photograph by michael donahue
The interior has a classic old steakhouse look.
Not everyone who visits the Butcher Shop Steakhouse remembers when diners could cook their own steaks at the restaurant. That’s no longer done, says owner Simpson Hughes, but the charm and delicious cuisine have remained at this Cordova restaurant.
Diners immediately see the original red-brick open pits when they enter the restaurant. The color scheme, which used to be mostly green, is now “more browns, maroons, and greens,” says Hughes’ daughter, Katie Hughes, who is the manager. “It’s a classic old steakhouse look.”
Cordova is the second of the six Butcher Shop locations that once operated. The original Butcher Shop opened in 1983 at 101 South Front Street. “The founder was my partner, Dennis Day,” Simpson says. “After that first one, I helped more with the management side of it. And then I began to take them over and pretty much open them.”
photograph by michael donahue
Owner Simpson Hughes
Simpson originally managed The Pier, a restaurant that was in the rear of the same building of the original Butcher Shop, but facing the Mississippi River. The Pier was “primarily a seafood restaurant,” he says. “We did offer a couple of steaks, but in those days, the beef industry was not really prevalent in Memphis. The only thing you could get was sirloin.”
The imposing building on Front Street, just south of Union, was erected in 1890 as a cold-storage warehouse. An egg-processing plant was on the roof during World War II. “Dennis got a loan to buy the building in 1976,” says Simpson. “Charlie Vergos helped him because he didn’t really have a lot of money at the time.” Vergos, who founded the Rendezvous, was “a promoter of downtown Memphis. He co-signed for the utilities to be installed in the building.” The Pier was doing well, so Day decided to develop the Front Street side.
“People just go to dinner and want to have a good time. They want to be treated well. They may not remember the price, know where they sat, but people all pay to be happy when they go out.” — Simpson Hughes
In 1982, Day opened Wolfgang’s, a German restaurant, which later became the Butcher Shop. “By this time, the meat market was getting better. Better ribeyes were starting to come back into the market. You could get a short loin and your own saw, and cut T-bones, filets, ribeyes, and strips.”
The idea for the Butcher Shop “came from a concept in Montour, Iowa, at Rube’s Steakhouse, where you had to cook your own steak. There was nobody to cook it for you.”
The Butcher Shop interior retained the same bar and European antiques that were in the German restaurant. “We built two big brick pits and put in a heavy metal pan in the middle and grate on top. All you’d do is fill it full of charcoal.”
photograph by katie hughes
The author enjoys a hearty meal.
Diners ate “picnic style” on tables covered with red-and-white tablecloths. “It started out ‘cook your own.’ Soon, we got someone to cook for them. All the steaks were the same price.” In those days, people could buy a 14-ounce filet for $9.95.
Customers cooking their own steaks became “a little bit of an issue,” Simpson says. The restaurant coined the phrase, “You burn it, you own it.” When that happened too many times, he says, “We wound up cooking 70 percent of them.”
They eventually opened five more Butcher Shop locations, beginning with the second one in Little Rock in 1983 and ending with the last one in Chicago, which opened in 1987.
Simpson, who earned a general marketing degree from then-Memphis State University, was chosen to open the different restaurants. He also lived in the cities, including Dallas and Knoxville.
They also had a Butcher Shop in Orlando, where they later built a Mexican restaurant, Jose O’Day’s. “I was running non-stop,” Simpson says. The Cordova location opened in 1999, when “Germantown Parkway was just a two-lane road at the time.”
They’re located is on the Agricenter International campus. The building originally housed the old Shelby Place Restaurant. Later, TGI Friday’s and Chesterfield’s opened at the same spot.
After taking over the space, they changed the decor, put in cooking pits and a different vent hood system, and added more dining room space. “We did a lot of work on it and then put on a massive, great opening party — really well done. We opened the doors and it just took off.”
Simpson had a good feeling that the Cordova location was going to be a success. People in that area wanted a neighborhood restaurant and didn’t want to drive downtown. “I said, ‘This is our future here.’ It turned out better than I thought. It was immediately popular.” Describing the restaurant, he says, “I would call us ‘casual.’ We’re not super-rustic.”
About 10 or 15 years ago, they began the popular “Fresh Burger Friday,” which runs 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday. People call it “Fresh Burger Frenzy,” Simpson says, selling hamburgers made from the steak trimmings. They used to give the trimmings away because they had so much left over.
In 2012, Day sold the downtown building that housed the original Butcher Shop. “The building was falling apart. I spent many days and weeks patching roofs.” Someone wanted to put in a “big-name hotel,” but that never happened. The building now houses apartments.
Simpson, who’s been in the restaurant business since he was 21, has a simple dining philosophy: “People just go to dinner and want to have a good time. They want to be treated well. They may not remember the price, know where they sat, but people all pay to be happy when they go out.”
And that’s what The Butcher Shop aims to do.
The Butcher Shop, 107 S. Germantown Parkway, Cordova
