photograph by ‘Captures by Katie’
Pedan Vennemann
I needed to get to Villa Castrioti by 4 p.m. to interview the restaurant’s award-winning bartender, Pedan Vennemann. Unsure of exactly where it was, I plugged the name into Google Maps and headed east to Germantown Parkway, as Siri instructed. Twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the front of the restaurant. After knocking for several minutes, I texted Vennemann: “I’m at the front door.”
“I’m looking out the front door now and I don’t see you,” came the reply.
I soon learned that Villa Castrioti has two locations in the Memphis area. And that I was at the wrong one. After another twenty minutes, I was in Lakeland, sitting at the gleaming bar in a sleek new restaurant with wonderful natural light pouring in through floor-to-ceiling windows and Italian-themed art everywhere. What a great surprise.
photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
A “S‘mores Old Fashioned”
“We opened this location in 2022,” Vennemann says. “A lot of people don’t know that we’re out here and may not know what we offer — like live music, and that we’re a really under-rated steakhouse. People like to come here for Italian, and the pasta and Italian dishes are great, but when they order that steak, it’s a totally different world.”
Vennemann grew up in this part of the world and knows it well. “I was born in Memphis,” she says, “then my mom moved out to Fayette County, so this area has been home for most of my life.”
After starring as a basketball player in high school, Vennemann was offered a scholarship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, but it didn’t feel like a good fit. “My mom and I went to visit the school, and it was kind of out in the middle of nowhere,” she recalls, “so I decided to stay here and help with her business.”
In the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis contest, readers voted Vennemann the “Best Bartender” in town, an award she is proud to have.
In addition to working with her mother, Vennemann began bartending at several Arlington-area restaurants, before landing a job at Villa Castrioti’s Cordova location. A year or so later, she moved to the Lakeland restaurant when it opened.
“Our owners — Brian Leith, Joe Clarke, and Aaron Pullen — are great,” she says. “We don’t really have a bar manager, but I order the liquor and I’m over the drinks and recipes at all our locations, including our newest one in Nashville. But this place is my home. This is my crowd … people who have coached me, taught me, who have watched me grow up.”
It should be noted that her crowd voted in substantial numbers in the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis contest, boosting Vennemann to the title of “Best Bartender” in town, an award she is proud to have. She is also the proud mother of a blended family of four children. “My youngest two are five and six, both girls in elementary school,” she says. “My stepdaughter is 12, and my stepson is 17 and doing all the senior things. Plus, my husband and I also own a pest control company, so we’re busy people.”
“So, what do Lakeland folks like to drink?” I ask, turning the subject to one I’m familiar with.
“One of their favorites is our ‘S’mores Old Fashioned,’” Vennemann says. “I start with a toasted-marshmallow simple syrup, which I create from scratch — toasting the marshmallows until they are nice and crispy. Then I use Bird Dog S’mores Flavored Whiskey and add chocolate bitters. It’s simple, but gives off a lot of taste-tones. We like to say, ‘We bring a bonfire to your barstool.’”
“That’s a great line,” I say. “Would you bring me a bonfire?”
“Absolutely,” Vennemann says, and sets to work creating what turns out to be a very interesting and really tasty cocktail. I remark on the complexity of the flavors and get another surprise.
“I don’t drink alcohol,” Vennemann says, “so I never taste the drinks I make. But I can tell from the color and smell what they’re going to taste like. I call it a hidden talent. In fact, I just won an award for ‘Most Creative Cocktail’ at the Literatini Festival [a fundraiser for Literacy Mid-South] with my Heath Bar Espresso Martini.”
As I savor my drink, I look around the unexpectedly splendid room and find myself pleased to discover the hidden treasures — and hidden talents — of Lakeland. It’s been a trip worth taking. I recommend it to you. Let Pedan Vennemann bring you a bonfire.
Villa Castrioti, 9861 Lake District West, Lakeland; 714 North Germantown Parkway, Cordova.
