photograph courtesy special collections, university of memphis libraries
The Britling Cafeteria on Madison, shown here as it looked in 1952.
It’s probably not common knowledge that the famed British author H.G. Wells played a role in one of our city’s best-known restaurants.
I’m referring to Britling Cafeterias, which occupied very impressive buildings Downtown before branching out to other areas of Memphis. The first one here (above) opened in 1921 at 155 Madison. A second location opened in 1938 at 75 Union, next door to the Loew’s Palace Theatre.
The founder’s name was not Britling, as you might expect, but A.W.B. Johnson, who decided that “Johnson’s Cafeteria” just didn’t have the right ring to it. The story goes that he was reading a collection of short stories by science-fiction master H.G. Wells (author of such classics as War of the Worlds and The Time Machine), when he encountered a story titled “Mr. Britling Sees It Through.” He decided that was a fine, classy name for his new eatery, and eventually opened others in Nashville and Louisville, Lexington, and Frankfort in Kentucky.
Owners remodeled the Britling at 75 Union, which featured a Colonial Revival exterior complete with portico and white columns. Among the enhancements: murals by noted Memphis artist Burton Callicott, and “one wall will be a precast terrazzo panel in three dimensions in an off-white shade,” which the designers bragged was “the first of its kind in Memphis.”
The company’s slogan, promoted on its menus and matchbooks, was “Good Food Is Good Health.” Still, eating there could, at least one time, be risky. Customers of the Madison Avenue Britling had a narrow escape on the afternoon of November 4, 1929, when rags stored in the basement somehow caught fire. Within minutes, the whole restaurant was ablaze. Firemen rushing to the scene discovered a tragedy in the making, as more than 300 people jammed the exits trying to escape.
But then an odd thing happened, as reported in the Memphis Press-Scimitar: “A phonograph that changes records automatically kept playing as the patrons filed out of the burning building. Officials believe this helped prevent a panic.” Except for a few cases of smoke inhalation, nobody was seriously injured.
After the fire, the owners rebuilt the cafeteria, and this photograph from the early-1950s shows a truly fantastic ground-floor façade — all sweeping curves and polished marble and gleaming stainless steel. But that location closed in 1956, and the fine structure was demolished a few years later to make way for First Horizon Bank’s new headquarters.
Owners remodeled the Britling at 75 Union, which featured a Colonial Revival exterior complete with portico and white columns. Among the enhancements: murals by noted Memphis artist Burton Callicott, and “one wall will be a precast terrazzo panel in three dimensions in an off-white shade,” which the designers bragged was “the first of its kind in Memphis.”
Britling opened a cafeteria in Poplar Plaza in the late 1950s, and by 1970 also had branches in Laurelwood and Northgate shopping centers. But then the chain rather abruptly came to an end. In the 1980s, new owners of the property demolished the Union Avenue Britling — along with Loew’s Palace — to make way for Parking Can Be Fun. All three shopping center locations closed about the same time.
There may still be Britling cafeterias in other cities — I haven’t been to Frankfort, Kentucky, in a while — but today not a trace remains in Memphis of the popular restaurant chain where “good food is good health.”
