Ryan Glosson – Memphis Flyer

Passed appetizers, menu samples, or a seated dinner with a limited menu is what I’ve found to be the norm at new restaurant soft openings.

Not so at Bain Barbecue & Bakery.

I was among the 70 people who attended what chef/co-owner Bryant Bain called the “soft opening for the soft opening” on June 2nd for the new restaurant at 993 South Cooper Street in Cooper-Young. Another soft opening is planned.

“We are currently open to the public for breakfast,” Bain says. They’ll begin serving lunch and dinner June 10th at the beautiful, light and airy restaurant in the old Stone Soup space.

Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Bain recounted the evening’s menu: “Appetizer was house queso with choice of brisket or pork. Main plate was brisket, ribs, pork, a half chicken, and our scratch-made sausages, one regular and one jalapeño cheddar. The sides were mac and cheese, baked potato salad, brisket pinto beans, and lime cilantro slaw. Dessert was pecan pie, crack pie, vanilla cakes, chocolate cake, or strawberry cake.”

That main plate heaped with food resembled more of a Thanksgiving dinner instead of a soft opening. “Groaning board” was an accurate term for what the picnic table (I ate outdoors with friends) resembled with our overflowing trays.

The food was delicious. First was the queso appetizer by itself like a soup instead of with chips. I thought that was all I was going to get to eat, so I also ate almost all the chips in the basket. I was mighty surprised when an enormous platter of food appeared. It was even more surprising when Bain’s wife, Heather, said, “Wait — we forgot this.” And co-owner Ryan Glosson added the half chicken breast to my plate.

Manager Jackson Cobb, Heather and Bryant Bain, Ryan Glosson at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Molly and Marcus Moss at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Quin Teachy and Michael Ivy at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Emma Blau and Cooper Smith at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Later, when I was walking out the door, somebody asked, “Don’t you want dessert?” I was about to fall in love with Bain’s vanilla cake.

“Haley Stephens is our head baker,” Bain says. “All my recipes, but she pours her heart and soul into everything she makes.”

And then something else I’ve never seen at a soft opening party: a blessing of the smoker. The Rev. Canon Sharon A. Alexander of The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee did the honors. Guests gathered outside to watch.

The Rev. Canon Sharon A. Alexander blesses “Peggy” the smoker at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Priscilla Shaw and Pierre Shaw at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

KK Muller and Logan Feathers at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Collier Roberts and Ella McLaughlin at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

The smoker’s name, by the way, is “Peggy.”

“ ‘Peggy’ is for ‘Peggy Hill’ from King of the Hill,” Bain says. “I name all my pits after my favorite cartoon women. Peggy Hill is a strong Texas woman and King of the Hill was a show far before its time.”

Bain, whose hometown is Hillje, Texas, originally opened his food truck, which specialized in Texas craft-style brisket. After he closed it, several people discussed partnering on some sort of business. But when Glosson talked to him, they just clicked.

Samantha Fong and Rita Fong at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Sara Sterling and Joe Rondone at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Billy, Curt, and Sarah Cowan at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Joanne and Jim Lippy at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Michael Donahue)

When Ryan Glosson heard the Bain BBQ food truck was going out of business last October, he stopped by and tried some of Bryant Bain’s barbecue.

Glosson thought, “This is too good to not exist. How can we make this work?”

So, Glosson and Bain joined forces. They plan to open Bain Barbecue & Bakery in late February in the old Stone Soup Cafe & Market building they recently purchased at 993 Cooper Street in Cooper-Young.

Bain posted on social media that he had to close his food truck, which specialized in Texas craft-style brisket. “We just ran out of money to keep it afloat,” he says. “And we were at a point where we weren’t profitable yet.”

Several people had talked to Bain about partnering with him on some sort of business, but when Glosson talked to him, they just clicked.

The bakery part of the business will open first. “There’s a place in my hometown, Hillje, Texas, [called] Prasek’s [Family Smokehouse],” Bain says. “They make homemade sausage and kolaches.”

A kolache, he says, is “this dough. And you punch a hole in the bottom to make a tiny little bread bowl; essentially, and you fill it with cream cheese and jam.”

Kolaches will be served at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Heather Bain)

Bain yearned for Prasek’s. “I wanted their food. I decided to do the next best thing and make it for myself.”

He thought, “I should do a bakery.”

Ironically, Glosson, who had lived in Austin and San Francisco, was already thinking about opening a similar business in Memphis. When Bain shared his ideas, Glosson said, “Holy shit. We have to do this. It’s fate.”

Bain also will make “klobasneks,” which are savory kolaches. “We’ll have sausage cheese, sausage, cheese and jalapeño; ham, cheese, and jalapeño,” he says.”And I just told Ryan about this, Heather, [Bain’s wife] also is working on a stuffed biscuit recipe that will have egg, cheese, and bacon; and sausage, cheese, and bacon inside of a biscuit and you can take it and run.”

That will be on the breakfast bakery side, Bain says. “Then all manner of cookies and cinnamon rolls. I’ve been working on a ton of different recipes — a bunch of stuffed cookies like salted caramel stuffed chocolate chip cookies, brownie stuffed chocolate chip cookies, Nutella stuffed sugar cookies.”

Brownie-stuffed cookies will be sold at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Heather Bain)

“And they are freaking fabulous,” Glosson says.

The bakery will start serving “in the early hours,” he says. They will deliver as well as take orders at a counter. “Your order comes out and there’ll be tables in an area where you can sit.”

The barbecue portion of the restaurant will come later because the new pit won’t be delivered until March. They need to build an external outdoor structure that will enclose the pit — a 1,000 gallon smoker. “We’re working with architects right now on the drawings themselves,” Glosson says. “Barbecue will come in the summer. Hopefully, late summer.”

They will have his famous brisket as well as Memphis-style barbecue including pulled pork, Bain says. “We’re switching to house-made sausage. I’ll be making all the sausage in house.”

Bryant Bain’s brisket will be sold at Bain Barbecue & Bakery (Credit: Heather Bain)

In addition to seating customers in the two front dining rooms, Glosson says, “We want the building to be able to double as an event space for corporate events. We’ve got several friends in town who say there’s a need for an event space in Cooper-Young that can do events for between 50 and 100 people.”

They’ve already come up with the bathroom themes. “We’re going to have one pig-themed bathroom and one cow-themed bathroom,” Glosson says. “They’re going to be very, very cute.”

The interior will be done in “multiple colors,” Glosson says. “We’re going to have blue in the foyer, a cream color in the dining room, a red in the adjoining room in the front. We’re going to have the cream with some red in there and some exposed brick.”

They’re working with Jason Lowe on the interior design, Glosson says.

The two-story building is about 4,000 square feet, he says. They will be using only the first floor for now, but the restaurateurs hope to start using the upstairs space as more dining rooms once the barbecue gets going.

Then there’s “the line,” Glosson says. “One of the things that’s really cool about these barbecue restaurants in Texas is ‘the line.’ When the brisket comes up and they start to cut it, serve it, in Austin people start lining up at 7, 8 a.m. They’ll bring a cooler and lawn chairs. When it’s gone, it’s gone. They want to make sure they get some.”