Pulled chicken with pickled green tomatoes on a torta bun at Wolf River Brisket Co. Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Even smoked meat newbies likely know this long-standing adage: Brisket is a Texas thang. Certainly, restauranteur Chad Foreman headed to the Lone Star State with specific intent: Eat as much brisket as possible to research Wolf River Brisket Company, the Germantown restaurant he operates with co-owner Kirk Cotham.
Don’t pigeonhole the restaurant’s brisket, however, with barbecue, although the prime black Angus briskets — more than 1,200 scrumptious pounds a week — are cooked low and slow over pecan wood for about 18 hours. “We didn’t want to open a barbecue restaurant,” explains Cotham. “We wanted to open a restaurant with unique dishes designed around a smoker.”
Chef Gannon Hamilton worked with owners Kirk Cotham and Chad Foreman to develop dishes for Wolf River Brisket Co. locations in Germantown and Olive Branch.
Chef Gannon Hamilton admits the distinction — it’s not barbecue, it’s brisket — is more of a mindset. “So many different regional ideas influence our dishes, we don’t want to be perceived in just one way,” he explains. The brisket rub, for instance, includes sugar (thank you Memphis) and chili powder and cumin, two ingredients favored in Texas. Balsamic and red wine vinegars, a nod to Carolina cooking, temper Wolf River’s signature sauce, which veers sweet. And the restaurant’s waffles — really Southern-style cornbread — get a fusion update with chopped cilantro, corn kernels, and cheddar cheese.
Open since March, the restaurant is a new concept for Cotham and Foreman, who started five years ago with Pyro’s Fire Fresh Pizza in East Memphis, the first of seven locations in three states. Bright and bustling, Wolf River includes a patio and horseshoe bar that anchors a register for takeout orders.
On a recent Friday night, the restaurant is jamming. We snag seats at the bar and order margaritas, served in glasses with smoked salt on half the rim. (They are excellent.) Our food quickly follows: pulled smoked chicken with white sauce on house-made biscuits; sliced brisket with jalapenos, pickled green tomatoes, and a tangle of fried onions on baked cheese grits; and smoked salmon so perfectly prepared that I stop talking to better focus on every bite.
Side dishes — more leading role than bit part — impress us, as well, especially the slender green beans, blanched and sautéed with garlic, lemon, shallots, and hot sauce. Standout sides are integral to the restaurant’s menu, says Cotham, who recalls watching a boy scrape clean a bowl of Brussels sprouts developed from his wife Jenni Gotham’s recipe. “I said to myself, if a 10-year-old is killing the Brussels sprouts, they must be good.”
The dining room at Wolf River Brisket Co.
9947 Wolf River Blvd. in Germantown (901-316-5590) $$
