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O U R G U I D E to shopping local this holiday season

MAGAZINE

HARP ON THIS

A LONG WALK IN THE PARK

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David Yurman Boutique John Hardy Gurhan Roberto Coin Elizabeth Locke Penny Preville Hulchi Belluni Raymond Yard Antique Jewelry

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Cherished Traditions. Unforgettable Memories. Holiday Special Offers Starting At $199 Make this Christmas truly magical at The Peabody Memphis. From the moment the tree in the Grand Lobby lights up to the most glittering New Year’s Eve Party in Memphis and a flurry of festivities in between — get ready to celebrate the holidays in style with our seasonal event series: Duck Days of Christmas!

Duck Days of Christmas For a full list of holiday events and staycation options, visit www.peabodymemphis.com

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CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

67 UP FRONT 10

FROM THE EDITOR

FEATURES 30

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OUT AND ABOUT

B Y G R AC I E D R I V E R

CLASSIC DINING

BY MICHAEL DONAHUE

B Y A N N A T R AV E R S E

ASK VANCE BOOKS

B Y J E S S E DAV I S

B Y J O N W . S PA R K S

CITY JOURNAL

901 HEALTH

B Y F R A N K M U R TAU G H

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

Indie filmmakers Teresa Dickerson and Princeton James are building the industry in Memphis, one frame at a time.

B Y VA N C E L AU D E R DA L E

B Y TO M J O N E S

FOR ALL SEASONS

At 125 years old and with a rich history, Overton Park exists outside of time .

B Y A N N A T R AV E R S E

2026 HOMEGROWN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Going local to spread the joy. B Y S A N TA S PA R K S

LOCAL TREASURES: CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

102 SIPS: NINE TO FIVE

The master of the blues harp recalls his formative years in the Bluff City. BY ALE X GREENE

GIVING SPOTLIGHT

The Mid-South Food Bank. B Y M A R T H A K E L LY

Cori Fittes has put in the hours.

B Y B R U C E VA N W Y N G A R D E N

104 CITY DINING

The city’s most extensive dining listings.

112

LAST STAND: ANTI-ARTIFICIAL

The AI threat is real. And it’s now.

DINING OUT: WHAT A JEM

B Y F R A N K M U R TAU G H

Warm, inviting, and globally guided.

SPECIAL SECTIONS

B Y G R AC I E D R I V E R

100 DINING IN: ROASTED SWEET POTATO PIE WITH CINNAMON CRUNCH

Quite possibly the most Southern dessert out there.

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGERS

GIVING GUIDE

B Y G R AC I E D R I V E R

ON THE COVER:

Overton Park

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Memphis Magazine (ISSN 1622-820x) is published monthly for $18 per year by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 © 2026. Telephone: 901-521-9000. For subscription info, call 901-575-9470. Subscription customer service mailing address is Memphis Magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101. All rights reserved. • Periodicals Postage Paid at Memphis, TN. Postmasters: send address changes to Memphis Magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101.

NOV EMBER 2026 • MEMPHISMAGA ZINE.COM • 7

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MAGAZINE

STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE SINCE 1950

CEO AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

anna traverse EXECUTIVE EDITOR michael finger

Memphis Magazine's

THE 2026

MANAGING EDITOR frank murtaugh

FACE

SENIOR EDITORS jon w. sparks,

bruce vanwyngarden

STAFF WRITERS michael donahue,

ORIENTAL RUGS

alex greene, chris mccoy CONTRIBUTORS

jesse davis, gracie driver,

tom jones, vance lauderdal

ART DIRECTOR hudd byard ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR christopher myers GRAPHIC DESIGNER neil williams PHOTOGRAPHERS

justin fox burks, peter ceren, houston cofield, michael donahue, gracie driver, sean fisher, karen pulfer focht, lucy garrett, gravity studios, vance lauderdale, anita mccomb, frank murtaugh,

Hand Cleaning Appraisals Sales Reweaving Repairs Color Run Restoration Pet and other Stain Removals Moth Damage Odor Removal and much more Spread love, not germs by having your rugs disinfected.

Master Weaver Ali Taghavi restoring an antique Persian Farahan rug.

Here at Taghavi’s, we would like to do our part to help stop the spread of the novel COVID-19 virus. Recent studies have shown that the virus can be brought into your home, by your shoes and can live on surfaces like your rugs and floors anywhere from two to nine days. In order to help curb the spread, we at Taghavi’s, recommend that you stop wearing your outdoor shoes into your homes and to have your rugs cleaned and disinfected. Quality rug cleaning can only be accomplished by in-store professional rug cleaners. Call us for disinfecting and cleaning of your rugs.

3554 Park Avenue, Memphis, TN • (901) 327-5033 • taghavirugs.com

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NOVEMBER 2026 We want to hear from you! letters@memphismagazine.com

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The feeling never fades. It just nds a new gear.

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PORSCHE. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

MEDICINAL TREES W

R I T I N G A B O U T Overton Park this month, I found myself thinking about how the park’s magic is interwoven with the millions of memories made within those 342 acres. The park has inspired countless writers before me; in fact, this very magazine has published cover features on the park not once but twice previously (in October 1992 and September 2001, for its centennial), and now thrice. Of course, there’s Peter Taylor’s classic short story, first published in The New Yorker, called “The Old Forest” (which is really not so short — I would term it a novella, at well over 20,000 words!). There’s Brooks Lamb’s 2018 volume, Overton Park: A People’s History. Willie Bearden dedicated a volume to the park, in 2004. I could go on. Just as important, to my mind, are the people who experience the park as a regular companion, a setting for the passage of time. I conducted an unofficial survey of folks about their first or favorite memories of the place. Hamlett Dobbins, the artist and University of Memphis art professor, shared that he walks in the woods almost every day: “The most essential part of my studio practice. It’s like meditation.” Katelyn Dagen, a real estate attorney, shared that it’s “one my favorite places on earth” (and I know she’s telling the truth, because I mostly get to see Katelyn and her husband, Frankie Dakin, while walking our dogs in the forest!). Buck Billings, a photographer and project manager, told me, “I had just moved into my first apartment in Midtown, right across from the park, at barely 18. One night, after having friends over and sharing a little ‘medicinal’ tea, we wandered onto the Greensward to watch the FedEx planes come in. Then a torrential storm rolled through, and we ended up sprinting back to the apartment, completely drenched and laughing.”

Matthew Harris, who works at UTHSC (and once upon a time interned with this magazine), shared his favorite Overton Park memory: “Proposing to my wife in front of the Brooks!” Kristen Rambo, who directs communications for the Dixon, asked, “Does watching the clouds of smoke on 420 from the top floor of MCA count? Vivid memory from college!” (For the uninitiated [are you out there?], 420 = April 20 = a pot-smoker’s holiday.) And a NUMBER(!) of people, who shall all remain nameless (you’re welcome!), told me that their first memories of Overton Park revolved around weed, too — and not just watching other people light up, from a distance. There’s a marijuana-related anecdote in my cover story this month, but I didn’t include the fact that the Old Forest remains the only public place on earth I’ve been offered a hit off someone’s else joint. There’s always a little dance that happens when I come upon wandering weed-smokers int hose woods: First,

they size me up to figure out if I’m a narc, then they decide whether I’m chill enough to invite to the party. (Journalistic clarity: 19 out of 20 times, I am deemed insufficiently chill.) However you experience the park (and whether or not you … partake), I hope you’ll take a moment this autumn to visit and, in this season of thanksgiving, reflect on how fortunate we are to have an oasis at the heart of our city. Speaking of gifts, we also offer to you this month, as we do each November, our annual holiday gift guide — presented and curated again by the one and only Santa Sparks, the true identity of senior editor Jon W. Sparks. Santa offers a dazzling and dizzying array of local treasures, and while it may feel now like the gift-giving holidays are eons away, we all know what happens when we blink in early November: It’s January when we open our eyes. Before we get there, though, we also have a constitutional obligation to consider the important topic of PIE — and I personally cannot wait to experiment with Gracie Driver’s brand-new sweet potato pie recipe, created especially for Memphis Magazine(!). As always, thank you for reading, thank you for sharing our work with a friend, thank you for staying curious about Memphis.

Anna Traverse editor

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OUT AND ABOUT

NOVEMBER 2026 COMPILED BY GRACIE DRIVER

$5 PINT NIGHT Aldo’s Pizza knows how to start the week right. Both locations will offer 18inch pizza pies for the 12-inch price as well as $5 pints. Downtown will also host trivia night with up to $100 gift card prizes up for grabs. Aldo’s Pizza, November 2, 7pm MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES BASKETBALL Nov. 2 vs. New Orleans, Nov. 4 vs. Indiana, Nov. 6 vs. Oklahoma City, Nov. 11 vs. Denver, Nov. 14 vs. Brooklyn, Nov. 19 vs. Golden State, Nov. 25 vs. L.A. Clippers, Nov. 29 vs. L.A. Lakers, FedExForum DOG ADOPTION AT BELLTOWER Grab your favorite coffee order and adopt a furry friend at the same time, in partnership with the Rescued Pack Animal Rescue. Belltower Coffeehouse, November 2, 10am–12 noon

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MSCA MONTHY DINNER The MidSouth Cartoonists Association hosts monthly gatherings to enjoy good food and talk about their craft. Garibaldi’s Pizza, November 3, 6–8pm MUNCH AND LEARN The Dixon Gallery and Gardens hosts free art lectures with exceptional speakers, who discuss everything from the history of chosen artists to the style of art in different time periods. Dixon Gallery and Gardens, November 4, 11, 18, 25, 12 noon–1pm SALT MEETS SOIL Mary Beth Smith will kick off her new collection in Buckman Arts Center at their free grand reception this fall, which will be open for public viewing through December 14. St. Mary’s, November 6, 5–7pm

TERENCE BLANCHARD PERFORMS Trumpet player Terence Blanchard is an eight-time Grammy-winner, two-time Emmy nominee, and a two-time Oscar nominee. Need we say more? Highland Capital Performance Hall, November 7, 8–9:30 pm MEMPHIS TIGERS BASKETBALL Nov. 7 vs. VCU, Nov. 15 vs. Louisville, Nov. 22 vs. Evansville, FedExForum CRAFTS AND DRAFTS The Memphis Flyer is putting together a holiday market complete with booths offering pints of locally crafted beer. Crosstown Concourse, November 7, 10am–4pm FLOWER WEAVING WORKSHOP Dried and pressed flowers grown in Memphis are woven into a beautiful installation to bring a little more whimsy into your home. Midtown Bramble and Bloom, November 8, 2pm BLUFF CITY FEST University of Memphis music majors are taking over the Green Room for an unforgettable night of performances. Crosstown Concourse, November 10, 6:30pm THE GREEN HOUSE PARTY Arts Memphis is putting together a party in an unusual location, complete with live music, interactive art pop-ups, specialty cocktails, and fire pits to keep you warm. Overton Park Greenhouse, November 12, 6pm

SARDINE ILLUSTRATION BY MARY BE TH SMITH

10/16/26 8:39 AM

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N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 13

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CLASSIC DINING

Mr. Donahue enjoys a meal nex t to a Corky ’s mural made from old bottle caps.

CORKY’S

A MOVIE TITLE GAVE THE NAME TO ONE OF OUR CITY’S MOST POPULAR BARBECUE RESTAURANTS. BY MICHAEL DONAHUE

O R K Y ’ S B A R - B - Q & R I B S has been

serving up good eats since 1984. But how many people know who “Corky” is? ¶ It isn’t the name of anybody related to the founder, the late Don Pelts. But Pelts came up with the name, says his son and a former Corky’s owner, Barry Pelts. ¶ The restaurant actually took its name from the 1982 teen movie, Porky’s. ¶ “Dad’s favorite movie in the world was Porky’s,” Barry says, adding, “he loved raunchy movies.” But about two weeks before they were to open, Don discovered another “Porky’s” restaurant existed. So, he kept adding different letters to “-orky’s” until he came to “C” and Corky’s was born. Don’s family had been in the furniture business with a chain of Donald’s Furniture stores. But one day Don saw a for-sale ad for The Public Eye barbecue restaurant in Overton Square. “He asked his parents, who are my grandparents, if he could borrow $50,000. They said, ‘You’ve got to be crazy.’ He didn’t even know how to cook an egg at the time.” But, Don told them, “I’m going to hire the best people, work 24-7, and do whatever it takes.” He got the loan. Don and his brother-in-law, David Sorin, bought The Public Eye in the early 1970s. They then opened other locations in Hickory Ridge

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Mall, in the Mall of Memphis, and on Mt. Moriah Road. In 1980, Don got the idea to open Corky’s. “I can still remember it,” says Barry. “I was in high school. Dad said, ‘I’m going to have the best location, the best people. I’m going to work seven days a week, every shift.” But his father admitted the new venture probably wasn’t going to make it. “He thought he was going to fail — but fail with guns loaded.” Don opened the first Corky’s at 5259 Poplar, just east of White Station, in a small, 1960s building that had originally been a gas station. Unlike the Public Eye, “the concept was to

serve food with a drive-through window for people on their way home from work.” Don also hired waiters. “It was food fast, but not fast-food. He’d take a whole shoulder and pull meat from the bone to order.” Customers told them that the barbecue sauce was the secret to what made Corky’s so special. But Barry insists the secret was that his dad “served really good food. We thought it was the best. And he’d do it consistently every single day.” For probably 12 years, Don worked day and night, six days a week. “He’d usually take off one day at a time — at the most. I was a competitive tennis player. My mom took me to all my tournaments. He was the best father, but he was committed to building this family business.” Another secret ingredient to the restaurant’s success was that Don treated everyone who worked for him like family. He hired employees who worked for Corky’s for decades, and some of them still do, Barry says. Over 85 percent of the business is in their retail and mail-order businesses, selling fully-cooked ribs, pork shoulders, and barbecue sauce. Also, Barry says, Corky’s is “one of the top-three frozen food fulfillment companies in the business.” He adds that 95 percent of the food revenue in the restaurants comes from their ribs and pork shoulders: “The barbecue is slow-smoked over charcoal and hickory. All the ribs are trimmed to their specifications. They don’t leave membranes on the back like some places do. They pull the meat from the shoulders by hand when it’s time to use it. It isn’t cut in the morning and put in a pan to sit until needed.” They used to make their own barbecue sauce, but now a Chicago-based facility makes it, still using the original recipe. In 2022, Jimmy Stovall, who was with Corky’s since he was in high school, bought the business, which he continues to run. Barry says, “My dad would be very proud of Jimmy’s commitment to Corky’s.” The chain now includes four locations as well as four franchises. Barry, who still eats at Corky’s on a regular basis, says, “It’s great to see that it’s still around.” Corky’s, 5259 Poplar Avenue

INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL DONAHUE ; AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY ANITA MCCOMB

10/16/26 8:15 AM

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OVERTON PARK’S STATUE OF LIBERTY D E A R VA N C E : Is it true that a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty once stood in Overton Park? — E.F., Memphis.

ASK VANCE

OUR HISTORY EXPERT SOLVES LOCAL MYSTERIES: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, AND WHY NOT? WELL, SOMETIMES. 16 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

D E A R E . F. : Yes, it is indeed true. And if that answer surprises you, what surprises me is that the Lauderdale family had nothing to do with it — though we have contributed to this city in so many other ways, with schools, streets, libraries, observatories, and of course, this magazine column, which enlightens and educates as many as a dozen readers. Everyone, I hope, learned in school that Liberty Enlightening the World, a 350-foot-tall sculpture (including the base) crafted by Frederic Bartholdi in 1886, was a gift to this country from France, and greets visitors to America from its perch on what is now called Liberty Island in the New York City harbor. Not so well known, it seems, are the hundreds of nearly nine-foot-tall versions placed in cities across America from 1949 to 1951, thanks to the efforts of a Boy Scout leader in Kansas City, Missouri. Jack Whitaker was a wealthy businessman and commissioner for the Kansas City Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. According to various sources, he had seen — and was dismayed by — a chicken-wire replica of the Statue of Liberty at a state fair in Iowa. It wasn’t carved out of butter, which seems to be what people do at Midwest state fairs, but he thought our country deserved better. Knowing that the Boy Scouts (founded by Lord Robert Baden Powell in England in 1907) were searching for a dramatic way to celebrate their 40th anniversary in this country, he envisioned smaller, durable, and authentic versions of the Statue of Liberty. He contacted the Friedly-Voshardt Company, metalworkers in Chicago, who could create replicas for sale to communities for $300 (about $4,100 today), and the Scouting leadership agreed this was the perfect anniversary tribute, calling the nationwide program “The Crusade to Strengthen the Arm of Liberty.” According to ScoutingMagazine.org, Whitaker put up $3,500 of his own money for the design and casting of the prototype. In early 1949, the company began producing the replicas, each 8.5 feet tall, made from thin sheets of copper (“about the thickness of a nickel”) wrapped around a wooden frame. They weighed close to 300 pounds, and

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSIT Y OF MEMPHIS LIBRARIES

A S K VA N C E

The Statue of Liber t y in Over ton Park in 1965 (this page), and later in Liber t yland (right).

Whitaker hoped that cities would be eager to purchase them — though they would be responsible for constructing a suitable base. It was only fitting that the first statue was unveiled on November 20, 1949, in Whitaker’s hometown of Kansas City, and that state quickly became home to 25 more. The statues were officially called Little Sisters of Liberty and more than 200 found homes in city parks and outside schools, colleges, and government buildings. A website called LibertySisters.com is devoted to the location (and present condition) of each of these Little Sisters, which were eventually placed in 39 states, and even Guam, the Panama Canal Zone, and the Philippines. Now, what strikes me as very strange is that this website — seemingly complete — shows not a single Little Sister of Liberty in the entire state of Tennessee. And yet, here’s visual proof that the Chickasaw Council, headquartered in Memphis, erected one of these in Overton Park. Actually, I should clarify that: The Scouts here didn’t actually pay for the local statue. The purchase was a generous gift from Arthur Bruce, president of the Bruce Hardwood Flooring Company, who had once served as president of the Chickasaw Council. I should also mention that, based on Commercial Appeal coverage, Overton Park wasn’t the city’s first choice for the statue’s location. A group called the Scout Statue Committee argued that “the northeast corner of Poplar and Tucker would be the best site, but others seemed to think the lawn of the National Guard Armory at the Fairgrounds, where the Memphis Belle would be located, would be more suitable.” At any rate, Memphis’s Little Sister of Liberty found a home in Overton Park, just north of Rainbow Lake, close to the zoo. The newspaper coverage didn’t go into detail about who, exactly, designed and constructed the base, but as you can see from this 1965 Memphis Press-Scimitar photograph, the statue stood on a modern eight-foot concrete foundation. It’s hard to read here, but a bronze plaque bolted to the base reads: “With the faith and courage of their forefathers who made possible the freedom of these United States of America, THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA dedicate this replica of the Statue of Liberty as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty. The 40th Anniversary Crusade to Strengthen the Arm of Liberty — 1950.” PHOTOGRAPH BY VANCE L AUDERDALE

The official dedication took place on Sunday, November 12, 1950. It was a busy affair, which opened with a prayer by Scout Louis Pritchard, “who will be dressed in an Indian costume, and Troup 51 will give an Indian dance.” Following that, Alvin Tate, then president of the Chickasaw Council, spoke about American freedom and liberty, accompanied by a “guard of honor of 70 Scouts who were among the Jamboree troops who visited Valley Forge during the summer.” An Eagle Scout, Robert Highgate Jr., unveiled the statue, now standing 18 feet high on its new base, and John Vesey, chairman of the Park Commission, made an acceptance address. The ceremony still wasn’t over. “John Pharr led Cub Scouts in the Scout Promise, older Boy Scouts took their oath, Explorer Post 79 presented the Colors, all those attending joined in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the benediction was given by Scout John McKinney.” Oh, and the newspaper coverage — apparently determined to give credit to every company involved in this — mentioned that the statue had been erected by the local firm of W.L. Strange Contracting, and the public address system for the dedication had been provided by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. I think that pretty much covered it. Now, if anybody has visited Overton Park lately and thought they had somehow overlooked our city’s little Statue of Liberty, there’s a good reason for that. It stood in the park for 26 years, but when Libertyland opened on July 4, 1976, the statue was relocated to the bicentennial-themed amusement park at the Fairgrounds. I hope to locate a photo showing how they moved this thing. Did they keep it upright in the bed of the moving truck, or lay it down? (Which somehow seems ... disrespectful, for some reason.) By this time, unfortunately, more than half of the little replicas across the country had disappeared. ScoutingMagazine.org says, “No official count or record was kept of the project and, as the decades wore on, many of the little Statues of Liberty suffered the effects of time. Weather and vandalism took a toll. Spikes were broken from the crown and the torch-carrying arm often was damaged. While some cities faithfully restored the statues, others simply junked them.” Many have survived, though. According to LibertySisters.com, a Statue of Liberty is still standing, looking good as new, outside the entrance to the Scotland County Courthouse in Memphis, Missouri. If our staff writer Alex Greene, who has written a fine series of travel features on other towns and cities in America that share our name, ever makes a second visit

to Missouri, I’ll ask him to check on the Little Sister there. But where is ours? Well, when Libertyland closed in 1986, to make way for a dramatic renovation of the Fairgrounds, newspapers devoted pages to the fate of the old Zippin-Pippin roller-coaster, which moved away to Green Bay, Wisconsin. But smaller rides and attractions, such as the Statue of Liberty and a reproduction of the Liberty Bell, weren’t even mentioned. And it seems the statue had deteriorated in its final years. A Commercial Appeal reader, in a 1986 letter to the editor, complained that she had visited Libertyland “and saw the disgraceful way it has been let go. The Statue of Liberty water was so full of fungi that even the ducks had sense not to go in it.” So, I’m still searching for it. On its base, it stood 18 feet high. Without that foundation, the statue was eight feet tall. It’s not impossible, I suppose, that it could be in somebody’s Memphis backyard (or basement). I’m hoping this story will prompt a reader to tell me where.

Got a question for Vance?

E M A I L : askvance@memphismagazine.com

M A I L : Vance Lauderdale, Memphis Magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 Or visit him on Facebook from time to time.

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BOOKS

FLOUR POWER

C R O S S T H E S O U T H , across the span of years, biscuits and cornbread have been staple foods that enabled poor workers, in both rural and urban areas, to fill their bellies even when times were lean. Warm, fresh-baked biscuits, broken open and “baptized in butter” as the old Martha White Flour commercials on WDIA used to say, or cold biscuits left over from breakfast and wrapped in a bandana to carry to lunch. Cornbread, sweet and moist, thick enough to almost be a meal (pun intended) in itself. Biscuits and cornbread have surely seen many a hungry person through the day. ¶ Given the prevalence of cornbread and biscuits as Southern staples, as well as the dishes’ staying power over the decades, it would appear that self-rising flour is one of the most important innovations in the history of the South. Throughout the twentieth century, in times of poverty, segregation, and sweeping changes such as electrification, few innovations gave women more control over their time and table. So contends the new culinary history Self-Rising: The Magic Rise Behind Biscuit and Cornbread Culture (University Press of Kentucky), by the authorial team of Mindy Merrell, R.B. Quinn, and Linda Carman. ¶ Self-Rising isn’t Merrell and Quinn’s first time working together. The Nashville-based authors previously teamed up for Cheater BBQ: Barbecue Anytime, Anywhere, in Any Weather, and they have both also contributed to The Tennessean newspaper and Nashville’s NFocus magazine.

BAKING P OWDER In truth, Self-Rising may appeal more to the history lover than to the collector of cookbooks. Merrell, Quinn, and Carman have crafted an extensively researched regional history, all hinging on the advent of self-rising flour and its use in the making of biscuits, cornbread, and other warm breads. 18 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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“Self-rising products are flour and corn meal perfectly blended with the right amount of leavening ingredient and salt for efficiently and easily making biscuits and cornbread — not to mention all kinds of quick breads like pancakes, muffins, coffee cakes, and loaves. This means that a home cook can easily make any size batch of biscuits or cornbread quickly without measuring,” Merrell explains.

“This may not sound like a big deal today, but it was huge for a family eating biscuits or cornbread every single day. Homemakers loved it.” In the book, the authors explain that the average low-income white and Black families in the South went through 13 pounds of flour and cornmeal each week. To put that even further into context, self-rising flour products could account for up to 40 percent of a person’s caloric intake at the time. “Self-Rising is really the story of poverty in the South. Imagine being a farm wife a hundred years ago. You didn’t have electricity. You cooked on a sooty wood-fire stove. You had a big family to raise and feed every day. The chores were never-ending, and you sewed and mended all the clothes,” Merrell says, painting a vivid picture, one in which cornbread

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and biscuits were staples of a family’s diet, essential elements that allowed them to get the necessary calories every day.

H O M E M A D E H I STO RY As a little girl, Merrell started baking with brownie mix and canned biscuits. “My mother did not enjoy cooking and let me have the run of the kitchen,” she remembers. By high school she had progressed from store-bought brownie mix and pre-rolled canned biscuits to homemade yeast breads. “I made a lot of huge messes that my mother kindly allowed.” Quinn is an Eagle Scout who has been perfecting his campfire cooking since childhood, although he didn’t need a self-rising mix for his onthe-griddle pancakes. He credits spending time in the kitchen with his mother for kick-starting his interest in cooking, one that has lent a unique flavor to his writing career as well. “I’m an old Land Grant University Home Ec major from Virginia Tech,” Merrell says. “When I moved to Nashville back in the ’80s and ’90s, I worked with the PR firm that represented Nashville’s hometown flour, Martha White. I even wrote the live Grand Ole Opry commercials for the brand. I worked with our Self-Rising co-author Linda Carman, who was the longtime consumer affairs director and test kitchen director. We had a lot of fun cooking up all things HOT RIZE. So I’ve been dusted with self-rising flour and corn meal for close to 40 years now.”

DEEP IN THE MOMENT Merrell may say that Self-Rising is the story of poverty in the South, and though that is absolutely true, it is also not all that their new tome is. Self-Rising is rich with historical context, from flour-sack fashion and dish towels to changing train routes, from the introduction of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Act to the road to reliable baking powder, making it a vibrant, if breadthemed, snapshot of the region. The book overflows with archival photos of kitchens and general stores from the time period, newspaper and magazine advertisements for flour and corn meal, as well as the packaging for the self-rising products themselves. Visually, the book is a stunning achievement,

the next best thing to visiting a small museum, and the research the team has put into the project completes the effect. As magazine real estate is limited and therefore precludes an in-depth review of Self-Rising’s in-depth look at Southern culture, consider as an example self-rising flour and radio. The advent of and subsequent popularity of self-rising flour coincided with the rising star of radio, as itself a new avenue for advertising. King Biscuit Flour, a popular brand, bankrolled the King Biscuit Time radio program, in which blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson II, Robert Lockwood Jr., Pinewood Perkins, and James Peck Curtis played live on the air at KFFA, pausing periodically for King Biscuit Flour commercials. The radio show’s legend lives on today in the form of the King Biscuit Blues Festival in nearby Helena, Arkansas, which just held its 2026 session last month. “Radio was a huge deal for self-rising products. Radio made it possible to reach rural customers in their own homes,” Merrell explains. “The combination of music, radio, and self-rising was a match made in heaven. Martha White, of course, is famous for their connection to bluegrass music, Flatt and Scruggs, the Grand Ole Opry, and WSM radio.” Martha White was also a frequent advertiser on WDIA in Memphis, where the jingles proudly proclaimed that their biscuits were “baptized in butter.”

