Tag: The Grove Grill

Magnolia & May: a “Country Brasserie”

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date June 29, 2022

Chip and Amanda Dunham (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Chip Dunham may be the only chef inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants.

Dunham, 31, who owns Magnolia & May along with his wife Amanda, was 14 when he began working at a restaurant. “My parents told me I needed to get a job if I wanted to go to the movies or any sort of extracurricular activity with my friends,” he says. “I needed a job to pay for that.”

His mother wanted him to bus tables at The Grove Grill, which was owned by his dad, chef Jeffrey Dunham. “My dad said cool people cook in the kitchen.”

Thanks to an animated TV series, Chip became a pantry cook, making cold salads and appetizers. “At the time I was really into SpongeBob SquarePants. He was a fry cook.”

Working at the restaurant was “a really positive experience. We had a good bunch of people back there. When I first started, Ryan Trimm was the chef de cuisine.

“I wouldn’t be doing it to this day if I didn’t love it. It was a lot of fun. It gave you a creative outlet.”

Chip, who could “work every station in the kitchen,” enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, New York. “There’s a distillery on campus, a brewery, a culinary science program. If anyone is going into the culinary arts field, that is the place to go.”

Chip, who met Amanda at school, worked at Slightly North of Broad Restaurant, Butcher & Bee, and The Glass Onion in Charleston, South Carolina, before moving back to Memphis.

In 2017, his parents were thinking about adding a second location of The Grove Grill but couldn’t find the right location. They decided to convert Chip’s grandfather’s insurance company into a restaurant.

The Grove Grill closed in March 2020 during the pandemic. “We ended up just putting all our efforts into Magnolia & May,” Chip says.

They opened the restaurant in May 2020, with Chip as executive chef and Amanda as general manager. “We were ready to go and our employees were ready to go. There was no sense in waiting anymore.

“We had online orders, did curbside, and you could dine in. It was all about doing what we could to stay afloat. We did those chef boxes and instructions on how to make a dinner for two.”

As for the concept, Chip says, “We call ourselves a country brasserie. We present ourselves in a rustic way, but while we’re a restaurant based in the American South, we don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves as that.”

Influences include Asian and Middle Eastern, but everything is “rooted in that classic French technique,” Chip says. And they change the menu daily. “That could be as simple as one change or we could basically overhaul the whole menu.”

Core items include sautéed trout with fried green tomatoes and jumbo lump crab meat and hollandaise. “We’re doing it with sockeye salmon right now. The only reason we switched out trout is salmon is in season.”

Sandwiches include a fried chicken and collard greens melt and a double cheeseburger with melted cheddar.

They still serve the pimento cheese from The Grove Grill. “We don’t have the ability to do the flatbread like we did at The Grove. We just serve it with crackers, pickles, and bacon marmalade.”

They include some “exclusive items” for the recently reinstated lunch. One is pastrami made with Home Place Pastures beef brisket served on marble rye bread. “And then I put some house-made barbecue chips on it and jalapeño cheddar cheese sauce.”

As for desserts, Chip says. “My kids really like ice cream cones, so one of our desserts is chocolate-dipped cones with sprinkles.”

Dunham family children are responsible for the restaurant’s name. “Our family has a silly tradition where before you know the gender of the baby, you give it a little nickname. At the time, Amanda was pregnant with our daughter, who we called Baby Magnolia. And my sister was pregnant, and we called my niece Baby May.”

Magnolia & May is at 718 Mt. Moriah Road; (901) 676-8100.

Tags Amanda Dunham, Chip Dunham, Magnolia & May, The Grove Grill

Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Restaurant Iris is Moving

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date June 8, 2021

Michael Donahue (left) with chef Kelly English (photo by Jon W. Sparks)

Restaurant Iris is moving from its Midtown location to the old The Grove Grill restaurant location at 4550 Poplar in Laurelwood in East Memphis, chef/owner Kelly English announces.

