Justin Fox Burks
The burger arrives medium-well, packed with aged white cheddar and caramelized onions. Sweet potato fries, crispy and sprinkled with parsley, serve as a decadent and delicious counterpart to the already decked-out burger.
But wait. There’s more: Sweet potato hushpuppies paired with apple butter complete the meal, a savory side and dessert all wrapped in one. I can’t ask for anything better (except maybe more hushpuppies).
While the components sound like a fast-food combo, the meal I am devouring for $15 isn’t from McDonald’s, Burger King, or Five Guys. Instead, I’m sitting in the Crosstown Farm Burger, a not-so-average burger joint that dares, and succeeds, to be different.
Unlike typical fast food restaurants, Farm Burger lets you build your own burger from numerous options. Choices of chicken, pork, beef, or veggie quinoa shape the burger base, and a long list of toppings include fresh jalapeños, fried farm egg, and oxtail marmalade, a spread made of oxtail meat, shallots, and carrots reduced in vinegar, sugar, and red wine.
Farm Burger started its build-your-own menu with localized ingredients in the spring of 2010, with its first location in Decatur, Georgia. Since then, the chain has expanded to 12 more locations, ranging from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, California, and Tennessee.
Owner George Frangos started the company in hopes of bringing farm-to-table options at lower prices, says Eric Hawkins, general manager of the Concourse location.
“When this company was started, the owners looked around in Atlanta and saw that all of the farm-to-table options were just the $50-a-plate restaurants,” Hawkins says. For their more affordable chain, they use grass-fed and dry-aged beef that is locally farmed and ground fresh. For instance, the meat at the Concourse location comes primarily from a farm in Atlanta, Georgia, but a farm in Tupelo, Mississippi, supplements the supply.
“Since we’re in Memphis, we use a farm outside Tupelo, and a farm in Como for local vegetables,” Hawkins says.
Sweet Magnolia gelato, a company based in Clarksdale, Mississippi, also joins the local lineup for the restaurant’s milkshakes and floats. The owner of Sweet Magnolia comes in every week, Hawkins says. “He sees what we need and brings us gelato directly off of his truck.”
Along with burgers and shakes, Farm Burger offers options not typically found on burger restaurant menus, like roasted bone marrow, which is the soft, fatty tissue found in the hollow center of beef bones, usually the leg or spine. At Farm Burger, cooks simmer the marrow until it’s tender, then finish it with butter, parsley, and garlic.
Hawkins describes the marrow as good and interesting, especially for newcomers: “It’s kind of like the meat butter, so you can spread it on your burger.”
(Editor's Note: A multi-story package on the restaurants at Crosstown Concourse appeared in the February issue of Memphis magazine. For the online edition, look for individual stories, including an interview Todd Richardson., and stories on Mama Gaia. and Next Door Eatery's Kimbal Musk. Up next: French Truck Coffee and So Nuts!.)