N O T YO U R B O T T O M SHELF BISCUIT Merrell says that “hours and hours, years and years” of research went into the making of Self-Rising, hinting that her time in the pro-

verbial trenches of flour marketing set her on the path to writing the book long before she consciously considered it as a possible project. “When I was young, I was too busy scurrying around for Martha White to think too deeply about the bigger story behind Southern baking,” the author muses. “Now that I’ve got some age on me, I’m not too distracted to look back, and boy, did we learn a lot.” “It seems especially odd to me,” she muses, “because biscuits and cornbread have been rediscovered by chefs.” She says they’re enjoying a cult-like status at the moment. The author thinks the history has languished largely untold because of disinterest, perhaps even bordering on a snobbish disdain. She says she’s frequently shocked to meet people who “dismiss [self-rising flour] as just an old-fashioned product on the bottom shelf.” Merrill feels the importance of self-rising flour has been overlooked by other food writers and historians when discussing the history of Southern baking. Still, there is hope self-rising flour will have its moment in the limelight, seen and appreciated for its status as a time-saver and agency-enabler for homemakers, a unifier across racial lines, and an unassuming champion of the unofficial Southern food pyramid. Maybe, like Salt and Cod before it, Self-Rising will shine a light on a previously underappreciated aspect of regional culture. Or, if not, at the very least, scholars of Southern culture have a new, passionately produced, deeply researched look at our history. Merrill says that she and Quinn are advocates of home cooking and hope that Self-Rising will empower people to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty, or rather, floury. “Overcomplicating things is not our style,” she says. “Biscuits and cornbread are the ultimate home comfort foods.” N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 19

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S S JOURNAL C II P TY

PEDESTRIAN PERILS WE’VE MADE PROGRESS IN ADDRESSING SOME OF THE CITY’S MOST DEADLY STAT LINES. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE WALKING OUR STREETS SAFER? BY TOM JONES

E M P H I S W A S arguably the deadliest city

in America for much of this decade, topping the lists both for murders and for pedestrian fatalities. ¶ There are signs of hope. No longer is Memphis called the murder capital of the U.S., and for the first time, the city has a comprehensive, data-driven plan to reduce the number of pedestrians dying on our streets. ¶ Memphis’s dramatic decline in crime includes a murder rate at the lowest level in 15 years. According to noted crime data analyst Jeff Asher, St. Louis and Kansas City now have higher rates than Memphis, and if the current trajectory continues, Memphis’s rate soon will be lower than those of Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Baltimore. That same kind of dramatic progress is needed to reduce pedestrian deaths — which remain the highest in the U.S. The 185-page Memphis Safety Action Plan, released in August, offers optimism that the city can reach the plan’s goals — a decline of 10 percent by 2030, 25 percent by 2035, and 50 percent by 2040. These are audacious goals in a city that had 901 pedestrian deaths and 2,062 serious injuries between 2019 and 2023. That was a formidable 66 percent increase from 2015 to 2019. If Memphis achieves the goals set forth in the plan, we will be back where we were before Covid. In a report called Dangerous by Design, Smart Growth America repeatedly blames the physical design of streets. Poplar Avenue, for example, includes stretches that are seven lanes wide. Summer Avenue has a crash rate twice that of comparable roads. Across Memphis, pedestrians encounter wide lanes, high speeds, long distances between crossings, and sidewalks that are broken or nonexistent. The result is a transportation system that frequently asks people to do something inherently dangerous: to cross streets designed primarily to move automobiles quickly, increasing the risks to the 28,000 Memphis households that either do not own a car or prefer to walk or bike. According to the Memphis report, 63 percent of fatalities and serious injury crashes 20 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

are related to intersections, 25 percent to teen drivers, 24 percent to vulnerable road users, 21 percent to aggressive drivers, and 19 percent to road departures. Despite frequent complaints of speeding as a concern by the public, only three percent were speeding-related. Kelsey Huse, safe street advocate and author of the Substack Memphis Urbanism, says: “We must ensure the safety action plan is actually followed and real policies are implemented. Memphis has too many amazing plans that are left on the shelf and either not funded or delayed on implementation. Most cities pass a plan like this and don’t make any improvements. Our leaders have to be actually committed to this plan.” Nick Wiggins, bikeway and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis, says implementation of the report’s recommendations is already underway and there will be quarterly meetings to report on progress. Next steps focus on the “three e’s”: engineering, education, and enforcement, he said. Immediate steps are to address 15 “quickbuild demonstration temporary projects”; a major project improving the number-one location for crash frequency, the six-way intersection connecting Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street; and targeted improvements for 10 priority intersections and 10 priority corridors. The plan estimates the cost at $72.6 million.

Huse emphasizes enforcement and education: “City leadership and MPD must work together to communicate the importance of following traffic laws and educate people on what those laws are. All too often there is zero enforcement for illegal maneuvers like parking in the bike lane or pulling into crosswalks at a red light. You can see this play out at any school during pickup or dropoff.” She advocates for “the leading pedestrian interval” as an affordable, doable short-term alternative to redesigning a single intersection at a cost of $13 million. “When the pedestrian button is pushed, when the light turns red, the walk sign is on for five seconds with no green lights for cars. This gives pedestrians a ‘head start’ across the street,” she says. “It can be done for free at practically any intersection in the city that has walk signs.” The backbone of the plan is the Safe System Approach which presumes the presence of human error. People will make mistakes. Drivers will speed. People will cross where they shouldn’t. Someone will look down at a phone. Someone will misjudge a gap in traffic. Wiggins says a transportation system designed around safety does not assume that every person will behave perfectly, but it is designed so that an ordinary mistake does not become a death sentence. Instead of asking, “Why did this pedestrian get hit?” it asks, “Why was it possible that this mistake produced a fatality?” Rather than treating each death as an isolated event, the Memphis plan treats the entire transportation network as a system that can be redesigned and improved. That could mean narrower lanes, safer and more frequent crossings, pedestrian refuge islands, better lighting, sidewalks that actually connect, protected bicycle facilities, improved intersections, and traffic-calming measures. Memphis has spent years being told that its streets are dangerous by design. Now the city has an opportunity to make them safe by design, and to shed its #1 ranking. That is what the Safety Action Plan recommendations are all about, while understanding that less deadly is not the same thing as safe. T O M J O N E S is the principal of Smart City Consulting, which specializes in strategic communications, public policy development, and strategic planning. He tends the 20-year-old Smart City Memphis blog and is an author with experience in local government. Contact him at tjones@smartcityconsulting .com

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis helps you turn generosity into lasting impact. We recognize the Navigator Society—a group of attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors who champion charitable giving by consistently guiding their clients to the services and solutions the Community Foundation offers. Ben C. Adams, Jr.

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“So sorry for your loss.” “Melinda was wonderful, and may her memory be a blessing.” “I’m grateful to have known your mom, and will remember her with a smile.” “I’m here for you if you need anything.”

WHEN GRIEF GIVES G

R I E V I N G A L O V E D O N E is a winding road. You may have heard this in a song. It’s a road, though, that doesn’t have to be traveled alone. Grief counselors — good ones, mind you — are worth their weight in emotional comfort (and gold, too). ¶ When I lost my mom, in November 2025, I heard words of comfort from countless family, friends, and colleagues.

About that last one. Human nature is such that we offer ourselves (“anything”) to those we love when we know they’re suffering. It’s a combination of sympathy and empathy in its truest form. Most of us know the pain of loss. We can feel it together and, sometimes, discuss the symptoms, even the details. But time marches on after a loved one’s death, even if it feels like your own life has come to a standstill. Two months, let’s say, after a parent’s death, how many people would you approach for a heart-to-heart about the still-felt absence? How about six months later? The number declines. People — even the sympathetic — have other priorities. A few people in my circle shared the same advice shortly after Mom died: “Talk to someone.” By “someone,” they meant a therapist. I had never met regularly with a psychiatrist or psychologist, to say nothing of a therapist who specializes in grief. These people saw and felt my hurt (one was my sister, my only sibling). And they knew the right resource would help me along that winding road. For a year now, I’ve met monthly with Greg (his name for this story), and I’ve gathered some truisms from grief counseling. My hope is they’ll reach you when needed.

Talking about grief is the biggest, boldest step you can take. Our minds are operating 24 hours a day. They create dreams, for crying out loud, when we’re deeply asleep. In periods of grief, there is what feels like a syrupy layer around the rest of my thoughts: “Mom’s no longer here.” My mom’s absence feels most acute when I’m at my lowest or highest, emotionally. In either state, she’s the first person I’d share thoughts with, or describe an impactful experience. No longer there, her “presence” takes the form of that brain syrup . . . makes regular, daily thoughts somewhat sticky.

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From my first session with Greg, I discovered that merely being able to discuss my mom’s absence — and her profound, posthumous presence — was healing. I wasn’t invading Greg’s space with my sad (or happy) thoughts about my deceased mother. He was there to listen to those thoughts. After that first discussion, I felt like Mom actually left the room of my brain space, if temporarily. This was very healthy.

While your grief feels deeply personal . . . it’s been felt by others, and lots of others. For more than 25 years, the Transformation Center has been a trusted resource for outpatient mental health care in the Memphis area. We provide Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) and Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) that occupy a critical middle ground in the behavioral health continuum of care. These programs serve clients who are too acute or functionally impaired for standard weekly outpatient therapy but who do not require the 24-hour supervision of inpatient or residential treatment. We treat Depression • Anxiety •Trauma • Grief & Loss • Substance Use Disorder Eating Disorders • Other Psychiatric Conditions Our approach combines evidence-based, experiential therapies with medication management, individual, group, and family sessions.

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The weight of a loved one’s loss is heavier than you’d like to consider anyone else ever feeling. “How can I carry this?” It will help to remember most human beings have had to carry similar weight, even heavier weight . . . though it goes unseen and unheard. This is the human condition, as they say. I’ve not surprised Greg with any of my observations about death, about Mom’s passing in particular, or about how I’m navigating my world without her. He’s been able to share stories and anecdotes from his own life and career that make my suffering (and healing) feel normal. And that’s the first goal in any season of grief: I want to feel normal again.

An outsider will strengthen your bond to a loved one. Every relationship we have is one of a kind. (It’s the “snowflake” metaphor, times two.) I miss the person my mom was in my life, which was different, if slightly, from the person she was in others’ lives. But why was she valuable in my life? Why did we connect and attach beyond the maternal bond? Why did Mom become my friend? I never asked these questions of myself . . . but Greg has. I’ve spent a career asking others about their lives and influences. It’s necessary for journalism. So it’s been emotionally illuminating to be on the other side in a session with Greg: answering his questions about my mom’s life and her influence on me. I like answering these questions, because they force me to consider the relationship as a journalist might in writing about it. Mom and I were a story. I enjoy telling it.

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Mended Therapy

Combining mental health with a love of fashion, creativity, and sustainability, Mended Therapy was born. Ashley wants to show that although things may seem like they cannot get better, there is hope. Just like a mended piece of clothing is brought new life, the same can be said of us. She is here to walk with you through this journey with laughter, creativity, and challenging your beliefs about yourself. She is MENDED (and constantly mending). She hopes you will let her join you as you MEND. Ashley specializes in working with LGBTQ+ populations and mood disorders. For more information or to book an appointment, visit mendedtherapypllc.com. Now taking clients for Mended Therapy Group. Please go to the website for more details. She currently accepts Aetna, BCBS, Cigna, Quest Behavioral Health, All Savers (UHC), Health Plans Inc, Optum, Oscar, Oxford, Surest (Formerly Bind), UHC Student Resources, UMR, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare Shared Services (UHSS), UnitedHealthcare Global, and UnitedHealthcare Exchange Plans (ONEX) insurance plans. She does provide a superbill for out-of-network clients if they want to submit to their insurance. Self-pay is $125 for individual sessions.

Connections and reminders of a loved one are slices of immortality. My mom and Dolly Parton were born three years and 70 miles apart in East Tennessee. As it turned out, they died nine months apart. Southern women with dramatic differences on the surface (though my mom was less likely than Dolly to leave the house without her hair properly arranged), but deeply similar in their living, breathing, active kindness toward those they could impact. The week after Dolly died last August, I asked Greg if we could devote some of our discussion to parallels I feel between my mom and the greatest Tennessean of them all. The entire discussion was about Mom and Dolly. Greg had become familiar with Melinda Murtaugh from our monthly visits. And everyone is familiar with Dolly Parton. We found humorous ties and significantly poignant similarities. (My mom earned a Ph.D. in history. Consider her appreciation for Dolly’s Imagination Library and what it did for literacy around the world.) Best of all, Greg helped me understand my ongoing grief for Mom was what the world was now feeling — and sharing — for Dolly Parton. Bless her, it’s as though Dolly wanted to remind me others were on my road.

“What’s next?” doesn’t have to be a scary question.

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Greg is a man of faith, and he’s spoken openly about God — perceptions of God, at least — but only when I’ve chosen to take the conversation in that direction. There have been times I’ve wanted to ponder the greatest of all unknowns. My grief counselor is prepared for such pondering. And he’s made it clear that acquiring an answer is not within his powers, so I shouldn’t feel short of understanding if I can’t find an answer myself. Greg and I keep coming back to the word “presence.” If you’ve lost a pet (my dog died last year, too), you know an absence can feel every bit as much with you as a person stealing the armrest on an airplane. I’ve come to believe the grief process (forget “steps”) is managing your loved one’s continued presence so that it lifts your spirit instead of tightening your heart. Because my mom is, in fact, still with me. I just can’t tell her how happy that makes me. But I’ve told my grief counselor, and will continue to do so. Most importantly, I’m telling myself.

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SIPS

This story is occasioned by the park’s 125th anniversary. But it’s more than a historical narrative: Overton Park is a living, breathing entity — protecting our city from heat, providing moments of wonder and tranquility and joy, enabling us to spend time both together and in divine solitude, and connecting us with cultural and educational amenities unmatched anywhere. In a city too often understood by what it lacks, Overton Park sings a different tune altogether: birdsong and blues, lions’ roars and par-fours.

N T H E N O R T H E R N E D G E of the Old

Forest, in Overton Park, stands a tree I hold dear — though “stands” might be the wrong word for its back-bend semicircle existence. A sweetgum pressed into parabolic form, presumably by strong winds (or by a playful giant), the trunk grew not up, toward the heavens, but down, toward the earth; and grow it has, shooting out new leaves and spiny gumballs each year, xylem and phloem doing their work, even from catawampus angles. ¶ When this sweetgum and I first got to know one another, some years ago, it formed a nearly perfect 180-degree curve; then, laden with ice one arctic winter, the terminal 30 degrees of trunk splintered and shattered to the ground. Still, I think of it as a portal, a passage — to walk beneath the bent tree is to enter a world outside of time.

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O N D E C E M B E R 7 , 1 9 0 0 , the Commercial Appeal reported that Overton Lea, of Nashville, was in town (and that he was staying at the Peabody Hotel! Can you imagine if the newspaper today published a business traveler’s place of lodging?). Lea was here to negotiate the sale of a tract of his land — known as Lea’s Woods — to the city of Memphis, with plans to make a park of the acreage. “I make the proposition,” Lea said, “in the confident belief a suitable and magnificent park can be secured by acquiring contiguous lands which the owners are willing to sell, and as an evidence of my interest in Memphis and all that tends to promote her welfare and pleasure of her citizens.” Eleven months later, the city had paid $188,325 for several tracts of land, which it planned to develop into Overton Park as well as an array of smaller parks which were created at the same time, including Gaston Park. With plans to focus on the smaller parks first, noted Kansas City landscape architect George Kessler began a series of trips to Memphis to turn the various plots of land into useful and beautiful parks, and it seems no detail was ignored. “The location of every large tree is to be indicated,” reported the CA. “The field notes will show the depressions and other important features of the park lands, but these notes are being closely taken that Mr. Kessler can see in a minute way all of the features of the soil and the situation of the trees, hills, bayous, and every depression or elevation.” And so was born Overton Park — so called not after Overton Lea’s given name, but rather for John Overton, one of Memphis’s founders and (small world) also Lea’s grandfather.

O V E R T O N PA R K was christened in 1901, but the land was ancient then as now, and long had been occupied and, indeed, tended by indigenous people. Some of the oldest

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trees in the forest today, says Dr. Eric Bridges, director of operations for the Overton Park Conservancy, are approximately 200 years old. Two hundred years ago, Memphis had been founded and the indigenous people largely driven out. Before that, though, the Chickasaw people who lived here would have tended the forest and her environs. When I spoke with her recently, Kaci Murley, executive director of the Conservancy, notes that they were “prolific burners.” Murley says, “Caring for the land and crops involved doing burns — which can provide a healthier ecological habitat.” The photographer, writer, and filmmaker Peter Ceren, who walks the trails at Overton often, camera in hand, and who has created upwards of 50,000 atmospheric, mysterious, lovely images of these woods, has developed an interest in the ceremonial aspects of ritual burning. He shares his notes with me about the traditional Green Corn Ceremony, in which people would have extracted a bit of each year’s new crop and added it to

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a ceremonial fire, a blessing for what’s been harvested and a prayer for what’s to come. “I want to believe that the wood for these sacred fires was collected from the forest,” he tells me, “and that some ceremonies were held in this spot.” Beyond ceremony, Ceren concurs about practical burning: “The forest was maintained by fire and was a great source of food — acorns, hickory, chestnuts (before blight), and of course, game.” Forest fires strike justified fear into our 2026 hearts, scarred by catastrophic, unmanageable, climate-change-propelled conflagrations around the world. But not all fires are created equal. Controlled burns would have cleared underbrush and prevented the forest from choking on its own growth. In the next breath, Murley speaks of floods. In the 1990s, the city channelized Lick Creek, preventing it from flooding the forest and surrounding neighborhoods. A little flooding might have been beneficial for the forest — though that came as cold comfort to Midtowners when water climbed their basement walls.

Malle Carasco-Harris, programs manager for Over ton Park Conser vancy, and K aci Murley, the Conser vancy ’s executive direc tor. Carasco-Harris says, “ The fac t that it ’s a state natural area is the [park ’s] best-kept secret . It ’s different than the other state natural areas in that it receives so much more pressure.”

It’s tempting to think of pre-Columbian American nature as an untrammeled wilderness — tempting to think that indigenous people peaceably coexisted with the land (and each other). The story’s not so simple. John Muir called American forests — specifically, Yosemite — “fresh, unspoiled wilderness.” Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, wrote that he “should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence of men’s beginning to redeem themselves.”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOUSTON COFIELD AND LUCY GARRE T T

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Envisioning a past in which indigenous people lived alongside nature, without affecting it, rather denies those people the same complex human agency we possess. Recent studies of tree-rings have confirmed that fires were a frequent occurrence — too frequent to be accounted for by occasional lightning strikes. Writing in The New Yorker last month, M.R. O’Connor notes that when researchers “reconstructed the history of fire in places like the Ozarks, they noticed a clear link between burn scars and human population density.” Furthermore, as many as 88 percent of the fire-scars were linked to the forests’ dormant seasons — autumn, winter, early spring — times of year when lightning strikes are vanishingly rare. In other words, the fire scars were almost certainly anthropogenic — induced by humans. On purpose. But nothing like what was to come when European settlers moved in, sparking blazes that would trample whole swaths of forest — a “wave of fire.”

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A F R I G I D DAY in the early ’90s. I’m bundled into a puffy coat the color of dirty rose quartz and hand-me-down scratchy woolen mittens. My mom and dad and I, urged along by the family dogs, have trudged across the blank-white expanse where the Greensward usually is. We’re standing at the edge of Rainbow Lake. The manmade pond’s surface has frozen over — but if you bash it with a stick the ice cracks and fragments like crème brûlée, thwacked, and so we bash away and then fish out the ice in dictionary-sized sheets, pile them beneath a tree. There’s no real object to the game besides novelty, which is plenty.

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A few years later, high summer, Dad and I are bicycling through the Old Forest when he (ever eagle-eyed) notices a man has dropped a small pile of green bills, then darted off through the trees. A police officer lags behind. Dad swoops down and snatches the bills, motions for me to keep riding, onward, onward. We ride until we’re out of the forest, until we cross East Parkway, until we finally come to a stop in Hein Park and Dad counts his cash: a few hundred bucks, the result, he explains, of a drug deal interrupted. He converts the money into two sets of golf clubs, and sets to work attempting to teach me to play — yes — the Overton Park 9. One magical evening, a family friend is married in the sculpture garden behind the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and I’m allowed to attend, a gangly kid in big glasses and a floral dress. I love the ceremony, the cobalt blue wine glass stamped to bits, the smell of lilies and cake, the art all around. Summer after summer, I’m enrolled in classes at Memphis College of Art: drawing, painting, fiber arts, ceramics, more. Close my eyes now, decades later, and I can smell the paints, conjure the slippery gravity of wet clay on my fingertips. 36 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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Over ton Park Conser vancy team members Melissa McMasters, Taylor Husband, James Smith, Annelise Danielson, and Fields Falcone obser ve the forest ’s fauna. Melissa work s in communications, Taylor (also pic tured below, with rake) and James are park rangers, Annelise focuses on communit y and business development , and Fields is stewardship manager.

High school biology: I’m assigned a project on tree identification, and spend an autumn weekend tromping through the woods, collecting as broad a variety of leaves as I can find. This is the good part of the project, before the hot-glue gun and the very real question of whether I’ll still have fingerprints afterwards. One summer, too young for jobs and too old for camps, I volunteer at the Zoo in a special exhibit on butterflies: The delicate, ostentatious creatures flit about a temporary greenhouse (humidity level: unimaginable) and I tend to their cocoons, show educational puzzles to littler kids. Grown now, living back in Memphis after

a seven-year stint away, I learn that the Shell is rocking again after years as, well, an empty shell. The WPA-era band shell, having fallen on hard times, is back, and literally booming. Friends and I shake picnic blankets onto the slope, prop on elbows, sink into the sounds. The pandemic of 2020: The forest is a refuge against the jittery times; married now, and with dogs of our own, my husband and I take to running the trails. In that still, strange summer, the forest is quiet and cool, or cooler than any place else, and maybe the only place I take a deep breath for months. I am merely one person — and these vignettes are merely a few blades of grass in PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOUSTON COFIELD

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the field of my memories. More than 1.2 million people spend time in Overton Park each year. Imagine how many moments stick with those folks, how far the collective memory-field stretches. Now imagine that field multiplying by 10, 50, 100, 125. Overton Park is 125 years old in 2026 — with hundreds of millions of memories granted to people just like me. It’s enough to make a person need to lie down on the forest floor a while. W H E N O V E R T O N PA R K was found-

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ed, in 1901, the city had been re-granted its charter only eight years earlier. Following the yellow fever epidemics that ravaged Memphis in the late 1870s, the city suffered catastrophic population loss and concomitant economic hardship. From 1879 to 1893, the state of Tennessee revoked our official charter, demoting Memphis to a “Taxing District,” not a city. Imagine the vision, then — the hope — of harnessing the land into a vast and verdant park for Memphians to enjoy. A place where people could breathe clean air, move their muscles, spend time under a canopy of tree branches. A place for recreation, yes, but not just recreation in terms of fun and games (though plenty of both!) — rather, recreation (re-creation) in the etymological sense: of being reborn, re-formed, renewed. Murley draws a parallel between Memphis as it emerged from the yellow-fever haze, and Memphis climbing out of Covid fog, in the 2020s. “City leaders made this bold investment in public wellness infrastructure,” she says. “If you think about the context of the yellow fever epidemic and the loss of the charter, and how dismal things could have felt then, it makes the idea to create this park seem even more bold and progressive: a prioritization of healthy space.”

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“Over ton Park is one of Memphis’ greatest treasures, and the Memphis Zoo is incredibly proud to have called it home for our entire histor y. For generations, families have come here to visit the Zoo, the Old Forest , the Shell, our museums, and all the wonder ful spaces that make our park so special. This park is deeply woven into the life and histor y of our cit y, and we are proud to be par t of Over ton Park ’s histor y.” — Matt Thompson, President & CEO, Memphis Zoo Our city today is not struggling in the same ways it was in the wake of yellow fever. But there are echoes: population loss, public health concerns, a fractious political scene. This time, though, our sacred green spaces are ready to receive us. N O T L O N G A F T E R Overton Park opened to the public, the Memphis Zoo did, too, in 1906. Earlier that same year, the CA published an article about fundraising efforts, noting that a “check for $25 is received from J.T. Willingham,” while Col. Robert Galloway was busy working with the park commission 38 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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to appropriate public funds, as well. What’s more, coyote and white rats were added to the colony, and zoo officials had an attitude of “the more, the merrier.” The CA reported that, “While the park commissioners are not declining any of the offers of animals that have been made, they are anxious to prepare quarters for them first.” I should think so! Today, of course, the Zoo is one of the central reasons people step into Overton Park: Routinely considered one of the nation’s best, the Zoo’s work has evolved over the years to focus on more natural habitats and more wildlife conservation, a far cry from the early days (“bring us your coyote! your white rats! whatever you’ve got!”).

The same year — 1906 — saw the opening of the golf course at Overton Park. Always a municipal course, the nine-holer continues to draw crowds daily, especially after a sweeping 2021 redesign carried out by golf architecture firm King Collins. Nestled between the edge of the forest and the first hole sits the Abe Goodman Clubhouse, where the Overton Park Conservancy hosts regular educational programs open to the public. (A recent event, teaching the delight of insects as a hobby, was called “May We Bug You?” and featured insect-experts, “bug-themed snacks,” and advice for creating a hospitable world for insects in our own backyards.) PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOUSTON COFIELD

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Ten years after the Zoo and the golf course came the next anchor of Overton Park: Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, opened in 1916 with a gift from Bessie Vance Brooks in memory of her husband, Samuel Hamilton Brooks. Originally a stately but smallish museum, the Brooks grew over the years to house more art in more square footage, along with education space, an auditorium, a sculpture garden, and a sizable and impressive permanent collection. With these expansions came a name change, to Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Today, it is the oldest — and the largest — art museum in Tennessee. In a few tomorrows — on December 6, 2026, — the museum will reopen in a new facility on the riverfront, and with another new name: the Memphis Art Museum. (More on this very big move in next month’s issue.) Twenty years after the Brooks opened, the City of Memphis, in partnership with the Works Progress Administration, built the Overton Park Shell. Our bandshell was one of 27 built by the WPA during the country’s Great Depression. Since 1936 — with some gaps — the Shell has been rocking and rolling the green slope on the park’s western edge. And for the last almost-20 years, first under the supervision of the Levitt Foundation and, since 2022, through an independent nonprofit, the Shell has invited Memphians to congregate and witness local and national musical acts (plus film screenings, yoga, dance, theater, and more) — for free. (Alex Greene wrote about the Overton Park Shell in depth in “The People’s Stage,” which we published in April 2022.) And in 1959, Memphis College of Art moved from downtown into Rust Hall, the striking mid-century building designed by Roy Harrover. Though the College of Art ceased operation in 2020, its classrooms and galleries helped launch the careers of many of the area’s most notable artists: Burton Callicott, Carroll Cloar, Veda Reed, Dolph Smith, and so many more. In 2026, after several years of intensive construction and renovation work, the build

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O U T S I D E M E M P H I S , the name “Overton Park” is recognized largely because of the 1971 landmark Supreme Court decision, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe. Readers likely are familiar with the broad strokes, but in summary, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, John Volpe, approved a plan to push a section of Interstate 40 directly through Overton Park, effectively cleaving the park into two with a swath of asphalt hundreds of feet across. Evidently, the government had concluded that routing interstates through public lands (e.g., Overton Park) was a simpler gambit than invoking eminent domain and razing privately held property (though they did plenty of that, too, to the east and west of the park — in my 1980s childhood, in the Evergreen area, we walked the dogs in the “green strip,” which was meadow left behind after houses were demolished and before new structures were added). More broadly, the case marked a shift in how and whether government agencies (in this case the Department of Transportation) could be subject to judicial review. The case drew national attention and local action. The group Citizens to Preserve Overton Park took out ads and rallied citizens; their tagline: “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” In a viewpoint article published in the CA in 1971, Thomas BeVier wrote, “The organization has a strong matriarchal tendency. Of the nine persons on the governing board, six are women.” (The group, whose average age was 55, were famously referred to as “little old ladies in tennis shoes.”) The justices’ decision sent the case back to the lower courts, and by 1977 — six years later after the Supreme Court decision — the Federal Highway Administrator at the time, William Cox, said, “We are through with Overton Park.” On October 1, 1977, following Cox’s statement, the CA reported, “Park Action Brings Sorrow, Joy”: “Supporters and opponents of an Overton Park expressway, again disappointed and elated, were as widely aligned yesterday as the farthest extremes of the coast-to-coast highway.” What would have been the interstate terminates at the western edge of Sam Cooper Boulevard, at Overton’s “Bike Gate” — a colorful sculpture that welcomes humans, but not cars, to the park. (The playful but imposing piece is the work of Memphis artist Tylur French.) Nearly 50 years later, the park was at the center of another land-use controversy. I’m referring, of course, to the fight over the

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swath of land south of the Zoo known as the Greensward. Going back as far as the 1980s, the Zoo had diverted overflow parking from their paved lots to the Greensward, but in the 20-teens, the practice became more commonplace. Instead of looking out over the lawn and seeing people tossing Frisbees, picnicking, and watching the clouds pass, visitors were greeted with a strange sight: a park remade into a de facto parking lot. Writing in the Memphis Flyer, Bruce VanWyngarden, that paper’s emeritus editor, explained the situation: “Things started getting really heated in 2014. Park lovers formed groups: Get Off Our Lawn (GOOL) and Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP). Activists stood on nearby street corners urging zoo patrons to park on nearby streets, rather than despoiling the Greensward. Aerial photographs were taken that showed just how much of the people’s parkland was being taken over by a private entity. The pictures got national attention. Protestors were arrested. Houses all over Midtown bore signs urging Memphis to Save the Greensward.” Finally, in 2022, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen — a longtime advocate for Overton Park as a whole — announced that $3 million in Housing and Urban Development funding would be dedicated to a new parking plan that preserved the Greensward while also swapping land between the Zoo and the Park Conservancy. The new era of cooperation between the Conservancy and Zoo also ushered in the opening of a 17-acre section of forest trapped behind chain-link fencing for 40 years, and in that forest, a newly placed half-mile trail. The trail is unlike any other within the Old Forest, offering whimsical dips and curves and narrowings — a path well suited to walking-meditation. A F T E R 1 2 5 Y E A R S and millions of visitors, it would be easy to assume that every Memphian has spent time in Overton Park. Not necessarily. Even those who have visited one of the park’s assets — the Shell, the Zoo, the Brooks, the Metal Museum, the golf course, the picnic area — might not have ventured further afield. Earlier this year, local designer and influencer Carmeon Hamilton shared a moving series of photos and videos on her Instagram account of a first visit to the Old Forest, accompanied by Fields Falcone, the Conservancy’s stewardship manager as well as an ecologist, bird expert, and forest denizen. Hamilton speaks often of how beautiful, inspiring living spaces create healthier, happier lives, and her park visit seemed to convey that the same goes for outdoor spaces. To be in the forest is to loosen our binds to work, school, bills, the news cycle, the latest worry to nip at our heels.

