HHP Review: SOLE (3 glasses)

It goes without saying that Memphis is a town with a lot of soul/sole. In the Yellow Pages there is: Sole Mio, a restaurant; Sole Ace, a men’s shoe store; and Sole Outdoors, another shoe store that may or may not be affiliated with Sole Ace. Spelled the other way there are two restaurants - Soul Café and Soul Fish; Soul Fencing - either a home improvement contractor or place to sword fight; Soul Winners Baptist Church; Soulsville; Rock N Soul; Soul Man; and, of course, the famous Soul Burger. Then there are just way too many purveyors of soul music and soul food to mention. One we will mention, fondly, is Sole Restaurant and Raw Bar, located in the Westin Hotel just across from FedEx Forum. Although we do not know this for certain, we are assuming that the “sole” in this case refers not to footwear but to the family of flatfish that also includes the  flounder. The menu is indeed endowed with many delectable seafood dishes but, oddly, no flatfish. But this is not about the restaurant side of Sole but the bar - and not the raw bar either - nor the lobby bar - the casual bar on the southeast corner of the hotel.

That is where the Happy Hour Patrol gathered for our March soiree, about ten of us or so. DNA has had a couple of meetings there and at least one prior happy hour so many of you may be familiar with it. Like the Westin generally, it is sleek and urban, with lots of glass and metal and some handsome wood paneling to warm it up a bit. It is not a sports bar but they do have game day specials and a large TV. Their happy hour specials are pretty good for a fancy hotel bar - $2 drafts, $3.50 pints, and very reasonable wines. But when it comes to DNA happy hours, like the pitchman says on TV - wait, there’s more! We were joined by DNA member and Westin concierge, Joan Robinson, and she introduced us to Assistant General Manger, Lance Morton. The next thing we knew servers were bringing out food - complimentary appetizers from the dinner menu. They brought their superb spinach and artichoke dip with crostini, fried calamari, the ultimate comfort dish - smoked gouda mac-n-cheese, and a unique take on shrimp cocktail. Served on a bed of greens, it was more like a salad, and could indeed be either a meal itself or a shared salad/appetizer. Everything was tasty and we fought over every last morsel. Thank you Joan and Lance for a memorable time!

It was a slow night in the bar because the Westin has live entertainment in the lobby. That’s apparently where the beautiful people were but that was OK because we were drinking and enjoying food on the house with the manager. The upscale atmosphere, great patio for people-watching, reasonably-priced specials, and genuinely friendly staff make Sole a place to put on your happy hour list.                 

- Bill Denton