The Four Way still serves it up for the soul
The Four Way is undoubtedly one of the most iconic restaurants in Memphis, known for its heart-warming soul food and even more as its place in history.
It was one of many restaurants around the country known as gathering spots during the tumultuous times of the civil rights era. The Four Way, important before and still today, was of particular significance in the months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s last visit to Memphis.
There will be more about the restaurant’s importance to the community organizers in an April 3 story in The Commercial Appeal’s Food section; today we review the food.
But a little history
Irene and Clint Cleaves opened the Four Way Grill in 1946. Clint Cleaves was former Memphis mayor E.H. Crump’s chauffeur. As the restaurant grew from a tiny counter in a pool hall with an adjacent barber shop to having a full dining room, it became perhaps the only place in town where black and white diners customarily sat together to break bread. Crump liked the food and encouraged his friends and colleagues to go there. Folks would ring a doorbell in back to be admitted to the main dining room.
For years, the restaurant thrived, serving locals and visiting dignitaries. Irene Cleaves ran it herself until age caught up with her, then helped her family run the restaurant until she became ill. Eventually it was too much and in 1996, The Four Way was shuttered by the state for nonpayment of taxes.
Someone bought it, kept it open briefly and then in 2001, Willie Bates, who grew up in the neighborhood and wanted to preserve the restaurant, bought it on the courthouse steps and kept it going in the tradition of the Cleaves family until his death last year. Now it’s owned by Patrice Thompson, Bates’ daughter. The food is the same — maybe even a bit better — and the crowds are just as robust.
(All entrees come with two sides.) Turkey and dressing ($8.99); fried chicken (dark, $8.49; white, $8.99); fried catfish ($10.99); neckbones ($8.99); fried green tomatoes ($3.99 for 3 or $5.99 for 6). No
The food
Irene Cleaves was the voice behind the King Cotton “rightly seasoned” campaign, one any longtime Memphian knows by heart, but those words were also the slogan for the restaurant and mostly holds true today.
The turnip greens were overcooked and bitter on a recent visit, but the cabbage was excellent, cooked just tender and served simply with butter and a bit of salt. Fried green tomatoes were in a thick cornmeal crust that had a nice crunch and a good flavor (the ranch dressing on the side is unnecessary, but harmless as whether to use it is your choice).
They definitely know how to fry at The Four Way. The catfish was also dipped in a cornmeal crust and while the pieces were big and meaty, they were sufficiently coated to be crisp.
The fried chicken — we ordered the dark meat — was also heavily battered and thus crunchy and also (I can’t help it) rightly seasoned. The thigh was better than the leg, which is always the case for me.
Country fried steak is a little confusing on any menu: Are you going to get crisp chicken fried steak or the softer battered steak that’s finished in gravy? At The Four Way, it’s the latter and it’s mighty good.
The pounded steak is tender, dipped in flour and pan fried, then cooked in rich brown gravy for serving. Get the gravy on your mashed potatoes, too.
Besides the cabbage, a couple of sides you want to be sure to order are pinto beans, cooked until slightly creamy, and mac and cheese. It’s baked and was the gooey, sticky kind topped with more cheese, my favorite next to the one topped with bread crumbs.
Neck bones aren’t for everyone, but they are for me, and The Four Way’s are good. Meat near the bone is generally the most flavorful, and pork neck bones are just pockets of meat plucked from bones. It’s intense, in flavor and in practice as it requires the deft use of fork and fingers, though worth every bit of trouble.
And I’m saving the best for last: You can have Thanksgiving every day at The Four Way. The turkey and dressing is the real deal, meat carved from a real turkey, sage dressing, giblet gravy and the sides of your choice.
The rest
The Four Way is hallowed ground. As a restaurant frequented by both black and white diners from the time it opened, it was an island of unity in a mid-century Southern city. It not only served civil rights leaders and activists, but politicians and entertainers. Elvis Presley took meals there. And of course, it was where Dr. King ate when he was in town.
Service is always friendly and welcoming, and generally it’s efficient. But my last visit to Four Way was on a Sunday, and be warned: You will wait, first for a seat and then on your food, because it’s packed when it comes time for Sunday dinner. Being so busy, it was also chaotic.
Several tables of people who arrived after us were served before us and I had to ask three times for someone to check on our food before anyone did, then still had to wait for it to come. I would’ve left if I hadn’t been working, because more than an hour is too long to wait for meat and two.
“If you come on a Sunday, you have to pack a lot a patience,” Thompson said. “People don’t realize that with all the people you see sitting around, we have that many or more to-go orders coming out of the kitchen. It’s very, very busy.”
The solution? Don’t go on Sunday. You have five other days to enjoy it.
901-507-1519 Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Reviewer’s choice: