Tim Barker – Memphis Flyer

Tim Barker no longer “lives” on the Edge.

Edge Alley, that is.

Barker closed his restaurant, Edge Alley at 600 Monroe Avenue, on December 10th.

“I decided not to renew the lease for a number of reasons,” says Barker, 43.

Number one? “I feel it had started to become unsustainable.”

Describing the comfortable Edge District restaurant he opened about seven years ago, Barker says, “Fresh, light, full service. We use the best ingredients we can get our hands on. And those ingredients have gotten to be cost prohibitive.

“With the cost of goods and overhead, labor, I’d have to charge so much for lunch that we wouldn’t be viable for most people.”

Closing Edge Alley “makes the most sense. I don’t want to lower the quality of the product, change our service standard, cut staff. Now is kind of the time for me. Also, my lease is up. So, everything all at once. Rising costs, lease is up, and then maybe the concept has run its course.

“I don’t want to lower our standards and I don’t want to start using products that aren’t up to our standards. I’d rather close now while we’re at the top, on top of our game. The restaurant was doing really well. Everyone who worked here was really happy. A really good team.”

Barker has been trying to place all of his employees. “Most of them have already landed something.”

Describing Edge Alley, Barker says, “I’d say that we were upscale lunch and brunch with a focus on quality and consistency.”

They served “New American” or “influenced American food” — “Things that you are familiar with, but prepared in a slightly different way.”

For example, he says, “My shrimp and grits is different because it’s more of a French twist on an American classic.”

They offered a “robust selection” on their menu. They baked their own bread and even made their own crackers. “Everything was made from fresh ingredients. I always say it takes a lot of work to make things seem so effortless. A lot of work goes into these things behind the scenes. So, the guests only experience what’s on the plate.

“I just don’t want things to slip because of rising costs. I think the guests would notice if I started changing the quality of product or level of service. It just doesn’t make sense to sign another three-year term.”

Closing the restaurant wasn’t a sudden decision. “I’ve been considering it for a while. I’ve been weighing my options. I honestly feel like there’s no path forward without making different changes to the product quality.

“Outwardly, it seems crazy and fast, but inwardly, this has been a decision that was long in the making. Not something I took lightly or easily, but I’m confident it’s the right decision. For the business itself and for the staff.

“We had a meeting. I explained to them and they all understood why I was closing. We were open for a week so that everybody could say ‘bye to our regulars. We have so many people that loved and appreciated this restaurant, and the support has been tremendous.”

They had a great final week, Baker says. “Sunday, at the end of shift, we all had a toast. We all had a glass of champagne and celebrated our time together.

“I believe in this neighborhood and I believe in this city. And I believe in the restaurant industry.”

Baker plans to return to consulting and design, which he did before he opened Edge Alley.

Will he open another restaurant at some point? “I’m not ruling it out. I also have friends that are going to open places and I’m looking forward to helping them in whatever capacity I can.”

As a child, Tim Barker spent summers on his grandparents’ farm in Kentucky.

“We’d be up around 4 a.m. to pick tomatoes,” he says. “And then we’d come in for breakfast and eat tomatoes. And then go out and sell tomatoes. And then for lunch we would eat tomatoes.

“For a long time I didn’t eat tomatoes.”

Michael Donahue

Tim Barker

As chef/owner of Edge Alley, Barker, 38, now includes tomatoes in his popular shrimp and grits. “I [fell] in love with tomatoes. I turned into a tomato snob.”

Barker, who was born in Martin, Tennessee, got his first restaurant job at 13 working at a Shoney’s. He rose from washing dishes to flipping burgers and frying steaks.

Barker studied artistic photography at Murray State University. “My plan was to be a successful photographer.”

But, he says, “I was in school for photography and needed a job.”

He went to work at an upscale restaurant in Murray. “That was the restaurant where I realized this could be more than just a job.”

Instead of just flipping a steak, Barker started “to care about whether the thing is overcooked or not. It stops being just a job and you have to worry about the presentation. The quality. There’s more to it than just food.”

Barker, who briefly went to culinary school, eventually moved to Memphis, where he worked under chef/owner José Gutierrez at the old Encore restaurant at The Peabody and at the Beauty Shop working with chef/owner Karen Carrier.

Deciding he wanted to open a restaurant consulting business, Barker now owns Table and Bar Consulting Group. “We do restaurant concept and design for ground-up projects. And then we can also help people reorganize and repair their existing operation.”

He wasn’t thinking about opening a restaurant at 600 Monroe when the developer asked him what he thought he should do with the empty space. “I outlined this concept for some retail and art space, a restaurant, and a coffee roastery.”

A year and a half later, Barker opened Edge Alley, which serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and, Saturday and Sunday, brunch. The restaurant space has 60 seats. A photography gallery soon will fill another space.

Owning his own restaurant was his longtime fantasy, but, Barker says, “I’ve always thought that I would end up with a fine dining restaurant. A few years ago, I realized that’s not the way the world is going.

“What we do here is fun. There has to be a certain amount of whimsy.”

Their food concept has always been “fresh, light, as few ingredients as possible. No heavy sauces. Everything is meant to be refreshing.”

And, Barker says, “If we can’t make it, we prefer not to serve it. So, at first everything was served on a biscuit because that was the bread we were making at the time. We’ve expanded into other breads.”

A vegan avocado toast is their most popular item. “We put an entire avocado sliced and fanned out over the two slices of [wheat] bread. Then we make an herb vinaigrette and an herb and olive oil puree. So, it’s nice and bright and green. Then a little bit of dressed arugula and chia seeds.

“Every recipe is four or five ingredients, and every plate has four or five things on it. Nothing is so complicated that it’s difficult to understand or unfamiliar.”

Their shrimp and grits recipe is simple. Instead of “a sauce that’s made of Worcestershire hot sauce, all these tons of ingredients,” their sauce “starts off with charred tomatoes” and also includes garlic, onion, shrimp, and “a handful of spices.”

Their chocolate pot de creme dessert is made of dark chocolate, whiskey, whipped cream, and fresh berries.

Edge Alley isn’t the end of the line for Barker. “I think we have a lot of opportunity in 2019 to do other stuff in the neighborhood.”

He’s not ready to talk about it, but Barker says, “We’re working on another concept for the neighborhood.”

Think “bar.”