Behind the Scenes With Memphis’ Original BBQ Drive-Through

BEHIND the Scenes With Memphis’ Original BBQ Drive-Through

Memphis has been long-credited for its famous barbeque scene, with various restaurants offering their take on smoked pork cuisine scattered across the community. This year, three Upper School film students had the opportunity to collaborate with the Bluff City’s original BBQ drive-through when Tops Bar-B-Q hired the Lynx trio to create training videos about the eatery’s secret recipes.

“Alright team, are you ready,” asked Todd Cowden, the Upper School Design teacher, as he and students Sam Gary ‘25 and Jami Horne ‘24 stood outside the Tops Bar-B-Q Poplar Avenue location with their camera equipment in hand.

Sam Gary ‘25 gets a closeup of the meat before it goes in the smoker.

It was finally filming day – something the students had anticipated ever since Mr. Cowden first announced that the Tops CEO, Randy Hough, wanted to hire them for the video project. With three hours until the restaurant’s opening, the students stepped inside to meet with some of the staff members and begin filming clips to show how to make some of the BBQ joint’s classic recipes.

Sam Gary ‘25 and Jami Horne ‘24 video a sandwich making scene with Chuck Brownlee.

The opportunity had presented itself when Mr. Cowden shared the desire for students to get real-world experience with Amy Brownlee, Lausanne’s Director of Academic Technology and Innovation. Her husband Chuck is the Director of Operations for Tops, and had been looking for ways to update their training process for new staff. Mrs. Brownlee was quick to make the connection.

With an ever-evolving world, Hough and Brownlee understood the need to shift into a digital space. Through Sam and Jami’s videography skills and the editing skills of John Devine ‘23, the Lynx team was able to bring to life the vision Hough and Brownlee had for the training videos.

“We gave the students ideas of what we were looking for and what we needed for our employees and then gave them creative freedom to provide their input and allow their talents to take over,” Hough shared. “The work they provided was so good, opening more opportunities for us to continue working with the students moving forward.”

The Tops video project also helped the Lynx group launch Upper School’s new student-led creative firm, Lausanne Design Agency (LDA), which is set to grow even bigger next year. The design agency includes students selected by Mr. Cowden who are eager about media and design.

“LDA is such a good asset to Lausanne and the students who want this experience,” Sam said. “It involves photography, videography and editing, along with roles like project management and so much more. It’s a desirable thing to do, but Mr. Cowden chooses committed people who genuinely want to be there and will be invested in the work.”

For the Lynx trio, videography and editing are passions they hope to pursue in some form in the future, which made joining the design agency and taking on the Tops project such compelling opportunities.

“We’ve loved working for Tops because they make it so interesting and easy to create videos,” Sam said. “It’s about passion and commitment for Tops, and we loved being able to help continue in their efforts to make some dang good sandwiches. The project offered the perfect portfolio piece for me and the first project for LDA. Being on-site to interview and film, doing the mic-work and editing the clips together provided very good use of my talents that I hope to use as a video journalist someday.”

Next year, the students will continue working with Tops for a 10-part training video series and will also add OrthoSouth, for whom they will begin filming commercials, to their clientele.

Jami Horne’24 works with Todd Cowden to get the perfect shot.

“Working with the students at Lausanne has been such a wonderful experience,” Hough said. “I thought partnering with them would be a great way to provide an avenue for students to utilize the knowledge they’re gaining at Lausanne outside of the classroom while also benefiting Tops, and they’ve exceeded our expectations.”