Tag: restaurants

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

2007: A Lot To Swallow

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Wording Their Eats: Nationally, LA Weekly writer Jonathan Gold’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize in the criticism category — the first Pulitzer ever presented to food writing — was a great accomplishment. Not so great was Colby Buzzell’s Esquire article about the tamale trail, which presented a disappointingly stereotypical view of the South.

Locally, Commercial Appeal food critic Leslie Kelly departed the Bluff City in early 2007 and now freelances for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. During her three-year stint at the CA, Kelly’s enthusiastic, stranger-in-a-strange-land approach drew her share of both loyal followers and angry detractors. And steadily building a following of its own is local-foods quarterly Edible Memphis and the local chapter of the Slow Food Movement, both spearheaded by newcomers Melissa and Kjeld Petersen.

Waffles: When Interim opened in early 2007, owner Fred Carl Jr. intended for the restaurant to be a short-term replacement for the restaurant Wally Joe. Interim, under the direction of chef Jackson Kramer, did well, and Carl decided to stick with it. More recently, Carl, who is the founder and CEO of Viking Range Corporation, has partnered with Amerigo’s former owners Bill Latham and Al Roberts. No change in concept or food is expected for Interim, but the group plans to develop other restaurant concepts in the Memphis and Mississippi areas.

La Tourelle was another Memphis eatery that couldn’t quite decide what it was going to be for 2007 — opened or closed, a French restaurant with white tablecloths, or a laid-back Italian bistro. In August, La Tourelle, after 30 years in business, changed flags to become Tuscany. But then, just a few months later, owners Glenn and Martha Hays sold the restaurant to Kelly English, who will be opening Restaurant Iris early in the new year.

While Marena’s Gerani was long-rumored to be for sale, owner Mortez Gerani declared back in June that the restaurant would remain open. A month later, Marena’s was sold to Kevin Rains, former executive chef at Equestria. Rains opened Roustica and has kept much of the Midtown restaurant’s charm intact. Meanwhile, Gerani has opened a new restaurant, Marciano Mediterranean and Italian Cuisine in East Memphis.

Opening Acts: After much anticipation, Judd Grisanti opened his Italian restaurant Spindini in the South Main Historic Arts District in early 2007. Grisanti’s approach is not just old-school, it’s the oldest-school: cooking with fire. In his case, the fire is smoldering in a $30,000 custom-built, wood-burning oven that is the focal point of every seat in the house.

John Bragg, who had relatively brief stints at La Montagne and River Oaks, opened Circa by John Bragg last spring, vowing to “provide a culinary taste adventure centered on the freshest food ingredients and a very interesting, welcoming, and sociable atmosphere.” The restaurant is a current downtown hot spot.

Also, Memphis got a little sweeter this year with the openings of Sweet, the Exquisite Desserterie in Cooper-Young and Blues City Pastry in the former Viking space downtown.

The Westin Hotel, also downtown, opened with Penny McGraw as its executive banquet chef and the Daily Grill, a California-based eaterie, as the hotel’s restaurant.

The opening of the River Inn of Harbor Town added two new restaurants to the downtown dining scene: Currents, a fine-dining restaurant, and Tug’s, the inn’s more casual alternative. In charge of both is executive chef Brian Flanders.

And there’s more: Pearl’s Oyster House opened in the South Main arts district; Karen Carrier re-invented Cielo by turning it into the Mollie Fontaine Lounge; and Ken Lumpkin, a Jose Gutierrez protégé, opened Umai, a small French/Japanese restaurant on Madison where On Teur used to be located.

RIP: Memphis bid farewell to Romulus Morgan Hammond Jr. — the “Buster” of Buster’s Liquors and Wines. Hammond, who died September 8th at the age of 97, was the face of Buster’s for more than 50 years.

Among the restaurant closings in 2007 were Meditrina, Lulu Grille, Café Francisco, and Garland’s.

