by Sarah Hall
he Blue Shoe
Bar and Grill is located within the Marriott Hotel, which is owned by Interstate
Hotel Corporation, which, in turn, owns or manages chains from Hiltons to
Sheratons to independents. As with the complicated ownership, Blue Shoe's
origins are also multi-tiered. When Interstate decided to replace Memphis
Marriott's dated restaurant Stacy's and adjoining bar Chats, the Myriad
Group -- a consulting concern out of New York that co-owns Tribecca Grill
and Nobu with Robert DeNiro, among other restaurants -- ran their concept
of a contemporary Southern menu by Interstate.
"We'd been talking about doing that style restaurant in New York," says Myriad corporate chef, Michel Nischan. "Meanwhile, Interstate was trying to come up with an idea for Memphis, so we ran the idea up the flagpole."
But before Nischan flew down to develop the recipes and train both cooks and waiters, the look of Blue Shoe had to be created. For that, Interstate hired the Dallas-based design firm Duncan and Miller. Even that step didn't follow the usual protocol, as executive chef Kip Hussar explains. "Years ago, your designer would come in, sit down with a piece of paper and draw the restaurant, pick some colors, and say, `This is it,'" he says. "When our designer came in, we took him to all the hotel restaurants, several freestanding restaurants, and Beale Street. Then we brought him back to the hotel and said, `Now this is what we want -- we have to have a breakfast buffet and a private dining room, and we only have this much money.'"
Designer Turner Duncan amazingly created a restaurant that complements Myriad's concept, meets Marriott requirements, and elevates the down-home style of Memphis cuisine. The changes are immediately apparent upon entering the open space. Gone is Stacy's strict walled division between bar and restaurant where patrons had to leave Chats to eat. The back portion of the upper level, known as "the library," was completely removed to provide an unobtrusive spot for the breakfast buffet. Dark wood molding and floors, photographs, and a few too frequent Elvis tunes lend a local touch to Blue Shoe. Brightly painted columns of Picasso-like overlapping shapes and elongated booths add to the welcoming feel. Smaller details like beaded light fixtures and glass partitions etched with a saxophone design disguise the fact that a 14-story tower of 320 rooms looms right outside the courtyard.
Once Stacy's was transformed, Nischan came in for three weeks. His arrival, he says, was not entirely without suspicion.
"The entire kitchen staff was from the South and here comes this Yankee from New York," he remembers. "Everybody was looking at me out of the corner of their eye until I made a batch of fried chicken and collard greens. They tried it and said it was `just like their mama makes.'" And from then on, says Nischan, he had no problem in the kitchen. Next, Nischan moved into the dining room to train the servers. Blue Shoe adopted Myriad's team service system, assigning each table a waiter, a dining-room assistant, and a runner, which Nischan says benefits everyone including the wait staff, all of whom pool their tips at the end of each shift.
Service aside, the menu is what really sets Blue Shoe apart from typical hotel restaurants. There is no club sandwich on the menu, but instead a roasted turkey breast sandwich on cranberry bread with tan ranch dressing ($6.25); fries are made with sweet potatoes; both an open-faced meatloaf sandwich ($7.25) and entree ($10.95) are served with wild mushroom gravy; and the breakfast buffet offers custom-made omelettes and waffles every morning.
Restaurant chef Richard Dale says the unconventional-by-hotel-standards menu wasn't exactly embraced by the guests right away. "People would call down for room service and want a club sandwich," he says, "and we'd tell them we don't have a club, but we have a great turkey sandwich on cranberry bread."
"We're still giving it to them," Hussar adds. "They may look at it kind of funny at first, but after they try it they like it. And that's the key. We can usually get someone to try something new, so we have to get it right every time."