Sharon's Chocolates & Bread Cafe (Closed)

Ed Note: This restaurant has closed.

Sharon's Chocolates & Bread Cafe
2881 Poplar
324-4422

I spotted the sign for Sharon's Chocolates and Bread Cafe weeks ago and was intrigued. I immediately Googled the name, but found nothing. That's pretty much still the story today, although the Flyer did give them a mention in print and on the Hungry Memphis blog.

The monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) and I tried to go for breakfast a few Saturdays ago, but we were too early. (They don't technically serve breakfast, but I thought we could get some bread or a croissant.) Once we figured out their actual hours (11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday), we popped in for a late lunch on a Friday afternoon when the monkeys were out of school.



Sharon's is located in the Chickasaw Crossing shopping center near the main library where Grisanti's used to be. (Still is?) The shopping center has had a facelift and looks nice from the outside. Inside Sharon's it feels a little stark and cold. I'll attribute it to being newly opened and not being too busy when we were there. (A lot of people were coming in to peek around, but we were the only patrons.)

You order at the counter, where there are several displays. Since we got there a little late (1:30ish), there wasn't a lot of selection, but Satchel pointed to the bbq chicken pizza rolls and said, "I want one of those." I really wanted to try the pizza, as did Jiro, so we asked for that. I had heard it was authentic New York style, so I assumed we could order slices, but it turns out it's authentic Sicilian style, so we ordered a 1/2. (The other choice is a whole.) Our drink options consisted of soda from a nearby cooler or coffee from a carafe. I instructed Jiro to get a Diet Coke for us to split and the woman at the counter gave me three cups.

We sat down at a table by the window and Satchel asked me to get his coat out of the car. I was told that they have to keep the cafe cold because of the chocolate. Speaking of, neither monkey noticed that there was an entire case of delicious chocolates just a few feet away! Had other people been eating near us, I'm sure that they would have clued in. Since we'd had Maggie Moo's before coming, I didn't point out the sweet treats, although I will have to make another trip to do just that.

After a few minutes our pizza and pizza rolls came out. (The pizza was made fresh; the pizza rolls reheated.)




Satchel immediately honed in on the fact that the pizza rolls had red onions. He picked them out and ate with a little pout on his face.



Then he accidentally spilled his portion of Diet Coke all over the place. (Earlier that day, he spilled my coffee!) A nice woman came over and had it all cleaned up before we even really realized what happened.

Meanwhile, Jiro was very thoroughly enjoying his pizza.



I eagerly bit into my piece of pizza and was quite pleased. "It's delicious!" Jiro said. "And greasy!" he added while scrambling to wipe his fingers off. Seeing that Satchel wasn't going to be able to remove enough onions to enjoy his selection, I encouraged him to try a piece of pizza. "I'm not hungry," he said. Since he didn't want his own ice cream at Maggie Moo's previously I was inclined to believe him.

In the end, Jiro ate one piece of pizza, Satchel ate next to nothing, and I had my piece of pizza and both of Satchel's rejected pizza rolls. So much for healthy choices!

We packed up our leftover pizza and headed home.

I'm a little worried about Sharon's. It reminds me of La Baguette--bakery, sweets, lunch items--but something is missing. Soup and salad maybe? There needs to be something to round out the menu and make the offerings seem more like a meal. Some more exciting drink offerings would help make it feel more like a cafe too.

I hope that after a few weeks Sharon's will find it's groove.

Maggie Moo's

Maggie Moo's Ice Cream and Treatery
125 South Main Street
522-1912

Last week the monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) and I were downtown for the International Folk Alliance conference. We parked on one end of Main Street and walked to the other. We took the trolley back, and Jiro requested that we stop at Maggie Moo's for ice cream. We hadn't had lunch yet, but there was no talking him out of it. He'd recently visited with friends and wanted me to experience the magic.



Maggie Moo's used to be in Peabody Place, and we'd been several times. We even had a tour of the kitchen and learned how to make ice cream for a story I did for Memphis Parent. (Maggie's is a national chain, but this franchise is locally-owned and operated.)

The new location on Main Street is way better and the store seems new and exciting again. Plus it has on-street seating for people watching! With the Folk Alliance Conference in town, there were plenty of interesting people to see.

Despite our earlier visits, I somehow failed to realize that Maggie's did the whole mixing in of toppings on the cold stone. Jiro set me straight.



Although Jiro was the only one ordering ice cream, I figured I'd get a few bites, so I helped him decide on Peanut Butter Galaxy.



He requested it in a waffle cup, which I'd never seen before.



