Memphis Barbecue Restaurants Ghost Pit Chronicles

I was saddened to see in The Commercial Appeal Sunday the obituary for Pamela Denney, longtime food editor for Memphis Magazine. Ten years ago, while going through phone messages at home, I had one from her. She was preparing the magazine's May barbecue coverage, and wanted to include this site as part of "The Faces of Memphis BBQ." Quite a surprise, and quite an honor. She interviewed me, I had my picture taken at the Tops on Rhodes, and got my 31 days of fame in the magazine. And a nice bump in interest in this site.

TRAILING OFF

The passage of time has taken its toll on my West Tennessee barbecue trail the past couple of years. Two of the three spots have closed as their owners have retired -- Helen Turner's in Brownsville and Sam's in Humboldt.

I noted the end of Helen's on FB, got curious about Sam's and discovered its closing on a google search. Both were thoroughly old school, and as good as you could want. We ate at Helen's whenever we passed the Brownsville exit on our way home from points east. Sam's was more out of the way, so we made it there only a couple of times. That leaves Bozo's in Mason as the trail survivor. Need to make a trip. Another classic West Tennessee shop, Richard's in Bolivar, is, sadly, also no more. Its namesake, Richard Hodge,

died in 2020 and the place was closed for a while. It later reopened as Roy's BBQ, but closed last year, according to the internet, and the building has been torn down. I made it to Richard's once, in 2018, and it was excellent. He cooked like Helen Turner, making his own coals, and cooking everything over them. If you have restaurants you truly love, barbecue or otherwise, don't assume they will be around forever. Get out there and give them your business.

The GPC staff has grown by one with the addition of Mr. Pig as general manager, in charge of the day-to-day activity around the home office. We weren't looking to expand, but he showed up earlier this year and made a persuasive case for his hiring. His early resume involves a stint as part of a pretty rowdy bunch of hand puppets for a few years, and then goes blank until recently.

His managerial skills are questionable, so we'll take it low and slow. On to the news . . .

MEMPHIS TOAST, 954 JACKSON: GHOST PIT IS REALLY BACK

We've been following the progress of this place for the past few posts. It's finally open, and it's a pretty neat little joint. The history of this long-time barbecue shop has been set out here several times. Now it's a breakfast/brunch place (open 6 am-2 pm, maybe every day, call 417-7817 to be sure), but also with some barbecue vibes. The transformation of the old place is impressive, as is the food.

We've been there three times since it opened last month, and enjoyed all of them. Perhaps the neatest part, from our perspective, is the replication of the old pit.

According to the Toast's exec chef, Carlos Scurlock, the mortar in the original pit was too deteriorated to allow any cooking. No problems with the new one, and plans are to use it -- no pork, but likely for wings and such. It's a great addition to the Smokey City neighborhood, and is becoming the breakfast place of choice as the future of the Barksdale seems bleak after a kitchen fire.

GET YOUR TEA TIME: 709 E. PARKWAY SOUTH Out with Subway, in with Boba Boba Life, at this former Loeb's barbecue restaurant that dates from the 1960s. It's close to opening. Not likely a place we'll visit, but it's good to see an old ghost pit back in business after the Subway closure. Interesting.

On the negative side, the old Cave's Soul Food and More on Jackson remains empty after its former tenant, a pasta restaurant, moved to Downtown.

ODDS AND ENDS Ebay just came through with this Little Pigs of America mask from the early/mid 1960s. First one I've seen, and I'm tickled to have it. Here's the listing for it from the LPOA Commissary Supply Catalog.

My daughter finds all kinds of Memphis barbecue stuff on the internet, and recently sent me this Loeb's piece that looks to be part of a newspaper ad. Never seen it. Don't know who the people are, but I'd guess their last name is Loeb.

It mentions pretty much all of Loeb's commercial ventures from the 1960s (including chicken) that you could find all on one corner -- laundromat, dry cleaning, market, barbecue restaurant.

Finally, from a friend's backyard, the remnants of a barbecue pit that was a fairly common feature of Midtown houses from the 1920s and 1930s. I have one, but it's covered in some type of nasty vine.

     That has long been one of my favorite barbecue restaurant slogans, courtesy of Fracchia's Pit Barbecue Cafe, which operated at 2461-2465 Jackson Avenue from the late 1940s up to about 1970. It came to mind when I saw the obituary for John Thomas Fracchia Jr., 84, in The Commercial Appeal of June 25. The bulk of Mr. Fracchia's work life was spent in the marine industry, but he got his start by managing the family restaurant.     For most of the 15 or so years I've been dabbling in this, I have almost always sent letters to the people I've wanted to talk with. Surely I sent one to Mr. Fracchia, but I have not been able to find a copy in my research mess. If I did not send him a letter, that was a huge blunder on my part. If I did and did not get a response, well, that has happened a lot. I might try to contact the family later on.    Anyway, here are some phone book ads for Fracchia's. The oldest one, circa 1948, lists the 2461 address (and features a classic clip-art pig). Fracchia's was among several barbecue restaurants in the city from that era that also had Italian on the menu. At the time it disappeared from the phone book, circa 1970, a Loeb’s was practically next door, at 2451.