“During the pandemic we really talked and thought a lot about the best ways we could take care of our team,” English says.

And, he says, “When it came the right time, we called Laurelwood and started talking about what it would be to move that way.”

It’s a much bigger space than their current location, English says. “The dining room in Laurelwood is bigger than the entire property Iris is on.”

He doesn’t know when the new Restaurant Iris will open. “We don’t have a specific date it in mind.”

But English’s restaurant, The Second Line, will stay where it is, next to the old Restaurant Iris. “We’ll put something new and great where Iris is. Not sure what that is.”

Restaurant Iris will stay open where it is “until we get a better idea of when that move will happen.”

Though the exact date hasn’t been decided, the move will take place in 2021, English says.

The new Restaurant Iris will continue to be a “a classic Creole restaurant with a sense of New American.”

But, English says, “We’ll be offering more stuff out of that location.”

Restaurant Iris is at 2146 Monroe Avenue.

Tags Restaurant Iris, The Grove Grill

Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

The Grove Grill is Closed

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date May 7, 2020

The Grove Grill is closed after almost 23 years.

The Grove Grill restaurant in Laurelwood Shopping Center is closed after almost 23 years of operation. But a new restaurant from the same family is on the horizon.

First, The Grove Grill.

“Finances,” says chef/owner Jeffrey Dunham. “We got set so far behind because of the shutdown.” They were looking forward to “early summer business, graduation, Easter, and Mother’s Day and all that to get us going,” he says. “And the timing was just bad.”

The business, he says, “wasn’t in a great place anyway. We are an older restaurant in a very large space and, frankly, our concept is not as relevant as it was. Operationally, it was costing us too much for the revenue we were doing. And then when this hit, it just set us too far behind.”

Dunham says the Grove Grill “never reopened after the virus thing. We did a little bit of to-go food.”

Jeffrey Dunham

The restaurant, which would have been 23 years old this October, was defined “in a number of ways over the years,” Dunham says. “We did a lot of marketing stuff. ‘Casual fine dining’ one time. ‘American cuisine with a Southern accent,’ I think we said, one time. When we opened, Chip Apperson and I envisioned a potentially fine dining experience, but in a very casual and accessible atmosphere. Chip used to say, ‘Blue jeans or black tie.’ We were going to try to attract that.”

What’s next? A new restaurant: Magnolia and May.

“My son (Chip Dunham) and my daughter-in-law, Amanda, are opening up another place that we’ve been working on, also in East Memphis. Behind the Half Shell.”

The restaurant, which will be at 718 Mount Moriah, is slated to open in two weeks, Jeffrey says. It will be “country brasserie — country food from all over the world. Focusing a lot on Southeast regional.”

The restaurant also will serve some of Grove Grill’s popular dishes, including the pimento cheese, which has a “cream cheese base, not mayonnaise. And we also use a chicken stock reduction to add a different depth of flavor.”

Asked how he was feeling about The Grove Grill, Dunham says, “Well, I don’t feel great about closing a business I operated for nearly 23 years. That’s not the way I would like to have ended that restaurant, to be honest with you. But we’ve been excited about this new restaurant for a long time. We’ve been working on it for a year and a half with planning and architecture and all that.”

So, will Dunham work at the new restaurant? “Yeah. I’m kind of a damn prep cook.”

Tags Amanda Dunham, Chip Dunham, Jeffrey Dunham, Laurelwood Shopping Center, The Grove Grill

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Shaking things up at Grove Grill and Bounty on Broad.

Post author By Susan Ellis
Post date July 26, 2018

Chip Dunham‘s given name is Jeffrey, just like his dad, Jeffrey Dunham, the chef/owner of Grove Grill. In fact, “Chip,” is short for, as it often is in these cases, “chip off the old block.”

One could make a pretty good argument that this is certainly the case for Chip, who was lured back to Memphis from Charleston about a year ago to take over the kitchen at Grove Grill.

