Memphis magazine, July 2017 by Contemporary Media

Memphis • THE CITY MAGAZINE • W W W.MEMPHISMAGAZINE.COM

JAMIE MCMAHAN: PORTRAIT ARTIST | MACHINE GUN KELLY | MICHAEL DONAHUE | FOODIE ROAD TRIPS

THE CITY MAGAZINE

VOL XLII NO 4 | J U LY 2 01 7

WHY WE LIVE WHERE WE LIVE Memphians share what they love about their neighborhoods.

ONIE JOHNS, BINGHAMPTON USA $4.99

0 7

—1 7

DISPLAY UNTIL AUGUST 10, 2017

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SOUND

Bites.

PICTURED: CASTRO LOCATION: PEROT MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE

DALL AS IS A CIT Y WITH M ANY SIDES.

That’s what makes it such a great place to visit. Admire towering beasts and the Giant Gems of the Smithsonian in the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Then explore history at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum or take in panoramic views from the GeO-Deck at the top of Reunion Tower. At night, turn things up at the music venues of Lower Greenville or Deep Ellum, featuring soulful artists, local bands and big-name acts. Whether you’re discovering history or want to hear it being made, Dallas always strikes the right chord.

Get the most out of your getaway and learn more about CityPASS at VisitDallas.com.

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6/15/17 11:39 AM

The best waiting room is your living room. Download the free Baptist Minor Med Rest & Relax at Home app on your iPhone, iPad or Android device. Then the next time you need us, use the app to pre-register and relax until we call you. Not able to download an app on a device? No problem — just call the nearest clinic and pre-register by phone. Baptist Minor Meds. A better option for your family’s urgent care needs. Open Monday – Friday 8 am-7:30 pm Saturday and Sunday 8 am-2 pm

CORDOVA | MEMPHIS | OLIVE BRANCH | BARTLETT minormed.baptistonline.org

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SIDEWALK SALE

JULY 21–23 Summer is sizzling and itʹs time to add a little spice to your wardrobe! Don't miss the Germantown Sidewalk Sale at Saddle Creek. Get the best deals on spring and summer fashions as we prepare for fall during this three-day sales event!

Reminder: Tax Free Weekend is July 28 – 30

901.753.4484

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6/20/17 11:28 AM

T:8”

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Your favorite summer rides are now open. The Mercedes-Benz Summer Event. Your ticket to adventure is here. Hurry in to the Mercedes-Benz Summer Event for exceptional offers on the thrilling C-Class Sport Sedan, the sleek and versatile GLA or the innovative GLE. See your authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer today before these offers disappear. And please keep your hands and feet inside the moving vehicle at all times, and enjoy the ride! MBUSA.com/SummerEvent

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2017 C 300 Sport Sedan and 2017 GLE 350 shown in Selenite Grey metallic paint. 2017 GLA 250 shown in Polar Silver metallic paint. Optional equipment shown. *MSRP excludes all options, taxes, title, registration, transportation charge and dealer prep. Options, model availability and actual dealer price may vary. See dealer for details. ©2017 Authorized Mercedes-Benz Dealers For more information, call 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES, or visit MBUSA.com.

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200 Varick St. New York, NY 10014 : Phone 212-805-7500

6/19/17 9:32 AM

Cookie Cutter Funerals – each one looks and sounds like all the others.

Cookie cutters are perfect for baking, but not for funerals. Yet, that’s what you ﬁnd at most Memphis area funeral homes. If your choice is a remembrance as special and unique as the life being remembered, call Memphis Funeral Home.

5599 Poplar Avenue | 3700 North Germantown Road | 901-725-0100

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MEMPHIS Funeral Home

The Most Trusted Name In Memphis Since 1931.

6/19/17 9:33 AM

CR O S STO WN UPTOWN BINGH AMPTON P SOU TH ID E ST GE O N L FFS A BLU R ATE CEN T NS S GA R DE CHICKA SAW GARDENS CHEROKEE HEIGHTS

VOL XLII NO 4 | JULY 2017 on the cover: PHOTOGRAPHS BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

WALNUT GROVE LAK E

WHY WE LIVE 33 3 WHERE WE LIVE SEA ISLE PAR K

POPLAR ESTATES

INGS EM F L R DEN GA

Features

24 Picture Perfect

How Jamie McMahan created his own career as one of America’s foremost portrait painters. ~ by frank murtaugh

33 Why We Live Where We Live

Memphians share what they love about their neighborhoods. ~ edited by shara clark

46 Public Enemy Number One

14 Up Front

The real story of Machine Gun Kelly, the Memphis boy who grew up to become the most wanted man in America. ~ by michael finger

54 Viva Los Angeles!

Our food writer falls back in love with L.A., the new culinary capital of America. ~ by pamela denney

12 in the beginning 14 on the town

62 The Big Chill

18 fine print 20 city journal 22 out and about

70 901 health

(also 16, 78 - 80)

The visionary founder of the Global Seed Vault, Memphian Cary Fowler has a simple mission: Save the planet. ~ by susan adler thorp

Worry, Worry, Go Away Why we succumb to worry and how best to shake it off. ~ by jane schneider

Columns Memphis (ISSN 1622-820x) is published monthly for $15 per year by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 © 2017. Telephone: 901-521-9000. For subscription info, please call 901-521-9000. Subscription customer service mailing address is Memphis magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101. All rights reserved. • Periodicals Postage Paid at Memphis, TN. Postmasters: send address changes to Memphis, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101.

82 ask vance

Vieh’s Bakery Our trivia expert solves local mysteries of who, what, when, where, why, and why not.

~ by vance lauderdale

84 garden variety

Thrillers, Spillers, & Fillers For plantaholics, downsizing a garden is excruciating, but container gardening offers many benefits. ~ by christine arpe gang

86 dining out

Country Comfort At Raven & Lily, Justin and Amy Young mix small-town sociability with innovative Southern food. ~ by pamela denney

88 city dining

Tidbits: Lucky Cat Ramen; plus the city’s most extensive dining listings.

96 last stand

Russia: Primer and Paradox A personal visit to our country’s Official Adversary Number One. ~ by jackson baker

88 JULY 20 17 • MEMPHISMAGA ZINE.COM • 7

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BONUS

EAT

In This Issue

CRYE-LEIKE, REALTORS

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

real estate ALL-STARS

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

VICKI BLACKWELL

JERRY LUCIUS

MARK SALLER

GAY YOUNG

YOUR TRUSTED REAL ESTATE ADVISOR. With over 30 years in Real Estate, Vicki is Vice President and Managing Broker with Crye-Leike Realtors. A Lifetime Member of the Multi-Million Dollar Club, Vicki has taken an active role in the real estate industry, serving on the Realtor Political Action Committee, The Grievance Committee, and Past President of the Young Realtors Group. She is a Certified Real Estate Specialist. Vicki received the Lion Heart Award for Volunteer Service for Youth Villages and served as two-term Race Director for the YV5K Run. In 2014 she established BARC, Blackwell Animal Rescue Center, a 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome abused and abandoned animals. Over 750 dogs and cats rescued since the beginning. In 2016 she was awarded the Rotary-Paul Harris Fellow Award as recognition for exceptional service. Vicki is licensed in Tennessee and Mississippi.

ONE OF MY specific areas of interest, focus and concentration is New Home Sales. Particularly, for Baby Boomers and Empty Nesters, who are Down-sizing or Right-sizing. The Real Estate Market is fast changing for this age group, with new trends, designs, and even subdivision specific, by catering to their needs and wants, especially for this Clientele. Builders and Developers in Shelby County and Fayette County are addressing these needs by building “all on one level” or even adding a grandkids playroom up. More specifically Collierville TN and Oakland TN have subdivisions that are specifically targeted to Baby Boomers. Please call for more details and floorplan specific information. It was not long ago when the news media made a Big Deal out of the youngest Baby Boomers had just turned 50.

A NATIVE MEMPHIAN with 30 years of real estate experience, Mark is currently representing Memphis Invest Group and sales manager for Premier Realty Group. Ranked the number-1 top-selling agent three years in a row with 1,800 sales over the last seven years, averaging 260 sales per year, Mark Saller is ranked as one of the top-selling agents in The Memphis Area Association of Realtors. Licensed in Tennessee and Mississippi, he served on both the ethics committee and professional standards committee and has served as a past chairman of The Realtors Political Action Committee. Call Mark for all your real estate needs.

MARX-BENSDORF REALTORS

CRYE-LEIKE, REALTORS

901.355.3076 (c) or 901.682-1868 (o) jerryluciusrealtor.com Jlucius@m-brealtors.com

PREMIER REALTY GROUP

GAY YOUNG IS one of the most well-respected and sought-after real estate agents in the Memphis and North Mississippi areas for both buying and selling homes. A resident of Collierville, Gay is involved in both community and church activities and is a Realtor resource for the many clients and contacts she calls “friends.” After a successful 20+ year career in the medical field in marketing, management and sales, Gay went to work fulltime in real estate with Keller Williams Realty, the largest real estate company in the World. Earning the Lifetime Member of the Multi-Million Dollar Club designation in record time, Gay works diligently to serve her clients’ best interests in their home purchase or sale. Energetic, professional and a top-notch negotiator with integrity are words to describe Gay’s style of taking care of clients. REAL Trends recognizes Gay as one of the top Realtors in America.

Broker

Broker/Vice President

901.521.9736 (o) 901.335.1441 (c) vblackwell@crye-leike.com

ABR

ABR, SFR, MMDC

KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY

930 S White Station, Memphis, TN 38117 901.261.7900 (o) 901.581.6118 (c) www.gayyoungonline.com

134 Timber Creek, Cordova, TN 38018 901.831.7650 marksaller@msn.com

RE A L E S TAT E A LL S TA RS page 77 Profiles of the leading realtors in the Memphis area.

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Coming In September 2017 MEMPHIS A RE A A S SOCI AT ION OF INDEPENDEN T SCHOOL S GUIDE

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Coming In October 2017 MEMPHIS MID SOU T H SUS A N G. KOMEN R ACE F OR T HE CURE PROGR A M

SUSAN G.

Saturday, October 29, 2016 in Downtown Memphis

A special publication of

The official race day program has bonus distribution to all participants in the event.

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Coming In November T HE 2017 V E S TA HOME SHOW GUIDE

a special publication of Memphis magazine

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The official guide for the 2017 show at Chapel Cover in Germantown, November 18 through December 10, will feature the floor .vestahomeshow. plans, renderings, and information regarding the suppliers for each of the six featured homes. Bonus distribution to the attendees. Five Impressive Homes That Showcase the Best in Home Building Design, Construction and Technology. Ainsley Manor, Fayette County

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Locally owned and operated since 1980.

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Call Dan Perkins or visit our showroom before it is too late. By appointment please.

901.213.0111 • 1499 Bartlett Road, Memphis, TN 38134

For more information on advertising or our upcoming special sections, please contact Margie Neal at margie@memphismagazine.com

8 • MEMPHISMAGA ZINE.COM • JULY 20 17

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GET YOUR NORMAL BACK For over 100 years, Semmes Murphey Clinic has been a leader in neurological and spine care. Our physical therapists provide integrated therapeutic treatment to help you return to an active life style.

APPOINTMENTS CALL: (901) 522-7700 WWW.SEMMES-MURPHEY.COM

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6/15/17 11:40 AM

Memphis THE C IT Y MAGAZ INE

General Excellence Grand Award Winner City and Regional Magazine Association 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014

PUBLISHER/EDITOR kenneth neill EXECUTIVE EDITOR michael finger MANAGING EDITOR frank murtaugh SENIOR EDITOR shara clark ASSOCIATE EDITOR samuel x. cicci ARTS & LIFESTYLE EDITOR anne cunningham o’neill FASHION EDITOR augusta campbell FOOD EDITOR pamela denney CONTRIBUTING EDITORS john branston,

chris davis, michael donahue, christine arpe gang, tom jones, vance lauderdale, amy lawrence, chris mccoy, jane schneider, susan adler thorp

CREATIVE DIRECTOR brian groppe PRODUCTION OPERATIONS DIRECTOR margie neal SENIOR ART DIRECTOR carrie beasley ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR christopher myers GRAPHIC DESIGNERS jeremiah matthews,

bryan rollins PHOTOGRAPHY justin fox burks, michael donahue,

larry kuzniewski, susan adler thorp ILLUSTRATION chris ellis, anna rose

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER raquel hinson SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES joy bateman,

STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE SINCE 1950

sloane patteson taylor ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE zach scott ADVERTISING ASSISTANT roxy matthews

published by contemporary media, inc. memphis, tn 901-521-9000 p • 901-521-0129 f subscriptions: 901-521-9000

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER jennifer k. oswalt SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR molly willmott CONTROLLER ashley haeger DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT jeffrey a. goldberg EDITORIAL DIRECTOR bruce vanwyngarden DIGITAL MANAGER kevin lipe SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER matthew preston Memphis Magazine’s

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER lynn sparagowski

FACE

EMAIL MARKETING MANAGER britt ervin

THE 2017 OF

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ORIENTAL RUGS

IT DIRECTOR joseph carey ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT celeste dixon RECEPTIONIST kalena mckinney

&7 july 2017

Master Weaver Ali Taghavi Restoring a antique Persian Farahan rug.

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10 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • J U L Y 2 0 1 7

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IN THE BEGINNING | by kenneth neill

Power to the People

n 1998, the late Shelby Foote, noted historian and raconteur, penned an essay for American Heritage magazine entitled “The Place of Good Abode,” that phrase having been coined after World War II by the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. In this article, Foote opined that, despite its myriad problems, its boisterous history, and its ever-changing collection of oddballs, misfits, heroes and villains, Memphis was actually a fascinating place to call home. He ended the piece with a quote from his favorite local hero, W.C. Handy.

LET'S DO LIFE OUTSIDE

901.262.3090 serenityhardscapes.com ACCREDITED BUSINESS ®

“Handy, not Elvis, is for me the providing and straight-line winds of “only” 85 mph. Neverthepresiding spirit of Memphis. ‘I’d rather be here less, there was significant damage, uncannily than any place I know,’ he said of his home- in many of the same neighborhoods as 2003, town in the 1917 “Beale Street Blues,” and later, as over half of MLGW’s customers lost power. Happily, our publicly-owned utility – these when words were added to “The Memphis Blues” of 1911—the first ever put on paper—he are few and far between in modern America, offered an explanation of why he loved the by the way – showed not only that it could place. ‘It wraps a spell around your heart,’ he handle this new crisis, but that it had implesang. And so it does. So it does.” mented all kinds of new communication sysMore than any place I know, Memphis is first tems since 2003. The MLGW website is now and foremost a city of trees. Built underneath remarkably comprehensive; not only could what is arguably America’s you track down the status of your own particular outlargest urban forest, our city in the summertime, outside age, but you could see who of downtown, is a vast sea of was in and out of power all greenery. Huddling beneath across Shelby County. All but 23,000 customers had these tens of thousands of oaks, poplars, and matheir power restored within five days, and just about evples are dozens of distinct neighborhoods, one dozen eryone was back in business of which we’ve featured before the week ended. MLGW’s May 2013 storm in this month’s cover story (see p. 33). Our summers are response was certainly impressive, and demonstrated indeed hot and humid, but most Memphians do get to in countless ways how far technology has improved live in what amounts to a Garden of Eden. disaster response over the January 2016 Every now and then, howpast 14 years. I like to think ever, our Memphis urban forest gets a bit row- as well that the fact that we as a city and coundy. It was at its rowdiest on the morning of July ty still control our own destiny – MLGW is 22, 2003, when a fierce thunderstorm blew in the largest three-service public utility in the from the west, spinning off straight-line winds country – has something to do with all this. of up to 108 mph, 30 mph stronger than any The people in charge of the recovery are our wind previously measured in Memphis. Hur- neighbors, from the CEO down. Thanks to ricane Elvis was the Real Deal; it knocked out TVA, ours are routinely among the lowest power to 70% of the population, and damaged utility bills in the country. Meanwhile, our over 6000 homes throughout Shelby County. well-maintained Memphis Aquifer provides us Restoring power was a Herculean task for with arguably the best tap water in America. the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, Keep all this in mind if you ever find yourself our more-often-than-not overlooked jewel of downtown, walking along November 6th Alley a public utility. But MLGW was up to the job, between Madison and Monroe. That peculiar although it took two full weeks to do so, re- name commemorates a referendum held on quiring personnel and equipment from a dozen that date in 1936, when Memphis voters overneighboring states, and the removal of several whelmingly approved the city’s creation of a billion cubic feet of timber. publically-owned company that would buy Ever since being rendered homeless myself its electricity directly from the newly-created during Hurricane Elvis, I often wondered if Tennessee Valley Authority. The name might this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Now I seem odd, but the Alley is an important part know that the answer is unfortunately no. Late of our civic heritage. Kenneth Neill in the evening of this past May 27, a similar publisher / editor storm marched through Memphis, albeit with

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THE WESTIN MEMPHIS BEALE STREET & BLEU HAVE SOME EXCITING HOLIDAY NEWS! We are already celebrating the season with a sleigh full of incentives for holiday party planners. Book by November 25, 2017 and receive additional incentives! Holiday revelers are encouraged to book now to secure desired dates. For more information please call Lorraine Chatman at 901.334.5924 or email Lorraine.chatman@westinmemphis.com The Westin Memphis Beale Street • 170 Lt. George W. Lee Ave., Memphis, TN 38103 • www.westin.com/bealestreet

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6/21/17 12:20 PM

on the town

^6 with michael donahue ^6

WHAT: Exceptional Foundation of West Tennessee WHERE: Oaksedge WHEN: May 13, 2017

uests gathered on a spring evening for the first dinner to benefit the Exceptional Foundation of West Tennessee. The event was held May 13th at Oaksedge. “This is the first annual farm-to-table inspired dinner because it wasn’t really farm-to-table,” said executive director Jo Anne Fusco. “The farmers didn’t come and prepare it.” The dinner was prepared by Erling Jensen from Erling Jensen: The Restaurant and David Krog and Franck Oyler from Interim. “I’m a foodie and I just think people love fine dining and great entertainment and a beautiful evening with their good friends,” Fusco said. “It creates a great atmosphere. And while they were enjoying themselves they were learning about the Exceptional Foundation.” The Foundation is “a day facility for exceptional-needs adults and children,” she explained. “Our mission is to provide social recreation and continued education in a safe and friendly environment.” About 170 people attended the event, which raised $30,000, Fusco said. Local Gastropub provided the appetizers, which included sliders and ahi tuna nachos, and signature drinks, such as Watermelon Collins and Blackberry Bramble. The four-course dinner included Angus beef strip loins with late spring vegetables and one of Oyler’s creations: a raspberry and vanilla ice cream cake. Entertainment was by Hulk Logan featuring Patrick Fusco, and Marcella Simien. Team Exceptional 901 performed three songs. Dina Martin, who, with her husband, Brad, was an honorary host, also sang.

1 Ginny Taylor and David Edelson 2 Alan and Susan Graf and K.K. and Van Weinberg 3 Jon and Jo

Anne Fusco and Dina and Brad Martin 4 Ellie and Field Norris

5 Findlay and Abby Frazer and Molly and Hunter Witherington 6 Ginger and Charlie Taylor and Larry and Becky Lloyd 7 Eliot and Lee Morris, Betsy and John Hill, and Christina and Jeffrey Block

8 Patrick Fusco and Gabby Curl

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on the town

^6 with michael donahue ^6 WHAT: Grand Auction

WHERE: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art WHEN: May 20, 2017

he Grand Auction at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art lived up to its name. The annual event, part of the museum’s Wine + Food fundraiser, was a success, said Brooks fundraising events manager Lindsey Hedgepeth. “It was — by far and away — the one that broke all of our records.” About 275 guests attended the auction. The series also included Brooks Uncorked and the Grand Artisans’ Dinner. “We exceeded our goals. And everything we raised directly supports the education program that the museum executes here,” said Hedgepeth. “Everything from school tours to Wacky Wednesday and the Tour for Seniors, and all the outreach programs.” Chef Jimmy Gentry and Paradox Catering prepared the seated dinner for the Grand Auction. The participating wineries — Rudius Wines, Whetstone Wine Cellars, and Scarpetta Wine — provided the vino for the event. “We’re just so grateful,” Hedgepeth said. “That’s closing out our fiscal year and closing out our Centennial year. It really put the museum in a great place for the next century. ” Annabeth and Mark Parker and Jon and Suzanne Scharff were Wine + Food chairs. First Tennessee Foundation was the presenting sponsor.

1 Lester Brown and Ann Dandridge 2 Matt Cohen and Ralston O’Neill 3 Erick and Jenell Jones 4 Molly and Jason Wexler 5 Susan Adler Thorp, Melyne and Mayor Jim Strickland, and Sue and Steve Lightman 6 Emily Ballew Neff, Kallen Esperian, and Suzanne Scharff 7 David and Sarah Thompson and Jamey Whetstone 8 Annabeth and Mark Parker 9 Lindsey and Josh Hammond 10 Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman

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6/20/17 3:12 PM

FINE PRINT

Three Re-Reads for the Summer Without a mention of current politics, these authors may help us get through troubled times.

by john branston

n the summer of 2017 when all things are seen through the prism of Trump and a divided America hurls insults and snap judgments back and forth, here are three books worth revisiting that put things in perspective. Bear with me a few minutes; there really is a connection, I promise. Not once does Paul Theroux mention Donald Trump in Deep South, published in 2015 and based on the author’s multiple months-long road trips in 2013 and 2014, but it still reads like a prophecy. The novelist and global traveler takes the back roads to gun shows, dying towns, cheap motels, and country churches in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina. Hardly anyone he talks to has ever heard of him — he’s “Mr. Thorax” — which is fine with him.

Theroux talks with Americans who have been left behind by globalization and untouched by philanthropy. How he gets strangers to open up to him, notebook in hand, is a marvel to anyone who has ever tried to do just that. Theroux is a phenomenal

listener, observer, and thinker. Some of his sharpest comments are aimed at The Clinton Foundation, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars to fight poverty in the Third World while somehow ignoring Bill Clinton’s home state. No matter how many news stories you have seen since last November, if you read this deeply reported book you’ll have a better understanding of how and why Donald Trump won and Hillary Clinton lost.

William Manchester’s Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War, published in 1979, describes his visits three decades after World War II to the islands where so many of his fellow Marines died, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. He died in 2004. Sadly, his reputation was tarnished this year when The American Spectator reported, accurately, that some of his personal combat stories

were fiction — a timely warning in this day of “fake news” and an important sequel to the book. But this is the paragraph that jumped out at me: “To fight World War II you had to have been tempered and strengthened in the 1930s Depression by a struggle for survival. And you had to know that your whole generation, unlike the Vietnam generation, was in this together, that no strings were being pulled for anybody; the four Roosevelt brothers were in uniform, and the sons of both FDR’s closest adviser and [the son of] one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate served in the Marine Corps as enlisted men and were along with. The list included Bob killed in action. But devotion Knight, Bill Russell, Muhammad overarched all this.” Ali, Wilt Chamberlain, and JimAnd this one about his fellow my Connors. Deford always pried Raggedy Ass Marines, as he something out of his subjects proudly calls them: “Without that you didn’t know. having the slightA graduate of Paul Theroux, William est idea of what Princeton, Deford Manchester, and combat would could be prickly be, we wanted, himself. A female Frank Deford. Not a in a phrase which friend of mine Tweeter among them. who met him a sounds quaint today, to fight for our country. couple of times when she was a Subsequent generations have columnist insisted that he was lost that blazing patriotism and an aloof male chauvinist. But he speak of it, if at all, patronizingly. found the humanity in protective They cannot grasp how proud we people, and he made you read, were to be Americans.” listen, smile, and reconsider. Plus, My third choice is Frank you have to like a guy who deDeford, who died in May. He was scribed wrecks at the Indy 500 arguably the best sports writer as “sheet time” and called blogand commentator in America for ging “the pole dancing of sports journalism.” If you’re going to be 50 years, mostly with Sports Illussnarky, do it with style. trated and NPR. The Best of Frank Deford: I’m Just Getting Started was Paul Theroux, William Manpublished in 2000 when he was chester, and Frank Deford. Not making the transition from print a Tweeter among them. Three to broadcasting. He inspired genprolific authors who rejected the erations of magazine, newspaeasy life to get close to real peoper, broadcast journalists, and ple, listen to them, dig deeper, devout readers with his long stowork harder, and share stories ries about people who were both that can help us better underfamous and famously hard to get stand these troubled times.

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CITY JOURNAL

“Fiddlin’Abe” Fortas Celebrating Memphis’ only Supreme Court justice’s greatest legacy.

eremonies a few weeks ago were held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a revolution in the legal rights of children and youth. Two of them were in Washington, D.C. — at the U.S. Department of Justice and through a gala event attended by juvenile justice leaders. Here, there was nothing, not even a mention in the local media, although the landmark ruling being celebrated was written by Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, a largely forgotten Memphian. In a city known for legendary stories of its heroes, Fortas is arguably the most improbable, rising from an immigrant family living in an inhospitable neighb orho o d k now n for assaults, drugs, and prostitution to become “Fiddlin’ Abe” on 1920s Beale Street, to a decadeslong legal career and into the halls of power in Washington, ultimately becoming a justice on the nation’s highest court. It was a long way from a Beale Street music scene in which he was a peer of young Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie, and Sleepy John Estes. Following his graduation from South Side High School in 1926 and Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) in 1930, Fortas attended Yale Law School and then moved to Washington, D.C. He became a staunch New Dealer and later challenged the red scare demagoguery of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Most importantly, he forged a close friendship with Lyndon Johnson that added to his formidable power as a D.C. insider. As an adviser to President Johnson, Fortas wrote much of LBJ’s Great Society legislation and major presidential speeches and formulated the leg-

islation establishing the Kennedy Center. Ultimately, in 1965, Johnson appointed him as associate justice to the Supreme Court. Even before that appointment, Fortas played a defining force in American jurisprudence. Two years before he took his seat on the high court, the justices appointed him to represent a man sentenced to five years in prison for burglary, after a lower court had refused to appoint a lawyer although he was too poor to hire one. After a presentation later

praised by Justice William O. fairness into the juvenile justice Douglas as “probably the best system — a challenge that still single legal argument” in his 36 exists, as shown by the Departyears on the court, the Supreme ment of Justice’s continued monCourt unanimously ruled that itoring of Shelby County Juvenile poverty should not be an obstaCourt — because his time on the cle to fair justice and established Court was brief. the unshakeable right for every When LBJ nominated Fortas accused party to have access to as Chief Justice to replace Earl a lawyer. Warren, Congress was provoked Fortas was on the Supreme into a rare successful filibuster, Court bench when a case was led by Republicans and Demoheard about a 15-year-old Arizocrat Dixiecrats intent on stopna youth charged with making ping the progressive rulings of an obscene phone call. Gerald the Warren Court. Weakened by the filibuster controversy, Fortas Gault had been sentenced to the State Industrial School until resigned from the court altogethhis 21st birthday, which meant er in 1969 as a result of a scandal he would be in about acceptToday, Fortas’ rulings ing money prison for six are backbones of the from outside years, while the maximum fine interests while justice system and his he could have he had worked defenses of the First received as an for Johnson. adult sentenced Amendment are accepted as The New York for the same Times wrote mainstream thought. crime was a $50 that his abrupt fine or two months in prison. exit overshadowed a “long and In this case (In re Gault, 1967), brilliantly successful career.” Fortas took on headlong the Today, Fortas’ rulings are backcountry’s juvenile justice systems. bones of the justice system, and He wrote that “the condition of his defenses of the First Amendbeing a boy does not justify ment are accepted as mainstream a kangaroo court,” and his thought. ruling set out that youths His reputation sullied, Fortas should be guaranteed the remained in Washington until same due process rights his death in 1982. It is tempting as adults. These included to imagine what might have the right to be notified of a happened had he returned to charge in a timely way, the Memphis. After all, like most right to confront witnesses, of the people we enshrine as hometown heroes, he was an the right against self-incrimioutsider even when he was nation, and the right to counsel. here. In a childhood spent in For the first time, children bethe Beale Street area of imcame people in the eyes of the law. migrant families and African Today, Fortas’ In re Gault opinAmericans, the injustice and ion is recognized as the most discrimination on display there important children’s rights rulshaped his view of social justice ing in American legal and fairness, which in turn is history, which was the now enshrined in federal law. reason for the recent More to the point, Memphis — celebrations described a city of second chances — might above. Unfortunately, he have been just what Abe Fortas was unable to inject more needed.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS HONEYSUCKLE ELLIS

by tom jones

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6/15/17 11:06 AM

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OU T A ND A BOU T | JULY

2017 | compiled by samuel cicci

Harry Potter’s World Family Day featuring founder Jimbo Mathus as well as guest musicians from New Orleans. Overton Park, levittshell.org

7.11

Harry Potter’s World Family Day The Music of Monk

7.08 Thelonious Monk: The Music of Monk

elebrate the legendary musician Thelonious Monk with the Crosstown Jazz Series. The performance will be led by Stephen Lee, a local pianist with extensive national experience who has just released his first album, Songs in the Key of My Life. The event is produced in tandem with Strictly Jazz Entertainment, an organization dedicated to spreading the appreciation of jazz. Crosstown Arts Gallery, 422 N. Cleveland St., crosstownarts.org

7.01

Boston

It’s more than just a feeling you’re having; Boston are actually coming to the Live

Boston at the Garden Concert Series. Not just any other band from Boston, the successful rock group will bring such hits as “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” and “Rock and Roll Band.” Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry Rd. liveatthegarden.com

7.05

Journey and Asia

The cash wheel in the sky that keeps on turning comes to Southaven, with an additional classic rock name in tow. Steve Perry’s vocals aren’t missed, as Arnel Pineda’s like-for-like voice swap brings out the best of Journey’s spectacular catalogue. Accompanying the super group are ’80s London rockers Asia, recognizable by their hit single “Heat of the Moment.” BankPlus Amphitheater, 6285 Snowden Ln., Southaven, MS bankplusamphitheater.com

7.07

Cold Brew Throwdown

Fans of cold brew coffee can test their mettle against one

Cold Brew Throwdown another at City & State’s ﬁrst Cold Brew competition. Baristas and enthusiasts alike will compete to make the best cold brew and

signature drink in town, while the ﬁrst 80 spectators will get to sample each contestant’s product. Prizes will go to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-place winners, as well as a People’s Choice winner. Entry is free to the public. May the best cold brew win! City & State, 2625 Broad Ave. cityandstate.us

7.08

Squirrel Nut Zippers at the Levitt Shell

Those looking for a stranger dose of music should head to the Shell this Saturday. It’s hard to classify the Squirrel Nut Zippers,

Squirrel Nut Zippers

Journey and Asia

whose eccentric musical style encompasses swing, punk, and jazz. Sing along to their original hit “Hell” and take in the show

Are you and the family still pining for another glimpse into the wizarding world after Harry Potter’s journey came to a close several years ago? If so, Collierville Burch Library is hosting a Harry Potter themed exhibit from July through August. On the 11th of July, the library will host an additional exhibit, with wand-making and maskmaking stations, Lego monsterbuilding, and even a look at some magical creatures. A library card is required for admission. Collierville Burch Library, 501 Poplar View Pkwy. colliervillelibrary.org

Good People Good Beer

7.15

Good People Good Beer 2017

Drinking beer is always a fun activity, so why not make it productive by attending Operation Broken Silence’s ﬁfth annual fundraiser? The organization, dedicated to supporting the people of Sudan, will have six beer varieties, dinner, and activities including a whiskey pull, corn hole, a photography exhibit, and more. Propcellar, 2585 Summer Ave. operationbrokensilence.org

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contin u ed on page PB

6/22/17 12:20 PM

Blues on the Bluff

7.22

WEVL 89.9 Blues on the Bluff

Hop over to the bluffs of the Mississippi River for WEVL 89.9’s annual fundraiser. Headlining acts include local groups Ghost Town Blues Band, Marcella and Her Lovers, and The MDs. Stay tuned to WEVL’s website for discounted ticket prices and more information. Metal Museum, 374 Metal Museum Dr. wevl.org

7.27-30

Memphis Afro-Carnival Weekend Festival Tom Lee Park/Riverside Park are transformed into Afro-Carnival Village for the Afro-Carnival’s ﬁrst ever weekend

7.23

Cory Branan Beneﬁt Concert and Bloody Mary Brunch

Open to excellent drinks, great music, and supporting a great cause? Mississippi singer-songwriter Cory Branan, fresh off his ﬁfth album, ADIOS, headlines a fundraiser with Hands of Mothers to create economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in postgenocide Rwanda. Edge Alley, 600 Monroe Ave. handsofmothers.org

Memphis Afro-Carnival Weekend Festival festival. View participants in a wide array of multinational costumes, catch the parade, or check out live performances from Caribbean, Indian, Afro, and Latino artists. Tom Lee Park, eventbrite.com

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6/22/17 12:20 PM

Jamie McMahon at his home studio in Cordova. (background: portrait of Dr. Steve Shoemaker, a pastor in North Carolina.) PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

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6/13/17 3:44 PM

HOW JA MIE McM A H A N CR E ATED HIS OWN C A R EER AS ONE OF A MER IC A’S FOR EMOST PORTR A IT PA INTERS.

by frank murtaugh

s a young boy growing up in Ripley, Tennessee, about 60 miles northeast of Memphis,

Jamie McMahan didn’t so much as meet an art teacher. School in Ripley in the 1950s meant reading, writing, and arithmetic. But his mother was a talented artist who enjoyed drawing horses, bringing equine beauty to life in two-dimensional form. That was enough to inspire McMahan, who seized quiet moments of the day — or even not-soquiet moments in the classroom — for the chance to draw his own images.