PROJECT UPDATE: 954 JACKSON     A post from last October led with the news of a $25,000 Good Neighbor grant from the Center City Development Corp. to Roosevelt Bonds, owner of Jazzy J’s Sports Bar, to renovate the site into a 1,430-square-foot restaurant to be called Jackson Cafe. Upgrades were to include a new facade, outdoor seating and improved landscaping, at a total cost of $32,550. March was the target for opening.     The interest here is that the location has a long history as a barbecue restaurant, at least back to the mid-1950s when it was known as the Bar-B-Q Center. Later names included Jones Smoke House, Beasley's Barbecue, and Jango's, which was a favorite around our house in the early 2000s.       I drove by a couple of months ago and not much had changed, but today's visit saw lots of progress. The west side has a spiffy mural, and the patio area is moving along (enclosed, in a departure from the design rendering). It all looks neat and inviting, and worth a stop when it opens.

PUT IT BACK     Tops, the venerable local barbecue chain, has been on a tear lately with new menu offerings and freshened facades on their older locations. All good, but I'm not a fan of the new look at the No. 6 shop at 3353 Summer. I have long considered it to be the most handsome Tops restaurant -- not even close -- and maybe the best-looking in the city. It has the neon pig (which is making a well-deserved comeback), but the real asset is the out-front placement of the pit, with a wall of windows to see it all. Fake flames now hide the real thing. Ugh. Put it back.

SERVICE ON THE ROAD    I've had the opportunity this year to visit a couple of West Tennessee barbecue treasures -- Helen Turner's in Brownsville and Sam's in Humboldt. I try to stop at Helen's any time I'm passing exit 56 on I-40, but Sam's is a bit farther off the beaten path, but definitely worth the drive. I hadn't been there in years. The barbecue is excellent, and be sure to take a “pie” with you. Sam's is a Thursday-Saturday business only, so keep that in mind.

These are astonishing times around the GPC home office.   I get notifications every week of estate sales in the area. One of them had this picture of these Little Pigs of America items, things I've never seen for sale.

 The Memphis-based Little Pigs of America barbecue franchise operation has been a focus of this site for years, so I was stoked. I've picked up the occasional LPOA postcard and matchbook off ebay, but never anything that wasn't paper.   Needless to say, Thursday morning I was in line at 8:30 to try to get these items. The folks ahead of me were record dealers, so I was hopeful. Once inside, I couldn't find them right away because the house was crammed with stuff. I was starting to get nervous as minutes passed, but finally found them in plain sight, on a table right as you entered the house. I was lucky. Anyway, they are painted on masonite, each one just a bit different.

According to the LPOA commissary and promotions catalog, they appear to be counter easels.

    I had the feeling there was more. The homeowner was clearly a barbecue cooker -- contest trophies and pig knicknacks inside and a trailer smoker out back. Then I found a box of Koozies printed up for a barbecue team, and I recognized one of the names, which turned out to be the homeowner. I realized I had corresponded with her -- very likely LPOA related -- but I couldn't dredge up the connection immediately.   Back home, I looked up my LPOA letter file, and I had written her 10 years earlier after reading her mother's obituary in The Commercial Appeal that mentioned the family's Little Pigs restaurant in Trumann, Ark. A visit to the Trumann public library confirmed that the restaurant was indeed an LPOA franchise. (I never did pin down its the exact location.)

   The woman called me back after receiving my letter, and at the time she was fairly certain she didn't have anything related to the restaurant. But now I had the connection -- these counter easels came from the Trumann shop. I had a greater feeling there was more.   Friday morning I was back at the sale. A lot of stuff was gone, but a lot remained. If you hadn't been there Thursday, you would think Friday was the sale's opening day. The house has a strange floor plan -- easy to lose track of where you've been. After an hour of walking through the rooms and on the verge of calling it a day, I picked up a binder from a shelf I had somehow overlooked and found this --

   I've seen an operating manual only one other time -- at the LPOA "mothership" in Statesville, N.C., an LPOA restaurant that has remained unchanged and in the same family since it opened in 1963 (they have EVERYTHING). It is a stunning artifact. Besides all of the franchise information, it has LPOA promotional material, menus from the restaurant and a hand-written log of the shop's daily receipts from late 1963 through 1964.

