As the day wrapped up, and after we enjoyed a trip to the amazing Shangri-La Records, we picked up Marie and her sister from the con, dropped her at work, and drove on to our fourth barbecue destination, and then ran into a disappointment. I’d been looking forward to visiting Payne’s as our final stop on the Saturday expedition, but I did not do the proper research. They’re only open for lunch. We wouldn’t have one of their celebrated pig sandwiches on this visit after all. So we went back to the hotel for me to reconsider plans, and everything turned out all right. I even got to learn about a long-vanished chain of barbecue restaurants that I did not know about previously. Continue reading “Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q, Memphis TN”
Tops Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN
Well, I done Tops wrong, to be blunt. I had mistakenly assumed that they were a sort of Memphis version of some other regional fast food barbecue chains, like Whitt’s or Rick’s in middle Tennessee / northern Alabama, or Buddy’s around Knoxville, where meat is smoked in one location and moved around to others and kept in warmers. It turns out that Tops, which has fourteen stores in the area – one of which is across the river in Arkansas, and another two in Mississippi – smokes the meat in each location. They use an indoor pit in each store, and the children and I visited the oldest existing restaurant on Rhodes Avenue in East Memphis, thinking, incorrectly, that they do all the smoking here. Continue reading “Tops Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN”
Cozy Corner Restaurant, Memphis TN
My plans for the day o’ barbecue in Memphis took a hit when the venerable, and extremely popular, Cozy Corner Restaurant was damaged by a fire in January and was forced to close. Happily, a few days before our trip, Southern Living writer Robert Moss tweeted out that they would reopen in temporary digs across the street. The owners of Encore Cafe had reached out to them, giving Cozy Corner a stopover home with an abbreviated menu while their restaurant was repaired. Continue reading “Cozy Corner Restaurant, Memphis TN”
Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN (take two)
A couple of chapters back, I mentioned how quite a few restaurants in this part of the country go to town on the Elvis memorabilia, even if there may be some disagreement as to how much influence that The King had on their cash registers while he was living. Leonard’s does not play up the Elvis angle, but he really did seem to enjoy this place. There are stories aplenty about how he’d rent the previous location, at 1140 South Bellevue, for all-night parties in the early 1960s. Continue reading “Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN (take two)”
Saigon Le, Memphis TN (CLOSED)
We were last in Memphis three years ago. We had planned a trip last spring, but couldn’t make it work, and so this time we scheduled it around Marie’s birthday, so she could celebrate with her sister, who lives in town, and her brother, who was planning to come that way for MidSouthCon anyhow. I batted a few ideas around with Marie’s sister, who recommended that we have at least a small break from barbecue to sample something else in the city. She said that there are some excellent Vietnamese restaurants in town, including Saigon Le, which is just a few blocks from her place in midtown, on the corner of Cleveland and Court. Continue reading “Saigon Le, Memphis TN (CLOSED)”
Johnnie’s Drive-In, Tupelo MS
There are certainly a number of establishments in Tupelo and in Memphis that trade as much as possible on the Elvis tourism dollar. One of these is Johnnie’s Drive-In, which originally opened in 1945 and is allegedly where the young Elvis liked to come for a meal from time to time. What’s said to be his favorite booth, one of maybe eleven in the small dining room, has a plaque on the wall. It’s easy to miss the plaque, surrounded as it is by all the memorabilia, including the newspaper accounts of his death that you see at lots of restaurants in the region. There is something of a shortage of proof in this claim. Some say that the whole Elvis connection was concocted in the wake of his death. A comment at the Tiny Travels in Mississippi blog – linked below – calls hooey on the whole thing. After all, the Presleys did move to Memphis when Elvis was only thirteen. Continue reading “Johnnie’s Drive-In, Tupelo MS”
Kevin Gillespie’s Pork Minute Steaks with Potato Pancakes
This is Marie, contributing a recipe that Grant pointed out from a book he recently read and enjoyed tremendously, even though it made him hungry. The book is Pure Pork Awesomeness by Chef Kevin Gillespie, and we received a complimentary copy of it for review at The Hipster Dad’s Bookshelf. Continue reading “Kevin Gillespie’s Pork Minute Steaks with Potato Pancakes”
Marie, Let's Eat! 