Stone Soup Cafe — A Great New Memphis Restaurant!

I know of lot of the people in Memphis haven’t heard of Stone Soup Cafe, but that’s just not yet. Believe me, it has the potential to reach well beyond the Cooper-Young neighborhood it calls home to customers in all parts of the Memphis metro area. And the excitement in Midtown is clear.

Midtown loves local restaurants and this one got the buzz working with an article in the Memphis Business Journal preview, a thriving Facebook page and a MicroMemphis post before it even opened! While the buzz is interesting, I have to admit, this restaurant’s opening is personal. See, my sister Cheryl and Emily Bishop (one of the owners)  have been friends since they were in junior high school (which believe me was longer ago than I want to think about). But I’m getting off track… this is a post about Stone Soup Cafe!

I had a chance to visit Emily at the restaurant in early August and then had my first meal there last week. I have to tell you, knowing the owner, I really hoped it would be good but I love how great it was! Not only for Emily but for the neighborhood, many of whom had really missed co-owner Sharron Johnson since she closed “Buns on the Run” for a restaurant in another area. Now she’s cooking up all sorts of great things in this kitchen and they are yummy! I expect to get to Stone Soup when I’m back in Memphis frequently!

There are several things I want to point out about the cafe.

The Basics

• Address — 993 South Cooper, Memphis, TN 38104 · Get Directions
• Phone — (901) 922-5314
• Website — http://www.stonesoupcafememphis.com
• Hours — Tue – Sat:  7:00 am  – 3:00 pm, Sun: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
• Online menu

Food

• Yum. The food makes me want more! To be clear, I’ve eaten at Stone Soup once. I had the daily special — chicken, broccoli, rice & cheese casserole and the sides I picked were crowder peas and tomato-cucumber salad. The meal was awesome. Seriously. The flavors were  great in each of the things on my plate.
• I had trouble picking between bread & cornbread so I got both. Good choice!
• That plate was A LOT OF FOOD! No way dessert was an option for me BUT the brownies in the store part made me thing twice (or maybe three times).
• Looking at the breakfast & lunch menus made me really hungry!

The Place

• Cooper-Young is known for great restaurants and frequently I’ve been known to head that way and then decide what to eat! With a good set of customers readily available, it will be nice that Stone Soup has a small lot to help with parking.
• I don’t know about you, but I love meeting friends for breakfast on the weekends. But I have long wished there was another great option nearby. Stone Soup seems to have this niche covered. My breakfast choices have been waiting in line for one place I love, driving downtown for one I love or settling for something closer and understanding that impacts the quality of the food. I’ve got a very good vibe about breakfast at Stone Soup. And knowing I have friends as far as Arlington who love great breakfast & great neighborhoods, I bet Stone Soup will draw from a wide area.
• The cafe is in a large house. The downstairs provides a few dining rooms which means lots of space but at the same time it feels quite intimate! I sat in the “green room” since I was running by after a flight landed (great access to the airport BTW). The green room includes a TV so I was able to catch up on the news a bit. There was also some great artwork on the walls!

Community

Stone Soup Cafe is already part of the Cooper-Young community for several reasons.

• The staff has incredibly deep roots in Midtown. Emily has long been among the most active people in the CY neighborhood association. The chef, Sharron, is well known having had “Buns on the Run” just down the street a few years ago. A number of the wait staff are also familiar faces!
• The very concept of stone soup (a folk tale I have heard forever) has the community’s contribution as a centerpiece!
• Although there are several other restaurants in the area, this one has a fit where others don’t. Breakfast and lunch. That’s the timeslots that Stone Soup is hitting and those slots are really needed!
• I love that they have rooms for groups coming together….. and I can see all kinds of meetings — business and civic potentially being held here.