Peix Cru

Pantà

Peix Cru, made with fresh fish, citrus, burnt butter, tarragon, jalapeños, and hazelnuts.

At Pantà, a Bridge to Catalonia

The bright food and colors of Kelly English’s new Pantà conjure visions of Gaudí and coastal Spain.

by

Summer in Barcelona: a perfect getaway, with fine Spanish wines, magnificent art and architecture, coastal sojourns, and bright, colorful late-night dining. It may be late autumn in Memphis, but those visions are more than a dream for Kelly English. The renowned Memphis chef has taken his former Restaurant Iris space at 2146 Monroe and reinvented it completely, transforming the entire building into the new restaurant Pantà, a popping, vibrant creation that serves some of the best Spanish food and cocktails to be found in the Mid-South. And with help from designer David Quarles IV and manager Aaron Ivory, Pantà elevates itself to a sui generis collaboration of Memphis culture.

The idea to open a Spanish-style restaurant had been floating around in English’s mind for a long time, ever since he spent time in Barcelona during college. “I lived in Barcelona for six months when I was in my early twenties, and that’s really where I fell in love with food and wine,” he recalls. “This style of cooking is really different to what we’ve been doing, but I’ve wanted to do something like this since I went there.”

If not for the pandemic, Pantà may not have come to fruition so soon. English took stock of the situation and realized that the Restaurant Iris model, a 12-seat fine dining establishment with valet parking, wasn’t going to be sustainable in the current climate. It needed a new home, somewhere that the restaurant would have room to grow and continue to provide a living for his team.

 After getting in touch with Cory Prewitt at Laurelwood Shopping Center, they struck a deal to move Iris into the former Grove Grill space there. “It’s a much bigger restaurant that I think can catapult our company into new levels,” English says. “We’re going from a 12-seater to a restaurant that can seat 200, with lunch and dinner seven days a week. There’s plenty of room to grow, and with that we’ll be able to provide real benefits for our employees, putting them in a better financial position.”

English tested out a Catalan pop-up in the former Iris space for three months in 2020. The reception from Memphis diners was excellent, and that success “really helped put food on the table for our staff,” says English. As he prepared for the next chapter, a permanent Spanish restaurant felt like the right move. “It just felt like a natural thing. We’d seen it work, we’d seen how much fun it was, and we’d seen how much joy it brought.”

“I just wanted to capture the culture of Catalonia. They live and exist in the way that they naturally do, and there’s no airs to put on. This is one of the greatest joys of my professional life.” — Kelly English

That joy was apparent at a packed opening weekend for Pantà in October, and the variety of Catalan dishes should continue to delight. But expect a few twists from time to time. 

“We’re not going to do anything that isn’t super specifically Catalan, with the caveat that we reserve the right to ‘Memphis’ anything that we want,” says English.

The menu at Pantà comprises small, shareable plates, in the vein of tapas. As an example, English brings up patatas bravas, a traditional Spanish dish of fried potatoes dressed in several aiolis. But he has some unique ideas on that staple of Catalonian food. “There’s also a different version of that called a bomba Barceloneta,” says English, “which is the same idea, except they stuff braised meat in the mashed potatoes and they fry it. What we’re going to do is put Payne’s barbecue inside of these mashed potatoes. So we’re really looking to put a lot of Memphis’ fingerprints on it. But our menu will be fresh, it will be vibrant. We’re going to have a lot of seafood. There will be a lot of vegetable-driven plates. We’ve only got a couple dishes on the menu that use red meat.”

Many of the small plates recall the fresh fish and vegetables that are commonly found in Catalonia’s Mediterranean cuisine. Peix cru utilizes the best fresh fish that the restaurant can find at any time, chilies, tarragon, and hazelnuts, and is enhanced by a combination of citrus and lime that reacts with burnt butter to let the fish melt in your mouth. 

