Tag: Sage

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Memphis Black Restaurant Week Kicks off March 8th

Memphis Black Restaurant Week (MBRW) is right around the corner, and there will be so many exciting options to choose from across the city.

MBRW is an annual celebration of black-owned businesses, with a goal of boosting awareness and bringing in new customers to support minority-owned restaurants around Memphis.

Participating restaurants are offering two-course lunches for $15 and three-course dinners for $25 for the whole week, providing an affordable way for Memphians to sample food from lots of different eateries without breaking their budget.

This year’s featured restaurants include old favorites — like The Four Way, which has been a Memphis staple since the civil rights era — and notable newcomers, like Flava House, a restaurant and hookah lounge that opened its doors in late 2019. Other participants include Chef Tam’s Underground Café, Curry N Jerk, The Waffle Iron, and
many more.

Cynthia Daniels has been organizing MBRW since 2015 and wants people to know that MBRW has something for everyone.

Cynthia Daniels

Memphis Flyer: What originally inspired you to launch Black Restaurant Week?

Cynthia Daniels: It was inspired by the opening of HM Dessert Lounge in November 2015. I had the opportunity to work with Chef Fran Mosley during that time, and business was very slow in the beginning. I thought it would be cool to create a food-themed event that celebrates black restaurants, the same way we have a Jewish Festival, Italian Festival, Indian Festival, and more.

This is the fifth Black Restaurant Week since you launched the first one years ago. How much has it changed or grown or evolved in the last five years?

It’s grown outside of Memphis and is now a nationwide event in major cities across the country.

How do you choose which restaurants participate?

There’s a mixture of Memphis staples involved and newer restaurants that need marketing support to gain more business.

There’s a wide variety of food options across all the different participating restaurants — is that intentional? Do you try to get as much food variety as possible or does that happen organically?

Yes, I want it to be intentional. At times, black restaurants are stereotyped for only selling soul food, so MBRW showcases diversity among
what’s offered.

Justin Fox Burks

Sage

What are some dishes or foods that you’re most excited about or that you think are particularly unique?

Soul Rolls at Sage, peach cobbler nachos at Chef Tam’s Underground Café, and sweet potato pancakes at The Waffle Iron.

Now that you have a few years under your belt, what do you think the future of Black Restaurant Week looks like in the next five years and beyond?

I feel like it will continue to grow outside of the Midtown and Downtown areas. We’ve expanded to include South Memphis and Orange Mound this year.

Do you have any particularly fond memories from Black Restaurant Week over the last few years?

It never fails that I can run into MBRW supporters during the year and they always tell me that MBRW introduced them to their favorite new restaurants. That proves the week was successful, and the success continues long after the weeklong event.

Do you have any message for prospective restaurant patrons who are thinking of coming out for MBRW for the first time this year?

I want to remind people that MBRW is for everyone! It’s a celebration of food, and we embrace all ethnicities who want to experience amazing food and hidden jewels throughout the city.

MBRW is happening March 8th through 14th. Find more information and check out participating restaurants at blackrestaurantweek.com or follow along on their Facebook page: facebook.com/MemphisBlackRW.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Unique Drinks at Sage on S. Main

I barely made it in the door of Sage Memphis when the thunderstorm hit. It’s a full-on monsoon outside, and Sage, despite being a reliable shelter and serving alcohol, is relatively empty. Because I don’t let thunder and lightning spoil my good time, I am determined to find out more about this adorable bar tucked in at 94 S. Main. I have eyes — I’ve seen their Instagram. I’ve perused Twitter. And I am pissed no one told me about this place.

“It’s a slow night,” says Khadijah, the bartender. This works out well because then she lets me monopolize her time and find out all about Sage’s drinks, menu, and future plans. Saturdays are their busy nights, with Sunday brunches close behind. It’s not difficult to see why: Despite being a kick-ass bar bathed in green light (sage!), the food is way beyond that of a humble bar. Pair the food with the kind of drinks Sage is serving up and you’ve got a winning combo in Downtown Memphis.

Justin Fox Burks

The Molly Spaulding martini is served with a rock candy lollipop.