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I L O S E T R AC K of time when I’m in the woods — time in terms of the literal ticking of a clock, but also time in terms of years, in terms of centuries. Even though I know that it’s fallacy to imagine the woods were pristine and untouched by humans in centuries past, I do still love to engage in a little light time travel, to a moment when there was no car noise on the periphery, no airplanes streaking overhead. There’s much to be said of the quilt that is Overton Park, but I think I’ll always come back to the trees at the center of it all. That’s where I can be endlessly surprised, where I can stumble upon new discoveries like a voyager from another time, another land. Around a turn on the path, upturned cement urns big enough for a person to curl up inside. They’re broken teacups meant for giants! (My colleague Vance Lauderdale has confirmed the urns once lined a bus lane that crossed the park at the entrance to the Zoo, and that they were not stage decorations at the Shell, as is commonly believed.) Prismatic fungi sprouting on rotting logs over weeks of rain: Jewels! A box turtle flump-flumping its way across the path: She can probably talk. The barred owl: Is he as lonely as he sounds? One hundred and twenty-five years after Overton Lea sold his land to the city of Memphis, it’s still growing, evolving, a treasure in our midst. The birds and the trees and the box turtles still sing — a tune for all seasons.

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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION INDIE FILMMAKERS TERESA DICKERSON AND PRINCETON JAMES ARE BUILDING THE INDUSTRY IN MEMPHIS, ONE FRAME AT A TIME. BY JON W. SPARKS

H E R E ’ S A M O M E N T Teresa Dickerson still can’t quite talk about without feeling it all over again. ¶ She had written a screenplay. Years of work, doubt, rewrites, and a global pandemic’s worth of careful savings had gone into it. And now she was sitting in a room listening to actors read her words back to her for the first time, a table read arranged by producer Princeton James, who had brought in actors and simply said, let’s hear what this thing is. ¶ When Kenneth Farmer, who would go on to play Coach Perry in the film Hoop Street, read his audition monologue, Dickerson cried. She tried to hide it and pretend she was still deciding. ¶ “I had to stay cool,” she says, “But he had the part. Let’s sign him now.” That moment when a writer hears her own words transformed into something beyond what she imagined is a key moment for an independent filmmaker. Before that, it’s a dream. After that, it’s a production.

TWO ROADS TO THE SAME PLACE Dickerson and James arrived at Memphis filmmaking from very different directions. Dickerson majored in journalism at the University of Memphis and landed her dream job in community relations with the Memphis Grizzlies when the team arrived from Canada. She loved storytelling, and while working for the NBA franchise, an idea started forming. “I started dabbling with screenwriting just as a hobby,” she says. “Bought the software, bought Final Draft, and just started: Let me see if I can do this.” What she was trying to do was write Hoop Street — a Memphis-flavored basketball story. The first draft, she’ll tell you, was horrible. She put it down for months at a time. Picked it back up. Put it down again. Left the Grizzlies and went to work for Kroger as a spokesperson. Looking for inspiration to kickstart her dream, she started reaching out to potential investors. She heard “no” a lot. “Who’s going to support a first-time filmmaker with a corporate background?” she says. “I understand that. I do. But it was a challenge.” Then Covid hit. The pandemic changed how she had to make her dream a reality. Dickerson was essential personnel at a grocery chain keeping Memphis fed during a crisis. There was no time to write. And there was no money being spent on anything else, so she redirected every spare dollar she had. “This is going to my movie fund,” she decided, adding to it week after week. Princeton James took a different path. He grew up in Coldwater, Mississippi, a kid with what he calls a “vivid and huge and thorough imagination,” obsessed with amusement parks his family couldn’t quite afford. But he was sure, from childhood on, that he was meant to build worlds. His parents frowned on an acting career, so he got a degree in accounting. Then, degree in hand, he moved to Atlanta, started acting classes, and waited for the vision he knew was coming. It arrived, as will sometimes happen, in church. He listened to a sermon about operating in your gifts, about the cost, to others, of leaving your talent unused. James went home and started writing a stage play.

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Princeton James and Teresa Dickerson He had no writing experience, no directing experience, no producing experience. But he knew he had to begin somewhere. And he decided he’d say yes to everything: the made-in-Memphis film Uncorked, the NBC legal drama Bluff City Law, a string of independent films, a stretch on NBC’s Young Rock. He directed a feature called Queen Rising, written and executive-produced by Henry E. Reaves III. Then he and three business partners — Jordan Danelz, Mark Williams, and Austin Herndon — formed Gravity Studios, to produce other people’s projects and build up their community in Memphis. That’s when Teresa Dickerson found him on Instagram. But James was already planning to say no. Dickerson had reached out to him about directing Hoop Street. James was stretched thin, and he didn’t want to damage someone else’s dream by coming in under capacity. He had made up his mind before they even met. But after the meeting, he called his partners. “We’re going to do this project,” he told them. “We all have to figure out where we can make this happen.” There was no long deliberation.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JON W. SPARK S

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“If we say we’re going to do something,” James explains, “it’s already done after we said it. We’re just running to go do it.” They met in March. They were in prep by June. Production began in July. They were in editing by August. “All in the same year,” Dickerson says, amazed.

WHAT IT ACTUALLY TAKES

The story of Hoop Street is, among other things, a master class in indie film economics — the unglamorous, practical, dollar-by-dollar reality of making something from nothing in a city that is still building the infrastructure to support it. Dickerson invested her own money. She received support from the Memphis & Shelby County Film Commission’s local incentive program, which came at the right moment. “I don’t know if I can describe how I felt receiving those funds,” she says. “I really needed it.”

The Film Commission also helped by posting on social media, helping recruit cast and crew, and amplifying what the production was trying to do. The synergy, as Dickerson puts it, made people trust what they were building. People wanted to work with them. But even before any of that, there was the unglamorous work of the budget — the lineby-line discipline that separates finished films from permanent works-in-progress. Dickerson and her producing team pored over the script and asked hard questions. How many locations? Each one costs money. Where can you tighten without losing anything essential? “If you have more than ten locations, it’s extra money,” Dickerson says. “Where can you finesse your script to still have the same story, but tighten up your budget?” James brought to the table an understanding of what goes beyond the budget spreadsheet. “Investors invest in people and trust,” he says, “not always a project.” The credibility of the filmmaker, the reliability of the team, the genuine care for what’s being made — these are the things that move money. The story, he says, is part of the plan. It’s not the plan.

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and beyond. Dickerson remembers talking to him early on, when she had just decided to try screenwriting and the dream still felt impossibly large. He told her something she has carried ever since: “As a Black woman,” he said, “there is a space for you in this industry. Just keep going.”

WHERE THEY ARE NOW Hoop Street is still on the festival circuit. It screened in Italy. It was selected for the American Black Film Festival in Miami — one of the largest film festivals in the country, and an Oscar-qualifying event. “For our little engine that could to be selected,” Dickerson says, “was definitely a blessing.” The Italy screening opened an unexpected door. Memphis and the Italian town of Porretta are sister cities, connected through a long-running cultural relationship that includes both a soul music festival and a film festival. Memphis filmmakers screened at the Porretta Terme Film Festival. Relationships formed. Conversations happened over Zoom, across the Atlantic, between people discovering that despite the distance and the cultural difference, they were building toward the same things. Now Dickerson and James are in early development on a feature film collaboration with Italian producers. “We are using our imaginations,” Dickerson says, “to build this world that includes two sister cities.” It is, when you think about it, exactly what both of them have always done, which is to build worlds, one at a time, by any means necessary, in a city that keeps finding ways to make something from nothing.

MEMPHIS AS A CHARACTER

Ask James and Dickerson about the Memphis film community and you’ll feel like they’re talking about a family more than assessing a market. “We are almost like the engine that can and will go through anything,” James says. “Some people wouldn’t be able to overcome obstacles.” The talent, both say, has never been the problem. Memphis has always had talent. What it has sometimes lacked is access — to training, to consistent work, to the kind of deep crew base that requires multiple productions happening simultaneously. When Georgia and Louisiana were offering aggressive incentives and pulling productions away, Tennessee crews went where the work was. Rebuilding that infrastructure takes time, and it takes investment in people as much as in projects. James talks about conversations with Memphis Mayor Paul Young and plans for similar conversations with Shelby County Mayor Mickell Lowery regarding workforce development initiatives around the creative ecosystem of film and television. “There’s investment in oth-

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Produc tion photos from Hoop S t re e t, including Princeton James in the direc tor ’s chair. er workforce development industries,” he says. “This is the same thing.” He invokes Issa Rae, the writer-producer-actress who built an empire from web series to HBO: “She said it’s important to network across. You all build together, and then you take a step up, and you all together take a step up, and before you know it you’re making million-dollar movies because you all started here.” James has a friend who is a showrunner on A Different World on Netflix. The director of photography on that show is the same person who shot her short film. “She brought him over,” James says. A rising tide. Craig Brewer is part of that foundation too — the Memphis filmmaker who made Hustle & Flow and went on to do Coming 2 America

FINDING THE MONEY

A GROUP OF MEMPHIANS IS READY TO FINANCE INDIE PROJECTS. J . W . G I B S O N is an entrepreneur, developer, and philanthropist who lived in Dixie Homes as a youngster, joined the Navy, and studied at Christian Brothers University. He is today CEO of the Gibson Companies, a group of diverse businesses, and has served on a variety of boards and committees.

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His wife is Kathy Buckman Gibson, CEO and president of KBG Technologies, and before that, the longtime COO, board chair, and general counsel for Buckman International. “My wife and I have a personal interest in the arts of various media,” he says, “be it TV and film or physical art, musical art. We are very much engaged and like to see that arena expand here in Memphis and Shelby County.” Gibson is leading an effort to build a fund for independent films in Memphis that includes about a dozen other individuals who think this is the time for the region to make a bigger impact in the entertainment industry. “We’ve heard conversations from different people who are making these films, and in the last three years or so, there’s been a lot of conversation around independent film and how more conducive it now is financially to make these independent films happen,” Gibson says. “The equipment [cost] is not as much as it used to be. The stories are coming out more often from writers. There’s been an identified way of being able to raise money and have a positive return on those investments.” A luncheon earlier this year sponsored by the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission brought together a group of potential funders and Will Lowery, the founder and chief operator at Brigade Media Capital, which is heavily involved in the film industry with venture capital advisement and creative marketing services. Lowery also is senior vice president of Range Media, an entertainment management firm. He serves on the Tennessee Entertainment Commission and is well versed on what it takes to nurture a film from concept to distribution. During the discussion after Lowery’s presentation, Gibson asked whether it made sense to create a fund for independent films in Memphis and Shelby County. He says, “For me, it’s about being able to create that fund to assist those who are wanting to produce small films or independent films.” He says that the funding effort would also endeavor to encourage economic development opportunities by teaching related trades. This would continue the sort of steps the film commission has taken in years past by inviting industry experts — in casting, set-building, and various technical areas — to take part in intensive workshops with Shelby County residents. The luncheon meeting was encouraging. Gibson has since gathered about a dozen like-minded sources to embark on creating just such a fund, which is still in its formative stages. It’s likely that for a project to be considered, there would have to be at least a solid concept

with a script and a budget. A proposal that involves people who already have experience in production and direction has an even better chance of being heard. The life of an indie film goes through many stages, and initial funders such as the group Gibson is heading will be looking at the long term. It’s not just initial funding to produce the film. There also needs to be a plan to get further funding post-production to finance marketing and subsequent efforts to get it seen. Gibson says that Lowery was pointing out the benefit of attracting investors at a national and international level. At the luncheon, Lowery noted that horror films are popular with investors worldwide, and that many countries have funding available to filmmakers, particularly if the film project can work at least in part on location and take advantage of the labor market. Gibson says that he hopes the funding group can work with Lowery’s Range Media to take advantage of its national and international resources. What Gibson hopes is that the group can rely on such connections that it can make with companies such as Range Media. The group itself has a mix of entrepreneurs and industry experts who bring their own savvy to the table, bringing a mix of vision and hard business sense. But it’s not easy to tell at this early stage exactly how the funding group might work. What’s still unknown is how much money will be raised, and then it becomes a function of a multitude of factors. The recent supernatural horror movie Obsession had a production budget of about $750,000. The fact that it grossed about $520 million worldwide became something of an obsession itself with filmmakers, as proof that a production done well at low cost can bring a lot of elusive money and fame. But it’s a rarity. “If we raise a million dollars, one would think that’s a nice chunk of money,” Gibson says, while noting that the budget of Obsession would have put quite a dent in that. “However, I know people right now here in Memphis who are making films with a budget of $100,000 to $200,000. So, it kind of depends on how much money we raise and what the ask is for those funds.” It’s also notable that the funding group is not necessarily strictly limited to indie films. “I want to see music do something different,” he says. “Memphis being a music city, it just breaks my heart the lack of support that musicians get here in Memphis. So I’d like to be able to do something with music opportunities as well.”

SO, YOU WANT TO MAKE AN INDIE FILM?

YOU’LL NEED QUITE A FEW THINGS BEFORE YOU HOLLER “ACTION!” W E ’ L L M A K E I T easy for you. Well, not really easy to make a film or movie or whatever you want to call it (both terms are fine). But this is a checklist you’ll want to have if you’re ready to go beyond whatever you’ve been doing on TikTok. Maybe you’ve got an idea for a story that would be fantastic on a screen bigger than your iPad and where there’s a big room full of people watching it at the same time. You’re not the first one to want that, and those who have gone before you have learned a few things.

FIRST THINGS FIRST Let’s start with money. Most of this is about that, and it might seem daunting, but there are a number of avenues to get funding for your dream. Yes, like getting money for anything, it’ll take hard work, but you have options! Of course, it begins with your brilliant idea for a cinematic masterpiece. But don’t ask your millionaire friends for any money, not just yet. Sit yourself down and write it out. If you don’t already know what a film script should look like, then learn it. At some point, you’ll get one of those script-writing programs that will help you with the indents and capitalizations and stage directions and so on. It’ll probably cost you, so start keeping track of your expenses. There will be many of them yet to come. Let’s say you’ve got a completed script. What’s next is — rewriting. A first draft of (continued on page 50)

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INDIE MEMPHIS PREVIEW BY CHRIS MCCOY

A F T E R TA K I N G A H I AT U S I N 2 0 2 5 , Indie Memphis is back for 2026. The film festival will take place downtown at the Orpheum Theatre’s Halloran Centre and the Malco Powerhouse Cinema November 5-8, with encores at Studio on the Square November 9-10. Here are a few highlights from the more than 50 feature films screening at Indie Memphis. 48 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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THE LORRAINE

(Nov. 5, 6:30 pm, Halloran Centre) Indie Memphis’s opening-night movie celebrates a Memphis landmark. Before it entered history as the location where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, the Lorraine Motel was a center of Black Memphis culture. Director Sam Pollard penned this love letter to owners Walter and Lorrie Bailey, who created a beloved oasis for Black travelers in the heart of the Jim Crow South.

1. RONZO

(Nov. 6, 4 pm, Halloran Centre) Oxford, Mississippi, has long been a home for eccentrics (William Faulkner, anyone?). But few people have left as big a mark on the city as Ron Shapiro. For decades, he ran PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY INDIE MEMPHIS

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2 3 4

the Hoka Theater, providing a stage with an “anything goes” attitude which shook up the sleepy college town and nurtured a generation of Mid-South creatives. Director Jon Brick uses stories from the people who knew him best to paint a funny and moving portrait of a Mississippi original.

2 . H A LLE LUJA H S TAT I O N

(Nov. 6, 5:30 pm, Malco Powerhouse) One of four Hometowner features in this year’s festival, Hallelujah Station is written by former Memphian M. Randal O’Wain and directed by Memphis filmmaker Christian Walker. This compact blast of Southern Gothic atmosphere tells the tale of a janitor in a 1930s insane asylum who becomes obsessed with uncovering the secrets of an enigmatic patient. The feature screens with “Jane,” a short film by hometowners Meriwether Nichols and Wende Martin.

KING OF THE CHITLIN’ CIRCUIT

(Nov. 6, 6:15 pm, Malco Powerhouse) Blues legend Bobby Rush is 91 years old and still going strong. Director Al Warren gets

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM

the story of Rush’s beginnings in the juke joints of 1950s Mississippi through his Grammy-winning elder statesman status straight from the source. Because nobody could tell Bobby Rush’s story except Bobby Rush.

HOOP STREET

(Nov. 7, 11 am, Malco Powerhouse) Hometowner director Princeton James directs this original sports drama set on the ball courts of Memphis. A street ball prospect is kicked out of high school basketball after a fight. He must overcome his inner demons to earn a spot in the summer league and save his future.

3 . E V E R Y C O N TA C T L E AV E S A T R A C E (Nov. 7, 5:30 pm, Halloran Centre) Memphis born documentarian Lynn Sachs has had a long, strange trip through the artistic life. Along the way, she saved every business card she was ever given. Sachs went back through her card collection and selected seven people who had unexpected impacts on her life, and tried to track them down to see what became of them. The result is a series of portraits of unusual people, and a reflection on the passage of time.

(Nov. 7, 7:45 pm, Halloran Centre) In 1972, director William Greaves invited the leading artistic and intellectual lights of the Harlem Renaissance to a dinner party in Duke Ellington’s apartment and filmed the conversations that resulted. He was never able to find the resources or time to piece it together into a film in his lifetime; that task was left to his son, David. It’s nothing short of a miracle that this footage survived, and is now one of the buzziest documentaries of 2026.

4. HOMETOWNER MUSIC VIDEOS

(Nov. 8, 3:45 pm, Malco Powerhouse) Short films are often the best part of film festivals, like an artistic sampler platter. The Indie Memphis music video competition challenges Memphis’s finest musicians and filmmakers to stretch their crafts to their limits. Best of Memphis winner Alexis Grace and director Edward Valibus get dreamy for “West Coast,” Ben Siler brings the inner world of Little Baby Tendencies’ Haley Ivy to life in “Stupid Game,” brothers Josh and Lawrence Shaw collaborate on music and visuals for Blvck Hippie’s “Adult Swim Commercial Break,” and many more.

TH E M A N I LOV E

(Nov. 8, 7:15 pm, Halloran Centre) The closing-night film by Lynn Sach’s brother Ira was one of two American premieres at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Academy Award-winner Rami Malek plays New York performance artist Jimmy George as he struggles to keep his community of queer artists together at the height of the 1980s AIDS crisis. This screening represents a homecoming for one of Memphis’ most acclaimed filmmakers. N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 49

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(continued from page 47)

Mended Therapy

your script should never be seen by investors. Get objective critiques (not your mom), have table reads, and do some more agonizing. It’ll take months. As you do this, be thinking about your team. You’ll want them on board and they’ll want a terrific script, because it’s not just a story, it’s a sales document. And it will be read by every director, investor, producer, and distributor. As the scriptwriter, you have to make sure all that is nailed down, but if you also want to be the director, then you’ve added an extra burden on yourself. It’s understandable, but you’re now not only the visionary, but the pragmatist. The director’s job is to say “no” a lot in order to get to a good “yes.” And they are at the creative center of the project. Which is why you think you’d rather do it, but let’s continue. If you have a director who has even one decent credit on a previous film that maybe showed at a recognized festival, then funders are more likely to pay attention. Without that, the rest of your team had better be pretty special. Let’s look at their roles. The producer gets things done outside of the creative realm. They find money, get the crew, manage the budget, handle contracts, deal with legalities, and keep it moving. They will get your passion project across the finish line. Choose wisely. The executive producer has a title that can vary from project to project, but let’s just say they are the funders. Maybe they just write a check, maybe they get more involved. The entertainment lawyer is also on the team as soon as money is involved. And it’s always involved. They do option agreements, deal memos, distribution contracts — the things that make your head hurt. Do not find out the hard way that you should have hired one. The line producer and unit production manager detail the budget by breaking down the script scene by scene, calculating costs, and producing a document almost as important as your script: it tells investors where their money is going. So that’s your basic team and they’ll work to find the right cast and crew when the time comes.

DEVELOPMENT The development phase — the period before production financing is secured — is where most projects stall, and where the groundwork for eventual funding is laid. Attachments are the elements that make a project financeable. A recognizable actor who has agreed to appear — even in a letter of intent rather than a signed contract — dramatically improves a project’s fundability. So does an experienced producer, a recognized director of photography, or a distribution

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company that has expressed interest. Each attachment reduces investor risk perception. The pitch deck is the visual document that accompanies the script in meetings with investors and distributors. It typically includes the logline (one sentence describing the film), a synopsis, director’s statement, visual references and mood boards, comparable films and their financial performance, a budget summary, and the financing plan. A well-designed pitch deck signals professionalism and prepares investors to hear the ask before you make it. The look book or director’s treatment is a more visual, cinematic companion document — especially important for directors pitching a project. It communicates the visual language, tone, and emotional world of the film through images, references, and the director’s vision.

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You might have an angel that writes you a big fat check to cover your budget. If so, skip this part. But probably not. Indie films are typically funded through multiple streams and that’s called a financing stack. That can include: Personal funds/friends and family.

They probably won’t mess with your creative vision, but they also probably don’t have a few hundred thousand/million bucks to toss your way. Whatever they contribute, document it all and pay them back first. Private investors/equity financing.

These individuals or groups will want a percentage of the film’s profits. They are typically crucial to getting indie films done and you will have to do plenty of networking, make pitches, and cultivate patience. They know the odds of hitting it big are low, but they usually are motivated by belief in the project, doing something that’s cool (it’s a movie!), and maybe even making a return on the investment. Make sure they know that you know all that and aren’t promising the moon. Also, there are securities law aspects, so make that entertainment lawyer you hired do some work to keep it all legit. Film grants and foundations.

These are much more fun! They don’t have to be repaid and have no equity obligation. Do your research, since getting some of these establishes your own legitimacy and can open other doors. Private foundations.

These organizations have priorities and if your documentary or narrative meshes with theirs, you might get some support. Are you doing a faith-based project? Then hit up the Amen circuit for help from aligned congregations. One thing is that grant applications take a long time and are competitive, so plan for that. 52 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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Fiscal sponsorship. If you don’t have your

own nonprofit, a fiscal sponsorship can let you get tax-deductible donations through an established nonprofit umbrella organization. You’re working with someone else who has access to a potential wider source of funds. Pre-sales and distribution advances.

In a pre-sale, a distributor in a specific territory (France, the United Kingdom, or South Korea) will agree to acquire the rights to your film before it’s made. They’ll usually decide based on the script, the cast, and the creative team. That purchase agreement can then be taken to get a loan. Government tax incentives and rebates.

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The Tennessee Entertainment Commission and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission should be on your list for all kinds of help. They can offer a variety of incentives and they’re easy to find. Obviously you should shoot in Tennessee, but if you must wander, check out the incentives in whatever state you’re thinking about. Not for nothing has Georgia become a major production hub. There are also federal and international programs, and you can do “incentive stacking” by qualifying for incentives across jurisdictions. But put all this in your financing plan at the start — don’t wait.

GETTING SEEN: FESTIVALS VS. STUDIOS

Once the film is finished, the filmmaker faces what may be the second-most-daunting decision after financing: How do you get it seen, and how do you convert that attention into revenue? Film festivals serve multiple functions simultaneously. They are screening events, industry marketplaces, press opportunities, and award competitions — all happening at once. The big action happens at top-tier festivals (Sundance, Cannes, Toronto), but other ones can open doors, including the revitalized Indie Memphis Film Festival. Or you can go for having your film acquired directly by a studio or streaming platform. You can make some real money and you’ll also likely lose creative control over the final cut and marketing. Are you okay with that? There are other options as well: theatrical self-distribution, hybrid distribution, video on demand, and foreign sales. All have advantages and disadvantages. The bottom line is that making an indie film is an act of sustained optimism against considerable odds. The financing is complicated, the process is long, and the outcome is uncertain. But tend to the details, do the networking, and never lose hope. Your audience is out there.

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Thanks to Lansky Bros. for letting Santa wear: Deep Teal Twill Jeans, $198. Alfonso D’Este Italian hat, $140. Gold Lamé jacket, $1,495. The Zamore shirt with crafted shell buttons by Robert Graham, $598. Sapphire Elvis Blue Suede Shoes, $225. EPiC (Elvis Presley in Concert, LP accompanying Baz Luhrman’s film) 58 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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H AV E A great job.

I get to check out gifts galore and see what’s going to all the people on the Nice List. And since you’re reading Memphis Magazine at the moment, the chances are good you’re not on that other list. ¶ Naturally, I favor giving local, whether made or sourced or sold in the community. I don’t deliver by drones, so the Bluff City connection is paramount. And since Memphis Magazine is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, I’ve come up with a list (as I like to do) of 50-ish items that will deck your halls or jingle your bells or give joy to the world. Or all three. ¶ And to prove my sincerity, I’m offering a particularly special deal to our readers (or anybody, really), where I’ll record a personalized video to someone who might like to hear a message from Saint Nick. (See the workshop photo on page 63 for details.) ¶ So read on and check out my recommendations and look around the pages here for some splendid ideas. You can’t go wrong with …

Everybody wears T-shirts. My elves especially like the ones from River City Records available through Grind City Designs. A deck of cards from Wiseacre Brewing Company. If you love your Tigers, there’s a Memphis State #25 Hardaway Replica Jersey from Tiger Bookstore. Snag a “12 Pack” season subscription at Playhouse on the Square.

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Christian Brothers University, the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences, Southwest Tennessee Community College, Baptist Health Sciences University — my goodness, that’s not even half of them!

AND NOW, LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT SOME BOOKS, BECAUSE BOOKS ARE ALWAYS IN STYLE AND IN SEASON. We recommend from our own ranks the delightful story Trey’s Company by Memphis Magazine managing editor Frank Murtaugh. Come Again No More by David Wesley Williams is a novel about a journalist that was a finalist for the 2026 Tennessee Book Award in fiction.

Novelist Melissa Anderson Sweazy has published The Sisters of Crimson House, a tome of Southern Gothic supernatural suspense.

A collector’s item: With the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death coming next year, you can be part of the tribute by securing a September 1977 copy of Memphis Magazine. He was on the cover and the story inside was “Elvis: End of an Era.” Get it by emailing kristin@ memphismagazine.com or go to memphismagazinestore.com. Carolyn Pollan prints or notecard sets are watercolor images of places from Memphis’ past. Cards are sold in sets of 10 at Gourmet to Go and DCI Gallery.

One of the magazine’s favorite illustrators is Martha Kelly, and her work of fantastic linoleum-block prints of nature scenes and landscapes, stars, sky, Elmwood, and more are at martha-kelly-art.square.site. Give some love to Lichterman Nature Center. It has its annual native plant sale, but offers native plants — even trees — throughout the year. There’s lots of beautiful work in the Don Newman Photography Collection at Memphis Heritage. The highquality prints of Memphis landmarks start at $34.

We love critters! And where better than the Memphis Zoo to pick some up? Mind you, these are cute little stuffed ones that the kiddos will adore, from baby rhinos to giraffes. Or get your claws into a Zoo T-shirt. The Center for Southern Folklore takes care of business with Elvis and Blues samplers, grabbers with CDs, books, and photos. Happy Pawlidays is how the Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby County puts it, and you can get T-bags and T-shirts with various designs in its section of Grind City Designs. How about supporting the ol’ alma mater, right? All sorts of branded products are available from the University of Memphis, Rhodes College, LeMoyne-Owen College,

Long-time journalist Otis Sanford has a memoir out titled Newsman: The Road from Route 2 Box 9. He’s a former managing editor at The Commercial Appeal and is professor emeritus in journalism and strategic media at the University of Memphis. The most entertaining accounts of Memphis history are those by the legendary and mysterious Vance Lauderdale. His Ask Vance books are available at memphismagazinestore.com. Novelist Melissa Anderson Sweazy has published a bestseller, The Sisters of Crimson House, a Southern Gothic supernatural suspense book set in Memphis. Prolific novelist and poet Corey Mesler has two out this year: Memphis Movie Two: The Recrudescence of Eric Warberg, and Happy Happy. He and his wife, Cheryl, own Burke’s Book Store.

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Where better than the Memphis Zoo to pick some up some critters? Mind you, these are cute little stuffed ones that the kiddos will adore. N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 61

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Blue suede shoes from Lansky Bros. 62 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) Subscriptions to Memphis Magazine (obviously). Guji Mane from Cxffeeblack (Santa’s favorite, especially on Christmas Eve). A personalized video from Saint Nick in his toy workshop. Contact him at santa@memphismagazine.com. $40.