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Horses and cowboys came first, then classmates or a roommate’s girlfriend. (The latter earned McMahan his first commission — three dollars — as a college sophomore.) Today, Jamie McMahan counts a U.S. Supreme Court Justice among his subjects. The life of a nationally renowned portrait artist, it turns out, can start in a rural place like Ripley. “All of my peers, those of us who do this for a living, are the same in one regard,” says the 74-year-old McMahan from his home studio in Cordova, the room filled with an artist’s preferred northern light. “We drew all the time [as children]. Everything is an optical illusion. You think something looks a certain way, until you draw it. Then you find out it really doesn’t look that way. The way it appears. That’s a lesson being taught by the better teachers. You paint things the way they look, not the way they are. It sounds strange. You paint with lights and darks, you stand back, and that’s what you see. Beginners will fall into a trap of drawing an eye the way it’s structured, but that’s not the way it looks.” When he wasn’t sketching as a youth, McMahan and his younger brother Larry were playing sports. (He also has two older sisters.) Football, baseball, track, and McMahan’s calling as he grew to 6’9”, basketball. “We didn’t have any neighbors,” says McMahan, “so our only entertainment was to play with each other. Larry was a terrific athlete, not as tall as me, but heavier. He could run like a deer.” McMahan was somewhat of an oddity on the gridiron: a tall, lean offensive tackle. The bruising he took in shoulder pads proved to be good conditioning for a college basketball career at what was then called Memphis State University. “We didn’t play a good brand of basketball [in Ripley],” says McMahan. “Football was the main deal there, as it is most places in the South. We had two really good ends, but we were weak at tackle. I didn’t care; I just wanted to play. It toughened me up. “Making the transition to Memphis State basketball — and not having a firm grip on the fundamentals — I had so far to catch up. It was physically rough. Roughest bunch of guys I’d ever seen. Basketball’s supposed to be a non-contact sport. No. They were bigger, faster. And mean.” As a senior in 1964-65, McMahan averaged 11.3 points and 9.0 rebounds for a Tiger team that played in the brand-new Mid-South Coliseum and finished 10-14.

“YOU PAINT THINGS THE WAY THEY LOOK, NOT THE WAY THEY ARE.”

of seeing Rembrandt’s portraiture up close. “His work is not just painting, but sculpture too,” says McMahan. “The way he would pile paint on; it has textures, ridges, and contours. The fire started.” McMahan returned to the Mid-South after two years, a thirty-something artist in salesman’s clothing. (He confesses to becoming homesick for two things: Southern football and hamburgers.) While taking a job with Data Communications, he remained determined to find a way with his oils and brush.

math major at MSU, McMahan continued to draw when he could, but with no formal training. Upon graduating, he took a job with a rising company called IBM, selling a variety of machines that operated with the new computers. But after seven years, single and with a yearning to explore, McMahan quit that job and traveled the globe, spending time as far away as New Zealand and Australia. Ironically, McMahan took a job down under with IBM to help fund the trip. Looking back on that globetrotting venture, McMahan recalls a visit to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and the impact

inset: One of McMahan’s first drawings, from high school (football and basketball teammate Jan Jennings).

above: The Hon. Bernice Donald, U.S. District Court, Memphis, Tennessee. 2016. Oil. 60”x40”

opposite: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, commissioned by Yale Law School. 2017. Oil. 54”x39”

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“I painted signs and murals for people’s houses,” he says. “I painted a hunting scene — backwards — on the inside of a glass case. It was difficult, but I wouldn’t say no to anybody, because I didn’t have any money.” An early break came in 1977 when Buddy Lazar — at one time an owner of the ABA’s Memphis Tams — commissioned McMahan to paint his four children (for the healthy sum of $1,000). “He was a hard-nosed guy,” reflects McMahan. “When someone asks if you’re any good, you tell them ‘Yes.’ It turned out pretty good. That was an ego boost; anything that builds confidence is important.” To this day, McMahan insists children are the hardest subjects to paint, as their faces don’t feature the contours of older subjects, blurring that light/dark distinction. In the early Eighties, McMahan discovered what he calls his “bible,” a book by John Howard Sanden called Successful Portrait Painting. (Sanden painted the official portrait of President George W. Bush for the White

WORKING FROM PHOTOGR APHS AND PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS, McM AHAN BREATHES LIFE INTO HIS COLORFUL OILS.

for three years, largely to re-establish his own identity. “People knew me mainly as an athlete around here,” he says. “People would ask me how I’m doing and I’d tell them I’m an artist. ‘No, really, Jamie. What are you doing?’ I had to convince myself that I was an artist.” A pilgrimage to Santa Fe further inspired McMahan as work remained scarce. “But the only market [Santa Fe] didn’t support was portrait art,” says McMahan. A visit there with Bettina Steinke, one of the country’s foremost muralists and also a portrait artist, emboldened McMahan. “I never got to study with her,” he says. “She was so guarded, because all the artists were trying to get to her.” He returned to Memphis, rented a house not far from the university, and resumed painting. McMahan’s career gained traction as he began receiving commissions from the University of Memphis (Dr. Tom Carpenter, president of the school during the 1980s, was his first subject; more recently another president, Dr. Shirley Raines) and judges (Harry Wellford

left: George Lapides, Memphis. 2015. Oil. 24”x 20” right: Jack Klugman, The Players Club, New York. 2012. Oil. 20”x16”

House.) McMahan left his job long enough to attend a workshop in New England under the direction of Daniel Greene, his first exposure to formal training in representational art. “Most of the people attending were professional portrait artists,” says McMahan. “It was like opening a window, like magic. Damn! This is what I want to do.” A year later, McMahan attended another workshop, this time under Ray Kinstler — one of the top portrait artists in the world — in Maine. The master asked the student if McMahan had ever considered portraiture as a career. “That’s when I cut the cord, in 1989,” says McMahan. “I didn’t have a single customer or prospect. But I was single, didn’t have anyone depending on me. Friends would help, giving me commissions to help get me going.” McMahan moved to St. Simons Island in Georgia

was the first of dozens McMahan has painted). Other portrait subjects included author Alex Haley and former Tennessee governor Ned McWherter. Volume expanded McMahan’s “brand” as it were, to the point where he thrived in an artistic niche considered anachronistic by many. “For most of the twentieth century,” notes McMahan, “representational art, as opposed to modern or expressionism, was frowned upon. Everything was about Jackson Pollock and all that came out of the ‘isms,’ Cubism, Dadaism, and all that. It was snobbish, for one thing, not to include drawing. If you’re going to be [involved] in art, you have to be able to draw. Designers, sculptors . . . they have to be able to draw. “But it’s come back over the last 25 or 30 years. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is again earning his stature in representational art.”

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t’s one thing to build a portfolio as a painter of judges, and quite another to capture a sitting Supreme Court Justice. Last December, Yale Law School inquired about McMahan’s interest in painting Justice Sonia Sotomayor. (She graduated from the school in 1979). There would be a threeround selection process for the artist and, if chosen, McMahan would have less than four months to complete the painting. With Sotomayor’s blessing, McMahan received the commission. He sent three preparatory studies — all done in a single week — to Sotomayor’s assistant, establishing the “story” that he intended to tell with the composition’s setting. “She didn’t like traditional,” says McMahan. “Didn’t like the Queen Anne chair I had her standing next to. She likes modern art. Even her robe doesn’t have pleats; it’s very streamlined, very modern. And that’s her.” In McMahan’s hands, a human subject only begins the tale. The “extras” —

below: Girl in Satin Gown, North Carolina. 2004. Oil. 48”x38”

like a modern scale, as seen in the Sotomayor portrait — enhance and deepen the message. Working from photographs and personal impressions after visiting with his subject — Supreme Court Justices don’t do “sittings” — McMahan breathes life into his colorful oils. “Having done this for years, I know how to interpret a photograph and make it look three-dimensional,” notes McMahan. “That’s an art in itself.” And what about that moment when a portrait is unveiled? Surely there’s some anxiety about whether or not a subject will like McMahan’s reflection in final form. “The way I see art,” says McMahan, “it’s about giving and receiving. What the artist intends is not always what the viewer infers. That’s the way art should be. It’s like a good book: Everyone’s going to get something different out of it. There’s no absolute truth. It depends on the viewer. If there’s something I don’t like, that doesn’t mean it’s bad.” Sotomayor loved

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6/13/17 3:45 PM

WE'RE BACK FOR ANOTHER BITE! THE SECOND ANNUAL MEMPHIS FLYER BURGER WEEK IS HEADING YOUR WAY JULY 12TH-18TH.

above: Dr. Shirley Raines, President, University of Memphis (2001-13). 2002. Oil. 44”x34”

McMahan’s treatment. (“As tough as she is on the bench,” says McMahan, “she’s as warm as she can be.”)

uman beings have turned to painting to relax for centuries. Winston Churchill did so, and few have been required to manage the level of stress he knew. “It’s doing something different from what you’ve done before,” explains McMahan. “He didn’t expect too much from himself, because he didn’t have any training.” When asked if he finds relaxation himself in his chosen trade, McMahan pauses and shakes his head. Laboring, as he sometimes does, to visualize the setting — the “extras” — for a portrait is hardly relaxing. So where does a professional painter release stress?

“WHEN A PORTR AIT STARTS TO COME TOGETHER — AND YOU KNOW WHEN IT DOES, YOU FEEL THAT SPARK — IT’S A GOOD FEELING.”

memphisflyerburgerweek.com

“There are so many parallels between art and golf,” says McMahan. “The harder you try, the worse you’ll do. You can overdo it. There’s a delicate zone between trying too hard and not trying hard enough. I’ll hit balls; won’t waste the whole day playing golf, but I can clear the cobwebs.” McMahan has a word (borrowed from Churchill, actually) for aspiring artists of any age: audacity. “You try [painting], knowing full well you could fail,” says McMahan. “But who cares? It’s possible to start without any

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above: Dr. Steven Gabbe, Director, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee. 2010. Oil. 44”x34” top right: Self portrait, Winner of People’s Choice Award, International Competition, Portrait Society of America. 2007. Oil. 54”x38” bottom left: Justice Leah Sears, Supreme Court of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia. 2009. Oil. 46”x36” bottom right: Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio, President, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina. 2013. Oil. 46”x34”

training, and have fun with it.” William Faulkner once described his life as a writer as being “driven by demons.” You don’t get the impression any demon has ever set foot in Jamie McMahan’s home studio. But Memphis’ foremost portrait artist confesses to a similar unasked-for devotion to his craft, now that he’s managed to tame it. “It’s what I have to do,” says McMahan. “The payoff is worth it. When [a portrait] starts to come together — and you know when it does, you feel that spark — it’s a good feeling.” McMahan will sometimes ask a gardener or serviceman working on his property to share impressions of a portrait before it’s completed. He relishes the direct commentary and gains clarity for his finishing touches. “They’ll point out details I didn’t even notice,” he says. “And almost always, they’ll tell me they used to draw in school, like it’s something from the past. It can’t happen again. I keep saying, ‘You can still do it. Don’t let it die.’ Fear of failure holds us back. Just like golf, you need someone to demonstrate. I talked my lady friend into painting a small piece. She painted a pear on a little canvas, and I couldn’t get over it! She didn’t know what she was doing, but that’s the beauty of art. You don’t have to explain it.” J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 31

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6/19/17 9:35 AM

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p h o t o g r a p hy by l a r r y k u z n i e w s k i

urs is a diverse city, filled with great restaurants, shops, outdoor recreation spaces, and entertainment options. At the heart of it all: community. Many lovely neighborhoods — more than we could fit into these pages — flourish in our stretch of West

Tennessee. We’ve spoken with Memphians throughout the region, including Collierville, Cordova, and Germantown, about where they live — and why they’ve planted their roots there.

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S ST O WN UPTOWN BINGH AMPTON P SOU TH ID E ST GE O N BLUFFS RAL ATE CEN T EN S S GA R D CHICK ASAW GAR DENS

CHEROKEE HEIGHTS

SEA ISLE PA R K

WALN U T GROVE LA K E

POPL AR ESTATES

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TANYA MIDDLETON BURTON | CHEROKEE HEIGHTS

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t was in 1968, the year that Dr. Martin Luther hood her whole life, having bought her own first home there when King Jr. was assassinated, that Tanya Middleton Burton and she was 25. Cherokee Heights is an “oasis,” she says — tucked into a her family moved into Cherokee Heights. She was only 4 years community near Prescott and I-240. The two-story and brick ranchold. During this era, upwardly mobile blacks with professions as style homes with neatly manicured lawns surrounded by mature accountants, doctors, lawyers, and educators were looking to move trees are distinctively different from the more modest frame houses their families into better housing. in the area. The homes were built on the old Cherokee Golf Course, “We were one of four African-American families to move onto which was sold to developers in 1962. our street,” Burton says. “As [white] “It is very rare to see a ‘For Sale’ sign families moved out and others moved in this neighborhood because homes HA RR IS AV E. in it seemed my parents were the welare snatched up and sold by word of coming committee imparting that mouth to other family and friends,” Southern hospitality to everyone. she says. That includes Burton, and so “You’ve heard the old African provmany others who grew up in Cherokee erb that it takes a village to raise a and wanted to call the close-knit, famchild? Cherokee is my village,” continily-friendly community home for their ues Burton, a Shelby County Schools children. Her husband, Jewell, along elementary teacher. “We had mentors with their sons, Carter and Jalen, also and neighbors who became family. now call Cherokee Heights home. VE. All the kids rode bikes and played Burton says, “It’s definitely someA E P R A SH kickball and dodgeball with each oththing special we have here, looking er. It was beautiful.” at the next generation of people who still live here.” — Michelle McKissack Burton has lived in the neighbor-

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BIANCA PHILLIPS | CROSSTOWN

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ianca Phillips moved into her home in the Tone, a longstanding music venue, and several restaurants are right Evergreen Historic District in Crosstown in 2008, when around the corner, too. A vegan foodie — she maintains a popular the former Sears distribution center that once drew thou- food blog (Vegan Crunk) and has published a cookbook, Cookin’ sands of employees and shoppers to the area was still a shadowy Crunk — Phillips enjoys the nearby Midtown Crossing Grill’s meat“big empty.” free dishes and vegan brunch and the all-vegetarian menu at Mama Formerly a Memphis Flyer reporter, today the communications Gaia, the first restaurant to open in the burgeoning Crosstown coordinator for Crosstown Arts, Phillips hadn’t heard more than a building. Her active lifestyle includes yoga sessions at the Church whisper of potential for the Crosstown building’s comeback when Health YMCA, which also opened in the building this spring, and she purchased the home (her first) in hula-hooping classes at Co-Motion Studio E. on Cleveland Avenue. 2012 after renting the property for four V A SON JACK years, but she’d fallen in love with the She’s happy to have settled into this neighborhood. That love has grown exwalkable spot in the city. “It’s close to evponentially with the recent — and still erything that is fun and important to me,” she says. “Sometimes my car will sit in my to come — developments at and around N. PA RK W AY the Crosstown Concourse. driveway for two or three days before I While the neighborhood is changing, need to go anywhere in it.” she’s pleased that “it’s not super-develHer most anticipated upcoming Crossoped — it’s still got that authentic, grittown openings: the Juice Bar and Curb ty Midtown feel.” Market (“I can get Dave’s Bagels bagels Her office at Crosstown Arts — there!”). where art shows, live music, and other Phillips assures: “It’s going to be the POPL AR coolest neighborhood in Memphis.” events are hosted throughout the week AV E. — is a short walk from home. The Hi— Shara Clark J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 35

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RON CHILDERS & JOYCE PETERSON | PIDGEON ESTATES

on Childers and Joyce Peterson fell in love as colleagues at WMC Action News 5. You gain a variety of views of the city you call home as a news anchor (or in the case of Childers, a meteorologist). For Childers and Peterson, Memphis meant Midtown, where they lived (on North Parkway) the first five years of their marriage. Then they discovered Pidgeon Estates. “Lush and lovely” are the words Peterson uses in describing her first impressions of the East Memphis neighborhood. The couple moved to Pidgeon Estates in 2006, seeking a suburb-city hybrid, which is precisely what they discovered. “I didn’t want to go far,” says Childers. “At the time, I had to be at work [in Midtown] at 3:00 in the morning. My commute quadrupled, from two minutes to eight.”

“We loved the old trees,” notes Peterson. “We didn’t want to move where trees had been taken down.” (The neighborhood was spared much of the destruction of the May 27th windstorm, though Childers — an expert on the subject — says this had as much to do with good fortune as with the strength of those old trees.) “We’re still city-dwellers,” she adds. “We didn’t want to leave the city.” Peterson has come to call her neighborhood “the new Midtown,” as a resident can be downtown in less than 20 minutes, or on Germantown Parkway in less than 10. “Even though we’re close to Sam Cooper, we don’t hear a lot of traffic,” says Peterson. She points out the short drive to Grahamwood Elementary, White Station Elementary, and Richland Elementary for families interested in high-quality public schools. Residents also have easy access to the Shelby Farms Greenline (pictured at left). SUM ME R AVE .

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Proximity to Summer Ave nu e m e a nt n ew d i s c ove r i e s fo r t he couple, among their favorites La Michoacana (a Mexican ice cream parlor), the Pancake Shop (open 24 hours), and the Peanut Shoppe. “Ever ything I need is right here,” says Childers. “This is it. Our next move will be to the [seniors] home.” — Frank Murtaugh

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DOTTIE & THARA BURANA | WALNUT GROVE LAKE

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ottie Burana is paddling her kayak as two moved away briefly. But upon returning to Memphis in 1988, this ducklings trail behind. She rescued the orphaned mal- hilly suburb proved to be ideally suited to family life and they raised lards back in April and is raising them in her lakefront their two boys here. “We spent lots of time at the parks and on the lake, or in winter, yard until they can fly. She considers it a perk of lake life. In fact, the different birds Dottie sees from her home on Walnut Grove sledding down the hill at the dam,” she says. Traditions that enterLake are impressive: Ducks, herons, bluebirds, even bald eagles tained their family continue, like the colorful July 4th celebration, have been spotted here. They likely come for the reason she does. with its firework display and boat-decorating contest, which Dottie “It’s so peaceful,” she says. “When I come home, I never want to has won three years running. go back out again.” The 458-home subdivision, which This Cordova enclave is a restful celebrated its 50th anniversary in WALNU T GROV E R D. retreat for Dottie and husband, Thara, 2015, was originally marketed as owners of the Bangkok Alley restauan urban retreat, and many of the . rants. When the food world proves too early homes have a casual, contemRD G IN hectic, lake life awaits. Dottie knows porary feel. While the Buranas iniK . I V RD a majority of her neighbors. Like her, tially lived elsewhere in the neighW. ND E B many who live on the lake have ties to borhood, they kept their eyes open UT N L the neighborhood that stretch back 20 for lakefront property. In 2007, they WA years or more. lucked into their airy home (once Thara came from Thailand to study featured in Southern Living magazine), BA ZE civil engineering. The couple met where they enjoy sweeping lake MO RE while working together at a restauviews and the contented quacking RD . rant in Overton Square during college of two ducklings who also are home. in the late 1970s. After marrying, they — Jane Schneider J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 37

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GAYLE ROSE | CHICKASAW GARDENS

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larence Saunders never dreamed so many a real disconnect with the city where I spent so much of my time. I wanted to live somewhere that reflected my commitment to the people would end up living in his back yard. In the early 1920s, when the inventor of the supermarket city that I was so engaged in.” Among those commitments, Rose is founder and president of hired Scottish stonemasons to erect the mansion that would later be called the Pink Palace, other workers scooped out a scenic lake EVS, a national data storage company, chairman of the Rose Family and laid out gardens and paths in the woods behind his private Foundation, and chairman of the board of the Memphis Symphony estate, which stretched from Central to Poplar. Financial misfor- Orchestra. She was also one of the driving forces behind bringing tunes prevented the founder of Piggly Wiggly from ever living in the Grizzlies to Memphis. “The central location is perfect,” she says. “I am within 15 minhis sprawling home, which later became the city museum, and developers transformed his property into the utes of FedExForum and my offices in East Chickasaw Gardens neighborhood. Memphis, and that has improved my quality POP of life. I have practically eliminated the free“Everyone here is so connected to the stoL AR AV E way from my daily activities.” ry of Clarence Saunders and the Pink Palace,” . Just a short walk away is her favorite spot says Gayle Rose, who came to Chickasaw Gardens in 2001, moving into a spacious resin the neighborhood, the Chickasaw Gardens idence built in 1926. “It was one of the city’s Lake. “I’m really enchanted by the park, and first planned communities, and when the by all the magnificent trees here,” she says. first houses went up in the 1920s, this was “Especially with the rows of giant magnolias, considered pretty far east.” it’s like living in our own private nature preRaised in Iowa, Rose spent much of her serve.” Admiring the homes along her street, life in East Memphis, then moved to the Gereach one a different age and style, she says, mantown area. “My three boys were going to “This place has such a rich history. I feel like I’m a steward, not an owner, of the property.” St. George’s School, so it made sense at the CENTRAL AVE. — Michael Finger time,” she says, “but as they grew older, I felt 38 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • J U L Y 2 0 1 7

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JAMES REED & KATHRYN GOFORTH | SEA ISLE PARK

WHI TE STAT ION RD.

MT. MOR IAH RD.

ames Reed and Kathryn Goforth discovered a Everything you need, you have it over here.” strong sense of community in Sea Isle Park. The recentFavorite nearby spots include the bowling alley, of course, ly engaged couple bought their first home in the East Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q, and, just down the road on Sanderlin, Memphis neighborhood in February 2016. The Sear Shack. Coming soon to Sea Isle: Goforth, a counselor at Bradford Health a dog park. “We’re a big dog community,” Services, points to the “amazing neighbors” Reed says. He, Goforth, and their rescue POPL who’ve helped make the area a comfortable dog Roo enjoy strolls through the neighborAR A VE. nook in the city. Before moving to Sea Isle hood, where several locals walk their pups. PA R KA Park, “we never spoke to any of our neighGoforth feels they’ve made an excellent VE. bors,” she says. choice for their first home and hopes others Today, “We know everybody’s name will join them: “We’re always trying to get at every house all the way our friends and family to move out here through the street,” says by us.” — Shara Clark Reed, a board member of the Sea Isle Park Neighborhood Association. “Everybody’s QUINCE AVE. always looking out for each other.” The tight-k nit neighborhood hosts community I-240 events, like the recent Cop Stop at McWherter Senior Center, organized to feed local first responders, police officers, and firemen. Residents meet and mingle over rounds of bowling at neighborhood parties held at Billy Hardwick’s All Star Lanes. Reed gathers with friends to play basketball at nearby churches. And it doesn’t hurt that his office — he’s a legal assistant at Mendelson Law Firm — is less than a mile from home. Having worked at the firm for a decade, and having friends who’ve lived in the area for at least twice as long, he says, “I’ve just always loved it. It’s the central part of the city for me.

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THE BOB & JOANNA YOUNG FAMILY | POPLAR ESTATES

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She took a leap of faith, and once the contract was signed, work hen people think of established neighborhoods in Germantown, Poplar Estates often comes to began. Friends arrived for a demolition party, gutting the downmind. Developed in the 1960s and 1970s with attractive, stairs, laying new flooring; even the kitchen received a fresh coat ranch-style homes, it’s long been described as “a community-with- of paint. And that funky vent-a-hood? Gone. Now, Joanna says, in-a-community,” and that connectedness appealed to Bob and “Bob is constantly talking about making other renovations.” In fact, Joanna Young. many of the families they know who live nearby Joanna’s must-haves included a home withare updating, too. GERM in walking distance of Riverdale Elementary The neighborhood offers camaraderie, with ANTOW N GRE for children Grace Ann and Tucker, as well as kids frequently running between homes. Joanna E N W AY WOLF RIVER easy access to shops and restaurants. volunteers at Riverdale and helps coordinate the B LV D. “I love driving down Neshoba, passing July 4th parade, while Bob routinely fires up the horse pastures and open fields,” she says. “It’s grill to host friends and neighbors. The couple like country living but you’re still in the city.” launched Cop Stop, inviting Germantown police Once ready to sell their starter home in Corto a monthly Friday night steak supper with neighdova, the couple walked through a handful of bors. The program has been such a hit that new properties. They knew they had to act quickly, chapters are forming, “and we can’t host any more NESH OBA RD. since houses here sell in a heartbeat. Bob, a because so many people do it in Germantown.” former Marine who brokers corrugated boxes Joanna’s volunteer efforts were recognized last and does home renovation work, was ready to year by the Leadership Germantown Alumni Association, and she was the Grand Marshall of the make an offer, but Joanna waffled. Sensing her Christmas parade, a salute to what it means to be hesitance, he reassured her, saying, “I know a good neighbor. — Jane Schneider it’s not your dream home, but I can make it POPL AR AV E. your dream home.” 40 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • J U L Y 2 0 1 7

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DAVID & PENNEY WILLIAMS | SOUTH BLUFFS

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avid Williams, president and CEO of Leader- Penney liked the 20-foot ceiling in the living room and pointed ship Memphis, wanted to move Downtown from the time out some additions they could make. So they made the offer and the first home went up on Mud Island in 1989. got the house they still live in today. For years, he had lived in the University of Memphis area “We love the convenience and access. Some people say we and loved it. don’t have a grocery store or retail nearby, but we don’t go “But when they started building houses on Mud Island, I to a grocery every day. We love to take our two small dogs thought that one day I would be — Bella and Pico — walking along Downtown,” he says. The opportuthe river. We love the Farmers Marnity came when he was about to get ket and the restaurants. The whole remarried. He and his wife-to-be, ambience of Downtown and Center Penney, a nurse practitioner, wanted City living f its us — it’s a great to consolidate households. lifestyle, and the best life we could GE PAT TERSO N AVE. “We felt the right fit was the South have hoped for.” Bluffs,” he says. “In 2002, we bought A big part of it is the proximia home on Rienzi and I was consultty of the homes and the scale and ing and working out of our house scope of the development. “When and loved it. But a couple of years you’re on the front porch, you feel later we realized we could use more like you’re really part of the neighroom and I mentioned it to a realtor borhood. It’s very friendly, everywho found a house nearby.” body waves, and for a lot of us, it’s W. GEORG IA AVE. a dream place to live.” — Jon Sparks David didn’t care for it at first. But

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JOHN GRIFFIN | UPTOWN

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op-shelf home-and-garden design guru John pletely and reassemble to his satisfaction. Griffin could have lived anywhere in Memphis. The Parsons That brought him to the Greenlaw neighborhood, 20 years before School of Design grad liked Midtown well enough, and renewal efforts resulted in an influx of residents and a new name swears he could have picked up a nice for the area north of Downtown, running place in Central Gardens for less than from Danny Thomas to Front, and from Chelsea to St. Jude: Uptown. $40,000. “But I didn’t want that,” he says CH EL SE A AV E. Established in the 1840s, and annexed with a trademark chuckle. When Griffin moved to Memphis in by Memphis in 1870, the Greenlaw neighthe 1970s, the Virginia native and recent borhood made a natural home for Pinch New York transplant wanted a more clasDistrict merchants. It was racially and GREE sically urban environment. He wanted to economically diverse from the very beNL AW AV E. live closer to the street in a place with ginning, but by the time Griffin was real streetlife. But mostly he wanted a looking to settle down, the area had clearly seen better days. Before great old home he could tear apart comUptown arrived in force, he was involved with the neighWIL LIS AVE . borhood renewal effort, personally restoring a healthy mix of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cabins, cottages, duplexes, and townhouses in Memphis’ oldest streetcar suburb. “More warm bodies are always good,” Griffin says of Uptown’s recent forward progress, even though the suburban design that’s taken hold in the area frustrates him. The houses are too far apart for his taste, and commercial development has been relegated to specific areas instead of being woven directly into the fabric of the neighborhood. But he still has this great rosemary-hedged house with a view of the Pyramid and the M-bridge, where he can grow figs and grapes in the heart of the city. — Chris Davis

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THE GUSTAVO & CLAUDIA KORNITZ FAMILY | FLEMING GARDENS

FLEMING RD.

