Ask Vance: Chef Michael Cahhal

Our history expert solves local mysteries: who, what, when, where, why, and why not. Well, sometimes.

March 12, 2024

8:00 AM

photograph courtesy special collections department / university of memphis libraries

Michael Cahhal, always on the lookout for new items to add to his menus, tries out an oversize lobster for Bombay Bicycle Club, one of the restaurants he operated in Overton Square.

Dear Vance: Whatever happened to Michael Cahhal, who was involved in several popular restaurants in Memphis during the 1980s and ’90s? — B.T., Hernando, MS

Dear B.T.: When we finally open the Memphis Restaurant Hall of Fame (a pet project of the Lauderdales, but still in the fund-raising stage), we shall devote a special wing to Michael Cahhal — owner, manager, chef, and consultant of more restaurants in our city than just about anybody I know.

Cahhal, born in Iowa in 1947, moved with his family to Los Angeles as a boy. A Commercial Appeal story picked up the saga from there, saying the future chef “started as a teenager washing pots in a West Coast delicatessen and climbed to the point where he ran kitchens at premier establishments across the United States.” Early in his career he oversaw the opening of restaurants for Sheraton, Hyatt, and other national hotel chains, and in 1975 met Bobbie Christopher, assistant to the manager of a Rodeway Inn in Arlington, Texas, and married her in Dallas.

After stints in Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., in 1981 the Cahhals moved to Memphis. Bobbie opened an interior-design firm in Cooper-Young, and Michael helped the new Mud Island management open the River Terrace Yacht Club, where the food was considered as spectacular as the sunset views of the Mississippi River. He also operated two smaller, casual eateries on Mud Island: Crawdaddies and Harbor Landing.

Overton Square’s Palm Court, which began life as an indoor ice-skating rink.

In 1983, however, the Overton Square ownership group lured Cahhal to Midtown to convert the indoor ice-skating rink next to Friday’s — a novelty that never really caught on — into an upscale restaurant, Palm Court. This quickly became one of our city’s most popular dining spots. In a special “Dinner at Eight” feature that year, dining critic Tom Martin wrote: “In selecting the city’s best restaurants, the most surprising choice had to be Palm Court. This is one of the newer dining establishments in the city, but chef Michael Cahhal’s unique cuisine and his restaurant’s pleasant ambience merit its inclusion.”

That was just the beginning of what one reporter called his “mini-dining empire” in Overton Square. While Palm Court focused on Northern Italian cuisine, Cahhal had a special fondness for the food of Louisiana and opened Bayou Bar & Grille. The next year, he opened Le Chardonnay Wine Bar, and the year after that, he invited patrons to join a members-only dining and wine club, called Michael’s Private Reserve. “I want to create a dining experience for Memphians who want what’s not been available here,” he told reporters.

Oh, and when Overton Square needed a new manager for Bombay Bicycle Club, they hired Cahhal to run that as well. In fact, here he is, riding a giant lobster out the door of that establishment (today, home to Boscos).

Café Roux was a success from the start, serving some 800 meals daily. Koeppel praised the ambitious restaurant, writing in his review, “It’s a long way from Midtown to the corner of Winchester and Old Germantown Road, but I made the journey twice and I’ll make it again, because that’s the location of Michael Cahhal’s new Louisiana-style restaurant.”

Somehow, he found time to serve as president of the Greater Memphis Chefs Association and the local chapter of the Chaine des Rotisseurs. As various newspaper clippings attest, he rarely minced words about the local dining scene. In 1984, he complained to CA reporter Paul Turner that Memphis “remains light years away from glittery tourist meccas such as San Francisco or New Orleans when it comes to fine dining. … It’s very disheartening to know that I own probably one of the top eight restaurants in the city, and some nights do only 30 dinners. Then you drive by Shoney’s and find them packed.”

He was quite an authority on wine. Fredric Koeppel, longtime food and wine columnist for The Commercial Appeal, praised the selection at Cahhal’s establishments in a 1986 column: “The Palm Court wine list, remarkable because of the number of wines and the vintage depth that it represents, offers 241 wines — a staggering number for a Memphis restaurant.”