Mississippi Hippie: A Life in 49 Pieces by Willy Bearden is a terrific memoir by a great storyteller. And coming out later this month is Helluva Ride — Red West: His Remarkable Life Before, During and After Elvis & the Memphis Mafia. The biography is based on interviews with West and his wife Pat West made with Jon W. Sparks (who, by coincidence, is Santa Sparks). For info, visit redwestbook.com.

MUSEUM MEMBERSHIPS MAKE FANTASTIC GIFTS, AND SO DO THE GOODIES INSIDE THEIR GIFT SHOPS. SUCH AS: An ERACISM T-shirt (and much more) from the National Civil Rights Museum. The Satellite Record Shop has Stax and Soul music apparel and memorabilia. The Metal Museum’s new building has a new, expanded gift shop with amazing original art, jewelry, and books. Art and garden goodies are available at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens Café and Gift Shop. And nearby is the Memphis Botanic Garden with not just garden items but housewares, home decor, and children’s items. Make a visit to the Pink Palace, which is chockablock with educational toys, locally made crafts, and Memphisthemed souvenirs.

There is also the Memphis Art Museum (MAM), formerly the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and it’s closed during its transition downtown with a planned opening date of December 6th. The best we can do is point out the new website (memphisartmuseum. org), which coyly notes that the shop will be opening soon. Also coming soon: gifts from the remarkable Baron Von Opperbean and The River of Time adventure (bvoexp.com/ exchange).

MUSIC, SWEET, SWEET MUSIC. Santa’s own preference is for vinyl records, which he’s been collecting since the early Renaissance, and nowadays, Memphians have disc riches galore. Stax Does the Beatles was just released, and there’s a Rubber Soul box set. Or maybe

someone you love would enjoy EPiC (Elvis Presley in Concert, the LP accompanying Baz Luhrman’s film); Time Bomb High School by Reigning Sound (Merge’s reissue of the 2002 classic); Ambient Light by Sean Murphy; Minutes or Millenia by Toby Vest; Stax Killer Bs with various artists; Undershirt by Fake; The Bobby Charles Story box set; and The Bebopper’s Guide to the Galaxy by Gary Topper & Symmetry.

AND HOW ABOUT . . . Liz Kogler’s Overton Park Conservancy notecards. A BMW from Roadshow (not for Santa, though — I already have a maxed-out sleigh).

The new Mednikow Diver’s Watch in stainless steel, with automatic self-winding movement, water resistant to 660 feet ($1,250). Subscriptions (for yourself and others) to Memphis Magazine (obviously). Chocolate in all shapes and sizes from Dinstuhl’s. Guji Mane from Cxffeeblack (Santa’s favorite, especially on Christmas Eve). Bridgman Pottery (check out the oyster platter).

Debi Vincent silk scarves.

Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies (endorsed by Santa).

A nice bottle of Old Dominick 8 Year Reserve Bourbon.

Memphis-based Alma del Jaguar tequila. With egg nog?

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RIVING FROM MEMPHIS

down to Charlie Musselwhite’s home in Clarksdale, Mississippi, feels like a journey into the past. And, as William Faulkner suggested, it’s a past that’s not even past: The old hand-painted signs, the roadside stands selling pecans, the little businesses in town like the Owens Burger Shack or Messengers Café and Pool Hall, are all still there. In a way, I was reversing the route Musselwhite’s family took back in the 1940s, when they relocated from Kosciusko, Mississippi, to Memphis, where he developed the musical proclivities, taste, and skills that would define the rest of his life.

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE THE MASTER OF THE BLUES HARP, RENOWNED FOR HIS DEFT MELODIES AND TONE, RECALLS HIS FORMATIVE YEARS IN THE BLUFF CITY. BY ALEX GREENE

PHOTOGRAPH BY KAREN PULFER FOCHT

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As he greets me in his driveway and leads me into the living room, nestled in a former commercial building on Sunflower Avenue, I see more of the past: wall-to-wall shelves boasting hundreds of books, like some monastic archive preserving history through the Dark Ages. Countless tomes on the blues and music history mingle with titles evoking Stonehenge, George Armstrong Custer, and even the recent eco-philosophical musings of Robert Macfarlane’s Is A River Alive?, all decorated with snapshots, CDs, and the odd 45 rpm record sleeve. As I settle into my chair, I’m immediately feeling at home in the den of a curious mind and a kindred spirit. From there, we settle into a conversation about his life in music, with particular attention to a topic not many past interviews have dwelt upon: how he first discovered the blues and his own identity in a city that, to a kid born in Kosciusko, represented the future.

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SIPS

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MEMPHIS MAGAZINE: I’m curious about your life before you moved to Chicago at age 18. Do you have any memories of moving to Memphis from Mississippi around 1947, when you were 3 years old? CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE : I remember when we first got there. My parents borrowed some kind of dump truck and put all our stuff in the back. On Manhattan Avenue, where we moved to, they only had houses on one side of the street, and it was a dead end. The other side was woods, and from the dead end on to Cypress Creek was woods, and then across Cypress Creek was the Black neighborhood. I loved that creek and playing in the woods. I was kind of an oddball. I loved to go in the woods at night when there was a thunderstorm, because when lightning struck, just for that split second when everything lit up, I thought I could see these entities that lived in the woods, that you could only see at night or something. I was just kind of a spooky kid, I guess. I always put it this way: If we couldn’t see color, and everything was black and white, and then one day, for some reason, you could see color, there would be no way you could explain to anybody what you were seeing. It’d be impossible. But we know that color is there now. I mean, we can see it. But if we didn’t know that, it’d still be there. So what else is there that we just don’t have the sense to detect? It could be all around us, you know. MM: Speaking of being color-blind, what was your family’s attitude to the Black neighbors just across the creek? CM: My mom, Ruth, she must have said this a thousand times, in one way or another: God made everybody, and you respect everybody. Because if you disrespect somebody, you’re disrespecting God’s work, and we don’t do that. We’re all God’s children. You respect everybody. Doesn’t matter if they’re rich or poor, Black or white, young or old, everybody you show respect to. During the war, my dad, Charlie Musselwhite II (I’m the third) was in the Navy, and my mom was in civil service. She worked up in New Jersey and New York, and I don’t know what she did, but she’d be gone for months — long periods of time. I was left with my other mother, Velma, a Black lady, and she took me

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAREN PULFER FOCHT

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Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop per form at the 2025 Nor th Mississippi Hill Countr y Picnic.

everywhere she went and fed me and took care of me. As a little kid, she was my life. I had a real intimate feeling and closeness with her and her friends, and so I just never understood this prejudice thing. It never made any sense to me, and in a lot of ways, I’d be naive about it. I couldn’t believe that people actually believed that, and I kind of got in trouble one time. I had a friend, a Black guy, Clydell Smith, maybe a year older than me, and he worked for a little neighborhood grocery store over in Binghampton, on Broad Street. I was a teenager at that point, and we would drink beer together and he played harmonica and I played harmonica. So I stopped at the store to talk to him once. It never dawned on me that it could be a mistake. I mean, what’s wrong? But I still

remember this white lady — it was a little family-owned grocery store — with her arms crossed, marching out from the back, and she told him to go to the back to do something, and then she launched into this rant to me about how it wasn’t right for me to be hanging out with him, or even being friendly to him. Who did I think I was and blah, blah, blah. Boy, I felt like I was kicked in the stomach. I was speechless, and I just kind of wandered away from there in a daze. But that’s how it was. I might not have been the typical, everyday guy in that situation, but that’s where I was at, and I’m glad of it. I’d like to think I would have turned out that way no matter what my mother had told me. I’d like to think that I naturally would be that way. But how do you know? MM: That could be especially shocking in your teen years, when you’re trying to figure out social mores and how to fit in. CM: Yeah, I attended Memphis Technical High School on Poplar Avenue, right near Cleveland. Right around the corner from Tech

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there used to be a hamburger place where they never changed the grease, Dyer’s. The sign said “Open since 1912,” which I remember because that was the year my mom was born, and I would stop by there and have a burger. It was divided in the middle, where the kitchen was, and there was only Black on one side, only white on one side, but there were places where you could see through to the other side. You could see people eating, and later on, when I was kind of involved in moonshine, the porters there would come out and put a tray on your car. And if you looked okay and they trusted you, you could buy white lightning — moonshine — from the porter. And it was moonshine that I had brought them, from these guys that I knew from up around Ripley, Tennessee. I would bring it in five-gallon cans, and then they would bottle it up in half-pints and pints.

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TOP: Charlie Musselwhite ABOVE : Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop

MM: Growing up on Manhattan Avenue, did you pal around with kids in the Black neighborhood near your house?

CM: I did at the creek. It was deep enough in places to swim in little swimming holes, and I’d be down there with some of my white friends, and the Black kids would show up wanting to swim too, and the white friends would leave. I’d be like, ‘Where are you going?’ I’d stay, and I used to know some of those Black guys’ names. We got along great. I remember a lot of laughing!

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAREN PULFER FOCHT

10/19/26 11:01 AM

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MM: Were you exposed to much Black music as a kid? CM: Along Cypress Creek were some fields that people would work in. I don’t know what they were growing there, but the people working in the fields would be singing, and as a kid, my favorite place was down at the creek, because in the summertime, that was the coolest place to go. We didn’t have air conditioning, right? Down on the shady side of the creek, the coolest place, I would hear them singing. It wasn’t the top 40, but somehow I knew that music. It sounded like how I felt. I liked other kinds of music, but there was something different about this, with this feeling. It was comforting to me. The blues was my comforter. I heard blues on the radio. So you had the radio and street singers and the field singers and the records I could find. Later on, I discovered a retired jukebox operator that had a garage with thousands of 45s of all kinds of music, and I’d look through it and buy all the blues I could find. MM: How did you start playing music? Was your family musical? CM: I had a great uncle in Kosciusko who had this one-man-band thing with the harmonica and the rack and guitar, and he would play a bass drum with the end of the guitar and something with his feet and had something on his head. I asked him, ‘Where did you play?’ And he said, ‘I just followed the harvest.’ So when people got off from working in the fields, he was right there playing for tips. ‘The Sunshine Band,’ it said on his bass drum. My mom played piano, and my dad played mandolin and guitar and harmonica. Neither one of them ever showed me anything, but my dad gave me his guitar when I was 13, and about the same time I started teaching myself harmonica. Harmonicas were just a common toy, and almost everybody back then had one laying around somewhere, and they were cheap. So I played around on them just as a kid. But when I was about 13, I’d already been collecting these 78s, I remember listening to the first Sonny Boy [Williamson], and that harmonica sounded so good to me. I remember thinking, ‘It feels so good to listen to that. I bet it really feels good to play that.’ Then I thought, ‘Well, you have a harmonica!’ So I would go out in the woods where I thought nobody could hear me and started experimenting, teaching myself blues, and just looking for notes that sounded like blues. I wanted to get that feeling out of the harmonica and project it. I wanted to emulate Sonny Boy, but getting the feeling to me came first. The feeling is what it’s about.

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MM: Beyond 45s and 78s, were you seeing blues musicians around Memphis as a teenager? CM: There were street singers downtown that fascinated me. I didn’t know who they were. I was too shy to talk to them. But I remember there was a guy who played mandolin at Main and Poplar, and later I discovered he lived right across the creek from me. There was a blind guy that I got to know later, named Abe McNeil. Eventually, I got to know Furry Lewis and Will Shade and Gus Cannon and a

There was nobody my age, Black or white, in these clubs. In fact, I’d mention at work that I went to see Muddy Waters or someone, and my co-workers were like, “What’s wrong with you? That’s old folks’ music!”

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guy named Willie B., who played harmonica on a rack and guitar, and he gave me my first harmonica rack. I had made one for myself out of an old Quaker Oats container, which I would set on my chest with a piece of coat hanger that held it in place. I had cut a slot out to hold the harmonica, so I could play it while I played guitar. And I showed that to Willie B. and he just said, ‘No, no, no!’ He gave me my first rack, which was a little rusty, but it worked, and I was happy to have it. But all the time I was learning, being a professional musician never occurred to me. I just loved to play. That was the whole thing, not going after a career. I just had to play blues. MM: So that was where you were, musically speaking, when you moved to Chicago after high school?

www.HopeHouseMemphis.org cmyk cmyk

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CM: When I went up to Chicago, I was only looking for a job in a factory, and I had no idea about the music scene. Chicago was just a big city way up north with a lot of factory work. That’s all I knew about it. So, the first job I got was as a driver for an exterminator, driving all over Chicago, and I saw signs and posters in the windows of bars. You know, ‘Elmore James — Tuesday Night!’ I couldn’t believe all these guys were there. Then I got a job at the Jazz Record Mart, where Big Joe Williams lived in the basement, and I ended up rooming with him down there. He’s the guy that wrote ‘Baby Please Don’t Go.’ He started calling me ‘Memphis Charlie.’ I didn’t really use that name, though. So, I’m going to all these clubs and listening to music, and, coming from Memphis, I already knew how to drink. These are all Black clubs, on the south side of Chicago, and I would go to see Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and all these different guys, Homesick James and J.B. Hutto, but I didn’t tell anybody I played or ask to sit in. I didn’t figure that I even had a right to do that. I’m not a musician, I’m just a hillbilly from Memphis, you know? I was happy just to be socializing and hanging out, and at these clubs, I’d be the only white guy there. This was strictly adults. There was nobody my age, Black or white, in these clubs. In fact, I’d mention at work that I went to see Muddy Waters or someone, and my co-workers were like, ‘What’s wrong with you? That’s old folks’ music! You got to get up with the times, man. You’re crazy! You’ve got to listen to the Supremes.’ So that’s why I never saw anybody my age in these clubs, even Black guys my age. They wanted nothing to do with blues. That was the music of their parents. I wore suits, so I got into those places. Nobody ever asked me about my age. Later on, a guy that worked for Muddy told me that Muddy thought I was either a cop or just crazy to come into these clubs, because they were rough. Anyway, there was a waitress at Pepper’s Lounge who I’d gotten to know, and I’d played for her in her apartment, and she told Muddy, ‘Y’all hear Charlie play harmonica?’ They all knew me. They thought of me as a fan, because I’d request tunes, and Muddy would say, ‘How do you know that?’ and I said, ‘I got the record.’ So they were kind of amused by me, this white kid that was hanging out in these clubs and knew how to drink. But when Muddy found out I played harmonica, he insisted I sit in. I still remember being onstage in Pepper’s Lounge, standing next to Muddy Waters. He’s singing. I’m playing harmonica, and I’m thinking, how the hell did I get here?

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GIVING SPOTLIGHT

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

2026

MEMPHIS

FIVE STAR AWARD WINNERS

These days, it takes a village to manage your financial world. In fact, many consumers have a hard time figuring out where to even begin. Sometimes, a few simple questions can put you off on the right path. Asking a professional what makes working with them a unique experience can help you understand how they work and if their style meshes with your own. This is a great place to start! Five Star Professional uses its own proprietary research methodology to name outstanding professionals, then works with publications such as Memphis magazine to spread the word about award winners. Each award candidate undergoes a thorough research process (detailed here) before being considered for the final list of award winners. For the complete list of winners, go to www.fivestarprofessional.com/public/research.

RESEARCH DISCLOSURES

FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER

In order to consider a broad population of high-quality wealth managers, award candidates are identified by one of three sources: firm nomination, peer nomination or prequalification based on industry standing. Self-nominations are not accepted. Memphis-area award candidates were identified using internal and external research data. Candidates do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final lists of Five Star Wealth Managers. • The Five Star award is not indicative of a professional’s future performance. • Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients’ assets. • The inclusion of a professional on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the professional by Five Star Professional or Memphis magazine. • Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any professional is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected professionals will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. • Five Star Professional is not an advisory firm and the content of this article should not be considered financial advice. For more information on the Five Star Wealth Manager award program, research and selection criteria, go to fivestarprofessional.com/research. • 856 award candidates in the Memphis area were considered for the Five Star Wealth Manager award. 45 (approximately 5% of the award candidates) were named 2026 Five Star Wealth Managers.

Award candidates who satisfied 10 objective eligibility and evaluation criteria were named 2026 Five Star Wealth Managers. Eligibility Criteria – Required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser or a registered investment adviser representative. 2. Actively employed as a credentialed professional in the financial services industry for a minimum of five years. 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review. 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal firm standards. 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation Criteria – Considered: 6. One-year client retention rate. 7. Five-year client retention rate. 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered. 9. Number of client households served. 10. Education and professional designations. Regulatory Review: As defined by Five Star Professional, the wealth manager has not: been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; been convicted of a felony. Within the past 11 years the wealth manager has not: been terminated from a wealth management or financial services firm; filed for personal bankruptcy; had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them (and no more than five total pending, dismissed or denied) with any regulatory authority. Five Star Professional conducts a regulatory review of each nominated wealth manager using the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website. Five Star Professional also uses multiple supporting processes to help ensure that a favorable regulatory and complaint history exists. Data submitted through these processes was applied per the above criteria; each wealth manager who passes the Five Star Professional regulatory review must attest that they meet the definition of favorable regulatory history based upon the criteria listed above. Five Star Professional promotes via local advertising the opportunity for consumers to confidentially submit complaints regarding a wealth manager.

DETERMINATION OF AWARD WINNERS CRITERIA

All award winners are listed in this publication.

Wealth Managers Financial Planning Matthew Duane Allgood Allgood Financial

Chirag Dinesh Chauhan Bluff City Advisory Group

David A. Pickler Pickler Wealth Advisors Page 2

Patrick Sirayathorn Alden Investment Group

William B. Howard Jr. William Howard & Co. Financial Advisors, Inc.

Katie Pickler Pickler Wealth Advisors Page 2

Investments Bob Cremerius Prudent Financial Continued on FS-3

This award was issued on 10/01/2026 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 01/08/2026 through 06/30/2026. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire award; 45 (5% of candidates) were named 2026 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, 1/31/22 - 8/5/22; 2021: 548, 50, 9%, 10/1/21, 1/11/21 - 8/13/21; 2020: 542, 42, 8%, 10/1/20, 1/20/20 - 8/21/20; 2019: 544, 54, 10%, 10/1/19, 1/28/19 - 8/16/19; 2018: 548, 69, 13%, 1034, 152, 15%, 10/1/14, 3/30/13 - 8/19/13; 2013: 880, 166, 19%, 10/1/13, 3/30/12 - 8/19/12; 2012: 695, 166, 24%, 10/1/12, 3/30/11 - 8/19/11. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility Criteria – Required 1. Meets requirements to be an investment adviser representative (IAR) or a principal of a registered investment adviser (RIA). 2. Actively practicing as an IAR or principal of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this F S - 1 — LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

WEALTH MANAGERS

Pickler Wealth Advisors

YEAR WINNER

Left to right: Thirteen-year winner David A. Pickler, CFP®, President, CEO and 2026 winner Katie Pickler, MS, MPAS®, CSRIC®, Vice President

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At Pickler Wealth Advisors, David and Katie Pickler share more than a family name. As father and daughter, they bring two generations of leadership and a shared belief that wealth management should be deeply personal and centered on what matters most to each client. That philosophy shapes Pickler Wealth Advisors, an award-winning independent advisory practice where small-town values meet sophisticated financial guidance. Rather than leaving clients to coordinate multiple professionals and disconnected advice, they incorporate investment, tax and estate planning strategies into one clear, synchronized financial plan. It is guidance that may not show up on a statement but can be felt in every decision and every stage of life. Together with their team, David and Katie bring the resources of Wall Street to Main Street, building lasting relationships and helping clients turn their vision for the future into reality.

1135 Halle Park Circle • Collierville, TN 38017 Phone: 901-316-0160 www.picklerwealthadvisors.com

CFP Board owns the marks CFP®, Certified finanCial Planner®, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the U.S. 2026 Five Star Wealth Manager Award, created by Five Star Professional. Presented in 2026 based on data gathered within 12 months preceding the issue date. Advisors pay a fee to hold out marketing materials. Not indicative of advisor’s future performance. Your experience may vary. FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGER AWARD WINNER

was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 856 Memphis-area wealth managers were considered for the Research Period. 2025: 666, 42, 6%, 10/1/25, 1/8/25 - 7/2/25; 2024: 600, 54, 9%, 10/1/24, 1/9/24 - 8/9/24; 2023: 542, 51, 9%, 10/1/23, 1/9/23 - 7/31/23; 2022: 489, 46, 9%, 10/1/22, 10/1/18, 2/6/18 - 8/27/18; 2017: 400, 52, 13%, 10/1/17, 2/6/17 - 8/28/17; 2016: 447, 105, 23%, 9/1/16, 3/30/16 - 8/24/16; 2015: 690, 143, 21%, 10/1/15, 3/30/15 - 8/19/15; 2014: of an RIA for a minimum of five years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients’ assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com. LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM — F S - 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

WEALTH MANAGERS Continued from FS-1

All award winners are listed in this publication. Sudhir Kumar Agrawal Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Lee Russell Elander IV Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Deborah Johnson First Horizon Bank

Mackie McKinney LPL Financial

James Sims Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

William Alexandre Bizot Wells Fargo Advisors

Lauren Austin Estes Allegiant Financial Planning, LLC

James Kevin Johnston Financial Resource Management

Sreeni Meka Lakeland Wealth Management

Julie Westbrook Terry Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Ralph Bond Exclusive Financial Strategies/ Packerland Brokerage Services

Kathleen Marie Fish Fish And Assocates

Larry Wayne Karban Atkins Capital Management

Hugh Harold Parks Envision Financial Planning

Samuel Alexander Thompson III Summit Asset Management LLC

Cecil Adair Godman Mercury Investment Group

Martin Samuel Kelman Kelman Lazarov

Vincent Carlton Perry Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Michael Lowell Turner Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

Sarah Russell Haizlip Summit Asset Management LLC

Brian Patrick Kinney Dominion Partners Private Wealth Management, LLC

Conrad Butler Richards Wells Fargo Advisors

Jim Whitehead Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC/Crown Financial Group

Becky Ahl Bridgmon Morgan Stanley James Euart Cochran Summit Wealth Group Richard Schaben Ditter Prime Capital Financial Brian Kevin Douglas Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC Leslie Hill Drummond Summit Asset Management LLC

Jay Lawrence Healy Beacon Pointe Advisors Lance Wayne Hollingsworth Summit Asset Management LLC Stacey Stephenson Hyde Envision Financial Planning

John Norfleet Laughlin Summit Asset Management LLC Jonathan D. McAlister Kimery Wealth Management Clarence Edward McClain First Horizon Advisors

Bryan L. Roper Wells Fargo Advisors James Andrew Sego Sego Wealth Management, LLC

Steven Wishnia Highland Capital Management

Marisa Rose Simonetti Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

“Financial planning is a holistic approach to financial well-being.” — Five Star award winner

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified finanCial Planner® and federally registered CFP (with plaque design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. The Chartered Financial Consultant® credential [ChFC®] is a financial planning designation awarded by The American College.

This award was issued on 10/01/2026 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 01/08/2026 through 06/30/2026. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 856 Memphis-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 45 (5% of candidates) were named 2026 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2025: 666, 42, 6%, 10/1/25, 1/8/25 - 7/2/25; 2024: 600, 54, 9%, 10/1/24, 1/9/24 - 8/9/24; 2023: 542, 51, 9%, 10/1/23, 1/9/23 - 7/31/23; 2022: 489, 46, 9%, 10/1/22, 1/31/22 - 8/5/22; 2021: 548, 50, 9%, 10/1/21, 1/11/21 - 8/13/21; 2020: 542, 42, 8%, 10/1/20, 1/20/20 - 8/21/20; 2019: 544, 54, 10%, 10/1/19, 1/28/19 - 8/16/19; 2018: 548, 69, 13%, 10/1/18, 2/6/18 - 8/27/18; 2017: 400, 52, 13%, 10/1/17, 2/6/17 - 8/28/17; 2016: 447, 105, 23%, 9/1/16, 3/30/16 - 8/24/16; 2015: 690, 143, 21%, 10/1/15, 3/30/15 - 8/19/15; 2014: 1034, 152, 15%, 10/1/14, 3/30/13 - 8/19/13; 2013: 880, 166, 19%, 10/1/13, 3/30/12 - 8/19/12; 2012: 695, 166, 24%, 10/1/12, 3/30/11 - 8/19/11. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility Criteria – Required 1. Meets requirements to be an investment adviser representative (IAR) or a principal of a registered investment adviser (RIA). 2. Actively practicing as an IAR or principal of an RIA for a minimum of five years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP’s consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP’s consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client’s experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients’ assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com. F S - 3 — LEARN MORE AT FIVESTARPROFESSIONAL.COM

The Best

Christmas Memories Start Together

Discover what’s new at Gaylord Opryland as ice! returns with Home Alone, featuring immersive scenes, frozen slides, and unforgettable Christmas moments.

Nov. 6 - Jan. 2 ChristmasAtGaylordOpryland.com

CONCEPT ART

TOGETHER

BELIEVE WE CAN PHILANTHROPY FOR MENTAL HEALTH

Support r Mental Health Today rt Every r gift ry f to The Alliance Foundation helps fund life ft f saving fe mental health, crisis care, children's programs, and subst s ance st use recovery r through Alliance Healthcare Serv ry r ices. To rv T gether, r r, we are bringing hope and healing to our community t . ty

901-569-5070

thealliancefoundation.org

901-558-3197

GIVING GUIDE UOY ekam

TENNESSEE’S eht NEWEST OLDEST ART MUSEUM

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Give back to the Mid-South this year by supporting one of many wonderful,ycaretil ylrae smrofsnart evitaitini tsetal ’ssapmoC ...ybthe sraey trohs ruof ni ycneiciforp %09 hcaer ot gnimia nonprofit organizations. On the following pages, you can find out more about %09 ot ycneiciforp gnidaer 3–K gnisaercnI • area’s leading nonprofits — what they do, who they help, their impact, successes, gnidaeR fo ecneicS eht ni srehcaet gniniarT • and connections. Looking to feed a passion project or aid in making a difference srehcaet gnitapicitrap fo %58 gniniateR • in our area? Opportunities abound. Start here to see how — and why — you couldpihsredael ycaretil lanretni gnipoleveD • become involved with a worthy cause right here at home. sloohcs rehto ot sdohtem gniniart gnilacS •

Founded in 1916

Learn to Excel Opening

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Dec. 6, +2026 1,600

HOOKS BROTHERS STUDIO, 1907-1984

86 %

of Excel Graduates

of students surveyed* are employed or enrolled in college

GIVING GUIDE VISION: Following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideal of education: “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” This true education provided within a supportive, joyful, and hopeful school culture — will prepare our students to be positive agents of change in their community.

ABOUT US STUDENTS: 1463 EMPLOYEES: 228 CAMPUSES: 6 ESTABLISHED: 2018 SIX CAMPUSES

Berclair (K-8) – 3880 Forest Ave, 38122 Binghampton (K-8) – 2540 Hale Ave, 38112 Frayser (K-8) – 3690 Thomas St, 38127 Hickory Hill (K-8) – 3572 Emerald St, 38115 Midtown (9-12) – 61 N McLean Blvd, 38104 Orange Mound (K-8) – 2718 Lamar Ave, 38114 SOURCES OF FUNDING

Individuals – .37% Corporations & Organizations – 3.04% Foundations – 15.19% State & Federal Funding – 81.4% ADDRESS

61 N McLean Blvd, Memphis, TN 38104 PHONE

901.618.7422 EMAIL ADDRESS:

info@compassmemphis.org WEBSITE

compassmemphis.org facebook.com/compassmemphis instagram.com/compassmemphis

Kristi Baird Executive Director

BOARD Mike Allen Memphis Botanic Gardens - Chair Omar Paez Smith & Nephew - Vice Chair Marty Petrusek Trane US - Treasurer Kathleen N Gomes Shelby County Probate Court - Secretary Kathy Boccia St. Agnes Academy

Vernua Hanrahan Memphis Housing Authority Leslie Jones Parent Representative Marty Regan Lewis Thomason Law Teresa Sloyan Hyde Family Foundation Dr. John Smarrelli Christian Brothers University Bishop Emeritus J. Terry Steib Catholic Diocese

SPECIAL PROMOTION

WHO WE SERVE Across the nation, schools are closing in urban neighborhoods. Compass Community Schools represent an unprecedented example of urban charter schools opening in Memphis to serve predominantly low-income students in the neighborhoods of Berclair, Binghampton, Frayser, Hickory Hill, Midtown, and Orange Mound. Our mission is to prepare students for college and lifelong success by developing the whole child through a focus on academic excellence, values-based character education, and service learning in the community. In 2019, Compass opened its doors to welcome all students and diversity in all forms: cognitive, cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, residency status, and socioeconomic. Today, the Compass Network serves over 1,450 students, of whom 71% are Hispanic and 27% are African American. Our students arrive at our schools with different needs. Compass Community Schools serves students who have physical, emotional, mental, and behavioral disabilities, students who speak English as a second language, and younger students who lack the wraparound services and academic support to establish a strong educational foundation. 95% of our families are from the Memphis urban area, and 77% are from zip codes with the lowest median household incomes (below $42,100). All Compass students receive free lunch. MAKING THE GRADES: According to the State of Tennessee 2025 assessments, 4 Compass Schools earned a TVAAS score of 5, the highest distinction based on TVAAS composite scores. A Level 5 composite means we are successfully moving students toward proficiency and beyond. Additionally, 3 Compass Community Schools earned the State of Tennessee’s

esteemed Reward Schools designation. Reward schools are schools that improve overall student academic achievement and growth for all student groups. We are proud of these honors because they affirm that our strategies and teachers are helping students make academic gains. Additionally, Compass-Midtown High School offers Dual Enrollment & Career Technical Education (CTE), including Culinary Arts, Construction, & Healthcare pathways (coming soon), for all students. CTE provides students with academic, technical, and employability skills for high-demand, specialized jobs. Students who qualify can take over 15 AP courses and multiple Dual enrollment courses through the University of Memphis, TCAT-Memphis, and Southwest TN Community College. We believe a world-class education is more than just academics. That is why we ensure extracurricular activities are available to all our students. In addition to social-emotional learning, values-based character education, and service learning in the community, we offer an array of clubs and sports. CompassMidtown offers volleyball and cheerleading for girls, soccer, track and field, and cross country for boys and girls, and basketball for boys. All K-8 campuses will have an intramural sports program beginning in the 2027-28 school year, including cross country, basketball, and soccer.

