Edible Memphis Issue 42 - Winter 2019

edible MEMPHIS FOOD, FARM AND COMMUNITY IN THE MID-SOUTH

MEET CHEF JUSTIN HUGHES ZACH NICHOLSON’S CULINARY WORKSHOPS BOOZY LADY BOSSES ALEX’S TURNS 65 @DISHESFROMMYKITCHEN Member of Edible Communities

N O. 42 W I N T E R 2019

Our mission is to cultivate collective action for an economically sustainable, socially equitable, and environmentally sound local food system.

Grow Local

Farm Direct

Cook Together

We envision a community with full access WR DŲRUGDEOH IUHVK ORFDOO\ DQG VXVWDLQDEO\ JURZQ IRRG With your help, we are able to teach others to grow their own food, share knowledgeof sustainable growing practices, support urban and rural farmers, and cultivate community.

HELP SUPPORT OUR WORK DONATING HELP US SUPPORT OURBY WORK BY AT MEMPHISTILTH.ORG DONATING AT MEMPHISTILTH.ORG @memphistilth @memphistilth

Y o u c a n s av e t h e p l a n e t . W e c a n h e l p. compost scraps

MAKE soil

grow FO O D

w e l l . . . p r o b a b ly ; )

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(901) 304-6985 492 S Main St, Memphis, TN 38103 ediblememphis.com 1

edible MEMPHIS winter 2019 PUBLISHER Bill Ganus bill@ediblememphis.com EDITOR AT LARGE Brian Halweil @brianhalweil EDITOR IN CHIEF Stacey Greenberg stacey@ediblememphis.com COPY EDITOR Manda Gibson AD SALES partner@ediblememphis.com DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR Emma Meskovic emma@ediblememphis.com DESIGN AND LAYOUT Chloe Hoeg chloehoeg.com FOLLOW US Facebook: Edible Memphis Instagram: @ediblememphis Website: ediblememphis.com Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions.

If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our apologies. Thank you. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. © 2019 All Rights Reserved.

2 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

contents 5

LOCAL FARM LOOKING FOR TABLES

LETTER FROM PUBLISHER

Local food is disappearing from Memphis menus, but Rose Creek Farms in Selmer is one of a few local farms still selling to Memphis restaurants

BY BILL GANUS • PHOTO BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

BY BIANCA PHILLIPS • PHOTOS BY HOUSTON COFIELD

ILLUSTRATION BY ELIZABETH ALLEY

6

34 LOCAL LOVIN’

38 KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

ZACH’S CULINARY WORKSHOPS

LETTER FROM EDITOR

Local chef works to elevate the entire city’s food experience

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PHOTOS BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

9

CONTRIBUTORS PAGE

BY EMMA MESKOVIC

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PHOTOS BY ZIGGY MACK

42 LADY BOSSES

WOMEN IN THE MIX

10 BEST BUDDIES

Changing the face of the beverage industry

A FRIENDSHIP FOUNDED ON FOOD

Featuring Cristina McCarter and Chef Michael Patrick

BY CARA GREENSTEIN • PHOTOS BY KIM THOMAS

BY ANDY MEEK • PHOTOS BY ANDREA MORALES

46 AT HOME

DOSA EXPRESS

12 RISING STAR

Behind-the-scenes with @dishesfrommykitchen

NUTBUSH TO PARIS

Justin Hughes is the French pastry chef you never knew you needed

BY HEIDI RUPKE • PHOTOS BY CHIP CHOCKLEY

50 THE BUZZ

ALEX’S TURNS 65

BY MELONEE GAINES • PHOTOS BY ANDREA MORALES

Serving up 65 years of dive bar perfection

16 MEMPHIS FRIDGE

PLEASE HANDLE WITH CURRY Kong Wee Pang paints us a picture

BY JEFF HULETT • PHOTOS BY CHIP CHOCKLEY

22 TRASH TALK

SORTING IT OUT

A morning with Get Green Recycleworks

BY HEIDI RUPKE • PHOTOS BY JUSTIN FOX BURKS

BY ANDY MEEK • PHOTOS BY RICHARD LAWRENCE

55

MARKETPLACE

Thank you to these locally owned businesses that make Memphis a better, tastier city

56 EDIBLE INK

GROCERY STORE RITUALS

BY JULIA MCCLOY & JIM STEFFEN

28 OH, HONEY

A LIFE OF BEEKEEPING

Sometimes painful, always satisfying

BY ERIKA CAIN • PHOTOS BY BREEZY LUCIA

32 MEET THE MAKER

PURSUING PASSION

Green Goddess talks food business and female entrepreneurship

BY ALEXANDRA REED • PHOTOS BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

ON THE COVER As a rising star at Cafe 1912, Chef Justin Hughes’s pastry specialties have kept foodies coming back for more.

Page 12. Photo: Andrea Morales ON THIS PAGE A close-up of a paper pot used for transplanting seedlings.

Page 34. Photo: Houston Cofield

ediblememphis.com 3

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WiDe sElEcTiOn oF SiNgLe OrIgIn SPeCiAlTy cOfFee,

cOfFeE

tEA aND bReW EqUiPmEnt.

nEW CoLd bReW & NiTrO CoFfEe GrOwLeRs

387 S MAiN St, mEmPhIs, tN

4 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

|

LoWfIcOfFee.CoM

|

@LoWfIcOfFeE

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

I

Photo: Michael Butler, Jr.

t’s easy to take things for granted when we see, experience and consume them every day. It’s easy to forget about the farmers, the processors and manufacturers, the food service workers, the sanitation workers and all the other people who take care of the logistics of our food system. But when we do the work to acknowledge and remember those people, and the roles they play, we can more easily become more intentional about our consumption, our spending and our support for the people and organizations creating value in our local economy.

At Edible Memphis, we’re telling the stories, building the partnerships and having the conversations to remind ourselves and our audience of the heroes, the challenges, the opportunities and the value of the regional food system. And we’re working to connect the dots between local food scenes and regional food systems.

Memphis has a strong emerging food scene, but we’re in the process of building a food system based on innovation, connectivity, equality and excellence. This momentum serves as an economic-development engine and a cultural asset that will improve the lives of every resident and tourist alike. Join us on social media and through our upcoming email newsletter (subscribe at ediblememphis. com) to stay in touch with all the ways we can celebrate and support the food and ag communities of the Mid-South. •

BILL GANUS Publisher Follow: @billganus

“We’re working to connect the dots between local food scenes and regional food systems.”

Elizabeth Alley illustrates the food system from field to fork. ediblememphis.com 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

6 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Path” restaurant picks, famed music producer Boo Mitchell’s fridge, profiles of makers like baker Ali Rohrbacher and pasta maker Miles Tamboli, farmers like Brandon Pugh of Delta Sol and Robert Tims of Ripley Produce, a trip down the “Barbecue Highway” to Brownsville, recipes and more!

People used to say to me, “You should write a book!” I always replied that I’d much rather be the editor of a magazine because a magazine has more voices and can evolve and grow over time. I can’t wait to see where our team of talented writers, photographers and illustrators takes us next! •

STACEY GREENBERG Editor in Chief Follow: @nancy_jew

Left to right: Bill Ganus (publisher), Stacey Greenberg (editor in chief), Brian Halweil (editor at large)

Photos: Michael Butler, Jr.

I

’ve been writing about food since the third grade when I discovered Taco Bell comment cards. My mom recently found a box of letters I sent home from Girl Scouts camp in the sixth grade that almost exclusively dealt with my disappointment in the food we were being served in the cafeteria.

I grew up in a family that loves to go out to eat, and dining out continues to be one of my favorite things to do. When I had my own children, I discovered that dining out had stopped being fun and started being stressful. So, I took to the Internet to try and find some humor in my often harrowing experiences with my toddlers, while (hopefully) providing useful information to other parents. My Dining with Monkeys blog opened a whole new world for me. Suddenly people knew who I was, and even better, editors started paying me for my writing.

I’ve been a regular contributor to The Memphis Flyer, Memphis Parent and The Commercial Appeal, and I wrote one or more stories for (almost) every issue of the original Edible Memphis. I am seriously revved up about being in the editorial driver’s seat of this sweet new ride, especially now that my children are teenagers who don’t want me looking at them, much less writing about them.

While it will be a dream come true to hold this little magazine in my hands, it’s just one component of the new Edible Memphis. Over the last six months we’ve worked hard to create a dynamic Instagram account (@ediblememphis), enhance our Facebook presence, and fill ediblememphis.com with vibrant content that gives our readers a multidimensional view of Memphis.

With our new “digital first” format, we publish stories online as they come in, rather than waiting for the magazine to print.

This has (happily) resulted in us having way more material than we could possibly fit in this issue. So, if you like what you see here, go online for even more stories. There you’ll find Andrea Fenise’s “Pop-Up Chef ” series, Michael Butler’s “Off the Eaten

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MEMPHIS, TN

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WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL

FRIDAY, MARCH 1 Perfect Pairings Dinner | The Gray Canary featuring James Beard Award—winning chef Ryan Prewitt, Pêche New Orleans

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COMMUNIT Y. CULTURE . PURPOSE .

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8 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Houston Cofield is a photographer and artist

Andy Meek is a native Memphian whose work

living and working in Memphis. He received

during a nearly two-decade career in

his MFA in photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his BA in journalism

journalism has appeared in outlets like The Guardian, The Washington Post and

from the University of Mississippi. He is a

Fast Company. @andymeek

fourth generation photographer, all of which have photographed the American South. @houstoncofield

Andrea Morales is a producer with the Southern Documentary Project at the University of Mississippi. She’s Peruvian-born,

Melonee Gaines is the owner and lead maven

Miami-bred and Memphis-based. After years

of MPact Media Group, a digital media and public relations consulting firm. She is an

of existing in spaces heavy with the constructs of socioeconomic binaries, her work moves

Elizabeth Alley was born in Memphis and has

oxtail enthusiast and cures her insatiable

with the hope of observing the things in

a BFA in painting from the University of

wanderlust with frequent road trips inspired

between. @_andrea_morales

Memphis. In addition to making paintings and filling up sketchbooks, she teaches at Flicker Street Studio and organizes Memphis Urban Sketchers. Since 1999 she has organized and participated in over 30 solo and group shows. @elizabethalley

by her growing restaurant lists in her

Justin Fox Burks has been a professional photographer for 20 years, but that’s not all.

He photographed and co-authored two vegetarian cookbooks, The Southern Vegetarian: 100 Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Table and The Chubby Vegetarian: 100 Inspired Vegetable Recipes for the Modern Table.

He feels fortunate to be able to make interesting images for a living. @justinfoxburks

Michael Butler, Jr. loves everything Memphis.