HOUSTON LE VEE RD.

welve years ago, the Collierville community first priority. “We wanted to move to a good school district, and we welcomed Gustavo and Claudia Kornitz as soon as they knew that Collierville would be an excellent option,” says Gustavo. stepped off the plane from Sao Paolo, Brazil. An invitation Both Kevin and Victor attend Sycamore Elementary School. awaited from another Brazilian family they’d met, and so they atFamily activities abound in the neighborhood. “What we really tended a birthday party in the Fleming Gardens subdivision. “That like about Collierville is the small-town feel; that’s a huge plus,” was our first Saturday in Memphis,” says Gustavo. “And that really Gustavo says. Last November, a new park opened at the edge of the kick-started our networking here.” Six years subdivision, complete with playgrounds, . Y later, the Kornitzes purchased a house on walking trails, a lake, and even a disc-golf KW SP I that very same street in the neighborhood. course. To the north lie the Shops at CarR OR LM Fleming Gardens is at the southern end of riage Crossing, where they frequently go L I B Collierville, bordered by Shelby Drive and for ice cream. Fleming Road. Shopping areas, restaurants, Close friends of the family live in Fleming and medical facilities are all nearby, while Gardens as well, each within walking . E. SH EL BY DR a five-minute drive to Bill Morris Parkway distance of the Kornitz home. The tightor Poplar Avenue allows quick access to the knit community has provided a stable rest of Memphis. platform for the family, especially for Kevin Gustavo, a corporate strategy manager and Victor. at FedEx, lives with his wife Claudia, the Perhaps one of the best perks? “We have great neighbors and great friends, owner of 901 Cleaning Patrol, and their two sons, Kevin and Victor. When the family but it’s still only 10 minutes from work.” made the choice to move, the kids were the — Samuel Cicci J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 43

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EKUNDAYO BANDELE | CENTRAL GARDENS

kundayo Bandele has spent a lot of time in Midtown, but he only moved into his Central Gardens home a year-and-a-half ago. Nationally recognized for its elegant vistas and assortment of beautiful older structures, Memphis’ garden district is a perfect location for Bandele, who founded the Hattiloo Theatre in The Edge District between Midtown and Downtown, before moving his successful production house into a custom-constructed new home in Overton Square in 2014. Located on the neighborhood’s northern edge, his home is equally convenient for accessing the theater’s original location on Marshall Avenue near Sun Studio, which Bandele has maintained as the Baobab Filmhouse, a boutique cinema showcasing films about the black experience. It’s also a short hop, skip, and jump

from Otherlands, Bandele’s favorite coffee house in Cooper-Young. Central Gardens is known for its mix of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century housing stock. You can find beautifully detailed craftsman-style houses and Queen Anne cottages. Bandele says he’s proud to have acquired one of the eclectic neighborhood’s few English Tudor-style homes. “It’s not every place you can find a house that’s got three good-sized bedrooms on the first floor, and one upstairs,” he says. Bandele and his wife Nicole care for an aging parent, and a daughter with special needs. Ground-floor accessibility was a big concern. Bordered by York Avenue on the south, Rembert on the east, and Cleveland on the west, the Central Gardens neighborhood was established in the mid-nineteenth century but boomed at the turn of the twentieth, rapidly becoming a haven for the city’s most affluent citizens. “But it’s not all exclusive,” Bandele says, pleased to have found a place that fits his lifestyle and his budget. “We’re really close to Union Avenue,” Bandele says, acknowledging that proximity to so much traffic and noise might be a turnoff to some. “But we’ve also got this huge fence in the backyard, and when you’re sitting back there in the evenings it’s so quiet and peaceful. It’s like you’re out in the woods.” — Chris Davis

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ONIE JOHNS | BINGHAMPTON

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oday’s Binghampton isn’t the same as the Bing- a double lot — we paid $70,000 for it. And it was one of the larger hampton Onie Johns came to know when she moved there houses in the neighborhood at the time. It had about 2,000 square 17 years ago. feet in it.” “It was very different,” say Johns. “There was one Latino family, Last year, five 1,400-square-foot houses with two bedrooms and one Vietnamese family, and lots of vacant housing. It was mostly one bath “sold in the high 90s.” African-American and a few older whites who had stayed.” She’s seen more renovation going on in the past few years. “Lots Now, she says, “It’s very diverse. It’s of people have moved in intentionally; African-American, Latino, Vietnamese, some for faith reasons,” she says. The and Caucasian all living in a four-bySOS [Service Over Self] people live in the eight-block area. It is cool.” neighborhood. And Christ Community The Caritas Community, which Johns doctors have moved in.” . AV E SON Johns, who grew up on a farm in Ackco-founded, is the major reason BingK C JA hampton is cool. “When we moved in, we erman, Mississippi, near Starkville, says moved in simply as a ministry presence Caritas House is “a lot like the farmhouse, — to be here and build relationships.” although it was a big, old Victorian farmSUMM ER AVE. She lives in Caritas House, which was house. It had a wrap-around porch and bought after Caritas Community belots of big oak trees.” came a nonprofit. Johns plans to remain in Binghampton, SAM COOP ER BLVD . Johns, who retired last December but may stay in Caritas House rather than but still works in the community, began the house she owns down the street. “I Caritas Village in 2006. “It’s the coffee thought I would retire in it, but I’m not W A LN U T G shop, community center, and cultural going to tell you why I won’t. Vanity R O V E R D. POP arts center.” reasons.” L AR UN IO N AV E. AV E She has watched housing prices rise. Then she relented. “Closets aren’t big . “When we bought Caritas — and it has enough.” — Michael Donahue J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 45

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PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE THE REAL STORY OF MACHINE GUN KELLY, THE MEMPHIS BOY WHO GREW UP TO BECOME THE MOST WANTED MAN IN AMERICA.

by michael finger editor’s note: He was born on July 18, 1895, and 59 years later died on his birthday — serving a life sentence in Leavenworth Prison. George Kelly Barnes, the son of a Memphis insurance salesman, embarked on a life of crime and gained lasting fame from his gangland moniker — Machine Gun Kelly. This story originally appeared in the May 1985 issue of Memphis magazine.

ust before dawn on September 26, 1933, a dozen men armed with shotguns and machine guns crept up to a small brick house in South Memphis. Inside was a ruthless killer who had slaughtered four policemen in Kansas City, a man so skilled with a tommy gun that he could stitch his name in .45-caliber slugs. The FBI agents kicked in the front door and burst inside. Cowering in a corner of the living room was their quarry, his face white with fear, his raised arms trembling. “Don’t shoot, G-men,” he pleaded. “Don’t shoot!” Without firing a shot, the agents had captured the man feared throughout America as Machine Gun Kelly. At least that’s the story most people have heard — the stuff of legends and grade “B” movies. What a shame that very little of it is true. Here’s the real story of Machine Gun Kelly, the Memphis boy who grew up to become Public Enemy Number One.

Memphis Days

he gangster era brings to mind today frightening scenes of smoke-filled speakeasies, blazing machine guns, gangland massacres, and hoodlums like Baby Face Nelson, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Al Capone. But the notorious outlaw who became known as Machine Gun Kelly — the guy with the toughest-sounding nickname of them all — was in reality George Francis Barnes Jr., the son of a well-to-do Memphis insurance agent. Barnes was born in Chicago in 1898 (some sources say 1900). When the boy was 2, the family moved to Memphis and bought a pleasant two-story home, still standing today at the corner of Rembert and Cowden in Central Gardens. He attended Idlewild Elementary School, then Central High School, but he could hardly be called a model student. His teachers, who talked to reporters about him years afterward, felt he never “applied himself,” as they put it. After graduating from Central, Barnes briefly studied at Mississippi A&M College in Starkville, where he met a pretty coed named Genevieve Ramsey. They eloped and were married in Clarksdale in 1919. The young man’s new father-in-law, a wealthy levee contractor, gave Barnes a good job as a commissary clerk with his company. Barnes’ respectability, however, was short-lived. His

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father-in-law died in an accidental dynamite explosion, and his marriage ended in divorce a few years later. Barnes came back to Memphis and drifted from job to job — selling used cars, driving a cab with the 784 Taxi Company, even running a goat farm out on Poplar Pike. But he soon discovered a more lucrative means of making a living, and one day in 1923 he was caught operating a still near present-day Ridgeway and sentenced to six months in the county workhouse. He turned up a few years later in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he was arrested for bootlegging and fined $250. Another arrest in Tulsa for selling liquor on an Indian reservation sent him to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, for a three-year term.

The Birth of Machine Gun Kelly

t was after his release from Leavenworth that Barnes met his second wife, Kathryn Thorne, an attractive brunette with a quick wit and friendly smile.

Kathryn had actually been born Cleo Brooks in Saltillo, Mississippi, but decided “Kathryn” sounded more glamorous. She had been married three times before she met Kelly. According to Stanley Hamilton, author of Machine Gun Kelly’s Last Stand, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover liked to cite a man who dated Kathryn a few times, describing her like this: “She took me to more speakeasies, more bootleg dives, more holes in the wall than I thought were in all of Texas. She knows more bums than the police department. She can drink liquor like water.” And as we’ll see, she could play fast and loose with the truth. About this time, stories began to surface around the Southwest of a fearless robber calling himself “Machine Gun Kelly,” a deadly master of the tommygun, who “signed” his holdups by blasting his name across billboards and bank walls. It’s true that after one bank job in Texas, Barnes — who by now was calling himself George Kelly — used a machine gun to shoot his last name on a signpost as he and Kathryn

raced out of town, but this lone act of bravado would hardly account for his widespread reputation. And he certainly didn’t look or act very menacing. After the robbery of a bank in Tupelo, the teller tried to describe Kelly as “the kind of guy, that, if you looked at him, you would never think he was a bank robber.” No, it was Kathryn who bought Kelly his first machine gun, picking up a .45-caliber Thompson at a pawnshop, and coached him to shoot walnuts off fence posts. (She would later smile sweetly in court and protest, “Why, if I’d ever seen a machine gun, I’d be afraid of it.”) It was she who passed out used cartridge cases in underworld haunts, saying, “Have a souvenir of my husband, Machine Gun Kelly, who’s off robbing banks somewhere.” And police say it was Kathryn — not Kelly — who had the necessary underworld connections, and the brains, to pull off a really bold stunt that would make them the most wanted couple in America.

The Urschel Kidnapping

n the night of July 22, 1933, Kelly and an accomplice calmly walked onto the sun porch of millionaire oilman Charles F. Urschel while he and his wife were playing cards with friends at their Oklahoma City mansion. They blindfolded him, dumped him in the back seat of J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 47

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their roadster, and roared off into the night. A few days later, the Urschel family received a ransom demand for $200,000, the largest ransom ever demanded up to that time. Among other things, the typed note explained: “Remember this — if any trickery is attempted you will find the remains of Urschel and instead of joy there will be double grief — for someone very near and dear to the Urschel family is under constant surveillance and will likewise suffer for your error.” The money was dropped off outside a hotel in Kansas City, per the instructions, and nine days later Urschel was back with his family, unharmed. By present-day standards, that doesn’t seem enough cause for newspapers of the

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The Kellys, with their attorney, didn’t seem concerned during their trial in Oklahoma.

day to proclaim Kelly “the most dangerous man in America.” But in the 1930s, gangs had discovered that kidnapping was a profitable business. Such enterprises may have continued relatively unchecked but for the abduction and murder of famed flyer Charles Lindbergh’s baby, an atrocity that shocked the nation. The resulting Lindbergh Law, enacted in 1933, made kidnapping a federal offense, punishable by death or life imprisonment. More importantly, the law no longer restricted kidnapping investigations to local police agencies. Now the feds could be called in. It was simply bad timing for Kelly. The Urschel case was the first gangland kidnapping under the Lindbergh Law, and police officials were determined to set an example. FBI director Hoover announced he was taking personal charge of the case and promised to catch the “dirty yellow rats” responsible. A nationwide manhunt began immediately, but it was actually Urschel’s excellent memory that led authorities to his captors. Although blindfolded much of the time, he had noticed the sound of oil pumps working in a nearby field, and he recalled that a twin-engine airplane had flown directly overhead, except for one day when it rained. A quick check of all flight schedules around Oklahoma City, combined with other details Urschel provided, led detectives to a lonely farmhouse outside Paradise, Texas. The arrest of the farmhouse

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occupants provided the cops with their first link to a major suspect. The farm was owned by Robert and Ora Shannon — the parents of Kathryn Kelly. Kathryn and her husband had fled, but the net was fast closing around them, and they knew it. Their only hope was to lay low for a while. After burying their split of the ransom money on other farms nearby, they drove for weeks throughout the Southwest. Kelly died his dark hair blond, Kathryn wore a red wig, and to complete their disguise, they even “borrowed” 12-year-old Geraldine Arnold from a friend, to pose as their daughter. But time was running out, and they both knew they needed a safe place to stay.

Despite the name, Machine Gun Kelly never shot anybody, and usually carried a shotgun.

The Memphis Hideout

arly in September 1933, the Kellys turned up in Memphis and contacted Langford Ramsey, Kelly’s brother-in-law from his first marriage. Ramsey directed them to a bungalow at 1408 Rayner owned by John Tichenor, a used-car salesman, and Seymour Travis, a grocery clerk. There, on this quiet street off South Parkway, the Kellys would hide until — well, they would think of something. But Kelly could run no farther without money, and lots of it. His only hope was to retrieve the thousands of dollars they had left behind, buried in Thermos jugs at different farms and ranches in Texas. He persuaded Ramsey to fetch it, taking along the Arnold girl, who could show him the location. It was a desperate gamble that failed. Federal agents had already traced the money to one farm and dug it up. When Ramsey heard this, he sent the girl back to her parents in Oklahoma. How was he to know that the authorities were waiting for the girl as soon as she stepped off the train? She innocently told them what they wanted to hear: Machine Gun Kelly was stranded in Memphis. FBI director Hoover instantly dispatched special agents here with a federal arrest warrant charging Kelly with “kidnapping and massacre.” Since the Urschel kidnapping, four policemen had been slain in Kansas City while transporting a gangster to jail, and

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another officer was killed in Chicago during a bank robbery. Machine guns were used in both crimes, and authorities concluded that only one man in America could be responsible — Kelly. J. Edgar Hoover went so far as to say that “Kelly and his gang of desperadoes are regarded as the most dangerous ever encountered.” Ramsey’s failure to get the money meant Kelly was trapped, and radio reports told him the dragnet was closing swiftly. It was but a matter of time before a showdown, so he sent Travis out to buy a pistol. Kelly, it seems, had left his machine gun behind in Texas. As he ruefully admitted later, “I didn’t think I would need it here.”

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n the night of September 25, 1933, Kelly stayed awake by reading a Master Detective magazine. He was halfway through “My Blood-Curdling Ride With Death” when a soft thump outside startled him. Peeking through the windows, he saw the noise was only the newspaper tossed onto the porch by the paper boy. Kelly stepped outside in his underwear and picked up the paper. When he came back inside, he walked down the hallway to the bathroom — and forgot to lock the door behind him. At that moment, two cars pulled up quietly outside the house. Special agents from the FBI leapt out, followed by Sergeant William J. Raney and other detectives from the Memphis Police Department. Raney gingerly tried the front door. To his surprise, it was open. Sawed-off shotgun at the ready, the detective stepped into the living room and found it empty. Through an open doorway he could glimpse home owner Tichenor and Travis asleep in a front bedroom. But where was Kelly? Would he come out shooting? Raney moved quietly down the hallway. Just then, Kelly stepped out of the bathroom, a pistol in his hand. With a shotgun aimed at his heart, he knew the game was up. “Okay, boys,” he said, dropping the gun to the floor. “I’ve been waiting all night for you.” The other men swarmed into the house and found Kathryn asleep in a back room. The hunt was over.

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emphians were astonished by the Press-Scimitar’s banner headline that afternoon: “MACHINE GUN KELLY CAPTURED IN MEMPHIS.” Kelly and Kathryn were taken to the county jail and charged with kidnapping. Bond was set at $100,000 apiece. At a news conference that morning, chief of police Will D. Lee gave reporters the details of the capture, adding, it seems, a few points of his own: “When Kelly looked into the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun in the hands of a Memphis detective sergeant, there was a thin yellow fluid that began to rise

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up the canal of his spinal column, in much the fashion that mercury rises in a thermometer on an exceedingly hot day, and he immediately dropped his revolver and submitted quietly to arrest.” (The story always told by J. Edgar Hoover, that Kelly was the first to use the term “G-Man” when he shouted, “Don’t shoot, G-Men!” is certainly false. For one thing, Kelly recognized Raney from earlier run-ins with him, and the term had already been in use for some years. Besides, Kelly himself always denied saying it: “No, I never said that, but if they say I did I won’t argue about it.”)

Behind Bars

athryn’s public-relations campaign had certainly succeeded. She had made her husband into one of the most famous criminals in America. Both she and Kelly seemed to relish their notoriety when first arrested. He even joked with his guards (“Say, lend me that machine gun for just a minute, will you”) and complained lightheartedly about the jail accommodations: “This cell’s not big enough to swing a cat in. But that doesn’t matter; I won’t be in here long.” Kathryn cheerfully smiled and posed for newsreel cameramen from Fox, Paramount, and other agencies, who had flown to Memphis, eager for just a glimpse of the fugitives. Within days, though, the Kellys’ attitude changed. Kathryn grew tired of the relentless questioning and whined that she was just an innocent victim. “I don’t want to say anything about that guy Kelly,” she told reporters, “but he got me into this terrible mess and I won’t want to have anything more to do with him.” Kelly was disgusted with the incessant photo sessions and was outraged by the leg shackles placed on him: “What do they have to put these things on for? Do you think I’m going anywhere, with these guards watching me and these bars?”

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Memphis authorities hoped not. Elaborate security precautions were taken. Kelly was moved to the top floor of the jail, where he was the sole prisoner, watched around the clock by machine gun-toting guards. There was also great fear of a gangland reprisal — someone shooting Kelly to keep him from testifying — so no reporters or visitors were allowed near him.

On Trial

n the meantime, the Urschel kidnapping trial was already under way in Oklahoma City, with the Shannons and other minor figures in the case in the courtroom. The authorities had decided that the Kellys would remain in Memphis until it was time for them to testify, for fear that their presence at the trial would intimidate potential witnesses. The newspapers, including The Commercial Appeal, helped strengthen this fear: “Kelly is a ruthless killer in any light in which he is viewed. If he has ever shown the slightest degree of

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Kelly, so easy-mannered that he was called “Pop-Gun Kelly,” died in Leavenworth Prison.

mercy for the victims of his criminal records, it is not on record.” But it was on record. Charles Urschel, the kidnapping victim himself, testified that he was treated “with consideration” before being released unharmed. And Kelly, though confessing to the kidnapping charge, strongly denied taking part in any murders. Ballistics tests proved him right, eventually linking the Chicago policeman’s murder and the Kansas City “massacre” to others. In The Encyclopedia of American Crime, author Carl Sifakis notes, “The fact is that Kelly never fired a shot at anyone and he certainly never killed anyone, a remarkable statistic for a public enemy dubbed ‘Machine Gun.’” It didn’t matter. The newspapers had their story, and they didn’t worry about the facts. The police “had their man.” When the Kellys finally arrived at their own trial, Kathryn testified briefly, again claiming that she knew nothing about any kidnapping, but Kelly remained silent. The prosecution summed up the feelings of the nation: “Shall we have a court of law and order, or shall we abdicate to a reign of

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machine gun gangsters?” The jury responded with the expected verdict: guilty. The Kellys and Shannons, in the first conviction under the Lindbergh Law, were sentenced to life imprisonment on October 9, 1933. According to author Hamilton, “This iconic case, breathlessly followed by a fascinated public, was so quickly and effectively concluded that it was largely instrumental in bringing about the end of the short-lived but intriguing time in America known as the Gangster Era.” Kathryn Kelly and her mother were shipped to the Women’s Federal Prison in Alderson, West Virginia. She remained there until she was paroled in 1958 and faded into obscurity. She worked for a nursing home in Oklahoma before dying in Tulsa in 1985. Kelly served his sentence at Leavenworth, then became one of the first prisoners transferred to the brand-new federal prison at Alcatraz. He was always considered extremely dangerous, though his easy-going ways earned

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A plain cement stone, his name misspelled, marks the Texas grave of Machine Gun Kelly.

him the nickname “Pop-Gun Kelly.” When he first arrived at prison, he bragged, “I’ll be out by Christmas.” But that Christmas came and went, as did many others, and he stayed behind bars for the rest of his life. In the early 1950s, he was returned to Leavenworth. There, he complained to one writer, “How the hell did I ever get myself into this fix? I should’ve stayed with what I knew how to do best — robbing banks.” Machine Gun Kelly died in prison on July 18, 1954, on his 59th birthday. His father-inlaw, paroled from prison a few years earlier, brought his body back to Texas. A simple poured-concrete gravestone marks his final resting place in Cottondale Cemetery, close to the Shannons’ old farm. More than half of the ransom money — some $100,000 — was never recovered. It may still be buried on a lonely ranch somewhere in Texas. Sources: Machine Gun Kelly’s Last Stand, by Stanley Hamilton; The Encyclopedia of American Crime, by Carl Sifakis, and Memphis Press-Scimitar and Commercial Appeal files. J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 53

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ROAD TRIP

A N S G O E L L A E S! V I V

OUR MEMPHIS FOOD WRITER FALLS BACK IN LOVE WITH THE NEW CULINARY CAPITAL OF AMERICA.

by pamela denney | illustrations by anna rose

y first morning in Los Angeles is a little overcast, and a quick downpour, one of many this year, explains the city’s atypical verdant tones. But I’m not worried about the weather. From the window of my hotel, I see the Hollywood Hills and the promise of sunshine sketched in the outline of palm tree fronds.

I’m up early from the time change, and before coffee or toothpaste I stack layers of Kleenex on the

windowsill and start peeling blood oranges. The skin slips off easily, and beet-red juice falls into droplets when I pull the fruit apart. Slowly, I turn my morning reverie into a ceremony of sorts, letting the taste of the California oranges, sweet and sensuous, settle back into my memory.

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Hollywood Farmers Market

Good God, I love LA, my adopted home before moving to Memphis, and the American promised land for many things, including fragrant citrus from the back of a neighborhood truck, bone-rich ramen thick with noodles at a Glendale mall, and a Carrara marble mozzarella bar serving, among other things, dreamy plates built around cream-filled burrata. I save the mozzarella bar at Osteria Mossa for the last day of my trip, planned around culinary wanderings directed by my daugh-

Simply put, the people in Los Angeles are obsessed with food, so here’s a tip. Deal with the eye-rolling moments and join in. Better yet, head to the Sunday farmers market on Hollywood Boulevard for meadowland larkspur or branches of fresh bay leaves bundled together with string. Likely, you won’t be cooking on your trip, but meander anyway past the stacks of produce, artisanal breads, and olive oils the color of freshly cut hay. Lush, beautiful, and bustling, the farmers

LUSH, BEAUTIFUL, AND BUSTLING, THE FARMERS MARKETS IN LA — AND THERE ARE DOZENS — ARE A PRIMER OF SORTS FOR THE INGREDIENT-DRIVEN MENUS I DISCOVER ON A THREE-DAY EATING BINGE. ter, a Los Angeles transplant with a knack markets in LA — and there are dozens — are for trendspotting. In the LA food scene, it’s a primer for the ingredient-driven menus hard to keep up. Since 1982, when Chef WolfI discover on a three-day eating binge that gang Puck popularized gourmet pizza at his starts in Venice Beach, wanders throughflagship restaurant Spago, the city’s Califorout Hollywood, and settles happily into a nia cuisine has exploded with pop-ups, food Koreatown hotspot where a standout dish trucks, and defining chefs at restaurants large is charred shishito peppers dipped in spicy and small who are cooking some of the very crème fraiche. best food in America. The reasons are varied for why Los Angeles is hitting a creative culinary apex. There’s DAY ONE the diverse population with ethnic cooking styles, some fused into new American menus START WITH GJUSTA IN VENICE and others authentically preserved in ubiquielta’s daily nonstop from tous strip-mall storefronts. There’s the sheer Memphis to Los Angeles leaves and volume and variety of produce that makes lands early. By the time you pick up a seasonally conscious cooking seem easy, much like Dogs outside Gjusta the beautiful Los Angelinos who are so effortlessly well-groomed that they float from work table to chef table without freshening up a bit. Price plays a huge role, too. Yes, you can spend hundreds of dollars for a single meal, and I have done so with guiltless abandon, but the cheap eats are boundless and equally good. Visitors new to LA should track down baker Nicole Rucker’s splendid pastries and pies (@ruckerspie) and one of Korean chef Roy Choi’s pioneering Kogi BBQ trucks (@RidingShotgunLA). And while a little of that marvelous short rib taco — a fusion of Mexican and Korean tastes — drips down your arm, listen to the talk around you. People expound on eggs (“I buy them at the gym. They have deep orange yolks.”); chocolate (“I only eat ZenBunni. It’s raw and biodynamic.”); and the healing transformation of adaptogens — the plant-sourced alchemy behind overpriced bottles of Moon Juice.

rental car at LAX, you will be famished, so stick to the surface streets to avoid morning traffic and head for Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach. Grab a coffee at Intellegentsia or Blue Bottle and stroll the trendy shopping district to people-watch a bit. But don’t dally. Gjusta, located a few blocks away on Sunset Avenue, is waiting, and breakfast is served all day. With its industrial building in a residential neighborhood, Gjusta can be hard to find and to navigate. But push open the wooden screen doors and the restaurant’s sun-washed energy is a little breathtaking. Part food hall, deli, bakery, and café, an almost impossibly long deli case anchors the restaurant from front to back. Take a ticket number and know from the start that decision-making will be hard: scones, pies, and baklava croissants; pates, cheese and olives — pungent and colorful — seasonal shrubs and golden lemonade; build-your-own sandwiches with brisket au jus; and for breakfast? Perhaps a croque madame on sourdough with house-cured ham, Mornay sauce, and a single fried egg.

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J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 55

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ROAD TRIP

V I VA L O S A NGE L E S DAY TWO START WITH SQIRL IN SILVER LAKE

FINISH WITH HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU IN KOREATOWN

n Koreatown, the many Korean barbecue restaurants with their spicy scallion salads and platters of marinated beef cooked tableside are irresistible. So by all means, try some, but don’t skip a gem of a place from chef Jonathan Whitener where the small plates served in earthenware bowls are both Instagram-worthy and addictively good. I am particularly infatuated with the restaurant’s sumptuous vegetables, like shishito peppers and the masculine vigor of their charred green skins. At first glance, even vegetable ingredients may seem a bit unknown. What is a Momotaro tomato, bagna cauda, and lap xuong? An excellent wait staff is happy to explain: Momotaro tomatoes, sweet and tangy, hail from Japan; bagna cauda is a fondu-type dipping sauce

hen my daughter moved to LA two years ago, the first restaurant she texted me about was Sqirl, a breakfast nook on North Virgil Avenue. I was charmed by the name (as in “a girl who squirrels away”) and by its location half a mile or so from my former apartment on the same street. Since then, chef Jessica Koslow has become a media darling, and for good reason. She cooks what she wants to eat, and she wants breakfast and lunch served until 4 p.m. every day. Tucked on the edge of Silver Lake in a scruffy small space, Sqirl for me is the essence of new California cooking: inventive but not fussy, righteous but not preachy, and seasonal, including house-made jams like strawberry and rose geranium. Koslow Kitchen window at Here’s Looking At You started Sqirl as a jam-making business, and the seasonal jams crown the restaurant’s iconic brioche toast. The brioche slice — so thick it doesn’t fit in a toaster — is buttered, burnt a little to make favored in Piedmont, Italy; and lap xuong are Chinese sausages. Three countries in one dish, plus an assortment of Asian herbs, capture the essence of Whitener’s umami cooking. A cozy bistro at heart with contemporary leanings, Here’s Looking at You also serves excellent cocktails. The current drink list pays homage to the restaurant’s neighborhood. The Persistent Rose, for instance, nods to Koreatown’s abundant rose bushes with a mix of Jamaican rum, lime, raw sugar, pickled rose petals, and splashes of rosewater. Brioche toast & jam from Sqirl

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I AM PARTICULARLY INFATUATED WITH THE RESTAURANT’S SUMPTUOUS VEGETABLES, LIKE SHISHITO PEPPERS AND THE MASCULINE VIGOR OF THEIR CHARRED GREEN SKINS.

it crunchy, and topped with house-made ricotta that flutes around the jam like billowy whipped cream. Coffee made by expert baristas and daily frittatas also usher in lunch. Try specials like cauliflower hash or a sorrel pesto rice bowl with watermelon radish, feta, and poached egg. Add kale because you are in California and bacon because why not?

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END WITH GRACIAS MADRES IN WEST HOLLY WOOD

itting on mid-century modern chairs at a low table tiled like a 1970s Mexican joint, I eat plant-based dishes that convince me of the lifestyle possibilities of vegan eating. The restaurant from chef Chandra Gilbert is popping with beautiful people, and the Mexican-skewed menu, several pages long, offers dishes like crab cakes and truffle cheese plates with no crab or cheese. Instead, hearts of palm, chipotle aioli, bread crumbs, cilantro, and bay laurel evoke the seafood cakes of summer. And on the cheese plate? Apple habañero jam, spice almonds, peppers, pear, and rustic toast. We’ve come to dinner to meet Jerry Meadors, a longtime friend and vegetarian, and when he bites into an enchilada mole negro with fried plantains, he reacts with a low and pleasurable om sound, as when palate meets soul. I’d forgotten Jerry’s culinary thumbs-up, one I’d heard often in the 1980s when we shared meals that cost a lot less. Here at Gracias Madres, on a patio near a popping wood

fire, we sip cocktails made with cannabis oil that don’t get us high (a little disappointing considering their $20 price tag), but do make us happy. Organic and seasonal, even meat-loving eaters will leave Gracias Madres satisfied (and inspired) without missing their meat or dairy one bit.

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THREE TO TRY: Pozole with ancho-chili broth,

cashew crema, and avocado; quinoa and blackeyed pea salad; and Sour T-Iesel, a high-vibe cannabis cocktail made with tequila blanco, lime, agave, and mint matcha.