  A lot of barbecue/ghost pit-related news has been turning up lately, so let's dive in.    We'll start at 954 Jackson, where Jazzy J’s Sports Bar owner Roosevelt Bonds has won a $25,000 Good Neighbor grant from the Center City Development Corp. to renovate the sports bar into a 1,430-square-foot restaurant to be called Jackson Cafe. Upgrades will include a new facade, outdoor seating and improved landscaping, at a total cost of $32,550. The cafe is expected to open next March. Based on the rendering by Walker Design Studio, the cafe will really stand out along that stretch of Jackson Avenue (well, pretty much any stretch of Jackson).

   The location has a long history as a barbecue restaurant, at least back to the mid-1950s when it was known as the Bar-B-Q Center. Later names included Jones Smoke House, Beasley's Barbecue, and Jango's, which was a favorite around our house in the early 2000s. In this picture, the building was a ghost pit, home to Trinity Funeral Services.

   The pit's chimney remains in the architectural rendering, but we'll see if it survives. Barbecue would be a good menu item.    A current fave that gets frequent visits when I'm out east at lunch time (breakfast, too), Three Little Pigs at 5145 Quince, has new owners. The restaurant is a former Loeb's site, part of the chain that operated here in the 1960s, and still retains its Loeb’s-era sign. This is its first ownership change since 1989.

  Brothers NaMario and Napoleon Yancey plan to keep the current menu while adding new items. Barbecued chicken will lead the way. I was in TLP last month and the barbecue was the best I've ever had there.    Another former Loeb's, at 2370 Airways, now home to Makeda's Homemade Butter Cookies, is back in the news. The last post here, almost a year ago (yeah, I'm lying down on the job), dealt with the Nov. 17 murder there of rapper Young Dolph, who was a longtime customer and fan of the shop's chocolate chip cookies. At the time, owners Pamela and Maurice Hill said they were going to close the bakery for good even though the local community and Young Dolph fans supported a reopening. The decision never sat completely well with the Hills, and last month they reopened.    This shot inside by Mark Weber of The Daily Memphian shows the doors to the old pits.

   When rap music star Young Dolph was murdered this month, he was visiting one of his favorite places, Makeda’s Cookies at 2370 Airways Blvd. Starting in the late 1960s, the location had a run of 10 years or so as a Loeb’s barbecue restaurant. This picture is from about 2010, and the chimneys still stand today.

    The bakery sustained damage during the gunmen’s attack and is closed for repairs. The owners are trying to deal with that and retain their employees in the meantime. We can help them do that. A GoFundMe page has been established to raise money for that purpose.

    It’s a place I’ve always meant to visit -- get some tasty cookies, chat up the workers and maybe get some pics of the old pits.  Looks like that will be on the 2022 to-do list. Meanwhile, donate as generously as you can -- right here  https://gofund.me/b6306d08  -- to help out a special local business, and visit Makeda’s downtown location at 301 Jefferson.    

FOLLOWING UP: 1724 S. WHITE STATION

      As noted earlier, this site gets messages from visitors every two or three years. The previous post discussed the removal of a Coleman’s ghost pit at 1724 S. White Station. I didn’t have any info about the time between barbecue restaurant to Goodwill location, but a follower, mrzero1982, filled in the gap. Thanks!

     Income tax time gets me into a part of town I otherwise don’t have any cause to visit. I took a camera with me when I picked up my completed return this week, mainly to document the state of the old Neely’s, and was saddened to also discover the demise of an old Coleman’s ghost pit.     It’s at 1724 S. White Station, and looked like this a decade or so ago when I first visited it.

   Driving past this week, it now looks like this as work on the building continues (the Goodwill is still open, awaiting the sign to be put back).

It was a Coleman’s at least by 1970 and into 1974, part of the chain started by A.B, Coleman and Porter Moss and discussed here several years ago. My research stops about there, so I don’t know anything about it before it became a Goodwill. It has a special place in the “history” of this blog, as it is the first ghost pit I visited and photographed.  When I decided I wanted to check out one of these ghost pits I was finding around the city, I figured the Goodwill would be easy to get into, and I was right. They were fine with me poking around the old pits, which were hidden by a drywall partition. I shot these.

The interior of the pit is the wallpaper for this site. The construction manager at the site said the pits had been removed some time back, and that the distinctive chimneys were taken down a couple of weeks ago. So goes the evolution of the city’s barbecue landscape. And yes, I did pass by Neely’s, which looks sadder all the time. Leonard’s, which is in the neighborhood, needs a lifeline to dodge this fate.

