Cafe 1912 is celebrating its 21st anniversary with specials for the next couple of weeks.
This week’s menu will include the restaurant’s signature Mardi Gras item: fried oysters with remoulade sauce.
Beef bourguignon with buttered noodles also will be featured. “Beef bourguignon was on the very first menu we did at La Tourelle,” says Martha Hays, who, along with her husband, Glenn, owns Cafe 1912 at 243 Cooper Street.
She and her husband also owned the now-closed La Tourelle, which they opened in 1977 on Monroe Avenue just off Overton Square. The restaurant, named for the tower, or turret, on top, was more of a fine dining/white tablecloth restaurant with its prix fixe menu.
Glenn also wanted a restaurant that was “more eclectic” and “would appeal to a broader range of folks,” Martha says. Cafe 1912 was named after the year the building housing the restaurant was constructed. “The facade has ‘1912’ on it.”
They opened La Tourelle because Glenn, who worked in the athletic department at the University of Memphis, loved to eat, loved to go to France, and loved to read cookbooks. He wanted a restaurant that served the type of French dishes he enjoyed, says Martha, who was teaching French and English at Lincoln Junior High School at the time.
Glenn was the chef when La Tourelle opened. “He came in every day and cooked. I made bread and desserts at home. Glenn made stew-type things: beef bourguignon, blanquette de veau, and cassoulet. All one pot. That’s what we did for the first six weeks. Then reality hit. Summer was ending and we both had to go back to our jobs.”
They began hiring chefs, including Erling Jensen, who worked at the restaurant for seven and a half years. Jensen answered an ad, which Glenn put in The New York Times when he was looking for a chef. Jensen arrived three weeks later and moved into the apartment above La Tourelle. He now owns Erling Jensen: The Restaurant.
Glenn opened Cafe 1912 after discovering the space next to Barksdale Restaurant, where he often ate, was for lease.
Martha remembers when Glenn told her he signed the lease to open another restaurant. “My reaction this time was, ‘Oh, I think that’s a good idea.’ Which is totally different from my reaction when he told me about La Tourelle. I was completely scared. You have to remember how young we were. Our oldest was 18 months old. And I was teaching school. He cashed in a life insurance policy to get the money for him and his partner to start renovating.”
They’ve “always had a burger on the menu” at Cafe 1912, but they also serve fine dining items, Martha says. The fare initially was “French inspired. But that’s changed somewhat over the years as people got more into different kinds of spices and things like that.”
Cafe 1912 and La Tourelle “co-existed for five years,” Martha says. La Tourelle closed “because we were having trouble finding a qualified person to put in the kitchen.”
And there was “a lot more competition” from new fine dining restaurants.
“One brunch, Kelly English came in with his family. And Glenn happened to be here and was talking to him. He said, ‘Do you know anybody who wants to buy a restaurant?’ And Kelly said, ‘I do.’ And that’s exactly what happened. We sold it in November 2007, and Iris opened about six months after that.”
Their seafood crepe is one of their longest-running menu items. “It has shrimp and bay scallops and béchamel sauce wrapped up in the crepe. It’s served hot.”
Keith Riley, Cafe 1912’s executive chef since 2009, added “pan-seared grouper with roasted red pepper, asparagus, and risotto with sun-dried tomato beurre blanc.”
Riley substitutes other fish, including corvina or scallops, when grouper isn’t available.
Cafe 1912 expanded in 2007 when the bay next door went up for lease. “We put in the bar. And that’s really pretty much what changed our vibe a bit.”
Memphis Flyer senior editor Bruce VanWyngarden “referred to us once as ‘The Cheers of Midtown.’ A lot of our crowd is older and they’re Midtown. They come in here and I can’t tell you how often everybody knows everybody.”
