I had so much fun last week with the Dining Duo at Brushy Mountain, I followed them on a trip to Memphis where they dined in one of the city’s nice restaurants: The Capital Grille, 6065 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, 38119.
Not really used to Art Deco chandeliers, chair length table cloths and candle light, especially in the early afternoon, so I was a little taken aback. Then I truly got distracted by the paintings that lined the African mahogany-paneled walls.
The wall-covered paintings located much of the history in Memphis: Danny Thomas, Maxine Smith, Clarence Saunders and Elvis Presley.
Danny Thomas was an actor and comedian but more impactfully, the founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a pediatric treatment and research hospital headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. It focuses on children’s catastrophic diseases, particularly leukemia and other cancers.
Maxine Smith (Elvis in the far bottom corner)
Maxine Smith was born on October 30, 1929, in Memphis, graduated from Booker T. Washington High School at 16 and earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College and her master’s from Middlebury College in Vermont. She was a lead civil rights activist, helped organize the desegregation of the Memphis public schools in 1960 and escorted the first 13 elementary students to school.
Clarence Saunders founded America’s first true self-service grocery store in Memphis: Piggly Wiggly. In grocery stores of that time, shoppers presented their orders to clerks who then gathered the goods from the store shelves. Saunders came up with an unheard-of solution to save employee time and would revolutionize the entire grocery industry: he developed a way for shoppers to serve themselves.
Elvis Presley died August 16, 1977, in his adopted hometown of Memphis. Elvis was an American popular singer widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll,” a dominant performer from the mid-1950s until his death.
I did think it was little over-the-top to have multiple pictures of fox hunting which has always shown such unfair advantage over us poor foxes trying to outrun people, dogs and horses.
Duos each had a version of the New York Strip steak, one whole and one in frites, that were so tender, the meat cut with the fork. Served with specialty mashed potatoes and clam chowder, ‘delicious’ does not do the meal justice.
The Duo highly recommends visiting The Capital Grille, a high-end Darden property. (Darden owns Olive Garden and few others.) Hours through the week are 3-9 p.m., except Friday is 3-10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays only serve dinner guests: 5-10 p.m. and 4-8 p.m., respectively.
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