Tag: Memphis Dining

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Memphis Restaurant Closings and Openings

Tim Barker after Edge Alley closed (Photos: Michael Donahue)

When one door closes, another one opens. 

Lately, these doors have the name of a restaurant on them.

Since April, several high-profile Memphis restaurants have closed. Reasons include staffing, crime, leases running out, and so on.

But announcements for more brand-new restaurants have also popped up in recent months.

One of those slated to open is the eagerly-awaited, new restaurant from Felicia Willett-Schuchardt, owner of the old Felicia Suzanne’s on North Main. I ran into Willett-Schuchardt at a couple of tasting fundraisers. She told me she planned to open her new restaurant in the fall. That’s in the old Spindini restaurant space at 383 South Main Street.

That’s great news. But then I began hearing about closings.

Edge Alley at 600 Monroe Avenue was the harbinger when Tim Barker announced his restaurant would close December 10, 2023. He told me he decided to close “for a number of reasons.” Number one? “I feel it had started to become unsustainable,” he said.

Closing Edge Alley “makes the most sense. I don’t want to lower the quality of the product, change our service standard, cut staff. Now is kind of the time for me. Also, my lease is up. So, everything is all at once. Rising costs, lease is up, and then maybe the concept has run its course.” 

Then came Bounty on Broad, which announced its closing on April 3rd on Facebook. “Today, with a heavy yet grateful heart, Bounty on Broad announces its closure, effective immediately …”

Not long after that, more and more restaurants began following suit.

Dory, a fine dining restaurant at 716 West Brookhaven Circle, closed June 29th. The restaurant, owned by executive chef David Krog and his wife, Amanda, opened in 2021 during the pandemic.

David told me in an interview, “It’s been coming since the day we opened. We were brand-new and unestablished and not on anybody’s radar, either. We didn’t get the honeymoon. These aren’t excuses. These are just what happened. There is no excuse. It was sad. The restaurant business is tough. For us, we didn’t make it.”

I wrote about Maximo’s when it announced it was going to close the same day Dory closed. Amy Zuniga, who owned the restaurant at 2617 Broad Avenue with her husband, Julio, told me, “There’s not enough business to sustain us. And we’ve been short-staffed and can’t find anyone. We can’t keep going, unfortunately.”

And, she said, “We’ve been trying to hang in there for awhile, but it’s just gotten to this point where there’s only so much hanging on we can do.”

Fino’s From the Hill at 7781 Farmington Boulevard, Suite 101, is now closed. But the other location at 1853 Madison Avenue is still open. Owner Kelly English says, “The lease was up and it made sense for us to close and focus on one location rather than to sign on again. There is nothing else to it.”

Andrew Ticer, Michael Donahue, Michael Hudman at Bishop in 2023

A shocker was the recent announcement of the closing of Bishop, the elegant Downtown restaurant owned by Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman in Central Station Hotel.

The hotel’s Facebook page says it “will be opening a brand-new restaurant this fall.”

I was stunned when I heard Jeff Fioranelli announced his restaurant, Buckley’s Grill, was closing in June after 30 years.

“Our lease was up at the end of August regardless,” Fioranelli says. “And, frankly, I had made a commitment five years ago to sign on for one more five-year term. Regardless of what my partner wanted to do after that, it was time. I figure 30 years in the trenches was enough for me. If he wanted to go on, so be it.

“The climate has gotten so difficult for so many reasons,” Fioranelli says. “The restaurant industry is getting hammered from all sides. Especially in Memphis.”

He saw customers who live outside of Memphis “less frequently. A lot did not want to risk driving to Memphis from outlying areas. Collierville. Bartlett.”

Because of crime or the perception of it, they now feel it’s “a lot safer if you go out of the city limits. Asking someone to leave Collierville to come to town when you’ve got so many options is not something we can bank on.”

Will Fioranelli open another restaurant? “I have a passion for the business. But when you step out of this business and look in, you realize there are forces beyond your control at this point that you just can’t fight. A business in another area? Possibly. But right now I think I’m just going to grow my hair out like you did.”

