photograph by michael donahue
Jeffrey and Kelcie Zepatos with their baby, Harry Speros Zepatos III.
Most people think of breakfast when they think of The Arcade Restaurant.
That’s their most popular item, says Jeffrey Zepatos, one of the owners and the great-grandson of founder Speros Zepatos. “Bacon or sausage, eggs any way you want, hash browns or grits, and biscuits and gravy or toast. It’s quite a big meal. I think that’s a much more generous meal than you’d normally get from most places that serve breakfast, really.”
He adds, “French toast is our top-seller, no doubt. Yesterday, we made 260 pieces. You get three pieces per order.”
Breakfast accounts for 50 percent of their sales during the week and 60 to 70 percent on the weekends, he says.
photograph by kelcie zapatos
Michael Donahue enjoys the traditional big Arcade breakfast.
It all started more than a century ago, when Jeffrey’s great-grandfather, who emigrated from Cephalonia, Greece, to America, joined the Navy during World War I. He wanted to see combat, but he volunteered to be the cook on the ship. And his food was a hit. “Everybody loved it,” says Jeffrey. “Admirals, captains, and generals.”
After the war, Speros “traveled around and ended up in Memphis. He saw Memphis as an up-and-coming city.”
The Arcade Restaurant will be part of young Harry’s life, too, Jeffrey says. “He doesn’t have to work there, but he can get some work experience.”
The Arcade Restaurant, which, Jeffrey says, is Memphis’ oldest restaurant operated by the same family in the same location, opened in 1919 in a wood structure at the current location. “In 1921, we had a real building finally put up — the brick building that’s the restaurant today.”
The restaurant was part of an “arcade” that included several businesses in the same structure, Jeffrey says. The building could hold up to 10 tenants. His great-grandfather, Jeffrey says, “had big dreams like any immigrant.”
Speros also owned the nearby and now-demolished Arcade Hotel, where the 1989 Jim Jarmusch movie, Mystery Train, was filmed.
The neon sign on the side of the building is the restaurant’s original sign, Jeffrey says. The rest of the neon outside, including the front door overhang, was added after a fire in the early 1950s.
“The interior changed a bit in the ’50s after the fire,” he says. “It’s what you see today. All the interior is from the ’50s. That’s why it has the ’50s diner feel to it.”
His grandfather, Harry Spero Zepatos purchased the restaurant in the 1960s and continued to run it through the 1990s. “My grandfather ran the restaurant during a really rough time,” says Jeffrey. “It was one of only three restaurants open Downtown.”
Jeffrey’s parents, Karan and Harry Spero Zepatos II, took over in 2001. His dad guided the restaurant until Downtown began to bustle again, he says. “He really cared about the neighborhood and the people around him.”
Jeffrey and his brother, Michael, worked at The Arcade from the time they were teenagers. Jeffrey and his wife, Kelcie, got involved with the restaurant after they moved back to Memphis from Chicago in 2014.
Kelcie was the driving force in the restaurant’s expansion in 2017. “We just wanted to expand and build out a liquor bar,” Jeffrey says.
His dad “just wanted to knock out a wall,” but Kelcie asked if she could call some architects because “we wanted quality people” for the expansion.
Even the Covid pandemic didn’t slow down The Arcade for long. The restaurant closed for two months in 2020, but by May the staff was back and the restaurant was doing a good business with deliveries and take-out orders.
Jeffrey’s philosophy? “I think we can always do better. I’ll never be satisfied. As the city grows, I expect us to grow, too. Not necessarily in size, but in overall business. Never be complacent.”
And, he says, “I’m excited for the fifth generation.” On January 20, 2022, Jeffrey and Kelcie became the parents of Harry Speros Zepatos III.
The Arcade Restaurant will be part of young Harry’s life, too, Jeffrey says. “He doesn’t have to work there, but he can get some work experience.”
The Arcade Restaurant is at 540 South Main Street.