DAY THREE START WITH BAROO IN HOLLY WOOD

hen we visit Baroo, we look for the 7-Eleven next door because the tiny strip-mall restaurant has no sign. Like many of the city’s culinary treasures, Baroo is all substance but no flash, a reminder that haute cuisine in LA can be discovered in $9 grain bowls ordered for lunch. We know about Korean-born chef Kwang Uh because Bon Appétit named the restau-

Preserves from Baroo rant’s rice bowl the best dish of 2016. (Baroo also made the magazine’s list of best new restaurants.) Squeezed on counter stools to read the menu, printed in colored chalk on the opposite wall, we begin to understand why. The bowls — built on grains like quinoa, bulgur, and basmati — begin simple enough but build out with exotic fermentations (rose onion pickles, passion fruit cabbage), foams (lemongrass and coconut), proteins (thick-cut bacon and sous vide egg), and toasted seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, mustard). The menu offers only seven dishes, but reading the descriptions still takes time. The Bibam salad, for instance, lists 15 different ingredients; the kimchi fried rice a dozen or more. But when our food arrives, I stop thinking about ingredients to relish the astonishing mashup of textures, colors, and flavors. I am in the moment, much like the nasturtium petal clinging to the side of my oversized bowl.

^6^6^6^6^6§ 5706 SANTA MONICA BLVD. (323-819-4344)

THREE TO TRY: Asian fever made with kimchi fried

rice with pineapple jalapeno slaw; noorook with kamut, farro, and roasted koji beet crème; house-made pasta with spicy oxtail ragu. (day thr ee continues on page 60)

From the bar at Gracias Madre

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ROAD TRIP

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Along with the restaurants proﬁled in this story, here are a few more recommendations organized by neighborhood.

DOWNTOWN BROKEN SPANISH (Mexican Fusion) 1050 S. Flower St. SUGAR FISH (Sushi) 600 W. 7th St. GRAND CENTRAL MARKET (Food Hall) 317 S. Broadway OTIUM (New American) 222 S. Hope BS TAQUERIA (Mexican Fusion) 514 W. 7th St.

MIDTOWN KANG HO-DONG BAEKJEONG (Korean Barbecue) 3465 W. 6th St. GO GET EM TIGER (Cafe) 230 N. Larchmont Blvd. MUSSO AND FRANK GRILL (Cocktails) 6667 Hollywood Blvd.

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WESTSIDE GJELINA (New California) 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd. BLUE STAR DONUTS (Brioche donuts) 1142 Abbot Kinney Blvd. COMPARTES CHOCOLATIER (Confectionary) 912 S. Barrington Ave.

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6/22/17 11:08 AM

ROAD TRIP

V I VA L O S A NGE L E S END WITH OSTERIA MOZZA ON MELROSE AVENUE

C No ve m

hef Nancy Silverton, who started as a pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck, was my very first bread lady. In 1989, she opened the legendary La Brea Bakery, elevating artisanal whole grain loaves to their rightful place on American restaurant tables. Since then, Silverton has earned countless awards and accolades as both chef and restauranteur, and none is more deserved than her joint venture with Mario Batali at Osteria Mozza on Melrose Avenue.

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Mozzarella en panna from Osteria Mozza The restaurant’s name translates into English as mozzarella tavern, an apt description for of the restaurant’s commanding mozzarella bar made with white Carrara marble. We eat at a table nearby but still select from the bar’s offerings, including buffalo mozzarella dressed with basil pesto, salsa romesco, tapenade, and caperberry relish. (Caperberries, by the way, are akin to capers but with stems.) Be forewarned: Dinner can get pricy. For a table of three, we spend $100 each, but along with first courses, we add pastas and secondis and a lovely bowl of marinated shell beans topped with croutons. Looking back, we responded to the restaurant’s lively energy, amped up, I suspect, by excellent wine pairings and the heady enthusiasm for burrata, plated with radicchio, spiced walnuts, and a shallow pool of honey.

^6^6^6^6^6§ 6602 MELROSE AVE. (323-297-0110)

THREE TO TRY: Goat cheese ravioli with five

lilies; steamed mussels with Pomodoro and red pepper aioli crostone; rosemary olive oil cakes with gelato and rosemary brittle. Anna Rose Yoken contributed to this story.

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THE VISIONA RY FOUNDER OF THE GLOBA L SEED VAULT, MEMPHI A N C A RY FOWLER H AS A SIMPLE MISSION: SAVE THE PL A NET.

by susan adler thorp

f you’re headed to the North Pole and find yourself craving filet of seal or a juicy moose burger, you’ll stop in Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on Earth, deep inside the Arctic Circle. Longyearbyen is a bitterly cold and remote

place on Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago, only 600 miles from the top of the world. And yet it’s home to 2,500 people, a research center, one of

opposite page: The frosty inner door to the Seed Vault. above: Cary Fowler stands before the Seed Vault’s entrance.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN ADLER THORP

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Scandinavia’s finest restaurants, and the Global Seed Vault, which houses more than 500 million seeds that, when planted, could produce 930,000 different varieties of plants representing much of the world’s food supply.

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I wasn’t salivating for moose meat top: A panoramic view of Longyearbyen with the entrance when I set out on my 5,000-mile journey to the Seed Vault jutting out from to Longyearbyen in February, arguably a snow bank. the coldest month of the year. My deciright top: Fowler and Susan sion to go was based on the calling of one Adler Thorp inside the main of my closest friends in the inhabitable entrance to the vault, with the world. My White Station high-school closed doors that lead to the classmate Cary Fowler, whose knowlvault’s vestibule behind them. edge of agriculture and tenacious spirright bottom: Fowler and the it, along with his vision for the future, author in the ﬁfth grade at Avon created the Global Seed Vault, which Elementary School. Fowler is on opened for seed storage in 2008. Since the ﬁrst row, far right. Thorp then, Fowler has nudged me to meet him is pictured on the second row, at the cavernous vault deep inside a snow fourth from the left. and ice-covered mountain underneath the permafrost. I had made all sorts of excuses over the years not to go to Svalbard, convincing myself that no one makes a coat warm enough for me to go there. Yet during dinner at Ecco in Midtown late last year, Fowler told me he may not return to Longyearbyen as often as he has in the past. He would keep access to a key to the vault, but he planned to spend more time in Memphis as the new chairman of the board of Rhodes College. He offered a gentle forewarning. If I wanted to meet him at the vault, I’d better do it soon. I took the bait. I prepared to head toward the North Pole with only one stop in mind: Longyearbyen and the Seed Vault. To be exact, Longyearbyen is an old coal-mining town founded by an American who set up a coal mining operation there in 1906. It’s nestled in a valley on the island of Spitsbergen, the largest island in Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago, where the sun doesn’t shine nearly four months of the year and the polar wind doubles the bone-deep chill. It’s a place where most streets have no names and all inhabitants carry guns to avoid being eaten by polar bears that may wander into town. Most curious, it’s not a good idea to die in Longyearbyen since burials are prohibited. Dying was discouraged nearly 70 years ago after it was learned that bodies buried in the local graveyard did not decompose. The ground is just too doggone cold. So, how does a kid from Memphis wind up creating a way to save humanity inside the Arctic Circle, a move that has inextricably linked Memphis and Longyearbyen?

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY SUSAN ADLER THORP

PHOTOGRAPH BY JIM RICHARDSON | GLOBAL CROP DIVERSIT Y TRUST

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INSET PHOTOGRAPH BY SUSAN ADLER THORP

ou might say it’s just due to a lot of accidents,’’ Fowler mused as he steered a rented SUV over the ice-encrusted terrain away from Longyearbyen’s small airport. After my 21hour journey from Memphis, and Cary’s 17-hour trip from New York, he remained surprisingly philosophical. “Life is full of serendipity and one thing leads to another,” he said. “People think I’m brilliant, but anyone, really, could have planned out any of these things. It just happened to be me.” A bit self-effacing, I thought, as I strained for a glimpse of reindeer foraging for food beneath the snow. Here’s a guy who graduated with me from White Station High School in 1967, spent 2.5 critically important years at Rhodes College (then Southwestern) before wanderlust and his disgust for the city’s racial climate found him living in Canada and finishing college at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. As fate would have it, his honors degree inadvertently led him to a doctorate program in sociology at Uppsala University in Sweden, one of the world’s top research universities. Fowler’s first job back in the U.S. took him to Durham, North Carolina, and the Institute for Southern Studies, where he published a special issue of a quarterly journal that focused on agriculture. “I was working on an article about the fate of small family farms in the South and that resonated with me because I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother at her small farm just outside of Jackson [Tennessee],” he said. Soon Fowler was invited to do research for a book that made him aware of the issues of crop diversity, which, simply put, is the genetic foundation — or variation within crop species — that allows agriculture to evolve and adapt to constant change, combating pests or diseases, and the challenge to produce enough food to feed the world. As Fowler explained it, 150 years ago there were about 7,000 known varieties of apples in the U.S. Because of disease and pests and human inattention, today there are less than 700 varieties of apples. The same holds true for corn. About 80 percent of the different types of corn that existed less than a century ago have vanished. In the U.S.

alone, 94 percent of the different types of peas that were grown in our country are gone. To lose a variety of any crop is as irreversible as death. Without crop diversity, our food supply would be imperiled. Fowler learned as much as he could about crop diversity, eventually becoming so knowledgeable in the topic that he became one of the few experts in the field. The world of agriculture noticed. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) invited him to make a global assessment of the state of the world’s crop diversity. “That was a major turning point,” he says. “I was responsible for drafting a book about the state of the world’s genetic resources and for negotiating with countries to develop a global plan of action for cultivating crop diversity.’’ By 1996, Fowler supervised the negotiations that led to the adoption of this plan of action by 150 countries, and then accepted a job in Norway as Professor and Director of Research in the Department for International Environment and Development Longyearbyen, Norway, is a Studies at the Norwegian place where most streets have University of Life Sciences no names and all inhabitants near Oslo. A mouthful, but it gave Fowler familiaricarry guns to avoid being ty with Nordic life, language, and culture that eaten by polar bears that would be important to the may wander into town. creation of the Seed Vault. As we bumped unmercifully along the frozen landscape, I could hear the crunch of ice giving way to the weight of our SUV. Snow-covered mountains and glaciers were everywhere I looked. For Fowler, who vanquished me in every subject except fifth-grade math, Longyearbyen was the perfect place to build one of humanity’s most important projects — a seed vault whose contents could regenerate the world’s food supply in case of a catastrophic loss of crop diversity in one country, or in many. Our first stop was the Spitsbergen Hotel — a real hotel with a receptionist on the second floor. The only thing different about hotels in Longyearbyen: you must remove your boots on the first floor when you enter. I kept a keen eye on Fowler and his wife, Amy Goldman Fowler. For the most part, whatever these seasoned Svalbard travelers did, so did I. In some respects, they were at home. I was on Mars. The Seed Vault would have to wait. It was dinnertime and we J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 65

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ongyearbyen’s remoteness and cold environment are exactly what Cary and his colleagues needed to convince the Norwegian government in 2006 that it should ante up $6 million and build a Seed Vault there. Their vision was simple: a vault that not only would house millions of seeds representing hundreds

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN ADLER THORP

above: Fowler’s favorite headed to Fowler’s favorite restaurant, restaurant in Longyearbyen, Kroa. It reminded me of an old tavern Kroa. inset top: Nachos topped full of people, wooden tables, and beer. with taco-ﬂavored reindeer Fowler ordered nachos topped with meat, jalapenos, cheese, sour reindeer. Someone else ordered a slab cream and salsa. inset bottom: of whale. I ordered a potato. Smoked whale with longberry For dessert, we were off to the sole syrup, ﬂatbread and sour cream. reason I came to this nearly desolate and frozen place. It was late, we were tired, but I insisted on seeing the outside of the vault before ending a very long day. Knowing that Fowler successfully led the world’s effort to conserve crop diversity, I wondered out loud how that global agreement turned into the Seed Vault. “Every country has seed banks to store and preserve seeds,” said Fowler. “It occurred to me after 9-11 that all seed banks are vulnerable to a 9-11 type of attack because they are in buildings. After Katrina hit, there were a lot of recriminations with people blaming each other why someone didn’t do something beforehand to prevent the flooding problems in New Orleans. “Then it dawned on me,” he continued. “If there was a catastrophic event that destroyed the world’s seed banks, I would be blamed. There I was, the most visible person in the field of crop diversity. I felt that if I couldn’t get together with a few people and sound the alarm, then who would? The world needed a bigger and bolder fail-safe plan for its seeds. That was the Seed Vault.”

of thousands of varieties of edible plants; it would also preserve the genetic diversity of the world’s crops and, ultimately, the food supply. As Fowler navigated up the side of a glacial mountain in the frozen dark, I asked what would happen if someone broke into the vault and stole the seeds. He assured me in his calming voice that I shouldn’t worry. “This isn’t Memphis or Detroit,’’ he chided. “Anyway, who would endure below-zero temperatures to break into a vault for a bunch of seeds?” Besides, he advised, the people who man the airport’s tower keep a close eye on the vault nearby, not to mention that the vault is electronically monitored so that when someone drives up to the vault, someone else will be watching. After 15 minutes, the Seed Vault was ahead; a captivating geometric concrete edifice that juts out of the snow and is brightened in the near-darkness only by a light sculpture above its entrance designed by a Norwegian artist. In Norway, a percentage of a construction budget must be dedicated to art projects that will enhance government-funded buildings. To see the Seed Vault from the outside is to understand the myriad of mythical exaggerations and whacky rumors that have attached themselves to the vault since it opened nearly a decade ago. Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the vault is a top-secret military installation; others have suggested it was built because of an impending apocalypse. The most recent rumor: The vault was flooded, destroying the seeds. The truth: Record rainfall last year caused water to seep into the entryway of the vault, freezing into ice on the walkway near the entrance. Cary dismissed these rumors — and others — as rubbish. He chalked them up to cynicism and the gullibility of people who get their information from alternative Internet news sites that specialize in sensation. We returned to the vault early the next day for a longer and more serious visit, accompanied by a news crew from the CBS Sunday Morning program. It would be a chance for me not only to see the vault from the inside, but to watch a traditional news team prepare to tell yet one more story about the vault. As we approached the vault’s front door, Fowler reached into his pocket and pulled out the key as if he was opening the front door of his home. When he opened the heavy metal door, I stood in amazement. Ahead of us was a very long, well-lit, metal-lined tunnel carved out deep inside the mountain, reminiscent of a very long Quonset hut. The entrance and the tunnel are designed to withstand earthquakes and bomb blasts and, yes, even some water and ice. The tunnel descends nearly 425 feet beneath the permafrost before ending at another set of heavy metal doors that open to an ice-encrusted cavernous area, or the vestibule to the actual vaults that house the seeds. Walk into that area and you’ll see three more locked doors, each covered with a thick layer of ice. These doors bar entrance to the three seed vaults, each 100 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 17 feet tall. Only one chamber — the middle one — is in use now as a seed vault, and the only one likely to be in use during our lifetime, explained Fowler. It’s 22 degrees Fahrenheit in the vast area just outside the seed vault. That felt almost tropical compared to the bitter shock that came when Fowler opened the Seed Vault’s door and we were quickly ushered into the coldest place I ever plan to be. It’s -1 degree Fahrenheit inside the actual Seed Vault. As the CBS people slowly worked their TV magic, I spent time talking with the Sunday Morning show’s very pregnant New York-based producer. Even while talking, we kept moving so we wouldn’t freeze in one spot.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM RICHARDSON | GLOBAL CROP DIVERSIT Y TRUST / INSET PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN ADLER THORP

When she was busy giving directions to her crew, I wandered the aisles of the vault, reading the labels on some of the thousands of containers neatly stacked high on metal shelving inside this cave-like structure. The labels revealed the contents of each box — seeds for wheat, corn, pigeonpea, hops, kikuyu grass, mung beans, rice, fenugreek, sorghum, spinach — and the countries that sent “If there was a catastrophic them. Canada. Israel. Nigeria. Switzerland. Mexico. event that destroyed the South Korea. North Korea. world’s seed banks, I would The United States. France. be blamed. The world needed Most of the containers were in plastic storage a bigger and bolder fail-safe boxes with lids, like those plan for its seeds. That was you can buy at Walmart. A few countries sent their the Seed Vault.” seeds crated in handmade wooden boxes, like North Korea. And then I spotted a container wrapped in a familiar color scheme that any Memphian should recognize: the purple and orange logo of FedEx. The country smart enough to fly their precious cargo via FedEx? Zambia. “A regional facility there sent 1,463 seed samples that originated in 10 different countries in southern Africa,’’ Fowler explained. “I have visited that seed bank several times. One of the ‘threats’ they have encountered has been people breaking into the seed bank, presumably thinking that it was a financial bank since the sign out front says ‘bank.’ I don’t think any seeds have been stolen, but it gives you an idea of the range of problems a seed bank can encounter.” Fowler spent the better part of three hours working inside the vault interviewing and creating the Sunday Morning segment whose final version would be about five minutes long. He didn’t seem to mind the sub-zero temperature at all, though the rest of us did, including Seth Doan, the CBS reporter conducting the interview. Three hours inside the vault taught me several things. I know exactly where the seeds from Zambia are stored. The Seed Vault is designed in much the same way that the aisles are laid out in a Home Depot. A compressor unit keeps the air circulating to maintain the subzero temperature. Now I understand what frostbite feels like. And Fowler, that kid from Memphis, is one of the world’s most creative visionaries.

capsule for seeds lying dormant in case of worldwide vegetative doomsday. It’s basically a very cold freezer with no purpose other than to keep seeds alive and viable and suspended in deep freeze just in case they are ever needed. And they have been needed. Prior to the Syrian war, Aleppo was home to one of the most important seed banks in the Middle East: The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), housing seeds for important food staples such as wheat, chick peas and fava beans. ICARDA sent copies of its seeds to the vault in 2007. Following the destruction of Aleppo, the Global Seed Vault returned many of the seeds to new ICARDA seed banks in other Middle East countries, such as Morocco and Lebanon, where they are growing new plants and regenerating the seeds from the original Seed Vault deposit. Duplicates of those seeds were being returned to the Seed Vault as Fowler and I looked on. Norway built the seed top: Fowler opens the ice-encrusted doors to vault, thus the Norwegians the vault. insets: Seeds inside of a handmade own it. It’s funded with wooden crate from North Korea; and crates of money raised by the Crop seeds from Zambia that were delivered to the Trust, which Fowler led Seed Vault by Memphis-based FedEx. below: for seven years, from 2005 Crates of seeds stacked high inside the seed vault. to 2012; during that time he These boxes, from an international seed bank in raised about $180 million for Aleppo, are among a globally important collection the Trust, which funds the of wheat, barley, and legumes protected by the vault’s operations. Seed Vault during the war in Syria.

spent two more days in Longyearbyen with Fowler and his wife and two other friends who joined us on the trip. The Norwegians are fond of saying that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. They’re right. Properly dressed with multiple layers, it’s an easy 10-minute walk into town, where there are shops, a pharmacy, a tourist center, restaurants, and a museum that offers the history of Longyearbyen and details the animal and plant life in the polar region. We returned to the vault twice more. As we were leaving, a large group of Japanese tourists were standing outside the vault’s towering entrance, shivering and gazing at the lighted glass sculpture above. I headed straight for the warmth of our SUV, but not Fowler. He stood in the bitter cold before the tourists, kind of like a professor, answering questions about everything inside. What I learned firsthand is that the Seed Vault is not a time J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 67

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN ADLER THORP SEED PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM RICHARDSON | GLOBAL CROP DIVERSIT Y TRUST

above left: Seth Doan, reporter here’s little doubt that for CBS Sunday Morning, talks Fowler feels at home in Longwith Fowler about the vault’s yearbyen, a foreboding place if contents during recent ﬁlming you don’t know what to expect. But he’s about the vault, which was accustomed to it. And he’s a realist. The aired on CBS on April. above time will come when he won’t return to right: Fowler with his wife, Longyearbyen. “For me, it will be very Amy Goldman Fowler, in front sad,” he said, “but it has to happen. Just of the crates of seeds sent to the not yet.” Although he’s still an internavault by the Iowa-based Seed tional traveler and a man whose talents Savers Exchange that preserves belong to the world, his heart also is heirloom varieties. right: An rooted in Memphis, which is why he example of corn seed diversity. and Amy bought a 110-year-old Midtown Memphis home and are in the process of renovating it. He’ll use it as his base during his term as chairman of the Rhodes College board as he gets to know his hometown once again. Then, of course, there’s New York, where he and Amy spend most of their time on their farm upstate. There she nurtures her love of heirloom vegetables, including squash, melons, and tomatoes and has written four books on the subjects. Fowler, too, stays busy. In between visits to Memphis where his parents still live, he uses his space in New York to prepare for worldwide lectures about the vault and crop diversity. He remains a senior advisor to the Crop Trust, sits on a technical committee of the New York Botanical Garden where his wife serves as board chairman, is a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and continues to serve as chairman of the International Advisory Council for the Seed Vault. And he also tends his apple orchard, where he is growing 125 varieties of new apple trees using cuttings and grafting, trying to preserve the diversity of many apples nearly lost over time. Hidden inside that orchard is a personal explanation of his life’s work.

“In the 1800s, before there was a modern seed and nursery industry, people were planting a lot of apples and, if the resulting apple tree was a really good one, they would save the cuttings and produce more like it and their neighbors would plant more like it,’’ Fowler explained. “That gave rise to thousands of varieties

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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CARY FOWLER

of apples. These varieties carried family names because people liked them and gave apples the honor of carrying their family names. That shows the link between people and plants. Plants co-evolve with human beings and their direct development is in our hands. “We have good data about what happened to those apples. We know at least more than 6,000 of those named varieties of apples have been lost,” he said. “They are extinct. We’re not just losing varieties of apples, but we’re losing our own history and certainly culinary traits. We’re also losing “We’re also losing options options for the future. for the future. We don’t have We don’t have a crysa crystal ball to see what tal ball to see what we need for the future. I’m we need for the future. It’s a just using apples as a library of life and there are surrogate. We could a lot of answers to future life be talking about rice or wheat. We’re not at if we are smart enough to the stage we can know exactly what kind of apconserve that diversity.” ple we will want in the future. That means we need to be saving all of these traits of apples. It’s a library of life and there are a lot of answers to future life if we are smart enough to conserve that diversity. “In other words,” he continued, “there’s something permanent about extinction. Since we aren’t God, and we can’t predict the future in detail, it’s important that we preserve the pieces.”

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CARY FOWLER

above: The ledger at the entry of the Seed Vault was signed with comments by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, upon his visit. left: Fowler with his latest book, Seeds on Ice.

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S P E C I A L

S U P P L E M E N T

T O

M E M P H I S

M A G A Z I N E

WORRY, WORRY, GOAWAY &7

WHY W E SUCCUMB TO WORRY AND HOW BEST TO SHAKE IT OFF &7

by jane schneider

worry, you worry; it’s safe to say we all worry on occasion. In fact, fretting over life’s daily challenges is a trait that unites us as human beings. A little worry can actually be a good thing, psychologists say, since worry functions as a built-in alarm system that prompts us to action and helps us stay safe. “We have to be aware and alert to threat,” notes gastroenterologist Paul Levy. “Humans have a tremendous instinct to survive, to make sure our kids survive, and thus, ensure that our DNA continues.” Yet if you peruse book stalls or Amazon, you might be surprised to find that worry doesn’t garner much attention these days. It’s been crowded out by weightier subjects like anxiety, stress, and depression. What, me worry? You bet. Researchers have found what separates the human brain from those of other mammals is our ability to anticipate and plan for the future, some of what worry entails. Another element, however, is fear, notes author Edward Hallowell, M.D. “Worry is a special form of fear. To create worry, humans elongate fear with anticipation and memory, expand it in imagination, and fuel it with emotion.” Good worry can be helpful; it gets us moving toward action. Toxic worry depletes us; fretting about the future or past events steals away our ability to enjoy a more peaceful present.

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“Worry is a special form of fear. To create worry, humans elongate fear with anticipation and memory, expand it in imagination, and fuel it with emotion.” — Edward Hallowell, M.D.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELENA RAY

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| DREAMSTIME

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NEED HELP MANAGING WORRY ? Learn more about yourself Behavior Services of the Mid-South behaviorservicesmidsouth.com Working with families and students on behavioral health issues in a variety of settings. Susan Elswick, president and CEO, 901-248-0595

Learn more about mediation advancingmindfulness.com Mark Muesse, Ph.D and Dr. Manoj Jain discuss the beneﬁts and practice of mindfulness meditation.

Learn more about faith Listen to Gary Zimak’s podcasts as he speaks about his own faith journey and how to better cope with worry. followingthetruth.com

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Super-size me

the toll losing her mother had on her own health. Her mother’s untimely death from breast cancer occurred when Liz was just 19. She soon worried that she, too, might become gravely ill, a fear that lingered well into her 30s. “I was petrified of getting cancer,” she says. Because of that fear, she routinely rushed to the doctor, fearful her latest ailment might be masking a more life-threatening illness. “Any physical symptom would send me into a tizzy,” she says. “I was so worried that this time, it would be the end.” Now in her mid-60s and still in the pink of health, her what-ifs turned out to be whatever. But worry is not innocuous. That nervous energy can adversely affect us, causing harm to the body’s circulation system and glands, the nervous system, and heart. The mindbody connection means worry extracts a discernible toll, both mentally and physically. Studies show constant worry leads to tension, poor sleep, irritability, fatigue, problems concentrating, and in general, overall unhappiness. And here’s the irony: Most of what we worry about never happens. Yep, just like Mom’s sinkhole.

y mother would be considered a classic worrier. Her worry often magnifies and exaggerates risk. Last summer, for example, she suddenReleasing control ly noticed a new crack in the wall of a brick hether the problem is planter at the entrance to her home. What health concerns or family relationhad caused the crack? she wondered. She ships, money woes or politics, any examined the planter. She inspected the yard. combination of such woes can drive us to And then she started to worry, super-sizing distraction, enabling worry to take center the problem until she was fairly convinced stage in our lives. So here’s a point worth rethat a sinkhole yawned just beneath her front membering: Worry often keeps us focused on yard. (In her defense, she does live in Florida, controlling events that are out of our control. where sinkholes are not uncommon.) Susan Elswick, a clinical social worker and So she called the insurCEO of Behavior Services of ance company and was told it the Mid-South, says, “Healthy Studies show constant would be probably a week or worry protects us. But when worry leads to tension, so before they could come out it impairs our daily routine, to assess the situation. In the when we won’t go outside poor sleep, irritability, because we’re afraid of bemeantime, she worried dutifatigue, problems fully each day, steeling hering hit by a car, then there’s a problem.” self for a variety of expensive concentrating, and and gloomy outcomes. When Elswick says many people in general, overall the insurance man finally did wind up at her clinics copunhappiness. the survey, the sinkhole was ing with worry in unhealthy nowhere to be found. In fact, ways, by drinking excessively he chalked up her crack to something far less or cleaning habitually. How can worry be exotic: settling. Over time, the ground had more readily managed? shifted while the brick planter had remained A good first step is identifying and acstatic, hence, the crack. knowledging our fear. Psychologist Lee HorWhew … ton tells about a time during midlife when his But worry is like that! Our fear fires up our wife was scheduled for a hysterectomy. He imagination and we make minor problems began to worry about losing her, even though into major catastrophes, expending a lot of the mortality rate for the procedure is very nervous energy in the process. It’s exhausting. low (less than one percent). Our worried thoughts inhibit our ability to “My girls were pre-teens at the time and be realistic about our problems, especially I imagined myself having to care for them when we’re stressed. It turns out that worry alone,” he says. His worry prompted him to can also become exaggerated by experiences assess his situation and when he rationally from our past. looked at his finances and job flexibility, he English instructor *Liz Baker remembers realized his situation would make single

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parenting manageable. Once he examined his biggest fear, Horton says, “I realized even if the worse were to take place, I’d survive.” And in acknowledging that, the cloud of worry lifted. Whether our thoughts keep us focused on future calamities or ruminating on past failures, routinely entertaining them inhibits our ability to be mindful and present, thus thwarting a chance to experience fully the joys life brings every day. To find ways of productively combating worry, I spoke with several practitioners about healthy ways to alleviate worry and stress, which include yoga, meditation, faith, journaling, and self-care practices.

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Focus the mind with yoga

arla Nichols, the former owner of Midtown Yoga, says she started studying yoga “because I was riddled with anxiety and fear.” Nichols says she wrestled with body image issues and tried managing her worry by running. But it was through discovering yoga, with its focus on postures and breath awareness, and its philosophical underpinnings that embrace thoughtful daily living, that she eventually gained inner peace. “We can’t be of help to others if we’re consumed by worry. When we put the greater good above ourselves, then we realize our shortcomings don’t make us bad people,” she says. “Life is a journey. We all want a quick fix and relief from our symptoms but … it requires giving up control and some of us don’t want to do that. “Yoga says fear is the great death,” Nichols adds. “But we can live a life of walking death if we are ruled by our worries and fears.”

Lean on your faith

here are many passages in the Bible that demonstrate God’s desire for us not to worry. For example, Matthew 6:26 reads, “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 74 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • J U L Y 2 0 1 7

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one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?” But relying on faith to calm our fears is challenging. Motivational speaker, author, and radio host Gary Zimack was raised in the Catholic Church and says worry for him was second nature. “I was a hypochondriac as a kid. I was always worried about getting some disease. I’d pray and then my parents would take me to see the doctor.” Anticipating problems proved to be an asset in his first career as a software developer. But worry continued to rule his personal life. Then, in 2004, Zimack experienced a medical crisis. An intense pain arose in his side, along with bouts of nausea and weight loss. A visit to his physician revealed enlarged lymph nodes, but his doctor told him it would take six months to discern whether the root cause was an infection or a tumor. The news overwhelmed him.

“We can’t be of help to others if we’re consumed by worry. When we put the greater good above ourselves, then we

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former owner, Midtown Yoga “That experience led to my conversion,” says Zimack, now an evangelical Catholic. “I ultimately turned to God and that’s when I began to feel peace, because I got to know Jesus.” He gave up trying to control events that were out of his control and relied on faith instead. He now shares his good news with other worriers, distilling his lessons to the 5 Ps of Peace: Prepare and do what you can to live in the Present, Pray instead of worry, Participate in what the church has to offer, and keep your eyes on the Prize, which is heaven. In other words, this life isn’t the final chapter. “I think our basic fear is that our lives have no meaning,” adds Elaine Blanchard, storyteller and pastor. “So we do what we can to find and sustain meaningful relationships and activities, or we despair and give up on ourselves. We worry less when we are assured of our purpose, the promise of love and hope for a future made better by our having been here.”

Become mindful with meditation

editation is another way we can train ourselves to be present. National studies have found that medical students often struggle with worry. Many of these high achievers enter med school only to find themselves challenged

academically for the first time. Because of the massive workload, some struggle. “They begin to question whether they belong here,” says Kathy Gibbs, director of educational support for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). So the university offers a weekly meditation class as a way of teaching students how to stay present and focused. Professor Mark Muesse teaches religious studies at Rhodes College and has taught mindfulness meditation for many years. He calls meditation strength and flexibility training for the brain. Mindfulness, becoming aware of our thoughts and recognizing that we can control how we respond to them, can free us from unhelpful ways of thinking and responding to worry. “Meditation takes an innate capacity — mindfulness — and strengthens it,” Muesse says. “It’s counterproductive to come in wanting to end anxiety or worry. You do meditation for awareness and that helps release the worry.” Even though he personally suffers from a chronic neurological problem that routinely causes him great pain, “Meditation has given me equanimity. My life is on an even keel, unpleasant experiences don’t cause me to suffer. I have contentment and serenity regardless of what life brings.” People who have taken his class say meditation has literally transformed their lives, making them calmer and more aware of the world around them. Many use it to help manage pain and stress. “Meditation is paradoxical,” Muesse observes. “You gain control by relinquishing control.”

