When I pitched the “Buckle of the Barbecue Belt” story for our September issue, I knew I wanted to talk about Payne’s Bar-B-Que. The little cement brick shop on Lamar is unassuming in its plain white paint, but the food is excellent. Unfortunately, I piled my plate too high — before I could even think about incorporating Payne’s into the piece, I had already hit and exceeded my word count. The solution, though, was simple — what didn’t fit in print will work well on the web.
Like so many barbecue restaurants in Memphis and across the South, Payne’s is family-owned and -operated. It was opened in 1972 just a few blocks east of its current location by “my dad, my mom, and my grandmother — my dad’s mother,” says Ron Payne, son of Payne’s original owners Flora and the late Horton Payne, who now runs the restaurant with his sister, Candice Payne-Parker.
“My mom is actually the last living original person,” Ron says. “She’s good. She still comes every day.”
“We’ve actually been in the same building since ’76,” Ron continues. As for what’s changed in the little shop? Ron says “not much,” and certainly not the recipes.
“Of course our coleslaw is the first thing people always mention,” he says, saying the mustard base lends a distinctive taste and is “a little more flavorful. It’s a unique style of coleslaw that actually was a family recipe.”
Michael Donahue
Payne's Family
L to R: Ron Payne, Flora Payne, and Candice Payne-Parker
The same is true for much of what’s on the menu at Payne’s. “My dad’s cousin owned a barbecue place in north Memphis that was pretty popular in the ’60s and ’70s. It was called Joe’s, and he actually taught my father how to barbecue. His recipes were similar to ours. It was in the heart of North Memphis,” Ron says. “I guess the area over there now they call Smokey City.” That legacy translates to the Payne’s way of cooking, which is, Ron says, “probably the closest to somebody cooking at home.”
When asked what barbecue means to Memphis, Ron was quick to answer: “It’s just part of the culture of Memphis. I think food all around is the culture in Memphis, and barbecue is one of the staples. But we really have a lot of talented chefs who are outside of barbecue and soul food restaurants.”
1762 Lamar Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, 38114 / 901-272-1523