   My daughter has a wonderful knack of finding all sorts of neat stuff online and in thrift stores. Lucky for me, I am a frequent beneficiary of her efforts, as shown above, from an Etsy shop. It is a token that was minted for use in game machines at the restaurant. It’s about the size of a quarter, has milled edges and nice heft. Pretty nifty.

As for the restaurant, I’ve never researched it because it falls into the late 1970s-1980s period that I’ve generally ignored. I’ve never driven by it. From phone book listings, I do know that it was part of the Loeb’s chain, built around 1970, some five or six years into that chain’s barbecue expansion. In the latter half of the 1970s, when Loeb’s was getting out of  the barbecue business, this Loeb’s and another on Cazassa became Ann’s Smokehouses (per the 1976 phone book), and lasted maybe into the early 1980s. In the ensuing years it has been home to other barbecue shops, various wing joints and an Exline’s pizza. Here is its incarnation as Sam’s BBQ and Hotwings, not sure of the date. 

With Covid everywhere, I’ll put off research into Ann’s until I can get the vaccine. I’m thinking she could still be around. Hope so.

GIVE ME RETRO: Tops Bar-B-Q has opened its newest restaurant, in Bartlett, which shows off a more modern design the company says we’ll be seeing more of. The company renovated a former Sheridans Latte’s and Frozen Custard building at 6745 Stage Road.

The pig is a nice retro touch (hope it’s neon-lit), but the new place doesn’t come close to my favorite -- Number 6 at 3353 Summer Avenue.

I love the way the pit is prominently out front, in its own showcase.

YET ANOTHER GHOST PIT UPDATE: I’ve written a couple of times about the Simply Fabulous catering business of Fabiola Francis at 1353 Jackson that also serves drive-up food at lunchtime. The revived ghost pit site now has an official name: Fabiola’s Kitchen.

It has become our go-to place for burgers over the past few months, pretty much a weekly stop. This week we tried the chicken quesadillas,

which were every bit as tasty as the burgers. I really like this place.

FROM THE GPC CULTURAL ARTS DESK: A couple of weeks ago The New York Times website carried this headline --

The discovery was made in 2017. According to The Times, the animal in the painting resembles the warty pig, a species still living today on the island of Sulawesi where the cave is. According to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, warty pigs are not protected by Indonesian law, and this species

     In the previous post I mentioned a couple of ghost pit sites on Jackson Avenue that were back in business -- serving food, but nothing from the old pits. I was particularly interested in the pit at 1353 Jackson, now home to Simply Fabulous catering service. It was one of the first ghosts I found when I started looking for them years ago, but to this day have yet to find out anything about it. The Simply Fabulous website ( simplyfabulouscatering.biz ) indicated that they were serving lunch on site, so that was enough to hook me.      I went for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It works like a drive-in  -- order from your car, and in a few minutes you are ready to go. There is also a window for walk-ups, and a few tables are set out if you want to dine there. 

I got a couple of burgers, and my wife and I agree that they are excellent -- $5 and prepped fast. I returned a week later and got a hearty “Welcome back!” from the owner, Fabiola Francis, so I guess that makes me a regular. Probably, since I was back there today.

    Leading off, hearty congratulations to The Bar-B-Q Shop’s Eric Vernon for landing on  the cover of this month’s Memphis magazine. His place has long been number one around our house. It’s an honor that is richly deserved.     The “Barbecue Belt” story is a series of features about places hundreds of miles to the east and west of Memphis.Turning the page from the lead-off Bar-B-Q Shop story, I was surprised and pleased to see this place.

    College Barbecue appeared on my radar nearly a decade ago when I was researching the Memphis-based Little Pigs of America franchise company that operated in the 1960s. (For all of you who have been waiting), I’ve picked up the LPOA project again. Hope I can salvage it and start getting it on here this year.) The magazine story notes the connection, and the restaurant looks largely as it did at its LPOA inception.

My wife and I visited there in 2012 as part of a one-day blitz of three old LPOA shops in North Carolina, not long after they had given the place a small overhaul (you no longer have to go outside to access the restrooms). I enjoyed a barbecue “tray” -- great pork, hushpuppies, red slaw and assembly required. The original pit still gets the job done in fine fashion.

    The Memphis newspaper, aka The Commercial Appeal, had an interesting story earlier this month about John Dooley, a 25-year-old chemical engineer and Memphian since December 2018 who has thrown himself into the task of finding the best barbecue in the city. (That’s him and his wife at Elwood’s Shack). Kudos to him for the effort, not anything I would have ever tried, mainly because my taste buds aren’t that finely tuned. It also probably helps to be 25.

