It was Tom T. Hall that inspired me to revisit a Midtown staple I don’t think I’ve ever written about before.

Hall, the one-of-a-kind country songwriter who died on Friday, Aug. 20, penned one of the greatest “Memphis” songs: “That’s How I Got to Memphis.” 

But while one of the signature songs of this city is also one of Hall’s own best, it’s not quite representative. “That’s How I Got to Memphis” is elemental, archetypal. That’s probably why it’s been covered so often. (A fave version: Memphis’ own Sid Selvidge.) It belongs to whoever sings it.

$10 Deal: Tri-color enchiladas at El Gallo Giro are a house special

My favorite Tom T. Hall songs, by contrast, are specific, rich in detail. The characters often have names and jobs. The action – or often inaction – happens in places you can picture: On the front porches of rural farms, in lonely motel rooms or motel bars, at diners. 

There’s perhaps no place in Memphis that feels as much like the setting for a Tom T. Hall song as Bob’s Barksdale Restaurant, a longtime breakfast and lunch fixture on Cooper Street, a stone’s throw south of Overton Square and somehow a world away.

With its wood-paneled walls and laminate table tops, black coffee (this is a latte-free zone) poured into plain white ceramic cups and servers liable to call you “sugar,” as one did me this week, the Barksdale could be the place where Hall gently picks up the tab for his bereft young companion in “The Hitchhiker” or asks for “some coffee and a hot ham sandwich, please,” in “Who’s Gonna Feed Them Hogs.”

I guess that was the memorial selection that sent me.

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A breakfast of country ham & red-eye gravy at Barksdale Restaurant is a meal as pleasingly out of time as its setting. Eggs, omelets, pancakes. Those you can find pretty much any place that serves breakfast. Country ham & red-eye gravy? Perhaps more likely to be found at your grandparents’ kitchen table than on a restaurant menu.

The ham – sliced thin, pan-fried, salty, chewy – is nearly the size of the platter it comes on, to the point that the two eggs and hash browns (or grits) that come with it have to be folded underneath. 

Red-eye gravy is made by adding coffee to the ham’s pan drippings. The coffee bitterness undercuts the sweet/salty intensity of the ham. It works on the plate, but if we’re being honest it sings even more on the page: Country ham & red-eye gravy. To eat is to engage all the senses, including the imagination. 

You can choose the sausage gravy if you prefer, which would pair better with biscuits if that’s your bread choice. It was mine on this trip, mostly because it seems like that’s what Tom T. would have wanted. 

But my recommendation is to go toast over biscuits (this breakfast is big enough as is), hash browns over grits and red-eye gravy to complete the ideal.

Somehow, this three-dish feast clocks in at only $9.75, though a very necessary and endlessly refillable cup of coffee will bring your check – handwritten, natch – to an even 12 bucks. Even old five-and-dimers like you and me can swing that. 

Bob’s Barksdale Restaurant, 237 South Cooper Street, is open daily, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 901-722-5444 for more information.