Barbecue for Princes, and the Old Delta Style

It was great to see Greg and his boys again. The first full night that I was in town, Greg picked them up from his ex-wife, and at my suggestion, we all went out to partake of barbecue, as we had done during a previous with much success, at the Interstate. This time Greg suggested the venerable Rendezous. 

The Rendezous, or more properly Charlie Vergos' Rendezous, in the thick of downtown, with an entranc on what amounts to an alley that runs 2nd  Street.

In 1948, Charlie Vergos cleaned out a basement below his diner, discovered a coal chute, and started a legend.

The coal chute gave him a vent for his considerable talent over a grill, and allowed him to expand from ham-and-cheese sandwiches to ribs.

Greg said that the heiress to the Holiday Inn hotel empire (founded in 1953 By Kemmons Wilson with four hotels on the four highway approaches to Memphis), had recently gotten married and had, as part of the festivities, hosted the English royal princes for a dinner at the Rendezvous.

The original Holiday Inn in Memphis (from this site). Greg and I both enjoy discussing the history of the American hospitality industry. He makes his living in part by selling furniture to various "flags" within the industry

Not surprisingly there is a modern Holiday Inn right next to the restaurant.

The alley in front of the was buzzing with people as we approached the door. Inside the stairs went down to the basement. The line went up the stairs as we waited the brief time for the host to seat us. Greg wanted to sit in the busy side of the restaurant, so they found us a seat in the back room, amidst thriving parties at the other tables.

Despite the location in the middle of downtown, the interior of the dining room was very rustic, like a southern roadhouse. There were many old signs and photographs. On the far wall was large whiteboard map of the Delta Air Lines system, thickly covered with graffiti accumulated over many years. Greg and I agreed that the map was quite old because the depicted Delta route covered mostly the southeast part the country.

As we were served our ribs, Greg asked our waiter, a trim black guy with a white shirt who is no doubt one of the folk mentioned in this staff list on the Rendezvous website, if he had been part of the staff the night of the hotel heir's wedding party. He replied proudly that he had, and that it had been great fun to see it all happen.

He mentioned that the wedding party had dined in the upstairs room, accessible by interior stairs. The basement rooms and the tables around us had been occupied by, among other folks, the choicest pick of cops and firemen that Memphis had to offer, and their guests.


The ribs were ordered were awesome. I didn't even stuff myself, as I might have. We all left feeling like kings.

An old Delta Air Lines route map I found online The map in the Rendezvous is pretty much identical in color and composition, although  only displayed only the U.S. routes.