His goal is to show the beauty in Memphis that others overlook. He’s a photographer, videographer, Memphis tee collector, foodie, lover of tacos and mayor of South Memphis. @_one901

Erika Cain is a communications vet with chops in writing, public relations, graphic design, TV, radio and brand strategy. She is a skilled storyteller and has been a trusted adviser to executives and companies for almost two decades. Erika founded GIRL 24, a business mentoring initiative to help build a culture of gifted and ingenious female leaders. She is a spouse, mom, speaker, community volunteer and member of Junior League, and loves dissecting brands. @ecain_co

Chip Chockley, an attorney by day, has been a professional photographer since 2008. Things that make him happy include tacos, mai tais and his wife and kids. @chipchockley

Foursquare City Guide. @meloneedg

Cara Greenstein is founder and author of award-winning, Memphis-based food and lifestyle brand Caramelized. A bonafide foodie and entertaining expert, Cara offers a wealth of inspiration for the kitchen and home, as well as food and itinerary suggestions for outings in Memphis and beyond. @cara_melized

Jeff Hulett is married with two daughters and lives in Midtown. He plays lots of music and tells lots of dad jokes. @dad_onarrival

Richard Lawrence takes pictures in and around the city of Memphis and the Mid-South. @sundayinmemphis

Breezy Lucia is a Memphis transplant from Kansas City, Missouri. She’s a freelance photographer and filmmaker living in Midtown. @breezylucia

Ziggy Mack is an internationally published photographer about town. When not immortalizing the movements of ballerinas, circus performers and mermaids, he spends his time finding candid moments involving delectable cuisines and the people that create them. @fomoloop

Julia McCloy is a writer living in Memphis.

Laughing is her raison d’etre, which is French for her other raisin. She has two raisins. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s. @julia_mccloy

Bianca Phillips writes about vegan food (and shares images of everything she eats) on her blog, Vegan Crunk. She's the author of Cookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South.

By day, she works as the communications coordinator for Crosstown Arts/Crosstown Concourse. She and her partner, Paul, are the proud parents of five cats and one very stubborn (but adorable) pit bull. @biancaphillips

Alexandra Reed wants you to know one thing—she’s a registered dietitian, not a food cop. She has written and presented for several companies, including Girlboss Media, Cherry Bombe, Teach for America, Ignite Memphis and Thinx. @notafoodcop

Heidi Rupke spends her days tending chickens and children, and defending her garden against squirrels. Her current food obsession is making the perfect pavlova. @rupkeheidi

Jim Steffen is an illustrator living in Memphis.

When he was little, he told his mom that he wanted to be a "drawer" when he grew up. It confused her. But hey, Mom, look now. @jimbojimbo

Kim Thomas is a lifestyle blogger and photographer based in Memphis. Launched in September 2010, her blog KP Fusion provides of-the-moment fashion, style and beauty tips and trends with a little Memphis flavor thrown in. @kpfusion

ediblememphis.com 9

BEST BUDDIES

A Friendship Founded on Food Featuring Cristina McCarter and Chef Michael Patrick

BY C AR A GREENS TEIN • PHOTOGR APHS BY KIM THOMA S

“M

emphis isn’t so much a barbecue town as it is a food destination.”

The perspective rings true as it’s spoken in unison by two trusted voices of Memphis’s dining scene— Chef Michael Patrick and Cristina McCarter. Their friendship, a byproduct of such shared passion, has fueled new outlets for both locals and tourists while fortifying the South Main footprint.

On any weekday, you’ll likely find Cristina and Michael standing at the back corner of Rizzo’s bar. Two of downtown’s most authentic storytellers, they plan, scheme and share feedback from their varied yet now vitally interconnected backgrounds.

Cristina McCarter and Chef Michael Patrick share a laugh at Cafe Keough in downtown Memphis.

10 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Chef Michael Patrick opened his signature restaurant Rizzo’s in 2001 on GE Patterson Avenue in the South Main neighborhood of downtown Memphis. At the time, only Earnestine & Hazel’s and the Arcade Restaurant were open at the intersection. Yet over the course of six years on the street, Michael saw “glimmers of change and a concentrated effort on the area.”

With financial support and counsel from the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), Rizzo’s not only stayed in the neighborhood but moved to a prime location on South Main adjacent to the National Civil Rights Museum. Rizzo’s still stands strong today on that corner, lending opportunities to further blend Michael’s passion for the neighborhood with his menu’s elevated Southern soul food.

“There is so much history in South Main area—it was the black business district in the 1920s, a music hub, a clear centerpiece in the Civil Rights Movement—and even your common Memphian doesn’t know the full story,” said Michael.

“To share that rundown is a great part of my job.”

Meanwhile, native Memphian Cristina McCarter sought an opportunity to share Memphis’s story in a complementary light.

Cristina’s entrepreneurial spirit pushed her to co-found and own a food tour business based in downtown Memphis almost three years ago. City Tasting Tours has grown into a series of dynamic food-meets-history walking tours. During the typical half-mile route, locals and tourists sample cuisine from three to five local restaurants and learn more about the chefs, food and city along the way.

“In the very beginning, I only had barbecue signed on. Rizzo’s was the first non-barbecue,” said Cristina. “I hadn’t known Michael personally at that point, but he was so supportive, allowing me to share his commitment to recruit other nonbarbecue spots.”

Michael remembers their first formal introduction, during which Cristina shared her idea for a food-tasting tour and asked for his interest.

“I said, ‘Break it down and send it over,’” said Michael. “And she proceeded, coming back by the restaurant two more times, setting up dates. Her drive impressed me.”

“I had eaten at Rizzo’s before and don’t think he realized how much I loved his food,” Cristina laughed. “We came in [at the GE Patterson location] for the first time to celebrate my mom’s birthday, and he was so nice. Now he and my mom are friends too.”

“When someone tells you they love your food, you’re endeared to them!” Michael said.

Since that initial agreement between Rizzo’s and City Tasting Tours, hundreds of tourists have stopped in for a sample of Michael’s menu, such as his lobster pronto pup or blackened catfish eggs Benedict brunch feature.

“I had eaten at Rizzo’s before and don’t think he realized how much I loved his food.”

“Cristina has proven that the footprint is there—people know they’re coming to Memphis, and they book her tour months or weeks in advance,” said Michael. “She’ll tell me I have 20 people coming two weeks out. Then, after the tours, I see familiar faces return Sunday morning for brunch. She added thousands to my bottom line last year. But even more, with her word of mouth referral—you can’t put a price tag on that.”

Their relationship was strengthened last year at Rizzo’s during Downtown Dining Week. A typical 40-cover lunch shift had grown to 140 covers, and Michael learned last-minute he was one man down. Cristina jumped in at 10:30 that morning without hesitating, dishwashing in the kitchen during one of its busiest weekdays of the calendar year.

“I really care about my restaurants!” said Cristina. “When I come in and do the tour, I’m basically asking him to stop what he’s doing and help me and my clients for 20 minutes. That’s respect.

There’s trust in there. We have each other’s back.”

“When she offered to step in that day, my respect for her grew that much more,” Michael said.

The two are self-declared ambassadors for downtown.

“Cristina’s guests and my diners will see landmarks and sense the excitement,” said Michael, “But the city and DMC have invested in a lot of this area, and we are both definitely seeing the return.”

Cristina added, “This area is a rich jewel, and we are really blessed to have this, compared to other cities.”

Their friendship began with business; now the two find themselves talking about more than food. Talks have grown into perspectives on owning a business, the opportunities across South Main and the city, civil rights and current events. Cristina calls Michael an “easy listener who’s able to talk about the tough stuff.”

Michael shared, “I know I have things to do, and she does too, but we always make time to talk.”

“There’s a different, beautiful kind of harmony with our backgrounds of white and black, male and female,” he continued.

“We have our riffs, and we can disagree, but that’s part of friendship.” • ediblememphis.com 11

12 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Nutbush to Paris

RISING STAR

Justin Hughes is the French pastry chef you never knew you needed

BY MELONEE G AINE S • PHOTOGR APHS BY ANDRE A MOR ALE S

He likes his cuisine French and his Air Jordans first edition.

Justin Hughes, 23, is a certified sneakerhead, but he will never drop pastry dough on them. His demeanor, suave. His eyes, wide and dreamy. His toothpick, tucked neatly behind his left ear. His vibe is James Dean, hip hop and Nut Bush, a North Memphis neighborhood where he grew up and stacked up a sizeable sneaker collection. His ascension in the Memphis restaurant scene is poetic justice. It’s gotta be the shoes.

As a rising star at Cafe 1912, his pastry specialties have kept foodies coming back for more. Regulars are seeking out his honey walnut tart or just another spoonful of his orange and lemon curd with a champagne orange marmalade gelée and vanilla chantilly.

Hughes has been trained by the best in Memphis, and it’s high time his fancy footwork in the kitchen is noticed.

Hughes credits Jackson Kramer, the former executive chef for Interim Restaurant and Bounty on Broad, for launching his

career in 2014 and acknowledging his versatility in the kitchen.

His dad, Rickey Pirtle, works for a local food distributor and told Hughes about a spot at Interim. It was Kramer who gave Hughes his first opportunity.

“I spent two summers looking for a job after high school and he [Kramer] hired me to just be a dishwasher,” he says.

After seeing his multitasking skills on two washing stations, Kramer added in prep work within Hughes’s first three months.

He immediately moved him to garde manger—a cold plate station responsible for salads, appetizers and desserts—which, at Interim, could have up to 12 items.

“Everything is from scratch. It is one of the busiest stations and one of the most challenging. I still think it’s one of my favorites,” Hughes says.

For two years, he worked under Kramer and studied the grill while still working garde manger, but once the executive chef left ediblememphis.com 13

“Doing pastries gave me patience and relaxation.

It brought me to a new adventure.”

Justin’s take on a Black Forest cake, a chocolate sponge cake with a rich cherry filling. to launch Bounty On Broad, Hughes felt his training stalled and his talent was overlooked. With a recommendation from his friend Chef Jason Dallas, a former executive chef at Interim, he eventually left to become a room-service cook at The Peabody hotel in 2016, sharing the same space with restaurant Chez Philippe staff.

“That’s how I got my foot in. I took any position that was open in cooking,” he says. “I got there, and it was one cook every eight hours. I learned the entire menu in three days.”

He cooked to the broad delights of guests wanting eggs Benedict to filet mignon. After a strenuous night of completing 70 tickets, Hughes decided to help the pastry kitchen make 800 duck-shaped cookies in three hours. This pivot changed the course of his career and tested his love for dough, literally.

“After baking all the cookies, letting them sit, piping eyes and bow ties, and dipping them in chocolate and then bagging them all, it was probably the most strategic thing I’ve ever done with a 14 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

cookie and I didn’t have much patience at all,” he says. “It irritated me and I thought, ‘I hate pastries!’”

But he earned the attention of executive pastry chef Konrad Spitzbart, who quickly brought him on with the pastry kitchen where he prepared mignardises, a bite-size confection, for The Peabody’s high tea. He learned about the meticulousness of following recipes to the letter, the knife skills that involved the precision of a ruler, and the necessity of garnishment and design.

“Doing pastries gave me patience and relaxation. It brought me to a new adventure,” Hughes says. “I never thought I would be making marshmallows from scratch.”

After a year, he left The Peabody and joined his friend Chris Ellis at Paulette’s Restaurant with promises of being promoted to sous-chef. Hughes was promoted only after Ellis resigned to take care of his ailing wife, but it did not inhibit the quiet influence he already held over the kitchen.

