Editor’s Note: For our Top 10 New Restaurants list, published in full in the February 2022 issue, our editorial team selected (you guessed it) ten of the places we think represent the best of our city’s culinary future. We'll be spotlighting each of the restaurants online over the next several days. Please note that this is not a ranked list; we love what each of the ten featured restaurants bring to the table. Bon appétit!
Dory
You should know that Dory, which opened last March, will challenge your expectations from the moment you slide into a seat. Unlike at other restaurants, you won’t get a menu with a lot of options. Instead, the restaurant offers a limited number of choices, which rotate the first Wednesday of each month.
And you won’t actually be handed a menu when you sit down. As Amanda Krog, co-owner with her husband, chef David Krog, said in a Memphis Flyer interview, “We’re not putting out the menu to the people before they come. They come in, sit down, they eat. We’ll honor dietary restrictions as long as we know in advance.”
“Every little thing we’re doing every single day there is to try to be the best that we can possibly be.” — David Krog
The six-course dinners are $95 each. An early menu included redfish with pea shoots, mirepoix, and saffron broth; pork belly with collard greens, pureed turnips, and foie gras powder; and a frozen custard with an almond lace cookie, roasted apple, caramel, and Amanda’s Nine Oat One Granola. They offer wine pairings, and a full bar that features its own “bar snacks menu.”
Dory asks diners to trust them with the selections, and that trust is rewarded with six courses, including the amuse-bouche, the sorbet, and the mignardise (a bite-size dessert).
On Tuesdays, the restaurant serves a $55 four-course dinner, which is prepared and created by the kitchen staff. The Tuesday dinner is “a completely different menu that the sous chef and the rest of our staff are writing on their own, with very little oversight from me,” David told the Flyer. “I want them to create a menu they’re proud of.”
“The details are everything” at Dory, David said. “The wine list is constantly moving and the dishes are constantly evolving, the service is refining. Every little thing we’re doing every single day there is to try to be the best that we can possibly be.”
Dory is planning a special belated grand-opening event the first week in March to celebrate the first-year anniversary.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated slightly from our print edition to reflect new information.