Harry's Detour South

Harry's Detour Downtown Memphis

Dara and David Bigger and Jackie and I (I have a new camera that I can't get to focus all the time...you'll see that in these photos, dang it)

After dinner we walked down Main Street to a bunch of hollering, and it was these Elvis impersonators...that were having a gooooodddd time hailing this trolley.  Can you hail a trolley? 

Just a block from the restaurant is the Civil Rights Museum
(look at the focus in this shot, I gotta work on the camera!)

Lorraine Motel

Harry's Detour is one of three restaurants I've reviewed that doesn't have a website. 
I love knowing when a restaurant opened and about the success of the artists over the stove.  This was our bill from a calculator with handwritten details of our order.  I usually brag on great waitstaff but our efficient waitress was listed at server 99 on our visa bill. That's amazing in this age of the Internet and technology.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

My good friend Dara Bigger and I have been looking forward to our dinner plans for weeks and were excited to make our way to downtown Memphis.  Her daughter Bailey and Chloe have been BFF's since birth.  Chloe was so looking forward to seeing Bailey that our 30 minute car ride sounded like a summer car trip of 8 hours.  "How much farther" and "are we there yet" kept coming from the backseat that made Jackie and I more happy we made it to their house than she was.  I loved having Wyly, Bailey's older brother, doing the sitting.  He's 6 foot tall and 13 years old. He's also quite the athlete and pianist and I can report at the end of the evening, he handled the BFF's to perfection.

Dara, a Memphian, always knows the best restaurants to try.  She and David picked Harry's Detour, which they've dined many times at the Harry's on Cooper. We arrived at this downtown location just after 6 and were greeted by whether or not we had a reservation.  We didn't and the place was half empty, we had the choice of the 4 top by the kitchen or outside seating.  We sat inside and the table was great because we were first to smell the garlic and other wonderful smells from the stove.

The menu was printed on copy paper and I loved asking if I could have one of our wrinkled menus and our gracious, sweet waitress said I could have it.  After ordering Stella's and Yeungling's, Dara ordered Bust our Chops, a center cut marinated pork chop, grilled and served with a maple-chili glaze, oven roasted taters and sauteed veggies.  She reported it was perfection and finished her plate like I did.  For an appetizer, she and David shared a house salad.  For dinner, I asked our waitress' recommendation between the Blackened Catfish or the Salmon Edina and was steered to the salmon.  It was a great suggestion, the grilled salmon was served over a sriracha cucumber salad with a side item.  I loved that salad, it was sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion with a spicy, cool dressing.  I loved, loved that salmon, which wasn't overwhelming with seasonings and the salad was cool and crunchy.  Jackie and I shared the Shrimp Remoulade appetizer which boasted six spicy shrimp with a tangy homemade remoulade sauce.  Each shrimp was served on a crostini with plenty of remoulade sauce.  I loved that snack even though I'm not much of an appetizer orderer.  By the way, Jackie ordered the Grilled Redfish special for dinner and he loved it too.

None of us could even hear about desserts, we all enjoyed our fresh dishes that were the perfect size.  I didn't even want to try their coffee with the 85 degree temperatures outside.  We decided to take a stroll down Main.  Harry's is at the end of Main, in fact, we took 1-55 to get there instead of 1-40.  Harry's is across from the Arcade and Ernistine and Hazel's and just a block from the Civil Rights Museum, all a part of downtown that we are not that familiar with.  Jackie and David spotted a sports bar across from Harry's and made us all go in for a pitcher of Yeungling after our stroll.  Yeungling's a new lager to me that is brewed in Pennsylvania.  It's a unique, darker brew and also comes in light which I had at Harry's and loved it.  I'm not a beer drinker but it's a good beer and easy to drink.  Dara and I loved catching up on friends, family and our kids.  They had just ran the Marion Chamber of Commerce's 2nd annual 5K earlier in the day.  The whole family participated, Wyly boasted a time of 27 minutes and Bailey a time of 34 minutes.  That's so impressive.  I told Chloe that the three of us need to do a 5K.  We'll see if that turns out.

We loved Harry's Detour, it's freshness and great waitstaff made the evening with great friends and conversation an easy and memorable one.

Harry's Detour South, 106 E. GE Patterson, Memphis, Reservations Strongly Suggested 901-523-9070, no website can be found so I have no information about Harry's Detour's fabulous beginning!