The secreto a la plantxa uses pork from the outside of the shoulder — resulting in an ultra tender cut that boasts an impressive standalone flavor — and combines that with crushed olives, leeks, chilies, and almonds. And to tick the gamey box, order the entrepá de anec a les landes: harissa roasted duck tucked between thick slices of crispy baguette bread. The sandwich includes inspiration from the region’s long standing culinary connection to North Africa, incorporating a spicy Tunisian harissa sauce and decked with chermoula slaw, a tangy, sometimes sour marinade used in Moroccan cooking, and which commonly boasts a variety of flavors like garlic, cumin, coriander, and lemon juice. For an added artistic touch, each plate is served on locally made dishware from Brit McDaniel’s Paper&Clay pottery studio.

But the small plates are just part of the experience at Pantà. English and his team want the restaurant to be known as a late-night hangout hotspot, with a bar that stays open until midnight. That means quality cocktails. Manager Aaron Ivory, who also tends bar, is out to make each night memorable for each guest, whether they’re popping in for dinner, or just for a drink after a late night at the theater. 

“When Kelly first approached me, he described my position as being the ‘vibesetter’ for the bar,” laughs Ivory. “I’ll be curating the music, and just kind of creating an atmosphere where people always want to come out and have a good time. I envision it as a place you can go before or after dinner, have it be the centerpiece of your night, or just a stop along the way. Either way, it will be a place where you can come and take it easy, and just take a load off your shoulders.”

To come up with Pantà’s list of specialty cocktails, Ivory collaborated with bartending partner Morgan McKinney, formerly of Bari and the owner of Best Shot Co. One signature example is the Fiona. Horchata, a milky drink usually made from rice or nuts, gives the cocktail a creamy core with an eggnog-like consistency, and is mixed with Spanish brandy, créme de menthe, and cream. But Ivory’s favorite is the “Naked Dragon” cocktail created by McKinney: “It mixes reposado tequila, some aperol, chili-infused yellow chartreuse, and lime juice. The dragon is kind of our mascot here.” And beyond cocktails, beverage director Larin Culp has curated a list of Spanish wines, while Pantà also hosts an extensive gin-and-tonic program.

The Pantà concept is elevated by the bright colors and whimsical decor that entrances guests with its bold design choices. That’s all thanks to designer David Quarles IV, who was hired to transform the physical space. “Coming in, I know Kelly told me that they wanted a place where everyone felt welcome,” says Quarles. “It needed to be a place that kind of transported you out of Memphis a little bit. So I used the colors of Spain, and Barcelona, a lot to inspire the design.”

Quarles asked English to come up with some of his inspirations, in terms of both art and architecture. “I always ask my clients to come up with a mood board, so we put together designs and styles that they want to see in their space.” The team kept going back to Antoni Gaudí, and eventually settled on the modernist Casa Vicens building in Barcelona as inspiration. “We looked up the color inspiration there, the lines that are in his architecture, and used that as the base. We started with the main dining room. The colors in the wallpaper there are echoed in every single element outside of that space. I just wanted to really provide a visual experience for anyone who came in. You’re not overwhelmed, but you now have a problem choosing where you want to sit first.”

Quarles calls the overall design a colorful Memphis interpretation of art nouveau. And some of the design aspects are actually interchangeable. He points to the colorful cushions that adorn each dining chair. “None of them match,” he says. “But they all go together. So if they get moved around from table to table, to different spots, it won’t matter, because they all go together.”

But perhaps the pièce de resistance is the Dragon Room, which pays homage to the restaurant’s logo. The room contains a large dragon mural painted by Frances Berry and also boasts mirrors that Quarles’ team have sourced from local shops. “The wall of mirrors mimics a restaurant that Kelly had on his mood board. We’ve been finding them in Germantown, Collierville, Facebook Marketplace. They’ll be lit up with LEDs and are going to look amazing.”

Pantà’s magical Iberian design offers a distinct experience in the Memphis dining scene. And whether it’s a Catalan dish in the evening or a colorful cocktail at the end of the night, the restaurant should quickly elevate itself to a buzzing Midtown hotspot. 

“I just wanted to capture the culture of Catalonia,” says English. “They live and exist in the way that they naturally do, and there’s no airs to put on. This is one of the greatest joys of my professional life.”