Belmont Grill at 4970 Poplar Avenue is closing.
“The Belmont Grill is going to suspend day-to-day operations on Saturday, August 29th,” says owner/manager Jeff Anderson. “The 90-year-old building that currently houses the restaurant is worn out and in need of expensive repairs and maintenance. The property has been sold to a commercial real estate investment firm who want to move the property forward.”
In his statement, Anderson said, “The owner and staff of the Belmont Grill want to thank all the customers that have blessed their doors for almost 42 years.”
But Anderson also said, “It’s hard to say if this is going to be the end of of the Belmont Grill. For some reason, I don’t think this is the final chapter of the Belmont Grill.”
We’re talking about my favorite bar here. Lots and lots of memories in this place.
I went back to my July, 2023 Memphis magazine Classic Dining story about Belmont Grill to refresh my memory about this beloved place.
My story begins, “With its vintage knotty-pine paneled walls and low lighting, Belmont Grill always reminds me of the perfect den. Except I’ve never been in anyone’s den where the Christmas lights are left up all year long.”
I remember ordering lots of Beefeater martinis “up with three olives” back in the day. Anderson or the late “Big John” Deweese made many of those martinis. I can still hear Deweese’s booming, hearty laugh. To my knowledge, he always wore Hawaiian shirts and shorts. Even in the dead of winter.
For sustenance, I ordered potato skins, beer/cheese soup (a long time ago), and their fabulous hamburger served on a French loaf. Part of what makes it so great is “the sauce we put on it before we charbroil it,” Anderson says in the story.
Describing the wings in the article, Anderson says, “Back then a lot of places did the pieces, not the whole wing.” The sauce, he says, is “a blend of Louisiana hot sauce and melted butter. The butter helps the hot sauce stick to the wing. We don’t use a breaded wing. We use the real wing, so you can taste the sauce and the meat from the chicken.”
I love their barbecued ribs, which are cooked in an Alto-Shaam, a commercial oven that makes the meat tender. That was a special treat when I had some extra money in those days.
Anderson began as a bartender at Belmont in 1984 and became an owner in 1986.
The menu gives information about the bar in “The Incomplete, Unauthorized, Unofficial, Often Rumored, Word-of-Mouth History of the Belmont Grill.” It says the building “was constructed between 1910 and 1920 and was originally opened as a general store by Italia Bianchi and her family on what was known as Poplar Pike in the town of White Station.
Among the businesses on that corner were Bianchi Bros. Grocery and Louie’s Grill, which became Louie’s Bar & Grill in 1959. The history says 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 re-named it The Half Shell.” And then in 1983, The Half Shell moved to its current location on Mendenhall and the former Half Shell became The Belmont.”