The good news is more restaurants are opening.

Harrison Downing, Schuyler O’Brien, Cole Jeanes with their sons in 2023

Hard Times Deli at 655 Marshall Avenue in the Edge District has a planned fall opening. “We’re directly across the street from Sun Studio,” says Harrison Downing, one of the chef/owners along with Schuyler O’Brien and Cole Jeanes. “It’s the building next door to the Edge Motor Museum.”

The famous hamburger-making “Patty Daddy” members of the “Secret Smash Society” will serve “elevated deli sandwiches.” It’s similar to how Kinfolk, which is owned by Jeanes, does its elevated breakfasts, Downing says. “We’ll take all our fine dining training and make it an elevated sandwich shop.”

With the “cost of food now” and “places closing,” opening a new restaurant is daunting. But, as for their concept, Downing says, “Everybody seems excited about us bringing this to Memphis.”

A news release says Cocozza American Italian owners Patrick and Deni Reilly, who also own the Majestic Grill, are slated to open a second location of the restaurant this winter at 919 South Yates. It states, “The Reillys look to fill the same niche for busy East Memphis families as they do at their original location in Harbor Town, by providing family-friendly, classic American Italian fare in a casual full-service restaurant with a fun, funky dining room that evokes memories of eating in your favorite grandmother’s kitchen.”

Meanwhile, the Tandem Restaurant Group is moving and shaking things up around town.

Ben Yay’s at 51 South Main Street is closing “probably at the end of this month,” says Tony Westmoreland with the group which owns Ben Yay’s.

Why? “There’s just absolutely no traffic down there.”

But, he adds, “We’re not going to lose the concept. We’re going to move the concept to Sugar Grits.”

That will make Sugar Grits at 150 Peabody Place, Suite 111, a combination of “North Carolina and Creole-inspired cuisines.”

Tandem, which owns several restaurants, has been busy. “We’re trying to pivot and use spaces we have commitments in. We’re not looking for anything brand-new.”

The “pinch” in the restaurant business began happening in August of last year, Westmoreland says. “And it has not let up.”

Sales at their restaurants, mostly Downtown, have been lower this year than last year. “May kicked everybody Downtown in the teeth. We didn’t even beat a normal month with all the events and stuff.”

The group’s Carolina Watershed at 141 East Carolina Avenue closed in January. “We put it on the market. We have a couple of people looking at it. We felt like we were going to get it sold before summer is over, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

But, Westmoreland says, they might put in a pop-up for their new Memphis Original Gangsta Fried Chicken restaurant at the old Carolina Watershed until the new restaurant opens at 786 Echols Street. Chef Duncan Aiken will be serving his “gangsta fried chicken” with his special sauce at the pop-up as well as the new restaurant. And he’ll serve soul food, including corn bread, mac and cheese, greens, and smashed potatoes. “It’s going to be like a chicken spot with some sides. That will probably be September before we get that one rolling.”

Uncle Red’s, which was going to open at the Echols address, is now going to open in August at 2583 Broad Avenue, the original site of Salt|Soy, which has now combined with Alchemy Memphis at 940 Cooper Street. Uncle Red’s will serve smoked turkey legs based on family recipes from FreeSol, lead singer of the alternative band also called FreeSol. FreeSol, aka Christopher Anderson, will be the operating partner at the restaurant, which will serve lunch and dinner. “It’ll be a fun menu. But the majority of it will be based around turkey and smoked products.”

Front Street Deli, also owned by Tandem, is slated to be open by July 18th. The restaurant at 77 South Front Street will be run by Westmoreland, Aiken, Stephanie Westmoreland, Julien Salley, and Nick Scott. “Duncan is doing the sandwich portion and part of the pasta portion. And Nick is finishing up the pasta portion.”

The pasta portion will feature their new brand, “Pasta Cosa Nostra,” which will be pasta served in small containers so people can walk up and down the street and eat it.