T C a

•

R im y t M C s s

YOU make the difference. The NORTH STAR Project: Compass’ latest initiative transforms early literacy, aiming to reach 90% proficiency in four short years by... • Increasing K–3 reading proficiency to 90% • Training teachers in the Science of Reading • Retaining 85% of participating teachers • Developing internal literacy leadership • Scaling training methods to other schools

Reading proficiency by third grade is one of the most important predictors of long-term academic success, yet most students in Memphis are not reaching this milestone. For three decades, reading scores in Memphis have remained stagnant just below 30%. Compass Community Schools will change that in four short years. Support us as we turn these statistics into success stories.

Transform early literacy in Memphis. compassmemphis.org/invest Learn more about the North Star Project: compassmemphis.org/northstar SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

osten

Pancreatic Cancer Support

Research

Advocacy

Education

Hope

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $250,000 ESTABLISHED: 2003 SOURCES OF FUNDING

Kick It Pickleball Tournament

Kick It 5k

INDIVIDUALS: 90% CORPORATIONS: 5% ORGANIZATIONS: 5% ADDRESS

6060 Poplar Avenue, Suite 140,Memphis, TN 38119 PHONE

901.606.7542

MISSION To establish support and a forum for communication among those afflicted with pancreatic cancer via support group meetings, our website, social media channels, and events. To assist with the training of future pancreatic cancer surgeons.

WEBSITE

www.kostenfoundation.com facebook.com/KostenFoundation/ @KostenFDN EVENTS:

Support Group: The Kosten Foundation in-person and virtual support group is free and open to everyone affected by pancreatic cancer, including patients, family members, caregivers and anyone interested in supportIng those impacted by the disease and learning more. Everyone is welcome. The Support Group meets on the second Saturday of every month. If you would like to join the support group and for additional information, please visit KostenFoundation.com. Kick It 5K: The Kick It 5K takes place on the last Sunday of October and is the largest fundraiser for the Kosten Foundation. The all-ages event includes a 5k run, 1-mile fun walk, opportunities for spirit runners, an inspirational memorial and survivor ceremony, entertainment and food vendors. Tribute at Twilight: For Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month in November, the Kosten Foundation is proud to host the Tribute at Twilight. The event is for survivors of pancreatic cancer, Kosten Foundation support group members and those who have lost loved ones to the disease. Participants share stories and there is a symbolic presentation in remembrance and honor of those lost to pancreatic cancer and those still fighting it.

E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Alan L. Kosten Chairman Of The Board Jeffrey A. Goldberg President Thomas Craig Director Of Community Engagement SPECIAL PROMOTION

To provide funding for clinical and basic research toward improving outcomes for those afflicted with pancreatic cancer. It is our sincere hope that we can provide an informative, compassionate, and humane approach toward improving the quality of life for those afflicted with pancreatic cancer and their families. Additionally, through research efforts, it is our very realistic passion to find a path to the early diagnosis and cure of pancreatic cancer in our lifetimes. ABOUT THE HERB KOSTEN FOU NDAT ION: The Herb Kosten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research was founded in 2003 by the family of Herb Kosten after his death due to pancreatic cancer. Kosten’s family sought to improve community support, awareness, and funding for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest known cancers. As the only organization of its kind in a five-state area, the group focuses on providing access to resources and support through a combination of communication, initiatives, programs, and events. All members of the Foundation are volunteers who donate hundreds of hours each year and believe in leading by example. The organization has raised more than $3,500,000 for pancreatic cancer research and hosts a very active monthly support group meeting for patients, their families, and anyone interested in learning more about pancreatic cancer. In 2004, in honor of Kosten’s love of tennis, the Memphis-based organization began hosting annual tennis tournaments to raise money to fight pancreatic cancer and in

Herb Kosten 2011 the group held its first Kick It 5K run/ walk. Money raised from the Kick It 5K and other Kosten Foundation events help fund pancreatic cancer research. For more information about the Kosten Foundation, its programs, and events, visit the website at kostenfoundation.com. KICK IT PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT The third annual Kick It Pickleball Tournament was held on May 15-17. The event raised more than $50,000, attracting more than 300 participants and spectators for a weekend filled with pickleball matches, community engagement and fundraising. 2027 dates are to be determined. All proceeds from the tournament are used for pancreatic cancer research.

KICK IT

17 ANNIVERSARY TH

OCTOBER 24, 2027

Benef it ting the Herb Kos ten Pancreatic Cancer Research Foundation

SHELBY FARMS PARK • 1 PM FOR INFORMATION RE-SPONSORSHIPS PLEASE CONTACT ALAN KOSTEN 901-606-5330 OR JEFFREY GOLDBERG 901-606-7542

Memphis

kickit5k.raceroster.com SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $7.6M EMPLOYEES: 72 ESTABLISHED: 1916 SOURCES OF FUNDING

City - 9.8% Earned Income - 40% Contributed Income - 39.2% Endowment - 11% ADDRESS

55 S. Front St, Memphis, TN 38103 PHONE

901.544.6200

MISSION & VISION: We create joy through the power of art.

WEBSITE

Zoe Kahr Executive Director

Photo Credit: Lucy Garrett

memphisartmuseum.org

B OARD Carl Person, Chair Owner - Customized Solutions Milton Lovell, Vice Chair President & Chief Investment Ofﬁcer Element40 Management Mat Parker, Jr., Treasurer Managing Director - Head of Hilltop Securities Bank Solutions Tanya Hart, Secretary Chief Human Resources Ofﬁcer - First Horizon Belinda Anderson Independent Event Planner Jenna Bedsole SVP, General Counsel, and Secretary AutoZone Nathan A. Bicks Attorney - Burch, Porter & Johnson, PLLC Gloria Boyland Community Volunteer

SPECIAL PROMOTION

At the Memphis Art Museum, every act of generosity helps transform lives through the power of art. Together, we make a difference by: Elevating the Arts Your gift sustains Memphis’ world-class collection of more than 10,000 works spanning five millennia of global creativity. Your generosity brings these artworks to life by fueling exhibitions that connect people to art in meaningful, lasting ways. Enriching the Community We are Memphis’ art museum, a place where creativity and community meet. Through your support, the museum remains a welcoming, inclusive space

Chiquilla Brown Registered Nurse & Adjunct Clinical Instructor - Baptist University Nelda Burroughs Co-Owner - First Choice Sales & Marketing Group Kristi Carmichael Community Volunteer Rob Carter Community Volunteer Trevia Chatman President - Bank of America Memphis Erica Stiff-Coopwood Community Volunteer Deborah Craddock Community Volunteer Brandice Daniel CEO - Harlem’s Fashion Row Sonia Eden Neurosurgeon - Semmes Murphey Clinic Oxford

Derek Fordjour Artist - Fordjour Studio Sara Hall Chief Legal Ofﬁcer and General Counsel - ALSAC Adam Hanover CEO - Union Main Group Debi Havner Community Volunteer Rodney Herenton Founder & Co-CEO - Channing Capital Management Lucia Heros Community Volunteer; Partner - Café Las Flores Barbara R. Hyde Chair & CEO - Hyde Family Foundation Linda Ivy-Rosser Vice President - Forrester Research Jay Keegan President & CEO - Adams Keegan

that celebrates our city’s creative spirit. Each year, more than 400 programs invite people of all ages to connect through art, from family days that spark imagination and hands-on art-making for adults to fashion events, gallery talks, tours, and countless shared moments of discovery. Advancing Education Art education opens minds and expands possibilities. Each year, your city’s art museum engages more than 20,000 students, many from Title I schools, through free tours, hands-on learning, and teacher partnerships. Your contribution empowers the next generation to think critically, feel deeply, and imagine boldly.

Kim MacQueen Community Volunteer Shanea McKinney Clinical Account Manager - Cigna Pharmacy Logan Meeks President Principal - A2H Jeff Presley Southworth Capital Management Sylvia Richey Chief Medical Ofﬁcer - West Cancer Center Cathy Ross Community Volunteer (Retired FedEx) Logan Scheidt Real Estate Broker - Crye-Leike Real Estate Gail Schledwitz Community Volunteer Melyne Strickland Johson & Johnson

Jason Wexler President - Memphis Grizzlies David Willmott Co-Founder - Collins Willmott & Co. Tate Wilson Chief Executive Ofﬁcer - Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation Amy Wright Co-Founder & CEO - Macro Solutions/ Ditty TV Gail George (ex-officio) Member - Decorative Arts Trust Penelope Huston (ex-officio) Chief Communications Ofﬁcer - City of Memphis

TENNESSEE’S NEWEST OLDEST ART MUSEUM Founded in 1916 Opening Dec. 6, 2026 MAKING BEAUTY: HOOKS BROTHERS STUDIO, 1907-1984 SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: Nearly 800 ESTABLISHED: 1923 ADDRESS

6895 Stage Road, Memphis, TN 38133 PHONE

901.323.6221 WEBSITE

GoodwillMemphis.org MemphisGoodwill MemphisGoodwill memphis-goodwill-inc-/ MemphisGoodwillInc

E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Tony Martini CEO and President Tina Blackmon SVP, Operations Ron Schuyler SVP Chief Mission & Education Ofﬁcer Ursula Roman VP, Marketing & Communications Latisha Robertson VP of Contract Services Lori Strickland VP of Human Resources Chuck Molinski VP of Corporate & Community Engagement Terry A. Brown Deacon Bill Davis Terri Landwehr Melanie Myers-Bland Michael Robilio Macky Sneed Dr. Patrick Washington Amy Weirich Brian Williams

SPECIAL PROMOTION

MISSION Our mission is to change the lives of people with disabilities and other barriers to employment through the power of work, education, and empowerment. GOALS Goodwill has proudly served the Mid-South for over 100 years. We are committed to creating even more job and mission opportunities through our Donated Goods Operations, Contract Services, and The Excel Center — a free high school for adults. FUNDRAISING EVENTS We fundraise 363 days a year through our network of retail stores and attended donation centers. Sales from donated goods help employ nearly 800 people locally. In 2024 alone, we received over 634,000 material donations — a testament to the community’s generosity. GIVING OPPORTUNITIES Supp or t Goodw il l year-round w ith donations of clothing, household goods, furniture, books, vehicles, and more. We also partner with Dell Reconnect to responsibly recycle computers, printers, and other electronics — keeping e-waste out of landfills and supporting our mission. CHANGE ROUND-UP Goodwill shoppers can “round up” their purchases and donate their spare change to a good cause. Those quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies really do add up! END-OF-YEAR GIVING As 2026 comes to a close, remember to take advantage of year-end giving opportunities. Your financial contributions and donations help us continue to transform lives across the Mid-South.

SUPPORTING EDUCTION Memphis Goodwill sponsors The Excel Center for Adult Learners, an adults only high school for those who did not achieve their diploma. It offers free tuition, free transportation, free on-site child care, and career and post-secondary education counseling. It is open to residents of Shelby County 18 years and older. Graduates receive a fully accredited Shelby County Schools diploma. Its goal is to offer adults who dropped out of high school the opportunity to achieve the education, lifecoaching, empowerment, and self-esteem to move into living-wage employment and away from public assistance. This program was created by Goodwill Industries and serves as a model school system nationwide. Although state credits provide the primary funding for the school, without considerable philanthropy the model is unsustainable. To learn more about our mission go to GoodwillMemphis.org. The Excel Center now serves adult learners at two Memphis locations, including our new campus on Austin Peay Highway.

Learn to Excel 1,600 + Diplomas

awarded since May 2025

86 %

of Excel Graduates

of students surveyed* are employed or enrolled in college

$20k

the average wage gains of graduates that enter the workforce after 2 years compared to all students at enrollment of students surveyed

High school dropout numbers are increasing, and our results are growing, too. At The Excel Center Memphis, operated by Goodwill Excel Center Midsouth, Inc., we offer hope to Shelby County students who dropped out of high school and now want an opportunity to earn their full diploma. We operate under contract with Memphis Shelby County Schools for area adults ages 18 and older, and we’re focused on helping our students graduate by providing: • Free on-site child care • Flexible scheduling • Accelerated (8-week) terms • Free college credits • Industry-recognized certifications • Free transportation • Life coaching

The Excel Center • 2576 Thousand Oaks Cove • (901) 726-3100 • ExcelCenterMemphis.org Connect with us on and @ExcelCenterMemphis SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US ANNUAL GIFT REVENUE: $1.5 million NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 194 ESTABLISHED: 1932 SOURCES OF FUNDING

Individuals: 93% Corporations: 3% Organizations: 3% Foundations: 1% LOCATION

1245 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104 PHONE

901.722.3250 WEBSITE

sco.edu @sco.edu/facebook @sco.edu/twitter @linkedin.com/school/southern-college-of-optometry

PRESIDENT Dr. Lewis Reich BOARD CHAIR Dr. Jennifer Lyerly BOARD MEMBERS Dr. Allan Barker Renee Brauns Dr. Betty Harville Brown Dr. Darby Chiasson Dr. Arthur R. Dampier Dr. Anita Davis Vicki Farmer Dr. Charles Glaser Dr. Mark Kapperman Dr. Charles W. Kinnaird Dr. James K. Kirchner William McDonald Dr. Belinda Starkey Dr. Stuart Tasman FACULT Y REPRESENTATIVE Dr. Marie Bodack STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Gracie Mock, ’28

SPECIAL PROMOTION

As one of 26 optometry colleges in the United States, Southern College of Optometry serves as the only optometry college in the tri-state region serving Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. SCO’s appeal, though, is more than regional; with 543 students coming to Memphis from 44 different states and Canada, no other optometry college in America can claim the geographic diversity that SCO represents. Since its 1932 founding in Memphis, the college has long enjoyed a reputation for providing students with a strong clinical education. As a result, SCO’s graduates excel at national board scores, professional leadership, and providing the eye and vision care needs of patients across the nation. In all, more than 7,000 American optometrists received their diploma from SCO. In April 2026, SCO broke ground on the next chapter of its history. The college embarked on a $35 million, two-phase project to create a new building on its midtown campus and to renovate SCO’s iconic 11-story tower. When completed, the new building will expand clinical services for pediatric patients on the first floor and a second floor housing a new library and other student spaces. The front of SCO’s tower is being modernized, with a new lobby, atrium, welcome center, and other amenities being added. SCO’s Greater Vision campaign is well underway to meet the funding needs for these projects, with support coming from the local community as well as the college set to announce the largest gift ever received from one of its alumni. OUR IMPACT ON MEMPHIS INCLUDES: • Prior to undertaking this new

construction project, a 2024 economic impact report showed that SCO provides a major boost to the Memphis economy, with the creation of more than 1,136 jobs and a direct economic impact of $179 million dollars. • SCO operates two clinical eyecare facilities, both of which are open to the public in Memphis. • Each year, SCO sees more than 50,000 patients at The Eye Center on SCO’s campus, and at the college’s FocalPoint location on the second level of Crosstown Concourse. • Aiding the education of optometry students, these patient care facilities serve a dual purpose by meeting the vision care needs of a large segment of the Memphis population. • Caring for school children throughout Shelby County, SCO’s school screening program helps identify and treat vision problems in children at an early age, in turn improving academic performance once sight has been corrected. At the community level, donors may support SCO’s “I Care for Kids” children’s vision program. This program provides vision care to children who could not otherwise afford services. Supporters may use Kroger Community Awards to designate SCO as a charity of choice.

SCO’s campus is being transformed through a $35 million campus enhancement effort! Learn more at sco.edu/greatervision

sco.edu

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $8.5 Million NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 35 ESTABLISHED: 1923 SOURCES OF FUNDING

Individuals: 41.71% Corporations: 20.15% Government: 11.01% Foundations: 5.03% Others: 22.10%

MISSION: United Way of the Mid-South improves the quality of life for Mid-Southerners by mobilizing and aligning community resources to address priority issues.

ADDRESS

1005 Tillman Street, Memphis, TN 38112

GOALS: We help families and communities thrive by investing in the people, partners, and cross-sector collaborations that build the capacity of the social service ecosystem. We eliminate barriers and create lasting opportunities that empower people to build a healthy, stable, and bright future. Through programs like Free Tax Prep and Driving The Dream®, United Way is helping families build financial mobility for the long-term. Last year, Free Tax Prep returned over $12 million to 9500 families and the local economy. Through a network of over 100 partners, United Way’s Driving The Dream® provides support for housing, transportation, childcare, healthcare, and we connect families to available public support. United Way supports local nonprofit organizations through funding, capacity building, advocacy, and volunteers, making each contribution go further to help Mid-Southerners.

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(901) 433-4300 WEBSITE

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EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP Tomeka Hart Wigginton President & CEO, United Way of the Mid-South Mary Ann Jackson, Secretary/ Counsel Baker, Donelson Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz Jon Paul Davis, Investment Committee Chair HHM Advisory Services Richard Wright, Treasurer/ Finance Chair Ernst & Young, LLP

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BOARD MEMBERS: Darrell Cobbins, Chair Universal Commercial, LLC Ayoka Pond Baptist Memorial Health Care Ben Bricken Raymond James Beverly Robertson TRUST Marketing Brett Harris Geico David May Regions Bank

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VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: Individuals and businesses willing to lend a helping hand and make a difference in our community may join us for various volunteer activities at our local partner agencies or at United Way events throughout the year. Our signature volunteer opportunities include Days of Caring, Stuff the Bus, Classroom Ready, and our Free Tax Prep program. You can learn more about these opportunities and other ways to support our community by visiting our website. GIVING OPPORTUNITIES: Visit our website to donate to United Way and help to build a thriving community. Companies may support United Way through workplace giving campaigns, corporate contributions, or in-kind support. Email carolyn.mccormick@uwmidsouth.org to learn more.

Kevin Woods BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Martia Brown Enterprise Mobility Melanie A. Keller Meritan, Inc. Niqualus Nibley Local Labor Union IBEW 474 Rebecca Cullison Methodist LeBonheur-Germantown Reggie Crenshaw Cigna Healthcare Reginald Boyce City of Memphis

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9:16 AM

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RIBBON CUTTING Office & Meeting Space Tailored Business Benefits Networking Opportunities Marketing Opportunities Advocacy And so much more! www.southavenchamber.com info@southavenchamber.com

500 Stateline Rd, |662.342.6114 | Southaven, MS, 38671

DINING OUT

(right) The Hosh Hashanah tar t and the pan-seared redfish Veracruz .

WHAT A JEM A WARM, INVITING, AND GLOBALLY GUIDED BY GRACIE DRIVER

M I D T H E C H A O S of everyday life,

co-owners Emily and head chef Josh Mutchnik have created a mindful and relaxing oasis at JEM, their Edge District restaurant whose name stands for “Just Enjoy the Moment.” Upon entering, I spotted a lounge corner to the right, a cozy bar just ahead, and jars of pickled peppers resting on the wall, their bright red hues guiding me into the ambiently lit dining room. ¶ During their time living in bigger cities, the culinary couple saw time and time again that the industry was missing something. Josh started out in “the fine dining, pretentious places with tweezers, and ‘Yes, chef ’” world. Although he learned a lot, he missed the connection between the kitchen and patrons. If he opened a restaurant, he wanted it to be “warm and inviting.” After moving to Memphis in 2020, Josh and Emily set out to accomplish just that.

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Seeing chefs work in the dining area under warm lighting at a long counter felt almost like enjoying a special dinner party at someone’s home. Rather than executing dishes under the harsh white light of industrial kitchens, we saw chefs plating each dish in front of us. It also bears mentioning that the layered chocolate cake, towering on a crystal cake stand beside a pyramid of glistening glazed donuts, had me extremely excited for dessert before the meal even began. The first thing we ordered was the duck rillettes appetizer, which came with sweetand-sour red onions with whole-grain mustard, crunchy crostini, and cherry mostarda. Mostarda is an Italian condiment similar to fruit preserves but zinged with mustard seed. This particular preparation blended so well with the rich duck spread. For something to sip on between bites, we ordered the Potstill daiquiri, which seamlessly mixes Dampfwerk brandy in both the apple and pear varieties, as well as their Triple Sec, Awayuki strawberry gin, and lime juice. The result is a tart and fruit-forward cocktail. For our main courses, my blessed mother with her picky appetite was quite satisfied with JEM’s juicy double cheeseburger. The challah bun, white American cheese, roasted garlic aioli, caramelized onions, house pickles, and potato wedges made for a classic American meal with house-made touches. I went for the pan-seared redfish Veracruz, riffing on a traditional Mexican dish featuring blistered tomatoes, olives, capers, and oregano, and served with rice. The fish was wellcooked with crispy skin. JEM added avocado mousse and a few broccoli florets to garnish. While I would have enjoyed more broccoli, making that ingredient a more central player, the bright, tangy, and sweet tomato sauce was fantastic. We also ordered the avocado green goddess salad to share. The variety of vegetables and locally sourced lettuce from Works Urban Farm provided a refreshing crunch but lacked the traditional green goddess dressing flavor bomb we were looking for. Anchovy, garlic, and an abundance of herbs were not coming through in the dish. The Old Bay croutons were a great Southern addition and just needed a bit more of the seasoning. We unintentionally visited JEM during Rosh Hashanah. Chef Josh was born and raised in a PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRACIE DRIVER

10/16/26 8:17 AM

“ If we get excited about food, that’s going to be the best food we can create.” Jewish household and knew he wanted to create a dessert featuring the apples-and-honey tradition, signaling a sweet start to the new year. As a part of the special holiday menu, we ordered the Rosh Hashanah tart. The crust was buttery, short, and crisp throughout with a scalloped edge and filled to the brim with thinly sliced Honeycrisp apples and magical tahini frangipane. It was finished off with a heavy drizzle of honey caramel and fresh whipped cream; we devoured the bounty in seconds. JEM’s team is small but mighty, fostering a collaborative environment where everyone is involved in menu design. “I’ve been very fortunate to find people who get what we do and who can add to the team in a lot of different

ways,” says Josh. He has traveled the world since he was a kid, picking up many recipes along the way. Between the Jewish specials, Korean-influenced arancini, Filipino braised short ribs, and American burger, it’s clear this restaurant is influenced by global cuisine. Their North Star? Deliciousness. “If we get excited about food,” he says, “that’s going to

be the best food we can create.” JEM is a beautiful spot for a relaxed night with friends, family, or your partner. Order a glass of wine and a snack from the fabulous selection of appetizers. Enjoy a slow evening and don’t skimp on dessert! JEM, 644 Madison Avenue, Suite 102 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 99

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10/12/26 6:28 PM

DINING IN

ROASTED SWEET POTATO PIE WITH CINNAMON CRUNCH

QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST SOUTHERN DESSERT OUT THERE. BY GRACIE DRIVER

I T H A C H I L L in the air and Thanksgiving around the corner, it only seems fitting to provide a fabulous pie recipe. The cinnamon crunch in particular was created from the byproduct of roasting sweet potatoes. For added crunch and autumnal décor, the skins are baked with cinnamon and sugar until crisp. This element is optional, but if you’re looking to elevate the presentation even further, give it a go! From the brown butter graham cracker crust to silky mascarpone whipped cream, this pie will be the first to go at your next get-together.

INGREDIENTS:

Sweet Potato Puree - 2-3 medium sweet potatoes Cinnamon Crunch - 2 tablespoons sugar - 1 teaspoon cinnamon - 1-2 teaspoons neutral oil - Sweet potato skins Graham Cracker Crust - 11½ rectangles (180 grams) graham crackers - 2 tablespoons light brown sugar - ½ teaspoon salt - 1 stick (113 grams) butter Sweet Potato Custard - 1 cup (240 grams) heavy cream - ½ cup (100 grams) light brown sugar - 4 large eggs PHOTOGRAPH BY GRACIE DRIVER

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- 2 teaspoons cinnamon - ¾ teaspoon ginger - ¾ teaspoon salt - 1 ¾ cups (425 grams) roasted sweet potato puree Mascarpone Whipped Cream - ½ cup (113 grams) mascarpone - 1 cup (240 grams) heavy cream - 1 tablespoon sugar - 1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Sweet Potato Puree 1. Preheat the oven to 350°. 2. Wash and dry 2-3 medium potatoes and place on a small sheet pan or brownie pan. 3. Bake for 45-60 minutes. To test for doneness, a butter knife should be able to easily pierce each potato. 4. Cool for about 30 minutes,

until the skins are cool enough to peel. Cinnamon Crunch 1. Peel the skin off one of the potatoes and place flat on the sheet. 2. Drizzle 1-2 teaspoons of neutral oil over the skin and use your fingers to make sure everything is coated. 3. Bake for 10-14 minutes until they’re crisp and set aside to cool. Graham Cracker Crust 1. Blitz graham crackers to a fine powder. 2. Dump the graham cracker crumbs into a medium bowl and add the spices, salt, and sugar. 3. Now it’s time to brown the butter! In a small saucepan

add the butter and whisk continuously on medium heat until the butter smells nutty and darkens in color. 4. Pour the brown butter into the graham cracker mixture and mix with a spoon until it’s totally combined. 5. Add about half of the mixture to your favorite pie dish and start forming the sides of the pie dish with the spoon. Then use the remaining crust to fill out the bottom of the dish. 6. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes until it’s golden and smells like heaven. Sweet Potato Custard 1. Drop the oven temperature to 325°. 2. Whisk the eggs, spices, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. 3. Using the same saucepan from before, heat the heavy cream until it’s hot to the touch but not boiling (around 160°). 4. Slowly drizzle the hot cream into the egg mixture while stirring continuously until it’s all incorporated. 5. Use the same blender or food processor that you used for the crust, to blend 425 grams of roasted sweet potato until smooth. 6. Mix the puree with the custard and then strain the whole mixture with a fine mesh strainer. 7. Pour the custard into the crust and bake for 45-50 minutes. The outer edges of the pie filing should slightly puff up, and the center should just barely have a jiggle to it. 8. Cool at room temperature on a rack for 1 hour and place in the fridge to cool completely for 4 hours or overnight. Mascarpone Whipped Cream 1. Using a mixer or elbow grease, whip all the ingredients together until you get stiff peaks. 2. Top the chilled pie with whipped cream and the optional cinnamon crunch.

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10/12/26 6:28 PM

SIPS

NINE TO FIVE M

E M P H I S S P O R T S P U B is tucked away under a shady canopy in an unassuming building in Eastgate Shopping Center. I finally find the place after making a fruitless loop around the huge parking lot (and the Burlington Coat Factory). Bartender Cori Fittes unlocks the door and welcomes me in with a smile. It’s a sunny September afternoon, but the place is dark inside, the way bars used to look. This pub has the feel of a joint that’s always been here — and it pretty much has, as I’m about to learn. ¶ Before we sit down, Fittes introduces me to owner Randy Hicks, who’s had the place since 2013, and who was a part-owner for many years before that. I’m surprised to learn that the youthful-looking Fittes has been a bartender here since 2007, but as she tells me, the place just suits her — and has from the beginning of her tenure. “I graduated from Collierville High School in 2001,” she says, “then I went to the University of Memphis for a couple of years before I got a bad tooth infection and had to drop out and lost my scholarship. I’d been working in restaurants since I was 15, so I got a job at the new Chili’s in Collierville and I fell in love with it. “After a few years, I’d become bar manager, and did inventory, and ordered drinks and supplies and so forth. I loved the work and the industry. My plan was to keep working at Chili’s and become management. Then I was

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caught up in an ABC sting and accidentally served a drink to a minor and Chili’s had to let me go. I was devastated.” So where does a young woman go for solace when her career dream has been shattered? If you guessed a certain sports pub in East Memphis, you would be correct. “My boyfriend at the time brought me to Memphis Sports Pub to console me,” Fittes says. “We had a couple of drinks and I started talking with one of the cooks, and he said, ‘We need a bartender. Do you want to work here?’

