photograph courtesy hive bagel & deli
Alongside bagels and sandwiches, Hive offers beautifully prepared pastries and other treats.
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!
Business at Hive Bagel & Deli is buzzing. Customers line the block waiting to get into the little Downtown bakery/deli at 276 South Front Street for bagels, sandwiches, and salads.
Hive is the brainchild of owner Josh Steiner, who was chef/owner of two restaurants, Strano! and Strano by Chef Josh. A few years ago, he and his wife, Wallis, got into beekeeping and began selling honey. Steiner, a self-described “bee nerd,” now uses that honey in his bagel recipes. They also use it in a lot of their pastries, including their popular honey butter croissants.
“It’s very classical in the way we do our pastries,” Steiner says. “My training comes from San Francisco, New York, and all these other places. So, it’s a very European approach to the pastries and breads. It’s just a fresh product. Our flour is all natural. We use a lot of whole-wheat products. No clean or vitamins or nutrients added later. Our flour is artisan sourced.”
Steiner’s baguette sandwiches, including The Front Street Deli, are among his most popular items. That one consists of house-smoked corn beef, Swiss cheese, lettuce, mustard, and house-made pickles.
He’s been making bagels for years, saying, “I will bake a bagel before I buy one.” Steiner took classes at the San Francisco Baking Institute, which specializes in bagels. “I wanted to learn the business side and how to source local ingredients.”
Hive recently introduced a new menu, Steiner says, featuring “more breads rather than just bagels. We offer specialty sandwiches on baguettes. Sourdough and rye. And now that we’ve been open a certain amount of time, we’re fully stocked and not selling out as much.”
On the pastry side, Steiner says, “We’re actually making Key lime pies.” And they’re offering tarts, including a dark chocolate raspberry tart and a pistachio with chocolate tart. Hive also caters, serving boxes and platters to customers.
Customers can look into the kitchen at Hive. “I’m trying to capture the romantic side of it,” he says. “I find it romantic. Things being made from scratch. Things being made by hand or turned out. Flour being mixed or dough being pulled out of the mixing bowl. Dough going into the oven.”
Steiner says the look and feel of Hive are a combination of the concept he and his wife developed: “Something clean, bright, welcoming that feels good when you walk in. And shows the aesthetics of the product through the build-out. That, and we’re making pretty stuff. The pastry is beautiful. The bread is beautiful. So, you need a great place to show that stuff.”