“Before I became the sous-chef at Paulette’s, I didn’t demand anything of anyone,” he says. “I came in and got to know my workers and I wasn’t even a chef. I found out what they needed, and I went out and got everything they needed to make the work environment easier. And then when I got the position, they already had respect for me.”

He left Paulette’s in less than a year, but his solid relationships with industry veterans took Hughes to the next level. He was invited to work alongside chefs Erling Jensen and Dave Krog for a farm-to-table-themed event this past spring. The affirming experience made Hughes yearn for a space that recognized his depth of experience.

When he took a meeting with Glenn and Martha Hays, owners of Cafe 1912, he was recognized by a former coworker from Interim, Josh Dowdy, now the sous-chef at the French bistro. A new era was to begin and the rest is history in the making.

As the pastry chef at Cafe 1912, Hughes weekly whips up new dessert items like his citrus curd topped with an orange gelée.

According to him, it’s all about imaginative presentation, a lesson reinforced while at The Peabody.

“When your eyes see something creative that you’ve never seen before, you say, ‘Man, it’s so beautiful. I don’t want to eat it,’” he says. “When I look at customers and they are staring at what I sent out, I see them embracing it and I think, ‘Yeah, I did that.’” •

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FRESH STORIES DAILY. @ediblememphis ediblememphis.com 15

MEMPHIS FRIDGE

PLEASE HANDLE WITH CURRY Kong Wee Pang paints us a picture

BY JEFF HULE T T • PHOTOGR APHS BY CHIP CHOCKLE Y Whether you know it or not, you have seen Kong Wee Pang’s art.

One of her murals dons the Volunteer Odyssey storefront on Main Street downtown. Other works include the Love Doves sequin mural in Overton Square and the I Love Memphis mural in Crosstown.

(Be on the lookout for the I-40 underpass sequin mural that is currently in progress.)

Originally from Malaysia, and by way of Japan and Singapore, Kong Wee found her way to Memphis as a student of fine art and design at the Memphis College of Art (MCA) in 2001. This is also where she met her husband, fellow artist and self-proclaimed fry cook Jay Crum. From public art to ad campaigns, she has shown her work all over the world, including New York, Spain, Italy, Berlin, Atlanta, California, Memphis and Malaysia. She currently works as a creative director at Archer Malmo. In 2016, Kong Wee also co-founded Taropop Studio (@taropop_studio) with her hubby to lean into and focus on public art and one-of-a-kind branding.

Recently, at her sweet abode in Cooper-Young near Central Avenue, we broke bread and talked about what’s cooking in her world and in her kitchen. There was andouille sausage, curry tofu, duck eggs and a mix of vegetables. It was “Malayjun” heaven. (That’s what she and Jay call their fusion of Malaysian cuisine and Cajun cooking.

Naturally, they have an Instagram page to showcase it, @malayjun.)

EDIBLE MEMPHIS: WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU REMEMBER COOKING? Kong Wee: I never cooked back home. I lived with my Grandma, six aunts and uncles—a lot of family in close quarters who took care of the cooking. I recall watching them cut vegetables and cook in the giant wok we had. I first cooked for myself when I moved to Japan when I was around 15 or 16 years old. I was a part of a student exchange program and had to contribute. I cooked by feel, using curry powder and an array of Malaysian ingredients. My host family hated it when I cooked because it usually took me around two hours to finish. However, they did love my food. I’m still close to my Japanese family today. I also lived in Singapore where the food culture was like one big food court.

WHAT IS YOUR “DEFAULT” THING TO COOK WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY AND NEED TO MAKE SOMETHING FAST? Noodles—I have a huge drawer of options. I always try to add an egg and a green vegetable. I also make a Japanese breakfast with an egg rolled in seaweed. It’s kind of like breakfast sushi.

16 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

ediblememphis.com 17

Malayjun heaven: andouille sausage, curry tofu, duck eggs and a mix of vegetables.

18 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

ediblememphis.com 19

NAME ANY INGREDIENTS THAT YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT. Curry powder and soy sauce.

NAME YOUR FAVORITE INDULGENCE (FOOD/COOKING/KITCHEN-WISE).

My naughty food is fried shrimp. It comes in a bag where the shrimp looks like fish cakes. They are like chips, called keropok. I use Lingham’s Malaysian hot sauce with them.

NAME YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO IN THE KITCHEN, OR YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE COOKING PROCESS. Cooking is like drawing art—your passion, your observation and your taste. I love to look at the colors. Cooking always depends on my mood—it’s always an open conversation. Cooking Malaysian food also makes me feel close to home when I’m homesick.

NAME YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN TOOL(S) OR GADGET(S) AND WHY IT’S YOUR FAVORITE. I love my wok, long chopsticks and my wire strainer. The tools are easy to use and very efficient.

EVER WATCH COOKING SHOWS ON TV? IF SO, WHICH ONES? I enjoy watching Chef ’s Table, David Chang’s Ugly Delicious and anything by Anthony Bourdain.

FAVORITE PLACE TO SHOP LOCALLY FOR FOOD? There are many great spots—Great China on Summer and the international farmers market on Winchester are my favorites.

WHAT CONDIMENTS ARE IN YOUR FRIDGE RIGHT NOW? I have sriracha, roasted sesame dressing (I make my own), sushi sauce, chicken bouillon, fermented chili paste, oyster sauce and instant sushi powder.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN YOUR FRIDGE RIGHT NOW? Bitter melon, cilantro, lemons, limes, basil, mushrooms, tomatoes, celery, carrots, green onions, ginkgo nut, tofu, an array of gourds, chayote, garlic, bok choy and bobo fish balls.

[Editor’s note: We’re not sure if bobo fish balls are a fruit or vegetable, but we like it!]

MOST EMBARRASSING THING IN THE FRIDGE? Spam. Actually, it’s off-brand Spam.

WHAT’S IN THE FREEZER RIGHT NOW? Indian bread, Texas toast, edamame, Indian meals (microwavable), dried shrimp, pandan and fermented eggs (duck eggs).

WHAT’S IN THE PANTRY RIGHT NOW? Tons of noodles, mushrooms, spices, seaweed, boxed water.

20 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Kong Wee Pang’s Breakfast Sushi FAVORITE THING YOUR MOM/GRANDMOTHER/AUNT/NEIGHBOR COOKED WHEN YOU WERE A KID? Humcha, which is basil, dried shrimp and ground tofu. It’s a Hakka (Taiwanese) dish. I also love steamed five-spice pork belly and yam. •

FIND OUT MORE! For Kong Wee Pang’s Breakfast Sushi recipe, visit ediblememphis.com.

Sign up for monthly or season-long produce Subscriptions TO ENJOY A WEEKLY VARIETY OF FRUITS, VEGETABLEs AND OTHER GOODS, SOURCED FROM FARMERS IN THE MID-SOUTH.

Subscribe now Bringitfoodhub.com

@bringitfoodhub ediblememphis.com 21

On this visit, Dixie Waste Paper Company on Jackson Avenue purchases 520 pounds of cardboard from Get Green Recycleworks.

22 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

TR ASH TALK

SORTING IT OUT A morning with Get Green Recycleworks

BY HEIDI RUPKE • PHOTOGR APHS BY JUS TIN FOX BURK S It’s still dark when Madeleine, Clay, Justin and I meet at Madeleine’s house. Though this isn’t the earliest I’ve ever gotten up, it’s definitely the earliest I’ve gotten up to poke around Memphis recycling bins. For Madeleine Edwards and Clay Ayers of Get Green Recycleworks, however, this is just another day at work. We hop into Madeleine’s van and park next to an alley filled with the remains of a rockin’ few days at a restaurant.

“If you want to smell like you’ve been drinking at six o’clock in the morning, this is a great business to be in,” says Madeleine as she empties a load of beer bottles into her trailer. The glass shimmers in the pink morning light.

ediblememphis.com 23

Madeleine founded her recycling company in 2008 after reading about Margot McNeeley and Project Green Fork. This Memphis-based nonprofit certifies restaurants in green practices, such as using compostable packaging and avoiding toxic cleaners.

Margot needed someone to collect recyclable materials from businesses since this service was not offered by the city. Madeleine was coming off several years as a stay-at-home parent and was ready for a new venture.

“I started out small, without any huge ambitions. Other community partners, like Clean Memphis, ReCommunity, the city and county, supported and promoted my work. I added clients one at a time as I figured things out, and the business grew organically,” Madeleine says. “Just about the time there’s more work than I can physically complete, a new employee will show up.”

Get Green Recycleworks currently employs six people, most of them part-time. Madeleine, however, works full-time—sometimes more than full-time. She handles logistics, customer communications, route planning, equipment maintenance and purchasing. She also goes out for pickups. Madeleine is strong and lean from her days of lifting bins, sorting materials and cleaning containers. Her practical uniform of sneakers, green T-shirt and shorts suits the physical nature of this work.

“My job is my ‘manual labor tan and fitness plan,’” says Madeleine as she tears packing tape off a cardboard box, flattens it and throws it into her van.

24 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

THE ROMANCE OF RECYCLING Recycling bins tell surprisingly intimate stories. Over the course of a week, Café Eclectic may place 48 gallons of coffee grounds and hundreds of egg cartons into their alley for pick up. The Pumping Station, a bar, sets out hundreds of glass bottles and red and white paper straws. Folks at Wiseacre Brewing Co. remove packing tape and fold their cardboard boxes neatly. Madeleine and her team know a side of Memphis most of us never see: the morning after.

Not all of the stories are pretty, though. Some loads are contaminated with food, which quickly becomes putrid in the humid Memphis climate. Other loads contain non-recyclables, also known as trash. This requires patient sorting and a strong stomach. Madeleine advises workers to never wear shoes they love since they get frequent splashes of compost and beer.

For all of the challenges of this work, Madeleine and her employees are idealists, working from their values of sustainability and common good.

“I like that I am having an effect on my own carbon footprint.

When I go to work, it feels like I’m doing a good thing and I’ve made a difference in some small way,” says Clay.

“It’s very concrete. You can look at everything that you move and say, ‘I kept that out of a landfill,’” adds Madeleine. “At the end of the day, I’m physically exhausted.”

And what virtuous, perhaps locally crafted refreshment does

“This is just a drop in the bucket.”

ediblememphis.com 25

Madeleine sees numerous opportunities for new Memphis businesses within a recycling infrastructure. A local glass recycling plant would prevent bottles from being shipped to Atlanta.

Packaging design can be improved. Recycling educators create new revenue streams for businesses. There is also a role for local and federal governments.

“What needs to happen is that the cost of getting the raw material needs to be higher than using recovered materials. This can happen when governments choose to subsidize recycling rather than, say, the timber industry. Using raw materials should have an intrinsic cost to them,” says Madeleine.

Madeleine crave after a day of hauling hundreds of pounds of cardboard, glass and paper?

“A big, tall glass of iced Coca-Cola. I know it’s not politically correct, but that’s the truth,” Madeleine says.

I am relieved to know that even sustainability saints like Madeleine have tiny vices.

A SCALABLE MARKET Something Madeleine understands better than most is that recycled materials are a commodity. Commercial businesses have to pay for their waste to be taken to a dump. Or they could choose to divert those funds to Get Green Recycleworks, which then passes them along to local cardboard and aluminum recycling plants. In down markets, Madeleine has to pay tipping fees to the recycling plants. In good markets, she gets paid there too.

