Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Drama, Kinfolk, Damn

Memphis on the internet.

Drama

We’ve seen a lot of photos of Sputnik over the years but maybe never one so dramatic as Danielle Lewis posted to the Memphis In Pictures, Places and People Facebook group last week. 

Kinfolk

Posted to GoFundMe by Josh Clark

Josh Clark started a GoFundMe for Kinfolk restaurant last week after a water main busted and flooded their shop. 

“They are gonna be out of business for a little bit so they won’t have any cash flow to come in and help cover employee cost,” Clark said. “In a city where all of our favorite restaurants are closing down, let’s show our support to our favorite spot.” 

As of late last week, the GoFundMe had raised $1,380 of its $2,500 goal. 

Damn

Posted to Facebook by The Damn Weather of Memphis

The Damn Weather of Memphis can’t stop messing with AI. He recently asked it to write a weather forecast for the city. 

“Yo, listen up, cuh!” it began. “It’s finna be hot as hell out here, mane. On god, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., it’s gon’ feel like 112 degrees. Not gonna lie, fam, it’s serious out here.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Kinfolk Is Now Open in Harbor Town

Cole Jeanes named his restaurant “Kinfolk” for several reasons.

The restaurant, which opens Wednesday, March 27th, is “based on a country kitchen,” says Jeanes, 34, chef/owner of the restaurant at 113 Harbor Town Square. “So, it’s a bunch of different things. But it means family and your blood. And when I think of food, that’s what I think about.”

Menu items include “Biscuits and Buns,” “Bowls,” and “Sweets.” One of the “Sweets” is “Banana Pudding Tiramisu,” which is made with coffee caramel, banana, and Moon Pie.

“Kinfolk” is a “Southern saying,” says Jeanes, who heard the word a lot when he was growing up. His father was from a small Mississippi town. “Those folks literally sat on their porch and shot squirrels out of the tree. They’re country country.”

In addition to evoking memories of going hunting and eating with his dad, “kinfolk” also evokes memories of his mother’s biscuits. “She made them and they were great. But I also liked the frozen ones she made.”

But more than the actual biscuits was the “great memory” of “sitting around” in the dining room or living room “eating sausage and biscuits.”

Jeanes, who was 12 years old when he lost his dad, says his “core” are the people in his life. “What I enjoyed with them most of the time was eating food. Going to Thanksgiving and being with all my cousins and all my aunts and uncles. Those were some of the best memories.”

As for that food, Jeanes says, “I grew up in the era of the South when Crock-Pots were big.” But, he says, “I love American cheese. I love Velveeta. I love frozen biscuits. I’m not knocking any of that stuff. I’m just trying to really do something that has a positive effect on not just this community, but the Earth in general.”

Biscuits were a big thing for Jeanes when he was in culinary school at the old L’Ecole Culinaire in Memphis. “I made them and put a little bit of herbs de Provence in there. Then I started adjusting it. Every time I made them I’d write it down and see what I didn’t like and what I liked and I went from there.”

Jeanes came up with his square biscuits, which he made with the folding method of building layers of dough with butter in between.

He included his biscuits in his first “Kinfolk” food stall in the old Puck Food Hall at 409 South Main. “I was the first tenant there.”

Two years ago, he began doing Kinfolk pop-ups at Comeback Coffee. “It was great. I sold out almost every weekend. I saw that there was a desire for us.”

That was a chance to “test the waters, get some data, see if it’s plausible to open a full space.”

He met his current business partners at the pop-ups. A buddy then told him about the Harbor Town location, which already had a new kitchen in it.

Jeanes still makes his biscuits, but he also serves a wide range of items. “You could only do so much at the coffee shop,” he says, adding, “Now it’s growing to, essentially, a fancier Waffle House.”

“The menu is based off of breakfast sandwiches you can either get on our buttermilk biscuits or on a milk bun with benne seeds.”

The breakfast sandwiches are served on an “egg plate. It has a French omelet on it or, basically, any two eggs you want. With grits or fries. Whatever side you like.”

He also serves rice bowls, including one that “literally has Japanese pickles in it.” It also includes Delta jasmine rice, crispy chicken thigh, chili crisp, jammy egg, and toasted benne seed. “There’s a thread that kind of goes through that menu that has Japanese and Scandinavian influences.”

Jeanes also serves “flattop griddle cakes,” but he uses oat flour instead of white flour “to give a gluten-free option.”

For now, Kinfolk, which is open Wednesdays through Sundays, is open for grab-and-go from 6 to 7 a.m. The full-breakfast menu is from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The full lunch menu begins at 10:30 a.m.