Another Tandem business, Old Zinnie’s, which has been closed since May, will be back. The bar/restaurant at 1688 Madison Avenue will be called “Zinnie’s,” but they will primarily serve authentic-style Phillys — Philadelphia shaved steak. The real Phillys. And Cheese Whiz.”

They plan to re-open Zinnie’s in August, if not sooner. “We’re doing a little bit of remodeling right now ’cause it just needs a cleanup. We will be reopening as non-smoking. So, that’s going to be your game changer.” 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Irish Eyes Are Smiling in Olive Branch

Justin Ash (Photo: Sheila Lamb)

Justin Ash brought a touch of the old sod to Olive Branch, Mississippi. He recently opened Ash’s Irish Pub, which, he believes, is the first Irish pub in Olive Branch. “When you walk in, it’s like you get that heart-dropping moment,” he says. “Like a culture shock.”

For his pub, Ash created a “late-19th century, early 20th-century” spot, which he describes as “old world,” with “cobblestone brick, rough-cut timbers, and a walnut wood-looking bar.”

Decor includes wine barrels, street lanterns, stained glass windows, and a train station clock. Ash also features flags dating from as recently as the 2024 American flag to as far back as 762 AD, the earliest he traced his Irish lineage to on his dad’s side.

His grandmother taught him how to cook Irish cuisine when he was a teenager. “And I just remembered.”

His Irish fare includes “shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, bangers and mash, Guinness beef stew, chicken and chips, and poutine.” For now, Ash only serves beer, but he eventually will serve craft cocktails.

Ash also wanted a convivial place, which is what an Irish pub is, he says. When you sit down at the bar, whoever is on your left side and whoever is on your right side are “going to end up being your best friend whether you like it or not. In a traditional Irish bar, it’s disrespectful not to speak to others. If you sit there by yourself quietly, it’s disrespectful. It’s a public house. That’s just the way things work. There’s no such thing as a stranger.”

And, he says, “The biggest thing was to give that feeling of hope and, I guess, belonging. Like my friends did for me when I was in the hospital.”

Ash was in his fourth deployment in the Army when he was injured in 2018 in northern Syria. “We were on a mission and our vehicle struck something in the roadway and it caused our vehicle to flip. And a rifle ripped off the left side of my face. I wound up at Walter Reed [National Military Medical Center] in Washington. I had to relearn how to read, walk, talk.”

His friend Tara McShea, who worked in civil affairs for the Army, often visited Ash, who stayed in the hospital for two-and-a-half years. She took him to Philadelphia to visit her family’s Irish pub, which got him interested in Irish gathering spots. He got a notepad and in about 10 minutes made a checklist of what he wanted his Irish pub to be like.

After he got out of the hospital, Ash, who had been with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office before he left for his last deployment, retired from the Army and moved to Olive Branch. “I walked into an empty apartment in April of 2020 and started my life over.”

Over the next two years, Ash, who began working on his undergraduate degree in criminal justice when he was in the hospital, finished his associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees.

He found the exact location he wanted for his pub about two years ago. Originally, it was “an empty shell of a room.”

Ash used the money from his military and sheriff’s department retirements to open the pub. “I put all cards on the table.”

When you visit Ash’s Irish Pub at 9200 Goodman Road, you’re probably going to see Ash. “I’m the owner. I’m a cook. I’m the bartender. I’m the waiter. I’m everything. … I’m all over the place back there. Cutting potatoes. Cutting carrots. Making stew. And making fish and chips. I might be out here wiping tables. I’m doing everything from 10 a.m. till 1 a.m. every single day.”

He plans to feature Irish music played on “traditional Gaelic instruments,” including violins and guitars, at his pub. Patrons will be able to “sit around the table and play together.”

Already, though, Irish — and everybody else’s — eyes are smiling at Ash’s Irish Pub. “Oh, my God. This past Friday night every seat at the bar was filled and they were singing, ‘No nay never,’ and slapping the top of the bar,” he says. “They were sitting there laughing together. And I said, ‘This is beautiful.’”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Kinfolk Is Now Open in Harbor Town

Cole Jeanes at Kinfolk (Photo: Michael Donahue)

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.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Sweet Cravings at Crave Cheesecakes

Travis Brady and the Crave Cheesecakes crew sell classic cheesecakes with assorted toppings. (Photos: Michael Donahue)

When he arrives at Crave Cheesecakes from his job with the Memphis Grizzlies, owner Travis Brady is wearing a button-down shirt, slacks, and wingtip dress shoes.

