This recent post from Elwood’s Shack owner Tim Bednarksi caught my eye. Or caught my taste buds: “Of all the subs, pastas, Q’s, specials I ever created, this dish has every ounce of food love I have. It took me two days, back-to-back 11-hour days to create this special of mine. It will be available at both Elwood’s locations all week. Every ingredient, side, sauce, and tamale is one of a kind. Tres Amigos!”
So I had to rush over to the Elwood’s Shack location at 4523 Summer Avenue to try the “Tres Amigos.”
I did. And it’s incredible. So delicious, and different. It’s also available at Elwood’s Shack Park Ave. at 4040 Park Avenue.
It’s called “Tres Amigos,” says Bednarksi, who sat down to talk about the dish a bit. “It’s a pork tamale, a beef tamale, and a chicken tamale, but they’ve all got different sauces on them. Mole’s on the pork tamale, chile ancho is on the beef tamale, and tomatillo salsa is on the chicken tamale.”
The tamales are served with rice and beans. “And even the rice and the beans are super special,” he says. “The red beans and rice that I served at Shells is actually the main component in the beans.”
Elwood’s Shells was Bednarksi’s Cooper-Young restaurant that closed in 2019.
And, yes, Three Amigos takes a while to make, Bednarski tells me. “It took me 30 hours to make 70 orders. I have 35 orders in each restaurant today. But every ingredient, every sauce, and every tamale, is hand made, and they’ve got really special ingredients. Like the mole has chocolate, peanuts, raisins, chile ancho, chile guajillo, chile de arbol in it. And it takes many hours to make each component.
“I take the mole sauce and actually mix it in with our smoked barbecue pork, and I hand-roll tamales and make them the traditional way. It’s a different tamale. It’s more what you would see in the Southwest, an Arizona and California kind of thing.”
This isn’t a new item for Bednarski. “I’ve been serving it for years, but I haven’t done it in four years because it’s so labor-intensive. I could never justify, with one restaurant, hiring somebody to make tamales for one dish. But now I’m hoping with two restaurants, I’m able — if it’s as successful as it has been in the past — to afford to hire somebody to do it full-time.”
Speaking of Shells, Bednarski might revive some of the items from that restaurant. “I hope to bring back chicken and sausage gumbo, my seafood gumbo, and serve that at Park Avenue.”
And his lobster bisque. “I get numerous requests for my lobster bisque.”
More Elwood’s
While I was waiting for Tim Bednarksi to arrive at the Elwood’s Shack on Summer, I overheard Elliot Tracey from North Carolina praising the barbecue he just ate. I had to ask him to elaborate.
Tracey, 34, tells me he stopped in Memphis on his way to visit the Grand Canyon for the first time.
“I had the pulled pork with a side of a half-rack of ribs,” he says. “I had the baked beans, potato salad, and Texas toast.
“Honestly, I lived in North Carolina my whole life. I’ve had barbecue in all different places in eastern North Carolina. And stopping here today just from a Google review, it was the best barbecue I’ve ever had,” he adds. “Everything down to the Texas toast was perfect. There’s no reason to go anywhere else, in my opinion. You know, if I lived here there would be no competition between here and anywhere else.”
What sets Elwood’s barbecue apart? “Just flavor,” Tracey says. “Sometimes back home it can get a little dry; a lack of flavor, lack of seasoning. We pride ourselves in the vinegar base, but it kind of falls short sometimes.”
With Elwood’s Shack barbecue, Tracey “found a combination between rub and sauce. So the dry seasoning combined with the red sauce was just endless flavor.”
“Melon Drink” at El Gallo Giro
My friend, entrepreneur Jack Simon, raves about the “Melon Drink” at El Gallo Giro at 3991 Lamar Avenue.
“It’s the most refreshing, delicious drink in the universe,” says Simon, who believes he discovered the drink when he was attending University of Memphis.
So we headed to the restaurant and ordered them with delicious barbacoa tacos for lunch.
The Melon Drink was delicious, too. Our server, Rosie Herrera, told us the name is “Agua de Melon” in Spanish. It’s cantaloupe, sugar, and seeds blended together. Ours were served over ice. On a chilly day, this drink put me back a couple of months to something I’d drink on a hot day. It evokes summer.
I love this place. I can’t wait to get back. For one thing, it’s beautiful with all the colorful painted furniture, tables, chairs, and booths.
Stay tuned.