The Harbor Town restaurant location is great for Jeanes and his kinfolk. “I can ride my bike here from my home,” he says. “My wife can literally walk up here with our kids.”

Categories
Hungry Memphis

Kinfolk To Open Late March

Kinfolk is slated to fully open in late March at 113 Harbor Town Square.

The eagerly-awaited breakfast-lunch restaurant was conceived by chef/owner Cole Jeanes, 34. His square-cut biscuits or “cathead biscuits” are the centerpiece of the menu, which includes breakfast sandwiches, breakfast bowls, French omelets, steak and eggs and hash browns, oat pancakes, and other breakfast staples, including the MVP a.k.a. the “Most Valuable Plate.”

Kinfolk (Credit: Jordan Finney)
Kinfolk (Credit: Jordan Finney)
Kinfolk (Credit: Jordan Finney)

Jeanes and Natalie Lieberman of collect + curate came up with the interior design for the 1,500 square-foot restaurant. Jeanes knew what he wanted,  but Lieberman reined him in somewhat, or, as Jeanes says, helped him “bring it back a little bit.”

“I tend to take it a little too far and I didn’t really understand the cost of things,” he says. “She helped me be realistic.”

Kinfolk (Credit: Cole Jeanes)

He adds, “I knew what I wanted. I love Danish interior design. And I love Japanese simplicity and things like that. So, that still falls into this space as well. I just wanted really expensive wood.”

He also likes the esthetic of “joinery,” which is “no nails. Everything is held together through precision cutting and fitting. “But,” he adds, “I wanted all those things and I also wanted a Southern country diner. So, yeah, bring it back a little bit.”

The restaurant looks like a diner, Jeanes says. “Pieces we bring into it, little knick knacks and things we have in here, lean more toward the country side of things.”

Kinfolk (Credit: Cole Jeanes)
Kinfolk (Credit: Cole Jeanes)

For now, Kinfolk will be open for grab-and-go and coffee from 6 to 7 a.m. and the full breakfast menu from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch will begin at 10:30 a.m., Jeanes says. He plans to eventually “work in a happy hour” from 4 to 8 p.m. “Our lunch menu and our key items will kind of carry over to that with our bar program.”

, Cole,Luca, and Courtney Jeanes. (Credit: Jordan Finney)
Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Etowah Dinner Series

Etowah was originally called “Etowah Hunt Club.”

But the only thing you’re going to hunt there is maybe a second helping of huckleberry compote.

The “Hunt Club” part of the name was a joke, says owner Josh Conley. Etowah actually features dinners four times a year hosted by Conley and Cole Jeanes, chef/owner of Kinfolk Memphis. The seasonal dinners feature top chefs from around the country.

“Etowah” is a Muscogee (Creek) Nation Native-American word that translates to “city” or “place,” Conley says.

Jordan Rainbolt, chef/owner of Native Root in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will be the featured chef May 27th at The Ravine.

Conley and Jeanes held a couple of Etowah dinners in Arkansas, where Conley and his wife bought a home. But, he says, “The concept makes more sense in Memphis. Memphis is such a great city for food concepts. I’ve always loved Memphis and Memphians because they get really excited about cool stuff. And it’s such a supportive town.”

Conley, who has worked in and out of the food and beverage industry, says, “This is a passion project.”

The idea began several years ago when he and a friend planned to open a bar. “We wanted a place that was really devoted to seasonally-based cocktails.”

Then, he says, “We got really excited about this idea of drinking and eating with the seasons.”

That brick-and-mortar concept never got off the ground, but later, Conley and Jeanes talked “over a glass of wine one night. I started telling him about this thing I wanted to do.”

One of their first dinners was held in a soybean field. Others were held in a parking garage and an artist’s studio.

They ask the featured chef one question: “What does this season — the one we’re doing the dinner in — taste like to you?”

The dinners are “all centered around food memories.” So, for May, he asks, “What does May taste like? What does it smell like? What texture?”

The chef is asked to feature something “special to the particular place and time and season.”

The number of diners “depends on the space” and what the chef’s concept is. The one in May will seat “80 to 100 people,” Conley says. “They usually sell out pretty quickly.”

Jeanes doesn’t cook at the events. “I’m support for the kitchen and food side of this,” he says. “When they come in, I provide them with a kitchen and make sure they get everything taken care of.”

May is the perfect time for Rainbolt to be the featured Etowah chef, she says. It’s “probably my favorite month.”

It’s “the end of spring, not quite summer yet.”

It’s also perfect because of “the produce that’s available,” she says. Spring “sets the tone for the rest of the year. And it’s just this momentum of produce and flowers starting to peak.”