And I’m like, ‘When can I start?’ The answer to that question was ‘next Saturday.’ “That was in December of 2007,” Fittes continues, “and I’ve been here ever since. This place is like family to me now. I have friends who are 65 and friends who are 25. We’ve seen each other through marriages, divorces, births, deaths, anniversaries, all the life events. There’s a group of us — we call ourselves the Hens. It started with nine or 10 and now there’s 20 of us, and we’re like sisters. I have a 6-year-old daughter, Olivia, and she’s got a bunch of ‘aunts.’ “We have karaoke night, trivia night, and football nights. We watch Jeopardy every day at 3:30 p.m., and everybody has their favorite spot or table. Most of the folks are from around here. They even walk over when there’s snow on the ground.” “It sounds like one big happy family,” I say. “It really is,” she says. “Oh, and I know I need to make you a drink, so let me tell you what I was thinking.” “Let’s hear it.” “Since it’s Dolly Parton Day, I thought I’d make you … ” “Wait — what’s Dolly Parton Day?” “It’s September 25th!” she explains. “You know, like 9-25 … nine-two-five?” “Oooh, that explains your T-shirt,” I say, as the lightbulb slowly goes on. “Yes, and that’s why I’m going to make you a pink drink — a cosmopolitan! I love everything about Dolly. She was such an amazing person and did so many wonderful things. I actually cried when I heard she died. I think this drink is something Dolly would love.” “I like the way you think, Cori.” In less than a minute, a concoction containing Ketel One vodka, Triple Sec, cranberry juice, lime juice, and a spritz of Sprite sits pinkishly on the bar. Dolly would have been proud. And as for me, it’s time to go to work at my own nine-to-five, which requires day-drinking. It’s rough work, but this is a very smooth drink. “It’s delightful,” I say. And it is. And I suspect Dolly herself would have been pleased to be honored in such a nice way by this hard-working young woman. So, if you find yourself in East Memphis looking for a spot to grab a drink, go see Cori Fittes at Memphis Sports Pub. She’ll make you feel right at home. Memphis Sports Pub, 5012 Park Avenue

10/12/26 6:24 PM

Celebrate Your Company’s Milestone

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12/15/23 11:50 AM

CITY DINING

COCOZZA AMERICAN ITALIAN—”The red sauce joint of your dreams” serves up classic Italian-American fare from the owners of Majestic Grille. Closed Sun. 110 Harbor Town Sq., 609-1111. D, $-$$ COZY CORNER—Serving up ribs, pork sandwiches, chicken, spaghetti, and more; also homemade banana pudding. Closed Mon. 735 N. Parkway, 527-9158. L, D, $ CURFEW—An elevated sports bar/American tavern concept by Top Chef contestant Fabio Viviani at the Canopy Memphis Downtown hotel. 164 Union, 467-0308. B, L, D, $-$$ DOCKS OFF FIFTH—Fine dining and special plates, including mango habanero-glazed salmon, seafood linguini, glazed lamb “lollipops,“ lobster rolls, plus wings and sliders. 310 Beale, 423-3765264. D, $$$ ESCO RESTAURANT AND TAPAS—Shareable dishes, turkey ribs, and seafood mac’n’cheese at this 2 Chainz franchise. 156 Lt. George W. Lee, 808-3726. L, D, $$-$$$ FELICIA SUZANNE’S—Elevated down-home farmhouse food, using locally sourced ingredients, served in an atmoshere of classic Southern charm. 383 S. Main, 623-7883. L, D, $$$-$$$$. FERRARO’S CHEESY CORNER & PIZZERIA—Plenty of pizzas, along with a whole new cheese-inspired menu (fancy grilled cheeses and build-your-own mac and cheese bowls). 111 Jackson, 522-2033. L, D, $ H I S C U R AT E D restaurant listing is offered as FISHBOWL AT THE PYRAMID—Burgers, fish dishes, sandwiches, and more served in a unique “underwater” setting. Bass Pro, 1 Bass Pro a service to our readers. Broken down alphabetically Drive, 291-8000. B, L, D, $-$$ by neighborhoods, our directory does not list every FLAME RAMEN—Traditional Japanese ramen restaurant serving up restaurant in town. It does, however, include the bowls of noodles. 61 S. Second, 441-6686. L, D, $-$$ FLIGHT RESTAURANT & WINE BAR—Steaks and seafood, magazine’s “Top 50” choices of must-try restaurants in with such specialties as bison ribeye and Muscovy duck, all Memphis, a group that is updated yearly. Establishments matched with appropriate wines. 39 S. Main, 521-8005. D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ open less than a year are not eligible for “Top 50” but are noted as “New.” BRUNCH CAFÉ—Fish and grits, steak and eggs, and other This guide also includes a representative sampling of other Bluff City eating GARDEN upscale takes on Southern brunch classics. 492 S. Main, 249-7450. B, establishments. No fast-food facilities or cafeterias are listed. Restaurants L, $$ THE GENRE—Burgers, tenders, catfish, and plenty of vegan options are included regardless of whether they advertise in Memphis Magazine; made to order at this music-themed restaurant/lounge. 200 Poplar, Suite those that operate in multiple locations are listed under the neighborhood 105, 410-8169. B, L, D, $-$$ GOOD FORTUNE CO.—Authentic handcrafted noodles, ramen, of their original location. This guide is updated regularly, but we and dumplings. 361 S. Main, 561-306-4711. L, D, $-$$ recommend that you call ahead to check on hours, prices, or other details. THE GOURMET GALLERY—A variety of elevated comfort dishes, like Suggestions from readers for restaurants to be included are welcome: fried ribs and waffles, shrimp and grits, grilled salmon, and more. Closed Mon. 412 S. Main, 848-4691. L, D, $-$$$ dining@memphismagazine.com. GROOVY GRATITUDE—Offers a vibrant selection of cold-pressed juices, handcrafted smoothies, and healthy eats like paninis and acai DOWNTOWN BRASS DOOR IRISH PUB—Irish and New-American cuisine includes bowls. Closed Sun. 605 N. Second, 417-8007. B, L, WB, $ such entrees as fish and chips, burgers, shepherd’s pie, all-day Irish ALDO’S PIZZA PIES—Serving gourmet pizzas — including Mr. GUS’S WORLD FAMOUS FRIED CHICKEN—Serves chicken breakfast, and more. 152 Madison, 572-1813. L, D, SB, $-$$ T Rex — salads, and more. Also 30 beers, bottled or on tap. 100 S. with signature spicy batter, along with homemade beans, slaw, and BY THE BREWERY—Breakfast and lunch café, with a focus on Main, 577-7743; 752 S. Cooper, 725-7437. L, D, $-$$ pies. 310 S. Front, 527-4877; 3100 Forest Hill Irene (Germantown), Southern-style biscuits, salads, and soups. 496 Tennessee, 310-4341. 853-6005; 2965 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 373-9111; 730 S. AMELIA GENE’S—Globally inspired fine-dining cuisine at the B, L, $ Mendenhall, 767-2323; 505 Highway 70 W., Mason, TN, 901-294-2028. One Beale project, including Rohan duck, Wagyu filet, and an L, D, MRA, $ CAPRICCIO GRILL ITALIAN STEAKHOUSE—Offers prime steaks, extensive cheese cart. 255 S. Front, 730-7650. D, MRA, $$-$$$ fresh seafood (lobster tails, grouper, mahi mahi), pasta, and several HIVE BAGEL & DELI—Bagels and more bagels, baked goods, THE ARCADE—Memphis’ oldest cafe. Specialties include sweet Northern Italian specialties. 149 Union, The Peabody, 529-4199. B, L, D, sandwiches, and salads. Closed Mon./Tue. 276 S. Front, potato pancakes, a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, and SB, MRA, $-$$$$ 509-2946; 585 Erin Drive. B, L, $ breakfast served all day. 540 S. Main, 526-5757. B, L, MRA, $ CAROLINA WATERSHED—This indoor/outdoor eatery, set around HU. ROOF—Rooftop cocktail bar serves toasts with a variety of ARNOLD’S SMOKEHOUSE—A classic smokehouse with vegan and silos, features reimagined down-home classics, including fried green toppings including beef tartare with cured egg, cognac, and capers or nonvegan options seasoned to perfection. Closed Mon. 2019 E. Person, tomatoes with smoked catfish, a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich, riced cauliflower with yellow curry, currants, and almonds. Also salads, 922-5950. L, D, SB, $-$$$ burgers, and more. Closed Mon.-Thurs. 141 E. Carolina, fish tacos, and boiled peanut hummus. 79 Madison, AUTOMATIC SLIM’S—Longtime downtown favorite specializes in DINING SYMBOLS 333-1229. D, $ 321-5553. L, D, WB, $-$$ contemporary American cuisine emphasizing local ingredients; also CATHERINE & MARY’S—A variety of pastas, HUSTLE & DOUGH BAKERY & CAFE— extensive martini list. 83 S. Second, 525-7948. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$$ B — breakfast grilled quail, pâté, razor clams, and monkfish are Flaky, baked breakfast goodness every day with BARDOG TAVERN—Classic American grill with Italian influence, among the dishes served at this Italian restaurant in the L — lunch fresh pastries, sandwiches, and more at Arrive Hotel. Bardog offers pasta specialties such as Grandma’s NJ Meatballs, as well D — dinner Chisca. 272 S. Main, 254-8600. D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ 477 S. Main, 701-7577. B, L, $ as salads, sliders, sandwiches, and daily specials. 73 Monroe, 275-8752. SB —Sunday brunch CHEZ PHILIPPE—Classical/contemporary ITTA BENA—Southern and Cajun-American cuisine B (Mon.-Fri.), L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$ French cuisine with Asian and Nordic influences, WB —weekend brunch served here, located above B.B. King’s Blues Club; BELLE TAVERN—Serving elevated bar food, including a butcher board presented in a luxurious atmosphere with seasonal specialties are duck and waffles and shrimp and grits, MRA — member, Memphis with a variety of meats and cheeses, as well as daily specials. 117 Barboro tasting menus from chef Keith Clinton. Afternoon tea along with steaks, chops, seafood, and pasta. 145 Restaurant Association Alley, 249-6580. L (Sun.), D, MRA, $ served Thu.-Sun., noon-3:30 p.m. (reservations Beale, 578-3031. D, MRA, $$-$$$ $ — under $15 per person BEN YAY’S GUMBO SHOP—Spiritual successor to DejaVu, offering required). Closed Sun.-Tues. The Peabody, 149 Union, JEM DINING—Chef Josh Mutchnick offers a dining fresh and authentic Creole staples. 150 Peabody Place, Suite 111, without drinks or desserts 529-4188. D, MRA, $$$$ experience that’s memorable, refined, unpretentious, 779-4125. L, D, $-$$ $$ — under $25 CIMAS—It’s breakfast tacos, shrimp and grits, and welcoming with dishes from around the world. BISCUITS & JAMS—Offering sweet and savory brunch with a Cajun $$$ — $26-$50 chilaquiles verdes, and plenty of other Southern and Closed Sun./Mon./Tue. 644 Madison, 286-1635. flare. Specialties include smoked sausage or spicy fried chicken on Latin-American twists at the Hyatt Centric. 33 Beale, $$$$ — over $50 D, $$-$$$ biscuits, lemon blueberry waffles, and rum custard French toast. No 444-3232. B, L, D, $-$$$ walk-ins on weekends. 24 N. B.B. King, 672-7905. B, L, WB, $-$$

We celebrate our city’s community table and the people who grow, cook, and eat the best Memphis food at M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M / F O O D 104 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

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(This guide, compiled by our editors, includes editorial picks and advertisers.)

PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN FOX BURKS

10/12/26 6:25 PM

CITY DINING

KING & UNION BAR GROCERY—Classic Southern favorites including catfish plate, pimento cheese, po-boys, chicken & waffles. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with cocktails served with flair and favorite Memphis beers. Locally made confections available in the grocery. 185 Union, 523-8500. B, L, D, $-$$ KOOKY CANUCK—Home of the four-pound Kookamonga Burger (no charge to anyone who can eat it in less than 60 minutes), plus other (smaller) burgers, sandwiches, wings, soups, and salads. 57 S. Second, 901-578-9800. L, D, MRA, $-$$ KUYA—The name means “brother” and this restaurant presents a menu inspired by dishes of the Phillipines: lumpia, halo halo, skewers, and small plates. 327 South Main, 574-4493. D, $-$$ LITTLE BETTIE—New Haven-style pizzas and snacks from the Andrew-Michael team at Wiseacre’s Downtown location. 398 S. B.B. King, 334-9411. L, D, $-$$ THE LOBBYIST AT THE CHISCA—Chef Jimmy Gentry brings his farm-to-table ideas downtown, with seasonal, and sometimes weekly, new menus, and an emphasis on creative vegetable dishes. Closed Sun. 272 S. Main, Suite 101, 249-2170. D, $$-$$$$ LOFLIN YARD—Beer garden and restaurant serves vegetarian fare and smoked-meat dishes, including beef brisket and pork tenderloin, cooked on a custom-made grill. Closed Mon.-Tues. 7 W. Carolina, 249-3046. L (Sat. and Sun.), D, MRA, $-$$ THE LOOKOUT AT THE PYRAMID—Serves seafood and Southern fare, including cornmeal-fried oysters, sweet tea brined chicken, and elk chops. 1 Bass Pro Drive, 620-4600/291-8200. L, D, $-$$$ LUNA RESTAURANT & LOUNGE—Serving a limited menu of breakfast and lunch items. Dinner entrees include citrus glaze salmon and Cajun stuffed chicken. 179 Madison (Hotel Napoleon), 526-0002. B, D (Mon.-Sat.), $-$$$ MACIEL’S—Entrees include tortas, fried taco plates, quesadillas, chorizo and pastor soft tacos, salads, and more. Closed Sun. 45 S. Main, 526-0037; 820 S. Cooper, 443-4356. MRA, $ MAHOGANY RIVER TERRACE—Upscale Southern restaurant offers such dishes as coffee-rubbed lamb chops and baked Cajun Cornish hen. Closed for dinner Sun. and all day Mon.-Tues. 280 Island Drive, 249-9774. L, D, SB, $-$$$ THE MAJESTIC GRILLE—Features aged steaks, fresh seafood, and such specialties as roasted chicken and grilled pork tenderloin; offers a pre-theater menu and classic cocktails. Well-stocked bar. 145 S. Main, 522-8555. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$$ McEWEN’S—Southern/American cuisine with international flavors; specialties include steak and seafood, sweet potato-crusted catfish with macaroni and cheese, and more. Closed Sun., Monroe location. 120 Monroe, 527-7085; 1110 Van Buren (Oxford), 662-234-7003. L, D, SB (Oxford only), MRA, $$-$$$ MESQUITE CHOP HOUSE—The focus here is on steaks, including prime fillet, rib-eyes, and prime-aged New York strip; also, some seafood options. 88 Union, 527-5337; 5960 Getwell (Southaven), 662-8902467. D, SB, $$-$$$ MOLLIE FONTAINE LOUNGE—Specializes in tapas (small plates) featuring global cuisine. Closed Sun.-Tues. 679 Adams, 524-1886. D, MRA, $ MOMMA’S ROADHOUSE—This diner and dive off I-55 serves up smoked wings, burgers, and beer, among other solid bar-food options. 855 Kentucky, 207-5111. L, D, MRA, $ PAULETTE’S—Presents fine dining with a Continental flair, including such entrees as filet Paulette with butter cream sauce and crabmeat and spinach crepes; also changing daily specials and great views. River Inn, 50 Harbor Town Square, 260-3300. B, L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$$ RENDEZVOUS, CHARLES VERGOS’—Menu items include barbecued ribs, cheese plates, skillet shrimp, red beans and rice, and Greek salads. Closed Sun.-Mon. 52 S. Second, 523-2746. L (Fri.Sat.), D, $-$$ ROCK’N DOUGH—A blend of Italian and American foods like artisan pizza, salads, pasta, burgers, and house-brewed beers. 704 Madison, 587-6256. L, D, $-$$ SABOR CARIBE—Serving up “Caribbean flavors” with dishes from Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Closed Sunday. 662 Madison, 949-8100. L, D, $ SAGE—Restaurant and lounge features daily lunch specials and tapas with such dishes as braised short ribs, teriyaki pulled pork, and the Sage burger made with Angus beef, avocado mash, fried egg, and flash-fried sage. 94 S. Main, 672-7902. L, D, WB, $-$$

Broadway Pizza House Legendary Pizza Since 1977

2581 Broad Avenue (901) 454-7930

629 South Mendenhall

(901) 207-1546

Memphis Magazine’s

THE 2026

FACE OF

PIZZA

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CITY DINING

SILLY GOOSE LOUNGE—Gourmet, wood-fired pizzas and handcrafted cocktails at this downtown restaurant and lounge. 150 Peabody Place, Suite 111, 435-6915. L, D, $ SOUTH MAIN SUSHI & GRILL—Serving sushi, nigiri, and more. 520 S. Main, 249-2194. L, D, $ SOB—Elevated gastropub that serves favorites like general Tso’s cauliflower or duck fried rice. 345 S. Main, 526-0388; 5040 Sanderlin (East Memphis), 818-0821; 1329 W. Poplar, 286-1360. L, D, WB, $-$$ SOUTH POINT GROCERY—Fresh and delicious sandwiches made to order at Downtown’s new grocery market. 136 Webster. B, L, D, $ SUGAR GRITS—Who said breakfast has to be in the morning? The Westmorelands offer grits and other breakfast goodness all day long, in addition to other Southern-style lunch and dinner options. 150 Peabody Place, Suite 111, 249-5206. B, L, D, $-$$ SUNRISE MEMPHIS—Serves breakfast all day, including house-made biscuits, frittatas, kielbasa or boudin plates, and breakfast platters. 670 Jefferson, 552-3144; 5469 Poplar (East Memphis), 844-6117. B, L, MRA, $ TERRACE—Creative American and Continental cuisine includes such dishes as filet mignon, beef or lamb sliders, chicken satay, and mushroom pizzetta. Rooftop, River Inn of Harbor Town, 50 Harbor Town Square, 260-3366. D, MRA, $$ TEXAS DE BRAZIL—Serves beef, pork, lamb, and chicken dishes, and Brazilian sausage; also a salad bar with extensive toppings. 150 Peabody Place, Suite 103, 526-7600. L (Wed.-Fri.), D, WB, $$-$$$ TUG’S—Famous for New Orleans gumbo, fabulous burgers, fried thin catfish, and specialty pancakes. Now serving Grisanti Crafted Pizza. 51 Harbor Town Square, 260-3344. B, L, D, WB, $$-$$$ WAHLBURGERS WILD—Wahlburgers brings its classic menu, but with a few gamey twists at the Bass Pro Pyramid. 1 Bass Pro Drive, 291-8000. B, L, D, $-$$ WALT & RICKY’S SEAFOOD KITCHEN—Fresh seafood, steaks, pork chops, and pasta, with a raw oyster bar. One Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue, 480-7426. L, D, $$-$$$. WINGMAN—Downtown lounge and hookah bar offering wings galore with ten signature sauces, and plenty of other goodies. 143 Madison, 907-0586. D, WB, $-$$ MIDTOWN (INCLUDES THE MEDICAL CENTER) ABYSSINIA RESTAURANT—Ethiopian/Mediterranean menu includes beef, chicken, lamb, fish entrees, and vegetarian dishes; also a lunch buffet. 2600 Poplar, 321-0082. L, D, $-$$ ART BAR—Inventive cocktails feature locally foraged ingredients; snacks include house-cured salt & vinegar potato chips and herb-roasted olives. Closed Mon. 1350 Concourse, Suite 280, 507-8030. D, $ ASHTAR GARDEN—Southern twists on classic brunch dishes, and plenty of cocktails. Closed Mon.-Wed. 898 S. Cooper, 443-1514. L, D, $-$$ BABALU TACOS & TAPAS—Spanish-style tapas with Southern flair; also taco and enchilada of the day; specials change daily. 2115 Madison, 274-0100; 6450 Poplar, 410-8909. L, D, SB, MRA, $-$$ BAIN BARBECUE & BAKERY—Brian Bain’s popular Texas-style barbecue is back, alongside an assortment of baked goods. 993 S. Cooper, 310-4141; 2016 South Germantown, 779-7954. B, L, $-$$ BAO TOAN—Traditional Vietnamese restaurant offering small bites and home-style plates, plus creative versions of street-food favorites. 1350 Concourse Avenue. 695-1265. L, D, WB. Closed Tues. $-$$ BAR DKDC—Features an ever-changing menu of international “street food,” from Thai to Mexican, Israeli to Indian, along with specialty cocktails. 964 S. Cooper, 272-0830. D, MRA, $ BAR KEOUGH—It’s old-school eats and cocktails at the new Cooper-Young neighborhood corner bar by Kevin Keough. 247 S. Cooper, 654-3851. D, $ BAR-B-Q SHOP—Dishes up barbecued ribs, spaghetti, bologna, other classics. Closed Sun. 1782 Madison, 272-1277. L, D, MRA, $-$$ BARI RISTORANTE ENOTECA—Authentic Southeastern Italian cuisine (Puglia) emphasizes lighter entrees. Serves fresh fish and beef dishes and a homemade soup of the day. 524 S. Cooper, 722-2244. D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ BARKSDALE RESTAURANT—Old-school diner serving breakfast and Southern plate lunches. 237 S. Cooper, 722-2193. B, L, D, $ BAYOU BAR & GRILL—New Orleans fare at this Overton Square eatery includes jambalaya, gumbo, catfish Acadian, shrimp dishes, red beans and rice, and muffalettas. 2094 Madison, 278-8626. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$

BEAUTY SHOP—Modern American cuisine with international flair served in a former beauty shop. Serves steaks, salads, pasta, and seafood, including pecan-crusted golden sea bass. Perennial “Best Brunch” winner. Closed for dinner Sunday. 966 S. Cooper, 272-7111. L, D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ BOSCOS—Tennessee’s first craft brewery serves a variety of freshly brewed beers as well as wood-fired oven pizzas, pasta, seafood, steaks, and sandwiches. 2120 Madison, 432-2222. L, D, SB (with live jazz), MRA, $-$$ BROADWAY PIZZA—Serving a variety of pizzas, including the Broadway Special, as well as sandwiches, salads, wings, and soul-food specials. 2581 Broad, 454-7930; 627 S. Mendenhall, 207-1546. L, D, $-$$ BRIZA—Featuring specialties from the chef Moisés Hernandez’s native El Salvador, around the theme “Land–Sushi–Sea.” 1350 Concourse, Suite 181, 585-0553. L, D, MRA, $$-$$$ CAFE 1912—French/American bistro owned by culinary pioneer Glenn Hays serving such seafood entrees as seared sea scallops with charred cauliflower purée and chorizo cumin sauce; also crepes, salads, and onion soup gratinée. 243 S. Cooper, 722-2700. D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ CAFE ECLECTIC—Omelets and chicken and waffles are among menu items, along with quesadillas, sandwiches, wraps, and burgers. Menu varies by location. 603 N. McLean, 725-1718; 111 Harbor Town Square, 590-4645. B, L, D, SB, MRA, $ CAMEO—Three longtime Memphis bartenders join forces for creative cocktails, cheese boards, snacks, and Sunday brunch. 1835 Union, Suite 3. 305-6511. D, SB, $-$$ CELTIC CROSSING—Specializes in Irish and American pub fare. Entrees include shepherd’s pie, shrimp and sausage coddle, and fish and chips. 903 S. Cooper, 274-5151. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$ CENTRAL BBQ—Serves ribs, smoked hot wings, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken, turkey, nachos, and portobello sandwiches. Offers both pork and beef barbecue. 2249 Central, 272-9377; 4375 Summer, 767-4672; 147 E. Butler, 672-7760 ; 6201 Poplar, 417-7962. L, D, MRA, $-$$ COMPLICATED PILGRIM—Quick-serve coffee shop, bar, and restaurant all in one at The Memphian hotel. 21 S. Cooper, 538-7309. B, L, D, $-$$ COOPER’S—“A charming experience for all ages,“ with po-boys, wraps, wings, fettucini. 959 S. Cooper, 343-0103. L, D, MRA, $-$$ THE COVE—Nautical-themed restaurant and bar serving oysters, pizzas, and more. The Stoner Pie, with tamales and fritos, is a popular dish. 2559 Broad, 730-0719. L, D, $ THE CRAZY NOODLE—Korean noodle dishes range from bibam beef noodle with cabbage, carrots, and other vegetables, to curry chicken noodle; also rice cakes served in a flavorful sauce. Closed for lunch Sat.-Sun. 2015 Madison, 272-0928. L, D, $ ECCO—Mediterranean-inspired specialties range from rib-eye steak to seared scallops to housemade pastas and a grilled vegetable plate; also a Saturday brunch. Closed Sun.-Mon. 1585 Overton Park, 410-8200. D, $-$$ EVERGREEN GRILL—Serving classic American cuisine like patty melts, burgers, phillies, and more to bring you the comforting taste of home. Closed Mon./Tue. 212 N. Evergreen, 779-7065. L, D, $$-$$$ FARM BURGER—Serves grass-fed, freshly ground, locally sourced burgers; also available with chicken, pork, or veggie quinoa patties, with such toppings as aged white cheddar, kale coleslaw, and roasted beets. 1350 Concourse, Suite 175, 800-1851. L, D, $ FAWN—Seasonal, tapas-style dishes (don’t miss the sourdough bread and butter) in a chic setting. Closed Mon. 937 S. Cooper, 310-4890. D, SB, $$ FEAST & GRAZE—Whipped goat toast, open-faced grilled cheese, and other local pantry snacks and charcuterie boards. Closed Sun./Mon. Inside Brooks Museum of Art, 1934 Poplar, 654-5926. L, $ FINO’S FROM THE HILL—Italian deli offers old favorites such as the Acquisto as well as a new breakfast menu. Germantown location paired with Happy Glaze Donuts. 1853 Madison, 272-FINO; 7781 Farmington (Germantown), B, L, D, $ FLAME RAMEN—Traditional Japanese ramen restaurant serving up bowls of noodles in Midtown. 1838 Union, 779-8666; 61 S. Second St., Suite 160 (downtown). D, $-$$ FLIP SIDE—Pinball meets pub in the Crosstown neighborhood, with plenty of games alongside a Caribbean- and Latin-inspired menu. Closed Mon. 1349 Autumn, 207-6193. L, D, $-$$ FRIDA’S—Mexican cuisine and Tex-Mex standards, including chimichangas, enchiladas, and fajitas; seafood includes shrimp and tilapia. 1718 Madison, 244-6196. L, D, $-$$

