New Tops BAR-B-Q set to open in Bartlett
A new Tops BAR-B-Q is set to open in Bartlett this month.
The Memphis barbecue chain will open its 16th location at 6745 Stage Road. Tiger Bryant, one of the owners of Tops, said the building is ready to go and just waiting on a final inspection.
This will be the first new Tops to open under the company's new ownership group.
In April 2019, the restaurant chain announced it had been acquired by an investor group led by Darrell Horn, Matt Salisbury and Tiger Bryant, a local restaurateur and founder of Soulfish Café and Young Avenue Deli.
Horn said this new location is the first of many. “When we were looking at Tops in diligence, the most appealing thing was that Tops had not gone into areas like Bartlett, Germantown, Cordova, Downtown, Collierville and Lakeland. Our plan is to open in all of those locations, plus more. It will take a few years, but we will get there.”
The new restaurant will showcase the new look for the chain. Glennys Cowles Bryant of GCD Interiors designed the restaurant.
“We wanted to take the old feel and pay homage to it — but refresh it,” said Tiger Bryant of the new updated look that will be used for all the new restaurants.
The building, which was formerly a Sheridan's Frozen Custard, has been fully remodeled. The 2,700-square-foot building will seat about 40 guests once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. (Tops' dining rooms are currently closed.) The restaurant is similar in size to the East Memphis location near Poplar and White Station Road. The location does have a drive-thru.
The menu will be the same as at all locations.
For more than 65 years, the awardwinning Tops BAR-B-Q has been serving classic Memphis-style barbecue and burgers in a casual, fast-food setting. The restaurant group prides itself on cooking pork shoulders just the way it has from the beginning — "real pit barb-q slow cooked with hardwood, charcoal, and green hickory wood.” Over the decades, Tops' cooked-to-order burgers have become as popular as the barbecue.
Tiger Bryant said the team at Tops is excited about the new location. "Bartlett is a strong market. Most households are families with two kids in the backyard," he said. "We are trying to pick locations in prime neighborhoods for our new restaurants."
The restaurant will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.