Raise the Bar

For scrumptious dinners at half the price, settle into a comfortable bar stool and get ready to eat.

Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen

Pasta specials, ricotta toast, and an Italian street food favorite

Tigelle sounds like an exotic type of pasta, right? But, no, I discover when I ask about the new additions to the happy-hour menu at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen. A traditional yeasted flatbread, tigelle comes from the mountains near Modena, a region in northern Italy best known as the home of balsamic vinegar. “They remind me of English muffins,” says Chad Harrison, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine. “We shape the dough into a ball, let it rise, cut the dough into circles, and let it rise again.”

Baked quickly over open flames inside a long-handled press, tigelle are crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, and stamped with a decorative fiore della vita (flower of life). They are an adorable culinary canvas for the flavors of fall stacked inside: salami, mozzarella, red onion, and arugula lightly tossed with vinaigrette, or a mini-eggplant Parmesan made with provolone, pomodoro sauce, and fried eggplant slices.

Like the tigelle’s fixings, most ingredients on the restaurant’s happy-hour menu flex with the seasons. In early October, one of two pasta specials include a scrumptious cacio e pepe made with bucatini, blissful fat noodles hollow inside so they soak up more sauce. We also order toast, a thick slice of Italian bread topped with whipped ricotta, sautéed chanterelles, peach slices, and micro greens. “I love lots of stuff on toast,” Harrison says about how the toppings come together. “I think most people do.”

Along with the menu’s seven different dishes, happy-hour drink specials include wine (house red, white, sparkling, and rosé) for $7 a glass, traditional cocktails for $6 to $10, and a drink special like Viola Calda, a mezcal-based beauty with pomegranate juice and a spark of jalapeño that my husband loves. He orders another, and we linger in the bar’s comfortable booth to share angel food cake, a long-forgotten favorite from my mother’s home kitchen. — Pamela Denney

712 W. Brookhaven Circle (901-347-3569)

Happy hour ($6-$10) is 4-6 p.m., Tuesday-Friday.

Rizzo’s by Michael Patrick

Monday-night specials, goat & grind ball, and the lobster pronto pup

When most people think of a pronto pup, they picture a day at the fair. At Rizzo’s by Michael Patrick, however, the pronto pup gets a classy update with the pancake batter wrapped around lobster instead of a hot dog. It’s a classic on the restaurant’s menu, and bartender Dennis Cowan notes that it was even featured on Guy Fieri’s show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Even better, the lobster pups live up to the hype. Served on a bed of arugula, the crispy coating leads to the buttery lobster in the middle, and the mustard aioli gives it all a slight kick.

At Rizzo’s bar, the lobster pronto pup isn’t the only dose of Southern. Cowan also recommends the goat & grind ball, a deep-fried ball of grits stuffed with creamy goat cheese and drenched in a slightly spicy tomato sauce. Shredded Parmesan tops it off. Like the pup, the ball tastes like upscale fair food, and it’s a cheesy, fried delight. The restaurant’s sausage and cheese platter also offers a Memphis twist on the charcuterie board trend. Served with cheeses like provolone and asiago, locally made andouille sausage is the charcuterie’s stand-out star.

A chalkboard above the bar lists the specialty cocktails, $7 each, that change seasonally. The Berry Basil Margarita was a hit all summer, Cowan says, and for good reason. With muddled blueberries and a basil-infused salt rim, the result is a subtle and pleasing fusion of a margarita and a mojito. The bar also serves up a happy hour every Monday with $9 beer and burgers. They end the night with a watch party for the newest episode of Bluff City Law.

The spot is thoroughly Memphis, and Rizzo’s awaits the upcoming additions to the South Main area. Cowan teases that as the new hotels open in the district, Rizzo’s will extend their hours to include lunch throughout the week and introduce a bar menu with brand-new food items. — Caroline O’Connor

492 S. Main St. (901-304-6985)

Happy hour on Monday nights offers $9 beer and burgers.

Hu. Diner

Pickled cocktails, country-fried cauliflower, and chicken bites with pepper grits

Any pickle fans out there in Memphis? If so, the Hu. Diner probably has the right cocktail for you. Fermentation is the name of the game, and chef TJ Harville’s long history of pickling carries over to the diner’s extensive selection of drinks. While the aptly named “Pickled Happy Hour” is no more, plenty of concoctions feature everyone’s favorite brined cucumber (in addition to other pickled vegetables) to enjoy after a long day at work.

The Pickle Rick (for reference, watch Rick and Morty, Season 3, Episode 3) features a made-in-house Aperol with raspberry pickle, lemon, and locally brewed Delta Sunshine beer. On the specialty Hu. happy-hour menu, there are six cocktails, ranging from $8 to $10. The Tiger Lily mixes Buffalo Trace Bourbon with apple, lemon, and ginger. Or, for a little more natural sweetness, try the Bee’s Knees, whose Brockmans gin, honey, and lemon keep the happy-hour buzz going. The Hu. Bubble Gum Pop is another gin cocktail, but uses grapefruit, lemon, and club soda for a sweet, confectionary scent.

