Memphis restaurant recommendations

Did a search and did not see anything.

Looking for recommendations (not BBQ).

TIA,

George

My Memphis friend says he likes the following in order, not BBQ:

www.feliciasuzanne.com

www.ejensen.com

www.restaurantiris.com

Highly recommend Restaurant Iris. I’ve only been once but it was top notch, and everybody else that I know has had a similar experience. Wine list was nothing to write home about when I was there, but corkage was only $15 IIRC.

Hog + Hominy and Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, almost next door to each other are both great.

From a chef bud in Memphis: Felicia Suzanne, Restaurant Iris, Andrew Michael’s Italian Kitchen, Hog & Hominy, Porccolino’s, Tsunami & Interim.

My buddy also said you do have to enjoy one BBQ place while in Memphis: Payne’s.

Been to Iris, going to try Felicia Suzanne this time. Thanks for all the help!

George

George, how was your dinner at Felicia Suzanne? Might give this one a shot next time I’m in Memphis.

It’s tomorrow night. I will let you know.

George

Skip Felicia Suzanne and go to Restaurant Iris. Try Fino’s for lunch as it has the best Italian sandwiches I’ve ever tried. Check out Buster’s and Kimbrough for single barrel bourbon selections. BBQ from Central or Germantown Commissary.

I know you didn’t ask for BBQ… But this is an answer to one of your meals.

“so good you’ll slap yo mama”

Felicia Suzanne was OK. Nothing special. Wine list was tiny. Food was OK. Wouldn’t go back. Iris was much better.

George

Went to Iris, Bari, and Hog & Hominy… enjoyed them all. Oh, and after Bari or Iris, make sure to head over to Lafayette’s for music after dinner.

My son decided to attend Rhodes College in Memphis, so this will probably become a regular thing for me. :slight_smile:

Anything new in Memphis that could be reco’d, and Jim- does your son enjoy Rhodes? We will be there in a couple weeks to check it out. Thanks.

Todd, yes, he enjoys Rhodes. There are some profs who he was very complementary regarding from his freshman year seminar. He also started a club at Rhodes, and it wasn’t ridiculously difficult to do. Biggest downside was probably the food… they’ve been a bit challenged with the food service for the main cafe. Personally it didn’t bother me when we visited (i mean, hey, it’s college cafeteria food), but it’s a bone of contention. The school has been trying to improve, but they’re in the midst of a contract, so the food service probably has them by the short hairs a bit. Other things… The President is very proactive with her communication, and the school is quite reasonable with it’s approach to difficult decisions… as an example, they decided about a month or two ago to go remote for Fall. They gave students the option to attend remote, defer fall, or defer the year. If they choose to defer, Rhodes will hold their scholarships. I know that someone else here mentioned their kid was going to UMass-Amherst and essentially the school was threatening kids scholarships if they didn’t attend. Quite the contrast… and Rhodes was very proactive with this offer.

Memphis as a town is obviously big enough to provide plenty of things to do. Overton Square just south of the college past the zoo is pretty close and nice to go to with some restaurants, bars, etc. There ARE areas to be careful in (as you can imagine with any urban area), but the college is in a strip down the middle of the memphis area that’s pretty nice with relatively few exceptions. They also have a pretty cool music festival downtown on the riverfront in early May (canceled this year, of course): Beale Street Music Festival. Oh, and the National Civil Rights Museum downtown (built around the Lorraine Hotel where MLK was assassinated) is a must (assuming it’s open). Give it some time (we spent 3-4 hours and probably could have easily spent more).