After the local plants, recycled goods are bundled and sold again and eventually make their way to China, which purchases much of the U.S. recycling output. New products such as toilet paper or Adirondack chairs are then created and sold.

Many factors can affect the stream of recycled goods in and out of the economy. Recently, the U.S. market has been down as Chinese companies have reduced their purchases because of tariffs and increasingly contaminated loads.

26 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

THE NEXT 10 YEARS My last stop with Get Green Recycleworks is Dixie Waste Paper Company on Jackson Avenue. This is the place where scale begins to boggle the mind.

Flattened cardboard boxes cover an area the size of a Kroger parking lot and are stacked 10 feet high in some places. Excavators and trailers keep the pile in constant flux. Madeleine parks the Get Green van and trailer on a huge scale before and after our visit. The Dixie proprietors purchase 520 pounds of cardboard from Get Green Recycleworks to send along to Kimberly-Clark to make into toilet paper and craft paper (the outside, non-ridged layer of cardboard). Madeleine collects $11 and change for her load.

“This is just a drop in the bucket,” says Madeleine.

Still dazzled from the size of that cardboard pile, I concede her point. We’ve visited just four businesses this morning but driven past dozens more. Apartments, schools, churches and individuals can also use Get Green’s services.

The first decade of Get Green Recycleworks has seen many changes in the recycling landscape. The most important is a sharp increase in interest, which has been great for business. In the future, Madeleine wants Memphis to move away from single-stream recycling, where everything is tossed into one bin to be sorted later. If individuals have to think about the material and type of each object, we become better recyclers, she believes.

“We need to look at a country like Denmark and figure out how they achieve a 90 percent recycling rate, all of it sorted. They don’t have enough natural resources to feed the economy there so people just grow up recycling,” says Madeleine.

The challenges of global climate change and of Memphis neighborhoods are daunting. Madeleine and her team at Get Green Recycleworks provide one answer to these demands with a local business, community partnerships and a clear mission.

“If we don’t recycle, we’re literally going to be buried in our trash,” says Madeleine.

The morning light is strong now, and I’m starting to see the potential Madeleine sees all over Memphis: more loads, ready for pick-up. • Getgreenrecycleworks.com

OH, HONEY

A Life of Beekeeping Sometimes painful, always satisfying

BY ERIK A C AIN • PHOTOGR APHS BY BREE Z Y LUCIA Staring into the eyes of a honeybee is not as glamorous as some may think.

They’re tough. Even protective. But most notably, they sting! Just ask Gus Mitchell, a local beekeeper who maintains around 120 beehives in the MidSouth, including Tennessee and Arkansas.

Gus’s day begins at sunrise as he suits up in white armor with a round hood and netted veil. The suit’s mesh fabric helps keep body temperatures down in the Southern climate that sometimes creeps past 100 degree temperatures. Traveling to his multiple apiaries is certainly no walk in the park and proves to be quite challenging. Most times, Gus has to walk a nice distance through fields and farmlands with grass gaping in the form of scarecrows, while the drenching heat invites his sweat glands to pour out profusely along the way.

Gus’s love for beekeeping outweighs the intense conditions, not to mention multiple bee stings, amid building, grooming and harvesting from a colony of bees that produces what most consider to be their favorite natural sweetener—honey.

Gus spent most of his adult life working on drilling rigs and began honing his craft of beekeeping in his mid-20s. “I would have a lot of time off, so I really needed a hobby, and after hearing my great grandfather tell stories of how he kept bees, it really made me want to try it,” says Gus. Getting started wasn’t always easy. Online research was the first step in Gus’s beekeeping studies, and from there, his first dive into forming an apiary began with ordering packaged bees, which later died. Once the oil industry took a downturn in 2016, he made the decision to move to the Memphis area, leaving behind what was considered one of the most dangerous professions with extreme hours and days away from family.

Gus was determined, and blessed to have good mentors. After driving around his new community trying to spot any visible beehives, asking if beekeepers were interested in helping him out, there was one “older fella” who was receptive to his inquiry. “He took me on and taught me quite a bit,” says Gus, with evident esteem for his mentor. “He had a lot of beekeeping friends who were all older and needed help, so I offered labor for learning.”

What started as a simple hobby became a profitable passion and business for him.

28 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

ediblememphis.com 29

You can shop Cranes Nest River Apiaries naturally grown raw honey at Trolley Stop Market or by visiting them on Facebook or Instagram.

Gus founded Cranes Nest River Apiaries, the only certified naturally grown apiary in the Memphis area offering local raw, unfiltered honey. His company produces treatment-free processing conditions for all its beehives—simply put, no pesticides, antibiotics or other chemical manipulations to the bees or hives.

Gus has three apiaries in Collierville, one in West Memphis, another on Whitten Farms in Tyronza, Arkansas, and one housed on the youth farm of Girls Inc. in the Frayser community of Memphis. His heart holds dearly the Girls Inc. youth farm, as it was the first place he stationed beehives when moving to Memphis. He started up the apiary program there and has been managing it for almost three years now, teaching basic and intermediate beekeeping, as well as honey harvesting. “I find it to 30 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

be very rewarding, and really enjoy the farm, especially being in the Frayser community, which has often been considered a food desert,” says Gus. His hope is that young people will become more knowledgeable and appreciate the labor of beekeeping.

Gus also manages the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association apiary that resides at Agricenter International. The club runs a small apiary of 25 beehives, where he harvests honey for sale at events such as the Pink Palace Crafts Fair and Germantown Festival, and also conducts classes for club members during field days. As owner of Cranes Nest River Apiaries, Gus works with farmers by utilizing their land to create apiaries, and in return, their fields benefit from pollination. He raises bees and queens at his Collierville apiaries, while maintaining his other locations on a 10-day rotation period of inspection.

During honey season, when bees are at their peak, Gus can produce a surplus of honey from late May to early September. In the winter months, when the cooler temps keep colonies clustered in hives and working less, he spends time painting boxes, repairing equipment and refining beeswax. Once temperatures warm up over 40 degrees, the honeybees take a much-needed cleansing flight—they poop across the fields.

Depending on the season, Gus can harvest a variety of natural flavors of honey, based on the nectar sources that bees feed on. The worker bee carries the nectar back to the hive to feed the brood and queen. “We live in an agricultural area, so if you have good summer yards with soybean, cotton and sunflowers, you can produce a surplus of honey in the summer,” explains Gus. “In the fall, asters and goldenrod flowers produce a good amount of honey.” Spring honey is completely different from fall, depending on the floral source. Early spring honey is black locust, which is super fragrant and makes a water-white honey. Or if from tulip poplar trees, the consistency is a darker, robust, molasses-like honey.

“This part of the country is so wonderfully rich; we get amazing summer flows that produce a more consistent honey flavor year to year. Therefore, it can be difficult to isolate varietals here in the Memphis area, because the land is so rich and prime,” says Gus. Gus describes a local favorite: “Typically it’s a lovely golden honey that’s mild and sweet. It comes from summer wildflowers mixed with nectar from the abundant cotton and soybean blooming in our area at that time. When sampling flavors with customers, this flavor profile is what’s ingrained in their memory.”

Comb honey has also been a popular seller, which Gus attributes to its nostalgia factor. Cranes Nest River Apiaries also sells bulk honey to other local beekeepers. Gus’s son Dominick, now 12 years old, started at an early age going on inspections with his dad, but he’s not quite sure yet if he wants the life of a beekeeper. Gus is studying to become a nurse and will work alongside his wife, who’s a nurse practitioner, while continuing his beekeeping lifestyle and business. •

Please join us for the

FEBRUARY 11, 2019 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY Ellen Polishuk, a nationally renowned consultant on sustainable small-farm business operations, will present a keynote address on the current state of sustainable agriculture.

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MEET THE MAKER

PURSUING PASSION Green Goddess talks food business and female entrepreneurship

BY ALE X ANDR A REED • PHOTOGR APHS BY MICHAEL BUTLER , JR .

32 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

“S

acrifice,” says Omi Iyalaje, owner of Green Goddess Popcorn & Tea Lounge in Binghampton.

Omi believes sacrifice, whether of time or money, is a huge part of owning a business. She sees her business as an extension of who she is—a vegan for over two decades and a mother of six children who eat plant-based diets.

It’s been a wild ride since starting Green Goddess 10 years ago and then the lounge in the spring of 2018, she says.

“Don’t get me wrong—if you turn your passion into a business, you’re never really working,” she says. “Cooking healthy food is my passion, and the lounge is my home away from home, for both myself and my family. This manifests the motivation and work ethic I’ve developed. Honestly, I grow tired of work but never weary.”

Omi founded Green Goddess back in 2008 with her signature superfood popcorn. The vegan chef worked at Wild Oats (now Whole Foods) and wanted to provide the everyday person with accessible vegan products. She quickly expanded to stocking her popcorn regionally in Whole Foods stores.

If you’re unfamiliar with the food biz, snagging multiple Whole Foods accounts is not an easy feat and says quite a bit about the quality of Omi’s products. Basically, her popcorn is rocking the highest-quality ingredients. What’s more, Green Goddess was one of the very first vendors at the Memphis Farmers Market, Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market and the (now defunct) farmers market at Memphis Botanic Garden.

Omi comes from a lineage of female entrepreneurship and always knew she wanted to have a business. Her mother would often tell her, “You can be anything—a pediatrician, a midwife, whatever—but no matter what you do, pursue your passions and interests.”

Her purpose isn’t just to make a profit. “I chose Green Goddess and its branding to align with my mission to teach the community to respect women and Mother Earth, both in which all life comes from,” declares Omi. These values are evident in Omi’s actions. In a time of the #MeToo movement gaining traction in the food industry, she is a strong female pioneer in the Memphis area. Her business is set to extend into the nonprofit world with Green Goddess Global. The mission is to establish programs for victims of domestic violence, substance abuse and sex trafficking. The classes will teach these women en-

trepreneurial skills to rebuild their confidence and independence.

A natural mentor and counselor, Omi shares advice for those looking to become entrepreneurs: A major downfall of new business owners is they don’t realize the importance of listening to their customers’ demands.

“This seems simple, but when you start a business from passion, you sometimes forget your role isn’t just to fulfill your own needs,” she explains. “Your business is your baby.”

She uses herself as an example. “When I opened the lounge in the spring, I didn’t plan to be in the kitchen. I thought that would happen much, much later,” she says. The lounge originally served her vegan popcorn and pastries; however, Omi’s loyal customer base followed her from her vegan chef days.

“Time and time again, customers asked when I would start cooking the food they know and love,” she says.

As a response, Omi now features a curated menu on Fridays and Saturdays, starting every weekend with Vegan Pizza Friday.

When I went to lunch on a Friday, several customers stopped me as I walked up to the register and urged, “Get the pizza; it’s amazing!”

And, yes, it is.

Just as with every dish, her pizza is made from scratch featuring artistically seasoned, grain-based meats and tofu. She also features classic comfort foods like mac and cheese, shepherd’s pie and lasagna.

