Limited parking near a busy intersection isn't slowing down business at the new Broadway Pizza in East Memphis, open since January 22.
The popular Broadway Pizza, a stalwart of Broad Avenue since 1977, has joined the pizza party in East Memphis with a second location near the intersection of Poplar and Mendenhall.
Parking is limited to 12 spaces in front of the building, which is sandwiched between Belmont Grill and All About Bikes. While it’s tricky to park, the inconvenience hasn’t deterred customers from the restaurant’s man-sized cheeseburgers, meaty pizza pies, $8 plate lunches, and delicious assortment of layer cakes made in-house.
We visited for lunch on Friday about 1 p.m., and our helpful server said pizza came with a 40-minutte wait, so we moved on to other things: an order of wings, a warm and messy Philly cheese steak, and a plate lunch special with salmon croquet, squash casserole, turnip greens, and jalapeno cornbread.
Why I would order a salmon croquet at a pizza place is beyond me, and as Tony predicted, I was disappointed in its flat taste and deep-fried cracker coating. (To be fair, I had never eaten a salmon croquet, so I had no point of comparison.) I did, however, love the plate’s savory and satisfying turnip greens, flavored with swatches of white onions and flecks of salty pork.
We also discovered wings at Broadway, ordering four to share. Accompanied by plenty of napkins, the wings were served in a pool of fragrant hot honey sauce. Since a nice-size portion of fat crinkle fries nestled nearby, we dipped a few fries in the sauce immediately. The combo tasted great.
Open since January 22, the new Broadway Pizza is still family owned and operated by Dewana and Denny Ishee, who purchased the building last year. In fact, Denny stopped by our table for a chat, pointing out his son Andrew and daughter-in-law Molly, who are managing the new location.
“We’ve been going nonstop,” Denny said. “We’ve got six ovens in here, and we’re still learning, because they don’t cook like the ones we are used to at our other store.”
Learning curve aside, the soft-crust pizza we ordered a day or so later was picture perfect with attentive service to match. When we listed the litany of vegetables we wanted on our pizza (spinach, red onion, yellow and red sweet peppers, black olives) along with Canadian bacon, Dewana jumped in with this suggestion: “Get the vegetarian with extra bacon. It will save you money.”
There's more to Broadway than pizza, such as these plump wings with a liberal coating of hot honey sauce and a side of nicely done fries.
Restaurant seating at Broadway includes four booths along one wall, free-standing four-tops, and a bar with flat-screen TV. The restaurant is still waiting on its beer license.
If there are no spaces out front, try parking on Black Road and cutting through the parking lot behind All About Bikes.
Broadway Pizza, 627 S. Mendenhall Road (901-207-1546). Open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 10 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday.
