From Mississippi to Beyond Bryant’s: A Southern Breakfast Icon BY KATHY K. MARTIN
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he South reigns supreme in so many culinary classics such as fried chicken, cornbread, grits and of course, the Southern-style breakfast. At Bryant’s in Memphis, a true Southern breakfast beckons diners every Wednesday through Sunday with homemade biscuits and gravy, country ham, omelets and other Southern favorites. The restaurant’s founding owners, Jimmy and Jane Bryant, grew up in Bruce until they moved to Memphis in 1968. They opened a Loeb’s Bar-B-Q franchise in the Parkway Village area and later moved the restaurant to its current location on Summer Avenue in 1977. Jimmy envisioned a homestyle breakfast menu to honor his mother’s homemade biscuits, which brought back memories of his childhood in Mississippi, said Richard Lucchesi, the restaurant’s general manager. “Jimmy’s memories led him to want to share the food with others,” said Lucchesi. “It can be labor-intensive, but we
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continue to this day to make by hand every biscuit we serve here at Bryant’s.” The couple’s son, Phil Bryant, helped his sister, Kerrie Burton, with the family business for 22 years until he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to sell it last year to the Tashie Restaurant Group. “It was a tough decision selling our family restaurant, not just because of the personal history, experiences and memories made, but because we didn’t want it to go into the wrong hands,” he said of the decision. “We’re elated to have found the ‘right’ people who have purchased the restaurant with the full intention of maintaining the heart and soul of Bryant’s, which many Memphians have come to know and love.” Bryant’s re-opened last April with just a few
