The Early Word: Rawgirls is closing, but Brooklyn Bridge is here to stay
Welcome to another Monday, Memphis. It’s July 15, and Southwest Tennessee Community College will resume in-person classes today after a cybersecurity incident shut down operations down earlier this month. And in other Southwest news, the college isn’t giving up on a northwest Memphis neighborhood, even after selling its Frayser campus.
The Memphis Grizzlies will be busy in Las Vegas all week with more NBA Summer League action. Tonight, the Bears of Summer will play the Dallas Mavericks. For a look at what else is ahead, check out This Week in Memphis.
After 13 years of serving walnut-meat taco salad and mung-bean pasta bowls, vegan grab-and-go eatery Rawgirls will close at the end of the month. (I’m not crying; you’re crying.) The married couple, who owns the food truck and Downtown brick-and-mortar, tried to sell their business as they made plans to leave Memphis, following their daughter’s graduation. But no deal worked out. And if that makes you sad (as it does me), no worries: The Pickles plan to share their recipes on a new digital platform soon.
The Memphis headlines have been dominated with restaurant closures lately (see above), mostly due to rising food costs and staffing shortages. But some eateries, like 39-year-old Brooklyn Bridge, seem to be doing just fine. The Daily Memphian’s Jennifer Chandler paid this family-owned East Memphis institution a visit for the first time in about 15 years. And she was pleasantly surprised by the crowd, the portion sizes and the eggplant parmesan pizza.
Plus, Crosstown Mound plans are moving along, Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins’ cabinet is almost full and a new coffee shop is rolling into Memphis.
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Bianca Phillips
Bianca Phillips is a Northeast Arkansas native and longtime Memphian with two decades of experience in local journalism and public relations. She’s a diehard morning person who spends her free time training for marathons and ultras. And she’s the author of “Cookin Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South.”
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