Those of a certain age remember Rumble Fish restaurant. And they remember it fondly. It was a little Midtown establishment that adjoined the Hi Tone Cafe on Poplar Avenue about 25 years ago.
A little bowl with one betta fish in it was placed on each of the 12 tables covered with white cloth. White Japanese lanterns hung from the ceiling. Black-and-white photographs were attached to fish wire with clothes pins. And the French bistro-inspired cuisine was critically acclaimed.
Rumble Fish only lasted 18 months. But it’s returning. At least for a night. It’s going to be a pop-up at 6:30 p.m. August 20th at Erling Jensen The Restaurant at 1044 South Yates Road.
“I’ve had people for years say, ‘I love Rumble Fish. You should do that again,’” says the restaurant’s owner David Lorrison, who opened Rumble Fish at 1909 Poplar Avenue about a year and a half after he opened Hi Tone Cafe at 1911 Poplar Avenue.
Lorrison knew Jensen does a weekly tasting menu at his restaurant, so he asked if he could do a Rumble Fish tasting menu. “He thought it was a great idea. If it works out, I may do it more often. I would just like to be a guest chef.”
Jensen likes the idea. “David, he worked for me years ago,” Jensen says. “And then when he shows up at my back door and came up with that idea, I thought, ‘Hey. There might be something there.’”
He describes Lorrison’s food as “very innovative.”
Lorrison currently is working on the menu, which will include a soup and salad, two appetizers, and two entrees. He’s bringing back Rumble Fish favorites, which will probably include his sweetbread and langostino appetizer, smoked scallops ceviche, and veal tenderloin with morels. “Basically French bistro cuisine with my own interpretation.”
A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Lorrison, who later moved to Fort Smith and Little Rock, Arkansas, got his start doing prep work and washing dishes in Little Rock restaurants. But he kept an eye on what the chefs were doing in the kitchen.
He also was a fan of punk and new wave music. In an interview I did with Lorrison in 2005 in The Commercial Appeal, Lorrison said, “That was completely opposite of anything anybody was listening to in Fort Smith. I had like Billy Idol hair, combat boots, and jeans and Army jackets.”
He moved to Memphis in the early ’90s and got a job working with José Gutierrez at Chez Philippe. Then he worked at the old La Tourelle restaurant under Jensen. And, later, Automatic Slim’s and Café Samovar. He also worked as executive chef at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee. He used to drive from Memphis to Jackson in his 1963 blue Cadillac.
Lorrison opened Hi Tone Cafe when The Edge Coffeehouse became available in Khang Ree’s old karate studio on Poplar. Chef/restaurateur Karen Carrier encouraged him to start cooking, so he turned a section of the club into the 28-seat Rumble Fish, which he wanted, according to the 2005 interview, “to be modern and cool.”
He named it after the 1983 movie, Rumble Fish, which starred Matt Dillon. He was a huge fan of the movie based on the book by S.E. Hinton.
Lorrison, in my previous story, described the movie as “a modern version of James Dean rebelliousness. It was as if you took the ’50s and modern hipness and sort of put it together.”
It was his idea to place little fish bowls with one betta fish in it on each table. “I thought having those little fish on the table would be charming. The whole blue, silver, reddish walls in Rumble Fish were a mixture of the colors of what a betta fish would be. Silvery, red, and lavender. When it was dark in there, it came off absolutely beautiful.”
He adds, “I wanted the place to glow at night with the least amount of distraction. As far as the lavender, silver, and red walls with the fish on the table, it almost felt like you were walking into a hip Buddhist temple. A Zen place.”
The “simplicity” described Rumble Fish. “Clean lines, clean colors, and fish on the table. It was almost like someone wearing a white T-shirt and old indigo jeans, but they’re wearing a real good pair of shoes. Fine Italian shoes and a fabulous watch. A good watch and good shoes. Everything else is classic, basic, and timeless.”
He kept only one fish in a bowl because more would mean the bettas would “go at each other.”
Lorrison, who previously booked bands at Young Avenue Deli, says, “A lot of bands, Lucero and Cory Branan, cut their teeth at the Hi-Tone.”
He also featured legendary performers, including Link Wray, Iris Dement, and Jonathan Richman.
But the music section of the club hurt the restaurant section. People complained about the “big ugly band bus” parked in front while they were eating, Lorrison said in his 2005 interview. And the music people complained about not being able to set up until after the restaurant closed.
After closing Rumble Fish and selling Hi Tone Cafe in 2002, Lorrison went to work as chef for Carrier at her old Cielo restaurant in Victorian Village.
Now with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Taliesyn Realty, Lorrison is selling real estate. “I get excited when there’s something deeper about it than just selling a house.”
He likes to sell houses “that have a history” to people. He’s like “Sherlock Holmes trying to find a house for them.”
One of his notable sales was the “Jeff Buckley house,” where the late entertainer lived in Memphis. It’s now an Airbnb.
Lorrison didn’t stop cooking after he left Cielo. “I have cooked intermittently for different people on private occasions.”
He also cooks for himself. “I make my own pho at home, but I make it with my coffee maker.”
Lorrison is excited about the pop-ups. “This whole Rumble Fish thing might lead into something else.”
He might do more pop-ups at Jensen’s or somewhere else.
Opening another restaurant could be on the horizon, Lorrison says. “If I found a small place, a place I could maybe open Thursday through Sunday or Wednesday through Saturday 5 to 9, I would do it.”
Would he call it “Rumble Fish”? “Of course.”
