the road | the food | a new direction
If we lived in Memphis we’d have our lunch plans set for tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday, because the Woman’s Exchange Tea Room is celebrating their 55th anniversary by offering lunch on Wednesday, October 4th, for $5.55, and dessert on Thursday, October 5th, for 55 cents. Wednesdays at the Tea Room feature a fried chicken breast, while Thursday’s dessert is usually their super-luscious caramel brownie. Stop by and help them celebrate!
Gus’s Fried Chicken, which began life in the 1950s in the small town of Mason, Tennessee, northeast of Memphis, will be opening their 13th store early next year in Knoxville, TN. That’s not all for the spicy-crusted bird that many folks put on their top-ten lists. By early 2016 there should also be new stores in Los Angeles, Detroit, Fort Worth, and Kansas City (where it will face especially stiff competition). Future stores are in the works for St. Louis and Philadelphia.
We know Germantown Commissary, in the Memphis suburb of Germantown, as the site of classic Memphis barbecue — we’ve even mail-ordered first-rate Q from them — but if you’re dining in, you may want to avail yourself of the dessert menu. Michelle Lewis, writing for the alternative weekly Memphis Flyer, expresses her love for the Commissary’s homemade banana pudding, adding a little additional praise for their entire dessert menu. Read it all here.
The Kansas City Star sent Jill Wendholt Silva to Memphis to report back on the Memphis in May BBQ competition and the Memphis barbecue scene in general. Kudos to Ms. Silva – she showed genuine interest and curiosity, as opposed to the usual approach when a reporter from one barbecue region visits another barbecue region – you know, that mocking and haughty tone. Read about barbecue spaghetti, barbecue-stuffed baked potatoes, fresh pork rinds, barbecue nachos, potato chips sprinkled with Q rub, tamales, barbecue shrimp… and, of course, competition Q.
Jim Neely and his nephew Tony will be opening the fourth Interstate Barbecue next month at 7209 Winchester Road in Memphis, at the eastern edge of the city. The original restaurant is on South 3rd Street in Memphis, with branches in the Memphis airport and Southaven, Mississippi, just over the state line from Memphis. Interstate is one of the great barbecue meccas in a city known for great barbecue.
Texas smokes beef, northwestern Kentucky smokes mutton, the Carolinas finely chop pork shoulder and dress it with an assortment of regional sauces, and all of America has gone barbecue mad. Yet, for many Americans, barbecue means Memphis and Memphis means barbecue. Here they specialize in slow-smoked ribs and pork shoulders, which are pulled apart into shreds and chunks and sandwiched along with cool, crunchy slaw. Read more about what makes Memphis barbecue special in this story from The Daily Helmsman, the student newspaper of The University of Memphis.
Cozy Corner of Memphis opened yesterday inside Encore Cafe, with a smoking trailer out back. See the setup in the video above. Cozy Corner, across the street from Encore, suffered a devastating fire in January and it will be many months before their own restaurant will be ready for a move back across the street.
When the great barbecue restaurant Cozy Corner of Memphis suffered a fire in January, it appeared that it would be many months before Memphians would again enjoy the products of their pit. Not so, Cozy Corner fans! Starting Tuesday, Cozy Corner’s pits will be across the street in the newly opened Encore Cafe, which specializes in things like smoothies and veggie wraps. Said Encore owner Monroe Ballard, “We’re helping a neighbor in need.” There’s some good karma. Stop by Encore for some great Memphis barbecue and be sure to thank Mr. Ballard with, say, a smoothie purchase. Goes great with Q!
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