Revamped Front Street Deli plans April return
A refreshed Front Street Deli is to reopen in early April after closing Monday for renovations and creation of a new menu.
The real estate investor restoring the 90-year-old Broadmoor Apartments near Crump Stadium in Memphis has bought the venerable restaurant on Front Street that gained fame as a setting in the film “The Firm.”
“I have got one of the most iconic delis located in one of the prime real estate spots in the city,” Jon Hodge said of the corner of Front Street and Union Avenue.
The tiny delicatessen comprises just 330 square feet, but stands in the middle of Downtown’s old Cotton Row and is perched atop the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.
Hodge has hired well-known Memphis restaurateur Ben McLean and chef Rob Ray as consultants who will shape the operations and menu.
“We’re going to get the name, the quality, the freshness, all that, back into the thoughts of the Downtown worker,” McLean said. “Because right now we think that Front Street Deli may have lost its luster. We’d like to bring that back.”
After Hodge gets the business open, he’ll start a second phase to provide fullservice catering and delivery.
The deli was opened more than 40 years ago by brothers Larry and Lee Busby. After Lee died in 2013, Carol and Lance Silkes took over the business, which leases the space from restaurateurs John and Ellen Vergos.
Earlier this month, Carol Silkes announced the business was sold.
“With any place this age and with this much use,” Hodge wrote in a statement this week, “at some point a restoration must occur to preserve what is left. With any of my restoration projects, it takes time, capital, the right people and the vision to make it successful.
“You can’t do a ‘quick fix and flip’ on a project like this. I want people to see the history of what this place has been for so many Memphians and others abroad,” Hodge said.
He has taken on bigger and more complex real estate projects, but “this hole in the wall is the only one that people want to truly talk to me about,” he said.
Credit actor Tom Cruise for at least part of the allure. He starred in “The Firm,” the 1993 film directed by Sydney Pollack. A scene with Cruise was filmed in Front Street Deli.
Photos of Cruise, the working film crew and an elaborately printed invitation to attend the Hollywood premiere are among about 75 pieces of Front Street Deli memorabilia in Hodge’s possession. He has the framed pictures, early menus, newspaper clippings and other items spread across the conference table of his construction business, Contracting Solutions, east of Memphis International.
The conference room’s white board still shows notes from a brainstorming session under the heading “Front Street Deli.”
A column of categories states: “Building, restore, update, welcome, serve, outside area.” Other words on the board include: “Goals?” “ordering,” “menu selections,” “Interior designs,” “options,” “feel,” “look,” “New Improved,” “Keep the feel” and “Incorporate community.”
The category “memorabilia selection” refers to the wall where Hodge will display many of the items on and around the conference table.
“Even though this business is of great value,” Hodge’s statement says. “the real value is the memorabilia that has surfaced and will be brought back into the spotlight. Personal notes from Tom Cruise, original photographs of the city from the early 1900s, items of interest from the film ‘The Firm,’ the first original deposit slip from 1976, and unique collection of items from the Busby family are a few of the items I have uncovered so far.”