photograph by alex greene
The B&B full Irish breakfast: two eggs, Newman Farm sausage, rashers, black-and-white pudding, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, home fries, and toast.
What’s for dinner? Here at Memphis Magazine, that’s a question we find ourselves asking quite frequently, with thoughts turning to food as the workday ebbs away. Lucky for us, Memphis chefs and entrepreneurs continue to embrace new ideas and adventures, blessing the city with an abundance of new restaurants and tasty dishes to satisfy our growing appetites. For the last couple of years, our dining contributors have used the annual February food issue to take a deeper dive into Memphis’ culinary world. We’ve explored it through traditional means (a top restaurants list), through a selection of our favorite dishes over the course of a year, or even 2021’s “Memphis Eats A-Z” feature.
But it’s back to basics this year. There are almost too many fresh options to choose from, so through our “Dinner at 8” feature, we’re here to let our readers know about the eight new restaurants that made the biggest impression on us in 2023. We’re spoiled for choices, but we’re not complaining!
Walking into the Irish pub Bog & Barley, I felt like a time traveler in the midst of East Memphis. Nestled among the beige exterior of the Regalia Center is a burst of dark wood frontage, beckoning like a portal to the Old World — as indeed it is, and not just because the woodwork within was imported from Ireland. I knew the pub offered much in the way of authentic victuals, and I was pursuing that most Old World of meals, the second breakfast. Naturally my eyes lit up when I saw the heading on the brunch menu: “Brekkie.”
It was just the thing to escape the New World blues, and right away I knew I had to have the “B&B Full Irish Breakfast,” which includes two eggs, a banger (sausage) from nearby Newman Farm, rashers (bacon), black-and-white pudding (a very Old World sausage dotted with cooked blood and oats or barley), mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, home fries, and toast. This is the kind of morning feast that the British Isles are famous for, sometimes served with beans as well — a very maximalist meal. As I wasn’t craving any blood products that day, I substituted a second banger for the black-and-white pudding, and soon the bountiful meal was before me.
All the meats and eggs were done to perfection, but it was really the garden items that made this meal shine. The roasted cherry tomatoes looked like they’d just leapt off the fireplace grate, and the oyster mushrooms were fresh and buttery. The potatoes were flecked with braised onion and pepper slivers and fresh herbs. The Irish soda bread was as hearty as fresh-milled wheat. Before long I was humming the old Richie Kavanaugh song: “I love me Irish breakfast, me hearty Irish breakfast / Bacon, eggs n’ sausages all dancing on the plate …”
It only added to the old country charm when Bog & Barley’s owner, D.J. Naylor, started making the rounds, amiably checking in with every table. He told me he was from western Ireland, and recommended that I try one of their famous cocktails. “Bog & Barley,” after all, refers to the peat and the grain that makes good whiskey. But day drinking wasn’t in my plans. Instead, I opted for another sort of decadence, the second breakfast dessert.
Though tempted by the Guinness chocolate cake, I felt the warm Irish bread pudding was more Celtic, somehow. And it was all I’d imagined: not too sweet, yet drizzled with whiskey-vanilla sauce and vanilla ice cream on the side. Perhaps I was swept away in my time traveling, or perhaps a food coma was setting in, but I had one more thing to order. How could I go to Ireland without sampling the fish and chips?
I got them to go, of course. In Ireland, I might have walked away from a whelk stall with my order wrapped in newspapers. This time, served up hot at home later, the fish and chips were perfectly crispy, the cod succulent, complemented perfectly by the peas on the side. And, I should add, it paired rather well with a Guinness stout.