He’s putting his findings on his blog, #paydaybbq, and The CA story had a list of some of his ratings. For example, his No. 1 for pulled pork is BallHoggerz BBQ at 1404 Airways (an old place that has been home to several cue shops over the years). Haven’t been there, but need to go. He gives the nod to Payne’s for its sandwich (yes) and ribs, and touts Mr. Oby's BBQ Wagon,a food truck in lot near 2692 N. Watkins. That’s near where I used to find the Grill on Wheels that I’ve featured a few times here. Don’t know if it’s the same truck. If so, yes it’s good. He’s not crazy about The Bar-B-Q Shop, but we can agree to disagree.

GHOST PIT UPDATES       Down Jackson Avenue, two ghost pits are now homes to a restaurant and a catering operation. At 1363, immediately west of the Tops at Jackson and Watkins, Simply Fabulous has its catering kitchen.

       The pit attached to the building has been in the mystery file for years. All I’ve found is a listing for a sandwich shop there sometime in  the 1950s. Here’s a shot from a few years ago, when it was a market.

    Simply Fabulous has a deli downtown in the First Tennessee building, and a website at simplyfabulouscatering.biz . The site notes that they cook and grill outdoors from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., so I’ve got them on the list. Don’t know the days they do this, but it looks intriguing.     A few blocks to  the east, at 1689, the site of the late, lamented Cave’s Soul Food & More is now home to Energy Famous Pasta. Its Facebook page has all the details: facebook.com/EnergyFamousPasta/ 

    While we’re in pasta aisle, kudos to Dino’s for the Memphis Flyer feature this month on the restaurant’s simply fabulous raviolis (I did some photoshopping on the article image).

  This thoroughly crappy year just continues to pile on the sad news. The closing of the Coleman’s Bar-B-Q restaurant in Hernando in no way ranks with  the death and misery that  have ravaged this country since March, but the news still hurts.    Eight years ago I did some posts on the Coleman’s chain, which flourished across the South in the 1960s and 1970s, eventually boasting more than 170 locations. Old Coleman shops are all over Memphis and the Mid-South as rebranded restaurants and ghost pits, but the Hernando shop (No. 43) was one of three that I knew of that still were true to their origin. The others were in Senatobia (No. 9) and one at 5175 Millbranch in Memphis.

As best I can determine, the Senatobia shop is still open. The Millbranch site is now home to the Southern Hands restaurant.

        The Hernando Coleman’s is particularly interesting because of its family ties. It was opened in 1971 by Mae C. Treadway, sister of the chain’s namesake founder, A.B. Coleman,  and her husband, Carl Ferguson, now deceased. Her son and daughter-in-law later ran the business. Here’s the link to a story about the closing (thanks to my daughter for finding this): http://m.desototimes.com/business/the-closing-of-coleman-s-means-the-end-of-an-era-not-just-a-restaurant/article_e6620fc2-d81b-11ea-9aa9-c7582e932e1d.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR3yS0CfLdPec_gP3Iy02nOClfFjX0lAf_gmbwn8Cil1tS3VnMZ7GPA0DMs

   I ate a couple of times at the Hernando and Senatobia shops. The food was good, and the time-traveling was even better. You can get the Coleman’s vibe without having to drive to Senatobia. Captain John’s in Collierville is an old Coleman’s that hasn’t changed much at all. My real go-to spot with Coleman’s ties used to be the greatly missed Showboat Barbecue on Hickory Hill, run by Porter Moss, who was Coleman’s right-hand man in the creation of that chain and also Loeb’s.

       In the 1960s and 1970s, Memphis was a hotbed of opportunity to own your own barbecue restaurant. A.B. Coleman was involved with the Loeb’s chain, which covered the Mid-South starting in the early 1960s. At the same time, Little Pigs of America sold franchises across the country before falling into bankruptcy before the end of the decade. Later in the 1960s, A.B. Coleman started his namesake company that spread as far as Texas and Florida. The best surviving Loeb’s I’m aware of is Three Little Pigs on Quince. Getting the Little Pigs of America experience requires driving to North Carolina (always worth it -- Asheville is good, Statesville better).

     Got a few news-ish bits inside, so let’s dump them out. I’ll start with this fairly astonishing item.

     Yes, that is a T-shirt from the legendary Brady & Lil’s on South Parkway East, which flourished up until a quarter century or so ago and whose spirit lives on at the Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison, the go-to place for our household. This was my birthday present from my daughter, who found it on a clothing resale site. Someone in North Carolina had it. She made me open it early, at Thanksgiving, so she could see my reaction.      It is in remarkably good condition for its age. It’s a large, poly/cotton blend branded Touch of Gold. Can’t be many of these still around. I’ve got to work up the nerve to wear it. A few years ago, my daughter gave me an old matchbook from Bozo’s in Mason, Tenn., another favorite spot. Here’s a closeup of the famous dancing pigs.

