, thick-cut bologna, mayonnaise, and bread. I was a very plain eater when I was younger.”
But not that plain. “I used to always make just turkey and ham sandwiches. With Doritos on them.”
Then there was his “fried Spam with peanut butter sandwich on toast. Peanut butter goes oddly well with pork.”
Cooking came later. “Outside of just making sandwiches and making Kraft blue box macaroni and cheese, I didn’t start getting into a bunch of stuff until college when I had to start making stuff for myself: ‘Yeah. I’ll try this out.’”
Tony worked at Old Venice Pizza Co. while attending Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. He and his roommate also did a lot of cooking. “We would flip through random cookbooks and if we saw something we liked or something that seemed appealing, we’d give it a shot.”
Tony graduated from University of Memphis with a degree in music. “I was in a band [Antique Curtains]. And I played guitar and piano, but my concentration was in record industry operations.”
He met Basma when he began working for her dad at the old Raffe’s Deli, where he had his first gyro. Basma’s dad also introduced him to tabouli and hummus.
In 2009, Tony and Basma moved to Orange County, California, where he worked at Five Crowns, a fine dining restaurant. He credits the restaurant for teaching him “the whole concept of hitting different flavor profiles, where you have five tastes: sweet, savory, salty, sour, and tart.”
In 2012, Tony and Basma took over Lucchesi’s Beer Garden, which Basma’s parents opened in addition to the deli.
Tony began using “higher quality ingredients” in the food. “I wanted to bring people natural deli meats that had no fillers or anything.”
He also introduced his sandwiches, including the Grizzle — a panini with mayonnaise, hot sweet mustard, turkey, roast beef, pepper jack cheese, jalapeños, and bruschetta.
The Grizzle is their top-selling sandwich, but Tony says, “I think we have one of the best vegetarian sandwiches you can get in the city. It’s the Spicy Little Burger: toasted wheat bread with hummus, tabouli, a falafel burger patty, jalapeños, hot sweet mustard, and a pickled-turnips-and-beets relish.”
Tony plans to debut more of his cuisine at Lucchesi’s Beer Garden. “This winter, I think I’m going to introduce at least maybe a soup or a chili. But I think at some point in time I want to make spaghetti gravy from my grandmother’s recipe. I don’t know if I’m going to do a traditional spaghetti with gravy or if I’m going to work it into a gyro. I have not decided yet.”
It might even include an offbeat ingredient. “I’m not opposed to adding honey to anything.”
Keith Riley with fried oysters (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Cafe 1912 is celebrating its 21st anniversary with specials for the next couple of weeks.
This week’s menu will include the restaurant’s signature Mardi Gras item: fried oysters with remoulade sauce.
Beef bourguignon with buttered noodles also will be featured. “Beef bourguignon was on the very first menu we did at La Tourelle,” says Martha Hays, who, along with her husband, Glenn, owns Cafe 1912 at 243 Cooper Street.
She and her husband also owned the now-closed La Tourelle, which they opened in 1977 on Monroe Avenue just off Overton Square. The restaurant, named for the tower, or turret, on top, was more of a fine dining/white tablecloth restaurant with its prix fixe menu.
Glenn also wanted a restaurant that was “more eclectic” and “would appeal to a broader range of folks,” Martha says. Cafe 1912 was named after the year the building housing the restaurant was constructed. “The facade has ‘1912’ on it.”
They opened La Tourelle because Glenn, who worked in the athletic department at the University of Memphis, loved to eat, loved to go to France, and loved to read cookbooks. He wanted a restaurant that served the type of French dishes he enjoyed, says Martha, who was teaching French and English at Lincoln Junior High School at the time.
Glenn was the chef when La Tourelle opened. “He came in every day and cooked. I made bread and desserts at home. Glenn made stew-type things: beef bourguignon, blanquette de veau, and cassoulet. All one pot. That’s what we did for the first six weeks. Then reality hit. Summer was ending and we both had to go back to our jobs.”
They began hiring chefs, including Erling Jensen, who worked at the restaurant for seven and a half years. Jensen answered an ad, which Glenn put in TheNew York Times when he was looking for a chef. Jensen arrived three weeks later and moved into the apartment above La Tourelle. He now owns Erling Jensen: The Restaurant.
Glenn opened Cafe 1912 after discovering the space next to Barksdale Restaurant, where he often ate, was for lease.
Martha remembers when Glenn told her he signed the lease to open another restaurant. “My reaction this time was, ‘Oh, I think that’s a good idea.’ Which is totally different from my reaction when he told me about La Tourelle. I was completely scared. You have to remember how young we were. Our oldest was 18 months old. And I was teaching school. He cashed in a life insurance policy to get the money for him and his partner to start renovating.”