He then switches into his bakery mode. “I change my shirt,” he says. “I throw on a Crave Cheesecakes T-shirt. I’ve got one in the car.”

Then he slips off his wingtips, dons a pair of sneakers, and gets to work.

Crave Cheesecakes at 523 South Main Street is “very, very different, certainly,” from his job as premium sales manager with the Grizzlies, says Brady, 31. He wanted to start a business but, he says, “I didn’t necessarily know what. I knew that with help — between my family and close friends — our team would be able to at least create a really cool brand and experience.”

Brady came up with the idea of bringing a cheesecake bakery with the addition of “some premium desserts” to the Downtown area.

He hired chef Tyler Jividen, who makes the cheesecakes and cookies and currently is working on other cream cheese-inspired desserts. Also working at the bakery are Brady’s girlfriend Madeleine Everhardt and his buddy Connor Ryan.

And Brady hired his parents, Peter and Nidya Brady. “My parents are both retired and wanted to do something together.”

His dad, who retired from a manufacturing and logistics business, didn’t want to go back to working a corporate job. And he doesn’t play golf. Now he sells cheesecakes and cookies. “He loves it,” Brady says.

His mother, a retired teacher, works in the kitchen with Jividen. “My mother has never really been a baker, and she’s quite the baker now.”

And Brady bakes — on occasion. “I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert at it. Tyler is very patient with me and he shows me a few techniques along the way.”

Brady likes being in the kitchen with the “crew” filling orders. It’s “all hands on deck” and “making jokes and getting to know each other a little more.”

But, he adds, “I’m a sales guy. I can talk all day. So my passion and my expertise should be more on the customer service side, I think.”

Jividen, who has worked at Comeback Coffee in Memphis and the old P.O. Press Public House & Provisions in Collierville, also worked at Canlis restaurant and Bakery Nouveau in Seattle, Washington. He is “phenomenal,” Brady says. “He’s bringing all these new recipes. The first time I met him he’s like, ‘Hey. What are your thoughts on a Parmesan bacon marmalade caviar cheesecake?’”

For now, they’re selling classic cheesecakes with assorted toppings. “And we are slowly getting into a rotating cheesecake menu.”

They also sell cheesecake cookies. “We fill them with the ingredients you use to make a cheesecake.”

Brady and Jividen like to get feedback from customers. If they don’t like a particular cheesecake flavor, they ask why not. It might just be the addition of some nutmeg. Brady then calls the customer and asks them to try the cheesecake again.

Brady wants Crave to appeal to the people — whether they’re tourists or locals — walking down the street. “We got a great space where you get all walks of life coming in.”

Crave Cheesecakes is Memphis-centric. “I want a painting there,” Brady says, referring to a bare white wall. “Some local artists having their stuff there.”

Brady, who is from Ventura county near Los Angeles, California, moved to Memphis in 2008. “I do love Memphis. I love the simplicity of Memphis,” he says. “I love the area. I’ve made some amazing friends.”

Plus, Crave Bakery literally made Brady and his parents closer. “My parents live in Collierville. I used to see them once a week, and now I see them every day.

“My parents are moving Downtown next week. They’re selling their house in Collierville. They just enjoy it and want to be dedicated to the business.”

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News News Blog

Memphis Restaurant Association Releases Statement on New Health Directive

CREDIT: Memphis Restaurant Association

Memphis Restaurant Association

The Memphis Restaurant Association has issued a statement in response to the new health directive announced on Monday.