Keep a daily journal

usan Elswick often recommends that patients keep a daily journal. She says we don’t always recognize what triggers our worries or how our body responds to anxious feelings. But if you make note of events that happen during the course of each day, then you can begin to recognize what brings on worry by identifying the physical triggers associated with your anxiousness. Symptoms can include an increased heart rate, irritability, clenched fists, and shallow breathing. Once you identify triggers, you can begin to consider how to better respond.

Make time for self-care

inally, it goes without saying that our mental health is directly tied to how we treat our bodies. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, one high in fruits and veggies and low on sugar and fats, and fostering a network of supportive friends goes a long way to keeping worry in check. Furthermore, reach out and do something for someone in need. Often, our worries are put into greater perspective when we see the burden others carry.

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on the town

^6 with michael donahue ^6

WHAT: Society of Entrepreneurs 25th Anniversary WHERE: Loxley Hall WHEN: June 15, 2017

he Society of Entrepreneurs celebrated its 25th anniversary with the release of There’s Something in the Water: Intimate Accounts of River City Pioneers and Innovators at a reception June 15th at Loxley Hall, the home of Winston Wolfe. Wolfe, founder of Olympic Optical, is one of more than 100 Memphis entrepreneurs featured in the book, which was published by Creative Content by Contemporary Media, the custom print and digital publishing division of Contemporary Media, Inc. The mission of the Society of Entrepreneurs is to foster the development of entrepreneurial spirit and to recognize the contributions of entrepreneurs to business and community. Guests approached other guests and asked them to sign their copies of the book during the party, which featured food from Jessica’s Catering.

1 Walker Uhlhorn and Walker Laird 2 Denise Higdon, Ty Cobb, and Daphne Large 3 Pearson Crutcher and Joe and Dr. Mary McDonald 4 Chris Miller, Jason Pendergrass, and Jamie Van Ostran 5 Ken and Lisa Dick and Sharon and Tony Graves 6 Larry Gilbert, Ann Uhlhorn, and Morgan Bohannon 7 Dr. Jerre Freeman, Karen Treas, George and Jackie Falls, and Jack Treas 8 Jack and Leighanne Soden, Don Hutson, and Winston Wolfe 9 Jay Healy

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on the town

^6 with michael donahue ^6 WHAT: Margarita Festival WHERE: Overton Park WHEN: June 17, 2017

hristy Pam was a Margarita Fest fan. “This is the best idea Memphis came up with: 15 different types of margaritas,” she said. “And food. You can’t beat that.” The Memphis Flyer hosted Margarita Fest June 17th in Overton Park. The event, which celebrated its third anniversary, drew 800 people. This year’s event featured 12 restaurants and three food trucks. By the end of the three-hour festival, 10,000 three-ounce sample cups were used. And 26 cases of Don Julio tequila were empty.

1 Christy Pam, Neishia Dogan, and Tiana Young 2 Danny Van Valkinburgh 3 Kimberly Hulbert and Victoria Wilson 4 Heather and Caleb Hollingsworth 5 Jack Henke, Lauren Wieties, Yagna Angirish, and Drew Austell 6 Roy Wells, Whitney Johnson, and Alan Carter 7 Demerick Keaton and Meredith Franklin 8 Bridget Wells and Kristi Ryan 9 Sarah Baker and Ken Gibbs

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on the town

^6 with michael donahue ^6 WHAT: Carnival Memphis

WHERE: Hilton Memphis & various venues WHEN: Week of June 2, 2017

arnival Memphis King Edward Dobbs and Queen Tayloe Lowrance welcomed guests at the Crown & Sceptre Ball, held June 2nd at the Hilton Memphis. The event kicked off more than a week of parties and charitable visits. Taking the stage were the royal couple, Carnival President Dr. Jeff Cole, the Royal Pages, and Royal Court members. Royalty from Carnival Memphis Grand Krewes joined the festivities, along with green-snouted members of the Secret Order of Boll Weevils. Dobbs, president of Dobbs Management Service, and his wife, Cindy, are the parents of Ella, Lila and Andrew Dobbs. Lowrance, daughter of former Carnival queen Kim Lowrance and Collie Lowrance Jr., is majoring in religious studies at the University of Colorado. During Carnival Week, the king and queen and their entourage visited charitable organizations, hospitals, nursing and retirement homes, and senior centers. Events during the evening included visits to country clubs and parties given by the Grand Krewes. This year, Carnival Memphis raised $300,000 with matching funds for its Children’s Charities Initiative. The announcement was made June 7th at the Crosstown Concourse. The 2017 recipients were Church Health, The Erika Center at Bodine School, and Knowledge Quest.

1 Carnival Memphis King Edward Dobbs and Queen Tayloe Lowrance at the Crown and Sceptre Ball 2 Memphis Country Club Prince Bob E. Mallory and Princess Bett McFadden at the Crown and Sceptre Ball 3 Caldwell Huffman and Alex Chavez at the Princess Ball 4 Don and Elizabeth Scott and Lissa and Randy Noel at the Crown and Sceptre Ball 5 Casimir van der Byl, Liza Leatherman, Mary Marshall, and Taylor Fenton 6 Mary Baylee Thomason and Fisher Folk at the Grand Krewe of Osiris party 7 Carnival President Dr. Jeff Cole and his wife, Floy, and Carnival Memphis Executive Director Ed Galfsky at the Memphis Country Club party 8 Jake Bargas, Peyton Klawinski, and Blake Bozymski 9 Tucker Colerick, Daisye Rainer, Kate Grace Cunningham, and Forest Colerick 10 Riley Devlin, Griffin Gearhardt, and Jack Delgado at the Grand Krewe of Ptolemy party 11 Loyal Order of Scarabs Preston Roberts, Drew Crain, and Marshall Sullivan at the Grand Krewe of Osiris party 12 King Edward Dobbs and the Royal Pages at the Grand Krewe of Osiris party 13 Carrie Schaefer and Hudson Atkins at the Memphis Country Club party 14  Joe Carter and Bebe Lowrance at the Grand Krewe of Ptolemy party 15 Elizabeth McEniry and William Brennan at the Memphis Country Club party 16 James Turley and Val Smith 17 Julia Perry, Alexis Angelakis, Kalin Halbach, and Rachel Kimery at the Memphis Country Club party

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ASK VANCE

Vieh’s Bakery Our trivia expert solves local questions of who, what, when, where, why, and why not. Well, sometimes.

DEAR VANCE: Memphis has had many fine bakeries, but the one favored by my family was called Vieh’s. It’s been gone for years, but what can you tell me about it? — t.y., memphis. DEAR T.Y.: In 1931, the Memphis Press-Scimitar — our city’s afternoon newspaper, if you can remember such a thing — began publishing a series called “Memphis People Tell How They Made Their First Stake of $1,000.” As you might imagine, these stories began with an account of the Lauderdales’ venture with dirigibles, a fascinating story told in Volume 14 of Bound for Glory, the 32-volume bi-

above: Myrtle and Edward Vieh, shown here in 1931, used money from a land purchase in Montana to open a bakery in Memphis. Vieh’s, just down the street from the Gilmore, sold “Good Things To Eat.”

ography of my illustrious The newspaper told family. But the October 22, the story of the Vieh 1931, edition of the paper family, noting that told the remarkable story of the Vieh family, noting “when Edward Vieh that when Edward Vieh laid his hands on his “laid his hands on his first grand, he was many, many first grand, he was miles from a bakery.” many, many miles In fact, he and his new from a bakery.” wife were struggling to survive in the mountains of Montana. I don’t have a great deal of information about Vieh’s early days — I can only do so much, despite being a Lauderdale. Edward Vieh, it seems, was born in St. Louis in 1888. With very little formal education, he managed to work at bakeries in that town, and in 1912, at the age of 24, he met and married Myrtle Seefluth. As a young man, the newspaper reported, “His health was poor and general working conditions were not much better, so he decided to take his doctor’s and Horace Greeley’s advice and ‘Go West.’” With only $300 borrowed from his grandfather, Vieh bought a stake in a farmstead outside of Lewiston, Montana, and moved there. It was simply open country. He and Myrtle lived in a tent until they constructed a tiny, nine-foot-square cabin, and almost by hand plowed and seeded their land, cultivating some 80 acres and slowly acquiring mules, horses, cattle, poultry, goats, and other animals. “The loneliness was unbearable,” says the Press-Scimitar, “but they stuck it out for five years,” and during this time two children were born in the wilderness, without any help from a doctor or nurse. In 1917, they sold their ranch and livestock for $1,200 — making their first “grand” (a good sum of money in those days) — and returned to St. Louis. His health much improved by the hard work he’d put into their homestead, Vieh took a job with Barker Bakeries in that city, a national chain, where he was soon put in charge of overseeing the “installation” of bakeries in other cities. The Viehs moved to Memphis in 1920, where Edward became manager of the Barker Bakery at 12 South Main Street. In 1924, the Viehs decided to open their own bakery, a nice shop on McLean, just a few doors north of Madison. This was a bustling part of town, and their business certainly improved with the construction of the Gilmore Apartments in 1929, just across Madison.

VIEH PHOTOS COURTESY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSIT Y OF MEMPHIS LIBRARIES. SIGN PHOTO COURTESY BALTON SIGN COMPANY.

by vance lauderdale

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TALCUM POWDER PHOTO BY DORY THOMAS.

Three years later, they opened a second bakery at Overton Park Avenue and Willett, added a third location at 1354 Poplar, and later embarked on another venture, Vieh’s Biscuits, at 569 South Highland. Edward Vieh died in 1944; I wasn’t able to determine when his wife passed away. The bakeries were taken over by his eldest son, Eugene, and thrived for years. The photo here (left), taken in the 1950s, shows the original location on North McLean, with the Gilmore Apartments visible in the distance. It’s too bad the image isn’t in color, but it’s obviously a handsome building, with the Vieh name and “V” in a half dozen places, and the bakery’s motto, “Makers and Bakers of Good Things to Eat,” spelled out in glowing neon. An interesting aspect of this story is the private park the Viehs owned behind their home on James Road in Raleigh. Described by the Press-Scimitar as “the family’s free camp in the woods,” this land was often used by church groups for various outings. In 1949, Timberline Bible School, among many others, held outdoor classes for hundreds of children here. What’s more, once a week, all bakery employees, along with anybody else who cared to join in, gathered in the back of the little shop on McLean for a 15-minute devotional, “a spiritual recipe that keeps the bakery in harmony,” according to a newspaper account. By 1965, all the Vieh bakeries had closed. The original location on North McLean served for a while as the home of Rogers Church Goods, but that row of shops was later demolished for a parking lot. The Overton Park Avenue address became Vogue Cleaners, and the Poplar branch was turned into El Capitan, a dance club. The biscuit company on South Highland was converted into another well-known Memphis bakery, McLaurine’s. Vieh Park still shows up on some maps of Raleigh, but it is rarely used, if at all, and little noticed by anyone who drives by the entrance on James Road.

The American Company

DEAR VANCE: What can you tell me about my old tal-

cum powder tin, made by the American Company in Memphis? — d.t., baldwyn, ms. DEAR D.T.: I really love the colorful design of your Zuané

Le Parot talc, which despite the French spelling and

It would be interesting to know why they established a separate division — the American Company — and how many of their other products were designed so exotically.

Central American macaw, was produced — as it clearly says on the label — by the American Company in Memphis. It took quite a bit of digging to track down this company, because it was only in business from 1934 to 1938. It turns out, though, that this was just one branch of a much larger firm called the William Webster Company, which was — so they claimed — the first full-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing company in the Southeast. Webster was born in Weatherby, Missouri, in 1873. In 1903, he showed up in Memphis, listed in old city directories working for the Lillybeck Drug Company here. Just two years later, he and a partner, Ernest Warnock, formed the William Webster Company, with offices and production facilities at 224 East, close to the medical district. I don’t have a complete list of everything made there, but we can presume it was an extensive range of medications and cosmetic products. It would be interesting to know why they established a separate division — the American Company — and how many of their other products were designed so exotically; so far I haven’t been able to answer those questions. Webster passed away in 1955, but control of the firm had already been handed to his son, William Webster Jr., a native Memphian who attended the old Pentacost-Garrison School here and later Washington and Lee University. “Billy,” as he was known to all, served in the Navy during World War II, and then joined his father’s business, starting as a salesman and taking over as president in 1950. The company greatly expanded during the 1960s, moving into larger facilities in the Airport Industrial Park. In 1973, William Webster Company merged with Alcon Laboratories in Houston. In Memphis, Billy oversaw the Webcon Division of Alcon Labs until he retired in 1979. He passed away in 2015. The old company location on East is, as you read so often here, now a parking lot.

Got a question for vance? EMAIL: askvance@memphismagazine.com

MAIL: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine,

460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103 ONLINE: memphismagazine.com/ask-vance

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G A R D E N VA R I E T Y

Thrillers, Spillers,& Fillers For plantaholics, downsizing a garden is excruciating, but container gardening offers many benefits.

by christine arpe gang

And need I mention the ways its flower-laden stems droop to the ground after the most modest of rain showers? Love for this flawed plant, it seems, is no more rational than romantic love. We can’t resist saying yes to the next new and improved, incredibly lovely wonder of nature and hightech hybridization even as our backs, knees, and shoulders tell our minds to stop the pain. Luckily no one has to go through the transition to moderation in gardening cold turkey. Easing yourself away from plant addiction can be gradual and satisfying if you stop digging in the ground and start playing with containers filled with light and crumbly commercial soil mixes containing peat moss, ground tree barks, and compost. There is no denying the bags of soil are heavy and bulky and so are the pots once they are filled with soil and plants. But you can start small by placing a few pots where you are likely to enjoy them the most — at a front or rear entrance or near a window you frequently gaze out of. If you are like many gardeners, you probably already have a few containers filled with colorful summer annuals. Do they look as good in July as they did in May? They don’t and won’t if you don’t feed and groom them. Potting soil infused with fertilizer may provide enough food for about three weeks to a month after planting, but after that, hungry annuals need more. So spread a handful of slow-release fertilizer for blooming plants on top of the soil now and be prepared to add more in a couple of months. You can further boost growth and flower production by using water-soluble fertilizers at every other watering. If the label on

Grouping containers together is a way of turning lots of small elements in the garden into an important focal point.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTINE ARPE GANG

f setting plant limits was easy, our collections would never have gotten out of control. We probably would have followed the experts’ advice and selected only the trees, shrubs, and perennials that could fill specific places in our garden and that provided several seasons of visual delight.

But, I wonder, how could I ever be without at least one peony producing

its luscious, sweet-smelling blooms, even if it’s only for two or possibly three weeks in early spring? That brief glory is followed by lackluster and often fungus-infected foliage that mercifully disappears in the winter. 84 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • J U L Y 2 0 1 7

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There’s coleus to match every visual taste and meet every function of design in container gardening.

6/15/17 11:42 AM

Petunias and other annuals ﬂourish in containers in the courtyard of master gardener Lizette Flowers.

a slow-release product indicates it lasts for six months, figure on just three, says David Levy, owner of Willow Oaks Flower Farm in Brownsville, Tennessee, because our hot summer temperatures and constant watering shorten the life of these fertilizers. “You’ve also got to give your petunias and other annuals regular haircuts or they will get ratty looking,” Levy says. How often is that? “Every time you go to the beauty shop, give your plants a haircut, too.” It doesn’t seem right to cut off perfectly nice flowers, but the ones you lose will be replaced with new flowers in about a week on a plant that is more vigorous and compact. Don’t hesitate to lop back annuals and perennials in the ground either. Salvias, perennial sunflowers, beebalm, daisies, and other season-long bloomers enjoy a mid-summer breather from blooming and will be back with many more flowers. With good care and selection, the plants in your containers will bloom until the first frost. But even after they’ve gone to the great garden in the sky, you can still put your containers to good use. Buy a modest amount of tulip bulbs and after Thanksgiving bury them 4 to 6 inches into the soil in a fairly large container or two. Crowd them in a bit and you will have a big, beautiful burst of color in the early spring. It’s easy-peasy. After they bloom, toss them out and the container will be ready for summer annuals again. It would be irresponsible of me not to caution plantaholics that container gardening can be addictive, too. Lizette Flowers, who says “you have to like flowers to be a Flowers,” fills the courtyard of her zero-lot-line home with a mind-boggling number of containers and plants. As one of the master gardeners who opened their gates for public touring in

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June, she made a detailed list of plants in her garden. She identified 450 different varieties of plants in the courtyard and also in the small cutting garden behind it and a planting area in the front. When there’s no place for more pots, she utilizes space on two walls, with pink roses and blue clematis mingling on trellises on one and espaliered orange-berried pyracanthas on another. Pat Skaggs, past president of the Memphis Herb Society and all-around great gardener, likes to nestle containers of plants in a corner of her deck and also on the steps that lead from the deck into a backyard filled with edibles and ornamentals. Skaggs has a variety of annuals but this year is reveling in the unusual variegations on the leaves of the coleus plants she purchased from Rosy Dawn Gardens, an online nursery specializing in the versatile plants with infinite combinations and configurations of green, burgundy, red, and orange foliage. Her enthusiasm spilled over to her son and daughter-in-law, Holly and Matt Skaggs, who are also growing them in containers on a patio overlooking their swimming pool. By now most gardeners have at least heard of some catchphrases that guide in designing appealing containers. They advise placing a “thriller” plant that is tall and visually compelling in the center of the pot; a “spiller” that trails over the side of the rim, and finishing with several “fillers” that form mounds of flowers that seem to frolic in the spaces left by the two show-offs. Should you want to begin gardening with containers or achieve more success with them, Jason Reeves, a horticulturist at

Containers of colorful coleus, red geraniums, and foxtail fern cozy up on deck steps in Pat Skaggs’ garden.

the University of Tennessee Research and Education Center in Jackson, offers a few tips. Reeves designs about 350 containers each year for the center, private clients, and his personal garden: ◗ Replace at least 25 to 50 percent of the old soil in a container with new soil every year. He saw a dramatic difference in the performance of plants grown in pots with renewed soil and those installed in the tired soil from the previous season. ◗ Use commercial soil mixes featuring a blend of peat moss and compost. Then add about 5 percent garden soil, preferably dug from a woody area. Choose easily crumbled soil, not clods of clay. The addition of the garden soil helps the mix retain moisture. Instead of giving them a daily drink, he typically waters only three times a week. ◗ Do not overfill the containers with plants. Place a maximum of three plants in a 12-inch pot and five in an 18-inch pot. (Diameters are measured at the top of the pot, not the bottom.) ◗ Choose plants with a variety of leaf textures and shapes. ◗ Reeves is also an advocate of cutting back plants several times during the growing season. “Some people let their sweet potato vines grow so long they look like they could take your leg off.” Don’t let things reach that point. Take pleasure in all that container gardening has to offer.

Blue scaevola or fan ﬂowers spill from a large urn in the courtyard garden of Lizette Flowers. A spikey yucca makes a dramatic ‘thriller’ for the center.

Christine Arpe Gang has been writing about gardening in Memphis for more than 30 years, primarily for the commercial appeal. She seeks out the best plants and growing techniques to share with her readers and use in her own garden. J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 85

6/15/17 11:42 AM

DINING OUT

Country Comfort At Raven & Lily, Justin and Amy Young mix small-town sociability with innovative Southern food.

by pamela denney | photographs by justin fox burks

riving from East Memphis to Fayette County for dinner — past Gateway Tire and Rick’s Barbershop on Highway 64 — is an act of faith for first-timers. But we are adventuresome dinnermates, and the reputation of Raven & Lily layers on our optimism, even as we hunt for its location in an Oakland strip mall with no visible restaurant sign.

Once inside, the eatery feels comfortable like a country place, unassuming and friendly. To our left, a large table of family members — ages 3 years to 80 — celebrates a birthday. We try to focus on the menu, updated often and printed on copy paper, but the intoxicating parade of food to the birthday table pulls us away. “What is that? What are they having?” we ask our server, trying not to point.

Shrimp and grits Benedict

Across the menu, chef Justin Young’s background in Continental cuisine shows up in many ways, including colorful plating and creative prep.

Raven & Lily staffers include, from left to right, Keke Perkins, Andrian Campbell, Katie Fields, Elizabeth Thomas, and owners Justin and Amy Young.

To our right, a table of two orders an RL Burger to share. When it arrives, we let go of subtlety to ogle a bit. The burger is a colossal beauty, stacking patty, bacon, red onion, cheddar cheese, fried green tomato, and farm-fresh egg inside a house-made bun. Even when cut in half, the burger needs two hands, so the women pass a happy baby back and forth to take turns eating.

Still undecided on our entrees, we focus instead on first courses: smoked onion and carrot soup with a bright green swirl of pistou; chopped Romaine salad with Parmesan crisps and anchovies; and a remarkable pork-rind salad with pickles and vinaigrette. (“It’s healthy. It’s a salad,” my husband says with a grin.) For main courses, we order more excellent dishes from a chef-driven menu with scrumptious Southern roots. The ingredients are familiar, but the flavors are bold, bright, and layered in: Louisiana red fish and lump crab with roasted vegetables and micro-greens; chipotle hot chicken with spiced cabbage; tender beef deckle on creamy mashed potatoes with bordelaise sauce. And for dessert? A warm and indulgent chocolate soufflé dusted with a snowfall of powdered sugar and served with crème anglaise. Raven & Lily, open since October, may seem enigmatic until one meets owners Justin and Amy Young, a couple whose talents and timing seem superbly matched. They met at the lauded La Tourelle. Justin was a chef; Amy a server. Today, at their own restaurant, they divide duties in a similar way. Amy runs the front of the house (“I try to stay out of the back as much as I can!” she says) while Justin heads the kitchen. A native of Arkansas, Justin attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales University. In Memphis, he cooked with Erling Jensen for long stretches two different times. He and Amy moved to Somerville with their daughter Gracie about three years ago, and the drive from Fayette County to East

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Memphis got to be too much. “It seemed like the right time for us to do our own thing. Plus, we really love Fayette County,” Amy says. “We’ve grown some roots here, and we wanted to be a part of this community.” Already, the pair cater civic functions and prepare Wednesday night suppers for their local church. The name of the restaurant, Raven & Lily, references verses in the book of Luke that are meaningful to the couple. And the restaurant’s concept for a modern Southern eatery? It is the kind of food they want to eat. “We knew we wanted awesome sandwiches, breakfast food on Saturdays and Sundays, and to use as many local ingredients as we possibly can,” Justin says. Even eggs come from the couple’s own chickens, and the sandwiches served at lunch — oversized like the burger — are piled high with pastrami or thick-cut bologna from Midtown-based Smok’d Meats. The

Pastrami sandwich pastrami, stacked with romaine, pickled red onions, and mustard made in-house, is bacon-like and dark at the edges like pork butt, cooked low and slow. The sandwich bread — also the base for the restaurant’s memorable bread pudding — is naturally yeasted for flavor and texture. “When you bite into it, you think the bread isn’t going to let go, but when it finally tears, it’s wonderful,” Justin explains. While the pastrami sand-

wich is a menu regular, other dishes come and go. Justin likes to experiment, and his classical culinary training shines through, starting with the mussel stock he makes every day. The mussels go into several dishes, including mussel gratin and seafood mac ’n’ cheese. The stock makes tasso gravy the color of shrimp tails for shrimp and grits Benedict served with two poached eggs for weekend brunch. Across the menu, the chef’s background in Continental cuisine shows up in many ways, including colorful plating and creative prep. Even okra, the workhorse of the Southern vegetable plate, gets special treatment. Justin cuts the pods in half and then slices them from top to bottom. “We get a 10-pound bag for $5 from a lady who lives close to us,” Justin says. “Even our chicken salad gets an okra garnish, a little something extra on top to show we care.”

PAM’S PICS: THREE TO TRY

ONION RING & PORK RIND SALAD: ($9) ”It’s a monster,” says chef Justin Young, ticking off the ingredients of this manly plate: pickles, iceberg, local lettuce, pork rinds fried light and airy, and matchstick radishes inside a pile of onion rings.

CHIPOTLE HOT CHICKEN WITH SPICED CABBAGE: ($16) Garnished with haricot verts and perched atop a mound of fragrant spiced cabbage, the fried chicken breast rises like a harvest moon, amber and magical.

LEMON CURD, STRAWBERRIES, AND SHORTBREAD: ($8) Best-friends-forever, these personable companions are intensely ﬂavorful: crumbled shortbread, lemon curd, golden like summer sunshine, and macerated strawberries, pretty in pink.

RAVEN & LILY RESTAURANT

7700 U.S. Highway 64 Oakland, Tennessee 38060 (901) 235-7300 STARS: ★★★ 1/2 FOOD: Traditional plates like fried

chicken and Louisiana red fish get spirited makeovers at Raven & Lily, where the food is Southern in feel but classically executed. DRINKS: Raven & Lily serves no alcohol, but guests can bring their own wine. ATMOSPHERE: A sign outside Raven & Lily still pictures a tortilla maker, but an extensive renovation erased any trace of the former tenant inside. The space is simple with beaded wainscot and cheerful wood canvases by area artist Deb Minkin. SERVICE: Service is friendly and efficient, and by the time our server opens our second bottle of wine (calm down, there were four of us), she is genuinely happy that we are having such a fine time. EXTRAS: Before dinner, take a detour to nearby Somerville, the Fayette County seat, where two-story brick storefronts frame the historic town square. PRICES: Starters: $6 to $8; sandwiches: $9 to $13; dinner entrees: $19 to $24; desserts: $8; children’s menu: $6-$7. OPEN: Tuesday through Saturday: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.; Sunday: 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Monday: 5 to 10 p.m. ★★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★

Exceptional Very good Satisfactory Skip it!

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6/22/17 9:53 AM

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN FOX BURKS

CITY DINING OUR IN-DEPTH GUIDE TO MEMPHIS-AREA RESTAURANTS

clockwise from top left: Pulled pork, kimchi slaw, and peanuts are tucked into tiny steamed buns, or bao, that pack big ﬂavor; The restaurant sits at the corner of Cooper and Peabody; Sarah Pardee and Zach Nicholson, a husband-and-wife team, run the front and back of the house, respectively; Bacon Collards Ramen, with its pork broth base, is a specialty; A small menu of well-crafted bowls speaks to Lucky Cat’s dedication to the art of ramen; Big bites are traditional when eating ramen, and slurping is encouraged.

TIDBITS

Lucky Cat Ramen by amy lawrence

while back, when I heard so much about a certain weekly ramen pop-up restaurant happening sometimes here, sometimes there, I stubbornly dragged my feet about going. Once I made my move, it was winter-cold in the tall-ceilinged, anime-playing-on-the-big-screen back room where the Lucky Cat Ramen folks had set up shop in the Memphis Made Tap Room. I stayed and enjoyed the richest, most seriously well-crafted bowl of ramen I’ve ever tasted, with the soft-boiled egg soaked in soy, the perfect chewiness of the noodles, and of course, the star of the show, the savory, salty, deeply flavored broth. This summer, owners Chef Zach Nicholson and his wife Sarah Pardee, who runs the

front of the house at Lucky Cat Ramen, have now settled into their new bamboo-walled, lantern-bedecked space next door to Café 1912 in Midtown. Lucky Cat is open for dinner Thursday through Sunday, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Chef Nicholson is determined to bring his classical training together with the best ingredients and techniques in order to end up with consistently amazing results. He’s especially proud of the pork broth used as the basis for most of the ramen, such as the shoyu, tan tan, bacon-collards, and miso miso combinations that graced a recent weekly menu. “The preparation for our pork broth involves a traditional two-day cook time for the bones with a strict routine of blanching them,” Nicholson explains.

