WELCOME BACK TO THE CELEBRATE

MEMPHIS SPECIAL — LIVE FROM TOM

LEE PARK AND MEMPHIS IN MAY.

I CAN’T THINK OF A BETTER WAY TO

CELEBRATE MEMPHIS’ 200TH

BIRTHDAY.

ASK SOMEONE WHAT COMES TO MIND

WHEN THEY THINK OF MEMPHIS …

AND CHANCES ARE … “BARBECUE”

WILL MAKE THEIR TOP FIVE LIST.

AFTER ALL … WE ARE THE HOME

OF THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

COOKING CONTEST … AND DOZENS

OF LOCAL RESTAURANTS THAT SERVE

RIBS AND PULLED PORK.

AS THE CITY OF MEMPHIS MARKS ITS

BICENTENNIAL … WE CELEBRATE

THE HISTORY OF MEMPHIS FOOD..

AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE

FUTURE. GOOD DAY MEMPHIS ANCHOR

JOHN PAUL DIGS INTO THE BLUFF

CITY’S BARBECUE AND ITS EVOLVING

FOOD SCENE.

JOHN PAUL/REPORTING: CHOPPED.

PULLED. WET OR DRY….

MEMPHIS IS WHERE YOU WILL FIND

THE BEST BARBECUE in the WORLD.

nats

THE PATRIARCH OF MEMPHIS

BARBECUE. Jim Neely/Neely

Interstate Barbecue: “I’m the

Neely that put Neely barbecue on

the map in the state of

Tennessee. It started right

here. I’m still going.” Jim

Neely/Neely Interstate Barbecue:

“I’m going to tell you when

you– eat that barbecue pork

sandwich and that slaw and that

sauce… you’d thought you die

and went to hog heaven.”

A TRIP TO INTERSTATE BARBECUE IS

LIKE A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE…

TELLING NEELY’S— AND MEMPHIS’

BARBECUE STORY. Jim Neely/Neely

Interstate Barbecue: “Memphis is

a southern town, and barbecue is

a southern thing, a southern

thing that originated back from

the slavery and sharecropping

days.”

BEFORE NEELY MOVED BACK TO

MEMPHIS AND OPENED THE DOORS,

HERE, IN THE 1970’S… HE

RECALLED THE DAYS WHEN BARBECUE

WAS PRACTICALLY ON EVERY CORNER.

Jim Neely/Neely Interstate

Barbecue: “I remember when I was

a kid in the neighborhood

somebody had barbecue so good,

and the sauce so great, you

didn’t need no meat, I’m talking

bread and barbecue sauce.”

SINCE THEN… BARBECUE HAS COME

A LONG WAY.

FROM MOM AND POP– TO THE BIG-

TIME.

MANY FAMOUS FACES HAVE ENJOYED

WHAT MANY OF US WERE PRACTICALLY

RAISED ON. PRESIDENTS.

VICE-PRESIDENTS. CELEBS. EVEN

THE ROYALS… John

Vergos/Rendezvous: “I know we

were the first restaurant in

Memphis, to the best of my

knowledge, to serve ribs,

because again, Memphis is a

shoulder town.”

JOHN VERGOS’ FATHER OPENED

RENDEZVOUS, IN DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS,

IN 1948.

THE TAVERN SOLD HAM AND CHEESE

SANDWICHES AND ODDS AND ENDS…

THEN RIBS– WITH JOHN’S FATHER’S

FAMOUS DRY RUB, WHICH HELPED IT

TAKE OFF…

John Vergos/Rendezvous: “So, he

kind of came up with this dry

rub seasoning, and those are the

original dry rub in the original

dry ribs.”

AND THE VERGOS FAMILY HAS BEEN

FEEDING IT TO THE MASSES EVER

SINCE…

John Vergos/Rendezvous: “We

feed a lot of people and

probably 50 percent is out of

town.

BUT MEMPHIS’ FOOD SCENE HAS

EVOLVED.

Kelly English/Owner, Second

Line: “We do have barbecue, but

we also have all these other

places where people are truly

telling their own stories, about

who they are, who their families

are. Presenting people with

stories on a plate.”

CHEF KELLY ENGLISH, THE OWNER OF

CHEF KELLY ENGLISH, THE OWNER OF

SECOND LINE AND RESTAURANT IRIS,

SAYS MEMPHIS IS A UNIQUE FOOD

TOWN. Kelly English/Owner,

Second Line: “People are really

not following a textbook on, on

what to cook, maybe how to cook,

but not what to cook. you go

from restaurant to restaurant

and the menus are so different.”

Jennifer Biggs/Food Writer,

Daily Memphian: “I couldn’t

agree more. I think that we

have, we’re blessed to have the

food that we have from– one

part of town to the other part

of town.”

JENNIFER BIGGS IS A VETERAN FOOD

WRITER WITH THE DAILY MEMPHIAN.

Jennifer Biggs/Food Writer,

Daily Memphian: “One thing that

we have in Memphis for a city of

our size, I think it’s

remarkable the diversity of the

food we have.”

Kelly English/Owner, Second

Line: “There’s personality in

every single place, just like

Memphis, you know.” SO WHAT DOES

THE FUTURE HOLD? JENNIFER AND

KELLY BELIEVE THAT DIVERSITY

WILL CONTINUE TO SHOW UP ON

MENUS AND YOUR PLATE. Kelly

English/Owner, Second Line:

“That is the food, that is the

people, that is the way we do

things that is the way we come

together.”

Jennifer Biggs/Food Writer,

Daily Memphian: “We have a lot

of cultural differences right

here that have played out well

for us and food, maybe not

always for everything else, but

certainly has made our food very

interesting.”

BIGGS ADDS: MEMPHIS’ FOOD

DIVERSITY RIVALS THAT OF LARGER

CITIES: WITH THE NUMBER OF

VIETNAMESE, ETHIOPIAN,

COLUMBIAN, MEXICAN, CARIBBEAN

RESTAURANTS AND EVERYTHING IN

BETWEEN. I’M JOHN PAUL FOR

CELEBRATE MEMPHIS.