     My daughter was home earlier in November, and shifted into full Marie Kondo mode to attack the junk that’s in our house. She turned this up.

     I had forgotten all about it. I think I brought it home from work when I cleaned out my desk. If I remember correctly, a co-worker had stopped there to pick up a sandwich and discovered that two were in the bag. He asked if I wanted the extra one. Hell, yeah! I never ate there a lot, but always enjoyed it when I did. The old Neely’s site on Mount Moriah (or is it Mendenhall -- I can never keep them straight) is still empty.

ACROSS THE RIVER

      I subscribe to the Flickr account of Birch from Memphis, who specializes in old pictures and artifacts from the area. He has a lot of restaurant images, and occasionally one of them is a barbecue joint. Such was the case last month when his post included this postcard for Bill’s Restaurant, in what is now Marion, Ark.

         The post said the building was still standing in 2016, so I drove over last week to check it out. It’s still there, though some later construction has obscured the smokehouse, and a bunch of house trailers fill the back yard (which is why I just shot from the car).

    The post also had some info on the owners and a neat anecdote.

AKA "Bill's Grill"

This building is still standing as of 2016 at the southeast corner of Highway 77 and Bill's Grill Road in Marion. "Bill" was William "Bill" Norvell Harris (1929-2001).

Obit for wife and co-owner of Bill's, Mary Dymple Harris (1932-2018): "Dymple moved to Memphis to work and married William 'Bill' Harris of Marion, AR. ... Dymple and Bill owned and operated Bill's Grill restaurant located on Highway 77 in Marion for many years. She was proud to serve some of the best barbeque in the Mid-South until they closed the business due to Bill's health."

A memory from Bill Morris about taking Danny Thomas and other St. Jude people to Bill's in 1986, in Memphis Magazine. "Little did I know that I would continue to be involved with St. Jude for 50 years. There was a bit of a crisis in 1986. I think St. Jude felt unloved. The truth of the matter is there were not that many new fundraising events in Memphis. Washington University and the city of St. Louis made a big pitch. Danny never suggested that they were leaving us, but they had an obligation to listen, and they spent a day and a half up there.

They returned to Memphis the next day and Dick Hackett and I both wanted to do something for them in a casual atmosphere. It was my idea to go to Bill’s Grill over in Marion, Arkansas. Hackett almost fainted. But there was no way we could compete with St. Louis on a formal dinner. We started out with pitchers of beer. Then they brought out fried dill pickles. Then they brought out rooster fries. Then more beer and barbecue. If they didn’t know what rooster fries were then, they did after they came here. They had a ball.”

HEY, DOC! DON’T BE A STRANGER!

    My last post was about the sudden appearance of Dr. Bar-B-Que’s bus within walking distance of my house. I was surprised and elated that it got a mention in the Memphis Flyer’s internet column.

I’m glad I bought a sandwich that first day, as I saw the bus open only once or twice more. Whenever I drove by for a sandwich, he wasn’t cooking. I’m not sure what happened. The bus sat closed for a few weeks before finally disappearing. (This site didn’t get any traffic from the publicity, either.) I hope I run across him again. His ‘cue is good.

PIT NEWS

This is old news to Cozy Corner fans, but the restaurant finally has its new smoker room up and running. I haven’t been by yet, but it looks like the Corner’s Chicago style smoker has a companion in the new addition. This project was in the news several years ago, back when I was still working. Glad to finally see it.

   Last, the Happy Hocker pawn shop at 975 East Parkway South has closed, and an auction was held there last weekend. It’s a ghost pit, one I don’t know anything about except it used to be the Fairview.  I hope the famous polar bear statues find a good home. I suggest the Pink Palace. I’m expecting that we’ll likely lose another ghost pit.

The pictures are from 2010. The closest thing to it I could find was this 1950s listing for Regolo’s, at 989.

    Driving home from the post office today, I was thrilled to see a blast from the past -- the food bus of Dr.Bar-B-Que, aka Ray Nolan -- parked at Evergreen and Jackson, just a few blocks from my house. I’ve written about him over the years, first when he had this rig set up on Danny Thomas, and later, 3-4 years ago, when he had a restaurant on South Main.

The restaurant didn’t have a long life despite serving great barbecue. At the time he opened, he was just a few blocks from some tough competition down South Main -- Central BBQ and what was then the Double J Smokehouse. We were sad he didn’t make it, but today’s discovery has erased all of that.      I already had with me a free burger and hot dog courtesy of our credit union. I stuck them in the fridge when I got home, grabbed a camera and went back for a sandwich. Business was brisk around 12:30 p.m.

and the air was fragrant with smoke from a smallish rectangular cooker. The massive drum smoker/trailer was serving as advertising.

