I wanted to try a couple three place for barbecue when we were on our short vacation to Memphis last year. We had been to the famous Rendezvous on our first visit over a dozen years before, but we wanted to try another venerable Memphis place that had been open for 30 years - Corky's Ribs and Barbecue. After a morning visit to the Memphis Zoo, we went to Corky's for a late lunch.
Don Pelts was a Memphis native who worked at his parents furniture store while he was going to college believing that he'd someday own the story. However, the store closed in the late 60's and Pelts suddenly found himself out of work. After a year or so of figuring out what he wanted to do, Pelts and his brother-in-law, David Soren, bought a famous barbecue place in Memphis called The Public Eye. It wasn't long after starting at The Public Eye that Pelts had his own vision of the type of barbecue joint that he'd like to own at some point. He wanted a premium, sit-down barbecue restaurant that had sort of a 50's fun flair to the place.
It took him a few years later to realize his dreams, but he found a building on Poplar Ave. that had previously housed a failed barbecue restaurant. He outfitted the restaurant with a rustic look, put a bunch of neon signs up on the walls, played 50's and 60's music over the restaurant's speakers and offered up a mix of wet and Memphis-style dry-rubbed ribs and barbecue. It was a sit down place where waiters wore white shirts and bow ties. And after seeing the success of fast food restaurants with drive-thru windows along Poplar Ave., Pelts put in a drive-thru pick-up window at Corky's. The place became one of the most popular barbecue places in Memphis and a destination for travelers who came to town.
Pictured right - Don Pelts
Over the years, Don Pelts influenced a number of off-shoot barbecue places in Memphis and the South. People who worked for Pelts at both Corky's and The Public Eye started a number of restaurants such as the Pig and Whistle, Sticky Fingers BBQ, and Buckley's Grill. When a group of Washington D.C.-based politicians wanted to bring good ol' Southern-style barbecue to the nation's capital, they turned to Don Pelts for help and advice in starting what turned out to be the Red Hot and Blue barbecue chain.
Corky's grew to two more locations in Memphis and a number more outside of Memphis over the years with franchise locations opening in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi. He also started his own meat packing company to ship Corky's ribs, meats, spices and barbecue sauce around the U.S. And Corky's has been a featured partner on the QVC home shopping network selling a Corky's cookbook as well as Corky's sauces and spices.
In 2013, Don Pelts was enjoying a game of bridge - a passion of his - at a local bridge club in Memphis when he experienced a fatal heart attack. Pelts was revered by thousands in the community and the outpouring of grief and sympathy from around Memphis and beyond overwhelmed his family. The Pelts family, including son Barry, daughter Patricia Woodman, and her husband, Andy, continue to run Corky's today.
We had passed Corky's a number of times on our trips up and down Poplar Ave. to and from our hotel on the far eastern side of Memphis. (see map) We pulled in just after 2 p.m. to get something to eat. After being greeted at the hostess stand, we we taken to a booth in the main dining room.
The interior of the original Corky's probably hasn't changed much from the day Don Pelts opened the place. There is the barn board walls, still a lot of neon signs giving the dining area a sort of eerie glow, polished brass railings and a number of sturdy pinewood booths and tables. We were given menus and it wasn't long before our server, Joy - an outgoing middle-aged lady - came over to greet us. I needed a beer and I saw that they had something called Corky's Memphis Brew. I asked Joy about that and she said it was an amber beer that was brewed for them by the Abita Brewing Company in Louisiana. I signed up for one of those. It was actually a pretty good beer, but I like many of the Abita beers.
All of Corky's barbecued meats are cooked low and slow over a combination of charcoal and hickory wood. They featured rib platters, barbecue combo plates and sandwiches on the menu. They also had a number of appetizers on the menu including a staple from nearby Mississippi, tamales and chili.
Cindy got the pulled pork dinner plate. It came with a side of cole slaw that she thought were pretty bland and a side of baked beans. The pulled pork was slathered in some of Corky's sweet and smoky barbecue sauce.
I got the ribs and brisket combo - a half slab of ribs in rubbed with Corky's proprietary dry-rub spices and seven or eight slices of brisket. I also got beans and cole slaw and we also got some butter basted housemade rolls with our meals. This was a lot of food.
The ribs were all right for me. They probably had too much of the rub to my liking and I couldn't really get a lot of the good pork rib taste to the meat. The brisket was fine, tender and somewhat moist and juicy. I wasn't certain I cared for the barbecue sauce, it was pretty weak compared to other comparable sweet and smoky sauces that I've enjoyed in the past.
We shared food back and forth and Cindy didn't care for the ribs, but did like the brisket. I tried some of her pulled pork and it was moist and tasty. Not the best I've had, but certainly not bad. But both of us decided that the baked beans were pretty weak and that the very bland cole slaw was even more "blah!"
I've eaten in a lot of barbecue places over the years and I'd put Corky's sort of in the middle of the ones I've tried in the past. The barbecue was fine, but it didn't exactly make me pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time. There was too much of the dry rub on the ribs to my liking. The pulled pork and brisket were fine, but not outstanding. We enjoyed Joy's service and the ambiance of the place was fine. We'll try other barbecue places in Memphis on our next visit, but Corky's was all right for what they're trying to accomplish.
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