Kyle Gairhan – Memphis Flyer

Kyle Gairhan is in a pickle when he’s not in a jam.

Gairhan, executive chef at Memphis Whistle, also is founder of Mane St. Provisions, his line of pickles, jams, sausages, and sauces.

“‘Mane’ is a common term here in Memphis,” Gairhan says. “Like ‘What’s up, mane?’”

What’s up with Gairhan is the 36-year-old native Memphian is starting out with his products, which only are available at Memphis Whistle, and he hopes to expand with his own store “where everything is made in-house.”

“I pickle everything. I have spicy pickled okra, sunchokes, and pizza pickles — they’re cucumbers spiced with my Italian seasoning.”

For now, he is only selling his barbecue sauce and spaghetti sauce. “I have some sauces I do at Memphis Whistle that I haven’t started to market — beer mustard and buffalo sauce.”

He makes seasonal jams. “Right now, I have available strawberry lemonade jam, blackberry merlot, and passion fruit mango.”

Growing up, Gairhan liked to hang out in the kitchen when his mom was cooking. “Anything that I could do in there my mom was willing to let me do ’cause she didn’t really want to do it.”

Barbecued chicken was his first effort, but he didn’t make his own barbecue sauce. “I used Kraft sauce we had at the house. But then every time I made it after that, I started doctoring it up to make it better.

“I just really wanted to feed myself. I made a lot of sandwiches. I would just make whatever we had in the house into a sandwich, [even] spaghetti sandwiches.”

A McDonald’s in Alabama when he was majoring in music education at Jacksonville State University was his first foray into restaurant cooking. Gairhan hated working there, but, he says, “It made me realize I like being in the kitchen.”

He then went to work as a cook at Struts of Jacksonville. “It was mostly like fried chicken and chicken wings.”

Gairhan left school six months later because he realized it was going to take too long to get his degree and become a band director. He moved to San Diego, where he worked in a pizza shop for a year. He missed Memphis, so he moved back and went to work at Central BBQ.

Gairhan then read an article in Food & Wine magazine about Alpine Beer Company wanting to put a barbecue restaurant in its brew pub. “So, I hit them up,” he says. He returned to San Diego and made barbecue for them. “Everyone loved it.”

He got married while he was working there and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where he became head chef at the old Not a Burger Stand in Burbank. “While I was there, I was getting into the cannabis industry. I left to start my own cannabis business, Pissing Excellence Extracts. Pissing Excellence is still my Instagram handle. I won the High Times Cannabis Cup a few times doing extracts and topicals.”

He sold the business and moved back to Memphis, where he became half owner of RAWK’n Grub. “Then the pandemic chilled that,” he says, “and I started the pickle company.”

Gairhan taught himself how to make pickles. “I just read books about it. I just really like pickles.”

He was head chef at The Backlot Sandwich Shop before he took the job at Memphis Whistle. “I have some unique vegan items. Our Buffalo Lion’s Mane is lion’s mane mushrooms deep-fried like boneless wings and covered in buffalo lemon pepper or buffalo sauce.”

Gairhan’s ultimate goal is to open his Mane St. Provisions grocery store, where everything will be made in-house. “Like anything you’d find at a grocery store: pancake mix, cereal, everything.”

But for now, Gairhan will be selling his products and whipping up unique meals at Memphis Whistle, where he says, “I’m going to wow people with my creativity.”

Memphis Whistle is at 2299 Young Avenue; (901) 236-7136.

Memphis Whistle Slated to Open for To-Go Orders December 17th in Cooper-Young

Memphis Whistle is slated to open December 17th for to-go orders at its first brick-and-mortar location at 2299 Young Avenue. The space is slated to open as a restaurant/bar by the end of 2021.

What began as a drink delivery service during the pandemic blossomed into a space that owner Jef Hicks describes as a “quaint little house” with four rooms. He describes Memphis Whistle, which features a lounge space, dining space, and bar, as “lounge comfortable.”

“One of the rooms has a couch, a couple of chairs, and a little settee. That is super loungey. Another room has three tables, a little more of a standard look. Everything will be lower lighting from lamps,” Hicks adds.

As for the decor, Hicks says, “Most of the colors are very rich, royal, jewel tone, romantic colors — so you could look beautiful in there at all times, especially in the evening.”

Memphis Whistle dining area (Credit: Amanda Hicks)

Memphis Whistle lounge area (Credit: Jef Hicks)

The exterior of Memphis Whistle is a rich purple, accented with turquoise. “You won’t miss it,” says Hicks. “You would have to try really hard to miss it.”

Also working with Hicks at Memphis Whistle are his wife, Amanda Hicks, who handles the office duties, IT, and accounting; and Winifred Henry, who Jef says, is “in charge of it all.” Jef and David Parks began the original Memphis Whistle. Parks will be bartending at the soon-to-open McEwen’s Memphis.

Describing the drinks, Jef says, “Mine are more the Prohibition-style cocktails.” These would be “the old typically heavier booze” drinks like the Boulevardier and the Vieux Carre.

And, Hicks says, “I will be continuing to feature the Memphis Whistle cocktail recipes that brought us notoriety.”
He described the drinks as “seasonal fruit forward with herbal tastiness and plenty of booze.”

Kyle Gairhan is executive chef. “We are concentrating on smaller fare along with sandwiches and burgers,” Jef says. “And finger foods and tater tots. We are going to make our own chips to go with all the sandwiches. We make our own barbecue sauce. We cook our own pork. We’re going to be making our own brisket. We’re trying to do as much as we can in house.”

And, Jef says, “We will try to support local farms or small businesses as much as possible. That’s really important. To keep the dollars local.”

Even the art on the walls is local. Featured artist Celeste Rachele did the pieces, which are for sale. “I want to support local art, food, drinks, produce,” says Jef.