We celebrate our city’s community table and the people who grow, cook, and eat the best Memphis food at

“This results in a clean, milky, creamy broth.” In addition, the pop-up’s vegetarian bowl is my favorite with a lemongrass, ginger, and charred vegetable broth. Right now, the only other savory option besides ramen are the pillowy pulled-pork steam buns, or bao, with extras such as Brussels sprouts kimchi slaw, toasted peanuts, and miso barbecue sauce. Dessert is well worth 75 cents: matcha green tea mini KitKats. However, the on-the-small-side menu feels just right because the tight focus more easily allows for excellence. I implore you to learn from my dawdling. Don’t let it take you as long as I did to try Lucky Cat Ramen! 247 S. Cooper Street (633-8296) $-$$

MEMPHISMAGAZINE.COM/FOOD-DINING

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6/21/17 12:59 PM

CIT Y DINING LIST

emphis magazine offers this restaurant listing as a service to its readers. The directory is not intended as a recommendation of the establishments included, nor does it list every restaurant in town. It does, however, include most of the city’s finer restaurants, many specialty restaurants, and a representative sampling of other Bluff City eating establishments. No fast-food facilities or cafeterias are listed, nor have we included establishments that rely heavily on take-out business. Restaurants are included regardless of whether they advertise in Memphis magazine. The guide is updated regularly, but we recommend that you call ahead to check on hours, prices, and other details. Suggestions from readers are welcome; please contact us. Email dining@memphismagazine.com. 148 NORTH—French cuisine meets Southern comfort food here

with menu items such as chicken and waffles, duck confit, and JKE’s Knuckle Sandwich, made with lobster knuckle and puff pastry. 148 N. Main (Collierville). 569-0761. L, D, WB, X, $-$$ 901 GRILLE & MARKET—Neighborhood market and eatery serves burgers, gyros, falafel pitas, hot wings, and more. 711 E. Parkway S. 512-6171. B, L, D, $ ABUELO’S MEXICAN FOOD EMBASSY—Mejores de la casa — beef and stuffed shrimp — is a specialty here, along with tilapia Veracruz, quesadillas, chili rellenos, and chicken medallions. 8274 Highway 64 (Bartlett). 672-0769. L, D, X, $-$$ ABYSSINIA RESTAURANT—Ethiopian/Mediterranean menu includes beef, chicken, lamb, fish entrees, and vegetarian dishes; also a lunch buffet. 2600 Poplar. 321-0082. L, D, X, $-$$ ACRE—Features seasonal modern American cuisine in a stylish setting using locally sourced products; also small-plates/bar. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. 690 S. Perkins. 818-2273. L, D, X, $$-$$$ AGAVE MARIA—Menu items at this Mexican eatery include short rib stuffed poblanos, shrimp and crab enchiladas, and grilled lamb chops. 83 Union. 341-2096. L, D, X, $-$$ AGAVOS COCINA & TEQUILA—Camaron de Tequila, tamales, kabobs, and burgers made with a blend of beef and chorizo are among the offerings at this tequila-centric restaurant and bar. 2924 Walnut Grove. 433-9345. L, D, X, $-$$ ALCHEMY—Southern fusion, locally grown cuisine features small and large plates; among the offerings are pan-seared hanger steak, quail, and lamb chops; also handcrafted cocktails and local craft beers. 940 S. Cooper. 726-4444. D, SB, X, $-$$ ALDO’S PIZZA PIES—Serving gourmet pizzas — including Mr. T Rex — salads, and more. Also 30 beers, bottled or on tap. 100 S. Main. 577-7743; 752 S. Cooper. 725-7437. L, D, X, $-$$ AMERIGO—Traditional and contemporary Italian cuisine includes pasta, wood-fired pizza, steaks, and cedarwood-roasted fish. 1239 Ridgeway, Park Place Mall. 761-4000. L, D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ ANDREW MICHAEL ITALIAN KITCHEN—Traditional Italian cuisine with a menu that changes seasonally with such entrees as Maw Maw’s ravioli. Closed Sun.-Mon. 712 W. Brookhaven Cl. 347-3569. D, X, MRA, $$-$$$ ANOTHER BROKEN EGG CAFE—Offering several varieties of eggs benedict, waffles, omelets, pancakes, beignets, and other breakfast fare; also burgers,sandwiches, and salads. 6063 Park Ave. 729-7020; 65 S. Highland. 623-7122. B, L, WB, X, $ THE ARCADE—Possibly Memphis’ oldest cafe. Specialties include sweet potato pancakes, a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, and breakfast served all day. 540 S. Main. 526-5757. B, L, D (Thurs.-Sat.), X, MRA, $ ASIAN PALACE—Chinese eatery serves seafood, vegetarian items, dim sum, and more. 5266 Summer Ave. 766-0831. L, D, X, $-$$ A-TAN—Serves Chinese and Japanese hibachi cuisine, complete with sushi bar. A specialty is Four Treasures with garlic sauce. 3445 Poplar, Suite 17, University Center. 452-4477. L, D, X, $-$$$ AUTOMATIC SLIM’S—Longtime downtown favorite specializes in contemporary American cuisine emphasizing local ingredients; also extensive martini list. 83 S. Second. 525-7948. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$$ BABALU TACOS & TAPAS—This Overton Square eatery dishes up Spanish-style tapas with Southern flair; also taco and enchilada of the day; specials change daily. 2115 Madison. 274-0100; 6450 Poplar, 410-8909. L, D, SB, X, $-$$ BAHAMA BREEZE—Baby back ribs, Jamaican chicken wings, and coconut shrimp are among the entrees at this Caribbean-fusion restaurant. 2830 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 385-8744. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ BANGKOK ALLEY—Thai fusion cuisine includes noodle and curry dishes, chef-specialty sushi rolls, coconut soup, and duck and seafood entrees. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. at Brookhaven location; call for hours. 121 Union Ave. 522-2010; 2150 W. Poplar at Houston Levee (Collierville). 854-8748; 715 W. Brookhaven Cl. 590-2585. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ BAR DKDC—Features an ever-changing menu of international “street food,” from Thai to Mexican, Israeli to Indian, along with specialty cocktails. 964 S. Cooper. 272-0830. D, X, $

BONNE TERRE—This inn’s cafe features American cuisine with a

Southern flair, and a seasonal menu that changes monthly. Offers Angus steaks, duck, pasta, and seafood. Closed Sun.-Wed. 4715 Church Rd. W. (Nesbit, MS). 662-781-5100. D, X, $-$$$ BOSCOS—Tennessee’s first craft brewery serves a variety of freshly brewed beers as well as wood-fired oven pizzas, pasta, seafood, steaks, and sandwiches. 2120 Madison. 432-2222. L, D, SB (with live jazz), X, MRA, $-$$ BOUNTY ON BROAD—Offering family-style dining, Bounty serves small plates and family-sized platters, with such specialties as chicken fried quail and braised pork shank. 2519 Broad. 410-8131. L (Sat. and Sun.), D (Mon.-Sat.), SB, X, $-$$$ BOZO’S HOT PIT BAR-B-Q—Barbecue, burgers, sandwiches, and subs. 342 Hwy 70, Mason, TN. 901-294-3400. L, D, $-$$ BRASS DOOR IRISH PUB—Irish and New-American cuisine BAR LOUIE—Serves small plates, flatbreads, sandwiches, burgers, includes such entrees as fish and chips burgers, sandwiches, salads, and salads, and such large plate entrees as blackened fish tacos and baked daily specials. 152 Madison. 572-1813. L, D, SB, MRA, $ mac-and-cheese. 2125 Madison. 207-1436. L, D, WB, X, $-$$ BROADWAY PIZZA—Serving a variety of pizzas,including the BAR-B-Q SHOP—Dishes up barbecued ribs, spaghetti, bologna; Broadway Special, as well as sandwiches, salads, wings, and “soul-food also pulled pork shoulder, Texas toast barbecue sandwich, chicken specials.” 2581 Broad. 454-7930; 627 S. Mendenhall. 207-1546. L, sandwich, and salads. Closed Sun. 1782 Madison. 272-1277. L, D, X, D, X, $-$$ MRA, $-$$ BROOKLYN BRIDGE ITALIAN RESTAURANT— BARDOG TAVERN—Classic American grill with Italian influence, Specializing in such homemade entrees as spinach lasagna and lobster Bardog offers pasta specialties such as Grandma’s NJ Meatballs, as well as ravioli; a seafood specialty is horseradish-crusted salmon. Closed salads, sliders, sandwiches, and daily specials. 73 Monroe. 275-8752. B Sun. 1779 Kirby Pkwy. 755-7413. D, X, MRA, $-$$$ (Mon.-Fri.), L, D, WB, X, $-$$ BROOKS PHARM2FORK—Serving fresh vegetables and meats BARI RISTORANTE ENOTECA—Authentic Southeastern responsibly grown by area farmers. Entrees include Marmilu Farms Pork Italian cuisine (Puglia) emphasizes lighter entrees. Serves fresh fish and Triangle Steak, Old School Salmon Patties, and beef dishes and a homemade soup of the Pan Seared Lake’s Catfish. 120 Mulberry. day. 22 S. Cooper. 722-2244. D, SB, X, DINING SYMBOLS (Collierville). 853-7511. D, X, $-$$ MRA, $-$$$ BROTHER JUNIPER’S—Breakfast is the BARKSDALE RESTAURANT— B — breakfast focus here, with specialty omelets, including the Old-school diner serving breakfast and L — lunch open-faced San Diegan omelet; also daily Southern plate lunches. 237 Cooper. D — dinner specials, and homemade breads and pastries. 722-2193. B, L, D, X, MRA, $ Closed Mon. 3519 Walker. 324-0144. B, X, SB — Sunday brunch BAYOU BAR & GRILL—New MRA, $ Orleans fare at this Overton Square eatery WB — weekend brunch BRYANT’S BREAKFAST—Three-egg includes jambalaya, gumbo, catfish X — wheelchair accessible omelets, pancakes, and The Sampler Platter are Acadian, shrimp dishes, red beans and rice, MRA — member, Memphis among the popular entrees here. Closed Mon. and muffalettas. 2094 Madison. and Tues. 3965 Summer. 324-7494. B, L, X, $ Restaurant Association 278-8626. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$ BUCKLEY’S FINE FILET GRILL— BEAUTY SHOP—Modern American $ — under $15 per person without Specializes in steaks, seafood, and pasta. cuisine with international flair served in a drinks or desserts (Lunchbox serves entree salads, burgers, and former beauty shop. Serves steaks salads, $$ — under $25 more.) 5355 Poplar. 683-4538; 919 S. Yates pasta, and seafood, including pecan$$$ — $26-$50 (Buckley’s Lunchbox), 682-0570. L (Yates crusted golden sea bass. Closed for dinner only, M-F), D, X, MRA, $-$$ Sunday. 966 S. Cooper. 272-7111. L, D, $$$$ — over $50 BUNTYN CORNER CAFE—Serving SB, X, $-$$$ SHADED — new listing favorites from Buntyn Restaurant, including BEDROCK EATS & SWEETS— chicken and dressing, cobbler, and yeast Memphis’ only Paleo-centric restaurant rolls. 5050 Poplar, Suite 107. 424-3286. B, L, X, $ offering such dishes as pot roast, waffles, enchiladas, chicken salad, THE BUTCHER SHOP—Serves steaks ranging from 8-oz. fillets to omelets, and more. Closed for dinner Sun. 327 S. Main. 409-6433. B, L, a 20-oz. porterhouse; also chicken, pork chops, fresh seafood. 107 S. D, X, $-$$ Germantown Rd. (Cordova). 757-4244. L (Fri. and Sun.), D, X, BELLE: A SOUTHERN BISTRO—Brisket in a bourbon brown MRA, $$-$$$ sugar glaze, and chicken with basmati rice are among the specialties; also CAFE 1912—French/American bistro serving such seafood entrees as seafood entrees and such vegetables as blackened green tomatoes. Closed grouper and steamed mussels: also crepes, salads, and French onion soup. for dinner Sun. and all day Mon. 117 Union Ave. 433-9851. L (Sat. and 243 S. Cooper. 722-2700. D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$ Sun.), D, WB, X, $-$$$ CAFE 7/24—Specialties at this Southern eatery include Mr. Charles’s Fried BENIHANA—This Japanese steakhouse serves beef, chicken, and Catfish and slow smoked barbecue ribs. Closed Sun. 94 S. Front. 590-3360. seafood grilled at the table; some menu items change monthly; sushi bar L, D, X, $ also featured. 912 Ridge Lake. 767-8980. L, D, X, $$-$$$ CAFE BROOKS BY PARADOX—Serving grab-and-go pastries, BHAN THAI—Authentic Thai cuisine includes curries, pad Thai as well as lunch items. Menu includes soups, salads, and sandwiches, such noodles, and vegetarian dishes, as well as seafood, pork, and duck as the Modern Reuben and Grown Up Grilled Cheese. 1934 Poplar entrees. Closed for lunch Sat.-Sun. and all day Mon. 1324 Peabody. (Memphis Brooks Museum of Art). 544-6200. B, L, X, $ 272-1538. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ CAFE ECLECTIC—Omelets and chicken and waffles are among BLEU—This eclectic restaurant features American food with global menu items, along with quesadillas, sandwiches, wraps, and burgers. influences and local ingredients. Among the specialties are a 14-oz. Menu varies by location. 603 N. McLean. 725-1718; 111 Harbor Town bone-in rib-eye and several seafood dishes. 221 S. Third, in the Westin Square. 590-4645; 510 S. Highland. 410-0765. B, L, D, SB, X, MRA, Memphis Beale St. Hotel. 334-5950. B, L, D, WB, X, $$-$$$ $ BLUE NILE ETHIOPIAN—Kabobs, flavorful chicken and lamb CAFE KEOUGH—European-style cafe serving quiche, paninis, stew, and injera (flatbread) are traditional items on the menu, along with salads, and more. 12 S. Main. 509-2469. B, L, D, X, $ vegetarian options. 1788 Madison. 474-7214. L, D, X, $-$$ CAFE OLE—This eatery specializes in authentic Mexican cuisine; one BLUEFIN RESTAURANT & SUSHI LOUNGE—Serves specialty is the build-your-own quesadilla. 959 S. Cooper. 343-0103. L, Japanese fusion cuisine featuring seafood and steak, with seasonally changing menu; also, a sushi bar and flatbread pizza. 135 S. Main. D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$ 528-1010. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ CAFE PALLADIO—Serves gourmet salads, soups, sandwiches, and desserts in a tea room inside the antiques shop. Closed Sun. 2169 THE BLUFF—New Orleans-inspired menu includes alligator bites, nachos topped with crawfish and andouille, gumbo, po’boys, and fried Central. 278-0129. L, X, $ seafood platters. 535 S. Highland. 454-7771. L, D, X, $-$$ CAFE PIAZZA BY PAT LUCCHESI—Specializes in gourmet pizzas (including create-your-own), panini sandwiches, and pasta. BOMBAY HOUSE—Indian fare includes lamb korma and chicken tikka; also, a daily luncheon buffet. 1727 N. Germantown Pkwy. Closed Sun. 139 S. Rowlett St. (Collierville). 861-1999. L, D, X, $-$$ (Cordova). 755-4114. L, D, X, $-$$ CAFE PONTOTOC—Serves a variety of internationally inspired small plates, as well as salads and sandwiches. Closed for dinner BONEFISH GRILL—Serves wood-grilled fish,as well as steaks, chicken and pork entrees. 1250 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). Sun. 314 S. Main. 249-7955. L, D, WB, X, $-$$ 753-2220; 4680 Merchants Park Circle, Carriage Crossing CAFE SOCIETY—With Belgian and classic French influences, serves (Collierville). 854-5822. L (Fri.-Sun.), D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ Wagyu beef, chicken, and seafood dishes, including bacon-wrapped

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CIT Y DINING LIST CLUBS/PUBS/SPORTS BARS

2017 VOTED BEST BBQ RIBS, SANDWICH & FOOD TRUCK BY MEMPHIS MAGAZINE 2249 Central Ave

DOWNTOWN LOCATION: 147 Butler Ave.

901-272-9377 4375 Summer Ave

901-767-4672

From Beale Street night spots to neighborhood bars/grills, these places dish out a variety of food. Many offer live entertainment, and patrons can’t miss the large-screen TVs.

901-672-7760

Catering: 901-527-9990 WWW.CBQMEMPHIS.COM

Love a little die a little and break the law. Trey Milligan did all three in the summer before his 14th birthday. From Sartoris Literary Group, the debut novel by Frank Murtaugh. Available NOW at Amazon.com. Paperback ($19.95) and eBook ($8.95). Meet the author at Burke’s Book Store (936 S. Cooper) on July 19th (signing at 5:30 pm).

Broadway Pizza House Legendary Pizza Since 1977

2581 Broad Avenue (901) 454-7930

629 South Mendenhall (901) 207-1546

Memphis Magazine’s

THE 2017

FACE OF

PIZZA

ALEX’S TAVERN—1445 Jackson. 278-9086. ALFRED’S—197 Beale. 525-3711. MRA. B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB—143 Beale. 524-5464. MRA. BEALE STREET TAP ROOM—168 Beale. 576-2220. BELMONT GRILL—4970 Poplar. 767-0305; 9102 Poplar Pike (Germantown). 624-6001. MRA. BLIND BEAR SPEAKEASY—119 S. Main, Pembroke Square. 417-8435. MRA. BLUE MONKEY—2012 Madison. 272-2583; 513 S. Front. 5276665. BLUES CITY CAFE—138 Beale. 526-3637. MRA. BROOKHAVEN PUB & GRILL—695 W. Brookhaven Circle. 680-8118. MRA. BUFFALO WILD WINGS—3770 Hacks Cross Rd. 737-9463; 7188 Airways (Southaven). 662-349-7776; 8385 Highway 64. 3809294. EARNESTINE & HAZEL’S—531 S. Main. 523-9754. MRA. EAST END GRILL—7547 Highway 64. 937-1392; 7956 Winchester Rd. 432-4256. MRA. FLYING SAUCER DRAUGHT EMPORIUM—130 Peabody Place. 523-7468; 1400 Germantown Pkwy. 755-5530. MRA. FOX AND HOUND ENGLISH PUB & GRILL—847 Exocet Dr. 624-9060; 5101 Sanderlin Ave. 763-2013; 6565 Towne Center Crossing (Southaven). 662-536-2200. GREEN BEETLE—325 S. Main. 527-7337. MRA. HADLEY’S PUB—2779 Whitten Rd. 266-5006. HARD ROCK CAFE—126 Beale. 529-0007. HICKORY TAVERN—4600 Merchants Park Cir. 861-0196. HIGH POINT PUB—477 High Point Terrace. 452-9203. HUEY’S—1927 Madison. 726-4372; 1771 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 754-3885; 77 S. Second. 527-2700; 2130 W. Poplar (Collierville). 854-4455; 7090 Malco Blvd. (Southaven). 662-3497097; 7825 Winchester. 624-8911; 4872 Poplar. 682-7729; 7677 Farmington Blvd. (Germantown). 318-3030; 8570 Highway 51 N. (Millington). 873-5025. MRA. JERRY LEE LEWIS’ CAFE & HONKY TONK—310 Beale. 654-5171. KING JERRY LAWLER’S HALL OF FAME BAR & GRILLE—159 Beale. 523-1940. KING’S PALACE CAFE—162 Beale. 521-1851. MRA. MAX’S SPORTS BAR—115 G.E. Patterson. 528-8367. MRA. MEMPHIS SPORTS PUB—5012 Park Ave. 767-8632. MIDTOWN CROSSING GRILLE—394 N. Watkins. 443-0502. MURPHY’S—1589 Madison. 726-4193. MRA. NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM—5727 Quince Rd. 682-2300. NEWBY’S—539 S. Highland. 730-0520. OLD ZINNIE’S—1688 Madison. 726-5004. PATRICK’S—4972 Park Ave. 682-2852. MRA. P & H CAFE—1532 Madison. 726-0906. PIG ON BEALE—167 Beale. 529-1544 ROCKHOUSELIVE—2586 Poplar. 324-6300. 5709 Raleigh LaGrange. 386-7222. R.P. TRACKS—3547 Walker. 327-1471. MRA. RUM BOOGIE CAFE—182 Beale. 528-0150. SAMMY HAGAR’S RED ROCKER BAR & GRILL— Southland Park, 1550 North Ingram Blvd. (West Memphis). 872-7353670. SILKY O’SULLIVAN’S—183 Beale. 522-9596. MRA. THE SILLY GOOSE—100 Peabody Place. 435-6915. THE SLIDER INN—2117 Peabody. 725-1155. SOUTH OF BEALE—361 S. Main. 526-0388. T J MULLIGAN’S—8071 Trinity Rd. (Cordova). 756-4480; 1817 Kirby Pkwy. (Germantown). 755-2481; 2821 N. Houston Levee Rd. 377-9997. UBEE’S—521 S. Highland. 323-0900. WESTY’S—346 N. Main. 543-3278. MRA. THE WINDJAMMER—786 E. Brookhaven Cl. 683-9044. MRA.

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CIT Y DINING LIST shrimp, along with daily specials and vegetarian entrees. Closed for lunch Sat.-Sun. 212 N. Evergreen. 722-2177. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$ CANVAS—An “interactive art bar” serving salads, sandwiches, and flatbreads. 1737 Madison. 619-5303. D, $ CAPITAL GRILLE—Known for its dry-aged, hand-carved steaks; among the specialties are bone-in sirloin, and porcini-rubbed Delmonico; also seafood entrees and seasonal lunch plates. Closed for lunch Sat.Sun. Crescent Center, 6065 Poplar. 683-9291. L, D, X, $$$-$$$$ CAPRICCIO GRILL ITALIAN STEAKHOUSE—Offers prime steaks, fresh seafood (lobster tails, grouper, mahi mahi), pasta, and several northern Italian specialties. 149 Union, The Peabody. 5294199. B, L, D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$$ CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL—Serves chicken Bryan, calamari, various pastas, and other “old-world” Italian entrees. 4600 Merchants Park Cl., Carriage Crossing (Collierville). 854-0200; 5110 Poplar. 685-9900. L (Sat.-Sun.), D, X, $-$$$ CASABLANCA—Lamb shawarma is one of the fresh, homemade specialties served at this Mediterranean/Moroccan restaurant; fish entrees and vegetarian options also available. 1707 Madison. 421-6949; 5030 Poplar. 725-8557. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ CATFISH BLUES—Serving Delta-raised catfish and Cajun- and Southern-inspired dishes, including gumbo and fried green tomatoes. 210 E. Commerce (Hernando). 662-298-3814. L, D, $ CATHERINE & MARY’S—A variety of pastas, grilled quail, pâté, razor clams, and monkfish are among the dishes served at this Italian restaurant in the Chisca. 272 S. Main. 254-8600. D, X, $-$$$ CELTIC CROSSING—Specializes in Irish and American pub fare. Entrees include shepherd’s pie, shrimp and sausage coddle, and fish and chips. 903 S. Cooper. 274-5151. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$ CENTRAL BBQ—Serves ribs, smoked hot wings, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken, turkey, nachos, and portobello sandwiches. Offers both pork and beef barbecue. 2249 Central Ave. 272-9377; 4375 Summer Ave. 767-4672; 147 E. Butler. 672-7760. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ CHAR—Specializing in modern Southern cuisine, this eatery offers homestyle sides, char-broiled steaks, and fresh seafood. 431 S. Highland, #120. 249-3533. L, D, WB, X, $-$$$ CHEF TAM’S UNDERGROUND CAFE—Serves Southern staples with a Cajun twist. Menu items include “totchos,” jerk wings, fried chicken, and “muddy” mac and cheese. Closed Sun. and Mon. 2299 Young. 207-6182. L, D, $ CHEZ PHILIPPE—Classical/contemporary French cuisine presented in a luxurious atmosphere with a seasonal menu focused on local/ regional cuisine. Afternoon tea served Wed.-Sat., 1-3:30 p.m. (reservations required). Closed Sun.-Tues. T he Peabody, 149 Union. 529-4188. D, X, MRA, $$$$ CIAO BABY—Specializing in Neapolitan-style pizza made in a woodfired oven. Also serves house-made mozzarella, pasta, appetizers, and salads. 890 W. Poplar, Suite 1. 457-7457. L, D, X, $ CIAO BELLA—Among the Italian and Greek specialties are lasagna, seafood pasta, gourmet pizzas, and vegetarian options. Closed for lunch Sat.-Sun. 565 Erin Dr., Erin Way Shopping Center. 205-2500. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$ CITY GROCERY—Southern eclectic cuisine; shrimp and grits is a specialty. Closed for dinner Sunday. 152 Courthouse Square (Oxford, MS). 662-232-8080. L, D, SB, X, $$-$$$ CITY SILO TABLE + PANTRY—With a focus on clean eating, this establishment offers fresh juices, as well as comfort foods reimagined with wholesome ingredients. 5101 Sanderlin. 729-7687. B, L, D, X, $ COLETTA’S—Longtime eatery serves such specialties as homemade ravioli, lasagna, and pizza with barbecue or traditional toppings. 2850 Appling Rd. (Bartlett). 383-1122; 1063 S. Parkway E. 948-7652. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ CORKY’S—Popular barbecue emporium offers both wet and dry ribs, plus a full menu of other barbecue entrees. Wed. lunch buffets, Cordova and Collierville. 5259 Poplar. 685-9744; 1740 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 737-1911; 743 W. Poplar (Collierville). 405-4999; 6434 Goodman Rd., Olive Branch. 662-893-3663. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ COZY CORNER—Serving up ribs, pork sandwiches, chicken, spaghetti, and more; also homemade banana pudding. Closed Sun.-Mon. 7 35 N. Parkway. 527-9158. L, D, $ THE CRAZY NOODLE—Korean noodle dishes range from bibam beef noodle with cabbage, carrots, and other vegetables, to curry chicken noodle; also rice cakes served in a flavorful sauce. Closed for lunch Sat.Sun. 2015 Madison. 272-0928. L, D, X, $ CURRY BOWL— Specializes in Southern Indian cuisine, serving Tandoori chicken, biryani, tikka masala, and more. Weekend buffet. 4 141 Hacks Cross. 207-6051. L, D, $ DEJAVU—Serves Creole, soul, and vegetarian cuisine, including poboys, jambalaya, and shrimp and grits. 51 S. Main. 505-0212. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ DELTA’S KITCHEN—The premier restaurant at The Guest House at Graceland serves Elvis-inspired dishes — like Nutella and Peanut Butter Crepes for breakfast — and upscale Southern cuisine — including lamb chops and shrimp and grits — for dinner. 3 600 Elvis Presley Blvd. 443-3000. B, D, X, $-$$$

CASUAL DINING

These establishments offer American cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere. While some serve ethnic entrees, the emphasis is on steaks, salads, sandwiches, pasta, fish and seafood. Also some soul-food and homestyle cooking.

COMO STEAKHOUSE—203 Main St. Como, MS. 662-526-9529. THE COVE—2559 Broad Ave. 730-0719. THE CUPBOARD—1400 Union. 276-8015. MRA. ELWOOD’S SHACK—4523 Summer. 761-9898. MRA. HUEY’S—1927 Madison. 726-4372; J. ALEXANDER’S—2670 N. German1771 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). town Pkwy. (Cordova). 381-9670. 754-3885; 77 S. Second. 527-2700; 2130 AJAX DINER—118 Courthouse Sq., W. Poplar (Collierville). 854-4455; 7090 Oxford, MS. 662-232-8880. Malco Blvd. (Southaven). 662-349BELLY ACRES—2102 Trimble Pl, 5297097; 7825 Winchester. 624-8911; 4872 7017. Poplar. 682-7729; 7677 Farmington Blvd. BLUE AND WHITE (Germantown). 318-3030; 8570 Highway 51 RESTAURANT—1355 U.S. 61 N., Tunica, N. (Millington). 873-5025. MRA. MS. 662-363-1371. KEM’S RESTAURANT—2751 New BLUE PLATE CAFE—5469 Poplar. Brunswick Rd., Holiday Inn & Suites. 266761-9696; 113 S. Court. 523-2050. 1952. CAJUN CATFISH COMPANY—336 LOGAN’S ROADHOUSE—2710 N. New Byhalia Rd. Collierville. 861-0122. Germantown Parkway. 381-5254; 5901 MRA. Poplar. 684-2272; 7755 Winchester Rd. CHEDDAR’S—2147 N. Germantown 759-1430; 6685 Airways Blvd. (Southaven). Pkwy. 380-1119. 662-772-5015. THE CHEESECAKE O’CHARLEY’S—6045 Stage Rd., #74 FACTORY—2760 N. Germantown (Bartlett). 373-5602; 1040 N. Germantown Pkwy., Suite 193 (Wolfchase). 937-1613. Pkw. 754-6201; 656 W. Poplar (Collierville). CHILI’S—7810 Poplar (Germantown). 861-5811. 756-5203; 4609 Poplar. 685-2257; THE OLIVE GARDEN—7778 8100 Giacosa Pl. 372-3132; 237 Market Winchester. 624-2003; 8405 Highway 64, Blvd. (Collierville). 853-7520; 1260 N. Wolfchase Galleria. 377-3437; 6615 Airways Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 756-7771; (Southaven). 662-536-3350; 5679 Poplar, COLTON’S STEAKHOUSE—8030 #1. 761-5711. Highway 64 (Bartlett). 383-8445; 8051 OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE— Goodman Rd. (Olive Branch). 662-890-4142. 1110 N. Germantown Parkway. 751-9800; DERAE RESTAURANT—Ethiopian and Mediterranean fare

includes fuul, or fava beans in spices and yogurt, goat meat and rice, and garlic chicken over basmati rice with cilantro chutney; also salmon and tilapia. Closed Monday. 9 23 S. Highland. 552-3992. B, L, D, $-$$ DIRTY CROW INN—Serving elevated bar food, including poutine fries, fried catfish, and the Chicken Debris, a sandwich with smoked chicken, melted cheddar, and gravy. 8 55 Kentucky. 207-5111. L, D, $ DWJ KOREAN BARBECUE—This authentic Korean eatery serves kimbap, barbecued beef short ribs, rice and noodles dishes, and hot pots and stews. 3750 Hacks Cross, Suite 101. 746-8057; 2156 Young. 207-6204. L, D, $-$$ ECCO—Mediterranean-inspired specialties range from rib-eye steak to seared scallops to housemade pastas and a grilled vegetable plate; also a Saturday brunch. Closed Sun.-Mon. 1585 Overton Park. 410-8200. L, D, X, $-$$ EIGHTY3—Contemporary menu of steaks and seafood offers a variety of eclectic specialties; also weekly specials, small plates, appetizers, and patio dining. 83 Madison Ave. 333-1224. B, L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$$ EL MEZCAL—Serves burritos, chimichangas, fajitas, and other Mexican cuisine, as well as shrimp dinners and steak. 402 Perkins Extd. 761-7710; 694 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 755-1447; 1492 Union. 274-4264; 11615 Airline Rd. (Arlington). 867-1883; 9045 Highway 64 (Lakeland). 383-4219; 7164 Hacks Cross Rd. (Olive Branch). 662-890-3337; 8834 Hwy. 51 N. (Millington). 872-3220; 7424 Highway 64 (Bartlett). 417-6026; 9947 Wolf River (Collierville) 853-7922. L, D, X, $ EL PORTON—Fajitas, quesadillas, and steak ranchero are just a few of the menu items. 2095 Merchants Row (Germantown). 754-4268; 8361 Highway 64. 380-7877; 3448 Poplar, Poplar Plaza. 452-7330; 1805 N. Germantown Parkway (Cordova). 624-9358; 1016 W. Poplar (Collierville). 854-5770. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ EMERALD THAI RESTAURANT—Spicy shrimp, pad khing, lemon grass chicken, and several noodle, rice, and vegetarian dishes are offered at this family restaurant. Closed Sunday. 8950 Highway 64 (Lakeland). 384-0540. L, D X, $-$$ ERLING JENSEN—Presents “globally inspired” cuisine: specialties are rack of lamb, big game entrees,and fresh fish dishes. 1044 S. Yates. 763-3700. D, X, MRA, $$-$$$ EVELYN & OLIVE—Jamaican/Southern fusion cuisine includes such dishes as Kingston stew fish, Rasta Pasta, and jerk rib-eye. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun.-Mon. 630 Madison. 748-5422. L, D, X, $ EXLINES’ BEST PIZZA—Serves pizza, Italian dinners, sandwiches, and salads. 2935 Austin Peay. 388-4711; 6250 Stage Rd. (Bartlett). 382-3433; 2801 Kirby Parkway. 754-0202; 7730 Wolf River Blvd. (Germantown). 753-4545; 531 W. Stateline Rd. 662342-4544 (check online for additional locations). L, D, X, MRA, $

2255 Union Ave. 728-5100; 125 W. Goodman Rd. (Southaven). 662-349-7488. MRA. RAFFERTY’S—4542 Poplar. 374-0096; 505 N. Germantown Pkwy. 755-4799. RIKO’S KICKIN’ CHICKEN—1329 Madison. 726-5347. RUBY TUESDAY—1653 Sycamore View. 382-9280. SIDECAR CAFE—2194 Whitten. 388-0285. MRA. SIDE STREET GRILL—31 Florence. 274-8955. MRA. SILVER CABOOSE—132 E. Mulberry (Collierville). 853-0010. SKIMO’S—1166 N. Houston Levee, #107 (Cordova). 756-5055. MRA. SOUL FISH CAFE—862 S. Cooper. 725-0722; 3160 Village Shops Dr. (Germantown). 755-6988; 4720 Poplar. 590-0323. MRA. SPAGHETTI WAREHOUSE—40 W. Huling. 521-0907. STONEY RIVER—7515 Poplar. 2071100. T.G.I. FRIDAY’S—185 Union, Double Tree Hotel. 523-8500; 176 E. Goodman Rd. (Southaven). 662-349-4223; 7733 Winchester Rd. 752-1369; 8325 Highway 64. 372-2539. TUG’S—River Inn, 51 Harbor Town Square. 260-3344. MRA. VINEGAR JIM’S—12062 Forrest (Arlington). 867-7568. WOLF RIVER CAFE—460 U.S. 194 (Rossville). 853-2586.