Also departed from much of the Memphis restaurant scene: smoking. The Comprehensive Workplace Smoking Act became a reality on October 1st.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Kid Stays in the Picture

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

If you ask someone in Memphis to name a kid-friendly restaurant, they’re likely to mention a fast-food chain, perhaps one that features a singing mouse. While these restaurants clearly cater to kids, not all would agree that they are “kid-friendly.” Children need authentic restaurant experiences so that they don’t associate eating out with screaming, running, and playing video games.

There are a wide variety of kid-friendly restaurants in Memphis that offer excellent service, nutritious food, and a pleasant atmosphere. It is important for parents to dine out with their children in order to expand what kid-friendly means.

The Chicken or the Egg

The kids’ menu, the universal symbol for kid-friendly, is in desperate need of a makeover … or complete removal. Chicken McNuggets were introduced by McDonald’s in 1983, and judging by chicken nuggets’ domination of kids’ menus everywhere, it is hard to remember what kids ate prior to that. Are they on the menu of nearly every restaurant these days because that’s the only thing kids want to eat, or do kids only want to eat them because they are on every kids’ menu?

Stephanie Chockley, a 34-year-old mother of two, says, “My main problem with kids’ menus isn’t the entrée choice — if chicken nuggets can be considered an entrée — but the choice of side items. Why only fries?”

Shannon Dixon, 35, has a 5-year-old son who can read, which can pose another problem. “Max looks for the kids’ menu, and that makes it very difficult for us to get him to try more interesting and healthier things,” she says.

Colleen Couch-Smith, 30, is a mother of three and part owner of Tsunami with her husband Ben Smith. “[Ben and I] try to take our kids out often so that they know how to behave in restaurants and how to eat better food,” she says. “A selection from the kids’ menu can be a life saver, but we usually order an interesting appetizer for them instead.”

Many of today’s parents are not interested in a limited selection of fried and greasy foods for their kids but rather smaller portions of adult dishes. Angela Knipple, 34, the mother of one and a contributor to the local food blog Squirrel Squad Squeaks (squirrel-squad.blogspot.com), says, “Smaller portions allow you to give your child as good a meal as you are eating.”

Parents also need to make their desires known. John Bragg, owner and chef of Circa and father of two, says even though it isn’t written on the menu, smaller portions of adult entrées are available at Circa at reduced prices. Bragg is also more than happy to accommodate special requests. “If I know how to make it, I will,” he says.

Early Bird Gets the Worm

When taking the kids to a fine restaurant, it is important to be respectful of other diners. Do a little research, call ahead with questions, and make an early reservation.

“I don’t think that just because I had a child means I have to be barred from having dinner at a nice restaurant with her,” says longtime foodie and newbie parent Melissa Sweazy, 33. “However, I do believe it requires some etiquette on my part.”

Sweazy is taking a trip to New York next month, where she’ll be getting a chance to mind her and her 6-month-old daughter’s manners at Babbo, Mario Batali’s very nice flagship restaurant. Sweazy chose Babbo after doing research on internet forums and talking with the restaurant’s hostess on the phone. “They provide highchairs and did not hesitate to tell me so. I made a 5:30 p.m. reservation so as not to be there during the rush,” she says.

Couch-Smith agrees that avoiding the dinner rush can make a family’s dinner experience much more enjoyable for everyone. “At Tsunami, we have a family that comes in almost every Wednesday. They have three adorable children, and instead of insisting on plain pasta or chicken fingers, they get an order of risotto. We welcome families who are open-minded and intelligent enough to come in at precisely 5:45 p.m.,” she says.

Dining out on weeknights and during lunch is another way to expand a family’s fine-dining options. So don’t be afraid to try something new with your kids. With a little forethought, the sky’s the limit and the plate’s nuggetless.

