Photo courtesy Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries.
It’s hard to believe that this clean-cut 19-year-old would make anyone nervous, but in the early 1960s, when Bailey Wilkinson opened his Oso coffeehouse in a former barbecue shop near Treadwell High School, neighbors complained the place was a “public nuisance.”
Although no liquor was served, and the strongest drink was Turkish coffee, one woman told reporters, “It looks like a hoodlum hangout to me.” What’s worse, it attracted “beatniks” and even the Memphis Press-Scimitar referred to the Oso as “a hootenanny hangout” and described its patrons as “bearded and sandaled bohemian types.”
A barebones establishment with little more than a stage tucked away in a corner and a clutter of cheap tables and chairs, the Oso soon attracted quite a crowd, joining the Bitter Lemon, the Roaring ’60s, and similar clubs around the city. Even so, Wilkinson grew tired of the constant harassment from the neighbors, and Oso soon closed.
And the odd name? Wilkinson admitted he just liked the sound of it.