Restaurants are, in fact, among the safest places to be due to social distancing, mask requirements, and numerous other regulations ensuring the safety of our staff and guests. Local, state, and national data (see links below) bear out the truth that restaurants are not a significant source of transmission, yet our local officials continue to unreasonably single out the restaurant industry. We are disappointed with the Health Department’s decisions and continued lack of communication and are asking for the support of our membership, employees, and community by contacting community leaders to push back against this injustice. Shutting restaurants down drives the public to higher-risk, unregulated, private gatherings.

The statement ended with the tag #SafePlacesSaveLives and provided a myriad of links to back up their claims. Among the links were a Tennessee government link showing fatality rates in the state, a Democrat & Chronicle story from New York that looks at contact tracing data, a story from News 4 Nashville covering a statement from the Nashville Mayor, and a news story from Los Angeles covering the spread of COVID in restaurants.

Under Health Directive 16, restaurants are encouraged to close or operate at 25 percent capacity from the 26th of December to the 22nd of January.

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News News Blog

Q&A: A Sit Down with Co-Owner of Slim and Husky’s

CREDIT: Christen Hill

We had an opportunity to attend the soft opening of Slim and Husky’s, a new build-your-own-style pizzeria in downtown Memphis. The owners, Derrick Moore, Emanuel Reed, and Clint Gray started as high school buddies. Now they’ve become wildly successful business tycoons. What started out as a dream in a garage making their favorite pizza concoctions has snowballed into seven stores and counting. They are largely community focused and believe that supporting those they serve is paramount. 

Christen Hill

Slim and Husky’s staff presents Nashville Hot pizza

Memphis Flyer: So you say you had an executive chef, to help build your initial recipes?

Clint Gray: We brought in an executive chef, Chef Jason Williams, to, you know, kind of help us hone our craft and get the pieces together and the flavor profiles right. So we worked on that for like two years. In the process, North Nashville was going through gentrification, the early stages. And so we use our product to, basically, unite different neighbors that had issues with each other, at like community organization events or like clean-up events or just neighborhood meetings and things like that.

Did y’all have a storefront at the time?

No, we didn’t. We made it out of the garage. It was just a commercial garage. I’m not gonna say we outfitted it, but we made it happen. It was basically empty.


Did people pay?

No, no, we were giving it all away for free.


So how did you afford to give pizza away?

Yeah, so we had our own company running at the time. A transportation business, moving and storage, and expediting. So we were still doing that in the process of figuring out how to make a pizza.


So pizza was your big dream?

It was just… hospitality was like some that we really wanted to get into. Pizza historically is low-cost startup. However, we wanted to create a pizza product that was fitting for the neighborhood, but also gave you a lot of culture. And that’s where pizza, art, and music came in.

Christen Hill

Slim and Husky’s Owners Clint Gray, Emauel Reedy and Derrick Moore pose for a photo

Oh, okay. Tell me about it.

So our theme is pizza art and music. So, you know, we want our spaces to feel like mini art galleries. So like even in this space, you know, we’ve got about five or six art pieces that haven’t gone up yet but that wall behind you will be full of art. And then we’ve got an art gallery that’s going upstairs.

How long has Slim & Husky’s been in Nashville?

We opened march of 2017. And we opened our second store in July  — I’m sorry — in June of 2017, and then another six months later we opened the third. And then we went to Atlanta a year after that. And then, six months after that, we opened another one in Atlanta. And then we opened our sixth location in Sacramento, California,

Sactown! What do you think has been the cause of the success of your store? I mean, it’s just pizza.

It’s just been a combination of a few things, I think. You know, starting off, I would say pizza — our product is really good. Then, just, we’re very authentic and how we do things not just on the pizza side but just our brand in general. We are a very active community-based business. So for example, I guess today we fed over 600 teachers here. You know, our social impact initiatives revolves around education. So, we always feed teachers first in our restaurants. We just do tons of community work. On the 21st of December in Nashville, we’re feeding an entire housing project. We provide frozen pizza for them to have throughout the holidays. We’re always looking to give back and engage the community, the same way we engage customers.

Whatever happened to the transportation company?

We sold it.

How do you keep up now with all of the demand of the restaurants?

