I had the pleasure of sitting down with owners Ed Cabigao and Brittany Whisenant recently to discuss the myriad reasons that South of Beale is one of our community’s most unique establishments. Watch for a follow up soon, as I’ll head to this gastropub in the heart of the South Main arts district again on November 13 for the BarCamp Memphis pre-event mixer!

So you are Memphis’ first and only gastropub. What does that mean?

We’re a bar with a chef-driven menu. We provide a place to relax and to get great food without the stuffiness of most top restaurants. We offer New American cuisine, a modern take on traditional items. Chef Nick Ragazzo experiments with items that might seem unfamiliar to Memphians, but that you find in bigger cities. For example, we offer oxtail wontons. They’ve actually become one of the most popular items on our menu! The [five spice seared] duck is also one of our signature dishes, along with our tuna and our calamari. We’ll introduce a new winter menu in December.

You also have a number of vegetarian options like vegetable lasagna and roasted mushroom salad.

Yes. We updated our original menu to better accommodate that important group of patrons.

In fact, aren’t you proactively working on a number of sustainable practices?

Absolutely. We’re in the process of getting Project Green Fork certified. We regularly visit farmers markets and purchase meat from local farms. We use local vendors where we can. Over half of our beer selection comes from within a 300 mile radius. In fact, we premiered Ghost River‘s Black Magic brew over the Halloween weekend.

We also compost and have 8 bins for recycling. Admittedly, this has also saved us quite a lot on dumpster pickup!

When did you open? And didn’t you use social media to create a buzz prior to your actual launch?

We opened on August 7, 2009. And yes, we had no advertising budget in the beginning so we tried to be creative. We started with Facebook. Our status updates were literal status updates. Then a friend showed us Twitter. We used social media to ask about things like beer and wine selections, and local artists. And we still run specials there. For example, we ran a 20% discount for those who mentioned a particular tweet.

Original work by featured artist Daniel Tacker adorns SOB's walls.

You’ve already established yourselves as being very involved within the community. Can you share some additional examples?

We typically have drink specials for the monthly South Main Trolley Tour, and also offer free food samples.

We’re also members of the South Main Association. And we hosted a debate watch party with MPACT Memphis.

We’re excited to have been recognized by the social media community, and have presented at Social Expedition and Social Media Club. We hosted a pre-event mixer for Social Camp 2 and will do the same for BarCamp Memphis.

So you’ve given us multiple reasons to support South of Beale. One final question: why Memphis?

We love Memphis! We’re familiar with Memphis and its culture. We hope to fill a niche and are excited to have been so warmly welcomed by our community.