Because thunderstorms make me a little squirrelly, I order the Allure martini, which is a chocolate-based drink with Bailey’s and amaretto. My friend and I also try the Esquire, a mix of Old Dominick’s Huling Station bourbon and Grand Marnier, and the Mane Street Mule, which has Jack Daniel’s, ginger ale, and a strip of candied bacon.

These are all off-brand drinks for me, but if a restaurant is going to put candied bacon and Bailey’s martinis on a menu, by God, I will drink them. The brunch menu has a specialty mimosa, the Triple C, made with Camus cognac and prosecco, and for those with a sweet tooth, the cotton candy mimosa made with rosé champagne and elderflower. The fun drinks aren’t just for brunch; Khadijah says her favorite drink to make is the Molly Spaulding, a martini made with whipped cream vodka and served with a lollipop.

Khadijah is also a spectacular ambassador of Sage’s food. She fascinates with descriptions of the beignets (made from homemade biscuits), the Soul Waffle (two waffles stuffed with fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and greens), and the daily lunch specials (tilapia with gouda grits some days, crawfish mac and cheese the next).

It’s on her recommendation that we try the Soul Egg Rolls, which, like the waffle, are made with chicken, mac and cheese, and greens — and holy moly, they’re incredible. Sage doesn’t shy away from the alcohol infusion in their food, either; the rosemary and ginger peach cobbler has Hennessy-infused Georgia peaches! Hel-lo, dessert.

After finding out how packed brunches are at Sage, I’m already planning my second visit. Khadijah knows her crowd, too: She says her brunch crowd makes Sunday feel like a “slightly earlier Saturday night.”

“They have some drinks, have some brunch, maybe ride some scooters to another bar,” she says, and hey, South Main boozehounds, isn’t it nice to feel seen? Sage is exactly the type of place I’d kick off my Sunday because then, if so inclined, a person could make their way from one end of South Main to the other and hit up all the good spots and be safe at home by sundown.

It’s important to note that Sage isn’t the line-up-at-11 a.m. type of place because their brunch runs until 4:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday (sleep it off or just sleep in; you’ve got time, pal!).

Khadijah describes Sage as a social situation of a bar, which is exactly the vibe it has. It’s a great place to sit and people-watch from the patio, enjoy some unique drinks you won’t see most other places, and plan your scooter route for the day. It’s open at 11 a.m. daily and until 10 p.m. on weeknights, midnight on weekend nights, and 5 p.m. on Sunday. It’s going to be a go-to for pre-gaming Grizzlies games because, uh, there’s bacon in the drinks, y’all.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sage Going into Oshi Space

Sage, a soul food fusion restaurant, will open in the old Oshi space at 94 S. Main in the next few weeks

Eli Townsend in front of his upcoming restaurant, Sage

Eli Townsend, who’s worked with Kaleidoscope Kitchen and Caritas Village, hooked up with some investors who were interested in something different Downtown.

Townsend says he’s wanted to open a restaurant for a couple years now, but the partnership with the unnamed investors gives him creative freedom.

His work with Kaleidoscope inspired the fusion idea. His students are mostly immigrants and refugees. He says they taught him as well.

Sage will start off with a menu of Asian-soul fare. We’re talking fried green tomatoes with a kim chi salad, cauliflower rice, and “soulful” Bento Boxes for lunch with a side salad, Teriyaki meatloaf, and sautéed bok choy.

Townsend says his cooking journey started in Frayser at the Bookmobile. He gravitated toward the cookbooks and spent his allowance at thrift stores on pots and pans. His first meal, at 8, was fried chicken and spaghetti. “I wanted to help my mom,” he says. “It was a disaster.” His mother was unhappy because he was ruining food, but after a while she recognized his enthusiasm and started to teach him things.

He chose Sage as the name of his restaurant to represent both the herb used in cooking and the idea of sage as a way to revigorate a space. He wants to cleanse the atmosphere, create a neutral space that’s open to positive vibes and energy.

“You won’t think of Oshi when you walk in,” he says. The new restaurant will still have the bar in the back, but a long family-style table has replaced the booths.

As far as luring people into Sage, he says, the plan is to “really focus on stellar service and great food.”

After Asian-Soul, Townsend will change up the menu. He plans on Sudanese- and Syrian-Soul fusion.

“It’s a voyage around the world,” he says.