So what i can’t tell you is if there are new restaurants worth checking out. My son decided he wanted to go overseas for his Sophomore year, and so he studied in Salzburg Austria. Well, since Covid has pretty much made a mess of the US (and not Austria), and because the college offered to let them defer a year, he enjoyed Austria so much that he deferred the coming year at Rhodes and actually enrolled in the University of Salzburg. So he’s staying there for the next year. Which means that we haven’t been to Memphis since May/June 2019. There are two places that look like interesting hangouts for a beer (Railgarten and Casual Pint) but I haven’t been to either per above. Oh, and not mentioned on my list (but definitely mentioned by others) is the Commissary BBQ in Germantown. Not sure about during Covid, but traditionally this place is tough to get into (people line up). We hit it during lunch on a weekday. :slight_smile:

If you’re son is interested, I’m sure Conor will be willing to correspond and give him his two cents on Rhodes directly. Fwiw, Conor also applied and was accepted into to some places out in your neck of the woods (Reed and Whitman). Ultimately he chose Rhodes over those because it provided much better scholarship offers. Reed plays soak the upper middle class and really only offers need based scholarships, and Whitman offered about $10-12K less based on what I recall (in general, midwest liberal arts colleges provide quite a bit more scholarship money than east or west coast). Conor also looked at a number of other liberal arts colleges in the midwest… aside from Rhodes (and Reed, which he really liked, but simply wasn’t practical at $70K/year all up with no scholarship $$) his other favorites were St Olaf (MN), Kalamazoo College (MI), and Lawrence University (WI). At the end, he basically found it nearly impossible to choose because liberal arts colleges feel like… liberal arts colleges. He thought seeing more would help, but it actually made it more difficult. :slight_smile: He finally selected Rhodes on June 1 (which was the drop dead date). My point being, if you’re looking more generally at the midwest/upper south for school, these are all excellent colleges.

Feel free to ping me directly via the message system if you are interested in more info about these or others (we looked at probably 15 private liberal arts colleges, mostly in the midwest). :slight_smile:

Thank you Jim! Your detail is a wonderful surprise.

No worries Todd… happy to help / provide insight in whatever way I can. It’s doubly challenging this year looking at schools (I know, my daughter is a Senior). :slight_smile:

We are driving my daughter back to her college in Savannah and my son is coming along to check out Tulane and Rhodes. He did freshman year at Quest U. In BC, Canada but will be transferring somewhere this Spring. Tough time to be a student too.

Curious to see how it all unfolds.

Oh, and for sure eating at Cozy Corner again! (ThanksJR)

Todd, I’ve been based in Memphis for the last ten years. The city was always a little odd in that it had a dearth of the type of flagship restaurants normally found in other towns but we’ve seen a few changes lately. Restaurant Iris generally pulls the most plaudits. We’ve also seen a raft of new places opened by Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman: their original Andrew Michael in East Memphis, the Southern pizza joint Hog n Hominy (currently being renovated after a fire) and a trio in the downtown area, Catherine and Mary’s urban chic, seafood restaurant the Gray Canary and French brasserie Bishop.

Having said this I favor a couple of different spots when going out myself. The Beauty Shop in midtown Cooper Young is entertaining and quirky (it’s at the salon where Priscilla Presley would get her hair done and they’ve retained the old school dryers above some of the seats). Decent brunch. I also like a small neighborhood place Ecco on Overton Park in leafy backstreets a couple of minutes drive from Rhodes College. Nothing too fancy but it’s convivial. Also there’s Bounty on Broad, family-style dining on renewed Broad Street just east of Overton Park. May also be worth looking in - if you’re after a quick bite - at one of the places in the newly renovated Sears building (an unmissable giant structure just off the parkway two or three minutes west of Rhodes). Note of course that all of these places are currently “COVID-ing” and so I cant vouch for how seamless your experiences are likely to be.

You didn’t say what your son was thinking of studying but it could be worth mentioning that I know one of the chemistry profs at Rhodes pretty well. She is also a huge fan of Oregon pinots - so potentially some common ground there!

Final thought: local wine shop Joe’s Liquors hosts a large tasting event at the end of every February “A Taste of Oregon” with a good many growers coming down to join in. An excuse to visit again should you all decide you’re taken with the place. Happy hunting!

Jim