They’ve “always had a burger on the menu” at Cafe 1912, but they also serve fine dining items, Martha says. The fare initially was “French inspired. But that’s changed somewhat over the years as people got more into different kinds of spices and things like that.”
Cafe 1912 and La Tourelle “co-existed for five years,” Martha says. La Tourelle closed “because we were having trouble finding a qualified person to put in the kitchen.”
And there was “a lot more competition” from new fine dining restaurants.
“One brunch, Kelly English came in with his family. And Glenn happened to be here and was talking to him. He said, ‘Do you know anybody who wants to buy a restaurant?’ And Kelly said, ‘I do.’ And that’s exactly what happened. We sold it in November 2007, and Iris opened about six months after that.”
Their seafood crepe is one of their longest-running menu items. “It has shrimp and bay scallops and béchamel sauce wrapped up in the crepe. It’s served hot.”
Keith Riley, Cafe 1912’s executive chef since 2009, added “pan-seared grouper with roasted red pepper, asparagus, and risotto with sun-dried tomato beurre blanc.”
Riley substitutes other fish, including corvina or scallops, when grouper isn’t available.
Cafe 1912 expanded in 2007 when the bay next door went up for lease. “We put in the bar. And that’s really pretty much what changed our vibe a bit.”
Memphis Flyer senior editor Bruce VanWyngarden “referred to us once as ‘The Cheers of Midtown.’ A lot of our crowd is older and they’re Midtown. They come in here and I can’t tell you how often everybody knows everybody.”
Keith Clinton puts the “experience” in “dining experience” at Chez Philippe.
In addition to what they find on their plates, diners also are surprised by the extras Clinton provides.
Clinton, 35, immediately put his footprint down earlier this year when he became chef de cuisine at the elegant restaurant at The Peabody. “I move so fast,” he says. “And I change the menu constantly. We’re so hyper-focused on seasoning and sourcing of ingredients. We must move. And I am constantly pushing and constantly recreating and developing. And they give me the space to do that.”
Also, he adds, “I’m just fascinated with food. Fascinated with nature. The process of it all.”
Clinton, who was chef de cuisine for five years at Erling Jensen: The Restaurant, was a private chef when he heard about The Peabody opening. “I was looking to have a little more fun. I missed service. I missed going fast.”
Clinton is now having fun. He searches for unusual ingredients, as well as the best familiar ingredients, for his cuisine. He and his kitchen staff are constantly making trips to Jones Orchard in Millington, Tennessee. “I really like taking my guys out there. And just spending an afternoon before service picking produce we’re going to use that weekend.”
Like the strawberries they bought last spring. “We would pick the green ones. Just a little ripe. A little not ready. And ferment them for a dish on the menu.”
He made a green strawberry sorbet with the fermented strawberries. They topped that off with some buttermilk ice. “So, it’s like a buttermilk granita.”
Clinton also regularly visits Viet Hoa Market — “an amazing resource on Cleveland” — to find unusual ingredients.
But he also educates diners. “I’ll take all the ingredients in raw format — ramps and raw mushrooms — out to the table and say, ‘This is what’s in this dish.’”
He pinpoints certain times during his seven-course menu to go into the dining room. He’ll show up with shoyu, a liquid made from cherry blossoms, for his tuna fish, grapefruit, and avocado dish. He’ll “pour the shoyu over the dish at the table and talk to guests. Explain it to them.”
Clinton also researches guests who’ve made reservations. “Gathering as much information about them so we can tailor the experience.”
He’ll look them up on LinkedIn and Whitepages. “I know I have two hours to figure out something about this person with the information I received. And I translate that into an experience that is customized to that person. Which is a challenge to me.”
For instance, Clinton discovered a particular couple once celebrated a wedding anniversary at Earnestine & Hazel’s. He assumed they had Soul Burgers, so he created mini smash burgers, which he surprised them with halfway through their meal. “Nobody else got a Soul Burger that night but them.”
His menus are “more seasonal than just the four main seasons. Especially when things are only around a couple of weeks or only once a month.”
His seven-course menu includes a snack course that can be eaten by hand. These include items like a fig and almond butter tart and a mushroom and truffle tuile. “I put in a hot towel service. When they’re done eating with their hands, I present them with a hot towel that’s steamed in essential oils.”
Diners even get “playful mignardise,” little snacks, maybe like a Windsor cookie, they can “eat in the car on the ride home or the next morning.”
He wants his diners to know, “We’re still thinking of you. And hope you’re still thinking of us.”
Clinton knows when to visit a table. “Some people seem open to it, some are more reserved. I play it by ear.”
He will “catch the vibe.” That’s when he might think, “I’ve been out there too much. I’ve been to their table five times. Let them eat.”
