Restaurant news for Midtown and Downtown

This info was in the new Memphis Flyer today but just in case no one actually read the article, I thought I would help out and spread the word. Down in South Main there is a great, eclectic restaurant called Wendell's World Beat Grill. If anyone has ever stopped in for dinner i'm sure you remember it. Well Chef Wendell has opened up a new location in midtown. It is called Wendell's 24/7 Nouvelle Soul Bar & Grill and its in the space that used to be Las Magaritas Mexican Bar and Grill inside the Artisan Hotel at Union and McLean. Sounds like a cool place and if its anything like the South Main location then its a great addition to the midtown restaurant scene. I've heard great things about the renovations done to that hotel but I have yet to stop in there. Las Margaritas was suppossed to be great as well, but its just so easily overlooked since everyone around here knows that for a long time there was a different restaurant there every week while the hotel changed names more frequently than Prince. If anyone stops by this place let me know whats goin on with it. I have a good feeling its worth a shot.





Another bit of new restaurant news I recently read about is that downtown is going to be getting a new place by Chef John Bragg, the guy that opened up River Oaks a while back. The new place is going to be called Circa and will be located 119 South Main, sharing the same block as Bluefin and the Majestic and many other new eateries. The focus here will be on wine, however. Sommelier Michael Hughes will oversee a wine list with 200 labels. All the wine will be stored along huge walls inside the restaurant, out in the open for all of the guests to peruse. The wine walls display the bottles in the middle of the restaurant and make for an interactive dining experience. I've heard alot of the focus will be on the wines here, with wine tastings, wine flights, and alot of things in that vein. It's about time Memphis got a serious Wine bar type of establishment and it doesnt hurt that someone like Bragg, who has cooked in such places as Erling Jensens, La Tourelle, and Bonne Terre, to get some gourmet food to go along with the wine.