The sandwich was as good as I remembered, with huge chunks of pulled pork, coarse slaw and sauce with nice zip  -- the perfect bite.

   I asked the woman at the window how long they might be set up there. She guessed it could be a good while. Good, though I should walk the few blocks to get a sandwich. I told her that if they were ever interested in another restaurant venture again, a spot was available just a few feet away at 1689 Jackson. That would be the old Cave’s Soul Food & More, run by Carl and Veronica Johnson for four years or so until Carl’s untimely death (page 4 on this site).

   I wrote about Cave’s many times. Carl worked as a teenager at Gridley’s, and built an honest-to-god pit on this building that used to be a laundromat. He smoked ribs, never shoulders, so you couldn’t get a sandwich there. I thought I had figured out a way to get one from him, but never got to give my plan a try. I miss this place.     The intersection of Jackson and Evergreen (actually a block to the west at Jackson and Auburndale) was part of the city’s barbecue history circa 1971 when the Loeb family sought a zoning change to put a barbecue restaurant at that location, adding to their dozens of ‘cue shops already around the city at that time.

Last week I got a note from the Tumblr folks congratulating me on nine years of running this blog. I’m embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t looked at it in a while, so I did. It has been nearly a year since I posted anything.     The ghost-on-the-wall picture above is a pretty accurate reflection of the status of things around here for the past year  Retirement has created its own time-fillers, and a long dormant interest in music has resurfaced. The past 12 months were not without some interesting research and milestones. The problem was getting that information posted here. Yeah, it’s starting to nag at me.      The above picture is probably as good a way as any to get back in the saddle. I had some business recently on Getwell Road, and it occurred to me to check on this place, which I hadn’t visited since I photographed it in 2014. Here’s a combo image I created in the hopes of a developing a blog post on the place, but it never materialized.

I followed my usual pattern of sending out a letter to a person who I was fairly certain was a member of the Friener family in question, but I never got a response. I don’t have any other information on Friener’s beyond the phone book listing. Here’s another shot from 2014 (taken from my old Malibu with the pig on its roof).

    Thanks to being retired, we were able to make Thursday night's "Barbecue Digest" at Crosstown Arts 430 Gallery. The Southern Foodways Alliance event (grievously underattended) was a celebration of the whole-hog barbecue tradition that lives east of here, revolving around the town of Lexington and its nearby environs. The particular focus was on Lexington's famous barbecue restaurant, B.E. Scott's -- and pitmasters Ricky Parker and his son, Zach -- featured in two short films by Joe York.    In addition to the films and the opportunity to meet York (left, above) and Zach Parker (right), the publicity for the evening promised a "taste" of whole-hog barbecue. That "taste" was a jumbo sandwich

and a second one if you so desired, to set the table for the screenings. Dinner and a couple of movies, as it turned out. I had made it to Scott's earlier this year for the first time and ate there on consecutive days. Thursday's offering lost nothing for having been transported more than 100 miles. As York put it, "The best barbecue in Memphis is in this room tonight." That could certainly generate discussion, but It was powerfully good.   The films were made roughly 15 years apart, the first, "Whole Hog,"  featuring Ricky Parker 

and some other cookers from the area. When Parker died in 2013, Zach took over as pitmaster and became the subject of the second film, "Like Father." 

Zach, then about 12, was interviewed for "Whole Hog," but was not included in the final cut. That footage was restored for "Like Father," and you can see Zach's barbecue future taking root. You can watch both films on SFA's website, southernfoodways.org , but you won't get a sandwich.     The sparse crowd meant that there was plenty of barbecue left, so at the end of the evening most everyone got a sandwich to go.

I was feeling a bit guilty for snagging a second sandwich, but that went away when the guy next to me said he was getting his third.The SFA films and oral histories are fascinating to watch and read. I have a lot of places to visit.

     A timeless headline if there ever was one, as good now as it was on April 12, 1966, when it appeared in The New York Times above the byline of the newspaper's legendary food editor, Craig Claiborne. A native of Sunflower, Miss., Claiborne joined the Times in 1957 and was its food editor and intermittent restaurant critic for the next 29 years, becoming in that time "the nation's pre-eminent food journalist," as the Times said in his obituary in 2000.    Claiborne wrote that his "tour of the town" left "an after-image of a barbecue establishment on every corner." I don't have a complete list of barbecue restaurants from the 1966 Memphis phone directory, but some of the names included Berretta's, Pig 'N Whistle, Lois Pit Bar-B-Q, Schuchman's, Kay's, Leonard's, Little Pigs, the Rendezvous, the Summer Avenue trio of Monte's, Shorty's and Robilio's, plus the Tops and Loeb's chains. Claiborne discusses two restaurants in his article, one the "best-known," and his choice for "the best." Here is his story.

