Great Italian Eating in Memphis with a History

Great Italian Eating in Memphis with a history

We in Memphis love our barbecue and it’s almost a monolithic the way we obsess about it. But there is a general love of food as a celebration of life here that’s part and parcel of the southern experience. Our culture of food is mostly imbued with the agrarian communities which made up so much of the early southern experience—the vast plantations, the cultivation of rice as a staple, the French and Spanish influences in the coastal areas, and the most important influence, the African-American cultural traditions of grilling and the use of root vegetables and exotic spices. 

So with all this medley of spicy and exotic fare being pretty familiar with us down here, how have we incorporated Italian restaurants into our community? Pretty well, as I see it. I have grown up her and at age 60, I have been eating out periodically at Italian restaurants for decades. Because they were so specialized, they always had their following. Some were great, some just ok, but most survived. Then in the 1980s and 1990s cities all over the country began to be sprinkled with new, more innovative restaurants. 

Let me tell you a story before I begin to list the best Italian restaurants in Memphis today, so you will know what my choices are informed by. When I was a child, my father used to round up his extensive family and haul us all down to a wonderful corner restaurant called Berretta’s. It has long been torn down, but it was classic Italian to us. They had barbecue but they also had some of the best spaghetti I ever ate outside of my own house. I still remember it and nothing tastes like it anymore. Nothing. It had big chunks of tomato in the sauce and tiny bits of the oregano and thyme leaves and rosemary sprayed throughout the luscious sauce. There were also big chunks of garlic and lots of black pepper. Ahh, what spaghetti! The strange and exotic spices and herbs were easy for us to love since our family was so used to spicy and unusual foods that my mother always tried out on us at home.