GLOBAL CAFÉ—This international food hall hosts three immigrant/refugee food entrepreneurs serving Venezuelan, Sudanese, and Syrian cuisines. Samosas, shawarma, and kabobs are among the menu items. Closed Mon. 1350 Concourse, Suite 157. L, D, MRA, $ GOLDEN INDIA—Northern Indian specialties include tandoori chicken as well as lamb, beef, shrimp, and vegetarian dishes. 2097 Madison, 728-5111. L, D, $-$$ GOOD GROCERIES MARKET & CAFÉ—Providing fresh, healthy, cruelty-free meals, Good Groceries offers a classic American menu with a twist: instead of pork, they use duck for their BBQ. They also sell quesadillas, mac-and-cheese, sandwiches, and more. Closed Sun. 585 S. Cooper, 325-1269. B, L, D, $ GROWLERS—Sports bar and eatery serves standard bar fare in addition to pasta, tacos, chicken and waffles, and light options. 1911 Poplar, 244-7904. L, D, $-$$ GUAC FRESH MEX—Authentic Mexican cuisine and four types of guacamole. Closed Sun. 782 Washington, 587-4100. L, D, $ HATTIE B’S—Fried chicken spot features “hot chicken” with a variety of heat levels; from no heat to “shut the cluck up” sauce. Sides include greens, pimento mac-and-cheese, and black-eyed pea salad. 596 S. Cooper, 424-5900. L, D, $ HUEY’S—This family-friendly restaurant offers 13 different burgers, a variety of sandwiches, and delicious soups and salads. 1927 Madison, 726-4372; 1771 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 754-3885; 77 S. Second (downtown), 527-2700; 2130 W. Poplar (Collierville), 8544455; 7090 Malco Blvd. (Southaven), 662-349-7097; 7825 Winchester, 624-8911; 4872 Poplar, 682-7729; 7677 Farmington Blvd. (Germantown), 318-3030; 8570 Highway 51 N. (Millington), 873-5025. L, D, MRA, $ IMAGINE VEGAN CAFE—Dishes at this fully vegan restaurant range from salads and sandwiches to full dinners, including eggplant parmesan and “beef” tips and rice; breakfast all day Sat. and Sun. 2158 Young, 654-3455. L, D, WB, $ INDIA PALACE—Tandoori chicken, lamb shish kabobs, and chicken tikka masala are among the entrees; also, vegetarian options and a daily all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. 1720 Poplar, 278-1199. L, D, $-$$ INSPIRE COMMUNITY CAFE—Serving breakfast all day, in addition to quesadillas, rice bowls, and more for lunch and dinner. 510 Tillman, Suite 110, 509-8640. B, L, D, $ JACK BROWN’S BEER AND BURGER JOINT—Another spot to satisfy your burger craving, this time with 100% American Wagyu beef. 2197 Central, 512-6957. L, D, $-$$$ THE JUICE JOINT—Locally owned purveyor of cold-pressed juices, smoothies, açai bowls, and snacks. 1350 Concourse, 572-1127; 3139 Poplar (East Memphis), 207-2535. B, L, $-$$ LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM—Serves such Southern cuisine as po’boys, shrimp and grits, and wood-fired pizzas. 2119 Madison, 2075097. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$ LOS COMALES—Authentic Mexican cuisine, daily specials, and strong margaritas. 1322 Madison, 440-8393; 345 Madison (downtown), 5904524; 2860 S. Perkins (East Memphis), 369-0528. L, D, $-$$ LOUIS CONNELLY’S BAR FOR FUN TIMES & FRIENDSHIP—An upgraded dive bar with a neighborhood feel and a rockin’ SMASH burger. Closed Sun. and Mon. 322 S. Cleveland, 433-9582. L, D, $-$$ MADISON TAVERN—Indoor and outdoor seating available, plus a full menu with a range of comfort foods and drinks on tap. 2126 Madison, 417-8029. L, D, $-$$$ MARY’S B.O.T.E.—This bar of tropical escapism offers over 30 specialty drinks, pizzas, bar snacks, and a cozy interior that transports customers to the beach. 21+ only. Closed Mon. 588 S. Cooper. D, $ MEMPHIS JAMAICAN KITCHEN—Authentic Jamaican specialties, including jerk chicken and oxtails. 1354 Madison, L, D, $$ MEMPHIS PIZZA CAFE—Homemade pizzas are specialties; also serves sandwiches, calzones, and salads. 2087 Madison, 726-5343; 5061 Park, 684-1306; 7604 W. Farmington (Germantown), 753-2218; 797 W. Poplar (Collierville), 861-7800; 5627 Getwell (Southaven), 662-5361364. L, D, $-$$ MEMPHIS TOAST—Provides authentic Memphian breakfast cuisine and features themed rooms to honor iconic Memphis figures. Specialties include French toast, shrimp and grits, and their little Lucille breakfast burrito. 954 Jackson, 417-7817. B, L, WB, $-$$ MEMPHIS WHISTLE—Cocktails, cocktails, and even more delicious cocktails alongside burgers, sandwiches, and other tasty snacks. 2299 Young, 236-7136. Closed Mon.-Tue. D, $-$$ MOLLY’S LA CASITA—Homemade tamales, fish tacos, a vegetarian combo, and bacon-wrapped shrimp are a few of the specialties. 2006 Madison, 726-1873. L, D, MRA, $-$$

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PAYNE’S BAR-B-QUE—Opened in 1972, this family-owned barbecue joint serves ribs, smoked sausage, and chopped pork sandwiches with a standout mustard slaw and homemade sauce. About as down-to-earth as it gets. 1762 Lamar, 272-1523. L, D, $-$$ PETALS OF A PEONY—Authentic Chinese restaurant serving chicken, fish, tofu, and more, smothered in spicy sauces. 2110 Madison, 207-6680. L, D, MRA, $-$$$ SALTWATER CRAB—Offers an array of seafood dishes including boils with blue crab, crab legs, lobster tails, and more, and specialty sushi like the Dynamite or Royal King rolls, in addition to signature sangrias and cocktails. 2059 Madison, 922-5202. L, D, $$ THE SECOND LINE—Kelly English brings “relaxed Creole cuisine” to his newest eatery; serves a variety of po’boys and such specialties as barbecue shrimp, andouille shrimp, and pimento cheese fries. 2144 Monroe, 590-2829. L, D, WB, $-$$ SEKISUI—Japanese fusion cuisine, fresh sushi bar, grilled meats and seafood, California rolls, and vegetarian entrees. Poplar/Perkins location’s emphasis is on Pacific Rim cuisine. Menu and hours vary at each location. 25 Belvedere, 725-0005; 1884 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 309-8800; 4724 Poplar, 767-7770; 2130 W. Poplar (Collierville), 854-0622; 2990 Kirby-Whitten (Bartlett), 377-2727; 6696 Poplar, 747-0001. L, D, $-$$$ SEN TRANG—Serving a wide variety of Chinese and Vietnamese soups, stir-fries, and noodles. 1615 Madison, 276-0006. L, D, $-$$ SLICE MIDTOWN—Serving New York-style pizza as well as subs and pasta dishes (formerly known as Little Italy). 1495 Union, 725-0280; L, D, $-$$ SMOKY CITY BBQ—Serving authentic Memphis barbeque, including burgers, ribs, wings, and daily specials. Closed Sun. 1023 Jackson, 425-3115. L, D, $-$$$ SOUL FISH CAFE—Serving Southern-style soul food, tacos, and po’boys, including catfish, crawfish, oyster, shrimp, chicken, and smoked pork tenderloin. 862 S. Cooper, 725-0722; 3160 Village Shops (Germantown), 755-6988; 4720 Poplar, 590-0323. L, D, MRA, $-$$ STICKEM—Brick-and-mortar location for the popular food truck, which offers grilled meat on a stick. 1788 Madison, 474-7214. Closed Sunday. L, D, $ TEKILA MEXICAN CUISINE—Mexican cuisine with a modern twist. Specialties include chicken mole, enchiladas verde, and the trio special. 1433 Union, 510-5734. L, D, WB, $-$$$ TAMBOLI’S PASTA & PIZZA—Pasta-maker Miles Tamboli whips up Italian soul food with seasonal menus featuring dishes like crispy fried chicken or creamy bucatini with pecorino cheese. Serves dinner Tues.-Sat. 1761 Madison, 410-8866. D, $-$$ TAKASHI BISTRO—Fusion restaurant with an open kitchen that lets customers watch chefs prepare a variety of Japanese and Thai cuisine. 1680 Union, Suite 109, 800-2936. L, D, $-$$ TONICA—Paella and other Spanish-inspired dishes with an Italian touch, alongside an extensive list of gin and tonics. 1545 Overton Park, 474-7693; 265 S. Front, 949-7693. Closed Mon.-Wed. D, $-$$ TUYEN’S ASIAN BISTRO—A variety of Asian dishes from the minds and chefs behind Saigon Le. Closed Sun. 288 N. Cleveland, L, D, $-$$ ZINNIE’S—Dive bar classic reopens with a makeover and signature Zinnaloni sandwich. 1688 Madison, 726-5004. L, D, $ SOUTH MEMPHIS (INCLUDES PARKWAY VILLAGE, FOX MEADOWS, SOUTH MEMPHIS, WINCHESTER, AND WHITEHAVEN)

BALA’S BISTRO—Authentic West African cuisine available to order or by the pound, alongside traditional American dishes and an extensive vegan menu. 4571 Elvis Presley, 509-3024. L, D, $-$$ CACHE 42 KITCHEN & COCKTAILS—Elevated fine dining (think golden rack of lamb or lobster queso) and cocktail lounge at MoneyBagg Yo’s restaurant; menu by chef Daris Leatherwood. Brunch and lunch options. 4202 Hacks Cross, Suite 121, 494-5458. D, $-$$ COLETTA’S—Longtime eatery serves such specialties as homemade ravioli, lasagna, and pizza with barbecue or traditional toppings. 1063 S. Parkway E., 948-7652. L, D, $-$$ CURRY BOWL—Specializes in Southern Indian cuisine, serving Tandoori chicken, biryani, tikka masala, and more. Weekend buffet. 4141 Hacks Cross, 207-6051. L, D, $ DELTA’S KITCHEN—The premier restaurant at The Guest House at Graceland serves Elvis-inspired dishes — like Nutella and Peanut Butter Crepes for breakfast — and upscale Southern cuisine — including lamb chops and shrimp and grits — for dinner. 3600 Elvis Presley, 443-3000. B, D, $-$$$ DWJ KOREAN BARBECUE—This authentic Korean eatery serves kimbap, barbecued beef short ribs, rice and noodles dishes, and hot pots and stews. 3750 Hacks Cross, Suite 101, 746-8057; 2156 Young, 207-6204. L, D, $-$$

FABULOUS FLAVORS & FRIENDS—”The Candy Lady” Precious Thompson Jones comes up with a little bit of everything: omelettes, quesadillas, t-bones and waffles, and plenty of soul food. 2063 E. Brooks, 314-0735. L, D, $ THE FOUR WAY—Legendary soul-food establishment dishing up such entrees as fried and baked catfish, chicken, and turkey and dressing, along with a host of vegetables and desserts. Around the corner from the legendary Stax Studio. Closed Mon. 998 Mississippi, 507-1519. L, D, $ HERNANDO’S HIDEAWAY—No one cares how late it gets; not at Hernando’s Hideaway. Live music, killer happy hour, and plenty of bar fare at this South Memphis hang. 3210 Old Hernando, 917-982-1829. L, D, $ INTERSTATE BAR-B-Q—Specialties include chopped pork-shoulder sandwiches, ribs, hot wings, spaghetti, chicken, and turkey. 2265 S. Third, 775-2304; 150 W. Stateline (Southaven), 662-393-5699. L, D, $-$$ JIM & SAMELLA’S—It’s a revolving menu of soul food delight from Chef Talbert Fleming, with anything from Southern ribs to fried tamales. 841 Bullington, 265-8761. L, D, $ LEONARD’S—Serves wet and dry ribs, barbecue sandwiches, spaghetti, catfish, homemade onion rings, and lemon icebox pie; also a lunch buffet. 5465 Fox Plaza, 360-1963. L, $-$$ MARLOWE’S—In addition to its signature barbecue and ribs, Marlowe’s serves Southern-style steaks, chops, lasagna, and more. 4381 Elvis Presley, 332-4159. D, MRA, $-$$ UNCLE LOU’S FRIED CHICKEN—Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for good reason: fried chicken (mild, hot, or home-style); jumbo burgers four patties high; strawberry shortcake, and assorted fruit pies. 3633 Millbranch, 332-2367. L, D, MRA, $ SUMMER / BERCLAIR / RALEIGH / BARTLETT 901 HOT POT & KOREAN BBQ—All-you-can-eat hot pot and Korean BBQ, from short ribs to garlic shrimp. 2965 N. Germantown Pkwy., 512-4963. L, D, $$-$$$ BISCUITS & JAMS—Biscuits, waffles, French toast, and plenty of sharables at this Bartlett breakfast spot. Closed Mon./Tue. 5806 Stage, 672-7905. B, L, $ BRYANT’S BREAKFAST—Three-egg omelets, pancakes, and The Sampler Platter are among the popular entrees here. Possibly the best biscuits in town. Closed Mon. and Tues. 3965 Summer, 324-7494. B, L, $ CEVICHERIA AND GRILL CHILEMON—Ceviche, of course, but also plenty of other postres, aperitivos, and mixed grilled meat and seafood feasts. Closed Sun. 4509 Summer, 672-7905. L, D, $ CHEF FLAVAS AND BARTLETT BREAKFAST FACTORY— ”Flavaful” sandwiches, soups, pastas, and more from the makers of the popular local spinach artichoke dip. Traditional breakfast options served by Bartlett Breakfast Factory. Closed Sun./Mon. 6301 Stage, 779-2200. B, L, D, $-$$ DIM SUM KING—All the best from a selection of authentic Chinese dishes: roasted duck, sizzling hot plate, Cantonese BBQ, and plenty more. 5266 Summer, Suite 65, 766-0831. L, D, $-$$ ELWOOD’S SHACK—Casual comfort food includes tacos, pizza, and sandwiches. Specialties include meats smoked in-house (chicken, turkey, brisket, pork), barbecue pizza, and steelhead trout tacos. 4523 Summer, 761-9898. B, L, D, $ EXLINES’ BEST PIZZA—Serves pizza, Italian dinners, sandwiches, and salads. 6250 Stage, 382-3433; 2935 Austin Peay, 388-4711; 2801 Kirby Parkway, 754-0202; 7730 Wolf River Blvd. (Germantown), 753-4545; 531 W. Stateline, 662-342-4544. L, D, MRA, $ HABANA CLUB RESTAURANT, BAR & GRILLE—Offering authentic Cuban fare. 6110 Macon, 480-8173. L, D, $-$$ JTAP KITCHEN—Southern-influenced comfort food in a “high-end casual setting”: steaks, lamb, lobster, catfish, more. 3397 Summer, 213-8085, L, D, $-$$ LA TAQUERIA GUADALUPANA—Fajitas and quesadillas are just a few of the authentic Mexican entrees offered here. A bonafide Memphis institution. 4818 Summer, 685-6857; 5848 Winchester, 365-4992. L, D, $ LOTUS—Authentic Vietnamese-Asian fare, including lemon-grass chicken and shrimp, egg rolls, Pho soup, and spicy Vietnamese vermicelli. 4970 Summer, 682-1151. D, $ MORTIMER’S—Contemporary American entrees include trout almondine, chicken dishes, and hand-cut steaks; also sandwiches, salads, and daily/nightly specials. A Memphis landmark since the Knickerbocker closed. Closed for lunch Sat.-Sun. 590 N. Perkins, 7619321. L, D, $-$$

NAGASAKI INN—Chicken, steak, and lobster are among the main courses; meal is cooked at your table. 3951 Summer, 454-0320. D, $$ NAM KING—General Tso’s chicken, hot and sour soup, and homemade chicken wings are back at the longtime Raleigh Chinese eatery. 3624 Austin Peay, Suite 3, 373-4411. L, D, $-$$ PANCAKE SHOP—Classic breakfast items plus meat-and-three lunches, sandwiches, soups, salads. Open 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every day except Wednesday. 4838 Summer, 767-0206. B, L, $ ÓRALE TACOS & BAKERY—Tacos, enchiladas, and other traditional Southern Mexican dishes alongside baked pan dulces. 2204 Whitten, 571-1786. B, L, D, $-$$ PANDA GARDEN—Sesame chicken and broccoli beef are among the Mandarin and Cantonese entrees; also seafood specials and fried rice. Closed for lunch Saturday. 3735 Summer, 323-4819. L, D, $-$$ QUEEN OF SHEBA—Featuring Middle Eastern favorites and Yemeni dishes such as lamb haneeth and saltah. 4792 Summer, 207-4174. L, D, $ SIDE PORCH STEAK HOUSE—In addition to steak, the menu includes chicken, pork chops, and fish entrees; homemade rolls are a specialty. Closed Sun./Mon. 5689 Stage, 377-2484. D, $-$$ TACO PRIME—Modern taqueria where bold Mexican dishes meet Southern hospitality. 8222 U.S. 64, 585-0858; 189 South Germantown Road, Cordova, 435-6141. Closed Sunday. L,D, $-$$ TORTILLERIA LA UNICA—Individual helping of Mexican street food, including hefty tamales, burritos, tortas, and sopes. 5015 Summer, 685-0097. B, L, D, $ UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD DISTRICT (INCLUDES CHICKASAW GARDENS AND HIGHLAND STRIP)

A-TAN—Serves Chinese and Japanese hibachi cuisine, complete with sushi bar. A specialty is Four Treasures with garlic sauce. 3445 Poplar, Suite 17, University Center, 452-4477. L, D, $-$$$ BROTHER JUNIPER’S—This little cottage is a breakfast mecca, offering specialty omelets, including the open-faced San Diegan omelet; also daily specials, and homemade breads and pastries. Closed Mon. 3519 Walker, 324-0144. B, $ CHAR RESTAURANT—Specializing in modern Southern cuisine, this eatery offers homestyle sides, charbroiled steaks, and fresh seafood. 431 S. Highland, Suite 120, 249-3533. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$$ EL PORTON—Fajitas, quesadillas, and steak ranchero are just a few of the menu items. 2095 Merchants Row (Germantown), 754-4268; 8361 Highway 64, 380-7877; 3448 Poplar (Poplar Plaza), 452-7330; 1805 N. Germantown Parkway (Cordova), 624-9358; 1016 W. Poplar (Collierville), 854-5770. L, D, MRA, $-$$ PLANT BASED HEAT—All of your favorite Southern-style recipes, but deliciously transformed into a vegan format. Specialties include the spicy fye junt burger, or the chopped ‘n’ smoked BBQ jackfruit sandwich. Closed Sun. 669 S. Highland St.; 363 S. Front St. (downtown). L, D, $ EAST MEMPHIS (INCLUDES POPLAR / I-240) ACRE—Features seasonal modern American cuisine in an avantegarde setting using locally sourced products; also small plates and enclosed garden patio. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. 690 S. Perkins, 818-2273. L, D, $$-$$$ AGAVOS COCINA & TEQUILA—Camaron de Tequila, tamales, kabobs, and burgers made with a blend of beef and chorizo are among the offerings at this tequila-centric restaurant and bar. 2924 Walnut Grove, 433-9345. L, D, $-$$ AMERIGO—Traditional and contemporary Italian cuisine includes pasta, wood-fired pizza, steaks, and cedarwood-roasted fish. 1239 Ridgeway, Park Place Mall, 761-4000. L, D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ ANDALUSIA— Authentic Moroccan cuisine, including tagines, brochettes, and briouates. 5101 Sanderlin, Suite 103, 236-7784. L, D, $-$$ ANDREW MICHAEL ITALIAN KITCHEN—Traditional Italian cuisine with a menu from two of the city’s top chefs that changes seasonally with such entrees as Maw Maw’s ravioli. Closed Sun.-Mon. 712 W. Brookhaven Circle, 347-3569. D, MRA, $$-$$$ ANOTHER BROKEN EGG CAFE—Offering several varieties of eggs Benedict, waffles, omelets, pancakes, beignets, and other breakfast fare; also burgers, sandwiches, and salads. 6063 Park, 729-7020; 65 S. Highland, 623-7122. B, L, WB, $ BANGKOK ALLEY—Thai fusion cuisine includes noodle and curry dishes, chef-specialty sushi rolls, coconut soup, and duck and seafood entrees. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. at Brookhaven location; call for hours. 715 W. Brookhaven Circle, 590-2585; 2150 W. Poplar at Houston Levee (Collierville), 854-8748. L, D, $-$$ N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 107

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BELLE MEADE SOCIAL—Upscale Americana cuisine including lamb lollipops, spicy tuna stack, and steak & noodle salad. 518 Perkins Extd., 480-7054. L, D, $-$$$ BELMONT GRILL—Burgers, steak sandwiches, and other classic American fare at one of Memphis’ longstanding bars. 4970 Poplar, 767-0305. L, D, $-$$ BENIHANA—This Japanese steakhouse serves beef, chicken, and seafood grilled at the table; some menu items change monthly; sushi bar also featured. 912 Ridge Lake Blvd., 767-8980. L, D, $$-$$$ BIG BAD BREAKFAST—Fresh biscuits, house-made cured meats, jams, jellies, and more for the most important meal of the day. 6450 Poplar, 881-3346; 2149 Young. B, L, $-$$ BOG & BARLEY—An all-Irish fine dining experience by the owners of Celtic Crossing, and a full bar with plenty of beer and 25-year-old Macallan. 6150 Poplar, Suite 124, 805-2262. L, D, WB, $-$$ BROOKLYN BRIDGE ITALIAN RESTAURANT—Specializing in such homemade entrees as spinach lasagna and lobster ravioli; a seafood specialty is horseradish-crusted salmon. Closed Sun. 1779 Kirby Parkway, 755-7413. D, $-$$$ CAPITAL GRILLE—Known for its dry-aged, hand-carved steaks; among the specialties are bone-in sirloin and porcini-rubbed Delmonico; also seafood entrees and seasonal lunch plates. Closed for lunch Sat.-Sun. Crescent Center, 6065 Poplar, 683-9291. L, D, $$$-$$$$ CASABLANCA—Lamb shawarma is one of the fresh, homemade specialties served at this Mediterranean/Moroccan restaurant; fish entrees and vegetarian options also available. 5030 Poplar, 725-8557; 1707 Madison, 421-6949. L, D, $-$$ CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL—Burritos, quesadillas, tacos, salads, and bowls made to order while customers watch. 5865 Poplar, 416-1944; 2046 Union, 729-2640; 4726 Summer, 590-1839; 2110 West, 256-6202; 695 N. Germantown Parkway (Germantown), 416-1944. L, D, $-$$ CHUKIS TACOS 2—Traditional homestyle Mexican recipes. 3445 Poplar Ave., Suite 1, 888-4139. B, L, D, $-$$ CIAO BELLA—Among the Italian and Greek specialties are lasagna, seafood pasta, gourmet pizzas, and vegetarian options. 5101 Sanderlin, 205-2500. D, MRA, $-$$$ CITY SILO TABLE + PANTRY—With a focus on clean eating, this establishment offers fresh juices, as well as comfort foods re-imagined with wholesome ingredients. 5101 Sanderlin, 729-7687; 7605 W. Farmington, Suite 2, 236-7223 (Germantown). B, L, D, $ COASTAL FISH COMPANY—Upscale offerings of international fish varieties utilizing styles ranging from the Carribbean, East Coast, West Coast, China, Philippines, and more. 415 Great View Dr. E., Suite 101, 266-9000 (Shelby Farms Park). D, $$-$$$ CORKY’S—Popular barbecue emporium offers both wet and dry ribs, plus a full menu of other barbecue entrees. Wed. lunch buffets, Cordova and Collierville. 5259 Poplar, 685-9744; 1740 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 737-1911; 743 W. Poplar (Collierville), 405-4999; 6434 Goodman Rd., (Olive Branch), 662-893-3663. L, D, MRA, $-$$ THE CRAZY COOP—Plenty of hot wings and sauces, plus sandwiches and other dinner plates. 1315 Ridgeway, 748-5325; 7199 Stage (Bartlett), 433-9212. L, D, $-$$ DAN MCGUINNESS PUB—Serves fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, burgers, and other Irish and American fare; also lunch and dinner specials. 4694 Spottswood, 761-3711; 3964 Goodman (Southaven), 662-890-7611. L, D, $ ERLING JENSEN—For decades, Chef Erling has presented “globally inspired” cuisine to die for. Specialties are rack of lamb, biggame entrees, and fresh fish dishes. 1044 S. Yates, 763-3700. D, MRA, $$-$$$ ERLING JENSEN SMALL BITES—Enjoy Erling Jensen’s specialty dishes in a sharable, small-plate format alongside TopGolf Swing suites. 5069 Sanderlin, 587-9464. L, D, $-$$$ FLEMING’S PRIME STEAKHOUSE—Serves wet-aged and dry-aged steaks, prime beef, chops, and seafood, including salmon, Australian lobster tails, and a catch of the day. 6245 Poplar, 761-6200. D, MRA, $$$-$$$$ FOLK’S FOLLY ORIGINAL PRIME STEAK HOUSE— Specializes in prime steaks, as well as lobster, grilled Scottish salmon, Alaskan king crab legs, rack of lamb, and weekly specials. 551 S. Mendenhall, 762-8200. D, MRA, $$$-$$$$ FORMOSA—Offers Mandarin cuisine, including broccoli beef, hot-andsour soup, and spring rolls. Closed Mon. 6685 Quince, 753-9898. L, D, $-$$ FOX RIDGE PIZZA & GRILL—Pizzas, calzones, sub sandwiches, burgers, and meat-and-two plate lunches are among the dishes served at this eatery, which opened in 1979. 711 W. Brookhaven Circle, 758-6500. L, D, $

FRATELLI’S—Serves hot and cold sandwiches, salads, soups, and desserts, all with an Italian/Mediterranean flair. Closed Sun. 750 Cherry, Memphis Botanic Garden, 766-9900. L, $ HALF SHELL—Specializes in seafood, such as king crab legs; also serves steaks, chicken, pastas, salads, sandwiches, and a ”voodoo menu.” 688 S. Mendenhall, 682-3966; 9091 Poplar (Germantown), 590-4304. L, D, WB, MRA, $-$$$ HEN HOUSE—Hybrid wine/cocktail bar and tasting room with plenty of cosmopolitan eats. 679 S. Mendenhall, 499-5436. D, SB, $-$$$ HIGH POINT PIZZA—Serves a variety of pizzas, subs, salads, and sides. Closed Mon. A neighborhood fixture. 477 High Point Terrace, 452-3339. L, D, $-$$ HOG & HOMINY—The casual sister to Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen serves brick-oven-baked pizzas, including the Red-Eye with pork belly, and small plates with everything from meatballs to beef and cheddar hot dogs; and local veggies. Closed for lunch Mon. 707 W. Brookhaven Circle, 207-7396. L, D, SB, MRA. $-$$$ LA BAGUETTE—An almond croissant and chicken salad are among specialties at this French-style bistro. Closed for dinner Sun. 3088 Poplar, 458-0900. B, L, D (closes at 7), MRA, $ LAS DELICIAS—Popular for its guacamole, house-made tortilla chips, and margaritas, this restaurant draws diners with its chicken enchiladas, meat-stuffed flautas, and Cuban torta with spicy pork. Closed Sun. 4002 Park, 458-9264; 5689 Quince, 800-2873. L, D, $ LIBRO AT LAURELWOOD—Bookstore eatery features a variety of sandwiches, salads, and homemade pasta dishes, with Italian-inspired options such as carbonara and potato gnocchi. Closed for dinner Sun. 387 Perkins Ext. (inside Novel), 800-2656. B, L, D, SB, $-$$ THE LIQUOR STORE—All-day breakfast, sandwiches, and entrees such as Salisbury steak and smothered pork chops. 669 S. Mendenhall, B, L, D, $-$$ LITTLE ITALY EAST—New York-style pizzas galore and homemade pasta. Closed Sun. 6300 Poplar, Suite 113, 729-7432. L, $-$$ MAGNOLIA & MAY—Southern-inspired, family-owned, casual dining restaurant serving up a variety of sandwiches, chef-inspired dishes, and craft cocktails. Popular items include shrimp and grits and the double cheeseburger. Closed Mon. 718 Mt. Moriah, 676-8100. L, D, WB, MRA. $$-$$$ MANDE DIBI WEST AFRICAN BBQ GRILL—Pairs traditional West African BBQ with Memphis BBQ for a menu that offers a wide variety of flavors, including daily specials and vegan-friendly options. 6825 Winchester, 672-8995. L, D, $-$$$ MARCIANO MEDITERRANEAN AND ITALIAN CUISINE—Veal Saltimbocca with angel-hair pasta and white wine sauce is among the entrees; also steaks, seafood, and gourmet pizza. 780 E. Brookhaven Circle, 682-1660. D, $-$$ MAYURI INDIAN CUISINE—Serves tandoori chicken, masala dosa, tikka masala, as well as lamb and shrimp entrees; also a daily lunch buffet, and dinner buffet on Fri.-Sat. 6524 Quince, 753-8755. L, D, $-$$ MOSA ASIAN BISTRO—Specialties include sesame chicken, Thai calamari, rainbow panang curry with grouper fish, and other Pan Asian/ fusion entrees. Closed Mon. 850 S. White Station, 683-8889. L, D, MRA, $ MULAN ASIAN BISTRO—Pan-Asian fare includes sushi and Sichuan dishes. 4598 Spottwood, 347-3965. L, D, $-$$ NAM KING—Offers luncheon and dinner buffets, dim sum, and such specialties as fried dumplings, pepper steak, and orange chicken. 4594 Yale, 373-4411. L, D, $ NAPA CAFE—Among the specialties are miso-marinated salmon over black rice with garlic spinach and shiitake mushrooms. Closed Sun. 5101 Sanderlin, Suite 122, 683-0441. D, MRA, $$-$$$ ONE & ONLY BBQ—On the menu are pork barbecue sandwiches, platters, wet and dry ribs, smoked chicken and turkey platters, a smoked meat salad, barbecue quesadillas, Brunswick Stew, and Millie’s homemade desserts. 1779 Kirby Pkwy., 751-3615; 567 Perkins Extd., 249-4227. L, D, $ ONO POKÉ—This eatery specializes in poké — a Hawaiian dish of fresh fish salad served over rice. Menu includes a variety of poké bowls, like the Kimchi Tuna bowl, or customers can build their own by choosing a base, protein, veggies, and toppings. 3145 Poplar, 618-2955. L, D, $ OWEN BRENNAN’S—New Orleans-style menu of beef, chicken, pasta, and seafood; jambalaya, shrimp and grits, and crawfish etouffee are specialties. Closed for dinner Sun. The Regalia, 6150 Poplar, 761-0990. L, D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ PARK + CHERRY—The Dixon offers casual dining within the museum. Seasonal menu features sandwiches, like rustic chicken salad on