But, Clinton says, “Building that relationship with the guests, going the extra mile, is necessary.”
Chez Philippe is at The Peabody at 149 Union Avenue.
Ysaac Ramirez will be the featured chef at the upcoming Etowah dinner, which will be held September 16th at The Commonwealth.
Etowah, hosted by Josh Conley and Cole Jeanes, features dinners four times a year and brings top chefs from around the country.
A former Memphian, Ramirez, 43, now lives in Palm Springs, California, where he is corporate chef for Drift Hotels.
His Etowah dinner will include five courses. “This menu I created is going to be blending a lot of Latin flavors and Southern cuisine,” Ramirez says.
Coloradito, one of the main entrees, is “a dish my mom used to make when we were kids.”
But Ramirez, who describes his ongoing kitchen style as being “in the kitchen of Mexican and Latin cuisine,” likes to add a Southern touch. He’s incorporating grits in the pork, tomato, and chili sauce dish. “You get this creamy tortilla-like flavor.”
Born in Colorado, Ramirez spent most of his childhood in California before moving to Memphis at 13.
Ramirez, whose dad is Mexican, says his mother learned to cook Mexican food from his grandmother. “My parents got married at a young age. [My dad] was drafted to Vietnam. And my mom lived with my grandmother for two years while he was in Vietnam. She’s learning how to cook everything Mexican. Everything that my grandmother used to do.”
Ramirez and his family ate “fresh flour homemade tortillas” every day. “My mom, every Christmas, would make tamales. A process that takes forever.”
Ramirez didn’t initially want to be a chef. “I did spend some time in the kitchen with my mom, but it wasn’t really an aspiration of mine at that young of an age. I’d help my mom. More just so we can eat faster, I guess. Also, I didn’t find it a chore or anything. I did find it interesting, but I didn’t think at that age it would be my career.”
Ramirez expressed his creativity through art. “It was painting. Surrealism. A lot of abstract painting. Landscapes as well. I mixed in mostly surreal and abstract.”
His plan was to go to Memphis College of Art. “I thought about it and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a starving artist the rest of my life.’ Pretty ironic. Then I was a struggling cook for a long time.”
Before he got into cooking at age 26, Ramirez was a property accountant at Trammell Crow Co., which later was bought by CB Richard Ellis. But after being an accountant for six years, Ramirez thought, “I do not want to do this the rest of my life.”
He decided to trade his “slacks and button downs” for a chef’s jacket.
Ramirez began working at Interim while he was studying at L’Ecole Culinaire. “I left a pretty good job for making $8 an hour making salads. That’s a hard pill to swallow. But it was something that I really wanted to do at that time. Everything was piquing my interest in culinary.”
His restaurant jobs included working at Hog & Hominy, the old Gray Canary, and other restaurants owned by Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman.
But everywhere he worked was a place Ramirez knew would further his career. “Everything had to make sense and serve a purpose for me growing and excelling as a chef. I think it speaks volumes to where I am right now. A lot of kids now are thinking, ‘Who’s going to get paid the highest,’ but not looking toward the future and seeing how that job will benefit them. I toughed it out for a long time. The choices I was going to make were going to pay off down the road.”
After moving to various restaurants around the country and even opening his own “barbecue Latin-infused concept” pop-up called “porc” out of his house, Ramirez began working as executive chef at Maleza at a Drift Hotel in Palm Springs. “I recently moved into a corporate chef role overseeing different operations for projects for Drift Hotels.”
He agreed to be the chef at the upcoming Etowah dinner after Conley reached out to him. “I was like, ‘Yeah. It makes sense. I haven’t been to Memphis in quite some time.’ And I can sort of bring a different element to dining that Memphians aren’t quite used to yet.”
Elfo Grisanti’s new dining room (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Elfo Grisanti’s, which opened two years ago in Southaven, Mississippi, is finally looking the way owners Alex and Kim Grisanti originally envisioned it.
A private dining room and the ladies bathroom still need to be completed, but, other than that, all the remodeling is done, Alex says.
The restaurant at 5627 Getwell Road has the same vibe as his dad’s legendary restaurant, Ronnie Grisanti & Sons, which was on Poplar Avenue near the viaduct. Elfo’s bar, which resembles a “big horseshoe,” is now completed. It has 18 chairs. “We built it like a U-shape. Like the old Ronnie’s.”
They knocked out the wall where the pizza oven was located so they could make the bar bigger, Alex says. “And we took the bay next to it, too.”
Teresa Brown and Krista Vind, who did the interior work at Elfo’s, also did interior work for Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants. Vind did the concrete work on the bar tops. “It’s actual concrete. And it’s crazy ’cause my bar shines like marble.”
