Mellow Mushroom pizzeria signs lease for Eastgate site
Pizza wars are coming to the Park Avenue shopping strip in East Memphis.
Operators of the Memphis area’s first Mellow Mushroom f ranchise have signed a lease to open a second restaurant in the old Union Planters Bank Eastgate branch building.
That’s across Park Ave- nue from one of local chain Memphis Pizza Cafe’s stores at 5061 Park.
Mellow Ventures LLC signed a 15-year lease with Eastgate Shopping Center’s owner for the distinctive 7,800-squarefoot building. Crye-Leike Commercial real estate broker Cathy Anderson represented the tenant in negotiations with Eastgate Center LLC.
Cary and Lori Fairless, who opened the area’s first Mellow Mushroom at Shops of Forest Hill in Germantown in 2010, are partnering with Andy Harvey on the East Memphis store. It should be open by next spring.
The bank building dates to the 1960s. It was vacated in April by AAA Auto Club Group, which moved to Germantown Parkway after 17 years on the corner.
Mellow Mushroom is a franchised restaurant based in Atlanta. It specializes in a rock-and-roll atmosphere, stone-baked pizza and a vast array of beers.
The Germantown store was a finalist for best pizza restaurant in this year’s Memphis Most awards. Memphis Pizza Cafe took top honors in the balloting by readers of The Commercial Appeal.