Late-Night Eats, Vol. IV

Four years on and we’re still at it, journeying out way past our bedtimes to hit up the diners and eateries, the taverns and watering holes, and the diviest of dive bars. But when you gotta eat, you gotta eat. Traipse through the night with us as we add four more restaurants to our “Late-Night Eats” anthology.

Louis Connelly’s Bar For Fun Times & Friendship

John Bickers is a late-night diner. He was sitting at the bar on a recent Monday night at Louis Connelly’s Bar for Fun Times & Friendship at 322 South Cleveland. “This is my go-to spot as a bartender when I get off,” says Bickers, who works down the street at the Hi-Tone.

That’s “typically around 1. And their kitchen closes at 2.” That’s a.m., of course.

Bickers likes the smash burger, which the menu lists as “our most popular item.” It consists of two beef patties, American cheese, onions, pickles, and pub sauce.

Asked what he likes to drink with that, Bickers says, “High Life, typically.” As in “Miller.”

In February 2024, the night spot’s owner and namesake, Louis Connelly, took over the old space once occupied by the notorious Printer’s Alley. As Connelly said in an interview that same month in the Memphis Flyer, “There’s just something about bars that are sort of old and run-down and dilapidated. And the other people that are there are just looking to have a good time and not taking themselves too seriously.”

The old Printer’s Alley was “a fun place to end the night. When every other place was closed, Printer’s Alley was open.”

Connelly used to stop in Printer’s Alley every couple of months. “Not a good local spot to hang out. Smoking inside, for one, turned off a lot of people. I knew that drug use was sort of rampant. I just knew it was a little bit of a shady bar. Overall, my experiences were positive.”

A convivial atmosphere greeted us when we arrived at Connelly’s place. And that was part of Connelly’s plan. As he said in the story, “Whether you’re a 70-year-old biker or a 21-year-old Midtown artist, I wanted people to feel like they belong here.

“So, I just took that and ran with it,” he said. “I wanted it to feel familiar in a way that all good dive bars should feel.”

Connelly renovated the place, which included putting in a new bar. He also put in a full kitchen with new equipment, including a flat-top grill, a charbroiler, and a new stove.

Jun Chung, the chef, brought out our order in individual red plastic baskets. The smash burger is indeed one of the most popular items, a double-stack of beef patties with American cheese, onions, pickles, and pub sauce. It hits the spot, as any good burger does. 

But it tastes even better when you load up the bar’s TouchTunes jukebox with your favorite song (ideally on repeat) on a Friday or Saturday night. I’ve been asked to dance by strangers on many occasions when I wandered in on a jam-packed weekend jaunt, customers crowding the bar and standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Printer’s Alley was before my time, but the modern-day vibes of this space are, well, fun times and friendship.

I order the wings almost every time I go (they’re delicious), but we had to try one of the new menu items, a “pub pocket.” Our hot honey gold pub pocket was a sweet, delicious poultry blend shoved inside what was somehow a supremely crispy, yet also velvety soft tortilla, and we gobbled it up immediately.

Lamplighter Lounge

You can get food late at Lamplighter Lounge, but it depends on who is the bartender that night, says Maggie Trisler, who was working the bar the night we dropped by to check out their fare.

Trisler doesn’t mind serving food late at night. “I spoil people,” she says.

Trisler says she’s served people as late as 2 a.m. That night the order was “probably a grilled cheese and chips,” she says.

Chris Montague, who was sitting at the bar, admits he’s a late-night diner. And that’s 9 p.m. for him. “I’m usually home by 10, 10:30,” he says.

Montague usually gets the same thing. “I normally just get fries. Cheese fries. It’s just simple. They’re always done well.” 

And he likes a Tiny Bomb to wash them down.

Montague says he goes to Lamplighter about once a week. “Fried food, it’s probably not good for you. But I like it.” A member of a book club, Montague was reading Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon.

The Lamplighter is about as Midtown Memphis as you can get. It’s home to a plethora of local bands. A drag show was being held the night we were there.

The place hasn’t changed much over the years. A window which was broken back in the day by the legendary Tiller brothers, so the story goes, and was covered over for years, has now been restored. And bands that used to perform in a little area near the front door can now play in an event room that was added.

