The Beauty Shop - Memphis, TN

[dougw]

Being a New Yorker, I rarely venture outside the realm of soul food and barbecue when I come back to my hometown of Memphis. Even with fine places like Blue Smoke and Dinosaur, there's nothing like eating some smoky pork sandwiches with the mustardy slaw at Topps, or the Best Sandwich Ever, Spicy Brisket at the Mecca of all that is good, Cozy Corner. But tonight, my darling mother sat with our boy and I got a date with the wife.

We had been hearing about a place in the revitalized Cooper-Young area of town. When I was a kid, this place was run down and dilapidated, but it's become the new place for good fun and artistic personalities to convene. One of the more popular places in this area is called The Beauty Shop. Like The French Laundry, the name of the place says it all. Right down to the old-school hairdryer seats, this place was an old beauty parlor. A lot of bouffants came out of this joint back in the day, I'm sure. Anyway, we decided on an early supper and came in hungry.

The menu was a bit confusing, separating the starters from the "small plates", when they all seemed to be about the same. We settled on a beet salad and the serrano-gruyere croquets to start. The croquettes were luscious. Molten gruyere and thinly sliced serrano ham were crusted with panko and fried golden brown. The beet salad was pretty standard fare, but perfectly executed. Identical cubes of beets and calamata olives dressed in a citrusy vinagrette were sitting below some sharp watercress. Leaning in on the beet pile were three perfect quenelles of goat cheese with fines herbes. A lovely start.

For entrees, my wife got the lamb chops with smashed goat cheese fingerlings and chopped olives. Sadly, they left a pit in there and it hurt sweetie's tooth. But the flavor was outstanding. The sharpness of the olives and goat cheese was balanced by the cream in the potatoes and the buttery texture of the rare lamb.

I chose the pork chop with a green apple and creole mustard relish atop a cauliflower soubise. My server asked if it was OK to have my chop medium rare, and I said OK. It was a little more like medium, which was fine because it was juicy and full of flavor. The only thing out of place in this dish was a sort of fancy jalapeno popper. It was actually a pepperoncino stuffed, again, with goat cheese, and fried in tempura batter. I would have loved this as a starter, but it didn't seem to fit in with the autumnal feel of the rest of the dish. In the poorest of manners, I used my finger to mop up the soubise. They didn't serve any bread at all, which I really like sometimes. I love bread, far too much in fact. But it's nice to have a meal without it even when it isn't sushi. We each had a glass of Kim Krawford Sauvingnon Blanc, which is a favorite of mine, but paired far better with my pork than her lamb.

Desserts came from Sugaree's in New Albany, MS. My wife had the coconut cake, and I had the caramel cake. Both were outstanding. My wife's strawberry coulis was far too sweet for her, but that was a minor complaint. My caramel sauce was great. I had never had strawberries and caramel. I like it a lot. A nice fresh vanilla gelato accompanied both cakes and it was fine. I wish more restaurants put more time into making great coffee. It is a detail that goes overlooked far too often.

Having recently read a lot about Michael Symon, this place seems to be shooting for a Lola type of thing. Now, I haven't eaten Symon's food, and I'm sure The Beauty Shop isn't quite on his level yet. But I must say I enjoyed my meal very much and am eager to return next time I'm visiting my people.

Edited December 28, 2007 by dougw (log)

[K8memphis]

How cool How cool to see The Beauty Shop mentioned, rollers and all. I haven't eaten there in quite a while but it is an awesome and totally Memphis one of kind place. The layer cake there is amazing. Love the food. We had brunch-y type stuff last time we were there. Some incredible pancakes etc, been too long ago to remember so I guess we need to get out there.

Karen Carrier also owns Automatic Slim's Tonga Club downtown across from The Peabody. She packs it out on the weekends. And the sushi place next door to The Beauty Shop. And Cielo in the Victorian Village. Another Roadside Attraction delivers fantastic catering too. Cielo has recently gone to more a tapas type menu. Man, Chef Dave was amazing there. Lobster beignets floated down from heaven melted in your mouth.

Once upon a time Chef-boy worked at all those places.

We should get out to The Beauty Shop.

BTW-pretty sure Priscilla Presley used to get her hair done there or Elvis' Mom. I'll get my trivia straight and report back.

[dougw]

Ah yes....Automatic Slim's. Back in the day when I was still living there I used to play in a band that worked at Slim's every now and again. Fun place, although I never ate there once.

Unless of course, you consider beer consumption tantamount to eating. Which I did.