Tenero Cafe & Butcher opens in East Memphis
Since moving to Memphis from the Midwest more than 20 years ago, Scott Tilton has been longing for a butcher shop like the ones he used to shop at in Chicago.
Last year, he decided he would have to build his own. Tenero Cafe & Butcher is his dream turned reality.
“I just want some really good meat like I get in the Midwest,” said Tilton, explaining that he would often stock up on meats when traveling home.
Just as he started looking for a location, Southall Café went up for sale. He took ownership in November, and has been busy working on the rebranding and reinvention of the almost two-yearold breakfast and lunch café.
The changeover is almost complete and signs for Tenero Cafe & Butcher went up Friday on the building at 669 S. Mendenhall Road.
The restaurant is now open while final touches to the building are in the works. Expect to see the complete changes to the former Southall Café by the first week of May.
What to expect
Tenero Cafe & Butcher will be a combination full-service butcher shop and café.
The right side of the former Southall dining room is being transformed into a butcher shop with an 18-foot counter.
In addition to prime cuts of beef like rib-eyes and tenderloins, expect to find items like house-made sausages, shish kabobs, bacon-wrapped asparagus and twice-baked potatoes.
Mike Conklin, a butcher with more than 25 years experience, has moved to Memphis from Iowa to be head butcher.
The shop will also offer a wide variety of house-made brats. “Jalapeno-cheddar, beer brats, blue cheese brats, even a breakfast brat made with pork and hash browns,” Tilton said.
Beef will be sourced from Kansas and Nebraska, while pork will come from Iowa. “It’s all farm-raised and antibiotic-free,” said Tilton.
Chef Tom Hughes, who formerly worked as head chef at Chickasaw Country Club and TPC Southwind, has taken over the kitchen.
Tilton said Hughes has already improved the existing Southall menu.
“We have the best French toast and our pancakes are light and fluffy,” said Tilton. “Plus we now have our own applewood-smoked bacon and sausage. That’s the beauty of having a butcher in house.”
Due to the parking constraints of Williamsburg Village, the restaurant will continue to be limited to breakfast and lunch. The one exception will be Sunday night dinner.
On Sunday nights, Tilton said to expect dishes like a traditional Iowa pork tenderloin sandwich, a menu of smash burgers and appetizers like house-made pimento cheese with fried pork rinds.
The Sunday night dinner service kicked off April 24.
“We are excited for patio season. With the lights on the patio, it’s going to be a great place for dinner on Sunday nights,” said general manager Jena Black, adding that she is eager for customers to see the changes to the restaurant.
How it came to be
Tilton partnered with his longtime friend Larry Whitty to create Tenero Cafe and Butcher. It’s a concept the two hope to one day franchise.
“Larry had tried forever to get me to open a restaurant with him,” Tilton said. “I started telling him about two years ago I wanted to open a butcher shop, but wouldn’t do it unless he came to help. Finally he said ‘I’m coming.’”
Whitty grew up in the restaurant business. His father Joe Whitty created the Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream chain in 1972. It now has more than a hundred locations across the globe.
Tilton added that he knew that if they were going to open a concept, they had to make it something that could be franchised. Whitty was the perfect partner to help make that happen. “It was his idea to have a restaurant as part of the butcher shop,” Tilton said.
The name has personal meaning for Tilton.
“Tenero means ‘tender’ in Italian,” he said. “My wife is Italian and her grandfather had a butcher shop in Chicago.”
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining Reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.