The food menu has no shortage of Southern-inspired items for diners to munch on. We start with freshly baked Parker House rolls covered in benne seeds and a sweet honey-butter glaze. Our bartender recommends chicken bites. Hu. Diner has two parts of its dinner menu dedicated to various styles and fusions of fried chicken, ranging from a Korean-style glazed with a gochujang red chili paste to Nashville-esque hot chicken. The bites, placed atop a soft expanse of black pepper grits, are in the vein of traditional fried chicken, but updated with a garlic dill mayonnaise drizzle.

On the snacking side, country-fried cauliflower and crawfish mac & cheese are good bets. And if it’s a beautiful day, just walk up to the open exterior bar windows and order a cocktail outdoors. It’s one of the best parts of pickled cocktails and the diner’s delicious small plates options. — Samuel X. Cicci

3 S. Main St. (901-333-1224)

Happy hour is 5-6:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday.

117 Prime

Prime burger, curried deviled eggs, and the Sunrise Old-Fashioned

When the mood for a good burger strikes, I make my way over to 117 Prime to see what they have to offer. Upon walking in, I am greeted by a posh but casual atmosphere, and a sleekly dressed hostess. I tell her I want to sample some of the restaurant’s bar food, and she motions me over to the bar to my left. 

There, an equally sharp-dressed bartender by the name of Clayton Furr hands me a thick menu filled with many drink options, which can include anywhere from 117 (“That’s no relation to the restaurant name,” Furr says) to 130 varieties of wine and a handful of specialty cocktails. I know I want something to complement that burger I have a hankering for. “If you’re eating red meat, I’d suggest the Sunrise Old-Fashioned,” Furr says. “It’s one of my favorites.” 

The Sunrise Old-Fashioned is a unique, bacon and bourbon-style twist on the classic drink. It’s built on Buffalo Trace Bourbon infused with Benton’s bacon drippings, barrel-aged maple syrup, and Memphis BBQ bitters, and garnished with a slice of crisp, melt-in-your-mouth bacon that’s shipped from Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, Tennessee. 

With somewhat of a breakfast theme in mind, I also order curried deviled eggs as an appetizer. The trio of eggs sliced in half are swirled with the Indian curry yolk filling and sit atop a bed of arugula and pickled red onions dressed with a lemon shallot vinaigrette.

Now, I’m ready for the finale. The Prime Burger is a seven-ounce beef patty, with Jarlsberg cheese (similar to Swiss), caramelized onions, mushrooms, dijonaise, Benton’s bacon, and a sunny-side-up egg, all sandwiched within a grilled poppy seed bun. A large helping of shoestring French fries flavored with white truffle oil, topped with garlic, Parmesan, and parsley, and served alongside a garlic and creole aioli, make for the perfect accompaniment. — Julia Baker

117 Union Ave. (901-433-9851)

The bar menu ($7-$18) is served from 4 p.m. to close Sunday-Saturday.

Restaurant Iris

Cheesy Toast, Shrimp and Grits, and a nod to General Tso

Crave a tower of burger and bun that is so tall it leans a little? Then head for the bar at Restaurant Iris and ask for a menu. The Fancy Pants burger is listed first, one of the menu’s five different “Snackies.” But don’t be fooled by the Snackies name, this burger is dinner — juicy, majestic, and eaten with both hands.

Consider the burger’s parts: The patty is made from a specialty grind of brisket and top round. The cheese is Havarti, a semi-soft cow’s milk variety made for melting. The onions — and there are lots of them — are caramelized, the pickle is a green tomato dill, and the fish sauce mayo from sous chef Pat Kee is house-made and unique. “We were deciding on the condiment, we all contributed something, and Pat’s was the best,” recalls chef Kelly English. “There is something perfect about that touch of umami.”

Less ravenous customers should try the menu’s cheesy toast, a deconstructed puttanesca sauce on Fino’s mozzarella that melts down the sides of the crusty bread. I eat lots of thick toast with toppings, and this pungent and spicy spin is excellent. Diced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and roasted jalapeños — tossed in olive and caper vinaigrette — hide underneath a crown of cilantro micros and mint. The toast also is vegetarian-friendly because chefs replace puttanesca’s traditional anchovies with a plant-based fish sauce.

Customers in the dining room can order from the bar menu as well, except for the Fancy Pants, unless they order it for dessert (“I think a cheeseburger is the perfect dessert,” English says, laughing). Other bar menu options include shrimp and grits, which make an encore performance from the very first Iris menu; pork belly, pickled carrots, and slaw star in Vietnamese sandwiches called bahn-mi; and Brussels sprouts, perked up with General Tso’s sauce, a perennial favorite, and garnished with toasted sesame.

Along with the food, the bar is a fun and amicable place to relax with drinks, both classic cocktails and specialty concoctions updated every few months. For a sentimental goodbye to summer, we try a peach spritzer topped with fresh berries, champagne, and a sprig of Thai basil. Cold-weather drinks are on the way. — Pamela Denney

2146 Monroe Ave. (901-590-2828)

The bar menu ($10-$15) is served from 5 p.m. to close Monday-Saturday.