photograph courtesy salt | soy
Owner Nick Scott teased Memphis with a variety of pop-ups around town before opening on Broad Ave.
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!
Salt | Soy
photograph courtesy salt | soy
Kabocha and futsu squash with sweet potatoes and a pecan-pepita crumble.
Salt | Soy debuted last March with veteran chef Nick Scott as owner/sushi chef. The menu includes vegetarian and pork ramen bowls. Brad McCarley, the restaurant’s general manager, cures all the meat in-house. They ferment their own miso and kimchi.
They don’t limit themselves to one cuisine. Scott said in a Memphis Flyer interview before the restaurant opened: “We’re not pigeonholing ourselves to only doing Japanese,” he said. “It will be Asian-inspired; pulling from all cultures and melding them together.”
The concept for the new location, says Nick Scott, is “less of a market concept and more of an izakaya sushi concept. A Japanese drinking establishment, with Japanese tapas, serving small plates. People come in and have drinks and cocktails.”
And, he said, “I’m also looking for some Pacific inspiration there. We may do some riffs on classic tiki drinks.”
They’ve followed through on that vision. “We have incorporated some tiki aspects to the cocktail menu,” Scott says. “But it’s really become a seasonal change.”
photograph courtesy salt | soy
Spicy chili crab udon tossed in miso butter, chili oil, and green onion.
Salt | Soy began as a pop-up in 2018 in Downtown’s former Puck Food Hall. The idea was “sushi and seafood with ceviches and different types of crudos,” Scott told the Flyer. And “market-style fish and seafood by the pound.” The concept for the new location is “less of a market concept and more of an izakaya sushi concept. A Japanese drinking establishment, with Japanese tapas, serving small plates. People come in and have drinks and cocktails.”
The restaurant’s makeover included repainting the interiors. Artist David Johnson enlivened some of the downstairs spaces with black-and-white paintings with pops of color that complement the restaurant’s color scheme. As for future plans for Salt | Soy, Scott says, “We’re talking about doing some crawfish boils on the patio when crawfish season opens up. We’re looking at lunch right now.”
And, he says, “Trying to establish more of a late-night business upstairs with the bar.”
