There was a time that Memphis breweries and food trucks were like peanut butter and jelly or a light lager and a summer beach.
But times have changed for these seemingly inseparable pals at many — but certainly not all — local taprooms. In several places now, a trip to a brewery doesn’t immediately beg the question — “What’s the food truck tonight?” — that sends you tapping away on your phone, searching socials, and hoping the answer is Soi Number 9 or El Mero Taco.
So many Memphis breweries now make and serve their own food, instead of relying on a (sometimes unreliable) food truck. When Wiseacre Brewing Co.’s Downtown location opened in 2020, for example, its space for an in-house restaurant was a new-ish concept for new-ish Memphis breweries. (Boscos has brewed its own beer and served a full menu since it opened in 1992. But it was always intended as a brewpub, never meaning for its beers to be packaged for wholesale.)
Okay, but why the change? Flip your Memphis beer history books back to around 2013, an era we refer to as the Memphis Craft Beer Boom. Back then state law mandated that any place that served alcohol on the premises also had to have a kitchen.
That was a real bummer for beer folk who could whip up a batch of Hefeweizen easier then laying down a plate of barbecue nachos. This law also put Tennessee behind the larger craft boom happening all over the country. (Crazy to think some state law kept Tennessee behind the times, right?) So the Memphis City Council stepped in.
“No brewery with a tasting room shall be required to serve food, maintain kitchen facilities, or conform to any requirement relating to the percentage of sales attributable to food so long as it …,” reads the city rule, which then rattled off a list of must-dos for breweries to drop the kitchen requirement.
With that barrier down, beer entrepreneurs dove in to create businesses, spaces, and beers that would become local favorites and even city icons. But they knew thirsty patrons would be hungry, too. To keep them on-site and drinking more beers, brewery owners teamed up with food truck operators.
At the time, food trucks were another new-ish notion to Memphis. Less costly than a brick-and-mortar, enterprising chefs found a big barrier to market down, too. Together, breweries and food trucks would create a revolving lineup of new beers and new dishes to new spaces all across Memphis. But that changed over time.
“When we opened the brewery, I think beer was enough to really draw people in,” said Crosstown Brewing Co. co-founder Clark Ortkiese. “Then you could have food trucks, and food wasn’t our focus.”
But Crosstown leaders noticed the taproom was thin at meal times, and started to hear why people were leaving, which “you could see in our busy hours,” Ortkiese said. Some food trucks weren’t dependable, he said. Some would even cancel the day they were scheduled. Then Crosstown would just not have food that evening, Ortkiese said, noting they never had trucks seven days a week.
To ensure reliability and fight to keep more customers, Crosstown opened a kitchen last year. Planning the food menu came down to sticking with Crosstown’s ethos for beer-making — precision and solid execution that leads to a reliably quality product. They also wanted to keep the food menu simple.
“We’re making foods that we know,” Ortkiese said. “We’re making burgers, making wings, making Philly cheesesteaks. They stick to the ribs. They make you feel good. They’re delicious, but they are not overly complicated. They’re not haute cuisine and I don’t think that’s for our brewery anyway.”
This trend for food reliability has led many Memphis breweries to develop their own food programs. Wiseacre’s Little Bettie got a visit from Guy Fieri. Memphis Filling Station opened with its pizza oven cranking out delicious calzones the size of regulation footballs. Hampline Brewing Company’s food program, which they call Franco’s Italian Kitchen, features charcuterie, panini sandwiches, and pasta. Flyway Brewing Company opened with a full menu (including Mississippi Pot Roast, tater-tot poutine, y’all) as its space also included the former Edge Alley kitchen and dining hall.
But not every Memphis brewery has gone to solid food. Soul & Spirits Brewery, for example, still loves food trucks like Smoke & Toast, Ritzie’s Barbecue and Fine Foods, and Tacos Mondragon as essential components to their community-based hospitality.
“We like to use food trucks for two reasons: one, to support other local small businesses, and if we do not have food being prepared inside the taproom, then we can still be dog-friendly,” said Blair Perry, CEO and co-founder of Soul & Spirits.