Like his former restaurant in Germantown, the color scheme at the restaurant is black and gold. The walls were made to resemble “18th-century walls,” Alex says. “They did all these mosaic walls. It’s beautiful. It’s a whole different place. All the walls are concrete. They look like they’re stained. They’ve got that gray, black, and white like you see on the old buildings in Italy.”
The kitchen also got an overhaul. “I bought a new conveyor oven. Our kitchen has been totally redesigned to cook our food. I put in a new pasta boiler. I got new pasta machines to make my fried ravioli and pizza dough.”
Alex also re-hired former employees. “I got all my guys that have been with me and my dad for 20 years. They’re back with me in the kitchen.”
Elfo’s menu features beloved dishes made from Grisanti family recipes, some of which date to the first Grisanti’s restaurant, “Grisanti’s on Main,” Alex says. “In two or three months we’re going to start back all our specials. Every day a fish special, a pasta special, a beef special, and a soup of the day.”
Alex and Kim are seeing a lot of familiar faces at Elfo’s. “All our old customers are eating with me. They are realizing they live in Germantown, and it takes them no longer to drive to Mississippi than it would Downtown.”
And locals are discovering what a Grisanti’s restaurant is like. “These people have never experienced anything like it. Now they’re loading up down here. Oh, my gosh. They call it ‘Cheers’ now.”
Alex and Kim also relocated to Southaven. But Alex remembers what it was like when he opened the restaurant. “It was like the unknown. I didn’t know anything about Southaven. I didn’t know anything about the area where we were.” But, he says, “It’s just been a blessing. We are in the hot spot where everything is getting built.”
Silo Square, the 288-acre, $200-million mixed-use project along Getwell Road, currently is in the works. “And a friend of ours is building another 120-acre development.”
Alex and Kim still have future plans for Elfo’s. “We’ve been slowly talking about the front. Doing a little outside patio. Piazza. But it’ll probably be next year before we get around to it. We’ve redone so much work inside bringing it up to our standards.
“We wanted our customers to have the true Grisanti’s experience — white tablecloths, good service, big glasses of wine. It just took a while to get that dialed in.”
That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite time of the year again: Memphis Flyer Burger Week! For 2023’s celebration of the holy grail of classic American dining, we researched some of the best beef patties around and released our writers all over the city to sample some good ol’ Bluff City hamburgers. The usual suspects are out in force, while some newcomers showed off their tasty takes on ground chuck. All of the restaurants on the following pages are participating in Burger Week this year, so we went ahead and checked out what you can expect for some pretty cool $6.99 deals.
Old Bridge Burger – Loflin Yard
“Oh gee,” mused an indecisive diner during a night out on the town in Downtown Memphis. “What do I want to eat tonight? A hamburger? Some barbecue? Or maybe just a small snack of onion rings to tide me over?”
“Oh-ho!” chortled a voice just over his shoulder. “Trouble deciding what to eat tonight?”
“The Loflin Fairy!” the diner exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Why, I’m here to solve your dinnertime woes with the Old Bridge Burger at Loflin Yard.” With a flourish, the Loflin Fairy snapped his fingers to conjure a plate out of thin air, topped with a hefty burger piled with all sorts of different accouterments. The diner leaned in, eyes wide, as his salivating gaze wandered over the myriad ingredients.
“It’s got a large Angus beef patty, coleslaw, pickles, barbecue sauce … wait, is that pulled pork on top of the burger? And some fried onion rings under the top bun?”
“Indeed it is,” laughed the Loflin Fairy.
“That’s so much food!” But when the diner looked up, the Loflin Fairy had vanished, leaving him alone with the large Old Bridge Burger, a side of fries, and a frozé for good measure. — Samuel X. Cicci 7 W. Carolina Ave.
The Celtic Burger (Photo: Jon W. Sparks)
The Celtic Burger – Celtic Crossing
Celtic Crossing’s old standbys — think shepherd’s pie and bangers and mash — are splendid, but if you’re hankering for a good ol’ hamburger, you’ll get a beefy serving of satisfaction at the classic Irish pub. The Celtic Burger starts with its blended patty that is nicely seasoned and sports a satisfying topper of American cheese. There is also a “secret sauce,” which implies a certain possible leprechaun involvement, but which my taste buds and some discreet inquiries revealed to have elements of ketchup and mayonnaise (probably not from County Mayo, though).
Verdict is: delicious. Rounding it out are pickles, tomatoes, and shaved lettuce. It all sits comfortably between two halves of a potato bun liberally festooned with sesame seeds. The dish comes with thick, savory fries, as one would expect from a Hibernian kitchen. The seeded bun itself is a delight, but, as will happen with robust burgers, might not stay intact through the end. This, however, is why the Irish invented forks, so you can enjoy it to the last morsel. — Jon W. Sparks 903 Cooper St.
