Murals by Memphis artist Bill Turri dominate the new Ronnie Grisanti’s in the East Memphis Regalia Center.
Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
High-back booths — the black leather button-tufted kind — turn any meal, be it business or pleasure, into something special. Maybe it’s the privacy they afford or their throne-like perch, but tucked inside a classy restaurant booth, food tastes better, and relationships feel more intimate.
At Ronnie Grisanti’s, a dozen or so booths direct the restaurant’s stylish design, connecting the taupe-colored dining room to a busy cocktail bar. But for Chef Judd Grisanti, the booths are much more essential than nostalgia or decor. They are instead an homage, a way to acknowledge Ronnie Grisanti, his late father and the namesake of his new Italian restaurant in the East Memphis Regalia Center. “My dad loved a booth,” Judd says. He is wistful and remembers easily, “He would always say I wish we had more booths. We need more booths. He would even take a nap in a booth between lunch and dinner.”
In late December, I settle into one of those black leather cocoons, the large circular one near the bar’s mural of Lucca, the Grisanti family’s Italian homeland in Tuscany. For almost two hours, I speak with Judd about the restaurant and his decision to start cooking again after a 10-year break. He is forthright, and often emotional, about his relationship with Ronnie and with the extended family of Grisanti chefs, who for four generations have served classic Italian food at a string of popular restaurants in Memphis.
Chef Judd Grisanti whips up cocktail sauce sorbet.
“If anyone had told me five years ago I’d be sitting here talking to you about this beautiful new restaurant, I would have said they are crazy,” Judd says. “But here I am, and I can tell you this: I’m very blessed. I’m very pleased.”
Admittedly, the past couple of years have been rough. After leaving Spindini, the Italian restaurant on South Main he opened in 2007, Judd walked away from cooking, despite a culinary focus he traces back to his boyhood days. (“I probably watched my mother make cheesecakes for the restaurants several thousand times before I made my first one,” he recalls.) But when his father got ill, Judd came back to help with Grisanti’s in Collierville, the follow-up to Ronnie’s long-standing restaurant at Poplar and Humes.
Family loss came quickly. First, Judd’s mother, Kay Francis Grisanti, died. Ronnie passed away next in 2017. And then in November, two months after the opening of the new Grisanti’s, restaurant partner Nick Belisomo died at 72. Judd called him Uncle Nicki. “He was a mentor and a best friend,” Judd says. “I talked to him 10 times a day.”
For Judd, the family deaths kindle memories, but they also build new resolve. “My family has been in the restaurant business for 110 years,” Judd says. “I didn’t used to think much about that, but now I do. I look at my grandfather and my uncle and my Dad, and sometimes, I still feel like a kid, wanting to talk to them, to see what they think.”
After several visits for dinner and lunch, I feel certain Judd’s forebears are smiling with approval at the graciousness of the new Grisanti’s and its comprehensive menu that includes appetizers (Tuscan butter), salads (only burrata and tomato will do), 12-inch pizzas (lobster or Pisano, please), and for lunch, the Big Rinaldo, a marvel of a burger on a ciabatta bun made with a custom blend of ribeye, short rib, and tenderloin.
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Creamy burrata and tomato salad
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Other menu items showcase old-world recipes updated with modern techniques. (Think sous vide cooking and wood smoke injector guns.) Grisanti’s oysters, for instance, mix so many tasty options you’ll be tempted to try them all. Oysters Rockefeller, a classic throwback, follow the same recipe popularized by Judd’s grandfather, Elfo. But the restaurant’s raw oysters, a changing selection from both coasts, are served with a scoop of savory sorbet made by whipping house-made cocktail sauce with liquid nitrogen. It’s a bit of kitchen magic that adds flavor and keeps the oysters cold.
A Bottene pasta-making machine imported from Italy also is invigorating the menu with a slew of house-made pastas like basil and spinach rigatoni and linguini flavored with saffron. The machine — the Cadillac of its genre — can turn out 25 pounds of pasta in 45 minutes, Judd explains: “It’s fun and exciting, and I can infuse the pasta with whatever flavors I need to enhance a dish.”
More complex dishes update the menu, as well. Fried oysters top Ahi tuna carpaccio, encrusted with pepper and sesame seeds and plated with Asian slaw. Ginger and orange citrus sauce, cheerful as the sun, warms wild salmon and a crisscross of slender asparagus stalks.
Slices of grilled sourdough come alongside meatballs simmered in pomodoro sauce. and sprinkled with ricotta salata.
Longtime customers will no doubt be pleased by the many Grisanti standards still on the menu, a parade of Tuscan comfort food, brought to the table quickly and served piping hot: Elfo’s Special with 10 plump shrimp; lasagna layered with beef and salsiccia; manicotti in Tuscan gravy; lemon and rosemary chicken grilled under a brick; and meatballs — a combination of veal, pork, and beef — simmered in Pomodoro sauce and garnished with cherry tomatoes. And while many restaurants frown these days on bread and butter, at Grisanti’s, a basket of fragrant focaccia, with olive oil and balsamic alongside, are part of every meal.
Pam’s Pics: Three to Try
Don’t be fooled: Ricotta cake is cheesecake made with a traditional recipe. While American cooks typically use cream cheese, Italians prefer ricotta, explains Chef Judd Grisanti. “With ricotta, the cheesecake is fluffier and lighter and not quite as dense.” ($9)
Oysters sampler. Mix-and-match half-a-dozen oysters from the East and West Coasts with charming names like Momma Mia, Riptide, or Raspberry Point. Selections vary but all are served with mignonette, lemon aioli, and cocktail sauce spun into sorbet. ($20)
Zuppa di Isabella. Luscious in color and taste, a bowl of asparagus and lobster bisque — topped with green onions, more lobster, and a swirl of chili oil — is a meal in itself, so I like to split a serving for a perfectly proportioned appetizer. Bellísimo! ($9)
