Broken Arrow Thrift Store is South Main’s newest—and youngest—tenant. 20-year old Olivia Friddle is the owner of the vintage clothing, records, accessories and home goods store.
Friddle’s family owns Downtown German restaurant Grawemeyer’s and has had a presence in the arts district for many years.
She admits that it’s difficult to balance a 60-hour work week with the load of being a student at the University of Memphis for a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, but her passion for unique fare makes it worth it.
Broken Arrow, located at 522 South Main Street, takes consignments every Wednesday.
Aldo’s Pizza Pies’ much anticipated Midtown location opened in late March at 752 South Cooper. The 1,900-square foot building seats around 96 people with around 30 on the roof-top patio area. The new restaurant has six beers on tap and is in process of obtaining its liquor license.
Unlike the original South Main location, the Midtown Aldo’s serves panini sandwiches. Because of limited oven space, the restaurant does not offer delivery or pizza by-the-slice, but this will eventually change.
“When there are so many bodies in Midtown, and you’re the only one that delivers pizza, you’d better be ready,” said Midtown manager Dan Shaffer.
He added that Aldo’s will have a grand opening in the coming weeks.
The Pyramid Vodka tasting room has officially opened for tastings and distillery tours at 802 Royal Avenue.
The venture,
Big River Distilling Company LLC, is the work of brothers Alexander Folk and Winston Folk. The Memphis natives will began distilling Big River's premium brand of vodka, Pyramid Vodka, in October last year.
Pyramid is a local brand: ingredients come from farms within a 100-square-mile radius, and all of the byproduct goes back to farmers for use as feed.
"Memphis is the perfect place for a distillery because of two essential ingredients--the sweetest water in the world and corn we source locally from the Mississippi River Delta, which contains the best fertile farmlands," said Winston Folk, Co-founder and COO.
The Folks enlisted a group of business investors led by Co-owners Richard Smith and Cannon Smith, sons of Memphis' most famous homegrown entrepreneur, FedEx Corp. Founder Frederick W. Smith. The Folks also have a notable lineage as grandsons of the late Humphrey Folk Jr., who founded restaurant Folk's Folly.
"The opportunity to give back to the community and invest in something local really attracted me to the deal," said Cannon Smith, Pyramid Vodka's Director of Sales and Marketing. "Plus the potential is there to build this into a national and even global brand, and Memphis has a solid reputation in that regard."
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