It looked great, and he was very happy. I sent him and Satchel out for a chair while I paid. It was a whopping $6.42! I was now happier than ever that Satchel decided not to order one. Yikes. That's about what the three of us would pay together at Baskin Robbins. It's slightly more than YoLo too. However, it did end up being enough for all three of us to share, and I'm pretty sure if you get a plain scoop in a regular cup it's way cheaper.



Based on the location alone, I'm sure we'll be back.

Maggie Moo's is having their grand opening tomorrow, Saturday, February 26th from 1-5pm. There will be special pricing, balloons, face painting, and a visit from Maggie Moo herself.

Steak 'n Shake

Steak 'n Shake
8477 US Highway 64
380-5880



After spending the bulk of our day at the Wolfchase Galleria, we found ourselves dazed and confused--and hungry--at 3:15pm. I tried my best to rally Warren and the monkeys (Satchel, 8, Jiro 6) for a trip to Las Tortugas, but Warren complained it was too far away and that we'd have to deal with a ton of traffic. (He's just jealous of Senor Dreamy!) So, my next suggestion was Steak 'n Shake, solely because it was close and it reminds me of my own childhood. I told the monkeys about how I used to walk to the one near the JCC when I was little and they were amazed. "You mean they had Steak 'n Shakes all the way when you were little?" Satchel said. Then after thinking for a minute, he added, "Was that before it became a chain?" I don't know why, but that cracked me up.

When we arrived, I expected it to be dead since it was the middle of the afternoon, but it was packed and we came in with a rush. A man who stopped to hold the door open on his way out remarked, "Is there a church bus in the parking lot?"

The inside is cute, but retro/diner vibe made me wish I was at In-N-Out Burger instead. Or just in California!

After just a short wait, we were shown to a booth. The kids were given hats, crayons (2) and activity sheets.





A quick scan of the table revealed why the restaurant was packed:



"Well what do you know?" I said. "Kids eat free all weekend." Looking at the fine print you can see each adult must spend $8. Warren and I looked at the menu and tried to crunch some numbers. It seemed like most meals were in the $4 and $5 range, so we weren't sure if we could spend $16 between us. There was a brief discussion about adding shakes to our orders, and some glancing around to see if the kids' meals were dinky. Eventually we just decided to let the kids order off of the regular menu. Satchel wanted sliders, Jiro wanted a regular steakburger, and Warren went with a hot dog. I toyed with ordering a salad, but they looked kind of boring so I went with a Chipotle chicken sandwich. I knew I was going to eat fries--I love their skinny fries--and mooch off of someone's milkshake, so the healthy choices were just for show at this point.

After ordering, we discussed our Pokemon adventures, and waited patiently. Jiro eventually turned to his iPod for entertainment and I worked on his activity sheet. Once the milkshakes arrived, we perked up a bit.

Jiro got a kid sized cookies and cream and Warren got a chocolate.




(Don't you love the far away look in Warren's eyes?)

Jiro complained that his milkshake was small after seeing Warren's, but he eventually got over it. (And even with help from me and Satchel, half of it still went uneaten.)

Warren's shake was way better anyway. Can't go wrong with classic chocolate. He was nice enough to share and Satchel was nice enough to stop talking about Pokemon for five seconds so that he could enjoy a sip and we could have some quiet!



Looking around the restaurant, a lot of kids had cardboard cruisers. The monkeys weren't interested, but I appreciated the kid-friendly touch. (The menu said they were available by request.)



Our food came out fairly quickly and looked fine. Not exciting, but fine. Seeing the portion sizes, I was glad we let the kids order off of the regular menu. The meals were big enough to get full without having leftovers.

Satchel's sliders look big in this picture, but he noted, "Cool, they are small like Krystal burgers."



Jiro's single steakburger was about the size of a regular hamburger at McDonald's.



Warren and I were both alarmed by the color of his relish, but he ate it without any complaints.



My chicken sandwich was fine, but a little on the dry side. (I pulled off the cheese and bacon for Satchel to add to one of his sliders.)



While I waited for Satchel to finish up, I went on a bathroom run. There was no changing table that I saw and it was a bit of a mess from the previous crowd. When I returned to the table, I got the check and went to pay. Our total was $25, which was pretty standard for the four of us at lunch. I kind of regretted not doing the kids eat free deal, but oh well.

On the way out, Satchel, who had found two quarters at the mall, let Jiro have one so he could get a piece of gum. (Satchel got himself a piece of gum at the beginning of the meal and told Jiro he could have one after if he behaved!)



We left full and happy. The service was fast and friendly. The food was decent and not too expensive. However, I don't think we'll need to make any special trips to Cordova to eat here again anytime soon. The traffic getting back to midtown was insane!