THE FARMER—Serving upscale Southern cuisine, with a focus on

locally grown ingredients. Among the specialties are smoked beef tenderloin and shrimp and grits. Closed for dinner Sun.-Mon. 3092 Poplar #11. 324-2221. L, D, X, $-$$ FELICIA SUZANNE’S—Southern cuisine with low-country, Creole, and Delta influences, using regional fresh seafood, local beef, and locally grown foods. Entrees include shrimp and grits. Closed Sun. and Mon. Brinkley Plaza, 80 Monroe, Suite L1. 523-0877. L (Fri. only), D, X, MRA, $$-$$$ FERRARO’S PIZZERIA & PUB—Rigatoni and tortellini are among the pasta entrees here, along with pizzas (whole or by the slice), with a variety of toppings. 111 Jackson. 522-2033. L, D, X, $ FIREBIRDS—Specialties are hand-cut steaks, slow-roasted prime rib, and wood-grilled salmon and other seafood, as well as seasonal entrees. 8470 Highway 64 (Bartlett). 379-1300; 4600 Merchants Circle, Carriage Crossing (Collierville). 850-1637. L, D, X, $-$$$ THE FIVE SPOT—Tucked behind Earnestine & Hazel’s, this popular eatery features innovative bar food by chef Kelly English. Closed Mon.Tues. 531 S. Main. 523-9754. D, SB, X, $-$$ FLEMING’S PRIME STEAKHOUSE—Serves wet-aged and dry-aged steaks, prime beef, chops, and seafood, including salmon, Australian lobster tails, and a catch of the day. 6245 Poplar. 761-6200. D, X, MRA, $$$-$$$$ FLIGHT RESTAURANT & WINE BAR—Serves steaks and seafood, along with such specialties as bison ribeye and Muscovy duck, all matched with appropriate wines. 39 S. Main. 521-8005. D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ FLYING FISH—Serves up fried and grilled versions of shrimp, crab, oysters, fish tacos, and catfish; also chicken and burgers. 105 S. Second. 522-8228. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ FOLK’S FOLLY ORIGINAL PRIME STEAK HOUSE— Specializes in prime steaks, as well as lobster, grilled Scottish salmon, Alaskan king crab legs, rack of lamb, and weekly specials. 551 S. Mendenhall. 762-8200. D, X, MRA, $$$-$$$$ FORMOSA—Offers Mandarin cuisine, including broccoli beef, hotand-sour soup, and spring rolls. Closed Monday. 6685 Quince. 7539898. L, D, X, $-$$ THE FOUR WAY—Legendary soul-food establishment dishing up such entrees as fried and baked catfish, chicken, and turkey and dressing, along with a host of vegetables and desserts. Closed Monday. 998 Mississippi Blvd. 507-1519. L, D (call to check hours.), $ FOX RIDGE PIZZA—Pizzas, calzones, subs, burgers, and meatand-two plate lunches are among the dishes served at this eatery. 1769 N. Germantown Pkwy. 758-6500. L, D, X, $

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CIT Y DINING LIST FRATELLI’S—Serves hot and cold sandwiches, salads, soups,

and desserts, all with an Italian/Mediterranean flair. Closed Sunday. 750 Cherry Rd., Memphis Botanic Garden. 7669900. L, X, $ FRIDA’S—Mexican cuisine and Tex-Mex standards, including chimichangas, enchiladas, and fajitas; seafood includes shrimp and tilapia. 1718 Madison. 244-6196. L, D, X, $-$$ FUEL CAFE—Focus is on natural dishes with such specialties as bison burgers, quinoa chili, and tacos; also vegan and gluten-free options. Closed Sun.-Mon. 1761 Madison. 725-9025. L, D, X, $-$$ GERMANTOWN COMMISSARY—Serves barbecue sandwiches, sliders, ribs, shrimp, and nachos, as well as smoked barbecued bologna sandwiches; Mon.-night all-you-can-eat ribs. 2290 S. Germantown Rd. S. (Germantown). 754-5540. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ GOLDEN INDIA—Northern Indian specialties include tandoori chicken as well as lamb, beef, shrimp, and vegetarian dishes. 2097 Madison. 728-5111. L, D, X, $-$$ GREEN BAMBOO—Pineapple tilapia, pork vermicelli, and the soft egg noodle combo are Vietnamese specialties here. 990 N. Germantown Parkway, #104 (Cordova). 753-5488. L, D, $-$$ GRIDLEY’S—Offers barbecued ribs, shrimp, pork plate, chicken, and hot tamales; also daily lunch specials. Closed Tues. 6842 Stage Rd. (Bartlett). 377-8055. L, D, X, $-$$ FRANK GRISANTI’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT— Northern Italian favorites include pasta with jumbo shrimp and mushrooms; also seafood, fillet mignon, and daily lunch specials. Closed for lunch Sunday. Embassy Suites Hotel, 1022 S. Shady Grove. 761-9462. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$

RONNIE GRISANTI’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT—This Memphis institution serves some family

classics such as Elfo’s Special and chicken ravioli, along with lighter fare and changing daily chef selection. Closed Sun. Sheffield Antiques Mall, 684 W. Poplar (Collierville). 850-0191. L (Mon.-Sat.), D (Thurs.-Sat.), X, $-$$$ THE GROVE GRILL—Offers steaks, chops, seafood, and other American cuisine with Southern and global influences; entrees include crab cakes, and shrimp and grits, also dinner specials. 4550 Poplar. 818-9951. L, D, SB, X, MRA, $$-$$$ GROWLERS—Sports bar and eatery serves standard bar fare in addition to a pasta, tacos, chicken and waffles, and light options. 1911 Poplar. 244-7904. L, D, X, $-$$ GUS’S WORLD FAMOUS FRIED CHICKEN— Serves chicken with signature spicy batter, along with homemade beans, slaw, and pies. 3 10 S. Front. 527-4877; 215 S. Center St. (Collierville). 853-6005; 2965 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 373-9111; 730 S. Mendenhall. 767-2323; 505 Highway 70 W., Mason, TN. 901-294-2028. L, D, X, MRA, $ HALF SHELL—Specializes in seafood, such as King crab legs; also serves steaks, chicken, pastas, salads, sandwiches, a ”voodoo menu”; oyster bar at Winchester location. 688 S. Mendenhall. 682-3966; 7825 Winchester. 737-6755. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$$ HAPPY MEXICAN—Serves quesadillas, burritos, chimichangas, vegetable and seafood dishes, and more. 385 S. Second. 529-9991; 6080 Primacy Pkwy. 683-0000; 7935 Winchester. 751-5353. L, D, X, $ HAVANA’S PILON—Tiny eatery serving Cuban cuisine, including fried plantains in a pilon topped with shrimp, ropa vieja (shredded beef in tomato sauce), roasted pork, and a Cuban sandwich. 143 Madison. 527-2878; 3135 Kirby-Whitten, Suite 108 (Bartlett). 512-6359. L, D, X, $ HERITAGE TAVERN & KITCHEN—Featuring classic cuisine from the country’s five regions, including lobster rolls, fried chicken, smoked tamales, Green Goddess shrimp, and more. 6150 Poplar, Regalia. 761-8855.L, D, WB, X, $-$$$ HIGH POINT PIZZA—Serves variety of pizzas, subs, salads, and sides. Closed Monday. 477 High Point Terrace. 452-3339. L, D, X, $ $ $ HM DESSERT LOUNGE—Serving cake, pie, and other desserts, as well as a selection of savory dishes, including meatloaf and mashed potato “cupcakes.” Closed Monday. 1586 Madison. 290-2099. L, D, X, $ HOG & HOMINY—The casual sister to Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen serves brick-oven-baked pizzas, including the Red-Eye with pork belly, and small plates with everything from meatballs to beef and cheddar hot dogs; and local veggies. Closed for lunch Mon. 707 W. Brookhaven Cl. 207-7396. L, D, SB, X, $-$$$ HONG KONG—Cantonese and Mandarin standards are sweetand-sour chicken, and pepper beef. Closed Sunday. 3966 Elvis Presley. 396-0801. L, D, X, $ HOUSTON’S—Serves steaks, seafood, pork chops, chicken dishes, sandwiches, salads, and Chicago-style spinach dip. 5000 Poplar. 683-0915. L, D, X $-$$$

LOCALITY GUIDE BARTLETT

Abuelo’s Applebee’s Cajun Catfish Company Coletta’s Colton’s Steakhouse Dixie Cafe El Porton Exlines’ Best Pizza Firebirds Gridley’s Hadley’s Pub La Playita Mexicana O’Charley’s Ruby Tuesday Sekisui Side Car Cafe Side Porch Steakhouse Tops Bar-B-Q

CHICKASAW GARDENS/ UNIV. OF MEMPHIS Another Broken Egg Cafe A-Tan The Bluff Brother Juniper’s Camy’s Char Cheffie’s Derae El Porton The Farmer Joe’s Fried Chicken La Baguette Los Compadres Lost Pizza Medallion Newby’s Newk’s Ono Poké Osaka Japanese Pete & Sam’s Rock’n Dough Pizza R.P. Tracks Sushi Jimmi Sweet Potato Baby Cafe Woman’s Exchange

Hunan Palace Huey’s J. Alexander’s Jerry Lawler’s BBQ Jim N Nick’s Bar-B-Q Joe’s Crab Shack Logan’s Roadhouse Moe’s Southwest Grill T.J. Mulligan’s O’Charley’s Olive Garden On the Border Osaka Japanese Outback Steakhouse Pei Wei Asian Diner The Presentation Room Pyro’s Fire Fresh Pizza Rafferty’s Red Lobster Romano’s Macaroni Grill Sekisui Shogun Skimo’s Tannoor Grill

DOWNTOWN

Agave Maria Aldo’s Pizza Pies Alfred’s The Arcade Automatic Slim’s Bangkok Alley Bardog Tavern B.B. King’s Blues Club Bedrock Eats & Sweets Belle — A Southern Bistro Bleu Blind Bear Speakeasy Blue Monkey Bluefin Blues City Cafe Brass Door Irish Pub Cafe 7/24 Cafe Eclectic Cafe Keough Cafe Pontotoc Capriccio Catherine & Mary’s COLLIERVILLE/WEST TN. (ARLINGTON, COVINGTON, MILLINGTON, Central BBQ Chez Philippe OAKLAND) City Market 148 North Cozy Corner Bangkok Alley DeJaVu Bonefish Grill Dirty Crow Inn Bozo’s Hot Pit Bar-B-Q Double J Smokehouse & Saloon Brooks Pharm2Fork Earnestine & Hazel’s Cafe Piazza Eighty3 Cajun Catfish Company Felicia Suzanne’s Carrabba’s Italian Grill Ferraro’s Pizzeria Chili’s Five Spot Ciao Baby Flight Corky’s Flying Fish Crepe Maker Flying Saucer El Mezcal T.G.I. Friday’s El Porton Green Beetle Emerald Thai Gus’s Firebirds Ronnie Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant Happy Mexican Hard Rock Cafe Gus’s Fried Chicken Havana’s Pilon Hickory Tavern Huey’s Huey’s Itta Bena Jim’s Place Grille Jerry Lee Lewis’ Cafe & Honky Tonk Long Road Cider Co. King’s Palace Cafe Manila Filipino Kooky Canuck Mulan Lisa’s Lunchbox Osaka Japanese Little Tea Shop Memphis Pizza Cafe Local Pig-N-Whistle Loflin Yard The Sear Shack Lookout at the Pyramid Sekisui Luna Restaurant & Lounge Silver Caboose LYFE Kitchen Stix Maciel’s Tortas & Tacos Vinegar Jim’s Max’s Sports Bar Wolf River Cafe McEwen’s on Monroe CORDOVA The Majestic Bahama Breeze Mesquite Chop House Bombay House Mollie Fontaine Lounge Bonefish Grill The Office@Uptown Butcher Shop Paulette’s Cheddar’s Pearl’s Oyster House Chili’s Pig on Beale Corky’s Rendezvous, Charles Vergos’ Crazy Italians Rizzo’s Diner East End Grill Rum Boogie Cafe El Mezcal Silky O’Sullivan’s El Porton South of Beale T.G.I. Friday’s South Main Sushi & Grill Flying Saucer Spaghetti Warehouse Fox Ridge Pizza Spindini Green Bamboo The Terrace Gus’s Texas de Brazil Happy Mexican

Tug’s Tuscany Italian Eatery Twilight Sky Terrace Uncle Buck’s Fishbowl & Grill The Vault Westy’s

EAST MEMPHIS

Evelyn & Olive Sabor Caribe Sabrosura Tops Bar-B-Q Trolley Stop Market

MIDTOWN

901 Grille & Market Abyssinia Alchemy Aldo’s Pizza Pies Alex’s Applebee’s Babalu Tacos and Tapas Bar DKDC Bar Louie Bar-B-Q Shop Bari Barksdale Restaurant Bayou Bar & Grill Beauty Shop Belly Acres Bhan Thai Blue Nile Ethiopian Boscos Bounty on Broad Broadway Pizza House Cafe 1912 Cafe Brooks by Paradox Cafe Eclectic Cafe Ole Cafe Palladio Cafe Society Canvas Casablanca Celtic Crossing Central B B Q Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe The Cove Cozy Corner The Crazy Noodle The Cupboard Dino’s DWJ Korean Barbecue Ecco El Mezcal Fino’s from the Hill Frida’s Fuel Cafe Golden India Growlers HM Dessert Lounge Huey’s I Love Juice Bar Imagine Vegan Cafe India Palace Jasmine Thai Java Cabana Lafayette’s Music Room LBOE Little Italy Local Mama Gaia Mardi Gras Memphis Maximo’s on Broad Memphis Pizza Cafe Midtown Crossing Grille Molly’s La Casita Mulan Murphy’s Old Zinnie’s Onix Otherlands Outback Steakhouse P & H Cafe Peabody Point Cafe Pei Wei Asian Diner GERMANTOWN Pho Binh Belmont Grill Pho Saigon The Cheesecake Factory Railgarten Chili’s Restaurant Iris City East Riko’s Kickin’ Chicken El Porton Robata Ramen & Yakitori Bar Exlines’ Best Pizza The Second Line Germantown Comm. Sekisui Huey’s Side Street Grill Mellow Mushroom The Slider Inn Memphis Pizza Cafe Soul Fish Cafe Mesquite Chop House Stanley Bar-B-Que New Asia Stone Soup The Pasta Maker Strano Sicilian Kitchen Petra Cafe Sweet Grass Rock’n Dough Pizza Tart Royal Panda Russo’s New York Pizzeria & Wine Bar Tsunami Young Avenue Deli Sakura Soul Fish Cafe NORTH MISSISSIPPI Southern Social Ajax Diner Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill Applebee’s West Street Diner Blue and White Bonne Terre MEDICAL CENTER Catfish Blues The Cupboard Acre Agavos Cocina & Tequila Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen Asian Palace Babalu Bangkok Alley Belmont Grill Blue Plate Cafe Broadway Pizza Brookhaven Pub & Grill Buckley’s Fine Filet Grill Buntyn Corner Cafe Carrabba’s Italian Grill Casablanca Central B B Q Chili’s Ciao Bella City East Corky’s Dixie Cafe El Mezcal El Porton Fino’s from the Hill Folk’s Folly Fox & Hound Fratelli’s The Grove Grill Half Shell Hog & Hominy Houston’s Huey’s Interim Erling Jensen The Kitchen Bistro Las Delicias Las Tortugas Lisa’s Lunchbox LYFE Kitchen Lynchburg Legends Marciano Mayuri Indian Cuisine Dan McGuinness Pub Mellow Mushroom Memphis Pizza Cafe Mempops Mortimer’s Mosa Asian Bistro Mulan Napa Cafe Neil’s New Hunan Old Venice One & Only BBQ Park + Cherry Patrick’s Pimento’s Pizza Rev Porcellino’s Craft Butcher Rafferty’s The Sear Shack Sekisui Pacific Rim Soul Fish Cafe Staks Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe Three Little Pigs Wasabi Whole Foods Market Zaka Bowl

Chili’s City Grocery Colton’s Steakhouse Como Steakhouse Corky’s Fox & Hound Huey’s Lee’s Family Restaurant Logan’s Roadhouse Lost Pizza McEwen’s Dan McGuinness Pub Memphis Barbecue Company Memphis Pizza Cafe Mesquite Chop House Nagoya O’Charley’s Olive Garden Osaka Japanese Cuisine Outback Steakhouse Ravine STEAK by Melissa

PARKWAY VILLAGE/ FOX MEADOWS Blue Shoe Bar & Grill Leonard’s Jack Pirtle’s Chicken Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q

POPLAR/I-240

Amerigo Benihana Blue Plate Cafe Brooklyn Bridge Capital Grille, The City Silo Table + Pantry P.F. Chang’s Chipotle Exlines’ Best Pizza Fleming’s Frank Grisanti’s Happy Mexican Heritage Tavern & Kitchen Julles Posh Food Co. Mister B’s Olive Garden One & Only BBQ Owen Brennan’s Pyro’s Fire-Fresh Pizza Red Koi River Oaks Ruth’s Chris Salsa Seasons 52 Sekisui Wang’s Mandarin House

RALEIGH

Exline’s Best Pizza

SOUTH MEMPHIS Coletta’s The Four Way Interstate Bar-B-Q Jack Pirtle’s Chicken

SUMMER/BERCLAIR Bryant’s The Cottage Elwood’s Shack High Point Pizza La Taqueria Guadalupana Lotus Nagasaki Inn Pancho’s Panda Garden Queen of Sheba Tops Bar-B-Q

WEST MEMPHIS/ EASTERN ARK.

The Cupboard Pancho’s Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill

WHITEHAVEN Delta’s Kitchen Hong Kong Marlowe’s

WINCHESTER

Curry Bowl DWJ Korean Barbecue East End Grill Formosa Half Shell Happy Mexican Huey’s Logan’s Roadhouse Olive Garden Red Lobster Ruby Tuesday T.G.I. Friday’s Tops Bar-B-Q Tycoon

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CIT Y DINING LIST HUEY’S—This family friendly restaurant offers 13 different burgers, a

variety of sandwiches, and delicious soups and salads. 1927 Madison. 726-4372; 1771 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 754-3885; 77 S. Second. 527-2700; 2130 W. Poplar (Collierville). 854-4455; 7090 Malco Blvd. (Southaven). 662-349-7097; 7825 Winchester. 6248911; 4872 Poplar. 682-7729; 7677 Farmington Blvd. (Germantown). 318-3030; 8570 Highway 51 N. (Millington). 873-5025. L, D, X, MRA, $ I LOVE JUICE BAR—Serving an extensive line of juices and graband-go lunch items. Closed Sun. 553 S. Cooper. 612-2720. L, D, X, $ IMAGINE VEGAN CAFE—Dishes at this fully vegan restaurant range from salads and sandwiches to full dinners, including eggplant parmesan and “beef” tips and rice; breakfast all day Sat. and Sun. 2158 Young. 654-3455. L, D, SB, X, $ INDIA PALACE—Tandoori chicken, lamb shish kabobs, chicken tikka masala are among the entrees; also, vegetarian options and a daily lunch buffet. 1720 Poplar. 278-1199. L, D, X, $-$$ INTERIM—Offers American-seasonal cuisine with emphasis on local foods and fresh ﬁsh; macaroni and cheese is a house specialty. Closed for lunch Sat. 5040 Sanderlin, Suite 105. 818-0821. L, D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ INTERSTATE BAR-B-Q—Specialties include chopped porkshoulder sandwiches, ribs, hot wings, spaghetti, chicken, and turkey. 2265 S. Third. 775-2304; 150 W. Stateline Rd. (Southaven). 662393-5699. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ ITTA BENA—Southern and Cajun-American cuisine served here; specialties are duck and wafﬂes and shrimp and grits, along with steaks, chops, seafood, and pasta. 145 Beale St. 578-3031. D,X, MRA, $$-$$$

Memphis Magazine’s

THE 2017

FACE OF

COFFEE

ARTISAN COFFEES

SCRATCH BAKERY - SODA FOUNTAIN

BREAKFAST - LUNCH - DINNER cafeeclectic.net Harbortown - Midtown - Highland

JASMINE THAI AND VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT—Entrees include panang chicken, green curry

shrimp,and pad thai (noodles, shrimp, and peanuts); also vegetarian dishes. Closed Mon.-Tues. 916 S. Cooper. 725-0223. L, D, X, $ JIM ’N NICK’S BAR-B-Q—Serves barbecued pork, ribs, chicken, brisket, and fish, along with other homemade Southern specialties. 2359 N. Germantown Pkwy. 388-0998. L, D, X, $-$$ JIM’S PLACE GRILLE—Features American, Greek, and Continental cuisine with such entrees as pork tenderloin, several seafood specialties, and hand-cut charcoal-grilled steaks. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. 3660 Houston Levee (Collierville). 861-5000. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$ JOE’S CRAB SHACK—Serves a variety of seafood, along with chicken, steak, and pasta. 7990 Horizon Center Blvd. 384-7478. L, D, X, $-$$$ JOE’S FRIED CHICKEN—Specializes in fried chicken and comfort sides such as warm okra/green tomato salad and turnip greens. Entrees include salmon patties and chicken fried steak. Closed Mon. 262 S. Highland. 337-7003. L, D, X, $ JULLES POSH FOOD CO.—The changing menu features seasonal “cooking light” dishes; also cold-pressed juices, to-go meals, and desserts. 6300 Poplar. 509-8675. B, L, D, X, $-$$ KING JERRY LAWLER’S MEMPHIS BBQ CO.—Offers a variety of barbecue dishes, including brisket, ribs, nachos topped with smoked pork, and a selection of barbecue “Slamwiches.” 465 N. Germantown Pkwy., #116 (Cordova). 509-2360. L, D, X, $ THE KITCHEN BISTRO—Tomato soup, pan-roasted ribeye, sticky toffee pudding, and dishes made using in-season fruits and veggies are served at this establishment at Shelby Farms Park. 415 Great View Drive E., Suite 101. 729-9009. L, D, X, $-$$ KOOKY CANUCK—Offers prime rib, catfish, and burgers, including the 4-lb. “Kookamonga”; also late-night menu. 87 S. Second. 578-9800; 1250 N. Germantown Pkwy. 1-800-2453. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$ LA BAGUETTE—An almond croissant and chicken salad are among specialties at this French-style bistro. Closed for dinner Sun. 3088 Poplar. 458-0900. B, L, D (closes at 7), X, MRA, $ LA PLAYITA MEXICANA—Specializes in seafood and Mexican entrees, including red snapper, oysters, chimichangas, tostadas, and taco salad. 6194 Macon (Bartlett). 377-2282. L, D, X, $-$$ LA TAQUERIA GUADALUPANA—Fajitas and quesadillas are just a few of the authentic Mexican entrees offered here. 4818 Summer. 685-6857; 5848 Winchester. 365-4992. L, D, $ LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM—Serves such Southern cuisine as po boys and shrimp and grits, and wood-fired pizzas. 2119 Madison. 207-5097. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$ LAS DELICIAS—Popular for its guacamole, house-made tortilla chips, and margaritas, this restaurant draws diners with its chicken enchiladas, meat-stuffed flautas, and Cuban torta with spicy pork. Closed Sunday. 4002 Park Ave. 458-9264; 5689 Quince. 800-2873. L, D, X, $ LAS TORTUGAS DELI MEXICANA—Authentic Mexican food prepared from local food sources; specializes in tortugas — grilled bread scooped out to hold such fillings as brisket, pork, and shrimp; also tingas tostados and such sides as steamed corn. Closed Sunday. 1215 S. Germantown Rd. 751-1200; 6300 Poplar. 623-3882. L, D, X, $-$$

Saturday, September 16, 2017 Shelby Farms Park, Memphis, TN

Join us as we come together and raise our fists in the face of cancer. FIGHT ON!

Join us in the FIGHT

To Cycle, Run, Walk, Volunteer, or Donate

MEXICAN FOODS

Unique Mexican flavors since 1956!

717 North White Station, Memphis, TN 901.685.5404 3600 East Broadway, West Memphis, AR 870.735.6466 panchoscheesedip.com J U L Y 2 0 1 7 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 93

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CIT Y DINING LIST LBOE—Gourmet burger joint serves locally sourced ground beef

burgers, with options like the Mac-N-Cheese Burger and Caprese. Black bean and turkey patties available. 2021 Madison. 725-0770. L, D, X, $ LEONARD’S—Serves wet and dry ribs, barbecue sandwiches, spaghetti, catfish, homemade onion rings, and lemon icebox pie; also a lunch buffet. 5465 Fox Plaza. 360-1963. L, X, MRA, $-$$ Lisa’s Lunchbox—Serving bagels, sandwiches, salads, and wraps. 5030

Poplar, 761-4044; 5885 Ridgeway Center Pkwy., Suite 101. 7676465; 2659 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite 1200; 2525 Central (Children’s Museum); 166 S. Front. 729-7277. B, L, $ LITTLE ITALY—Serving New York-style pizza as well as subs and pasta dishes. 1495 Union. 725-0280, L, D, X, $-$$

THE LITTLE TEA SHOP—Downtown institution serves up

Southern comfort cooking, including meatloaf and such veggies as turnip greens, yams, okra, and tomatoes. Closed Sat.-Sun. 69 Monroe. 5256000, L, X, $ LOCAL GASTROPUB—Entrees with a focus on locally grown products include truffle mac-and-cheese and braised brisket tacos. 9 5 S. Main. 473-9573; 2126 Madison. 725-1845. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$ LOFLIN YARD—Beer garden and restaurant serves vegetarian fare and smoked-meat dishes, including beef brisket and pork tenderloin, cooked on a custom-made grill. Closed Mon.-Tues. 7 W. Carolina. 249-3046. L (Sat. and Sun.), D, $-$$ LONG ROAD CIDER CO.—Specializes in hard apple ciders made with traditional methods. Cafe-style entrees include black eye peas with cornbread and greens, chicken Gorgonzola pockets, cider-steamed sausage, and housemade ice creams. Closed Sun.-Wed. 9053 Barret Road. (Barretville, TN). 352-0962. D, X, $ THE LOOKOUT AT THE PYRAMID—Serves seafood and Southern fare, including cornmeal fried oysters, sweet tea brined chicken, and elk chops. 1 Bass Pro Dr. 620-4600/291-8200. L, D, X $-$$$ LOS COMPADRES—Serves enchiladas, burritos, tamales, tacos, and vegetarian dishes; also Cuban entrees. 3295 Poplar. 458-5731. L, D, X, $-$$ LOST PIZZA—Offering pizzas (with dough made from scratch), pasta, salads, sandwiches, tamales, and more. 2855 Poplar. 572-1803; 5960 Getwell (Southaven). 662-892-8684. L, D, X, $-$$ LOTUS—Authentic Vietnamese-Asian fare, including lemon-grass chicken and shrimp, egg rolls, Pho soup, and spicy Vietnamese vermicelli. 4970 Summer. 682-1151. D, X, $ LUNA RESTAURANT & LOUNGE—Serving a limited menu of breakfast and lunch items. Dinner entrees include Citrus Glaze Salmon and Cajun Stuffed Chicken. 179 Madison (Hotel Napoleon). 526-0002. B, D (Mon.-Sat.), X, $-$$$ LYFE KITCHEN—Serving healthy, affordable wraps, bowls, sandwiches, and more; entrees include herb roasted salmon and parmesan crusted chicken. 6201 Poplar. 684-5333; 272 S. Main. 526-0254. B, L, D, WB, X, $ LYNCHBURG LEGENDS—This restaurant with a Jack Daniels’ theme and Southern cuisine serves such entrees as Bourbon Street salmon, buttermilk-fried chicken, and grilled steak and wild mushroom salad. D oubleTree Hotel, 5069 Sanderlin. 969-7777. B, L, D, X, MRA, $- $$$ MACIEL’S TORTAS & TACOS—Entrees include tortas, hefty Mexican sandwiches filled with choice of chicken, pork, or steak. Also serving fried taco plates, quesadillas, chorizo and pastor soft tacos, salads, and more. Closed Sun. 45 S. Main. 526-0037. L, D, X, $ THE MAJESTIC GRILLE—Housed in a former silent-picture house, features aged steaks, fresh seafood, and such specialties as roasted chicken and grilled pork tenderloin; offers a pre-theatre menu and classic cocktails. 1 45 S. Main. 522-8555. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$$ MAMA GAIA—Greek-inspired dishes at this vegetarian eatery include pitas, “petitzzas,” and quinoa bowls. 1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 137. 203-3838. B, L, D, X, $-$$ MANILA FILIPINO RESTAURANT—Entrees include pork belly cutlet with lechon sauce, and shrimp and vegetables in tamarind broth; also daily combos, rice dishes, and chef specials. Closed Sun.-Mon. 7849 Rockford (Millington). 209-8525. L, D, X, $

MARCIANO MEDITERRANEAN AND ITALIAN CUISINE—Veal Saltimbocca with angel hair pasta and white wine

sauce is among the entrees; also steaks, seafood, and gourmet pizza. Closed Sun. 780 Brookhaven Cl. 682-1660. D, X, $-$$  MARDI GRAS MEMPHIS—Serving Cajun fare, including an etouffee-stuffed po’boy. Closed Mon. 496 Watkins. 530-6767. L, D, X, $-$$ MARLOWE’S—In addition to its signature barbecue and ribs, Marlowe’s serves Southern-style steaks, chops, lasagne, and more. 4381 Elvis Presley Blvd. 332-4159. D, X, MRA, $-$$ MAXIMO’S ON BROAD—Serving a tapas menu that features creative fusion cuisine ; entrees include veggie paella and fish of the day Closed Mon. 2617 Broad Ave. 452-1111. D, SB, X, $-$$ MAYURI INDIAN CUISINE—Serves tandoori chicken, masala dosa, tikka masala, as well as lamb and shrimp entrees; also a daily lunch buffet, and dinner buffet on Fri.-Sat. 6524 Quince Rd. 753-8755. L, D, X, $-$$

