Tops Bar-B-Q is on a roll. Or maybe a “bun” would be more accurate. The Memphis-based company is opening its 18th location in June.
“We’re building in Cordova,” says Hunter Brown with Tops Operations LLC.
The new restaurant will be at Germantown Parkway and Cordova Road. The company is building on one acre of the parking lot of Memphis’s Incredible Pizza Company at 1245 North Germantown Parkway, Suite 104.
Tops opened its 17th location — 4199 Hacks Cross Road — on February 14th.
They’ve wanted a location in Cordova as much as they want locations in Collierville, Arlington, and other places, Brown says. “This just came first.”
They want to open new restaurants in areas where customers who were used to having a Tops Bar-B-Q in their neighborhood are moving, Brown says. For example, if a customer grew up with the Tops in Frayser and now lives in Cordova, they “deserve to have their own.”
The original growth spurt was in the late ’60s and early ’70s when Tops opened restaurants in quick succession on Thomas Street, Summer Avenue at National Street, Lamar Avenue, Union Avenue, and Frayser Boulevard.
Tops continued to open restaurants over the next 30 years, but began its current growth spurt in 2021 with its restaurant at 6745 Stage Road in Bartlett and then Hacks Cross Road. “The trajectory is adding up to two locations a year until we feel like we have fulfilled the needs of Memphis and the surrounding areas.”
They’re not stopping to take a breath after Cordova. “When we open Cordova, we plan on breaking ground somewhere else.”
Tops Bar-B-Q opened in 1952 in Memphis. “Rhodes at Getwell is the oldest store open. The first store doesn’t exist anymore. It was about two miles north of where our Sycamore View and Macon store is now.”
As for the upcoming Cordova location, Brown says, “There will be definite features to the new Tops, which will face Cordova Road, including a “a dual drive-through to enhance speed of service.”And, he says, “We’ll open the restaurant with breakfast to meet the needs of the surrounding area and those commuting to work.”
Breakfast is currently available at nine Tops restaurants. “It’s still evolving. But the plan is to open new restaurants with breakfast.”
Brown says the restaurant is a long-time favorite. “Memphis as a community is faithful. You see it when the Grizzlies are winning. When the Tigers are hot. They support Memphis things.
“The reality is Memphis supports Memphis. And they know that although we are growing and big, we’re still a hometown locally owned company that’s been in their family and generations for many years. And every day when I’m inside a Tops whether it’s Frayser Boulevard or Summer National, someone is coming up to me with a story about how they and their family and friends came in wherever after school and ate.
“There’s so much nostalgia. And merely from just being around so long, it builds camaraderie. That doesn’t exist for national brands.”
