MMDC sat down with Chef Tamra Patterson, owner of the new Medical District restaurant, Chef Tam’s Underground Café.
My name is Tamra Patterson, and I have been cooking professionally since 2010. I am not a native Memphian. I’m from Texas, but I’ve lived in Memphis since January of 2015. I was a food services provider for a charter school first. Once the charter was lost by Shelby County Schools pulling it, I opened my own restaurant in Cooper Young. I was there for three years and grew exponentially before moving to the Medical District. We’ve been open since the first of the year. We’ve seen a packed house every day, and it’s been phenomenal!
A friend of mine was doing some ministry work here. He was relocating back here because his family was from here, and he asked if I would come and help him because I have a background in ministry. So, I came to Memphis to help him, even though I didn’t initially plan on staying. I ended up saying, “well, if I’m here, I might as well grow where I’m planted,” so that’s how I ended up staying.
By trade, I’m a hairstylist. I did hair until 2010, but I was always around really good food. My grandmother was a professional baker, my father owned a restaurant, and then my mom’s dad owned a barbecue restaurant. I spent my days washing dishes after my dad did a catering job or ironing linen. So, I never wanted to cook because of that side of it. It was always washing the dishes or cleaning up, and I didn’t want to have to deal with that even though I could cook really well, nobody ever taught me. Most kids have the opportunity to say, “oh, my Dad taught me how to make this.” My dad only taught me how to make about two things and that was it— even though he was a cooking fool. I only have sisters and he didn’t allow us to cook. He cooked all the time. I was in high school still taking a sacked lunch. Even with my stepmom there, I can never say I remember her cooking up until his passing. So, I always kind of knew I could cook, but I never thought that I would step out and do it and actually make money off of it. I felt like I would always be the person that was doing hair. I did hair and I kept all my nieces and nephews so after school, before school, and in the summers, they were with me while their parents were at work. I just knew that would be my lot. Then, all of a sudden, I started having these dreams of recipes. I’m the type of person that journals, so I would wake up and write down whatever I dreamt, but I would never cook them. I would just write down what I saw or heard. Finally, one day, I got up and actually made the stuff. When I made it, it was like, “This is really good! Wait a minute.” I ended up sending the pastry that I made to a coffee shop right outside of Dallas. When I sent it to them, they ordered it instantly. I would make them 24 pastries and before I could make it home, which was maybe 15 minutes away, they would say they were sold out. So I’d go back home and make some and take them back. I did that for like a month, month and a half. It was like, okay God I feel like you’re telling me to do something else, but I don’t understand it and I don’t want to be stupid or foolish taking a leap doing something that is not founded or secure. But, I did it, and here I am 10 years later really grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given from feeding celebrities to being on Food Network five times. In fact, on February 5th, I’ll be back on Food Network.
My son who is 16 now just said to me yesterday, “Do you remember when the goal was for you to sell 10 plates at 10 dollars a plate so you could make 100 dollars a day?” He was like, “Mom, you made it. You’ve finally made it. I’m so proud of you.” So, for me, that was the one thing that I’ve always wanted to hear, and it put me in a different mind space and gave me a different perspective. Rather than just thinking it needs to be better, I need to work harder, I established an appreciation for the hard work that I’ve already put in and the humility of how much work I still need to do. It’s a delicate balance, but it’s a balance nonetheless that I’m really grateful for.
No, I was going to do the ministry stuff, and I was going to sell a few plates on the side if I needed to, to make some cash. It was never in my mind to build a restaurant here or to accomplish any of this. It’s interesting— the Bible says that we make our plans, but God directs our path. I had so many plans to do so many things, but God directed the path that I was supposed to go. I stood in here in the restaurant last week and I fought back tears because the restaurant was packed. I’m not from here. I don’t have any family here other than my husband, my son, and my husband’s family. For me to have seen the amount of success— I don’t spend any money on marketing, I just go post food on social media. To have had that kind of success is amazing.