The lounge also is available for special events. In September and October, she hosted Food Drank Culture’s Paint and Get Lit night, featuring local artist David Yancy III. The lounge, with many attendees strangers to each other, was filled with joyful chatter as guests painted their own masterpieces. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like munching on Green Goddess popcorn, feeling the warmth of the cayenne, and sipping on a cool wine spritzer garnished with aged maraschino cherries.

The future of Green Goddess is bright. Omi’s plans include buying a manufacturing warehouse, publishing a cookbook, branching into the nonprofit sector, and exploring the possibility of franchising. “Green Goddess is going to be the black Starbucks,” she says. • Green Goddess Popcorn & Tea Lounge; 3078 Summer Avenue; 901.512.6973; greengoddesspopcorn.com ediblememphis.com 33

LOC AL LOVIN’

LOCAL FARM LOOKING FOR TABLES Local food is disappearing from Memphis menus, but Rose Creek Farms in Selmer is one of a few local farms still selling to Memphis restaurants

BY BIANC A PHILLIP S • PHOTOGR APHS BY HOUS TON COFIELD Located about 100 miles east of Memphis, Rose Creek Farms in Selmer, Tennessee, sits on one acre of land dotted with clear hoop houses and row after row of lettuce—about 50 varieties—and various other greens and root vegetables. Overlooking the farm sits a 35-foot, two-story solar yurt, complete with a wooden deck, that Ray and Ashley Tyler and their six children call home.

34 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

“We built that last winter,” says Tyler, a youthful, bearded farmer sporting a rugged outback-style hat and plaid button-up shirt. “We just signed a 50-year lease on our property. Our whole family lives there. We’re not off the grid. We have a dishwasher and AC. We’re normal people.”

Tyler chuckles and retracts that statement slightly: “Well, not normal. But we enjoy the normal luxuries of life.”

According to Tyler, this farm, nearly two hours away from the Bluff City, is one of the few local and regional farms still supplying produce to Memphis restaurants.

“There are 800 restaurants in the Memphis area. That’s a tremendous amount. There should be dozens and dozens of farmers serving those restaurants, but there’s not,” Tyler says. “In the winter of 2018, I was told I was the only farmer delivering to Memphis. And it’s been a hard sell for me lately. I’ve never tried to sell so hard in my life, so I was shocked to hear that.”

He says he knows of a couple of other farms selling locally, so he isn’t sure that’s entirely factual, but he says it’s safe to assume he’s one of few.

“When I started coming to Memphis to sell eight years ago, it was a completely different scene. This city was huge with local food, especially in restaurants. That’s changed a good bit, but we still have chefs who are calling us,” Tyler says.

HOW THEY STARTED A first-generation farmer, Tyler and his family have only been in the business since 2009. He previously worked carpentry and welding jobs in Memphis, making the nearly four-hour commute daily.

But when Ashley was pregnant with their first child in 2009, she expressed an interest in having a small garden so she could put up canned goods and salsas for the winter.

“I would come home after the welding job and work in the garden from 4:30 to 7 p.m. I got to watch the sun set and get my hands in the dirt. The weeds were taller than I was, but there’s something about that connection with the soil that made us pause. The act of planting the seed, nurturing it and watching it grow, and then feeding my family was very rewarding. It was very unlike going to a factory and being around hard, cold steel. The magic of the garden, I just loved it.”

What started as a hobby eventually grew into a profession when Tyler was laid off from that welding job in 2009 and then laid off from a land-maintenance job a couple of years later in 2012.

“My wife and I sat down and decided we were going to do this.

We knew we’d pay a cost. We would be broke. While our friends were buying new cars and going to Disneyland, we would be home putting in the work. We did a lot of soul searching, and together we went, ‘Yes, this is the life we want. This is the occupation we want our family to be brought up in.’”

Rose Creek Farms went through several major changes over the years. They grew to include livestock, and by 2015 they were

slaughtering 50 to 60 hogs per year and several thousand chickens and turkeys. They had two acres and a tractor at that point.

“But everything we were doing, we were doing terribly and at a major cost. We had three children by then,” Tyler says.

After their oldest daughter was diagnosed with stage four cancer in the summer of 2015 (she’s fully recovered now), the family changed their diets and stopped eating pork. They started relying more heavily on produce, and they soon found themselves turned off by the animal agriculture side of their business.

“Why grow food that we’re not going to eat? The whole point of farming is to first feed your family,” Tyler says.

They made the decision to sell off their livestock and their tractor and cut the farm back to one acre with a focus on growing many varieties of lettuce and other greens.

A CHANGING RESTAURANT MARKET Today, Rose Creek Farms’ business is thriving. They sell online through Amazon, in grocery stores like Cordelia’s Market, and at the Jackson, Tennessee, farmers market. They run a community supported agriculture program and sell to food hubs, like Memphis’s Bring It Food Hub. And they sell to a handful of devoted local restaurants. But that restaurant business is not what it used to be, Tyler says.

“There are a few restaurants in town who really want local food, and they’re aggressive about it. But it’s a changing market,” he says.

He’s quick to name the restaurants and chefs he considers his best customers—Raven & Lily, The Kitchen (which closed its doors at the end of 2018), Felicia Suzanne’s, Scott Tashie of City Silo Table + Pantry and I Love Juice Bar, and Chef David Krog.

Tyler credits those chefs with not only providing him business but helping him become a better farmer. Take The Kitchen, for example.

“They were our first solid restaurant. We had some issues with quality, and they held us to a higher standard. They said, ‘We can’t have bugs in the lettuce.’ And I respect that. It’s rare that chefs do that. They helped us raise our bar.”

Krog, the former executive chef at Interim, now hosts monthly Gallery 901 pop-up dinners and is planning to open a new restaurant, Dory, with his wife, Amanda. Krog says he uses Tyler’s produce on his menus as often as he can.

“If I’m writing a menu, I can text Ray, and he can tell me what’s in the field. That’s how I prefer to write a menu,” Krog says.

“Having a straight line to the human who is growing the food helps stay in line with the vision I have for my food.”

Tashie says he uses Tyler’s spring mix for all of the salads served at City Silo, and he purchases wheatgrass from Tyler for Juice Bar. “What I like about Ray is he’s very professional,” Tashie says.

“He has a great operation. He always delivers on time, and his product speaks for itself.” ediblememphis.com 35

36 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

“The act of planting the seed, nurturing it and watching it grow, and then feeding my family was very rewarding.”

Tyler is close-lipped on who isn’t buying, and he won’t confirm if there are any local chefs who are purporting to sell local but actually aren’t.

“I do know there have been chefs that want to buy $10 worth of product just to put my name on the menu,” he says. “Or they just want to buy a little bit, to supplement maybe 10 percent of their product with me and 90 percent from Sysco. And I know that’s happened to other farmers. But who does that? Not sure.”

CONSUMERS, CLIMATE AND COMMUNICATION Tyler doesn’t blame those chefs, though, because at the end of the day, he believes it’s the customer that drives the market for local food. If the customer would question where a restaurant’s food is coming from, Tyler believes chefs would be more inclined to buy local to please those customers.

“If the consumer knows that’s happening, they’re going to be asking questions. At the end of the day, the consumer is the jury and the judge,” Tyler says.

Customer demand, he says, is the number-one driver in the decline of local food on Memphis menus. But he admits there are other issues at play. For one, Tyler says consistency in product quality and quantity is key. If a farmer needs a certain amount of lettuce every week, Tyler has to produce that amount every week or else he risks being dropped. For that reason, he’s worked hard to ensure he has product available 52 weeks a year.

He believes many local farms just can’t keep up with demand from local restaurants, due in part to the Mid-South’s harsh climate for growing crops.

“You have farmers growing in one of the hardest environments in the country. The Mid-South is like a farm desert, and there’s a reason for that. It is an unfriendly environment for growing. I don’t encourage people to grow here. It’s tough,” Tyler says.

Even Tyler, who has nearly perfected the art of year-round growing, struggles with that. In mid-September steady rain left his farm underwater for seven days. He had to tell chefs the product just wasn’t there, and he says many chefs just don’t take no for answer.

“They’re very gracious as long as I’m communicating with them,” he says. “But if that happens all the time and I don’t communicate, that’s a problem. A lot of farmers are busy, and we’re not always the best at communicating with chefs.”

That communication goes two ways, and he says chef turnover at some restaurants can be a problem too. If a new chef is hired and hasn’t passed along the farm contacts from the previous chef, he risks losing a valuable restaurant customer.

“Scott has been amazing, and he’s good with communicating

with his crew if someone is fixing to go,” Tyler says. “He tells his new people, ‘Hey, talk to this guy. He’s one who is really helping the Memphis food economy thrive.’”

ECONOMICS OF LOCAL FOOD Another factor: Tyler says many restaurants are struggling right now.

“The economy has been really good to us for too long, and so I think we may be oversaturated with more restaurants than Memphis can handle,” says Tyler. “A lot more restaurants are saying they’re slow and the numbers are down.”

He’s heard from some chefs that they’d love to buy local but they simply can’t afford it as budgets are being squeezed. It’s much cheaper to purchase lettuce from Sysco than from a local farmer.

“If you’re buying from Sysco, they’re buying from the cheapest place possible, which is Mexico. But have you ever done research on what they’re paying farm workers there? It’s terrible. You want to talk about the real cost of food, that’s it,” Tyler says.

Those who do bite the bullet and pay more for local, despite budget, get a fresher product that will last much longer, Tyler says.

He guarantees his greens will last seven days, or he’ll replace them for free. He says greens from Sysco might last two days before going bad.

That cost issue really goes back to the customer demand, though, Tyler says. If customers are willing to pay more for local food on menus, chefs will buy.

“It is more expensive, and the consumer has to realize the economics of local food. If you want local, you have to pay for it,” he says.

Despite the fact that chefs aren’t buying local like they used to, Tyler says his business is doing better than ever. He’s learned to diversify markets—selling online and at the farmers market— and that’s provided a steady income to feed his large family.

“Complaining about a broken food system will never fix the food system. Making people aware of certain issues is a place to start, but complaining, griping and being hateful about it is no way to fix it. Rather, what we want to do is have the best produce, amazing customer service, and have the best in our little farm world. And when people want it, there’s at least somewhere to get it,” Tyler says.

“And we know, on our side, there are issues to fix. It’s not just the consumer. The farmers have to become better farmers. By being better farmers, being better communicators, being better, kinder people—on both sides—we’ll create a better food system for everybody.” • ediblememphis.com 37

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

ZACH’S CULINARY WORKSHOPS Local chef works to elevate the entire city’s food experience

BY S TACE Y GREENBERG • PHOTOGR APHS BY ZIGG Y MACK Spend more than a few minutes with Zach Nicholson, and it becomes clear that the 33-year-old is determined to be great—and that he’s absolutely prepared to do the hard work to get there. Fancy French cooking techniques, obscure Japanese ingredients and world-renowned chef and restaurant names roll off of his tongue faster than I can process them, much less write them down.

After working for several top chefs in Memphis, he set out on his own about three years ago with Lucky Cat Ramen pop-ups at The Cove and various local breweries. He’s been serving from a temporary restaurant space in Cooper-Young for the past couple of years. At the time of this interview, a permanent spot in the Broad Avenue Arts District was in the works, slated for an early 2019 opening.

