Contrary to rumors going around, Belmont Grill isn’t going anywhere.
“We’re not closing,” says Belmont owner-manager Jeff Anderson. But, he says, “We may be selling soon.”
It will remain the Belmont Grill, he says.
And that’s all he can say right now.
But, he reiterates, they’re not closing.
The menu gives the Belmont’s history. The beloved restaurant/bar at 4970 Poplar Avenue and Mendenhall Street, with its famous hamburgers and hot wings “was constructed between 1910 and 1920 and was originally operated as a general store by Italia Bianchi and her family on what was known as Poplar Pike in the town of White Station.”
Businesses on that corner included Bianchi Bros. Grocery and Louie’s Grill, which became Louie’s Bar & Grill in 1948. Then “sometime in the early ’60s the property was leased to Bob Lloyd, who turned it into the (infamous?) Sir Robert’s, where apparently half of East Memphis ate ham sandwiches, drank beer, and played shuffleboard.
“Alan Gary (who also founded Huey’s) acquired the business in 1974 and renamed it The Half Shell.” And, the story goes on, “10 years later, in 1983, The Half Shell moved to its current location on Mendenhall and the former Half Shell became The Belmont.”