This was birthed out of obscurity. When I was working at the charter school, they ended up closing. The owner of the charter school said, “I’m going to open a restaurant.” I foolishly thought it would work and went to work for him for about 3 months at the restaurant until they ultimately had to close. A woman that used to come to that restaurant, Cristina McCarter of City Tasting Tours, told me about the space in Cooper Young. I said, “I don’t know what you’re telling me for. I don’t have any money.” Surprisingly enough, one of my friends called and said, “God told me to bless you because you’re supposed to open a restaurant,” and she gave me the money to get the restaurant started in Cooper Young. Literally, the building is 100 years old—it’s an old house. I went to Dollar Tree and bought putty to fill the cracks in the walls. I would Uber at night and sell plates during the day, just to make the money to get the construction done. When we first opened, we ended up with 125 people coming in the door with no advertising, no marketing, no anything. So, we’ve had that type of eerie, crazy success since we’ve opened, and it hasn’t stopped since we’ve moved.
Interestingly enough, we had looked at this building several times because it had the sign out that said ‘restaurant space.’ When my husband called, they told him no. Another guy had already put a contract on it. I happened to call him myself maybe a day later or so, and the broker—Robert Taylor— was actually my broker for the building in Cooper Young. I told him I was really interested in the building and he told me someone already had the building. I asked, “Well, have they given you any money yet?” He said no, but they didn’t want to go back on their word. I was like, “Well, if they’re not giving you any money, why are we talking about them?” What ended up happening was I bothered him and bothered him until he finally said okay. I turned in all the paperwork we needed to turn in, and I got the building. My husband has a God sister that actually worked in the area and told me that if I could just find a building in the Medical District or Downtown, they’d help me. It seemed so far-fetched because the prices were so steep. This building, as large as it is, turned out to be only a few hundred dollars more than what I spending in Cooper Young. To kind of give you an idea, we have an upstairs dining room that we rent for private events— all the furniture from the old restaurant fits up there and there’s still space left over. That lets you know how small we were versus where we are now.
I’ve received Predevelopment and Façade Grants from MMDC. The building itself already had really good bones, all we had to do was make it prettier. The organization has been extremely kind, willing to help, and very patient. I am very specific about things happening a certain way and for things to happen at a certain time, and they were very understanding of that.
You can expect live music on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings starting at 6:30pm. We’re about to apply for our liquor license, so we’ll have a full bar, and we’re also going to host some amateur nights and karaoke. We have the private event space for booking. We also have, what I think is my favorite thing in the entire building—the store. That store has everything from vintage candy from when I was little, to vintage toys, to our aprons, spices, food products, and our newly-released item is my grandmother’s chocolate chip cookie dough. We are really trying to put a different spin on things, and I think this helps us do just that.
Throughout the restaurant, we don’t have much artwork on the walls. What’s on the walls are my grandmother’s hand-written recipes. I just got them blown up, my husband made frames for them, and that’s our artwork. I’ve got my family tree painted on the wall, dated back all the way to 1821. The pictures on the dining tables are various pictures of my family, original Chef Tam’s menus, and family recipes.
The most popular items have stayed the same, the Peach Cobbler Nachos and Bayou Fries, even since the move and additional items added to the menu.
We’re going to be having a Valentine’s Day special. Stay tuned to Chef Tam’s social media for the upcoming announcement!
When I ended up being on Food Network, they actually reached out to me. What I do is work my social media over and over and over. In me working it, that allows whomever is scouting for those outlets to find me. It wasn’t a hashtag thing, it was just pretty food.
I think the most memorable moment was the first time I went on Food Network and I actually won. It was so surreal. I had watched Guy Fieri when he first went on Food Network. I had been saying for years, “I’m gonna go on there one day!” and I had no idea that it would really happen. That would probably be one of the highs in my career.
You can contact Chef Tam’s Underground Café by messaging, following, and liking them on Facebook and Instagram and calling them at (901) 207-2598. You can also view their website and send them a message at www.thecheftam.com!
