How to make Shelby Farms even more inviting
The Kitchen American Bistro at Shelby Farms is closing. That’s bad news for the hard-working employees losing their jobs, but it represents a great opportunity for the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy.
Park leaders can rectify their decision to desecrate a taxpayer-funded park in one of America’s poorest cities with an out-of-town-owned, $16-hamburger and $18-pasta joint where only Memphis’ most affluent can afford to eat.
The Conservancy can transform the location from an island of exclusivity into an all-day family and pocketbookfriendly place of inclusion.
The Kitchenette, with its underwhelming selection of overpriced snacks, already was closed. The two vacancies give the Conservancy an opportunity to provide better food options, grow revenue and increase park attendance.
In order to ensure the next selection leaves a good taste in Memphians’ mouths, I offer these suggestions and guiding principles:
❚ Solicit public input about how to best use the space. Ask a representative sample of Memphians what type of food, drink experience and togetherness experiences they’d like. There are a lot of great minds in this town. Leverage them.
❚ Maximize availability. In the morning, there is no place for coffee, pastries or breakfast before or after a run or walk around the lake. A new place should attract and serve early risers who want to eat and enjoy the sunrise on the lake. That would generate employment and revenue from sunrise to after sunset.
❚ Make better use of the patio space. Today, the patio lacks any heaters or plastic curtains to keep the space warm during the cooler months and evenings. The patio has one of the best views and is one of the best spaces in all of Memphis. There should be a more creative approach to enabling people to use the patio year round and on cooler evenings.
❚ Make it pocketbook- and familyfriendly. I can occasionally afford $16 burgers for date night with my wife. I can’t afford to spend over $100 on burgers and fries for my family of five. (Sorry kids, maybe once you get out of college.) A new restaurant should be financially accessible to a majority of Memphians, not just the few. I’d love to be able to grab lunch with my family after a walk around the lake without having it take a major bite out of my wallet.
❚ Keep it locally owned and managed. There are a lot of great restauranteurs in this town.
❚ Encourage economic inclusion. In a city that struggles with economic and cultural inclusion, the park can be a leader. Get women and people of color to run the location. Require that the staff reflects Memphis demographics. The park is an economic development asset and needs to be leveraged to grow opportunities for all Memphians.
❚ View food trucks as partners, not competitors. Food trucks bring food diversity and excitement and should be welcomed, not excluded.
Shelby Farms is an amazing place and the replacements for the Kitchen and Kitchenette should make the best use of their space for the maximum benefit of the entire community.
Kevin Mireles and his family live in Germantown and bike to Shelby Farms.