Like bees humming inside a honeycomb, human beings flit about the new location of Hive as they bring pastries, sandwiches, and bagels to their tables or cars. “The crowd is busy,” Josh Steiner says. “It’s fun. It’s entertaining. Electric. They’re out the door for sure. They’re past Huey’s.”
Steiner, owner of both Hives, opened his second location this August 29th at 585 Erin Drive in East Memphis. It’s been almost exactly three years since he opened the first location downtown at 276 South Front, Suite 105. Like Hive Downtown, the new Hive is wildly successful.
What’s the attraction? “The size of it, and just the fact that I was able to complete the vision that we did with Downtown. Just being able to make fresh bread and bagels. And a great product for our city.”
People are “just so excited that they have a place to get fresh bagels and bread,” Steiner says, adding, “They’re happy to see another local restaurant in their city.”
The newest Hive, which is in the old Holiday Deli & Ham Co. location, is 5,000 square feet vs. the original location’s 1,100 square feet. In addition to a more spacious dining area, the East Memphis Hive has a special room making pastries, one for making sandwiches and prepping food, and another for making bagels and sourdough bread.
Berenger Garnica and Chloe Carter
The wood and the natural look of the new place is “just welcoming,” Steiner says, adding, “My wife and her mom picked out everything for the restaurant.”
Unlike the downtown Hive, which closes at 4 p.m., the new one stays open until 7 p.m. They serve breakfast and lunch. “Later, we might add some pizzas and things like that,” Steiner muses. But, for now, he says, “We’re doing what we do well. Which is breakfast and lunch.”
Among the breakfast items are the “Elvis Bagel,” with sliced banana, peanut butter, honey, and bacon; and avocado toast made with sourdough bread and, according to the menu, “smashed avocado, eggs, marinated heirloom tomatoes, aged balsamic reduction, sprouts, pepitas, and lemon zest.”
Croissantwich
Craig Wiener, whose niece, Sarah Rapp, works at the new Hive, was making yet another visit to enjoy their “Croissantwich,” which is sausage, scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, and dijonnaise. “I’ve eaten a lot of breakfast sandwiches in my life,” Wiener says. “I have never ever, ever, ever had a breakfast sandwich as good as the sausage, egg, and cheese croissant sandwich here at Hive. It blew my mind. The sausage is like a hamburger. So, two thumbs up and sunglasses up.”
The sandwich menu includes more mouth-watering items, including the “Smashed Bella” — sourdough focaccia with balsamic roasted portabella, caramelized onion, chili oil, and seasoned arugula.
“Turkey 585” is sourdough rye focaccia, roasted turkey, hot honey, whole grain aioli, jalapeño cream cheese, heirloom tomato, red onion, and bacon.
The special “Little Ones” section of Hive’s menu includes the “Little Leo” — a Belgian sweet potato waffle with syrup and honey butter.
As always, Steiner uses honey from his own beehives “in all of our products.” In a 2022 Memphis Flyer story, Steiner, who became a beekeeper in 2016, described himself as a “bee nerd.”
He said at the time he was planning to use the honey in bagels. “We’re putting the honey in our water to boil our bagels,” he said. “That means anybody eating our bagels and our honey are not just getting local honey, but uber-local honey, in a sense, because it’s our backyard bees.”
In the same story, Steiner said he and his wife, Wallis, got the idea to open a deli/bakehouse during the pandemic. “My wife and I started selling pastries out of our kitchen and we got into it. We were doing a cooking series on Facebook.”
He took classes at the San Francisco Baking Institute, which specializes in bagels. “I wanted to learn the business side and sourcing local ingredients.”
Prior to opening Hive, Steiner was owner-operator of two restaurants: Strano! Sicilian Kitchen & Bar and Strano by Chef Josh. Lately, he’s spending more time at the East Memphis Hive location, but he will be traveling back and forth to both locations.
Why did he want a second location of Hive? “I’m trying to build a generational restaurant for my family. One location wasn’t going to be enough. I’m not trying to have Hive just for the next five years. I’m trying to build it for the next 50 years,” Steiner says.
Will Hive continue to expand? “We’re looking at other locations.”