T UNICA TA BLES CHICAGO STEAKHOUSE AT THE GOLDSTRIKE—1010 Casino Center Dr., Robinsonville, MS, 1-888-24KSTAY /662-357-1225. FAIRBANKS AT THE HOLLYWOOD—1150 Casino Strip Blvd., Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-871-0711. JACK BINION’S STEAK HOUSE AT HORSESHOE—1021 Casino Center Drive, Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-303-SHOE. LUCKY 8 ASIAN BISTRO AT HORSESHOE—1021 Casino Center Drive, Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-303-SHOE. THE STEAKHOUSE AT THE FITZ —711 Lucky Ln., Robinsonville, MS, 1-888-766-LUCK, ext 8213. MCEWEN’S ON MONROE—Southern/American cuisine with international flavors; specialties include steak and seafood, sweet potatocrusted catfish with macaroni and cheese, and more. Closed Sun., Monroe location. 120 Monroe. 527-7085; 1110 Van Buren (Oxford). 662-2347003. L, D, SB (Oxford only), X, MRA, $$-$$$ DAN MCGUINNESS PUB—Serves fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, burgers, and other Irish and American fare; also lunch and dinner specials. 4694 Spottswood. 761-3711; 3964 Goodman Rd. 662-8907611. L, D, X, $ MEDALLION—Offers steaks, seafood, chicken, and pasta entrees. Closed for dinner Sunday. 3700 Central, Holiday Inn (Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality). 678-1030. B, L (Sun. only), D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ MELLOW MUSHROOM—Large menu includes assortment of pizzas, salads, calzones, hoagies, vegetarian options, and 50 beers on tap. 9155 Poplar, Shops of Forest Hill (Germantown). 907-0243; 5138 Park Ave. 562-1211. L, D, X, $-$$ MEMPHIS BARBECUE COMPANY—Offers spare ribs, baby backs, and pulled pork and brisket, along with such sides as mac and cheese, grits, and red beans. 709 Desoto Cove (Horn Lake, MS). 662-536-3762. L, D, X, $-$$ MEMPHIS PIZZA CAFE—Homemade pizzas are specialties; also serves sandwiches, calzones, and salads. 2087 Madison. 726-5343; 5061 Park Ave. 684-1306; 7604 W. Farmington (Germantown). 753-2218; 797 W. Poplar (Collierville). 861-7800; 5627 Getwell (Southaven). 662-536-1364. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ MEMPOPS—Specializes in handcrafted popsicles. Cream and fruit pop flavors include Mexican Chocolate and Hibiscus Lemonade; menu changes. 1243 Ridgeway. 421-5985. L, D, X, $ MESQUITE CHOP HOUSE—The focus here is on steaks, including prime fillet, rib eyes, and prime-aged New York strip; also, some seafood options. 5960 Getwell (Southaven). 662-890-2467; 88 Union. 527-5337; 3165 Forest Hill-Irene (Germantown). 249-5661. D, SB (Germantown), X, $$-$$$ MISTER B’S—Features New Orleans-style seafood and steaks. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. and Mon. 6655 Poplar, #107. 751-5262. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$ MOLLIE FONTAINE LOUNGE—Specializes in tapas (small plates) featuring global cuisine. Closed Sun.-Tues. 679 Adams Ave. 524-1886. D, X, $ MOLLY’S LA CASITA—Homemade tamales, fish tacos, a vegetarian combo, and bacon-wrapped shrimp are a few of the specialties. 2006 Madison. 726-1873. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ MORTIMER’S—Contemporary American entrees include trout almondine, several chicken dishes, and hand-cut steaks; also sandwiches, salads, and daily/nightly specials. Closed for lunch Sat.Sun. 590 N. Perkins. 761-9321. L, D, X, $-$$ MOSA ASIAN BISTRO—Specialties include sesame chicken, Thai calamari, rainbow panang curry with grouper fish, and other Pan Asian/ fusion entrees. Closed Mon. 850 S. White Station Rd. 683-8889. L, D, X, MRA, $ MULAN ASIAN BISTRO—Hunan Chicken, tofu dishes, and orange beef served here; some sushi, too. 2059 Houston Levee (Collierville). 850-5288; 2149 Young. 347-3965; 4698 Spottswood. 609-8680. L, D, X, $-$$ NAGASAKI INN—Chicken, steak, and lobster are among the main courses; meal is cooked at your table. 3951 Summer. 454-0320. D, X, $$ NAGOYA—Offers traditional Japanese cuisine and sushi bar; specialties are teriyaki and tempura dishes. 7075 Malco Blvd., Suite 101 (Southaven). 662-349-8788. L, D, X, $-$$$  NAM KING—Offers luncheon and dinner buffets, dim sum, and such specialties as fried dumplings, pepper steak, and orange chicken. 4594 Yale. 373-4411. L, D, X, $  NAPA CAFE—Among the specialties is miso-marinated salmon over black rice with garlic spinach and shiitake mushrooms. Closed Sun. 5101 Sanderlin, Suite 122. 683-0441. L, D, X, MRA, $$-$$$ NEW ASIA—Specializing in authentic Chinese food, including roast Peking duck. 2075 Exeter, Suite 90. 758-8388. L, D, X, $

NEW HUNAN—Chinese eatery with more than 80 entrees; also lunch/dinner buffets. 5052 Park. 766-1622. L, D, X, $ THE OFFICE@UPTOWN—Offering sandwiches, wraps, pizza, soups, salads, and several vegetarian options. Closed Sat.-Sun. 594 N. Second St. 522-1905. B, L, X, $ OLD VENICE PIZZA CO.—Specializes in “eclectic Italian,” from pastas, including the “Godfather,” to hand-tossed pizzas, including the “John Wayne”; choose from 60 toppings. 368 Perkins Ext. 767-6872. L, D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$ ON THE BORDER—Dishes out such Tex-Mex specialties as fajitas and Southwest chicken tacos; also fresh grilled seafood specials. 8101 Giacosa Pl. (Cordova).881-0808; 6572 Airways (Southaven). 662-655-4750. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $ ONE & ONLY BBQ—On the menu are pork barbecue sandwiches, platters, wet and dry ribs, smoked chicken and turkey platters, a smoked meat salad, barbecue quesadillas, and more. 1779 Kirby Pkwy. 7513615; 567 Perkins Extd. 249-4227. L, D, X, MRA, $ ONIX RESTAURANT—Serves seafood dishes, including barbecued shrimp and pecan-crusted trout, and a variety of salads and sandwiches. Closed Sun. 1680 Madison. 552-4609. L, D, X, $-$$ ONO POKÉ—This eatery specializes in poké — a Hawaiian dish of fresh fish salad served over rice. Menu includes a variety of poké bowls, like the Kimchi Tuna bowl, or customers can build their own by choosing a base, protein, veggies, and toppings. 3145 Poplar. 618-2955. L, D, X, $ OSAKA JAPANESE CUISINE—Featuring an extensive sushi menu as well as traditional Japanese and hibachi dining. Hours vary for lunch; call. 3670 Houston Levee (Collierville). 861-4309; 3402 Poplar. 249-4690; 7164 Hacks Cross (Olive Branch). 662-890-9312; 2200 N. Germantown Pkwy. 425-4901. L, D, X, $-$$$ OWEN BRENNAN’S—New Orleans-style menu of beef, chicken, pasta, and seafood; jambalaya, shrimp and grits, and crawfish etouffee are specialties. Closed for dinner Sunday. The Regalia, 6150 Poplar. 761-0990. L, D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ PANCHO’S—Serves up a variety of Mexican standards, including tacos, enchiladas, and mix-and-match platters; also lunch specials. 3600 E. Broadway (West Memphis). 870-735-6466. 717 N. White Station. 685-5404. L, D, X, MRA, $ PANDA GARDEN—Sesame chicken and broccoli beef are among the Mandarin and Cantonese entrees; also seafood specials and fried rice. Closed for lunch Saturday. 3735 Summer. 323-4819. L, D, X, $-$$ PARK + CHERRY—Partnering with chefs Wally Joe and Andrew Adams of Acre Restaurant, the Dixon offers casual dining within the museum. Menu features sandwiches, like truffled pimento cheese, as well as salads, snacks, and sweets. Closed for breakfast Sun. and all day Mon. 4339 Park (Dixon Gallery). 761-5250. L, X, $ THE PASTA MAKER—This Italian eatery specializes in artisanal pasta. Entrees include Spaghetti allo scoglio, Penne Boscaiola, and Fusilli Primavera. Gluten-free options available. Restaurant closed Sun.-Mon. (cooking classes by reservation Sun.). 2095 Exeter, Suite 30 (Germantown). 779-3928. L (Thurs. only), D, X, $-$$ PAULETTE’S—Presents fine dining with a Continental flair, including such entrees as filet Paulette with butter cream sauce and crabmeat and spinach crepes; also changing daily specials. R iver Inn. 50 Harbor Town Square. 260-3300. B, L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$$ PEABODY POINT CAFE—Serves dinner salads, paninis, and pasta. Entrees include lasagna and build-your-own pasta dishes with choice of noodles and sauce. Closed Mon.-Tues. 2 43 Cooper. 722-2700. D, X, $ PEARL’S OYSTER HOUSE—Downtown eatery serving seafood, including oysters, crawfish, and stuffed butterfly shrimp, as well as beef, chicken, and pasta dishes. 299 S. Main. 522-9070. L, D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ PEI WEI ASIAN DINER—Serves a variety of Pan-Asian cuisine, including Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai. Noodle and rice bowls are specialties; a small plates menu also offered. 1680 Union Ave., #109. 722-3780; 2257 N. Germantown Pkwy. 382-1822. L, D, X, $-$$  PETE & SAM’S—Serving Memphis for 60-plus years; offers steaks, seafood, and traditional Italian dishes, including homemade ravioli, lasagna, and chicken marsala. 3886 Park. 458-0694. D, X, $-$$$ PETRA CAFÉ—Serves Greek, Italian, and Middle Eastern sandwiches, gyros, and entrees. Hours vary; call. 6641 Poplar (Germantown). 754-4440; 547 S. Highland. 323-3050. L, D, X, $-$$ PF CHANG’S CHINA BISTRO—Specialties are orange peel shrimp, Mongolian beef, and chicken in lettuce wraps; also vegetarian dishes, including spicy eggplant. 1181 Ridgeway Rd., Park Place Centre. 818-3889. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ PHO BINH—Vietnamese, vegetarian, and Cantonese specialties include lemon tofu and spring rolls. Closed Sunday. 1 615 Madison. 276-0006. L, D, $ PHO SAIGON—Vietnamese fare includes beef teriyaki, roasted quail, curry ginger chicken, vegetarian options, and a variety of soups. 2946 Poplar. 458-1644. L, D, $ PIG-N-WHISTLE—Offers pork shoulder sandwiches, wet and dry ribs, catfish, nachos, and stuffed barbecue potatoes. 6084 KerrRosemark Rd. (Millington). 872-2455. L, D, X, $

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CIT Y DINING LIST PIZZA REV—Specializes in build-your-own, personal-sized artisanal

pizza. Choose from homemade dough options, all-natural sauces, Italian cheeses, and more than 30 toppings. 6450 Poplar. 379-8188. L, D, X, $ PORCELLINO’S CRAFT BUTCHER—Small plates, charcuterie selections, specialty steaks, house-made pastries, and innovative teas and coffees are offered at this combination butcher shop and restaurant featuring locally sourced menu items. 711 W. Brookhaven Cl. 762-6656. B, L, D, X $-$$ PRESENTATION ROOM, THE—American bistro run by the students of L’Ecole Culinaire. Menu changes regularly; specialties may include such items as a filet with truffle mushroom ragu. Service times vary; call for details. Closed Fri.-Sun. 1245 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 754-7115. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ PYRO’S FIRE-FRESH PIZZA—Serving gourmet pizzas cooked in an open-fire oven; wide choice of toppings; large local and craft beer selection. 1199 Ridgeway. 379-8294; 2035 Union Ave. 208-8857; 2286 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 207-1198; 3592 S. Houston Levee (Collierville). 221-8109. L, D, X, MRA, $ QUEEN OF SHEBA—Featuring Middle Eastern favorites and Yemeni dishes such as lamb haneeth and saltah. 4 792 Summer. 2074174. L, D, $ RAILGARTEN—Located in a former rail station space, this eatery offers breakfast items, a variety of salads and sandwiches, and such entrees as short rib mac-and-cheese and fish tacos. Also serves shakes, malts, floats, and cream sodas. 2166 Central. 231-5043. B, L, D, $-$$ RAVINE—Serves contemporary Southern cuisine with an emphasis on fresh, locally grown foods and a menu that changes weekly. Closed Mon.-Tues. 5 3 Pea Ridge/County Rd. 321 (Oxford, MS). 662-2344555. D, SB, X, $$-$$$ RED KOI—Classic Japanese cuisine offered at this family-run restaurant; hibachi steaks, sushi, seafood, chicken, and vegetables. 5847 Poplar. 767-3456. L, D, X $-$$ RED LOBSTER—Specializes in crab legs, lobster, and shrimp dishes; also pastas, salads, steaks, and chicken. 8161 Highway 64 (Cordova). 387-0056; 6535 Airways (Southaven). 662-536-1960; 7750 Winchester. 759-9045. L, D, X, $-$$ RENDEZVOUS, CHARLES VERGOS’—Menu items include barbecued ribs, cheese plates, skillet shrimp, red beans and rice, and Greek salads. Closed Sun.-Mon. 52 S. Second. 523-2746. L (Fri.-Sat.), D, X, MRA, $-$$ RESTAURANT IRIS—French Creole cuisine includes shrimp and delta-grind grits, and New York strip stuffed with fried oysters and blue cheese. Closed Sun. 2146 Monroe. 590-2828. D, X, MRA, $$-$$$ RIVER OAKS—A French-style bistro serving seafood and steaks, with an emphasis on fresh local ingredients. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. 5871 Poplar Ave. 683-9305. L, D, X, MRA, $$$ RIVERFRONT BAR & GRILL—Beale Street Landing eatery serves a limited menu of sandwiches and salads. Closed Monday. 251 Riverside Dr. 524-0817. L, X, $ RIZZO’S DINER—Chorizo meatloaf, lobster pronto puff, and lamb belly tacos are menu items at this upscale diner. 492 S. Main. 3046985. L (Fri.-Sat.), D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$ ROBATA RAMEN & YAKITORI BAR—Serves ramen noodle bowls and Yakitori skewers as well as rice and noodle dishes. 2116 Madison. 410-8290. L, D, X, $ ROCK’N DOUGH PIZZA CO.—Specialty and custom pizzas made from fresh ingredients; wide variety of toppings. 3 445 Poplar Ave., Ste. 1. 512-6760; 7850 Poplar, #6 (Germantown). 779-2008. L, D, SB, X, $$ ROMANO’S MACARONI GRILL—Serves MediterraneanItalian cuisine, including hand-crafted pasta Milano and penne rustica, and create-your-own pasta; also steaks, seafood, and salads. 2859 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 266-4565. L, D, X, $-$$ ROYAL PANDA—Hunan fish, Peking duck, Royal Panda chicken and shrimp, and a seafood combo are among the specialties. 3120 Village Shops Dr. (Germantown). 756-9697. L, D, X, $-$$ RUSSO’S NEW YORK PIZZERIA AND WINE BAR— Serves gourmet pizzas, calzones, and pasta, including lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo, scampi, and more. 9087 Poplar, Suite 111. 755-0092. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$ RUTH’S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE—Offers prime steaks cut and aged in-house, as well as lamb, chicken, and fresh seafood, including lobster. 6120 Poplar. 761-0055. D, X, MRA, $$$-$$$$ SABOR CARIBE—Serving up “Caribbean flavors” with dishes from Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Closed Sunday. 662 Madison. 949-8100. L, D, X, $ SABROSURA—Serves Mexican and Cuban fare, including arroz tapada de pollo and steak Mexican. Closed Sun. 782 Washington. 421-8180. L, D, X, $-$$ SAKURA—Sushi, tempura, and teriyaki are Japanese specialties here. 2060 West St. (Germantown). 758-8181; 4840 Poplar. 572-1002. L, D, X, $-$$ SALSA—Mexican-Southern California specialties include carnitas, enchiladas verde, and fajitas; also Southwestern seafood dishes such as

F A S T- C A S U A L

Fresh cuisine prepared while you wait and served in an upscale setting. Not your typical fast-food restaurants, most serve beer, wine, and liquor. CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL—5865 Poplar, Ridgeway Trace, #104. 416-1944; 2760 N. Germantown Pkwy. 620-0469. CRAZY ITALIANS—1250 N. Germantown Pkwy., #105 (Cordova). 347-2449. CREPE MAKER—4630 Merchants Park Cir., #731 (Collierville). 861-1981. GENGHIS GRILL—2362 N. Germantown Parkway. 584-0412; 7706 Winchester. 522-5048; 5849 Poplar, #117, Ridgeway Trace. 308-4040. MRA. HUMDINGERS—6300 Poplar. 260-8292; 1134 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 271-2912. MOE’S SOUTHWEST GRILL— 465 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 737-5058. 6300 Poplar Ave., #108. 685-5685; 3660 S. Houston Levee (Collierville). 457-7227; 3546 Walker. 590-0192. THE PASTA KITCHEN—875 W. Poplar (Collierville). 316-5119. SWANKY’S TACO SHOP—6641 Poplar (Germantown). 737-2088; 4770 Poplar. 730-0763; 711 Southcrest Pkwy, #101 (Southaven). 662-655-0662. MRA. TAZIKI’S MEDITERRANEAN CAFE— 540 S. Mendenhall. 290-1091. snapper verde. Closed Sun. Regalia Shopping Center, 6150 Poplar, Suite 129. 683-6325. L, D, X, $-$$ THE SEAR SHACK BURGERS & FRIES—Serving Angus burgers, fries, and hand-spun milkshakes. Closed Mon. 875 W. Poplar, Suite 6 (Collierville). 861-4100; 5101 Sanderlin, Suite 103. 5674909. L, D, X, $ SEASONS 52—This elegant fresh grill and wine bar offers a seasonally changing menu using fresh ingredients, wood-fire grilling, and brick-oven cooking; also a large international wine list and nightly piano bar. C rescent Center, 6085 Poplar. 682-9952. L, D, X, $$-$$$ THE SECOND LINE—Kelly English brings “relaxed Creole cuisine” to his new eatery; serves a variety of po-boys and such specialties as barbecue shrimp, and andouille, shrimp, and pimento cheese fries. 2144 Monroe. 590-2829. L, D, WB, X, $-$$ SEKISUI—Japanese fusion cuisine, fresh sushi bar, grilled meats and seafood, California rolls, and vegetarian entrees. Poplar/Perkins location’s emphasis is on Pacific Rim cuisine. Menu and hours vary at each location. 25 Belvedere. 725-0005; 1884 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 309-8800; 4724 Poplar (between Perkins & Colonial). 767-7770; 2130 W. Poplar (Collierville). 854-0622; 2990 Kirby-Whitten (Bartlett). 377-2727; 6696 Poplar. 747-0001. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$$ SHOGUN JAPANESE RESTAURANT—Entrees include tempura, teriyaki, and sushi, as well as grilled fish and chicken entrees. 2324 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova). 384-4122. L, D, X, $-$$ SIDE PORCH STEAK HOUSE—In addition to steak, the menu includes chicken, pork chops, and fish entrees; homemade rolls are a specialty. Closed Sun.-Mon. 5689 Stage Rd. (Bartlett). 377-2484. D, X, $-$$ SOUTHERN SOCIAL—Shrimp and grits, stuffed quail, and Aunt Thelma’s Fried Chicken are among the dishes served at this upscale Southern establishment. 2 285 S. Germantown Rd. (Germantown). 754-5555. D, SB, X, $-$$$ SOUTH MAIN SUSHI & GRILL—Serving sushi, nigiri, and more. 520 S. Main. 249-2194. L, D, X, $ SPINDINI—Italian fusion cuisine with such entrees as wood-fired pizzas, gorgonzola stuffed filet, and fresh seafood; large domestic whiskey selection. 383 S. Main. 578-2767. D, X, $$-$$$ STAKS— Offering pancakes, including Birthday Cake and lemon ricotta. Menu includes other breakfast items such as beignets and French toast, as well as soups and sandwiches for lunch. 4615 Poplar. 5092367. B, L, WB, X, $ STANLEY BAR-B-QUE—Serving a variety of barbecue dishes and smoked meats, as well as burgers, sauerkraut balls, and pretzels with beer cheese. 2110 Madison. 347-3060. L, D, WB, X, MRA, $-$$ STEAK BY MELISSA—Aged, choice-grade, hand-cut steaks are a specialty here. Also serving fresh seafood dishes, plate lunches, burgers, and sandwiches. 4975 Pepper Chase Dr. (Southaven). 662-342-0602. L, D, X, $-$$$ STIX—Hibachi steakhouse with Asian cuisine features steak, chicken, and a fillet and lobster combination, also sushi. A specialty is Dynamite Chicken with fried rice. 4680 Merchants Park Circle, Avenue Carriage Crossing (Collierville). 854-3399. L, D, X, $-$$ STONE SOUP CAFE—Cooper-Young eatery serving soups, salads, quiche, meat-and-two specials; and daily specials such as Italian roast beef. Closed Monday. 993 S. Cooper. 922-5314. B, L, SB, X, $

STRANO SICILIAN KITCHEN & BAR—Presenting a

Sicilian/Mediterranean mix of Arab, Spanish, Greek, and North African fare, Strano serves small plates, wood-grilled fish, and hand-tossed pizzas such as the King Alaska, with salmon and chevre. Closed Mon. 948 S. Cooper. 275-8986. L, D, WB, X, $$-$$$ SUSHI JIMMI—This food truck turned restaurant serves a variety of sushi rolls, fusion dishes — such as kimchi fries — and sushi burritos. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Mon. 2895 Poplar. 729-6985. L, D, X, $ SWEET GRASS—Low-country coastal cuisine includes such specialties as shrimp and grits. Closed Mon. The restaurant’s “sister,” Sweet Grass Next Door, open nightly, serves lunch Sat.-Sun. 937 S. Cooper. 278-0278. D, SB, X, MRA, $-$$$ SWEET POTATO BABY CAFE—The eggplant Parmesan panini and mac-and-cheese hushpuppies are among popular dishes offered. Menu includes a variety of desserts, including Sweet Potato Baby Cake. Closed Sat.-Sun. 1005 Tillman. 608-1742. L, D, X, $ TANNOOR GRILL—Brazilian-style steakhouse with skewers served tableside, along with Middle Eastern specialties; vegetarian options also available. 830 N. Germantown Pkwy. 443-5222. L, D, X, $-$$$ TART—Combination patisserie, coffeehouse, and restaurant serving rustic French specialties, including baked eggs in brioche, topped with Gruyere, and french breads and pastries. 820 S. Cooper. 725-0091. B, L, WB, X, $-$$ TERRACE—Creative American and Continental cuisine includes such dishes as filet mignon, beef or lamb sliders, chicken satay, and mushroom pizzetta. Rooftop, River Inn of Harbor Town, 50 Harbor Town Square. 260-3366. D, X, $$ TEXAS DE BRAZIL—Serves beef, pork, lamb, and chicken dishes, and Brazilian sausage; also a salad bar with extensive toppings. 150 Peabody Place, Suite 103. 526-7600. L (Wed.-Fri.), D, SB, X, $$-$$$ THREE LITTLE PIGS—Pork-shoulder-style barbecue with tangy mild or hot sauce, freshly made coleslaw, and baked beans. 5145 Quince Rd. 685-7094. B, L, D, X, MRA, $ TOPS BAR-B-Q—Specializes in pork barbecue sandwiches and sandwich plates with beans and slaw; also serves ribs, beef brisket, and burgers. 1286 Union. 725-7527. 4183 Summer. 324-4325; 5391 Winchester. 794-7936; 3970 Rhodes. 323-9865; 6130 Macon. 371-0580. For more locations, go online. L, D, X, MRA, $ TROLLEY STOP MARKET—Serves plate lunches/dinners as well as pizzas, salads, and vegan/vegetarian entrees; a specialty is the locally raised beef burger. Also sells fresh produce and goods from local farmers; delivery available. Saturday brunch; closed Sunday. 704 Madison. 526-1361. L, D, X, $ TSUNAMI—Features Pacific Rim cuisine (Asia, Australia, South Pacific, etc.); also a changing “small plate” menu. Specialties include Asian nachos and roasted sea bass. Closed Sunday. 928 S. Cooper. 274-2556. D, X, MRA, $$-$$$ TUSCANY ITALIAN EATERY—Menu includes paninis, deli subs and wraps, soups, and desserts. Closed Sat.-Sun. 200 Jefferson, #100. 505-2291. B, L, X, $ TWILIGHT SKY TERRACE—Offers small plates of tostados, nachos, flatbreads, paninis; also hand-crafted cocktails and sweeping rooftop views of the downtown Memphis skyline. Open, weather permitting. The Madison Hotel, 79 Madison. 333-1224. D, WB, X, $ TYCOON—Among the Asian entrees are spicy garlic shrimp, Thai gumbo, and special house noodle soup. 3307 Kirby Parkway. 3628788. L, D, X, $ UNCLE BUCK’S FISHBOWL & GRILL—Burgers, pizza, fish dishes, sandwiches, and more served in a unique “underwater” setting. Bass Pro, Bass Pro Drive, 291-8200. B, L, D, X, $-$$ THE VAULT—Shrimp beignets, stuffed cornish hen, and baconwrapped chicken roulade are among the dishes offered at this Creole/ Italian fusion eatery. 124 G.E. Patterson. 591-8000. L, D, X, $-$$ WANG’S MANDARIN HOUSE—Offers Mandarin, Cantonese, Szechuan, and spicy Hunan entrees, including the goldensesame chicken; next door is East Tapas, serving small plates with an Asian twist. 6065 Park Ave, Park Place Mall. 763-0676. L, D, X, MRA, $-$$ WASABI—Serving traditional Japanese offerings, hibachi, sashimi, and sushi. The Sweet Heart roll, wrapped — in the shape of a heart — with tuna and filled with spicy salmon, yellowtail, and avocado, is a specialty. 5101 Sanderlin Road, Suite 105. 421-6399. L, D, X, $-$$ WEST STREET DINER—This home-style eatery offers breakfast, burgers, po’boys, and more. 2076 West St. (Germantown). 757-2191. B, L, D (Mon.-Fri.), X, MRA, $ WOMAN’S EXCHANGE TEA ROOM—Chicken-salad plate, beef tenderloin, soups-and-sandwiches, and vegetable plates are specialties; meal includes drink and dessert. Closed Sat.Sun. 88 Racine. 327-5681. L, X, $ ZAKA BOWL—This vegan-friendly restaurant serves build-yourown vegetable bowls featuring ingredients such as agave Brussels sprouts and roasted beets. Also serves tuna poke and herbed chicken bowls. 575 Erin. 509-3105. L, D, $

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Russia: Primer and Paradox A personal visit to our country’s Official Adversary Number One.

Moscow, May 2017

n the second week of June, several Russian cities — and notably the two major ones of Moscow and St. Petersburg — erupted with massive street demonstrations protesting corruption in the governmental regime of strongman Vladimir Putin, the ex-KGB functionary who has ruled Russia, in one guise or another, for the entirety of the twenty-first century.

The demonstrators were responding to a call for action from Alexei Navalny, a political dissident and opposition figure who first vented the corruption issue and, for his pains, is facing imminent imprisonment, albeit for a prospective term of not quite a month. News reports quoted the demonstrators as chanting such slogans as “Russia without Putin!” and “Russia will be free!” More compelling still was a statement circulated on social media by a Navalny ally, one Lyubov Sobol, who noted that “neither mass detentions nor criminal cases worked” after an earlier mass protest in March. Said Sobol: “People are not afraid.” Interestingly, such would seem to be the case — despite continu-

ing allegations that persistent critics of the regime, whether journalists or political opponents, risked being disappeared, poisoned, or killed. More surreptitiously, to be sure, than in the bad old days of dictator Joseph Stalin, who presided over show trials, purges, and the brutal liquidations of many millions in the heyday of the former Soviet Union before his death in 1953. Shorn of peripheral parts of its former empire in the wake of Communism’s fall in 1990-91, modern Russia is by no means a classic democracy in the Western style. But it has at least a formally democratic governmental structure. The only thing that aggrieved me about the protests that occurred in Russia in June was the timing of them. Why, I wondered

regretfully, could they not have occurred a mere three weeks earlier, when I was in Moscow and could have observed them at first hand? My reason for going to Russia for a week in mid-May was, after all, to get a sense of the country which, in the judgment of so many current oracles (conspicuously excluding, of course, Donald Trump, whose surprise presidential win last year has been credited by so many to Russian cyber-hacking), is close to regaining its one-time status of our own nation’s Official Adversary Number One. Cutting to the chase, there was no chase — i.e., no hint of surveillance during six days of my wandering about Moscow by foot, by boat, by car, and by an underground Metro system as extensive, as well-maintained, and as heavily patronized (disproportionately by jeans-wearing millennials glued to cell phones) as any I was used to on our side of the world’s geopolitical divide. Bilingual signs, with English as a subscript to Russian, are beginning to flourish everywhere in Moscow, including its Metro stations, perhaps in recognition of the status of English as an international language in anticipation of the forthcoming 2018 World Cup soccer cham-

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, few places are as flattering to the U.S.A. as Moscow. pionship to be held in the city. In its more than ample supply of storefronts, shopping malls, juke joints, and fast-food restaurants, Moscow possesses the full panoply of Western, mainly American, brand names, from Apple to Ziploc, with more than a few McDonald’s in the middle. The streets are congested with late-model, upscale cars. Listen

in vain for what you might imagine to be “indigenous” music; what you get instead, in elevators and leaking out of karaoke bars, is American-style rock-and-roll. If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, few places are as flattering to the U.S.A. as Moscow. The famous onion-bulb cathedrals of the country’s medieval past and its residual Stalinoid apartment blocks denote forgone historical eras. The Kremlin of so many ominous cable-TV stills is wedged between glitzy shopping centers (one featuring a “Dior Revolution” while I was there) and adjoins the construction sites of a high-tech futuristic park and two new grand hotels, all designed to wow the visitors expected to flood the city for next year’s World Cup. A caution: The Berlin of the 1936 Olympic Games offered upto-date conveniences, too, and the host country’s autobahns might have seemed tokens of a model future. And Putin is clearly not making nice to neighboring Ukraine, to the Baltic states, or to war-torn Syria. But Alexei Navalny’s 30-day jail sentence for fomenting the demonstrations of June 2017 would almost seem to be an omen of creeping moderation on the part of the regime. Moreover, a popular strike against corruption is not exactly a case of Magna Carta redux. But it’s undeniably a good sign, and the inevitable corrective that will ultimately accrue to Donald J. Trump for his awkward and mysterious machinations vis-avis Russia should not blind us to that. There may even be a red flag in it for Trump himself, should our people, in turn, find themselves unafraid. Jackson Baker is a contributing editor for Memphis and a senior editor of the Memphis Flyer.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKSON BAKER

by jackson baker

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