World Famous Huey Burger (Photo: Shara Clark)
World Famous Huey Burger – Huey’s
When’s the last time you had a World Famous Huey Burger? For me, it’s been a year. Yep, when I signed up to eat this classic for this year’s Burger Week preview, I’d forgotten I volunteered to eat and write about the same burger last year.
Oops. Not to fret; it was a welcome change from my typical steak on a stick or potato soup order (I still got some soup to-go because, duh). And who doesn’t love a time-tested cheeseburger?
A perennial Flyer Best of Memphis “Best Burger” winner, the Huey’s standard features a 6-oz. certified Angus beef patty with all the fixings — mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, pickles, onion, and cheddar or Swiss cheese on a toasted sesame seed bun. This is a somewhat hefty burger, so prepare to unhinge the jaw a tad to get a taste of all the goods in one go. The combination of juicy beef (medium-cooked for maximum results) and familiar condiments offers that summer backyard cookout flavor we all crave when a burger hankering hits.
Plan your Huey’s trip wisely. In a noon-hour lunch attempt, the line spilled into the lobby and out the front door at not one but three locations. Which on its own is a testament to the quality and longevity of this Memphis-favorite institution. — Shara Clark Multiple locations
Southern Smokehouse Burger (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Southern Smokehouse Burger – Tops Bar-B-Q
A regular Tops hamburger is now iconic. The Southern Smokehouse Burger is a cheeseburger with grilled onions, thick-cut bacon, and a sweet Southern glaze. That glaze drenching that bacon is over-the-top great. Or make that “over the Tops.”
They added the burger with its “smokey molasses-based glaze” as a limited-time offer for the summer, says Hunter Brown with Tops Operations LLC. He and Tops CEO Randy Hough were at the Tops location at 5144 Poplar Avenue the day I was there. Also at the restaurant were a bunch of guys from Christian Brothers High School. Hough and Brown let the guys sample the Southern Smokehouse Burger.
I asked the students what they thought. They liked the “nice texture,” “sweetness and flavor,” and the “sauce.” Another guy specifically said “glaze,” so he knows his cuisine. Brown says one of the guys told him it was “amazing.”
The Southern Smokehouse Burger is $5.99, which is below the Burger Week price point. “What we’re doing is giving the burger and a side of macaroni and cheese for $6.99,” Brown says. The mac and cheese is another new Tops item. — Michael Donahue Multiple locations
Sunrise Burger (Photo: Kailynn Johnson)
Sunrise Burger – Sunrise Memphis
Working for the Flyer has come with a lot of firsts, and this year’s Burger Week was no different. It was my first time trying an egg on a burger. Not too crazy, I know, but for someone who usually sticks to a regular cheeseburger, with the occasional addition of bacon, it can be intimidating. Alongside a sunny-side-up egg, the Sunrise Burger from Sunrise Memphis comes with a double smash patty, cheddar cheese, bacon jam, and jalapeño cream cheese spread, all served on a brioche bun.
When I told my dad about how nervous I was to try all these elements together, his reaction was, “I’m not going to lie, that sounds good,” and per usual, he was right. The ingredients seemed to work together in a way that “breakfast for dinner” does, and it was a nice mix of sweet and savory. The star of the burger would definitely have to be the bacon jam, as the sweetness doesn’t overpower the other elements, and works really nicely with the jalapeño cream cheese spread. While it’s not usually my first thought to visit a breakfast spot to satiate burger cravings, I think a new 20-minute commute is now in the rotation. — Kailynn Johnson Multiple locations
Soul Burger (Photo: Earnestine & Hazel’s)
Soul Burger – Earnestine & Hazel’s
Earnestine & Hazel’s iconic Soul Burger is a dose of Memphis magic served on a blanket of crinkly deli paper.
The ingredients are simple: a bun, patty, onions, cheese, pickle, and “Soul Sauce.” The bar says that’s “all that’s needed to make our delicious burger.” And it has been for years. But there’s something … else about the Soul Burger. Something transportive. But something also elusive. Just what, exactly, has made this humble burger such an essential stitch in the fabric of Memphis culture? Again, it’s hard to define.
But you feel it when the barkeep slides that little paper basket your way. The warm, little burger is just how you remembered. That first bite hits your taste buds and magically unlocks some core Memphis memory.
And never a bad memory. It’s beers and buddies, and the jukebox, and Mr. Nate upstairs, and the peeling paint, the “no dope smoken” sign, and how “ragged but right” (the bar’s ethos) fits it and the city so well, and somehow you feel at home in it all.
Have you been drinking? Probably! But that’s not what makes a Soul Burger taste so good. And neither, really, is it just pure nostalgia.
