Memphis is a barbecue town, and you’ll get a few different answers from Memphians if you ask about their favorite spots to hit up. Go for the Cozy Corner, a family-run and Black-owned favorite established in 1977, where the well-regarded barbecue earned owner Desiree Robinson an induction into the American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame. The menu is standard Memphis barbecue, with sandwiches, meat plates (a slab of ribs or whole barbecue chicken, for example), dinner plates that include bread and sides (beans, coleslaw), and a variety of sauces that range from mild to super hot.

Alcenia’s is the only eatery in Memphis where you and everyone in your party can expect a hug from the owner. But the warm hospitality isn’t the only reason this soul-food destination — in downtown Memphis’s Pinch District, just around the corner from the giant pyramid-shaped Bass Pro Shops — ought to be on your must-visit list. Alcenia’s is a textbook example of a simple, meat-and-three diner done well. The specialties include fried chicken and catfish, pork chops, waffles, fried green tomatoes, and hot-water cornbread, along with trusty sides like cabbage, mac and cheese, and green beans.

Early risers don’t exactly suffer from a lack of available breakfast options in Memphis. There are plenty of places for the usual array of omelets, bacon, and pancakes. But most daytime spots haven’t garnered laudatory coverage in a raff of national outlets. Bryant’s is among the best breakfast spots in the city, with a line spilling outside of the building to prove it (don’t worry, it generally moves quickly). If it’s your first visit, go for the sampler: three eggs any style, served with bacon, sausage, country ham, and pork tenderloin, plus two house-made biscuits with country gravy, a potato pattie, and grits.

You really only need to know one thing to make a trip to the Liquor Store, a diner with South Beach spirit in the heart of the city’s Broad Avenue Arts District: all-day breakfast. The menu is stacked with classic diner staples, like pancakes, biscuits, bacon, and sausage, along with non-breakfast fare like Cuban sandwiches, burgers, clubs, and tacos. There are also cocktails and desserts, like banana pudding and an assortment of daily cakes. And as you might expect, the diner occupies the space of a bygone liquor store, and there’s patio seating available outside. You’ll also find a second location in Midtown on Mendenhall that’s open seven days a week.

At Flight, wine and spirits don’t have the monopoly on smaller sampling sizes — dinner plates get the tasting treatment. Sure, it sounds uncannily like tapas. But Flight takes the guessing game out of ordering by perfectly portioning three distinct dishes for you in one order called a, you guessed it, “flight.” Like the soup flight, with lobster bisque, seafood gumbo, and a soup of the day. Or the steak entree flight with bison ribeye, elk tenderloin, and a Boursin-stuffed filet. For a special occasion, reserve one of the tables or booths on the balcony overlooking Main Street and cap off the night with the decadent chocolate flight.

Most non-Memphians associate the Bluff City with barbecue, that comfort food staple, but Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken is doing what it can to give ’cue a run for its money. The classic establishment greets visitors with spare, divey decorations and checkerboard tablecloths, but regulars look past the decor for crispy, hand-battered, spicy fried chicken paired with add-ons like beans, okra, or mac and cheese. Befitting the Southern hospitality, the menu includes a half-dozen pies baked daily, including pecan, chess, or sweet potato. There are two locations in Memphis; the Front Street location is perfect for tourists staying downtown, while the other can be found in East Memphis.

Owner Nuha Abuduhair’s patisserie in midtown serves pastel-colored pastries, along with coffee and tea, in a storefront that’s bathed in white. She named the business after the address of her childhood home, which serves as a tribute to her late father, who came to Memphis from Palestine. Abuduhair began as a home baker and slowly grew her retail business with standout items like French macarons, which come in flavors such as wedding cake, orange blossom, lavender, double salted caramel, and red velvet. You can find plenty of benches and nooks outside in Overton Square to enjoy your desserts.

Wes Anderson could have concocted the aesthetic of Vice & Virtue, a blend of warmth and whimsy that’s an ideal fit for downtown Memphis’s Arrive Hotel (the former home of the Memphis College of Art’s graduate program). The coffee shop and roaster prioritizes specialty-grade coffees, selecting blends from around the world and partnering with local companies to create unique releases. Check out their collab with Memphis-based Blue Note Bourbon, for which Vice & Virtue aged green Guatemalan coffee beans in Blue Note’s emptied barrels before roasting.