While waiting for final code inspections on Lucky Cat’s outdoor deck, Zach is utilizing the new kitchen space to up the city’s restaurant game. He recently launched a weekly culinary workshop on Mondays for local chefs interested in tinkering with recipes from Michelin-starred restaurants. “It’s a great way for us to challenge ourselves and celebrate our craft without the pressure of a ticket printer,” explains Zach.

It’s also been a great way for Zach to find techniques and flavor combinations to use on his new menu, which will feature upscale fare in addition to the exquisite ramen that is Lucky Cat’s specialty. For example, at the very first workshop, the chefs prepared a black tea dashi jelly that later inspired a pork belly and mustard green dumpling with black tea-infused kelp stock for the new menu.

Michael Qandah and Patrick Hanthorn, workshop regulars, are on Zach’s staff. The three of them have a familiarity that keeps the workshops flowing, and it’s fun to listen and watch as they riff off of each other.

Zach describes Michael as his “right-hand man” and I note that they look like teammates in their nearly identical dark-washed denim aprons. Michael sports a man bun, in a good way, and is the most animated of the chefs in attendance. He and Zach met while working for Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, where Michael was the lead butcher for a year. They have continued to work together at Lucky Cat, even though Michael has a side business, Happy Bear, in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he is from. “It’s a vegan thing,” he says. “We do cakes, pop-ups and recipes on Instagram.”

38 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Carpaccio from Atelier Crenn: 18-hour-cured Wagyu ribeye, whipped Wagyu fat with beet juice and lime, curried Granny Smith apple puree, squid ink brioche soil shiso, and mint capers fried in beef fat.

ediblememphis.com 39

Zach interjects to make light of their animal-inspired names, “Lucky Cat and Happy Bear and Birdcap [the artist] living upstairs!” (Birdcap is doing a six-month artist exchange with Zach.

He’s decorating the interior and redoing their logo.)

Michael continues, “Since we don’t have too many Michelin star restaurants that are accessible, it’s nice to get insight and get inspired by their recipes.”

He takes a sip from a bottle of sparkling water and then looks sheepish. There’s some confusion as to which Topo Chico is whose, so Michael simply collects the three bottles on the table and chugs them all to put an end to the dispute.

Patrick, a quiet, serious type, who’s working in jeans, T-shirt and a ball cap, says he’s enjoyed trying out the different techniques that he wouldn’t normally do on his own. “In the workshops, it’s five or six guys working for a couple of hours on one dish. There are a lot of elements working together. It’s broadened how I think about higher end food,” he says.

At the third workshop, the chefs made a carpaccio from Atelier Crenn, “an incredible restaurant run by a badass French woman, Dominique Crenn,” says Zach. The components were 18-hour-cured Wagyu ribeye, whipped Wagyu fat with beet juice and lime, curried Granny Smith apple puree, squid ink brioche soil shiso, and mint capers fried in beef fat.

Clearly these are not the types of dishes typically found on menus in Memphis.

40 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Dimitry Rabkin, who I could tell was on his very best behavior with a guest writer in attendance, is the lead cook at the newly opened P.O. Press Public House & Provisions in Collierville’s town square. He met Zach through Jimmy Gentry, chef and co-owner of P.O. Press. (Before moving to the space on Peabody, Zach used Jimmy’s Paradox Catering space to prep for his pop-ups.) Dimitry sips a tall boy and says he enjoys using his day off to cook without the added stress of preparing for service. “It’s been a huge learning experience. I feel like I’m really honing my craft,” he says.

In attendance for the first time is Dru Kratzke, resident chef at Sur La Table—a chain retailer for a variety of upscale cooking and dining supplies that also does cooking classes and private events in The Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown. He has a quiet confidence and has been working with Zach since “day one” and says Monday is usually an office day for him, but he’s glad to be in Zach’s kitchen helping out.

As Michael reads from the recipe, Patrick checks the duck, Zach prepares the fennel and potato puree, and Dru maneuvers pans and keeps the workspace clear. (Dimitry slipped out for a few minutes.)

“I usually have two to three jobs, so I’ve worked at a lot of places,” Dru says. (Namely Southern Social, Farm Burger, Napa Cafe, Lucky Cat, ACRE, Nobu (Miami), The Beauty Shop and Hog & Hominy, where he met Zach.)

It’s obvious that these guys share an ethos and have enough

“IT’S BEEN A HUGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE. I FEEL LIKE I’M REALLY HONING MY CRAFT.”

combined experience to jump in and really make the recipes their own.

They’ve done a couple of dishes from Eleven Madison Park, which Zach says is among the top 10 restaurants in the world. The first was sweetbreads, chicken velouté, brioche and truffle bavarois. “That was a fat boy lunch,” he notes with a laugh.

Today they are replicating Eleven Madison Park’s lavender glazed duck, but with compressed plums instead of peaches. Michael, who has been wanting to play around with duck for a while, chose the recipe.

He jokes, “We should do a duck two ways and serve it with goose and call it ‘Duck Duck Goose.’”

Zach plays along and adds, “Let’s put it on the kids’ menu.”

Speaking of the younger generation, Logan Guleff, a local teen who won MasterChef Junior in 2014 at the age of 12, has been attending as well. He saw an Instagram post about the workshops and reached out to Zach. “I do something so different when I cook—it isn’t the same process at all—so I have learned a lot.

Fine dining can be hard to understand, and yet it is so innovative and how I want to cook. I am very grateful to Zach and the team,” says Logan.

I get called over and handed a spoon to taste the sauce. “It’s a super-reduced duck sauce with a caramel cooked with orange, lime, lemon zest, raspberry vinegar and star anise,” Zach tells me.

Wow. My taste buds feel as if they are truly alive for the first time.

The extensive cookbook collection currently occupying a very large shelf behind the beautiful new bar offers near endless possibilities for future endeavors.

Zach says he will continue to hold the workshops at Lucky Cat, but will cut down the frequency to once or twice a month after the restaurant officially opens. “I would love to see the workshop gain momentum and allow us to increase our capacity and host classes for non-professionals,” he says.

Sign me up! •

Top: Zach Nicholson and his right-hand man Michael Qandah begin prepping ingredients. Middle, left to right: Nate Oliva (a chef at P.O. Press), Zach, Michael, Logan Guleff and Patrick Hanthorn. Bottom: Patrick and Logan share a laugh. ediblememphis.com 41

L ADY BOSSES

WOMEN IN THE MIX

Changing the face of the beverage industry

BY ANDY MEEK • PHOTOGR APHS BY ANDREA MOR ALES

ALEX CASTLE 42 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

B

ack when she was still in high school, years before it was ever remotely clear that Alex Castle’s interest in distilling brews would turn her into the first female distiller in the Memphis area and lead to a job at Old Dominick Distillery, her mom offered a suggestion.

Alex was like any young woman of a certain age, thinking about life after high school, about what comes next. About that domino progression of picking a course of study in college and figuring out what you’ll do with it once you join the ranks of the working stiffs out in the real world. Alex knew one thing even then as a high schooler: She loved science and math. So her mom helpfully recommended chemical engineering as a path forward.

“I was like, OK, that sounds nice but— what do you do with that?” Alex recalled.

“The first words out of her mouth after that were, ‘You can be a brewmaster and make beer!’ And I was like, that sounds kind of awesome.” Her mother kept on offering a few other suggestions, but Alex had stopped listening. There was something that intrigued her about that first answer. Even today, she still doesn’t know what it was that immediately grabbed her, but she says it very much flipped a switch for her.

And that switch stayed flipped. Alex joined Old Dominick three years ago. The owners had been looking to fill the master distiller position and found Alex—who previously was a production supervisor at the Kentucky-based bourbon maker Wild Turkey—via LinkedIn, of all things. She hadn’t been looking to leave Wild Turkey, but the Old Dominick owners were trying to restart the distillery, which a few years ago started once again aging barrels of locally made whiskey at the downtown Memphis distillery for the first time since Prohibition.

Alex, who’d never before been presented with an opportunity like this, jumped at the chance.

“Coming to Memphis and meeting the team, I saw they were passionate about it, that they believed in it. And that was contagious,” she said. “I wanted to be part of it.”

Talk to other women like her in an industry that used to be regarded as the provenance

MEREDITH DELEEUW ediblememphis.com 43

WOMEN LIKE ALEX AND ALLISON ARE NOTHING LESS THAN A STRAIGHT-UP CREW OF HAPPINESS-MAKERS. of “big, bearded dudes”—in the words of Delta Sunshine Brewing Co. brewmaster Allison Higi—and you get a similar origin story.

One built around a love of the gig’s creativity—the alchemy of mixing the perfect brews, ginning up a new recipe, creating something out of nothing. And, come on, it’s like that old quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, the one about beer being proof that there is surely a God who loves us and wants us to be happy. If that statement is true, then it must follow that women like Alex and Allison are nothing less than a straight-up crew of happiness-makers. Even if theirs is a presence that more often than not still turns heads in an industry where men tend to be the shot-callers.

Not that the women brewmasters who talked to Edible Memphis about their chosen field seemed to, you know, care all that much about the status quo. Or, at least, they’re not held back by it.

“I started in the craft beer industry in 2008,” said Allison, who’s also the co-owner at Delta Sunshine Brewing Co., which at the time of this writing was still operating out of the old Coors plant on Raines Road with an eye toward launching its brewpub concept in Memphis this year in a brick-and-mortar space of its own.

“I’ve been a first woman to do several things in the industry throughout the years,” she continued. “It’s kind of my—it’s a truthful joke, actually, where I always say if I’m the last woman to never be the first woman to do anything again, I’m fine with that!”

When she said that, she was at the end of a full day’s work, putting in her time at the plant with the guys. It had been, well, pretty much a normal day. She was quick to point out that nobody spent any time focused on the fact that she’s shoulder-to-thewheel like the rest of the guys, even though she’s not, you know, one of the guys. Of course, when you’re an owner, you’ve hopefully got the luxury of watching everybody else fall in line behind you pretty quick, but still.

It wasn’t always like this. Back in 2014, a Stanford University study surveyed 1,700 active breweries and found that just 4 percent had a female brewmaster or head brewer. No wonder female brewers say the industry still needs plenty more women to, pardon the pun, get into the mix. Not only does equity demand it, but it just makes sense, especially when you take into account data like this factoid from Nielsen which came out the same year as that Stanford study: Women barely registered as brewmasters then, but they actually accounted for more than a third of craft beer consumption in the United States.

They just didn’t have as large of a hand in making it. Yet. “Especially 15 years ago when I decided to go into this profession, it was very unusual to see women, I think just because wom4 4 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

en didn’t do it. It started off as male-dominated, so it was hard for women to get into,” said Alex, who studied chemical engineering at the University of Kentucky.

“Coming from the Kentucky bourbon industry where the ones calling the shots have been in the industry for decades, I think I approach it differently, just because I’m younger and willing to take risks. I’m not set in my ways. I especially enjoy product development.

I’ve had to learn to make vodka. I’ve had to learn to make gin, and now I’m learning to make a whole list of other things. Which is fun.”

