GHOSTBUSTING: 203 W. MITCHELL

I’m closing in on two years of ownership of my first used car, and in that time I’ve gotten familiar with the pull-a-part auto yards in the city. Not for anything major, as the car has (knock on wood) been rock solid, but for small things to make it a little more user friendly.

One of these auto yards is on Mitchell Road in southwest Memphis, and getting there takes me past this old ghost pit that I first photographed in June 2011.











It came on the radar as Boddie’s Bar-B-Q, part of the 84 in ‘84 barbecue restaurant feature in The Commercial Appeal. Probably because of its out-of-the-way location, I never looked into it until now. Last month, on my way to the auto yard, I was stunned to see this.











It’s a new restaurant, more than twice the size of the original building, and one of the guys working there said the old pit would be kept. That suggests some type of barbecue/soul food place. He was elated that the area would have a real restaurant.

It’s a fascinating story (to me, anyway). Restaurants are among the most fragile of new businesses (more on that later), so this investment in one of the city’s poorest areas is impressive. Hats off to the folks behind it. I’ve pitched this story to the CA, but my track record in that regard isn’t good. We’ll see.

Anyway, here’s a quick history of the place: Built in 1977, known as Johnson’s Burger Bar in 1978 and 1979, as Lott’s Burger Bar in 1981, vacant in 1983, then as Boddie’s Bar-B-Q in 1983 and 1984, as Coney Island in 1985, vacant until 1990 when it became home to a beauty salon for about a decade. I stopped looking after that. It has been closed/unchanged in the nearly seven years I’ve known about it. I have no idea when it was Frank’s (photo from 2011; sign has several holes in it now).









Here’s what the CA said about Boddie’s in 1984 in its Memphis in May restaurant roundup for barbecue week:

Boddie’s Barbeque, 203 Mitchell Road West, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday. Seats 10, mostly carryout. Menu includes plate lunches, hamburgers, fish sandwiches, fish filets, hot dogs, bologna sandwiches, occasionally ribs, side orders, beer. Regular barbecue sandwich, $1.75.

I haven’t been able to find out anything about Walter and Jannie Boddie. They were mysteries in 1983, and remain so. I’m thinking they should still be around. Help, anyone?



A FRAGILE BUSINESS

Seeing the place on Mitchell Road made me think that I should revisit Big Will’s, a place on Waring I wrote about a few months back that had opened in one of A.B. Coleman’s first barbecue restaurants. Sadly, the sign was gone, and this was the view inside.









Big Will’s might have lasted six months. Not a real visible location, and two of the city’s barbecue titans just a few blocks away It was a good sandwich.