Soul Fish hits the perfect intersection of price, comfort food, and atmosphere, with four locations spread out across the metro area to choose from. As the name implies, fish is the signature offering here, including fried and baked versions; the catfish basket is one of the more popular items. But there are plenty of additional tasty choices if you’re after something else, including po’ boys, tacos, salads, vegetable plates, and more.

At Iris, chef Kelly English has endeavored to bring a modern take on a New Orleans-style restaurant to East Memphis. Equal parts Crescent City native and Memphis booster, English has earned tons of local and national acclaim. He first opened Iris off Overton Square in Memphis’s Midtown neighborhood in 2008, before moving his venerable fine-dining concept to a larger space (formerly home to Grove Grill) in 2022. With a sophisticated atmosphere, this spot is especially great for couples, who can share items like crab au gratin and fried oysters before digging into main courses of grilled Scottish salmon or steak iris (a New York strip with honey-roasted carrots and fried oysters).

The Four Way is exactly the kind of cozy diner people have in mind when they get a craving for soul food. It’s a South Memphis institution, having served staples like vegetable plates, hamburgers, and turkey and dressing to the community from the corner of Walker and Mississippi Boulevard since 1946. Civil rights luminaries of the ’60s frequented the restaurant, including Martin Luther King Jr. When A-listers passed through town — people like Al Green, Elvis Presley, Ike and Tina Turner, and so many others over the years — more often than not, they made a beeline here.

David and Amanda Krog opened Dory in the shadow of Malco Paradiso Cinema Grill in East Memphis in early 2021. Due to pandemic restrictions, they initially offered a multicourse tasting menu, but their original intention was to introduce a full, a la carte menu. In 2023, the husband-and-wife team finally made the transition, swapping out the tasting menu of small plates for a variety of entrees like pork loin with smoked white bean puree, scallops and mussels with herb risotto, and black oyster mushrooms with masa, cheese, and fermented onion powder.

Michaela Hugoboom-Dockery took inspiration from her native California when she opened Hen House in East Memphis, providing a type of unpretentious-yet-sophisticated wine and cocktail bar not found much in the city. The place feels like an extension of the owner’s living room, not only in terms of the bar’s homey aesthetic but also the approachable, playful drink selection. In addition to menu choices like duck, rainbow trout, and shrimp and grits, check out the creative cocktails: The Memphis-themed Hound Dog (a nod to Elvis, it should go without saying) is made with amaro Nonino, dry Curacao, bitters, and local bourbon Blue Note Juke Joint.

Upscale Irish pub Bog & Barley is a relative newcomer to the city’s dining scene, opening its doors in 2023 in East Memphis’s Regalia Shopping Center. Even at this early stage, though, it’s clear the bar is a labor of love for husband-and-wife team DJ and Jamie Naylor. DJ, an Irish native, insisted on sourcing much of the decorations for the cavernous, 7,000-square-foot space from the Emerald Isle — the bar is made of almost 450 separate pieces of wood shipped from Ireland, while the space was designed by Dublin firm O’Donnell O’Neill. The lunch and dinner menus include traditional Irish dishes like bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, and beer-battered fish and chips, while the extensive whiskey list wanders beyond Ireland to include North America, Scotland, and Japan. End your meal with a helping of warm Irish bread pudding or Irish tea creme brulee.

Muggin offers all the staples you’d expect from a coffee house — espresso drinks, nitro coffee, excellent baked goods — as well as Memphis-themed standouts. Try the Zippin Pippin (the name of Elvis’s favorite roller-coaster at the now-closed Libertyland amusement park): a blend of steamed milk, espresso, and white mocha topped with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. You can also order bags of coffee by the pound, including roasts with names like Hard Out Here for a Drip, a nod to the Oscar-winning song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from the Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia. Just off Elvis Presley Boulevard in Whitehaven, Muggin was the first locally owned coffee shop in this majority Black neighborhood (also home to Graceland).