We’re very big on scaling and systems. Going into our business, we took a lot from the movie The Founder, and how McDonald’s was built. So every process that we started out doing we would document, from day one. We still document that day — like changes that we make. We create SOPs and systems and checklists, like a lot of new restaurants starting off won’t have ready until about three or four years. We did those things on day one.

Was hiring all-black staff, building laborers and skilled workers intentional?

Very Intentional. We believe in ownership, as well as keeping the dollars in our communities. So we purchased this building, and we developed it with Fifer and Associates, spending the development of dollars with other black-owned companies. Because we want to build our communities and build our culture and show people that we can do things on our own. That was very important to us. I think we’re responsible for the inclusion process before anybody else. America has never really done a great job of including us. We’re not the type of businessman and not gonna sit back and wait. We want to make things happen for ourselves in our community.


How did you come across the builders for the space?

So, Fifer and Associates is an awesome company. First and foremost, but we’ve had a great a lot of different friends and family. Through friends from Tennessee State University. Somebody we reached out to initially, And I believe Moe met Carlos through Anderson contractors. We were all roommates in college at TSU. Moe and I both signed with my football at TSU. And so we became teammates, friends, and we just kind of stuck with each other since college and, you know, kind of worked on building our dreams together.

Christen Hill

Slim and Husky’s employee taking an order.

Do you have a passion for cooking, or do you have a passion for eating?

Moe and I both have passions for cooking. I’m a pro-amateur chef, not quite, all the way pro but we’re not all the way amateur. And then EJ is like a taste tester.

You have six stores. Why is Memphis number seven?

Memphis was initially supposed to be the third store we have. We bought this building and it was a really big project from a renovation standpoint. It’s a 95-year-old building. COVID really slowed it down, so it ended up taking about a year and a half, two years.


What’s your next plan, taking over the whole world?

We’ve got two more openings. Pretty soon we got downtown Nashville, on Broadway. it’s gonna be real big for us. And it sits right in the same complex of the new National Museum of African American Music. And then we’ve got another one in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We’ve hired a super strong team here in Memphis. And we’re really excited because we’ve been able to recruit people with restaurant experience; managers, assistant managers, as well as just our core talent in this store. We are really confident in, and prepared to provide Memphis with a top-notch product.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Gordon Ramsay’s in Memphis to Save a Restaurant!

CREDIT: Matthew Preston

Just when you think it’s going to be another typical Wednesday in Memphis, snow starts to fall from the sky, and you look out your window to see Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell on Wheels” 18-wheeler rounding the corner of your office building. The truck is part of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares reboot: 24 Hours to Hell and Back.  Matthew Preston

Gordon Ramsay’s revamped restaurant renovation/intervention show is essentially the same as the original Kitchen Nightmares, but the makeover has been consolidated into a single day, replete with a countdown timer for good measure. The show purports to be a simple kitchen renovation show, and installs known and hidden cameras to record the restaurant in action. Some time later, Gordon Ramsay will show up with a group to dine at that restaurant, in a prosthetic makeup disguise, only to reveal his identity and berate the awfulness of the food mid-meal.

The “Hell on Wheels” truck dishes education and shame in equal measure. It unfolds to become a kitchen where Ramsay’s team teaches the chefs of the restaurant in question how to cook the new menu, and produces a large video board where the restaurant’s staff and patrons witness the hidden footage captured before Ramsay’s arrival. Those videos typically feature pretty gross things, ranging from unsanitary kitchen practices to toxic workplace exchanges, outbursts at patrons, animal infestations, and structural issues with the building.

The Flyer isn’t aware of the restaurant that’ll be featured on 24 Hours to Hell and Back, but candidates on Ramsay’s show tend to be restaurants that were once considered good, located in a desirable and lucrative part of town, and frequently have a strong-headed owner or chef that’s in denial about the business failing, and contributing to that failure with their apathy or toxicity.

As a big time Gordon Ramsay addict, I’m thrilled for Memphis to get airtime on the show. As a dude who works downtown, I’m hoping to become a lunch regular at a revamped restaurant nearby.

Gordon Ramsay’s in Memphis to Save a Restaurant!