
Blues City Cafe
$$Beale Street's ribs-and-blues room, open until 3am

“Suburban Memphis BBQ inside a 1900s general store”
Germantown Commissary occupies a restored 1900s general store, which makes it one of the most atmospheric barbecue rooms in the Memphis area. The low ceilings and wood-paneled walls feel like stepping back a century, and the smoke that fills them has kept the suburb loyal for decades. The slow-smoked ribs, offered dry or wet, are the consistent draw, but the smoked turkey is the sleeper hit, moist and genuinely smoky where most versions go dry. Pulled pork plates arrive as a generous heap of smoked shoulder, and the banana pudding is the expected sweet finish that regulars still order every time. Setting and substance rarely line up this well; here the building is half the pleasure and the pit, sauce optional and smoke-forward, delivers the rest. Few rooms in the region wear their history so easily.
Germantown Commissary serves the full Memphis experience inside a lovingly preserved 19th-century general store, one of the region's most atmospheric rooms. Its smoked turkey may be the best in the Memphis area.
6 dimensions, each scored 0-10
Regulars point to Dry Rub Ribs, Pulled Pork Plate, Smoked Turkey, and Banana Pudding.
Mon–Sat 11am–9pm, Sun 11am–8pm
Germantown Commissary is mid-range ($$).
Germantown Commissary serves Memphis Style barbecue — Memphis BBQ is rib country. The great debate is wet vs. dry: dry ribs are coated in a paprika-heavy spice rub and served without sauce, while wet ribs are glazed with a tomato-vinegar based sauce. Memphis also claims BBQ spaghetti and the BBQ nachos.
Germantown Commissary has been serving Memphis barbecue since 1981.

Beale Street's ribs-and-blues room, open until 3am

The Midtown original that reset modern Memphis 'cue

The cathedral of Memphis dry-rub ribs since 1948