Old Dominick, she adds, will have a permanent gin-line extension soon. The distillery was in R-and-D mode for that during 2018 and plans to select a new gin to release in 2019.

Representation in the industry, meanwhile, seems to still come down to the present-perfect state of the way things are. Men dominate the industry, in other words, because they’ve always dominated the industry, which means they keep dominating the industry. So women like Meredith DeLeeuw look for certain entry points, like

ALLISON HIGI the business and marketing side of things—and in Meredith’s case especially, a road less traveled, which for her meant cider.

Meredith is the CEO and head cider maker at Century Tree Cider Co., a new Memphis cidery that plans to open a space on Union Avenue in the second half of 2019.

Take what a lot of the other craft breweries in Memphis are doing, just replace the brews with cider, and you’ll have a sense of what this new concept entails. Meredith says “quality, innovative, fresh-pressed juice” are the keywords for the concept, which will eventually include a production area and taproom. Like Alex, Meredith also has a science background, with a degree in food science from Texas A&M University.

“That’s one of the big core things of our brand,” she said. “Science. Curiosity. We’re always pushing the boundaries of what we think cider is and can be. We’ll have a couple flagship ciders when we open, but our big thing’s going to be constantly pushing out new flavors, innovative stuff.

“We’ve been making cider for about five years now, and our house is just getting too small. Cider’s a lot longer of a process than beer. Beer turnaround’s like one to two weeks, whereas ours, about the fastest we do is a month to six weeks.”

Cider, Meredith raves, is an industry that excites her, but it’s also about more than that. She says the crew behind Century Tree Cider Co. doesn’t just want to make delicious cider: “We really want to be role models.” Because that, she says, is what will help change the industry more than anything. Her business is female-owned, which when you get down to it is probably the best way to even up years and decades of imbalance. Women are slowly coming into the industry. Women like Alex, Allison, Meredith and so many others are lining up to produce sublime brews, and their hope is that the more women see themselves reflected in the industry, the greater the chance that more women will step up to be a part of it. And if some of those women, like Meredith, are getting to increasingly call the shots, all the better. • ediblememphis.com 45

AT HOME

DOSA EXPRESS Behind-the-scenes with @dishesfrommykitchen

BY HEIDI RUPKE PHOTOGR APHS BY CHIP CHOCKLE Y

46 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

FIND OUT MORE! For Pavithra Elangovan’s Coconut Chutney and Dosa recipes, visit ediblememphis.com.

“When my family loves my cooking, I want to cook more.”

I

’ve checked real estate listings for houses on either side of the one owned by Pavithra Elangovan and it’s no use: They’re not for sale. I looked for this information after sharing brunch with Pavithra; her husband, Elangovan Rajamohan; son, Aadavan; and photographer Chip Chockley. Over one of the most sophisticated and beautiful meals I’ve ever eaten, Pavithra explained how her love of cooking and baking led her to create gorgeous social media feeds. My wheels started turning when Pavithra mentioned that she sometimes shares excess food from these projects among friends and neighbors.

Pavithra has been interested in cooking since her childhood in Tamil Nadu, in the south of India.

“I grew up in a foodie family and watched my mom do her magic in the kitchen. I used to help her a lot. When my parents traveled to festivals, I was in charge of feeding my younger brother. Then I would experiment in the kitchen on my own,” she says.

Where my first kitchen forays consisted of Rice Krispies treats and boxed macaroni and cheese, Pavithra’s were fragrant curries and rice. In the decades since, she has honed techniques of deep-frying, fermenting and tempering (finishing dishes with spices cooked briefly in hot oil) to expand her repertoire of dishes.

South Indian cuisine builds on the essential foundations of lentils, rice, vegetables, ghee, breads and an entire catalog of spices to create rich and complex flavors. ediblememphis.com 47

48 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

Today Pavithra is cooking dosa to accompany lentil and vegetable dishes. Dosa is to South Indian cooking what the tortilla is to Mexican food: ubiquitous and paired with almost everything else. One batch of batter stored in the fridge can yield a week’s worth of dosas. Before my visit, Pavithra combined ground idli rice, black gram (a lentil) and water, mixing literally by hand.

“The heat from the body activates the fermentation,” Pavithra explains.

After 12 hours on the countertop, the dosa batter is bubbly and ready to cook. Pavithra oils a shallow cast iron pan and ladles the foamy batter onto the hot surface. She swirls a spiral pattern out from the center, leaving thinner places to develop a crispy texture and the thicker part of the swirl a little bit more chewiness. Then she covers the pancake with a lid for a couple of minutes. Last, Pavithra sprinkles a few drops of homemade ghee onto the dosa.

Pavithra’s movements are fluid, like a dancer’s, her black-sequined dupatta catching circles of light. When she removes a lid, I lean in expectantly to see what culinary surprise awaits underneath.

There is sambal, a vegetable stew; and poori, a fried bread that puffs like a jellyfish in the bubbling oil. And there is vegetable korma and potato masala. Pavithra shows us her lentil drawer (yes, an entire drawer dedicated to legumes) and her spice cupboard, meticulously arranged and scrupulously clean. This is when I make a mental note to check the Collierville housing market.

While Pavithra’s formative cooking years were spent in India, she adores French baking and Italian cooking. She also incorporates ingredients from the American South into her dishes.

“I’m a big fan of fusion cooking. To do this successfully, I believe you have to be very strong in at least one culinary tradition, which for me is Indian cooking. I make a lasagna with paneer butter masala and a vegetable sauce between the layers of noodles. Or I make pakoras (a deep-fried snack) with kale,” says Pavithra.

After we’ve spent an intense hour listening, snapping pictures and note-taking, Pavithra offers Chip and me a bowl of keseri. To make this sunshine-hued dessert, Pavithra cooked semolina with water, milk, sugar, ghee, cardamom and saffron, then topped it with roasted cashews, almonds and pistachios. The mouthfeel is slightly sticky, with individual grains joined together into peasized mounds of rich, buttery flavor. Amid the ethereal sweetness, crunchy nuts keep the keseri grounded to earth. Its savory complexity requires small, slow bites and perhaps closed eyes.

The magic continues with the next plate brought to the hungry writer and photographer. A stainless steel bowl of coconut chutney appears unassuming but is surprisingly “meaty” and multi-faceted.

When vadas (small, savory donuts made with fermented rice, green chile, peppercorns, ginger and curry leaves) are dipped into the chutney, the result is a perfect mix of lightness and depth and heat. I can’t

Where Pavithra buys harder-to-find ingredients BALAJI SUPER MARKET 3810 Hacks Cross Road #104, Memphis, TN 38125 SAM’S INDIAN GROCERY 305 New Byhalia Road #103, Collierville, TN 38017 untangle all of the flavors that are married into this harmony of ingredients. I only know that I must have another bite, or maybe six.

Watching Pavithra, Elangovan and Aadavan, it’s clear that cooking is a family affair. While Pavithra does most of the cooking for the home and for her social media feeds, Elangovan is consistently involved and supportive. A few words in Hindi send him scurrying to bring Pavithra’s food styling props: a dhoti (long piece of fabric used in Indian clothing) or a board of textured wood. Elangovan also helps with grocery shopping and washing up. Aadavan’s and Elangovan’s most important role, however, is that of tasters. They offer advice and appreciation of each dish Pavithra makes.

“When my family loves my cooking, I want to cook more,” says Pavithra.

Pavithra’s culinary talents extend to food styling and photography as well. Chip listens as Pavithra offers suggestions on optimal lighting and smooths the dhoti.

“The food must be the hero of the photo,” says Pavithra. “All of the props merely bring out its colors and textures.”

Chip points his camera at the stunning array of dishes, artfully placed on a hand-sewn placemat. I pop another spoonful of keseri into my mouth. This is hard work, after all.

When we all sit down to the formal meal, each stainless steel plate is covered with a banana leaf, a touch that is both beautiful and purportedly healthful. Banana leaves are the original Indian plate, and still used at weddings and festivals. Tradition holds that some of its nutrition seeps into hot food that rests on it, similar to the transfer of minerals from a cast iron pan. I feel honored to receive such a plate, lovely and fragrant, full of the wonders of South Indian cooking.

Fortunately for Memphis, Pavithra intends to share her food more broadly this year via a cookbook, hands-on classes and a pop-up restaurant. Her biggest dreams are a coffee shop or her own restaurant. Whenever this happens, I’ll be standing in line for dishes from Pavithra’s kitchen. Judging from the way he mopped up every bit of his third helping of coconut chutney, Chip will be too. See you there. • @dishesfrommykitchen • dishesfrommykitchen.com

Opposite page: South Indian cuisine builds on the essential foundations of lentils, rice, vegetables, ghee, breads and an entire catalog of spices to create rich and complex flavors. ediblememphis.com 49

THE BUZZ

Alex’s Turns 65

Serving up 65 years of dive bar perfection

BY ANDY MEEK • PHOTOGR APHS BY RICHARD L AWRENCE

50 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

You absolutely cannot… get your ass kicked in your own bar. ediblememphis.com 51

I

t’s pretty easy to spot the regulars at Alex’s Tavern, the hole-in-the-wall on the corner at 1445 Jackson Avenue that’s been serving up no-frills bar food for 65 years as of November 13, 2018. One way you can tell is if they enter through the back. That allows them to pass Rocky’s office on the right as they come inside. Rocky Kasaftes is the guy in the ball cap with the permanent grin plastered on his face. He’s been holding down the fort here for 40 years and is somehow always ready to dip into that wellspring of stories he’s accrued thanks to his status as the son of the late Alex Kasaftes.

His father was the founder and namesake of this particular dimly lit establishment, where the neon signage, the TVs and strings of Christmas lights are among the only things, really, that illuminate what goes on inside. Speaking of what goes on, it’s not that it’s any great mystery. You come to Alex’s for the ambience, such as it is. Or to watch a football game, nurse a beer, hang out, devour a burger or wings—all in hipster-free digs with warped ceiling tiles, where they never open the window shades and where there’s a pair of jukeboxes standing side by side. Say what you want about dives like this, you at least always know what you’re getting when you walk into a bar like Alex’s. It’s so old school they still don’t take credit cards. It’s a place where nothing is beautiful and everything is perfect.

Chances are, you come here often enough to start venturing 52 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

in through the back door and you’re likely to catch Rocky in his office grilling patties. Yes, that’s a grill squeezed into the back, a foot or two away from the desk and the phone and stacks of papers. “How do you like your burger?” he asks a guest in earnest on a recent night, while other regulars poke their heads in, and a trio of cops follow not long after to score some burgers of their own.

Rocky is in his element, carrying out the plates when he’s done, fetching beers, in constant motion.

“My dad used to always say, ‘It doesn’t matter how many people come; it’s how many people come back,’” Rocky says, reminiscing while assembling a burger and piling a mountain of thick fries onto a plate. “You can have the rich guy at one end of the bar, the poor guy at the other end; it doesn’t matter. You treat everybody the same, everybody with respect.”

Rocky got started early. His “tough as nails” father, Alex— there’s smiling Alex’s picture on the wall—put four-year-old Rocky to work scraping away the gum under the tables. By the mid-’70s he was working two nights a week behind the bar with John “Bad Dog” McCormack. Not surprisingly, the well-known radio personality was partly responsible for the second jukebox.

