
Daniel Bradley
The restaurant business is notoriously, perennially fickle: Tastes change, diners move on, landlords jack rents, profit margins contract or vanish. Still, a report last December from the Memphis Restaurant Association that nearly 100 restaurants had shuttered over the past two years sent a shiver up many food lovers’ spines. Restaurant owners and others were quick to cite the reasons they saw as foremost in explaining the wave of closures, from inflation to a tight labor market to (you guessed it) crime.
A few weeks before, in early December, the chain restaurant Houston’s, of spinach-dip renown, suddenly closed its Memphis location to much gnashing of teeth and internet-fueled handwringing. The corporate statement prominently cited “public safety” as a reason for the decision to shut down, which read, to me anyway, as an obvious dog whistle.
The Memphis chef and restaurateur Patrick Reilly released a statement noting that Houston’s “never meaningfully engaged with or gave back to the community it purportedly served,” and exhorting Memphians to redirect their energy toward supporting and celebrating the many local restaurants whose commitments to the city run deep and true.
This month, as we have done every February for longer than most of us can remember, we’re focusing on local food culture. In some years, that’s looked like presenting the previous year’s top-ten restaurant dishes, as selected by us. In other years, we’ve featured what our writers believe to be the ten best new restaurants. Once, we presented a Memphis culinary alphabet: an A to Z, from Alcenia’s to Zinnie’s. (You can guess what Q represented.) The details change, like a restaurant menu that rotates with the seasons, but the core recipe remains the same: uplifting the deep flavors that permeate this city’s dining rooms and cafés, food trucks and diners.
I can no sooner imagine this place without its local restaurants than I can imagine it without music or without the river.
This year, we’re turning the focus from the plate to the people. Our writers talked with cooks, servers, owners, and even farmers — the folks who spend their days growing, preparing, selling, and delivering to your table the food you love. From tilling the soil to reciting lists of daily specials, the people featured in our “Off the Menu” section take real pride and even joy in providing sustenance (nutritional and otherwise) to their communities. Many have spent decades in cramped kitchens, or bussing tables, or rushing between catering gigs. There are, needless to say, many thousands more such individuals here in Memphis alone, all with stories to tell. We’re grateful to the people and restaurants included for allowing us inside their kitchens, walk-ins, greenhouses, and dining rooms, in search of the day-to-day experiences that add up to soul, and the soul that flavors each dish.
Along with “Off the Menu,” you’ll find the results of our annual Readers’ Restaurant Poll. We opened the voting last fall, tabulated the results in January, and are proud to present the winners. Placing in the restaurant poll means something. We don’t incentivize our readers to vote — there’s no prize at the end. Hundreds vote anyway, even though the ballot can be a little lengthy, just because you care about recognizing the places that sustain you, from celebrating important milestones to surviving chaotic Thursdays when the fridge is bare. Congratulations to the winners, from newcomers to old favorites alike.
The restaurant business may be fickle, but it’s so much a part of what makes Memphis feel like more than just any other city. I can no sooner imagine this place without its local restaurants than I can imagine it without music or without the river. So: Be inspired, make a reservation, place a carry-out order, tell your server we sent you. And enjoy.
P.S. Our cover this month was illustrated by Memphis artist Martha Park, and we love the handmade feeling conveyed. See how many of the drawings you can identify!