croissant, as well as salads, snacks, and sweets. Closed for breakfast Sun. and all day Mon. 4339 Park (Dixon Gallery and Gardens), 761-5250. L, $ PATRICK’S—Serves barbecue nachos, burgers, and entrees such as fish and chips; also plate lunches and daily specials. 4972 Park, 682-2852. L, D, MRA, $ PETE & SAM’S—Serving Memphis for 60-plus years; offers steaks, seafood, and traditional Italian dishes, including homemade ravioli, lasagna, and chicken marsala. 3886 Park, 458-0694. D, $-$$$ PF CHANG’S CHINA BISTRO—Specialties are orange peel shrimp, Mongolian beef, and chicken in lettuce wraps; also vegetarian dishes, including spicy eggplant. 1181 Ridgeway, Park Place Mall, 818-3889. L, D, $-$$ PHO SAIGON—Vietnamese fare includes beef teriyaki, roasted quail, curry ginger chicken, vegetarian options, and a variety of soups. 2946 Poplar, 458-1644. L, D, $ POP SPOT BAR & GRILLE—Burgers, empanadas, quesadillas, and creole-inspired cuisine, with hand-crafted cocktails. 715 West Brookhaven Circle, 830-5431. L, D, $-$$ PYRO’S FIRE-FRESH PIZZA—Serving gourmet pizzas cooked in an open-fire oven, wide choice of toppings, and large local and craft beer selection. 1199 Ridgeway, 379-8294; 2035 Union, 208-8857; 2286 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 207-1198; 3592 S. Houston Levee (Collierville), 221-8109. L, D, MRA, $ RED HOOK CAJUN SEAFOOD & BAR—Cajun-style array of seafood including shrimp, mussels, clams, crawfish, and oysters. 3295 Poplar, 207-1960. L, D, $-$$ RED KOI—Classic Japanese cuisine offered at this family-run restaurant; hibachi steaks, sushi, seafood, chicken, and vegetables. 5847 Poplar, 767-3456. L, D, $-$$ RED PIER CAJUN SEAFOOD & BAR—Owners of Red Hook bring more Cajun-style seafood dishes. 5901 Poplar, 512-5923. L, D, $-$$$ RESTAURANT IRIS—French Creole-inspired classics, such as Gulf shrimp and rice grits congee served with lap chong sausage and boiled peanuts, are served at this newly remodeled restaurant owned by Chef Kelly English, a Food and Wine “Top Ten.” 4550 Poplar, 590-2828. L, D, $$-$$$ RIVER OAKS—Chef Jose Gutierrez’s French-style bistro serves seafood and steaks, with an emphasis on fresh local ingredients. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. 5871 Poplar, 6839305. L, D, $$$ RONNIE GRISANTI’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT—This Memphis institution serves family classics such as Elfo’s Special and handmade ravioli, along with house-made pizza and fresh oysters. Closed Sun. 6150 Poplar, Suite 122, 850-0191. D, $-$$$ ROTOLO’S CRAFT & CRUST—Louisiana-based pizza company’s first Memphis location, whipping up pizza pies with homemade sauces and fresh ingredients, pasta, wings, and other shareables. 681 S. White Station, 454-3352. L, D, $-$$ RUTH’S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE—Offers prime steaks cut and aged in-house, as well as lamb, chicken, and fresh seafood, including lobster. 6120 Poplar, 761-0055. D, $$$-$$$$ SALSA COCINA MEXICANA—Mexican-Southern California specialties include carnitas, enchiladas verde, and fajitas; also Southwestern seafood dishes such as snapper verde. Closed Sun. Regalia Shopping Center, 6150 Poplar, Suite 129, 683-6325. L, D, $-$$ SEASONS 52—This elegant fresh grill and wine bar offers a seasonally changing menu using fresh ingredients, wood-fire grilling, and brick-oven cooking; also a large international wine list and nightly piano bar. Crescent Center, 6085 Poplar, 682-9952. L, D, $$-$$$ STAKS—Offering pancakes, including birthday cake and lemon ricotta. Menu includes other breakfast items such as beignets and French toast, as well as soups and sandwiches for lunch. 4615 Poplar, 509-2367; 3660 S. Houston Levee Road, Suite 104 (Collierville), 286-4335; 7704 Poplar (Germantown), 800-1951; 2902 May, (Southaven). B, L, WB, $ SWANKY’S TACO SHOP—Taco-centric eatery offers tortas, flatbreads, quesadillas, chimichangas, burgers, and more. 4770 Poplar, 730-0763; 6641 Poplar (Germantown), 737-2088; 272 S. Main. 779-3499. L, D, $ THREE LITTLE PIGS—Pork-shoulder-style barbecue with tangy mild or hot sauce, freshly made coleslaw, and baked beans. 5145 Quince, 685-7094. B, L, D, $ TJ MULLIGAN’S—Cold drinks, comfort food, and plenty of live entertainment. 1817 Kirby Pkwy. (East Memphis), 755-2481; 8070 Trinity, Suite 1 (Cordova), 756-4480; 2821 N. Houston Levee, (Lakeland), 377-9997. L, D, $-$$

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TOPS BAR-B-Q—Specializes in pork barbecue sandwiches and sandwich plates with beans and slaw; also serves ribs, beef brisket, and burgers. 1286 Union,725-7527; 4183 Summer, 324-4325; 5391 Winchester,794-7936; 3970 Rhodes, 323-9865; 6130 Macon, 371-0580. For more locations, go online. L, D, $ TORCHY’S TACOS—Plenty of Tex-Mex variety, with creative monthly special tacos. 719 S. Mendenhall, 343-8880. B, L, D, $ VENICE KITCHEN—Specializes in “eclectic Italian” and Southern Creole, from pastas, including the “Godfather,” to hand-tossed pizzas, including the “John Wayne”; choose from 50 toppings. 368 Perkins Ext., 767-6872. L, D, SB, $-$$ WANG’S MANDARIN HOUSE—Offers Mandarin, Cantonese, Szechuan, and spicy Hunan entrees, including the golden-sesame chicken; next door is East Tapas, serving small plates with an Asian twist. 6065 Park, Park Place Mall, 763-0676. L, D, $-$$ WASABI—Serving traditional Japanese offerings, hibachi, sashimi, and sushi. The Sweet Heart roll, wrapped — in the shape of a heart — with tuna and filled with spicy salmon, yellowtail, and avocado, is a specialty. 5101 Sanderlin, Suite 105, 421-6399. L, D, $-$$ THE WING GURU—A staple of the Memphis wing scene, featuring everything from classic buffalo to exquisite lemon pepper. 5699 Mt. Moriah, 509-2405; 875 W. Poplar, Suite 6 (Collierville), 221-7488; 8253 Highway 51 North, Suite 103 (Millington), 8720849; 4130 Elvis Presley (Whitehaven), 791-4726; 5224 Airline, Suite 107 (Arlington), 209-0349. L, D, $-$$ WOMAN’S EXCHANGE TEA ROOM—Chicken-salad plate, beef tenderloin, soups-and-sandwiches, vegetable plates, and homemade desserts are specialties. Closed Sat.-Sun. 88 Racine, 327-5681. L, $ CORDOVA THE BLUE ROOM RESTAURANT—An elevated take on traditional Southern recipes, located in the U of M Kemmons Wilson Culinary Institute. Closed Mon. 1245 N. Germantown Pkwy., Suite 101, 249-7512. D, SB, $$-$$$ BOMBAY HOUSE—Indian fare includes lamb korma and chicken tikka; also, a daily luncheon buffet. 1727 N. Germantown Pkwy., 755-4114. L, D, $-$$ THE BUTCHER SHOP—Serves steaks ranging from 8-oz. filets to a 20-oz. porterhouse; also chicken, pork chops, fresh seafood. 107 S. Germantown Pkwy., 757-4244. L (Fri. and Sun.), D, $$-$$$ GREEN BAMBOO—Pineapple tilapia, pork vermicelli, and the soft egg noodle combo are Vietnamese specialties here. 990 N. Germantown Pkwy., Suite 104, 753-5488. L, D, $-$$ JIM ’N NICK’S BAR-B-Q—Serves barbecued pork, ribs, chicken, brisket, and fish, along with other homemade Southern specialties. 2359 N. Germantown Pkwy., 388-0998. L, D, $-$$ EL MERO TACO—This food truck turned restaurant serves up Mexican and Southern-style fusion dishes, including fried chicken tacos, chorizo con papas tacos, and brisket quesadillas. 8100 Macon Station, Suite 102, 308-1661. Closed Sun.-Mon. L, D, WB, $ MINGXIA DUMPLING—Specializing in Chinese cuisine and street food, with handmade dishes: dumplings, soup, fried rice, meats, and vegetables. 1014 N. Germantown Pkwy., 961-6999. L, D, $-$$. Closed Tues. POKÉ WORLD—Serves up Hawaiian poké bowls filled with rice and diced, raw fish. Also offers Taiwanese bubble tea and rolled ice cream for dessert. 1605 N. Germantown Pkwy., Suite 111, 623-7986; 575 Erin, 779-4971 (East Memphis). L, D, $ PETALS OF A PEONY—Authentic Sichuan cuisine, from crispy duck to peony fried chicken. Be prepared for spice! 1250 N. Germantown Pkwy., 787-8886. L, D, $-$$ SHOGUN JAPANESE RESTAURANT—Entrees include tempura, teriyaki, and sushi, as well as grilled fish and chicken entrees. 2324 N. Germantown Pkwy., 384-4122. L, D, $-$$ TANNOOR GRILL—Brazilian-style steakhouse with skewers served tableside, along with Middle Eastern specialties; vegetarian options also available. 830 N. Germantown Pkwy., 443-5222. L, D, $-$$$ VILLA CASTRIOTI—From traditional pasta dishes and family concoctions to hand-tossed brick oven NY pizza. 714 N. Germantown Pkwy., 753-3894. L, D, MRA, $$$

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CITY DINING

GERMANTOWN BLUE HONEY BISTRO—Entrees at this upscale eatery include brown butter scallops served with Mississippi blue rice and herbcrusted beef tenderloin with vegetables and truffle butter. Closed Sun. 9155 Poplar, Suite 17, 552-3041. D, $-$$$ FIRST WATCH—Fresh, made-to-order breakfast, brunch, and lunch creations. 7810 Poplar, 665-5590. B, WB, L, $-$$ GERMANTOWN COMMISSARY—Serves barbecue sandwiches, sliders, ribs, shrimp, and nachos, as well as smoked barbecued bologna sandwiches; Mon.-night all-you-can-eat ribs. 2290 S. Germantown Rd., 754-5540. L, D, MRA, $-$$ JOSEPHINE ESTELLE—Neighborhood Italian-American restaurant with a seasonal Southern-inspired menu. 6695 Poplar, 334-3483. L, D, $-$$$ LAS TORTUGAS DELI MEXICANA—Authentic Mexican food prepared from local food sources; specializes in tortugas — grilled bread scooped out to hold such powerfully popular fillings as brisket, pork, and shrimp; also tingas, tostados. Closed Sun. 1215 S. Germantown Rd., 751-1200; 6300 Poplar. 623-3882. L, D, $-$$ LIMELIGHT—Wolf River Hospitality Group brings Wagyu beef, duck gnocchi, and other fine dining dishes on a rotating seasonal menu. Closed Mon./Tue. 7724 Poplar Pike, 791-2328. D, $-$$$ LOCAL LIME—Tacos and margaritas in a casual environment, plus other goodies like the Mexican caramel apple crisp skillet. Closed Mon. 7605 W. Farmington, Suite 1, 224-2204. L, D, $-$$$ MELLOW MUSHROOM—Large menu includes assortment of pizzas, salads, calzones, hoagies, vegetarian options, and 50 beers on tap. 9155 Poplar, Shops of Forest Hill (Germantown), 907-0243. L, D, $-$$ MOONDANCE GRILL—From the owners of Itta Bena and Lafayette’s. Serves steak cooked sous vide and seafood dishes including Abita-barbecued shrimp and pan-seared sand dab, in addition to an extensive wine and cocktail list. 1730 S. Germantown Road, Suite 117, 755-1471. L, D, $$-$$$ MR. P’S WINGS—Casual eatery featuring hot wings, burgers, fried fish, and other American food. 2075 Exeter, Suite 35, 587-6777. L, D, $$ NOODLES ASIAN BISTRO—Serves a variety of traditional Asian cuisine, with emphasis on noodle dishes, such as Singapore Street Noodles and Hong Kong Chow Fun. 7850 Poplar, Suite 12, 755-1117. L, D, $ RIO LOBO CANTINA—Mexican and Latin-American cuisine. 3165 Forest Hill Irene, 310-3432. L,D, $-$$ ROCK’N DOUGH PIZZA CO.—Specialty and custom pizzas made from fresh ingredients; wide variety of toppings. 7850 Poplar, Suite 6, 779-2008. L, D, SB, MRA, $$ ROYAL PANDA—Hunan fish, Peking duck, Royal Panda chicken and shrimp, and a seafood combo are among the specialties. 3120 Village Shops, 756-9697. L, D, $-$$ SAKURA—Sushi, tempura, and teriyaki are Japanese specialties here. 2060 West, 758-8181; 4840 Poplar (Memphis), 572-1002; 255 New Byhalia (Collierville), 316-5638. L, D, $-$$ SOUTHERN SOCIAL—Shrimp and grits, stuffed quail, and Aunt Thelma’s Fried Chicken are among the dishes served at this upscale Southern establishment. 2285 S. Germantown Rd., 754-5555. D, SB, MRA, $-$$$ STONEY RIVER STEAKHOUSE AND GRILL—Specializes in handcut steaks, a fresh seafood selection, and plenty of house specials. 7515 Poplar, Suite 101, 207-1100. L, D, $$-$$$$ SUFI’S MEDITERRANEAN GRILL & BAR—Offers authentic Mediterranean and Persian cuisine, from hummus shawarma to traditional moussaka. Closed Mon. 7609 Poplar Pike, 779-2200. L, D, $-$$$ TAZIKI’S—Mediterranean-inspired dishes all made from scratch. 7850 Poplar, Suite 26, 612-2713; 540 S. Mendenhall Rd. (Memphis), 290-1091; 7974 U.S. 64 (Bartlett), 203-0083. L, D, $ THE TOASTED YOLK CAFE—Churro donuts, signature Eggs Benedict, and plenty other boozy brunch options at this franchise’s first Tennessee location. 9087 Poplar, Suite 11. B, L, $-$$ UNCLE GOYO’S—More than 30 dishes with a focus on authentic Mexican cuisine, from the brains behind TacoNganas. 1730 S. Germantown Rd., 310-4855. L, D, $-$$ WEST STREET DINER—This home-style eatery offers breakfast, burgers, po’boys, and more. 2076 West, 757-2191. B, L, D (Mon.-Fri.), $ ZEN JAPANESE FINE CUISINE—A full sushi bar and plenty of authentic Japanese dishes, like Hibachi or Wagyu beef. 1730 S. Germantown Rd., 779-2796. L, D, $-$$$

COLLIERVILLE BELLY ACRES—Upscale burger restaurant, featuring creative combos such as the Cowboy (fried onion strings, pickled jalapeños, and BBQ saucer, or the Hot Pow with pepper jack and spinach. 3660 S. Houston Levee, 209-0168; 6130 Poplar (Memphis), 707-7638. L, D, $-$$ CAFE PIAZZA BY PAT LUCCHESI—Specializes in gourmet pizzas (including create-your-own), panini sandwiches, and pasta. Closed Sun. 139 S. Rowlett, 861-1999. L, D, $-$$ CIAO BABY—Specializing in Neapolitan-style pizza made in a woodfired oven. Also serves house-made mozzarella, pasta, appetizers, and salads. 890 W. Poplar, Suite 1, 457-7457. L, D, $ COLLIERVILLE COMMISSARY—Serves barbecue sandwiches, sliders, ribs, shrimp, and nachos, as well as smoked barbecued bologna sandwiches. 3573 S. Houston Levee, 979-5540. L, D, MRA, $-$$ CASINO TABLES CHICAGO STEAKHOUSE AT THE GOLDSTRIKE—1010 Casino Center, Robinsonville, MS, 1-888-24KSTAY / 662-357-1225 FAIRBANKS AT THE HOLLYWOOD—1150 Casino Strip, Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-871-0711 IGNITE STEAKHOUSE AT SOUTHLAND CASINO HOTEL—1550 N. Ingram, West Memphis, AR, 1-800-467-6182 JACK BINION’S STEAK HOUSE AT HORSESHOE—1021 Casino Center, Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-303-SHOE LUCKY 8 ASIAN BISTRO AT HORSESHOE—1021 Casino Center, Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-303-SHOE SOUTHLAND CASINO HOTEL’S THE KITCHENS—1550 N. Ingram, West Memphis, AR, 1-800-467-6182 THE STEAKHOUSE AT THE FITZ—711 Lucky Lane, Robinsonville, MS, 1-888-766-LUCK, Ext. 8213 TWAIN’S STEAKHOUSE AT SAM’S TOWN TUNICA—1477 Casino Strip Resorts, Robinsonville, MS, 1-800-456-0711

DAVID GRISANTI’S ON MAIN—Serving Northern Italian cuisine and traditional Grisanti family recipes. Closed Sun./Mon. 148 N. Main, 861-1777. L, D, $-$$$ DYER’S CAFE—Juicy hamburgers, split dogs, and milkshakes at the historic Collierville restaurant. 101 N. Center, 850-7750. L, D, $-$$ EL MEZCAL—Serves burritos, chimichangas, fajitas, and other Mexican cuisine, as well as shrimp dinners and steak. 9947 Wolf River Pkwy., 853-7922; 402 Perkins Extd., 761-7710; 694 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 755-1447; 1492 Union, 274-4264; 11615 Airline (Arlington), 867-1883; 9045 Highway 64 (Lakeland), 383-4219; 7164 Hacks Cross, (Olive Branch). 662-890-3337; 8834 Highway 51 N. (Millington), 8723220; 7424 Highway 64 (Bartlett), 417-6026. L, D, $ EMERALD THAI RESTAURANT—Spicy shrimp, pad khing, lemongrass chicken, and several noodle, rice, and vegetarian dishes are offered at this family restaurant. Closed Sunday. 8950 Highway 64 (Lakeland), 384-0540. L, D, $-$$ FIREBIRDS—Specialties are hand-cut steaks, slow-roasted prime rib, and wood-grilled salmon and other seafood, as well as seasonal entrees. 4600 Merchants Circle, Carriage Crossing, 850-1637; 8470 Highway 64 (Bartlett), 379-1300. L, D, $-$$$ JIM’S PLACE GRILLE—Features American, Greek, and Continental cuisine. Closed for lunch Sat. and all day Sun. 3660 Houston Levee, 861-5000. L, D, MRA, $-$$$ MAEVE’S TAVERN—An Irish-themed eatery with elevated tavern classics, from signature burgers to hearty entrees featuring locally sourced ingredients. 78 N. Main on the Town Square, 403-5100. L, D, SB, $-$$$ MAROON BREW CO.—Family-friendly restaurant serving up gourmet hot dogs, smash burgers, chicken, and shareables, all made to pair with beers brewed on-site. Closed Mon. 642 W. Poplar, 799-0354. L, D, $-$$ MULAN ASIAN BISTRO—Hunan Chicken, tofu dishes, and orange beef served here; sushi and Thai food, too. 2059 Houston Levee, 8505288; 2149 Young, 347-3965; 4698 Spottswood, 609-8680. L, D, $-$$ NASHOBA—Offers live music, sports games, and pub classics. Specialties are hot honey flatbread pizza, brisket fried rice, and the Nashoba burger. 4600 Merchants Park Circle, Suite 111, 630-4683. L, D, $-$$ OSAKA JAPANESE CUISINE—Featuring an extensive sushi menu as well as traditional Japanese and hibachi dining. Hours vary for lunch; call. 3670 Houston Levee, 861-4309; 3402 Poplar (Memphis), 249-4690; 7164 Hacks Cross (Olive Branch), 662-890-9312; 2200 N. Germantown Pkwy. (Cordova), 425-4901. L, D, $-$$$

RAVEN & LILY—Eatery offers innovative Southern-inspired cuisine with such dishes as crispy shrimp and cauliflower salad, spiced lamb sausage and parmesan risotto, and bananas foster pain perdu. Closed Mon. 120 E. Mulberry, 286-4575. L, D, SB, $-$$ STIX—Hibachi steakhouse with Asian cuisine features steak, chicken, and a fillet and lobster combination, also sushi. A specialty is Dynamite Chicken with fried rice. 4680 Merchants Park Circle, Avenue Carriage Crossing; 854-3399; 150 Peabody Place, Suite 115 (Downtown Memphis), 207-7638 L, D, $-$$ WOLF RIVER BRISKET CO.—From the owners of Pyro’s Fire Fresh Pizza, highlights include house-smoked meats: prime beef brisket, chicken, and salmon. Closed Sun. 9947 Wolf River, Suite 101, 316-5590; 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 165, 791-4389. L, D, $-$$ ZOPITA’S ON THE SQUARE—Cafe offers sandwiches, including smoked salmon and pork tenderloin, as well as salads and desserts. Closed Sun. 114 N. Main, 457-7526. L, D, $ ARLINGTON / LAKELAND BRENDALAY GRILLE—Wide variety of steaks, flatbreads, pasta, soups, sandwiches. Favorites: Brendalay BBQ Shrimp and Cajun Rosemary Shrimp. 6259 Quintard (Arlington), 317-6998. L, D, SB, $$$$ KITCHEN TABLE—“Crafted comfort food that makes you feel right at home.” Steaks, seafood, catfish, chicken, chops, soups, salad, even handspun cotton candy. 12062 Forrest (Arlington), 317-6402. L,D, SB. $-$$ VILLA CASTRIOTI—From traditional family dishes and pasta concoctions to hand-tossed brick-oven NY pizza. 9861 W. Lake District Dr., (Lakeland), 466-8288. L,D, MRA, $$$ OUT-OF-TOWN BOZO’S HOT PIT BAR-B-Q—Barbecue, burgers, sandwiches, and subs. 342 Highway 70 (Mason, TN).,901-294-3400. L, D, $-$$ CITY GROCERY—Southern eclectic cuisine; shrimp and grits is a specialty. Closed for dinner Sun. 152 Courthouse Square (Oxford, MS), 662-232-8080. L, D, SB, $$-$$$ COMO STEAKHOUSE—Steaks cooked on a hickory charcoal grill are a specialty here. Upstairs is an oyster bar. Closed Sun. 203 Main, (Como, MS). 662-526-9529. D, $-$$$ ELFO GRISANTI’S NORTHERN ITALIAN CUISINE—Grisanti family classics like lasagna, homemade ravioli, garlic bread, and Northern Italian pizza. Closed Sun. 5627 Getwell (Southaven, MS), 662-4704497. L, D, $-$$ HARRY’S ITALIAN—Authentic Italian dishes using traditional recipes made from scratch, plus steaks and other entrees. 8472 U.S. Highway 51, (Millington, TN), 872-0056. L, D, $-$$$ MANILA FILIPINO RESTAURANT—Entrees include pork belly cutlet with lechon sauce, and shrimp and vegetables in tamarind broth; also daily combos, rice dishes, and chef specials. Closed Sun.-Mon. 7849 Rockford (Millington, TN), 209-8525. L, D, $ MARSHALL STEAKHOUSE—Rustic steakhouse serves premium Angus beef steaks, seafood dishes, rack of lamb, and more. 2379 Highway 178 (Holly Springs, MS), 628-3556. B, L, D, $-$$$ MEMPHIS BARBECUE COMPANY—Offers spare ribs, baby backs, and pulled pork and brisket. 709 Desoto Cove (Horn Lake, MS), 662-536-3762. L, D, $-$$ PIG-N-WHISTLE—Offers pork shoulder sandwiches, wet and dry ribs, catfish, nachos, and stuffed barbecue potatoes. 6084 Kerr-Rosemark Rd. (Millington, TN). 872-2455. L, D, $ SAINT LEO—Offering sophisticated pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, and salads. A James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant in 2017. 1101 Jackson (Oxford, MS), 662-234-4555. D, L, WB, $-$$ SIMON’S—A unique dining experience situated on Court Square in a charming small town, offering Angus steaks, catfish, BBQ brisket. Closed Mon./Tue. 201 N. Main (Bolivar, TN), 731-403-3474. L, D, $$-$$$ SNACKBAR—An intriguing mix of “French Bistro with North Mississippi Cafe.” Serving a confit duck Croque Monsieur, watermelon-cucumber chaat, pan-fried quail, plus a daily plate special and a raw bar. 721 N. Lamar (Oxford, MS), 662-236-6363. D, $-$$$ TEKILA MODERN MEXICAN—Modern interpretations of classic dishes from all over Mexico. 6343 Getwell, (Southaven, MS), 662-5105734. B, L, D, $-$$ WALK-ON’S SPORTS BISTREAUX. Cajun classics: fried alligator, pepperjack boudin, shrimp, gumbo, along with unique specialties. 2715 Snowden Lane (Southaven, MS), 662-870-8379. L, D, $$ WILSON CAFE—An impressive culinary destination in the heart of the Arkansas Delta. Serving jambalaya, Waygu flatiron, butternut ravioli, swordfish & shrimp kabobs, burgers. 2 N. Jefferson (Wilson, AR), 870655-0222. L, D, WB, $-$$$ N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 • M E M P H I S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • 111

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L A S T S TA N D

ANTI-ARTIFICIAL

THE AI THREAT IS REAL. AND IT’S NOW. BY FRANK MURTAUGH

N T H E O C T O B E R 5 T H episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart interviewed a young man named Jacob Coxon. The 28-year-old Coxon is a former researcher with Anthropic — the artificial-intelligence company — and now somewhat of a whistleblower, ready and willing to discuss cracks in the methods and philosophies AI companies are delivering. It was the most horrifying conversation I’ve ever witnessed. A “utopia” was discussed in which there are no jobs — zero occupations — for human beings, a scenario humankind will achieve, via AI, only if the technology doesn’t erase our existence first. The Coxon interview wasn’t all that much of a revelation. Chatter has been steady for at least five years now about the hazards of a real-life Terminator movie, the machines growing smarter than human beings, recognizing we homo sapiens are more nuisance than help, and killing every last one of us for efficiency’s sake. But the casual, calm tone of Coxon’s analysis was bone-chilling. Forget robots with automatic firearms storming your neighborhood when your day comes. Forget biological weapons dropping from the sky when the bots decide it’s appropriate. AI “agents” need merely to poison (or cut off ) a community’s water supply for the end to begin. In a world of digital decision-makers, that’s low-hanging fruit.

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For now, there are human beings behind the AI takeover: Elon Musk (xAI), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic). All of them men. This form of “leadership” has a type, and they are not brilliant minds. My definition of “brilliant” doesn’t include the willful production of technology that could eradicate the human species. It’s the behavior of a James Bond villain. President Donald Trump — no brilliant mind, he — has publicly stated these executives should and will “police themselves” when it comes to guardrails and restrictions. Already billionaires, each of them, they have more billions to make and a race to win. What kind of self-imposed guardrails does the president envision?

To be clear, AI is here. The software that added “clear” to the first sentence in this paragraph before I could type it is AI interfering with my work. I frequently choose to change nouns and verbs to throw the “thinking machine” off. (Memphis Magazine has an expressed policy against any AI content. This is protection for both my job and your readership.) The tools have a place in the worlds of medical and scientific research. When study of a particular kind of cellular division for a specific kind of cancer can be reduced from years to days (or hours), AI can save lives. AI can supplement human eyes and ears well beyond our galaxy and in the deepest of oceans to help us better understand the place we call home, and where other homes may well exist. But AI has no place in the arts, and I include the craft of writing. If you land on a college campus and can’t put together an essay for English 101 … writing isn’t your calling. But you have a calling. You’ve managed to remove one path in your considered future. When you pass the course by having a machine cut/ paste expressions into an artificial essay, you’re allowing AI to replace you before you even have a job. And photography? Video? I never considered myself a skeptic until “photos” of Winnie the Pooh with Willie Nelson began entering my social media windows. AI was deadly long before the forecasts of human extinction. It’s hard to imagine any significant steps being taken to slow the AI takeover until those in power (here in the United States, but also in China) gather to collectively make policy with human interest in mind. The data center xAI planted in south Memphis seems to have stirred far more anger and fear than excitement and energy. Last month, Mayor Paul Young established a 90-day policy review to consider regulations for the data center. All that electricity and water for what? To get that English 101 essay written a few minutes quicker? Start voting with thoughts of how a candidate feels about AI. It may well become a dividing line thicker than guns or abortion rights. I’ve come to relish a sunset from the vantage point of Hyde Lake at Shelby Farms. It’s as gloriously natural a setting as you’ll find within the city limits, and it’s a phenomenon quite beyond human (and AI) reach. Makes me feel the right kind of small. As our planet turns and gradually hides the sun — a primary source of life — I’m left with gratitude for a day completed, and hope for what may come tomorrow. Also, the knowledge that this same interstellar dance has taken place for four billion years. It’s the polar opposite of artificial. PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANK MURTAUGH

10/12/26 6:27 PM

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