Art House Cafe in Soulsville has been open less than three months, but the owners are ready for Memphis Black Restaurant Week. 

Managed by siblings Tameka Greer, Marvin Butler and Lortoni Butler, Art House Cafe opened in January in a canary yellow building at the corner of Mississippi Boulevard and Walker Avenue. 

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“We are glad to be a part of Memphis Black Restaurant Week,” Greer said. “We appreciate Cynthia Daniels and what it means to put attention on Black-owned businesses. And we’re new so a lot of people have no idea we’re here.” 

Art House Cafe will be open their normal hours during the week with a limited menu that includes fried catfish, baby back ribs and their “all the smoke” plate with smoked wings, smoked gouda potatoes and smoked cabbage. 

“You can’t be in Memphis and not offer catfish,” Greer said. “And you can’t be in Memphis and not offer it with spaghetti, which most people don’t get, but we understand.” 

I went for the Sunday soul food lunch and, of course, chose the fried catfish plate ($16.99) with spaghetti (an extra $1) and greens. My friend went for the four veggie plate ($15.99) with green beans, fried okra and their signature sides: smoked cabbage and smoked gouda potatoes. 

Because sharing is caring, we split up everything to taste it all. Art House Cafe serves its perfectly crispy catfish fillet with a house-made tartar sauce and makes its spaghetti with a tangy tomato meat sauce. 

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The tender, well-seasoned greens were the best I’ve had in ages, and the gouda potatoes and savory smoked cabbage lived up to their reputation. 

Art House Cafe’s everyday menu has soul food and barbecue smokehouse favorites, plus Southern sides and “some kind of dessert that makes you, you know, break a rule that you probably shouldn’t be breaking,” Greer said.

Her brother, Chef Marvin Butler, runs the kitchen and the smokehouse out back. 

Not available during MBRW are the restaurant’s “handhelds,” such as the chopped chicken sandwich, salmon sliders or the half-pound smoked burger. All these combos are affordably priced at about $10, an intentional move to serve the neighborhood’s residents. 

All the items we ordered on Sunday, however, should be available this week. The Cafe will publish their finalized MBRW menu on social media in the coming days.

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“We have personal history in this space. ... My family has been in this building for over 40 years,” Greer said.

Her uncle, Freddie Butler, operated several businesses there over the years: Butler’s Pit Barbecue, a novelty shop and Mr. B’s, a wing spot.

His son, the late Kevin “Montana Traxx” Butler, was a music producer for 8Ball & MJG and used the spot as a studio for a while.

Today, the building serves as headquarters for Memphis Artists for Change, an arts and community development nonprofit that Greer founded in 2012. It’s also the only free Wi-Fi cafe in the neighborhood, which Greer described as a broadband desert.

“All the art on the walls is from local Black artists in the city,” she said. “We also produce a live music podcast in the vein of Tiny Desk, except it’s all local, regional artists from the Mid-South.” 

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In addition to gallery walls and recording space, there’s new back patio with outdoor seating where Greer plans to host a series of live music and spoken word events this spring and summer. 

“We also want to create a space that is excellence ... in the middle of South Memphis,” Greer explains. “There’s beauty here and not just the beauty that we bring or cultivate. There’s an energy when you come to this area, and I think we should honor it.” 

Art House Cafe, 1023 Mississippi Blvd., is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Call 901-476-4906 for takeout orders and visit memphisartistsforchange.org/art-house-cafe or their Facebook page to see the menus.