Memphis and Restaurant Review

G1, for various reasons will not be able to jam tonight.

Last night I was able to get by his very nice house for the amp exchange. One pristine Mesa Boogie Blue Angel amp with 4 10 inch speakers in the cab--it is all one unit --for a 1966 vintage Fender Bassman amp with a Mesa speaker cab with one 12 inch speaker. Speaker cord and amp cover included. For some reason the bassman lends itself better to the harp, although I did like the Blue Angel.

But what a bear that Mesa was to load and unload in my car. Since it was one big unit, maneuvering it to fit in was a task. The new rig is two smaller, lighter units, and much easier to carry.

It looks like no electric jam tonight but probably a little acoustic get together with the bass player and his friends at his house, in the back yard by a big fire pit.

This brings me to the restaurant review. Bass player and his lovely wife bought a building in the artsy Cooper-Young district in Memphis. They converted into the coolest restaurant in the area. For whatever reason, they only serve breakfast and lunch, but they do cater night time parties and group events on site at night.

I had breakfast there this morning and was caught by surprise in every respect. The place is immediately comfortable and hospitable. It is hip without the usual over the top stuff usually done around here to announce that the place is chic. Those places end up being uncomfortable except to the special regular crowd of posers.

Stone Soup--the name of this establishment--is extraordinary in that it is ultra clean, very relaxed and has the sharpest, most competent staff I've seen just about anywhere.

All the bread and biscuits are made on site from scratch. If you know Memphis, the lady who used to own Buns On The Run now works at Stone. My tour included the kitchen which looks like the kind you see on those chef shows, except it may be cleaner.

The called it "oats" on the menu. I call it oat meal, and it was the best I have ever had; served with a side dish of raisons and one of brown sugar so you can doctor it up how you wish. Eggs cooked perfectly, in butter, I think. Something made them better. The biscuit was good enough that you could eat it without butter or anything and not complain, although I added butter because I could. I sampled the toast that was a slice about 2 inches thick, at least, and it was also good enough without adding a thing. They make great bread.

Another clue for me about a place is how they handle the simple task of cooking potatoes. It is surprising how most eateries struggle with that while pretending they are doing a good job. M hashbrowns were neither greasy nor undercooked. Not overcooked. I don't knw what they do but it comes out just right. Usually you have to pie on pepper or salt or something to make them edible. Like the bread, the hash browns are great as is.

Most of the time, places cook potatoes on whatever was used to cook greasy meat things and you can tell it. Here they don't tend to have that bleed over from one item to the next.

All I can say is that whether you are carnivore r not, this is THE place in Memphis for lunch and breakfast. Most likely they wil grow into a dinner joint, too.

Since breakfast and lunch are my favorites, I guess a place like this suits me better than most. If you are in Memphis, try it you will like it. Just south of Cafe Ole on Cooper.