THE BUCKLE: MEMPHIS
The Bar-B-Q Shop
1782 Madison Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38104 • 901-272-1277
PHOTO CREDITS: TOP BY BLAKE’S BBQ, JESSE DAVIS, & DREAMSTIME; RIGHT BY JUSTIN FOX BURKS
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t’s fitting that Eric Vernon, owner-operator of The Bar-B-Q Shop, should begin our conversation by paying respect to his forebears. “He is the start of the core of what we do,” Vernon says, speaking of Brady Vincent, the owner of Brady and Lil’s and originator of barbecue spaghetti, who sold his restaurant to Frank Vernon, Eric’s father, in the 1980s. “You never forget where you come from,” Vernon says. That turn of phrase sets up a theme that runs through each conversation I had while researching this piece — in five cities in three states, every pitmaster I interviewed is passionate about tradition. Vernon continues, “The core of what you see now is the evolution of Frank Vernon.” The Vernon family had a good foundation on which to build. Brady and Lil’s success, Vernon says, is owed in part to Vincent’s ability to attract a broad clientele. He could count on the neighborhood’s business, the court crowd who ate lunch at his restaurant, and the patronage of a more famous set — the musicians of Stax Records and Royal Studios. “Willie Mitchell was a big fan of Brady and Lil’s,” Vernon says, casually dropping the trumpeter and producer’s name. “When the Beatles came on their world tour,” he says, “well, they stopped by Stax to talk to Willie Mitchell because they loved his sound. Willie Mitchell is the one who told them to go to Brady’s. The Commercial Appeal reported that the Beatles came to Brady’s and bought every rib that they had.” Before long, the conversation turns to the welcoming atmosphere good barbecue shops have. I ask Vernon why, though restaurants usually top the list of high-turnover jobs, barbecue places seem able to keep people around longer. “Rob, our head server, has been here over 20 years,” Vernon muses, saying he’s not sure who’s next in seniority. “I think it’s a toss-up between Carl and Laurie.” “I hate to say it, man,” Vernon says, sounding like he almost thinks better of it. “This is like a healing place. You can come here and you can be safe.” That feeling is just an outgrowth of the function barbecue shops serve. They serve — Eric Vernon food, sure, but it’s comfort food; it’s meant to do more than fill the belly. And so many barbecue joints are — or at least began as — family affairs. “Look at the essence of what barbecue is. Why do you have a barbecue? It is a time you are going to gather, the majority of the time, with people you love and care about,” Vernon says. “It brings people together.” I ask the restaurateur why he thinks barbecue, in some form or fashion, populated the culinary landscape of the South. He answers with a question: “You know ‘Rollin’ on the River,’ and Tina Turner says, ‘I left a good job in the city’?” Vernon asks. “You know the city was Memphis, right? And I do think people came to cities like this from rural areas to try to have hope.” And of course, as people move, they take with them what brings them comfort. “For whatever reason, strife — music and food go hand-in-hand with it. All the Southern dishes that we love were scraps that were thrown out or leftover or cheap meat, and we found a way to cook and make a delicacy. ‘We’ll just give this to them, give it to the poor people.’ Well, the poor people found a way to season it, cook it, bake it, casserole it, or turn it into a stew,” Vernon says. “You have to have a little strife in your life to get that soul.” He continues, “When you’re struggling, you’re struggling eating. And the music is still about your struggle. That’s your venting. That’s releasing from the soul. And then you got to feed the soul as well, and the food was that.” Reminiscing about time he’s spent at the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, St. Louis, and now Memphis, Venson says, “Every time I am at the river is a spiritual thing for me. All those cultures just kept blending. And that river is an important part of the culture in the United States of America. It’s where cultures collide. Barbecue is a child of all that.”
“Barbecue is comfort food. It brings people together.”
Eric Vernon, owner/manager at The Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison, has a master’s in marketing and a deep knowledge of Memphis barbecue.
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