Here is the “raffish” Leonard’s, from an old postcard. To come, some Shanty Inn info.

      I've been weighing post possibilities lately without much luck or conviction. The leading contender was another deadly travelogue, but then this arrived in the email today, (July 24). OK, I can go with that. And it turns out, the travelogue is quite a nice fit. It has been a good year at the GPC, with a few more followers joining. I'm closing in on 80. Thank you to all of you who choose to stop by and read this site.    When I decided to plunge ahead with the travelogue, I ran across this image

taken during a Little Pigs of America road trip last month. It hangs in what I consider to be the LPOA mothership, in Statesville, N.C. 

Happy 55th to everyone there, and I'm tickled to share birthdates with such a remarkable piece of barbecue history. A good omen for sure.    So, this time last month we were recovering from a six-day trip to East Tennessee and southwest Virginia. It was a repeat of one we took last year -- to East Tennessee to see our daughter, on to southwest Virginia for the Wayne C. Henderson music festival, and back to East TN for Father's Day. This time, I built in a couple of  barbecue side trips.    First up was a Friday lunch at Ridgewood Barbecue in Bluff City, Tenn.. It's a legendary place in those parts, dating from the late 1940s, and famous enough to have earned a place in John Egerton's "Southern Food."  The barbecue is really different, starting with fresh hams instead of shoulders. As Egerton described it, the meat is chilled after it is done cooking, sliced cold and reheated on a flat grill at high temperature. The meat is doused with sauce while on the grill, and is served on  a toasted bun with slaw and fries. I lived in upper East Tennessee for a couple of years back in the 1970s, but never ate there. Still haven't.        When we finally got to the Ridgewood that Friday about 1:30 p.m., the place was jammed. There was no parking at the restaurant

or nearby, and people were waiting out in the parking lot. (Those are the worst pictures I've ever taken from the car. I accidentally shifted the camera into manual focus). It was a disappointment, but we had no choice except to press on to Abingdon, Va. The consolation prize was a pretty good sandwich at the festival courtesy of the Galax Smokehouse. It didn't have slaw on it, and I don't think they had any with them. But  the meat was excellent, and what really helped was that they made the sandwiches on the spot.       After a great Father's Day meal tag-teamed by my daughter and son-in-law, I set out the next day on a Little Pigs road trip, driving to Statesville, then back with stops in Newton and Asheville. The big goal of the trip was to make another pass through all of the LPOA material that Lynn Daniels

has at the Statesville shop. I should have done a better job of laying the groundwork for the trip, as none of the LPOA material was at the restaurant, as it was the first time I visited several years ago. Still, I got to chat with Mr. Daniels a bit (I've lost my notes). His wife, Sherry, is the daughter of  Fred Sears, who built the Statesville shop and two others, in Hickory and Newton. The Statesville restaurant is as close as you can get to the LPOA experience. Everything is pretty much as it has been for 55 years,

including fidelity to the LPOA recipes. The Memphis influence still comes through in the sandwich. It was good to see a busy lunch hour, as the restaurant is hidden away at the side of a shopping center.      I knew that the Searses had the Newton LPOA; not sure if I knew about the Hickory location. On the way back I took a chance that I could find the Hickory restaurant, still selling 'cue as Post Office Barbecue. No map, no smartphone, no luck. I had directions to the Newton restaurant, which is another remarkable time capsule.

It is no longer in the Sears family, but the subsequent owners have had the good sense to preserve it. I would have eaten there, but they are closed on Monday. Next time. The trip concluded with a stop at the LPOA in Asheville, another member of the class of 1963, It's another one that still has original family ties. Joe Swicegood, who started it, passed away this past March. 

I'm still amazed that North Carolina, which has such a distinctive barbecue tradition, was home to several LPOA franchise restaurants in the 1960s and has so many of them still going (there is also College Barbecue in Salisbury, another well-preserved shop). 

GARDEN PARTY    According to the folks at the Cupboard, Ripley tomato season may already be done.

A month at most, hard to believe. The restaurant was our source for Ripleys after the demise of Easy-Way. The big-name grocers are missing in action, as usual. I probably should drag my carcass out of bed some Saturday morning and get to a farmers market.    Easy-Way was also our source for lady cream peas, but I think I have that figured out. I grew some last year with decent results, and got an earlier start this summer. I’m pleased, to say the least.