Her restaurant “focuses on regionality and locality but also highlights Indigenous foods that are from this part of the country and world. So, a lot of my menu highlights Appalachian with Indigenous ties or how they overlap.”

Her five-course Etowah menu will include a seared and roasted venison loin with a whiskey-washed tallow pan sauce that will be served with dandelion greens. Dessert will be a huckleberry compote with native blue corn crust.

Response for the Etowah dinners has been great, Jeanes says. “It’s just a great overall experience. It’s tailored to make people feel good. We’re being very hospitable. The food is great.”

This is a one-time-only dinner, Conley says. “It’s experiencing a chef in a different way than you normally would, even if you went to their restaurant.

“These menus are love letters. And this letter happens to be addressed to a season.”

Go to etowahdinnerseries.com to sign up for the upcoming Etowah dinner.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Dessert, Anyone?

For those who eat too much at restaurants and, heaven forbid, are too stuffed to look at the dessert menu, here are some that restaurants offer, along with fall specials.

Dory: “The desserts at Dory are in the spirit of our childhoods,” says executive chef/co-owner Dave Krog. “Our current six-course dessert is aerated peanut butter mousse, chocolate sponge, salted caramel, blackberry, and peanut dust.”

Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen: “The fall pot de crème will be killer,” says general manager/beverage director Nick Talarico. “Spiced apples with an oat and walnut crumble. It’s like a crème brûlée and vanilla pudding.”

Kinfolk restaurant: “Bourbon pecan crème brûlée,” says chef/owner Cole Jeanes. “We toast the pecans before soaking them in heavy cream with a little orange zest. They steep overnight and, instead of granulated sugar, I use brown sugar. It’s rich, nutty, and super smooth. With a crunchy brûlée topped with candied pecans, there’s a great contrast in textures. Add a little smoked salt for another layer of flavor.”

Las Tortugas: “We do a piña colada flan, a traditional caramel flan that cooks in a water bath in the oven,” says chef/manager Jonathan Magallanes. “We then add roasted and fresh pineapple along with coconut shavings and crushed cashews, Mexican fresh cream, and powdered sugar.”

Acre: “I had an apple custard cake on the menu years ago,” says executive chef Andrew Adams. “The center was soft and custardy with bits of apples, and the top was a little crunchy and caramelized. This fall, I switched out the all-purpose flour with buckwheat. I steam the cake for the first 30 minutes and then put it in a high oven. I made the apples smaller, added cinnamon and cardamom and an oat top. The buckwheat adds a nutty flavor.”

The Beauty Shop Restaurant: Chef/owner Karen Carrier features an array of fall desserts — apple-caramel-almond babka from Love Bread Co., pistachio and fig babka, chocolate meringue pie, pecan pie with scoop of sweet potato gelato, lemon zest-sugar-butter crepe with a scoop of cinnamon Mexican chocolate chili gelato, and a dark chocolate crepe with pumpkin pie gelato.

Salt|Soy: “Chocolate miso chess pie with a sesame crust, Suntory Toki whipped cream, and sesame brittle,” says chef/owner Nick Scott. “It’s our East-meets-West take on chess pie. We started running it last fall and it became our house dessert.”

River Oaks Restaurant: “A lemon mousse with raspberries and caramelized whipped cream,” says general manager Colleen DePete. Another dessert: Chef/owner José Gutierrez will add “a poached pear with homemade vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and dark chocolate ganache garnished with thin cookies tuile.”

Southern Social: “Praline hazelnut cheesecake with caramelized hazelnuts and a warm chocolate sauce,” says pastry chef Franck Oysel.

117 Prime: “Pumpkin Delight Ooey Gooey Bars,” says chef/owner Ryan Trimm. “A rich, buttery cake bottom with a pumpkin spice cream cheese marbled custard baked to perfection.”

Kelly English restaurants: “At Pantà, we’re offering a decadent chocolate hazelnut cup topped with raspberry Chantilly,” says pastry chef Inga Theeke. “Look for that to change to a pumpkin and chai combination later this month. We’ve also played with the presentation of our Mel i Mató and now offer Mel i Cannoli. Mel i Mató is a traditional Catalan dessert that features a loose cheese similar to ricotta covered in honey. We top our house-made ricotta with Bee 901 honey and toasted pistachios. All tucked inside a Neules cone, a Catalan cookie.”

Fino’s From the Hill: “Apple spice bars will be in the case later this week, and ghost meringues will make their appearance later this month.”

The Second Line: “Seasonal desserts are changing to a chocolate pecan pie and caramel apple cheesecake.”

Restaurant Iris: “Desserts here are definitely influenced by the season. Look for a pear tarte Tatin and a pumpkin cheesecake over gluten-free spice cake, among others.”