Chip, who worked at such Charleston mainstays as Edmund’s Oast and the Glass Onion, recalls how he first got into the biz. Of course, it was through his dad. When he was a teenager, he needed a job. The obvious plan would be that he would work at the restaurant. Maybe as a busboy. But his dad told him that “cool people cook.” Chip was smitten with the idea, mainly because SpongeBob SquarePants was a cook.

Chip went away to culinary school and then off to Charleston.

As he explains it, he and his dad talk every day. The senior Dunham was telling the junior Dunham about the restaurant’s new decor and how the place needed a new vibe, something to shake things up at the restaurant, which had recently marked its 20th year.

“I wasn’t sold on it,” admits Chip.

But the idea of a new challenge made sense to him.

It took him about six months to feel at home. He calls his dad’s style traditional, while he would describe his cooking as encompassing refined techniques in a sort of country brasseries style. He’s started to make his mark on the menu, with dishes such as the Grilled Peaches and Heirloom Tomatoes. As Chip notes, the menu already had a grilled peach salad, but the new one is a more imaginative take with whipped feta spread on the plate and locally grown micro-arugula.

Another Chiptastic dish is the House Made Charcuterie Board, where everything is made in-house — salami, duck liver mousse, country ham, etc.

One thing Chip would like to do in his new role is TNT the old concept of Grove Grill, maybe draw some younger folks.

“I think people forget about us,” he says. “We’ve been around so long.”

He feels that folks view it as stuffy and expensive, which is not the case, he says.

To combat that idea, Grove Grill recently started hosting an open house series called Third Thursdays. It features craft cocktails, local beers, and fine wines as well as a selection of seasonal small plates. The next Third Thursday is August 16th.

Chip is particularly proud of the bar, which is his wife Amanda’s domain.

For now, Chip says he’s “pretty content.”

He says, “I’m excited to see how it goes.”

Grove Grill, 4550 Poplar, 818-9951, thegrovegrill.com

About eight months ago, Michael Tauer, a principal of Bounty on Broad, reached out to Mason Jambon. It seems that the ardor for the once white-hot restaurant, located in the Binghampton district, had cooled.

The first thing that Jambon suggested was that they ditch the gluten-free menu. He laughs at the memory. He was told that was off the table. So, he had dinner.

“It was the best meal I’ve had here in Memphis,” he recalls.

Jambon’s approach was to double-down on the restaurant. Where others may have cut staff and expenses to make up for lost profits, Jambon insisted that they invest in them. They rehabbed the bar and stocked up on expensive wines. They redid the craft cocktail menu and started holding special dinners like After the Hunt, which featured dishes of game meat.

Jambon flat-out calls Bounty chef Russell Casey an artist. Casey took over after Bounty founder Jackson Kramer left town. In his wake, he found he had to contend with the cult of Jackson Kramer.

Whereas Kramer liked to challenge people, Casey was more approachable with his food. But, he dared not touch the dishes that made Bounty’s name. So while you’ll still find those famous Pommes Frites, you can also order Casey’s Eggplant Lasagne, white wine-poached flounder, etouffee, and the Plum Sauce marinated Pork Tenderloin.

Casey says he liked to “build things from the bottom up.” He says he works with Indian influences using French techniques.

Next up, they’re planning on converting the old butchery into a private dining space.

All this effort seems to be working. Sales are up.

“We were giving people what they want,” says Jambon.

Bounty on Broad, 2519 Broad, 410-8131, bountyonbroad.com

Tags Bounty on Broad, The Grove Grill

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Grove Grill’s Jeff Dunham takes the Farmers Market Challenge.

Post author By John Klyce Minervini
Post date September 11, 2014

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

It’s easy to get distracted at the Agricenter Farmers Market. If the handmade olive oil soaps don’t get you, then Mama D’s Italian Ice will. Fortunately, Jeff Dunham is a man who knows what he wants. On a balmy Saturday morning, he strides up to Peach World Farms and places an order.