It’s the perfect blend of simple, savory ingredients done just right every single time. That’s what has brought generations of Memphians coming back for more soul. — Toby Sells 531 S. Main St.
DaLabSpecial (Photo: Chris McCoy)
DaLabSpecial – Dexter’s Lab 901
It’s a hot August night on Shelby Drive. Dexter’s Lab 901 food truck is posted up in a corner of the Walmart Neighborhood Market parking lot. As soon as the blue LEDs light up, cars gather around in a semicircle, waiting for Allante Armstrong’s grease and griddle to get hot enough to cook his signature wings and burgers. “And guess what? I ain’t even posted that I’m open yet!” says Armstrong. “That’s a blessing.”
Armstrong named Dexter’s Lab 901 after his younger brother who passed away from lupus. On the side of the truck, millennial cartoon science hero Dexter shares space with a smiling Dexter Wooten, eternally young.
The burger Armstrong serves up, DaLabSpecial, is a classic griddle burger with the traditional fixings served on two thick, buttered slabs of Texas toast. “I do it just to be different because everybody else put it on regular cheeseburger buns,” says Armstrong.
The burger is thick, but not overwhelming, and super juicy. The buttered buns soak up the ample drippings without falling apart. (Structural integrity is an underrated trait in all sandwiches.) Served half-buried in spicy crinkle fries, it’s ideal street food.
Armstrong gets into a groove, taking orders and juggling burgers on the grill and wings in the fryer. “It’s just something that turned into a hustle. I don’t really know how to cook. If you put me in a real kitchen, I wouldn’t know what to do. But I’m learning,” he says.
The guy next to me in line seems amused when he hears that. “[Armstrong] catered my sister’s wedding,” he says. “You tell ’em he’s good. He’s real good.” — Chris McCoy 6990 E. Shelby Dr.
The Memphis Belle (Photo: Michael Donahue)
TheMemphis Belle – Belle Tavern
They call them “designer burgers” because of their high quality, but they usually cost more than $10. These are hamburgers made with prime beef trimmings. They’re usually available at high-end restaurants.
Well, for Burger Week, Belle Tavern at 117 Barboro Alley (on the flipside of Union’s 117 Prime) is offering its hamburger, the Memphis Belle. According to the description from the restaurant’s general manager Jake Smith, who designed the burger, the hamburger is a quarter-pound patty of ground beef “from the trimmings of our USDA prime steaks, smoked Gouda, caramelized onion, house-made dill pickles, Prime sauce, on a toasted onion kaiser bun.”
Diners can tell the difference when they take a bite, Smith says. “You get all those textures and flavors working together.” The trimmings come from their whole rib-eye New York strips at 117 Prime. “We take these trimmings and get this grind.” USDA prime, he says, “is all about flavor and tenderness.”
They’re considering permanently adding the Memphis Belle to their menu at Belle Tavern. “We’re looking at this as a test drive. Get some feedback from our guests and see what they think.” But it will cost more. And, man, oh, man, those fries that come with it. “Fries are the secret weapon.” — MD 117 Barboro Alley
The Crazy Coop (Photo: Alex Greene)
Build Your Own Burger – The Crazy Coop
The Crazy Coop, which only opened its two locations this February, offers a back-to-basics take on the classic American burger. It’s a no-frills, artisanal approach that focuses on freshness, but one can build on that foundation to create the custom burger of your dreams. That’s because The Crazy Coop is much more than a burger joint. As the name suggests, they specialize in chicken, and especially wings (indeed, they only serve burgers at their Bartlett location). But while all their flavorful options, which include both classic wings seasonings and unique creations like BBQ Bacon Bourbon or Honey Habanero BBQ, originated in their dedication to hot wings, they encourage customers to apply them to burgers as well.
But I wanted to get down to the fundamentals: their basic, unadorned cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion. The flavor was exquisite. Owner/chef Darius Buckner explained that, having cooked since childhood, then working with a chef in Atlanta for decades, he was committed to seasoning and shaping the patties by hand himself. That attention to detail pays off in the nuanced flavors of their burgers. You could order up a bunch to go for a backyard cookout without ever firing up your grill. — Alex Greene 7199 Stage Rd. (Not available at Ridgeway location)
David and Amanda Krog at Dory (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Beginning August 3rd, diners will order from a menu at Dory. They used to have to wait and be surprised to see what they were getting for dinner. The menu was a secret.
“We are switching models to what we intended to open as: a regular old come in and order off a real menu — not a fixed menu,” says Amanda Krog, who, along with her husband, chef David Krog, are owners of the East Memphis restaurant.
“It’s an open menu,” David says. “There are 18 items on it.”
Selections include scallops and mussels with herb risotto and citrus beurre blanc, as well as a pork loin with smoked white bean puree, chimichurri, and charred onion.
