#big will's

   I love it when old and new bits of barbecue information come out of the blue and link up.    Every couple of years or so, this site gets a message from a reader. Earlier this year, one came in and sat for a few months before I finally noticed it.  It was from a grandson of A.B. Coleman, a famous figure in Memphis barbecue, and this was attached –

   The work of A.B. Coleman – first with Loeb’s and then with his namesake barbecue chain – was detailed here a few years ago. Before those ventures, Coleman had brief stints with Tops and Little Pigs of America and then opened his own Tasty Pit Bar-B-Q shops. The first was on Winchester, the second at 698 Waring, This picture, framed along with a dollar bill, notes the beginning of Coleman’s association with Loeb’s. Coleman is second from the right, and his wife is third from the right. The dollar bill is signed by William Loeb and dated May 21, 1963, probably to celebrate their business collaboration.    I showed the picture to Showboat Barbecue’s Porter Moss, who worked with Coleman to build the Loeb’s and Coleman’s businesses, to see if he could identify the other people in the photo. No luck, but he did say that the picture was taken at the Waring shop. It was also apparently used for advertising or promotional purposes, as it still has the china marker crop marks. I haven’t run across it anywhere, but I did find this Loeb’s ad that has a picture from the Waring shop.

Here is the Waring Road strip as it looked in the mid-1960s 

    That was going to be the extent of this post – pretty neat with such a great piece of history – but yesterday (Thursday) morning I opened The Commercial Appeal website and saw the story about all of the dining opportunities available along Summer Avenue (truly amazing).  Down in the story was a mention of this place, at 698 Waring.

   Wow. The old barbecue site, off and on a ghost pit, had come full circle. So I added lunch to my list of errands. I had eaten breakfast there back in the 1980s when it was a Brad’s Barbecue, and had talked a bit with the owner of the catering business that was the last occupant of the space. Big Will is William Rhodes, and this is his first restaurant. I didn’t get to talk to him, as he was busy in the kitchen, but I got some info from his niece, LaSaundra, who was running the front of the house.

   They have been open for a couple of months. The exciting news is that they are cooking in the old pit. Kudos to Big Will for that.  It’s a gutsy move to open up flanked by two of the city’s biggest barbecue names – Central and Tops – but the soul food offerings should help him carve out a niche. I’ll have to try that menu next time. This day I ordered a pork sandwich, and devoured it before it occurred to me that I should have snapped a pic of it. It was chopped a bit more finely than I like (as Tops is sometimes), and the mild sauce could have had more zip. But it’s solidly in the Memphis middle – a bar that sits pretty high.

Here is the regular menu, which is augmented by daily chalkboard offerings. Big Will’s brought back memories of Cave’s Soul Food & More in Vollintine-Evergreen, run by Carl Johnson until his untimely death a couple of years ago. I miss that place. I’m betting Carl would be excited by the new look of the Grizzlies.

    I'm closing in on two years of ownership of my first used car, and in that time I've gotten familiar with the pull-a-part auto yards in the city. Not for anything major, as the car has (knock on wood) been rock solid, but for small things to make it a little more user friendly.     One of these auto yards is on Mitchell Road in southwest Memphis, and getting there takes me past this old ghost pit that I first photographed in June 2011.

    It came on the radar as Boddie's Bar-B-Q, part of the 84 in ‘84 barbecue restaurant feature in The Commercial Appeal. Probably because of its out-of-the-way location, I never looked into it until now. Last month, on my way to the auto yard, I was stunned to see this.

    It's a new restaurant, more than twice the size of the original building, and one of the guys working there said the old pit would be kept. That suggests some type of barbecue/soul food place. He was elated that the area would have a real restaurant.    It's a fascinating story (to me, anyway). Restaurants are among the most fragile of new businesses (more on that later), so this investment in one of the city's poorest areas is impressive. Hats off to the folks behind it. I've pitched this story to the CA, but my track record in that regard isn't good. We'll see.   Anyway, here's a quick history of the place: Built in 1977, known as Johnson's Burger Bar in 1978 and 1979, as Lott's Burger Bar in 1981, vacant in 1983, then as Boddie's  Bar-B-Q in 1983 and 1984, as Coney Island in 1985, vacant until 1990 when it became home to a beauty salon for about a decade. I stopped looking after that. It has been closed/unchanged in the nearly seven years I've known about it. I have no idea when it was Frank's (photo from 2011; sign has several holes in it now).

    Here's what the CA said about Boddie's in 1984 in its Memphis in May restaurant roundup for barbecue week:    Boddie's Barbeque, 203 Mitchell Road West, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday. Seats 10, mostly carryout. Menu includes plate lunches, hamburgers, fish sandwiches, fish filets, hot dogs, bologna sandwiches, occasionally ribs, side orders, beer. Regular barbecue sandwich, $1.75.    I haven't been able to find out anything about Walter and Jannie Boddie. They were mysteries in 1983, and remain so. I'm thinking they should still be around. Help, anyone?

A FRAGILE BUSINESS      Seeing the place on Mitchell Road made me think that I should revisit Big Will's, a place on Waring I wrote about a few months back that had opened in one of A.B. Coleman's first barbecue restaurants. Sadly, the sign was gone, and this was the view inside.