Trisler brought our order, which included another burger, plus an order of cauliflower wings. It’s excellent comfort food, just the thing you need after downing a few beers while taking in a drag show or open mic night. The cauliflower wings were crispy and filling, lathered in a smoky and spicy sauce that put some pep back in our steps (but not too much pep). Lamplighter is the place to be if you’re hankering for some late-night, vegan-friendly options: veggie burgers, veggie dogs, vegan mac-n-cheese. Or you can just get fancy and order the charcuterie plate while sipping on a PBR.

Max’s Sports Bar

Max’s Sports Bar, at 115 G.E. Patterson Avenue, is the late-night place to be if your sport is eating. Because you can eat until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. “And 11 the rest of the week,” says bartender/manager Mike Mustapha.

And you can even eat a menu item Mustapha created: the Mane Street Pizza, described as “Hot honey gold sauce topped with mozzarella, pulled chicken, and onions. Then drizzled with ranch and dusted with our wing seasoning.”

The Mane Street Pizza is one of their most popular pizzas, Mustapha says. That and the Pep Rally, which the menu simply describes as “Loaded with Old World and regular pepperoni.”

And since Cicci is a pepperoni fan, that’s the pizza we order.

The menu has evolved since Max’s opened, Mustapha says. “When we first opened, and that was back in 2007, it was very, very simple,” he says. “Just stuff that you could toss in the oven. You know, frozen pizzas and chicken tenders and stuff like that.”

There was an elegant simplicity to the old days of Max’s menu, where you had very few options and ended up munching on shredded cheese melted over a basket of Doritos (still delicious), but like so many establishments over the last decade-plus, things have changed slightly.

“I want to say it was in the spring of 2015 — when I started working here — that we started transitioning into sandwiches and just really high-quality deli sandwiches,” adds Mustapha. “We still have a couple of those on the menu now, actually. The ‘Italian’ has been on the menu for the last 11 years now.

“And then over Covid we picked up this really awesome Baker’s Pride pizza oven. We had been, for a while, still doing the barbecued nachos and the sandwiches in that oven. But about three years ago, we decided that we wanted to transition to actual pizza. And we’ve been trying to focus on the pizza ever since. It’s really taken off. It’s gotten really good reviews.”

Asked what most people order after 10 p.m., Mustapha says, “I try to push people a little bit towards the appetizer stuff. Stuff that’s easier to share. Because when you get people coming in late at night for food like that, it tends to be bigger crowds. And since we have such a small kitchen, it can be a little overwhelming to get a bunch of sandwich orders all at once or something like that. So, I try to push people towards more shareable stuff.”

But that melted cheese on Doritos? It’s still on the menu. Go ahead and grab the Tiger Nachos next time you pull up.

Huey’s

My late-night dining at Huey’s goes back to the 1970s when I lived at 1590 Poplar, No. 4. The original Huey’s on Madison Avenue — along with Bombay Bicycle Shop, Zinnie’s, and other past and present watering holes — was in walking distance.

I once challenged myself to visit Huey’s for 31 consecutive days (mostly nights). During that time, a newspaper article I wrote on Robert Cray, who played at Huey’s, was placed on view at the bar/restaurant. That was part of the incentive. But the other part included the World Famous Huey Burger. I’m sure I ate a bunch of those late at night during that time. And later.

I visited the Huey’s at 4872 Poplar Avenue and ordered a Huey burger the other day, as I have so many times before. It was delicious. The fries were delicious. And the brownie with ice cream, whipped cream, and a cherry on top was perfection.

“Most late-night [orders] are appetizers and burgers,” says Alex Boggs, Huey’s area and marketing director. “Main appetizers are wings and cheese fries.”

And, he says, all stores feature the full menu all the time.

People may forget Huey’s is still open late. “Midtown, Cordova, Poplar, Southaven, and Downtown are our latest [open] stores. All are open until midnight or later.”

Mike Steadman, an assistant manager at that Huey’s on Poplar, says after 10 p.m. most people order the original Huey hamburger, but their smash burger “since we brought it on, is running a close second,” he says. “It’s very, very popular.”

The extensive Huey’s menu includes lots of hamburgers, including the West Coast Burger, Bluff City Burger, Texas Toast Burger, Sunshine Burger, and the Beyond Burger with a vegan patty. But Huey’s serves other fare, including the steak sandwich, my favorite back in the day, a chicken Philly, and a classic Reuben.

“We have a lot of service industry people that come in once they get off of the other restaurants,” Steadman says. “We also do a service industry discount late at night. So, they get discounts after 11 on liquor, beer, and wine.”