A few kid-friendly spots in Memphis to try:

A-Tan, 3445 Poplar (452-4477)

Beauty Shop, 966 S. Cooper (272-7111)

Boscos Squared, 2120 Madison (432-2222)

Circa, 119 S. Main (522-1488)

Jasmine, 916 S. Cooper (725-0223)

Las Tortugas, 1215 S. Germantown Pkwy. (751-1200)

Pearl’s Oyster House, 299 S. Main (522-9070)

Sakura, 2060 West in Germantown (758-8181)

Sekisui, multiple locations (sekisuiusa.com)

Soul Fish, 862 S. Cooper (725-0722)

Spindini, 383 S. Main (578-2767)

Tsunami, 928 S. Cooper (274-2556)

Umai, 2015 Madison (405-4241)

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Time for a Change

Back in July, La Tourelle, Memphis’ bastion of French cuisine, closed its doors after 30 years. Although Glenn and Martha Hays, who also own Café 1912, had thought about selling the business, they decided to hang on, shift the culinary focus, and update the interior. In August, they opened the Italian restaurant, Tuscany. Ultimately, however, the couple decided to sell the restaurant after all.

“Every business has its own cycle,” says Glenn. “We have gone through many changes with La Tourelle and realized that it was time to let go.”

The new owner of the restaurant stumbled upon the opportunity by accident in September.

“I was in the area for the Ole Miss/Florida game,” says Kelly English, an Ole Miss graduate. “On Sunday, I went to Café 1912 for a birthday brunch, and Glenn mentioned that he wanted to sell Tuscany.” Little did Hays know that English was looking for a place to open his own restaurant.

Attending Ole Miss to become a lawyer and cooking at Pearl Street Pasta as a college job, English knew he had to change his career plans after a semester in Barcelona.

“The food culture there is very different,” he says. “I went to the market almost every day. To see and taste all this amazing food was a life-changing experience.”

After graduating from Ole Miss with a degree in hospitality management, English, who is a New Orleans native, went on to get his formal training at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Since then, he’s worked exclusively with John Besh at his Restaurant August in New Orleans, at the Besh outpost N’awlins at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, and, most recently, at Lüke, Besh’s latest New Orleans eatery, which opened in May.

Although still working at Lüke, English plans to be in Memphis by mid-November and to open his restaurant in early January.

“We will do some changes to the interior, but people shouldn’t expect a forklift in front of the building,” he says. “We aren’t trying to erase La Tourelle’s legacy. We want to acknowledge it while establishing our own identity.”

The food will definitely show English’s New Orleans roots and influences but will also incorporate items from other cultures.

Hays will remain the restaurant’s gardener, a point about which he was adamant. But the new owner might have one request: an abundance of irises. Restaurant Iris is the name English has chosen. The name honors both his hometown New Orleans, which is associated with the fleur-de-lis (a stylized design of an iris flower), and his new home state Tennessee, which designated the iris as the state flower in 1933.

It is time again for Chef Wally Joe‘s annual star-chef-studded benefit dinner, which is being held at KC’s, his family’s restaurant in Cleveland, Mississippi, on Sunday, November 11th. While the Wally Joe and Friends dinner has raised money for the James Beard Foundation in the past, Joe decided to look closer to home for this year’s beneficiary: St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

“Many of us have kids, and the people at St. Jude do amazing work that can change the lives of so many children,” Joe explains.

Several nationally acclaimed chefs will be preparing the six-course dinner. Among them are Don Yamauchi, executive chef at Tribute in Farmington Hills, Michigan, which has consistently earned the highest accolades from experts, including Gourmet, The New York Times, and Wine Spectator; recent James Beard best chef Midwest award-winner Celina Tio of the American Restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri; and Shaun Doty, whose career has spanned the globe but whose passion lies in creating simple and contemporary bistro fare at Shaun’s in Atlanta’s historic Inman Park.

Cost for the dinner is $150 per person plus tax and gratuity. For reservations, call 662-843-5301.

KC’s Restaurant, 400 Highway 61 N., Cleveland, Mississippi