Old Zinnie’s – Memphis Flyer

This was the year of seafood, South Main, and comeback stories, with old favorites like Fino’s and Zinnie’s making triumphant returns. Here are a few items of note from 2019.

RIP

Mary Burns, longtime owner of Java Cabana, died on October 4th after a nearly three-year battle with lung cancer. Burns purchased Java Cabana in 1998 and had become a fixture of Cooper-Young, serving as a member of the Cooper-Young Business Association and the Cooper-Young Garden Club. Burns is largely remembered for making Java Cabana what it is today, a welcoming safe haven for artists and poets alike.

City of Sole

Several seafood restaurants — particularly those specializing in crab dishes — have opened or opened new locations, including Crab’N’Go, Crab Island, DeeO’s Seafood, Red Hook Cajun Seafood & Bar, Saltwater Crab, and others.

Saltwater Crab opened its doors over the summer with an expansive menu including sushi, sandwiches, and crab options such as crab cakes, king crab, snow crab, and a saltwater crab roll. Atlanta-based restaurateur Gary Lin opened Saltwater Crab in early July, but the kitchen is managed by Memphis chefs. The menu is entirely “coastal,” so you won’t find any catfish here.

The Juicy Crab, a Georgia-based seafood chain, opened its first Memphis location on Winchester earlier this year, and The Coastal Fish Company opened in Shelby Farms in October. Mardi Gras Memphis, which specializes in Louisiana-style seafood boils, recently reopened their restaurant across from the Crosstown Concourse. And Picasso’s — a seafood and pasta place — opened in August at 6110 Macon, making it the newest seafood addition to East Memphis. The Cousins Maine Lobster food truck also opened in March.

Downtown Dining

South Main is now home to quite a few new dining and drinking destinations, including the restaurants (Hustle & Dough, Longshot), coffeeshop (Vice & Virtue), and bar (Bar Hustle) inside the Arrive Hotel, as well as those inside Puck Food Hall, Memphis’ first and only food hall, which had its grand opening in May.

The Central Station Hotel also opened on South Main in October, and with it came a new bar, Eight & Sand, and restaurant, Bishop — Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman’s newest project.

Justin Fox Burks

BarWare

BarWare, a neighborhood bar that features craft cocktails and elevated bar food, opened on Front this year, too. And several other notable establishments opened their doors Downtown, including Comeback Coffee, Hu. Diner, 3rd & Court, and more.

Old Favorites Return

This was also the year we saw many old favorites come back to life. Fino’s, the beloved Midtown deli, reopened on June 6th, bringing their classic gourmet sandwiches back after closing in late 2018.

Old Zinnie’s — the “best little neighborhood bar in the universe” — first opened in 1973 but closed abruptly in 2018, leaving many Memphis barflies feeling abandoned. They reopened on Halloween, the perfect night to welcome the regulars back to their local haunt. As if it never closed, Zinnie’s feels very much the same, and they’re even serving popcorn again like in the old days.

The infamous and inimitable Hernando’s Hide-A-Way also celebrated its reopening near the end of 2019. The spot, famous for hosting music legends like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis, closed in 2007 but was recently purchased and reopened by partners Dale Watson and Celine Lee along with co-owner Patrick Trovato of Long Island, New York. The owners plan to maintain the integrity of the original, offering plenty of local music and color, and, supposedly, the “best hamburger in Tennessee.”

Right at the corner of Belvedere and Madison sits one of Midtown’s oldest bars, Old Zinnie’s. It opened its doors in 1973 and, thankfully, probably hasn’t changed much since.

We’ve all been to OZ at 1688 Madison, whether we needed a good happy hour while we waited on our laundry at the laundromat across the street or because our car got towed from that same parking lot and we couldn’t leave. Maybe we went because it was cheap or because there’s never live music and all you want to do is hang out and chat. Maybe you, like me, ended up there because the crowd was too much at the Lamplighter, and it was quicker to run over to OZ and grab a beer. Maybe we were both there at some point for the PBR on draft and 50-cent wing night on Mondays. I have gone for all these reasons and more to that dependable little corner bar with the big windows and the chalkboard that still advertises Washington Apple shots.

But I haven’t gone to Old Zinnie’s in a while. I haven’t gone to that dependable little corner bar with the big windows in two years because I was not yet brave enough to return. You, like me, probably have a place where you find your peace. Maybe you find your solace in a church, or maybe you feel most serene in a vegetable garden. But maybe you, like me, find your peace in the comfort of a sturdy old bar, a dependable jukebox, and a smattering of post-workday curmudgeons. Your peace, like mine, isn’t necessarily at the bottom of a bottle, where it’s easy to forget, but found in what a bar can represent: a place to remember. So, one week after saying goodbye to a friend and two years after saying goodbye to another, I went to Old Zinnie’s to say hello to ghosts.

The great thing about great bars is that they never change. OZ still sports the stained-glass window of an ice cream sundae and the assortment of “There, I fixed it” oddities like the shot glass holding up the TV. Although Old Zinnie’s serves food, there’s always the trusty popcorn machine at the end of the bar for those looking for a snack. Ginger was working the evening that I went. You know Ginger, too, because she’s been there a while. She’s happy to pour you a drink and to discuss the menu. The bar itself is open from 2 p.m. to 3 a.m., but food is only served from 6 to 11 p.m. The regulars claim that the OZ burger is among the city’s most underrated. I also took note of the bologna sandwich, appropriately christened “The Zinnieloney.”

The great thing about Old Zinnie’s, beyond its resistance to change over the years, is that it felt exactly the same as the last time that I was there, when I went with someone who is no longer here. Myriad people have passed through my life; some are now dead, and others are just gone. But at OZ, in that old smoky bar, I am able to remember them best. This awful summer heat seems to breed tragedy, like it’s so hot that it drives people, in some overheated frenzy, to do the unthinkable. It’s puzzling that heat can make a world feel so cold. But Zinnie’s, with its Tullamore Dew restroom signs (Dewds and Dewdettes), preserves our memories for us. Zinnie’s, with its famous Zebra Stripe shots (main ingredient: strawberry vodka), like all the dark, smoky bars, has served as a place to find peace.

It was to Old Zinnie’s that I went, as I have gone to many wonderful places like it, to offer up a prayer and a wish. May we all find what we seek, whether it is a joint that still serves crinkle fries and hands out bottled beers in koozies or a bar that stands for more than that. Maybe it’s our hope that these spaces, where we find our tranquility, will get us through the summer without having to say any more goodbyes. Maybe you, like me, are tired of drinking with ghosts.