“Dad’s jukebox had all the old stuff—Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. John and I looked at the meter and found the ones that didn’t get played too often and swapped them out with Motown

and Jimmy Buffett,” explains Rocky. Well, little did they know that the B side of “Come Monday” would accidentally get played while Alex was around.

The B side is “Why Don’t We Get Drunk,” which, as you may or may not remember, continues with the lyrics “and screw.”

Rocky continues, “Dad screamed, ‘Who put a song on there about screwing?’ He went through the roof! Eventually we convinced him to get a second jukebox for us.”

When his father died in the late ’70s, it wasn’t immediately clear that Rocky would carry the bar’s mantle or that Alex’s would even stay in the same place. Rendezvous restaurant founder Charlie Vergos eventually offered the son some words of wisdom. “He was so nice to me when my father died,” Rocky said. “He said, ‘Rocky, anything you need, you call me. I’ll be glad to help.’

“I said, ‘Mr. Vergos, everybody wants me to move out East.’

And he said, ‘Uh-uh, Rocky. No. You stay right here. And you make them come to you.’ I said, ‘OK. How am I gonna do that?’

He said, ‘You’re Greek. You’ll figure it out.’ And then he just walked off. Like John Wayne!”

Alex ran the place for 25 years. Rocky has done it for almost twice that long now, so you could say he’s figured out how to make people come to him—whether it’s the college kids, sports fans or the old married couple on a recent night who just wanted to sit at

Left: Regulars venture through the back door of Alex’s. Middle: Rocky Kasaftes poses next to the second jukebox he convinced his dad was necessary. Right: There’s a lot of history behind the bar. the bar and talk to each other. Rocky’s a father himself now; he’s got a daughter in her 20s, which means he’s old enough and smart enough to know that when you’ve got a good thing going, you certainly don’t jack around with it. He jokes that he puts something new on the menu maybe every 20 years.

It’s certainly interesting to ruminate over that, about the constancy of an institution like Alex’s, at a time when the food scene in Memphis is as exciting and robust as it’s ever been. From fine dining to food trucks, there’s no shortage of grub to whet the appetite of the city’s increasingly discerning foodies.

And yet.

The more things change, the more a certain kind of place stays the same and holds on tight to tradition. You see that at many of the neighborhood bars around the city, divey watering holes that all are trying to thread that needle of giving the regulars what they expect while managing the need to actually, you know, make money.

The neighborhood bar is actually a fragile kind of concept—simple in theory, trickier than it looks to execute. There’s a certain level of authenticity that’s expected, which is just another way of saying the ediblememphis.com 53

Top: Rocky and his mother, Eugenia, a.k.a. Momma K, 1978.

Bottom: Alex Kasaftes and son Rocky, 1955. place ain’t supposed to have that new car smell. But you can go too far the other way with the grit and grime and make people feel like someone has surely shuffled off the mortal coil somewhere in here.

It’s got to feel like home. And the food, of course, needs to leave you walking out with a smile—the kind of smile you don’t get from foie gras and multi-colored drinks of dubious provenance.

Rocky’s dad opened Alex’s a few years after Vergos, who was a family friend, opened the doors at the Rendezvous. Rocky grew up at the bar, running it as a teenager with his dad. Time was, the only food you could get at Alex’s was a ham sandwich, the ham compliments of Alex’s mom, Eugenia (a.k.a. Momma K), who’d baked it at home. Eventually, Alex’s added the artery-clogging stuff of dive bar 54 edible MEMPHIS • WINTER 2019

dreams. In addition to the famous Rocky burgers and Greek wings, there’s Rock-Mo’s gumbo (which may be the best-kept secret in the city) and ribs that are smoked outside the back door. Customers can also get a taste of Momma K’s veggie beef soup that Rocky makes on the regular. He can also put together a fine grilled cheese sandwich with pickles for the vegetarians (like Priscilla Presley, who just happened to stop by on a recent Thursday night).

It’s certainly not the sexiest work in the world. Rocky’s daily routine is pretty basic. He lives in High Point Terrace, where he grew up, and his first stop of the day is to hit the store, grab some meat and buns, onions and other fixings. He then heads down to the bar to get set up and going. It’s a working man kind of routine, the kind you know his dad would approve of. “My dad, he always pulled for the underdog,” Rocky remembers with a smile.

“He would give you the shirt off his back if he liked you. But he was always like, ‘Don’t take any crap off anybody either. Treat everybody with respect, but if they get outta line, they gotta go.’”

“What if there’s a meathead who’s bigger than me who’s causing problems in the bar?” Rocky asked his dad one day. “Doesn’t matter,” the old man answered. “Fight back harder.” In so many words, he then handed down an absolute, non-negotiable truth about owning a bar—no matter what, you absolutely cannot, in any way shape or form, get your ass kicked in your own bar.

Tiger Bryant, whose restaurant interests in Memphis include Soul Fish Cafe, describes Rocky as very much the caretaker of a particular legacy with Alex’s, in that he embodies the idea of an old-school neighborhood tavern owner. As proof, he cites one particular day when Rocky’s car was broken into. The thief apparently thought he was swiping a bag of money he saw sitting in view—but turns out it was a bag of thank-you notes. Notes Rocky had written to regulars of Alex’s who’d come to pay their respects upon learning that Rocky’s mother had passed away. As fate would have it, Tiger recalls, the next day or so a guy shows up at Alex’s with the bag of thank-you notes, having gotten it from someone else to return. “Rocky stays connected, especially to the older neighborhood members,” Tiger says. “Whether you’re a student, part of the third shift in Memphis, a sports fan—the stories and food remain consistent. Incredibly hard to accomplish in the current ‘chase the fad mentality’ a lot of bars follow.”

With his grin, and that sing-song voice, Rocky can seem like he doesn’t have a care in the world, when you know good and well that definitely is not the case. Next time you’re there, look for the old guy in the cap, the guy who’s smiling, trying to get everything just right, the way his dad would approve of, the way the thing is supposed to be run. And then you’ll get it; you’ll see. “This is kind of like an oasis here,” Rocky mused on a recent night. “People told me I’d never make it on this corner, but I’m stubborn and don’t know when to quit. And all these years later, we’re still here.” • Alex’s Tavern; 1445 Jackson Avenue; 901.278.9086

MAKEDA’S HOMEMADE BUTTER COOKIES

PRIMAS BAKERY AND BOUTIQUE

The home of the best butter cookies in the world!

Our family-operated business has been spreading butterific love for 19 years in Memphis. Favorites include cookies, banana pudding and our pies made with a butter cookie crust. We have two locations, and our butter cookies are in every Kroger in Memphis and the surrounding areas.

If you have eyes for healthy, flavorful food that’s ready to take home and heat, Cooper Street 20/20 is your place. For a special occasion or just dinner in front of your favorite show, a five-star meal is only an oven away. With more than 25 years in the restaurant business, owner Kathy Katz creates fresh, prepared foods, using local ingredients whenever possible.

Two creative cousins joined forces to provide a fun atmosphere with delicious pastries and a festive shopping experience. The bakery offers artisan pastries, including French macarons, truffles, petit fours and eclairs, along with custom cakes and pastries. The boutique features Latin style with a modern twist in its unique clothing, accessories and home decor.

makedascookies.com • 901.745.2667 488 South Second Street 2370 Airways Boulevard

cooperstreet2020.com 901.871.6879 800 South Cooper Street

primasbakeryandboutique.com 901.352.4193 523 South Main Street

MEMPHIS MOSA ASIAN BISTRO Mosa Asian Bistro blends the bold flavors and savory spices found in classic Thai, Chinese and Japanese cuisines. To make our Asian comfort food dishes, we use the freshest local ingredients, inspiration from family recipes and a modern approach. We offer dine-in and carryout for lunch and dinner, along with catering.

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THE VAULT GASTROPUB The Vault Gastropub is Memphis’s first and only frost rail bar, located on GE Patterson near South Main. We serve lunch and dinner seven days a week, along with offering Monday through Thursday happy hour specials. On the weekend, join us for late-night music or brunch.

No matter when you come, you can bank on a great experience at The Vault!

MEMPHIS

mosaasianbistro.com 901.683.8889 850 South White Station Road

Thank you to these locally owned businesses that make Memphis a better, tastier city.

RENAISSANCE FARMS

PONTOTOC LOUNGE

MY CUP OF TEA

We bring locally raised, all-natural meat and eggs from our farm to your table. Our products include pasture-raised poultry, grass-fed beef and lamb, and Tamworth and Mangalitsa pork. You can find us every Saturday at the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market.

With jazz in the air, our inspired culinary artists get to work daily, squeezing, slicing and prepping our products for your enjoyment. A well-balanced menu of air, land and ocean meets storied and newage cocktails. Find us in the charming and rejuvenated South Main district.

My Cup of Tea is a social-enterprise, revenue-generating business in Memphis. We import tea from the Far East and weigh, reformat and package it for local and national sales. We then re-invest our profit to educate and promote our employees, women who live in Orange Mound. Our mission is to broaden their dignity and deepen their pride through respectable and purposeful work.

renaissancefarmstn.com 731.764.0341 195 Leadford Lane Saulsbury, TN

pontotoclounge.com 901.207.7576 314 South Main Street

vaultmemphis.com • 901.591.8000 124 GE Patterson Avenue

shopmycupoftea.com • 901.614.9769 3028 Carnes Avenue ediblememphis.com 55

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Celebrating Local Foods, Season by Season

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Eat. Drink. Read. Think.

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Support Local Community, Food & Drink

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Celebrating the Bounty of the Hudson Valley

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Celebrating the harvest of Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties, season by season

EDIBLE FLOW ERS • OYSTERS • FA R MERS M A R K ETS

Local Scoop Shops Sonoma County’s Brand Power Wild Huckleberries No. 1 | SPRING 2018

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Celebrating the Local Food Community of Fairfield, Litchfield, and New Haven Counties

MARKET DAY AT BARBERRY HILL FARM • YUMI ECO SOLUTIONS SUMMER RECIPES • HOW CONNECTICUT RAISED THE MODERN CHICKEN

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A LOCAVORE THANKSGIVING HOTEL DINING: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE

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THE WORLD’S NEWEST VEGETABLE

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LUCKY DOG RANCH

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COOKS CSA Cooking with Chef Felmley Farmer Sandra Broussard Cooks Fresh Fisherman Dan Major and Local Box Crab Young Baker Gets Creative with Cupcakes Exploring Imperial Beach

FRESH START MARCH / APRIL 2017

ISSUE 21 • SPRING 2014

Santa Barbara Celebrating the Local Food and Wine Culture of Santa Barbara County

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The Art of Small Farming Tending Henry The Perfect Salad

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Stay up to the minute on all things Edible.

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But our dumpling policy, apparent in the variety of dough-bundled treats found in the GTA, is a slam dunk!

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JEFF GORDINIER’S WESTCHESTER • NEVERSINK SPIRITS MOREL FORAGING • FISHING THE ESOPUS • LOCAL GINGER MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES

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Join us on a walking, food-tasting tour through Memphis and eat some of the best dishes the city has to oer!

Book your tour today at www.citytastingtours.com.