When I was researching my recent story about how TSU grads have become so important to the local hospitality industry, several people mentioned that Willie B’s Kitchen & Lounge was making quite an impact in the historic Buchanan Street neighborhood, despite opening during the middle of the pandemic. I recalled seeing that owner Christopher Jones had indeed opened his new restaurant after years of operating a food truck, but I thought it was more of a nighttime destination — and I’m not doing a lot of driving after dark lately.
I was wrong.
While Willie B’s is indeed a stylish lounge with the kind of evening entertainment amenities that you would expect from a nighttime hotspot — DJ booth, VIP room, hookah service — it’s also a very good option for a midday meal, especially if you love New Orleans-inspired food as much as I do. Jones is originally from Memphis, but as Willie B's manager Marie Echols told me on my recent visit, “It seems like everybody from Memphis has people in New Orleans too.” Taught to cook by his grandmother, whom he named the restaurant after, Jones was drawn to the spicy flavors and fresh seafood of the Big Easy. When he opened up his Willie B’s food truck, spicy seafood was a major part of the menu.
Willie B's VIP room
Taking over a historic building at 918 Buchanan St. that was formerly the neighborhood post office and most recently a hair-supply shop, Jones has converted the space into a very attractive drinking and dining establishment. After a quick temp check and hand sanitizing, I entered the main dining room and sat at the long marble bar, highlighted by huge televisions that were displaying an aquarium screensaver, but also show sports when big games are on.
The friendly bartender greeted me and handed me a card with safety info and a QR code that led to the menu. We talked about the bar program, and I was impressed to see that a large proportion of the bottles on the shelves came from Black-owned distilleries. Keeping with the New Orleans theme, there are also several daiquiri machines spinning up 80-proof frozen drinks made using premium spirits, up to and including Remy. If you can’t make up your mind, Willie B’s offers a flight of four half-pours of your choice that will get you where you want to go.
While the restaurant was pretty empty at 11:30 a.m. on a cold weekday (bonus: free parking right by the door!), I enjoyed listening to the chill R&B soundtrack while I scanned the attractive space. The staff pays a lot of attention to safety, with large booths that allow for plenty of spacing and movable plexiglass barriers that can be configured to help keep a little separation between parties.
Willie B's enclosed deck
Speaking of parties, in addition to that chic rentable VIP room, Willie B’s features a large indoor/outdoor deck and has plans to add a large outdoor hang spot with a small stage. That’s where the old food truck is currently parked, but hopefully by homecoming season in the fall, it should be a really hoppin’ spot.
As I mentioned, the menu is seafood-centric, but don’t sleep on their whole chicken wings, available spiced up with their proprietary dry “Buc Rub,” or glazed in sauces like sweet heat, Nashville hot, Jamaican jerk or Buffalo. Other popular starter items are the Worcestershire-spiked BBQ shrimp, crab cakes and a too-rare specialty around these parts — Cajun fried frog legs with a light tempura crust
Baskets are quite popular and appropriately sized for lunch or as part of a dinner. All the baskets come with seasoned fries, and the most popular options are grilled or fried catfish, lobster tails or shrimp. Grilled oysters make a nice accompaniment to any meal, brushed in a Vin Blanc sauce and kissed with fire on the grill.
I decided to go straight-on New Orleans with my order, opting for a cup of gumbo and a plate of shrimp and grits. Both benefited greatly from the inclusion of those grilled shrimp, plump and pleasantly savory off the flattop grill. Perched atop the cup of gumbo, my single shrimp didn’t last long, but I wasn’t disappointed once I dug into the dark roux broth below.
Some people go light on the okra in their restaurant gumbo out of fear that okraphobes will turn up their noses at the absolutely necessary ingredient in a proper gumbo. Willie B’s gumbo positively teems with squeaky okra, cooked perfectly past the slimy stage. Add in chucks of peppery andouille sausage, and it might just have been the best gumbo I’ve enjoyed north of Mobile.
The shrimp and grits were definitely more Big Easy than lowcountry, and I’m fine with that. The toothy stone-ground grits were an ideal bed for a creamy parmesan sauce ladled on and capped with more of those fine grilled shrimp. My only quibble is that the garnish of sliced green onions was a bit excessive and overpowered the delicate flavors of the sauce, but it was easy to work around them.
I’m always happy to find Cajun and Creole cuisine around town, and the fact that it comes from a young man with an entrepreneurial spirit like Jones is the baby in the King Cake! Not only were Jones and his staff intrepid enough to open Willie B’s last August when business conditions were decidedly difficult, but Jones actually has two more new restaurants on the docket to open quite soon.
Next month, Jones has imported a chef and GM from Miami to create a new Peruvian experience on Medical Center Parkway in Murfreesboro. Named after Miami’s area code, Pisco 305 will dovetail nicely with Jones and his love of seafood dishes and exotic flavors. They’ve already begun to sample some of the upcoming menu items at Willie B’s, so we shouldn’t have long to wait. In April, Jones plans to open a fast-casual version of his Buchanan Street restaurant in Antioch at 787 Bell Road, when Willie B’s Express starts up. As long as that gumbo is on the menu, I’ll be planning to make the trip. The space used to be a Curves fitness center, so I hope that some of that healthiness will rub off on me as I devour that rich roux.
