Crosstown Concourse grows interest for organic, local eating in Bluff City

 “I enjoy being able to come and hangout over here and get a good meal, and I love the vibe of the Concourse,†Williams said.

The Concourse, formerly Sears’ art deco high-rise building, reopened as a vertical urban village in August 2017. It is rented out by tenants and filled with many different shops, but even as the initial hype of its reopening lessens, Memphians like Wiley and Williams drop by to grab a bite.

“To me, the Concourse is still a place that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves,†Wiley said. “It offers multiple places to get truly healthy food, which is my favorite part of the Concourse.â€

Mama Gaia and Next Door are currently aimimg to be at the forefront of organic eating and locally-sourced food in Memphis. Crosstown’s revitalizers intended for these “mission-oriented†restaurants to be included, said Todd Richardson, the co-founder of Crosstown Arts, co-leader of Crosstown Concourse and an associate professor of European Renaissance art at the University of Memphis. 

“We wanted this building to be dedicated to health and wellness,†Richardson said. “Even our ice cream is small batch, handmade. I love barbeque, but there’s probably not going to be a barbeque shop here.â€

Philipp von Holtzendorff-Fehling and his wife Cru founded Mama Gaia in 2016 to share the effects and benefits of organic and plant-based eating. They handmake their food daily, food they say contains no preseravatives.

“We are a completely organic restaurant, which is very rare because many people aren’t doing what we’re doing,†Philipp said.

When Cru was diagnosed with chronic lyme disease it motivated the von Holtzendorff-Fehlings to start their restaurant. Her illness caused her to make some dietary changes, they said. 

“[She] really had to fine-tune her diet for her well-being,†Philipp said. “So not only did we want to help Memphis have a healthy alternative, we also did it for Cru to help her.â€

Now the two aim to “fill the gap†of organic eateries in Memphis.

“We spend the extra money and the extra time to truly show the people and employees that we care,†Cru said. “We want to make Memphis a healthier place, and we are aiming to give the people a much healthier alternative to the normal fast-food restaurant.â€

While Mama Gaia mirrors fast-food restaurants in an attempt to bring customers freshly-made food quickly, Next Door, another restaurant located in the Concourse, offers more of a sit-down experience. The restaurant dedicates a large portion of its purchasing to buying locally-grown food.

“All of our food is locally sourced within 300 miles and extremely fresh,†Ben Winborn, a Next Door server, said. “Sometimes the salmon is so fresh that there are still bear claw marks in it.â€

As a part of The Kitchen Cafe LLC’s network, a portion of Next Door’s profits go toward installing “learning gardens†in the community. Memphis has about 90 that have been installed over the course of the last couple of years, Richardson said.

Kimbal Musk, the founder of The Kitchen Cafe LLC, is often credited as being instrumental to the “farm-to-table movement,†a social movement promoting serving local food at restaurants and cafeterias and often includes knowledge about where served food originally comes from.  

As these Crosstown eateries encourage Memphians to consume healthier food, the benefits of doing so seem to have spread to their employees. Server Winborn said eating eating healthy food has made him feel better and more energetic.

“It gives me a lot more energy, and I don’t find myself waking up tired in the mornings, which is great,†Winborn said.