What started as a food truck in the parking lot of First Congregational Church on Cooper Street now has a permanent home in the Brooks Museum of Art.

Loaf was launched in July 2021 by Kale Carmon; they had previously worked at an upscale Japanese restaurant, Uchi, in Austin, before being furloughed due to the pandemic.

Jennifer and Chris say goodbye to 2022 with a list of the best foods of the year

“I wanted to open a restaurant, but we were still in the variants period of COVID, so it wasn’t feasible to open a restaurant,” Carmon said.

Instead, Carmon approached an entrepreneur friend, Nick Riley, who owns Bad Timing on Highland Street and is part owner of Black Lodge near Crosstown Concourse.

“I pitched (Riley) the idea for a food truck, and we bought it and set it up at First Congo,” Carmon said. “We were able to make a profit and also have a truck on site to cook the community meals for the First Congo food justice program.”

Steph Rollen, director of the food justice ministry at First Congregational, said that Carmon has “a lot of integrity” in making sure that the food they prepare represents the way they like to cook as well as the community.

“(They) traveled to a lot of places and wanted to show people what (they) learned,” Rollen said. “(They) would teach people about different food from different ethnic origins. A lot of people looked forward to what (they were) going to be making.”

New Eats: Sunrise East has new lunch options and delivers with The Dip

Carmon and the Loaf team started out with chicken sandwiches as a menu staple, specifically a honey gold, Memphis-style chicken sandwich.

“The ethos is modern Memphis cuisine. To me that means taking Memphis, Mid-South classic dishes and incorporating different ingredients or influences of the major immigrant communities that exist in the Mid-South.”

Kale Carmon

“The ethos is modern Memphis cuisine,” Carmon said. “To me that means taking Memphis, Mid-South classic dishes and incorporating different ingredients or influences of the major immigrant communities that exist in the Mid-South — food that is representative of the people who live here and not just the people who lived here 100 years ago.” 

After having success with the Loaf food truck, Carmon was approached by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art to occupy its café space. Since reopening after the pandemic, the café has been focused on coffee and pastries.

“They were just looking to bring someone in to do a savory menu,” Carmon said. “They thought the style of food I do would fit well with an art museum.”

Loaf opened at the Brooks Museum of Art on Jan. 4 with the menu changing weekly.

“We have some mainstays, but 40% of the menu will rotate weekly,” Carmon said. “We’ll always have the honey gold chicken sandwich, but we play around a lot with seasonality. We try to use stuff that’s fresh and reflective of the season we’re in.”

Carmon also wants to develop specials that are reflective of the theme of the rotating art exhibits at the museum.

“We can already see Loaf’s impact,” said Zoe Kahr, executive director of the Brooks Museum of Art. “The museum has been really lively since they opened last week. We like the idea of tempting people to come to the museum for many reasons — not just art. Visitors are coming for lunch and coffee, but then they’re also stopping into the galleries.”

Currently, Carmon has a staff of three, which includes Carmon. Once they have a better idea of the volume Loaf will do at the Brooks, they may add a couple more employees to the team.

“We want to be sure that as long as we’re in Overton Park,” Kahr said, “we’re both planning for our move Downtown, as well as making our current home the most exciting place to come experience art and food in Memphis.” 

Loaf, located inside the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 1934 Poplar Ave., is open Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., and Thursdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. For more info, call (901) 300-0103.