PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
The Overland offers a veranda with a view.
A day’s fresh haul of trout at the Wyoming lodge my family visited every summer went hand in hand with the landscape outside: the roar of the creek just outside the log walls, the untrammeled landscape, the moose and Bighorn sheep. Not to mention, scaling mountains, canoeing rivers, and swimming in lakes can fire an appetite.
Although The Overland’s most dramatic view is of the Germantown Performing Arts Center, the restaurant’s real strength is its ability to transport diners to the West. And that’s not just because the menu features bison, elk, salmon, and rainbow trout.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
Western decors helps set the mood.
As owner Spence Ray explains, it’s more about the spirit of the place, and the people who live there. “I’m a lifelong Memphian,” he notes, “and I’ve been here 63 years, but when I was six years old, I rode across the country in a station wagon with my parents and grandparents. Later, my wife, our three kids, and I spent a lot of their earlier years in the national parks, mostly in the West: the east side of California, the Sierra Nevadas, Utah, or up into Montana.”
Ray wanted to evoke those landscapes and the good folk who explore them. “I do love the South,” he says, “but the Northwest is especially appealing to me, with its mountain ranges and rivers and weather patterns — and the ruggedness and ruralness of the people. We spent a lot of time out there, and some of the places that we ate were not necessarily expensive or extravagant in any way, but there was an underlying theme that wasn’t even planned. It didn’t come from a designer. It was obviously just a reflection of who the people were, the food that they ate, the way that they lived their life. The way they valued community and relationships was very, very appealing to me. And so I told my wife that if I could ever open a restaurant in Thornwood, I wanted to pick up those elements.”
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
A moosehead overlooks the diners.
When I recently arrived at Thornwood, the collection of luxury shopping, dining, and entertainment venues on Neshoba Road in Germantown, I did not feel much like Grizzly Adams. Admittedly, taking the elevator to the top floor of The Marriott TownePlace Suites, where The Overland is located, did involve a change in altitude. But it wasn’t really until I stepped inside the restaurant that my mood changed. Maybe it was the giant golden moose on the wall?
Or maybe it was the cozy interior, each table lit with its own lamp. My seat really did offer a handsome view of GPAC below, and then there was the menu, teeming with ingredients not often seen in Memphis. Appetizers like beef tartare or the duck skewer did evoke a certain ruggedness, but I was intrigued by the more cosmopolitan pimento cheese wontons. These were pure fusion, in the best way: the delicate, crisply fried shells were stuffed with one of the lightest blends of pimento cheese I’ve ever tasted, a smooth, creamy filling. But the really inspired element was the strawberry/mint/habanero marmalade on the side, a perfect contrast to the wontons themselves.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
Elk chop
The wine list was very cosmopolitan as well, with selections on hand from Italy, France, Germany, South Africa, and, yes, Oregon. But I chose one of the many California wines, the Diora pinot noir from Monterey, with its dark cherry overtones and just a hint of savory sage to evoke the scrublands out on the range. I already had in mind what I would order for the main course. I was going for the big game.
But first came the salad, and I opted for the “North Mesa.” It, too, seemed to spring right out of California with its mix of delicate greens (including tender young chard leaves), grape tomatoes, fried wonton strips, and avocado, topped with a cilantro honey vinaigrette. I could have requested salmon or chicken atop the greens, had I wanted to make it more of a meal, but it was plenty filling as it was, and continued the sweet/savory flavor profile of the wontons.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
Salmon entrée
Many of the entrees were tempting, including the bison ribeye with green beans almondine and the rainbow trout with stewed lentils, brown butter, and beurre blanc, not to mention more familiar selections like the salmon, prime filet, chicken thighs, and “fork and knife cheeseburger.” But — possibly because the golden moose went to my head — I was set on one dish: the elk chop.
As I finished my salad, I knew the elk was on its way when my server brought me some additional cutlery: a serrated steak knife nearly big enough to down my own elk if I needed to. A few moments later, I was presented with a magnificent plate, with two segments of rib chops, bone-in, nestled on a plateau of savory grits and turnip greens, with a small river of puréed smoked corn pooled around it. Over the elk chops was a glistening bordelaise sauce. It was a landscape all its own.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
Pimento cheese wontons
The elk did not strike me as particularly gamey. It was lean, reflecting a diet of mountain pastures, but not dry or tough. Indeed, its tenderness was only amplified by the subtly tangy, savory sauce, and I barely needed that steak knife. The meat was balanced by the hearty grits beneath, perfect for absorbing all the flavors mingling on the plate. As a nod to Ray’s Memphis roots, the turnip greens were sublime, with a hint of that elusive umami quality. And the smoked corn puree was a revelation, sweet as only corn can be, yet full of the earthy, fireside aromas of a mountain cabin. The Overland would do well to use this side element in more of their future dishes.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OVERLAND
A trio of desserts
After all this, I was too full to order any of the desserts, but a rotating selection of those are available — on this night, chocolate cheesecake and blueberry cobbler. I was content to simply savor the finely wrought dishes crafted by Chef Cobi Pollan, and appreciative of a collection of flavors both unfamiliar and comforting. And, looking around the room, I saw the other patrons chatting away with their servers and each other like they’d found a home away from home. And that, too, was part of what Ray had in mind when conjuring up this slice of the West in Memphis.
“The people out there, they’re very community oriented,” he says. “You know, neighbors help neighbors. They look after one another. If your cattle are outside the fence, or there’s a snowstorm, a blizzard coming in, they help each other. They see that what is good for one of them is good for all.”
The Overland is located on the top floor of the Marriott Towneplace Suites, 7800 Neshoba Road, Suite 501.
