A new black-owned breakfast restaurant called Memphis Toast is getting ready to debut in North Memphis, located at 954 Jackson Ave.
Co-owners Billy Irby and Roosevelt Bonds will open this new concept in the former home of Jazzy J’s Sports Bar & Grill, which has been vacant for eight years, according to the Daily Memphian. The new upscale brunch restaurant, formerly conceptualized as Jackson Cafe, is expected to open in early November 2023. The co-owners previously received a Good Neighbor Grant from the Downtown Memphis Commission, which is designed to help commercial property owners make exterior improvements to their businesses.
“There’s an absence of businesses in the neighboring area,” Irby tells the Daily Memphian. “But we intend to fight through that and invest as much as possible in that strip (on Jackson Avenue) because no one else is.”
Irby and Bonds recently came a step closer to opening Memphis Toast earlier this month after the DMC’s Design Review Board recently approved recent design revisions to the project. Plans show the restaurant’s exterior to include an enclosed patio space. While the menu isn’t completely established, the owners plan to focus on toast-based dishes, such as French toast and eggs Benedict, and a handful of health-conscious dishes aimed at the nearby senior community.
“Memphis Toast is the first business, besides that Family Dollar, to invest in the Jackson strip in the last eight to 10 years,” Irby says. “We’ll have a Black-owned restaurant in a predominantly Black-owned neighborhood, so I think that’ll be uplifting.”