David is partial to his mushroom appetizer. “It’s seared oyster mushrooms from Bluff City Fungi, masa from Delta Grind, farmer’s cheese we made ourselves here, fermented onion powder, and olive oil,” he says. “It’s my favorite thing on the menu. We have it in what would be the appetizer section. And everything about it is homey. Everything about it is comforting. And it was a dish I had in my head and it came out exactly like I pictured it.”
The menu will “move and change as the growers change,” David says. “The thing about Memphis and in this part of the South is that seasonal is our seasons. Sometimes they’re longer and sometimes they’re shorter. And, for us, if there are any gaps coming from our aggregate or the few farms that we get from consistently, we have to be able to pivot on that.”
And, he says, “I made a commitment to not use big ‘ag.’ So, we’re committed to a mission that is attached to humans that are doing this at a high level in small farms around here.”
Dory is “intentionally sourced,” David says. “Which doesn’t mean local for us. There’s a big difference between hyperlocal and I can only go 200 miles in either direction from us. The intention when we first started was [to buy] as close to the door as we possibly can. But if something grows out West, I have to find a farmer or a grower or a forager or whatever whose mission aligns with us.”
They planned to open April 2020, but the pandemic hit. “Construction and deliveries and all of that slowed down,” Amanda says. “By the time we were able to actually open the doors, capacities at restaurants were 25 percent and we couldn’t open the bar.”
A tasting menu seemed the best plan for the new restaurant. “There’s no tasting menu in a restaurant in Memphis,” David says. “So, us opening one under the conditions that we did with very little research was kind of like winging it.”
They served a six-course dinner that included an amuse-bouche, intermezzo sorbet, entrée, dessert, and mignardise.
“You got nine things in the perfect order that is also offset by each table,” Amanda says. “So, nobody is on the same course at the same time.”
They only saw some people on special occasions or once a month. “It kind of made having regulars and seeing your guests as frequently as another neighborhood restaurant impossible,” David says.
About six months ago they made the “official decision” to change to the à la carte menu.
Another change, which will be coming soon, is a kids menu. “First time in my career that I ever worked in a kitchen that has a kids menu. And Doris is writing it.”
Doris is their 6-year-old daughter. They asked her to come up with what she’d like to see on a children’s menu.
One thing that isn’t changing at Dory is the atmosphere. “As I grew older and started running kitchens in my early 20s, I understood how important it was to treat the people in our dining room literally like our guests,” David says. “Like guests in our home.”
Even when they didn’t know what was coming next on the menu, people were constantly telling them how warm Dory made them feel. “And that’s pretty cool.”
Dory is at 716 West Brookhaven Circle; (901) 310-4290.
Seasonal and regional is in the spotlight at Limelight, thanks to the restaurant’s executive chef DJ Pitts.
“We’re just doing something that is seasonal, regional, prepared well, seasoned well,” says Pitts, 52.
With his background in French, Italian, and Mediterranean cooking, Pitts is also “pulling in different techniques, influences.”
“We have a corn soup on the menu right now. Very simply made. It’s corn purée. We serve that with fermented corn and a little bit of garlic oil. A very simple and straightforward example of what we do with a seasonal ingredient at the height of its freshness.”
Also on his summer menu is a steamed littleneck clams dish. “This dates back to where I come from on the East Coast.
“We’re doing a steamed clams with a mojo verde [sauce]. It’s very bright, punchy. The basis of it is cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. And it’s got vinegar in there that kind of gives it that punch. I think that, for me, is a personal kind of seasonal item from growing up in Connecticut and having clams in the summertime.”
His grandmother, who was from Russia, was a cooking influence when Pitts was growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut. “She was always cooking three meals a day.”
Watching her cook was “something that held some fascination for me at that point in my life.”
His first “hands-on thing” was making pierogi when he was 10.
“Not only did we have a garden, but my grandmother would go foraging for mushrooms. And, being on the coast, I had the opportunity to go clamming. All these experiences led me to have an interest in a culinary career.”
Pitts often cooked for himself and his brother while his mother, who was a nurse, was at work.
He continued to cook after he moved to Memphis — where his father is from — to major in psychology at University of Memphis. Pitts cooked at functions for his fraternity, Delta Chi. Fried chicken was his specialty — thanks to his other grandmother, who was from Memphis. She cooked “more Southern staples: fried chicken, greens, spaghetti.”
Pitts changed his career path after his brother died. “I wanted to find something that not only could I make a career out of, but also felt passionately about.”
He enrolled at New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education. “When I got there I started to excel at it pretty quickly. And that pretty much reinforced that I made the right decision.”
Pitts went on to work in New York for 10 years. Chef Michael Romano at Union Square Cafe was one of his biggest influences.