“I’ll take a case of peaches and case of cukes. Picklers. Oh, and I better get some corn, too.”

“Bread and Butter or Silver Queen?” asks the attendant.

“Silver Queen.”

John Klyce Minervini

Jeff Dunham in his garden

At 6’4″ and built like a backhoe, Dunham can put away his fair share of food. But the cucumbers aren’t destined for his dinner table. Rather, he’s stocking the pantries of his Ivy Award-winning restaurant, the Grove Grill. Later that day, the peaches will turn up in a grilled peach salad with arugula, barbecued pecans, and fresh goat cheese. The corn is destined for a tasty Tasso ham succotash.

Today, Dunham also happens to be shopping for lunch. He’s agreed to take the Flyer‘s Farmers Market Challenge, in which I team up with a local chef, we go shopping at the farmers market, and the chef cooks a delicious meal with what we bought. (Because why make your own lunch if you can get an award-winning chef to do it? Am I right?)

Keeping up with Dunham is harder than you might think. He walks quickly, and almost before I can write down what he’s bought, he’s on to the next stall. Today, he’s keen on the red fish fillets at Paradise Seafood. This particular fish was caught yesterday off the coast of Gulf Shores, and the fillets are something to behold: pale pink, the color of rose quartz, with white veins zigzagging throughout. We buy a pound.

Before we head home, Dunham rounds out our shopping bag with eggs, Anaheim peppers, and eggplants from Windermere Farms. Then it’s time to start cooking.

Dunham lives with his wife Tracey — with whom he owns the Grove Grill — in a ranch-style house near the White Station and Mendenhall area. The two met at culinary school in the 1980s. Today, we’re also expecting the Dunhams’ daughter, Christine, and her husband, Aaron Lamey.

“Oh, there’s Aaron,” says Tracey, hearing her son-in-law at the door. “We better plug in the waffle maker.”

“Every family has somebody with quirky tastes,” says Dunham, by way of explanation. “Aaron likes some of this stuff, but what he really likes is waffles — so we’re making him waffles.”

While the waffle maker heats up, we wet our whistles with a virgin cocktail: juiced cantaloupe and basil mixed with San Pellegrino Pompelmo, a sparkling grapefruit drink. It’s refreshing and crisp — equal parts melon sweet and citrus tangy — perfect for a lazy summer morning.

Cocktail in hand, Dunham tosses some veggies on the grill: corn, zucchini, okra, and the Anaheim peppers. The okra and zucchini are from his plot at Shelby Farms Community Garden, where he spends one to two hours every day.

“Gardening is how I stay sane,” Dunham confesses, turning the peppers. “There are days I’ll go out there and just pull weeds for two hours. It’s one of those mindless tasks that helps you unwind.”

After the veggies come off the grill, it’s time to roast the red fish. Dunham stokes the fire with some fallen tree branches, courtesy of the ancient oak trees in his backyard. This, he explains, will allow the fire to burn hotter than charcoal, while also flavoring the fish.

Back in the kitchen, he prepares a puree of roasted eggplant, tomatoes, and onions. He peels the peppers and stuffs them with corn and zucchini — a vegetarian relleno for summer. Last of all, he fries the eggs, flipping them as though it were no big deal. Had he been planning this all along?

John Klyce Minervini

The plated lunch

“If you’re asking me if I knew in advance what this plate was gonna look like,” Dunham replies, snacking on a cherry tomato, “then the answer is, no. Really, I’m just making it up as I go along.”

For an off-the-cuff brunch, it’s pretty darn impressive. The fish is immaculately plated, served over eggplant puree with a tomato-and-onion slaw. It’s wonderfully light and flaky — but is it weird that I like the eggplant puree best of all? It’s savory and just a little sweet, flavored with basil, lemon, thyme, and oregano.

After a short grace, we tuck into our food, attacking the fried eggs and cornering the chili rellenos. As for Aaron, he’s happy as a clam with his waffles.

Tags The Grove Grill