Yellow squash soup, dusted with microgreens
In most restaurant kitchens, yellow squash soup is a humble gift, even when dressed up with a fancy garnish or two. But at Acre Restaurant, a steaming hot bowl of the Southern staple is textured with flavor and almost too lovely to eat.
I discover the soup as a first course to dinner and admire its color, a deep golden yellow dusted with microgreens. I lean in, scooping up crunchy granola, crumbled into bits, with each fragrant spoonful. Reluctant to share, I finally do, but not until I claim the soup’s appealing surprise: a miniature flan made with puréed eggplant and Parmesan, hiding in the bowl like a Cracker Jack prize.
Owner and chef Wally Joe
Enchanted with the dish, I later laud executive chef and partner Andrew Adams with superlatives. He has a straightforward explanation. “I want our soups to be cool and interesting to guests,” he says. “I want to take the ingredients and make those ingredients shine.”
For fun, I ask Adams to recall a few soups from earlier menus. He remembers easily: corn soup with crab, sumac, and brown butter; lentil soup with spicy peppers and corn bread; Japanese-influenced pork broth poured tableside over foie gras dumplings; and cauliflower soup made with cucumbers, smoked steelhead roe, and borage flowers picked from Acre’s kitchen garden.
Chef Andrew Adams
Chef and owner Wally Joe joins in, and as I listen to the chefs talk about food, I am impressed with their relationship, a personal and professional connection that started in Cleveland, Mississippi, where Joe's parents ran a restaurant for decades named KC’s. Adams ate at KC’s growing up, and later, as a teenager, he washed dishes in the kitchen. He started cooking, attended culinary school, and joined Joe to open Wally Joe, a heralded restaurant in Memphis located in the space now occupied by Interim.
In today’s Memphis, where chef-driven restaurants abound, it’s easy to overlook the pioneering spirit of Joe and Adams’ collaboration. Ingredients now commonplace — pork belly, for one — broke new culinary ground in Memphis when Wally Joe opened in 2002. Equally important were the team’s deep Southern roots, an intersection of cultures and ingredients grounded in the seasonal rhythms of the Mississippi Delta.
Olive oil poached monkfish
“We don’t want to put gimmicks on the plate, and for the most part, I don’t think people are impressed by them,” Joe says. “For us, it’s the integrity of the product that matters most.”
Little wonder Acre continues to thrive. Certainly, the well-honed staff in the front of the house deserve credit, including server Marshall Sanchez and bartender Taylor Hannah. Both men have worked at Acre since 2011, when the restaurant opened in a house on South Perkins following a meticulous renovation.
“For us, it’s the integrity of the product that matters most.” — Wally Joe
Customers are integral, as well, and there are many dedicated supporters like my husband and I who eat at Acre for weeknight dinners, as well as for special events. Acre is located so close to our home that we typically say we should walk, but instead, we hop in the car and park in the back by the stacked stone walls that enclose the restaurant’s patio.
Most nights, we sit in the bar at a corner table, but tonight is about the dining room with its casual elegance and views of the side yard’s tall oak trees. Cocktails seem appropriate — we are celebrating our anniversary —and we order two: a dry Ketel One martini, olives no juice, and a Peppered Cavendish made with rum, Crème de Banana, and a lemon, banana, and pepper shrub. As we toast one another, I notice a small wedding party seated nearby. The bride wears a wreath of rose buds in her hair, and she looks so serene that I reach across the table and squeeze my husband’s arm while we focus on the menu: 18 different dishes divided into entrees and first courses.
Chilled Maine lobster aguachile
Deciding what to eat at Acre is a bit of a conundrum because I want it all. Often, I stick with first courses, and sometimes order two. (The grilled Spanish octopus with black garlic and gigante beans is exceptional.) But tonight, I try the special: sashimi-style salmon belly, lightly torched to soften the fat, and plated with crunchy fennel and grapefruit slices. The salmon is superb.
My husband heads in another direction with clams and pork belly, another resplendent appetizer. Potatoes, jalapeños, roasted pork belly, and baby clams steamed in chorizo broth almost spill over the top of the pretty square bowl. The dish is so good we pass it back and forth, sopping up the last of the broth with a piece of warm bread.
For entrées, Tony can’t resist the restaurant’s 12-ounce ribeye dry-aged for 40 days and prepared to his specifications: medium rare in the middle with a Pittsburgh sear. On the plate, the steak is king with attentive support players: garlicky broccoli, a classic soy and red wine sauce, and potatoes made the French way with lots of butter and cheese.
40-day dry-aged ribeye
The ribeye is excellent, but at Acre, I order seafood. No other restaurant in Memphis prepares seafood in as many creative and delicious ways. Consider the monkfish slowly poached in extra virgin olive oil, garnished with Espelette peppers dried in-house, and plated with brown butter carrots, snap peas, and lobster broth. Or try nightly specials — for me the stuff of dreams — like Norwegian cod with fingerling potatoes, baby bok choy, and butter sauce freckled with American caviar.
“When we opened Acre, we intentionally shied away from things some people wouldn’t eat,” Joe says. “Now we are doing food that is a little more involved, a little more complex. We are kind of going full circle.”
Pam’s Pics: Three to Try
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Wild mushrooms with mascarpone polenta
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Over Daylight Savings
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Sticky toffee date cake
Wild Mushrooms with Mascarpone Polenta
Mushrooms and Tuscan kale circle a mound of polenta for a hearty dish pulled together with a roasted vegetable sauce that tastes like beef bone demi-glace. Vegetarians rejoice!
Over Daylight Savings
Are you thrilled by gin’s makeover by craft distilleries? If so, try bartender Taylor Hannah’s pretty-in-pink cocktail made with a strawberry shrub and Tattersall’s gin aged in French oak barrels.
Sticky Toffee Date Cake
“It’s simple goodness,” says Chef Wally Joe about Acre’s signature dessert, a warm date cake made like English dessert pudding and served with ice cream and toffee butterscotch sauce.
Acre Restaurant
690 S. Perkins Road
901-818-2273
★★★★
Food: Sophisticated, but still approachable, the food at Acre lets top-quality ingredients shine, thanks to old and new techniques and meticulous recipe development. “For one new item to get on the menu, a yellow notebook has been filled up completely,” says executive Chef Andrew Adams.
Wine: The wine list at Acre is extensive (about 300 bottles from mostly boutique wineries) and compiled with care, so I ask servers or bartenders, who are all well-versed, to select my wine pairings.
Extras: It’s easy to spend time in Acre’s friendly bar, where the menu works for either dinner or snacks. Must-try items include cheeseburgers with horseradish mayo on brioche buns; kimchi French fries loaded with cheddar, caramelized onions, and Korean-style bulgogi beef; and steamed boa filled with pork belly, hoisin sauce, and pickled vegetables.
What’s next: Look for upcoming special events to celebrate Acre’s tenth anniversary next year.
Prices: First course ($10-$16); entrees ($24-$38); desserts ($9-$10); cocktails ($10-$13); bar menu ($7-$13).
Open: Lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and dinner Monday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. Closed Sundays.
