Dine Around Memphis

Memphis is home to the super-hip Hog & Hominy restaurant. It has received glowing reviews from the likes of the NY Times and GQ, not to mention local publications as well. The food is a combination of Southern + Italian that is rather unique. DF and I went to check it out on Saturday night a little before 7pm, and we only had to wait about 15 minutes for a table (they don't take reservations). We waited at the back bar, which you access by going through a door that is also a bookshelf, and which has picnic tables and board games to accommodate the patrons. Clever!

All the waitstaff were dressed like hipsters. Seriously! Their uniform appears to be a plaid shirt of any color/style, jeans, and a long black apron. Most of the male workers had some facial hair. But they still said "y'all" and were friendly. I guess it's like a hipster vibe with Southern hospitality :)

For dinner, we got collard greens, meatballs, and Roman gnocchi. Everything was tasty but hard to describe. Also I forgot to take pictures. Guess y'all just need to come to Memphis to try it!

It reminded me of Red Haven restaurant I went to in Lansing, MI earlier this year with the locally-sourced fancy food vibe, except H&H wasn't as pretentious. I give it 4.5 stars! It lost half a star for being too noisy. Seriously, DF and I could barely hear each other across our 2-person table.

Sunday's dinner was at restaurant #2 - Pyro's Fire Fresh Pizza. Pyro's is basically like a Chipotle that makes wood-fired pizzas instead of burritos. Apparently it's known as a "high end fast casual concept" restaurant. You walk past a line of ingredients and tell the worker exactly what you want on your pizza. Then they stick it in the oven and it (allegedly) comes out in 4 minutes. Ours was more like 10 minutes, but that is still pretty quick for a customized pizza, and they've only been open a week.

Memphis is the first location - the founders have a vision to make this a chain throughout the mid-south. After only 1 visit, I can't predict if they'll be successful or not. They let you have as many toppings on a pizza as you want for the same price ($8.30 for an 11 inch pizza). Seems like customers could take advantage of that. But I'm sure these guys did their market research before establishing a price point.

Here's what the pizza looks like when it comes to your table. It was tasty!