In 2005, Pitts opened his own restaurant, 626 Douglas, in Wichita, Kansas, where he served “new American regional farm-to-table” cuisine.
He worked for nine years in Nashville before returning to Memphis, and worked at Catherine & Mary’s and Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen.
In January, Pitts became executive chef at the locally-owned Limelight, where he created the spring and summer menus. “They have a seasonal tree in the middle of the dining room. And when that tree changes, that menu changes. Right now, I think the theme of it is an olive tree.”
Pitts loves cooking seasonally, especially in the summertime. “I think this menu is very reflective of that. We have this crostini with spicy eggplant with fresh minced green onion over the top and some saba. Our market salad changes. Right now, it’s heirloom tomato with burrata cheese, compressed celery, and some nice bottarga for a little savory note.
“I try to bring in more things and feature different things. We do have a small footprint, so our menu has to be tighter and more well thought out.”
Pitts takes advantage of the little herb garden in front of Limelight. When they conceptualized the Germantown restaurant, the owners wanted Limelight to have “that farmhouse feel. It’s easy to take that vibe and make it reflective of the menu.”
For someone who once hated to cook, Tuyen (pronounced “Twin”) Le is doing an awfully good job at her restaurant, Tuyen’s Asian Bistro.
The Vietnamese restaurant at 288 North Cleveland was packed on a recent Wednesday evening. People were ordering items, including her popular egg rolls and tofu lemongrass, from her extensive menu.
These were two of the popular items at her family’s old restaurant, Saigon Le, which closed eight years ago. Le, who does the cooking at Tuyen’s Asian Bistro, was a server, not a cook, at Saigon Le, which was at 51 North Cleveland.
And Le was a notorious server. “I used to be the mean one,” she says. “I’m the nice one now.”
Her mother did all the cooking when Le was growing up in Vietnam. “Just home-cooking meals. Vietnamese traditional food like hot-and-sour catfish soup. Homemade stuff.”
But when her family moved to Memphis, both of her parents had to go to work. And Le, who was about 15 at the time, had to do the cooking for the family because her mother told her to. “She said, ‘You need to cook this. You need to cook that.’ She just bossed me around. But I never liked it. She just forced me to do it.”
Le got a cosmetology license and was working at Regis Salon when her mother opened Saigon Le in 1992. Her sister, who also is named Tuyen (pronounced “Ting”) Le, and their sister-in-law worked with their mom at the restaurant. “They used to fight. Mama called me back. ‘Can you help?’”
Le thought she was only going to be there one day. “I stuck with her for 30-something years. We all worked together until later when the restaurant went down eight years ago.”
Notable Saigon Le customers included Woody Harrelson, Cybill Shepherd, and Jeff Buckley from MTV. “Nobody else in town had the little-bitty egg roll wrapped in lettuce and the sauce like Saigon Le.”
About four years ago, Le opened another restaurant, “New Orleans Seafood,” at the Tuyen’s Asian Bistro address. She served crab legs, lobster, and other items. “No Asian food.”
The ingredients she needed to make the type food at Saigon Le make became more expensive, she says. “After Covid, everything went up. I don’t have the money like I used to.”
People wanted Saigon Le back, so about a year ago, Le opened Tuyen’s Asian Bistro. “I spent $50,000. I bought a new air conditioner. I have to fix the floor. Get the gas stove.”
She narrowed her menu to just Vietnamese food instead of the additional Chinese cuisine she served at Saigon Le. The new restaurant is “very tiny. Only 10 tables.”
But the Saigon Le favorites are making customers happy. Tofu lemongrass is “lemongrass and the seasoning, garlic.” The noodle bowl is “house noodle bowl with egg roll, real pork.” Yellow egg noodles with wonton soup is another popular item. “I’ve got the full menu. I’ve got fried kimchi, shrimp on a stick. I’ve got lotus salad and seaweed salad.”
Le uses “fresh ingredients. I cook with fresh garlic, fresh sesame oil. I don’t use anything frozen or canned food.”
And, she adds, “I got all the customers back.”
She admits she had a gambling addiction when she was at Saigon Le. And that was evident when she was at the restaurant. She didn’t like being a server, but her mother forced her to be one, she says. “You can’t say no to Mama. Just do what you have to do.”
Le wasn’t “mean, mean, mean” to customers. “I didn’t throw the food at them. You give the customers food, but you don’t care how they eat, how they feel.”
She changed after she substituted cooking for gambling 10 years ago. “I didn’t know I was good at it until everything I cooked turned out to be good.”
Instead of playing blackjack, Le is now cooking, serving, or greeting people at the door at Tuyen’s Asian Bistro. Her attitude toward her customers is a lot different than what it was at Saigon Le, she says. “Just love them and treat them nice like family. All the customers are family.”
