Tiny restaurant allows couple to offer personal touch
Blue Honey Bistro owners Courtney and Drew Bryan opened their Germantown restaurant in 2017. Drew Bryan was named a James Beard Foundation Awards semifinalist in the Best Chef: Southeast category. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
When Drew Bryan’s wife, Courtney, texted him a week ago and told him he had been named a James Beard Foundation Awards semifinalist, he thought it was a joke.
He texted back: “Ha!”
Meet the local James Beard semifinalists
But it was true; he’d been named a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Southeast category. It’s just not something he or his wife had thought to go after when they opened Blue Honey Bistro in 2017.
Their only goal was to operate a small, neighborhood restaurant that offers exemplary service and delicious food. And tucked away in a strip shopping center in the heart of Germantown, Blue Honey is tiny — a 1,200-square-foot restaurant with only 36 seats.
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Blue Honey Bistro Drew Bryan James Beard Foundation Awards Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
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Jennifer Chandler
A cookbook author and former restaurateur, Jennifer Chandler has been writing about food and dining for more than 25 years. In her role as the food and restaurant writer for The Daily Memphian, she covers food news, provides readers an inside look into their favorite restaurants and offers suggestions for what to order at eateries across the Memphis area.
Chandler’s stories and recipes have been featured in national publications such as Real Simple, HGTV Magazine and Woman’s World. She’s also appeared on a number of national broadcast cooking segments including Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible” and Ducks Unlimited TV. She also hosts a radio show “The Weekly Dish” on Memphis’s NPR station WKNO-FM.
She is the author of four cookbooks: “The Southern Pantry Cookbook,” “Simply Salads,” “Simply Suppers,” and “Simply Grilling.” While she boasts a degree from Le Cordon Bleu, this Memphis native is about making real food accessible for real families.
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