Momma’s Roadhouse – Memphis Flyer

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The building’s owner says this will not — after all — be the new location of The Dirty Crow Inn.

A widely shared, commented, and liked Facebook post from what appears to be the official page for The Dirty Crow Inn wrongly reported this week that the well-loved bar was moving to Uptown, according to the owner of the building.

That post said the Crow was moving to 612 N. 5th Street in Uptown. However, the owner of that building said late Thursday that it isn’t.

“I am the owner of the building and I wanted you to know that we will not be able to have the Crow relocate to that property due to the residential neighborhood and other restrictions,” wrote Robert Malone in an email Thursday.

The building, instead, will be used as a commercial kitchen and an AirBnB, Malone said.

So far, it is unclear where the information came from in the original post. It is also unclear where — if anywhere — the Dirty Crow will be relocated.

This information is an update to our original report on the matter yesterday, which we based solely on the Facebook post (see below).

We’ll update this story as details become available.

Here’s our original story:

Owners of The Dirty Crow Inn say the restaurant and bar “is not finished” and hope the crow will rise like a Phoenix in a new spot next year.

A Facebook post from the Dirty Crow Wednesday noted that the restaurant/bar is no longer at its original spot on Kentucky, just south of Crump. Memphis restaurateur Aldo Dean, told the Flyer’s Michael Donahue Wednesday that the Crow’s old location is now a trucker-themed restaurant and bar called Momma’s Roadhouse.

Dirty Crow owners said in that Facebook post that they kept the the Dirty Crow name, “and all the yummy recipes, which can’t be sold at any other location.”

“The Dirty Crow Inn is not finished!,” they wrote. “We are in the process of renovating a new location for everyone to come and get their wing fix on, with a cold beer, mixed drink, or wine. We are hoping to be open around the first of the year, and we will be posting updates on the new building as it is coming along…”

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The building’s owner says this will not — after all — be the new location of The Dirty Crow Inn.

A later update to that post said the new Dirty Crow will be located at 612 N. 5th Street in the Uptown neighborhood. (Again, this information appears to be wrong.) The post predicted that “The Dirty Crow Inn 2.0 will be bigger and better for the year 2020.”

“We will continue to bring music and adding more to our menu,” reads the post. “We are also entertaining the idea of adding breakfast as well.”

Building Owner Says Dirty Crow Not Going in Uptown Space

10-4. Aldo Dean’s restaurant, Momma’s Roadhouse (formerly The Dirty Crow Inn at 855 Kentucky), is going to be a trucker bar. The restaurant/bar now is open, but the facelift is on its way.

“We’re going to make it a trucker-themed bar,” says Dean. “And there’s not a trucker-themed bar in America. There are truck stops, but no trucker-themed bars. It’s close to the highway. ‘Diner and Dive on Highway 55.’”

Dean, who also owns Bardog Tavern, Aldo’s Pizza Pies, and the Slider Inns, already is collecting trucker-related items for Momma’s Roadhouse. “Street signs, highway signs. A six-foot ‘Wide Load’ sign. ‘No Dumping Allowed.’ That sign. A knife and fork from a highway sign. It shows there’s a restaurant at the next exit. We’ll have signs like that.”

Other trucker-related decor? “We’re putting cowboy boots, trucker hats, CB radios, belt buckles on the walls. It’s going to be filled with dive-y kitsch. That’s long term. That’s the plan heading into 2020.”

Dean bought the property after he learned the owner wanted to sell the building. “So, we made him a good offer. And that was part of the deal – that we could own the property with an operating restaurant on it. It’s already called ‘Momma’s Roadhouse.’ We’re going to keep it dive-y. Keep it a dive bar.”

It has a new menu. “It’s burger heavy. But we really just needed a fast transformation. We had an agreement to keep it ‘Dirty Crow’ for six months. Six months is over.”

For now, they’re “getting to know the clientele,” Dean says. “The Dirty Crow was heavy on wings, but the Dirty Crow supposedly is going to open in another location. So, he (the former owner) is going to keep that menu. That’s going to be his thing.

“We want to do some fun drink specials. We want to start drink specials early because Momma drinks early. We want people to join her.”

Momma’s Roadhouse is going to be “21 and over,” Dean says. “I think a true bar is a place adults can go and drink when they’re happy or sad. And dives are named such because they’re often in the basement or cellar of a building, so you kind of had to dive down deep to get in those bars. And dives are traditionally disreputable places. I don’t think that’s so true anymore.

“Our place will be spick and span. But we’ll have a place open to 3 a.m. and entertain people from the neighborhood at night and continue to serve huge lunch crowds that are in that area. We have busy lunches there every day and there’s not a place to sit. A lot of industrial workers down there, guys (who) go to work in a uniform.”

They’ve been getting workers from the “Mack truck store down the street, the Hershey plant, workers from Presidents Island.”

Momma’s Roadhouse will do dollar wings on Wednesdays. And, Dean says, “In the future, an industry brunch on Mondays for restaurant people who work late on Sundays.”

Their menu is “a work in progress. We’re still tooling with the menu, but we hope to roll out a complete menu sometime in November.”

And they’re adding darts shortly and a pool table on the deck in the near future, Dean says.

As for those big trucks, parking at Momma’s Roadhouse is convenient for truckers, Dean says. “They can park on Kentucky Street here instead of going into the interior of the city. It’s difficult to have a big rig Downtown. It’s a good place for them to have a hot meal and a cold beer at the end of the long haul.”

Truckers can “come off the highway, conveniently park and eat at Momma’s, and roll back onto the road.”