Hard to miss in his usual spot at the entrance to Palm Court, when he wasn’t in the kitchen, Cahhal served as host, general manager, and sommelier. He made the news for his sartorial choices, known for his bright-red patent-leather shoes, worn with a tuxedo, a wine-tasting cup often dangling from a gold chain around his neck. “When I wear my red shoes, for some reason wine sales go up,” he said.

photograph courtesy fredric koeppel menu collection / memphis public library

The cover of the 25-page menu for the first Cafe Roux, which opened on Winchester.

And then, all of sudden, in 1990 he left Overton Square, selling his interest in his restaurants to other establishments, including Hemmings and Captain Bilbo’s. That’s because he had bold plans for a restaurant that would be entirely his own, featuring the Cajun cuisine of Louisiana. He would call his venture Café Roux, anchoring a small commercial strip on Winchester Road. A man who clearly kept track of the details, Cahhal told reporters this would be his 69th restaurant as a professional chef.

The Commercial Appeal described the new place in this way: “Named after the blend of flour and oil that is the basis for New Orleans’ great gumbos, soups, and sauces, Café Roux will be authentic New Orleans in food and décor. The interior of the 140-seat restaurant is designed to evoke the feeling of a Bourbon Street courtyard.” Bobbie had a role in that, recruiting a Texas artist to provide paintings, and working with the Metal Museum to install ornamental ironwork.

Originally planned to open in the summer of 1990, construction delayed the opening until October. Based on personal experience — Café Roux was a particular favorite of the Lauderdales — it was worth the wait. Diners encountered an astonishing selection of dishes and desserts. In fact, the menu ran to 24 pages, with specialties including Creole Turtle Soup, Swamp Gator Chili (featuring stewed alligator tail), Grilled Voodoo Breast of Chicken, and a half-dozen “Platters of Southwest Louisiana.”

Café Roux was a success from the start, serving some 800 meals daily. Koeppel praised the ambitious restaurant, writing in his review, “It’s a long way from Midtown to the corner of Winchester and Old Germantown Road, but I made the journey twice and I’ll make it again, because that’s the location of Michael Cahhal’s new Louisiana-style restaurant.” He concluded his lengthy description of the “suave and satisfying artichoke and oyster bisque, sporting a dense creamy broth” by saying, “Have mercy!” In the “Reviewer’s Choice” section of his column, he wrote, “Try them all.”

Cahhal announced plans for franchises in Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, and Nashville. He hinted at a second location Downtown, “but only if things pick up a little more.” Well, he soon decided they had, because in July 1991 he opened a second location at 94 S. Front Street, just south of Union.

But after only a few years, things began to spiral out of control. After opening a third Café Roux in Cordova, Cahhal sold the Front Street location in April 1996, telling reporters, “People have always said I’m a pioneer, but I’m tired of picking arrows out of my ass.” No one was quite sure what he meant by that. A month later, though, he closed the original Café Roux on Winchester, saying he would focus all his attention on the larger location at 1740 N. Germantown Parkway. That didn’t work out. In July 1996 Cahhal declared bankruptcy.

In 1997, he told reporters he was calling it quits, saying, “I think it’s time to take a break.” But not entirely. He served as a dining consultant for the restaurant/club Mardi Gras, located in the former Hungry Fisherman on Shelby Oaks Drive. The following year, he was back in the kitchen, as the chef of Empire, a nightclub at South Mendenhall and Winchester, this time focusing on Southwestern dishes, with a few recipes from Café Roux thrown in.

Cahhal’s Memphis chapter concluded after 1999. He divorced his wife of 24 years, Bobbie, and for a short time served as the executive chef of Ridgeway Country Club, before leaving Memphis for good. Bobbie stayed in Memphis, taking on interior-design projects for clients like Margaret “The Memphis Belle” Polk.

Cahhal then traveled around the country, serving as a consultant for various clients and opening a small restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine. Sometime in the early 2000s he found himself in Philadelphia, Mississippi, serving as the executive chef for the Pearl River Resort, a cluster of casinos owned by the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw Indians.

But time had run out. Michael Cahhal passed away in 2016, at age 69. Because of his service in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, he was laid to rest in the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery just outside Philadelphia. Cahhal’s white granite marker lists his rating, or rank, in the Navy as CS2, or “Culinary Specialist Second Class.”

Based on what I’ve told you here, I’d say Cahhal was first-class.

NOTE: After this story went to press, I got into contact with Cahhal's wife, now Bobbie Berry and living in Cordova. She sent me the photo gallery below of Michael, herself, and others. Many thanks for helping with the story, Bobbie.

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