DJ Devin Steel, WKND owners team up for Supper Club on 2nd
Outside Supper Club on 2nd, located at 85 S. Second St. in downtown Memphis. The 60s and 70s-inspired restaurant and bar is expected to open in early spring 2022. (Neil Strebig/The Daily Memphian)
Outside 85 S. Second St., manilla construction paper still covers the windows. Inside is a different story.
Gold and green velvet couches and chairs decorate the wood panel floors as golden lighting fixtures help posturize the already larger-than-life portraits of Hollywood stars and starlets spotted throughout the space.
Early this spring, Supper Club on 2nd — SCO2 — will open its doors.
“The city is trying to do its best to capitalize and we’re trying to be another positive,” co-owner Adrian “A.G.” Granderson said.
Robert Higgins, Adrian Granderson and Joe Johnson opened the first WKND Hang Suite in Nashville and a second location in the Bluff City. The trio of entrepreneurs chose the original Raiford’s site at 115 Vance Ave. for the Memphis location. (Daily Memphian file)
Granderson is joined by partners Joe Johnson, Robert Higgins and former Memphis radio personality Devin Butler, known on-air as Devin Steel. The quartet hopes that the Supper Club can become a destination for Downtown visitors and be a catalyst in Memphis’ ongoing revitalization.
Devin Steel spent more than 20 years as a pivotal figure in Memphis’ urban radio market. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian file)
“As a group of guys from Memphis, it’s exciting to be part of the growth,” Butler said.
“As a group of guys from Memphis, it’s exciting to be part of the growth.”
Devin Steel
Granderson, Johnson and Higgins founded the restaurant’s ownership group, Suite Lyfe Holding LLC. While this is Butler’s first partnership with the trio, the hospitality group are no strangers to Memphis.
Granderson, Johnson and Higgins opened WKND Hang Suite, 115 Vance St. in the South Main District, in 2018. The restaurant and club opened in the former site of the historic Raiford’s Hollywood Disco.
The group previously opened its first WKND venture in Nashville in 2013 in the former site of Jazz & Jokes. Suite Lyfe Holdings now owns and operates four establishments, two in Memphis and two in Nashville.
Johnson said the team leased the building in 2019, which was previously vacant, and were preparing to begin the final phases of construction when the pandemic hit. Construction and build-out resumed in July, he said.
“We wanted to find a place that had its own architectural integrity,” Granderson said. “Each building (in Memphis) has its own story and wanted to keep that.”
Upstairs at the Supper Club on 2nd, located at 85 S. Second St. in downtown Memphis. The 100-seat restaurant and bar is expected to open in early spring 2022. (Neil Strebig/The Daily Memphian)
Golden lighting fixtures hang inside Supper Club on 2nd in downtown Memphis. (Neil Strebig/The Daily Memphian)
Inside the main entrance of Supper Club on 2nd, located at 85 S. Second St., in downtown Memphis. The 100-seat restaurant and bar is expected to open in early spring 2022. (Neil Strebig/The Daily Memphian)
Inside the 100-person space features several high tops, couches, a downstairs bar and dining area along with a second-floor mezzanine outfitted with a satellite bar.
The ambiance is anchored with the building’s original brick backdrops, high ceilings, and several projectors that rotate images of pop culture icons such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Frank Sinatra.
The goal is to emulate the spirit of the social clubs that populated America’s cities in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Johnson said.
The venue will feature craft cocktails and the upscale food menu curated by the former personal chef for hip hop icon Lil Wayne and Sumlight Bistro food truck owner, Daris Leatherwood.
Hours will be 4 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday through Saturday, and brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The kitchen will close at 1 a.m.
“It’s about the vibe,” Granderson said. “It’s about the experience.”
Topics
Downtown Memphis WKND Hang Suite Supper Club on 2ndNeil Strebig
Neil Strebig is a chef turned journalist covering economic development and commercial real estate for The Daily Memphian. He grew up in Pennsylvania and has worked at media outlets including the York Daily Record/USA Today Network and most recently as Report for America Corps Member with Lookout Santa Cruz. He is a graduate of Point Park University in Pittsburgh.
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