Urbanspoon, the leading mobile restaurant discovery application and reservation management system, today released its first annual Top High-End Restaurant List, recognizing the most highly acclaimed restaurants in the United States. The most comprehensive restaurant list of its kind, the list highlights 250 of the top restaurants across the nation, and is a result of analyzing more than 600,000 restaurants, millions of reviews from professional food critics, the Urbanspoon community and diners.

The list represents those super hot, $$$$ restaurants that received the most coverage across the the foodie community as well as from regular diners. Getting a Friday night table will require some advance planning, but the sheer popularity of these destinations ensures you’ll be treated to a memorable gastronomical event.

Congratulations to the five Memphis restaurants that made the list:

Memphis, TN

• Flight Restaurant and Wine Bar
• Acre
• Houston’s
• Texas de Brazil
• Restaurant Iris

The complete list can be viewed at http://www.urbanspoon.com/blog/82/Americas-Most-Popular-High-End-Restaurants.html.

Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1bThL)

Notable Southern chefs weigh in on who they see as the new crop of chefs to follow

With the attention of food media turning to the South, it’s time to get the scoop about young chefs on the rise that have recently been making names for themselves.

So which young chefs are stirring things up, or soon will be?

Click here for the complete The Daily Meal article.

Kelly English is a busy guy. Aside from heading up Restaurant Iris, one of Memphis’ most highly regarded restaurants, he opened Kelly English Steakhouse at Harrah’s St. Louis last fall and then turned around to compete in and win Memphis’ first Cochon 555. Now he’s co-chair of this year’s Dining Out for Life event, which benefits Friends for Life, a nonprofit dedicated to Mid-Southerners living with HIV/AIDS. We sat down with English to learn about all that and more.

Flyer: How did you decide to get involved with Dining Out for Life?

Kelly English: It’s the easiest possible way you could be involved in helping people with their lives. Dining Out for Life says “Hey, will you give us some money if we fill your restaurant?” It’s really that easy.

How does one participate in Dining Out for Life?

Go eat! You eat on Thursday, April 26th, at one of the participating restaurants. It’s just that simple.

You also recently celebrated an anniversary. Tell us about that.

Restaurant Iris just hit its fourth anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been four years. Sometimes I feel like it was yesterday we opened, and sometimes I feel like it’s been forever. It’s amazing what we as a team have been able to accomplish here at Iris over the past four years.

Was the actual date of your anniversary April Fool’s Day?

April 2nd. We could have opened on April 1st, but I was so broke and had put in everything that I’d earned and everything that I hadn’t earned yet. I couldn’t open on April Fool’s Day. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Click here to read the complete article.

Shrimp & Grits

Lest you think Memphis is little more than barbecue, biscuits and yardbird, I’d like to turn your attention to Restaurant Iris – a sterling example of what owner/chef Kelly English has coined “progressive Southern” cuisine. The beautiful thing about that phrase is how perfectly it encapsulates the essence of what chef English is doing: farm-to-table cooking rooted in honest Southern traditions.

Which means that of course the salad has a bacon component – yet it’s lardons of artisanal pork belly from Alan Benton’s local smokehouse. (If you don’t know Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the miracle of their mail order.) And the lettuces are a peppery local arugula, dressed with grilled scallions in a ginger-soy vinaigrette. Topped with crispy “croutons” of sweetbreads – a bit of genius – there’s nothing outwardly Southern about this dish, yet the counterpoint of tastes and textures is undeniably comfort food at its most refined.

Shrimp and grits might be a classic of Southern cooking but it, too, transcends expectations in the hands of chef English: the coarse-grind Delta grits are closer to polenta, bathed in tomato broth au pistou that’s thick with the taste of the sea. A refined dice of andouille adds just enough heat to prickle the palate while six meaty Gulf shrimp top it off as regally as a crown roast. When it comes to dessert, I’m not at all surprised there’s a cheese course on offer. (It’s at this point that I berate myself for not indulging in the degustation menu.)

As if the food were not enough, Restaurant Iris also has an ideal genteel setting: an intimate Victorian house on midtown’s Overton Square. Marked by exceptional service (a waiter drove to my hotel to return an accidentally left-behind credit card) and stellar cocktails to boot (the Sazerac sings) Chef English will upend everything you thought you knew about Southern dining. And masterfully so, I might add.

Click  here to view photos from Nassar’s Restaurant Iris experience.

Cochon555 coming to a city near you; Aspen FOOD & WINE Classic

Chef Kelly English's eclair, created for Memphis' Cochon555 competition, isn't your average pastry. Photo courtesy of Cochon555.

Kelly English is the kind of guy who will point you to the item you’re looking for in the grocery store, or even guide you through the coriander/cilantro conundrum on the spice aisle. (I know this because he aided my neighbor in the latter, and because when I interviewed him, he admitted to it, confessing: “I don’t take off my chef coat before I go in [the grocery store]. It’s just gotten easier for me to answer people’s questions rather than explain to them I don’t work there.”)

In the kitchen, English is a killer. So he has proven time and time again by the accolades he’s racked up, most recently at Memphis’ Cochon555. For the uninitiated, Cochon555 is a culinary competition/tasting that hits a select number of U.S. foodie capitals (now in its fourth year). At each event, five local chefs execute their own snout-to-tail menus using heritage breed pigs (one pig per chef = five pigs). Five winemakers complement the menus with their pairings – thus the 555. When the meat supply runs dry, event attendees vote for their favorite chef of the evening.

English says he’ll take a similar approach at Grand Cochon, the Cochon555 finals scheduled during the Aspen FOOD & WINE Classic in Colorado (June 15-17). “We won’t do what we did in Memphis. It’s always fun to do new things, but we’re going to be …”

Click here to read the complete article.

MEMPHIS, TN  — March 1, 2012 — Restaurant Iris announced today that it has been named a winner of OpenTable Diners’ Choice Awards for the 100 restaurants in the United States providing the best service.  The list of winners is derived from nearly 5 million reviews submitted by OpenTable diners for more than 12,000 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Restaurant Iris is one of only two Tennessee restaurants that made the list.

“The staff at Restaurant Iris and I realize how important guest relations truly are to the success of a restaurant,” said Jeff Frisby, general manager at Restaurant Iris.  “Our job is made easier by our generous regular guests; they make our job a sincere pleasure. We are honored that they took the time to show their appreciation on Open Table!”

“You only have one chance to make a first impression, and this is particularly true for restaurants,” said Caroline Potter, Chief Dining Officer of OpenTable.  “These honorees understand that the dining experience begins the moment a patron walks through their doors and have mastered the art of attentiveness at each and every point of service.”

Based on reviews collected from OpenTable diners between February 2011 and January 2012, the 100 award-winning restaurants received the highest scores.  For more information about all of the restaurants on this list, please visit http://www.opentable.com/bestservice.

About Restaurant Iris

About OpenTable, Inc. 

# # # 

So my husband and I finally made it to Restaurant Iris, and all I can say is what took us so long? For as long as Restaurant Iris has been open, it has been considered one of the best restaurants in Memphis, and it was a perfect location for a fabulous celebration dinner.

We decided on the five-course degustation which gave us seven courses total (with one shared appetizer and a shared entree.)

I started with their version of soup and sandwich – butternut squash bisque and and grilled cheese piled high with duck confit. I can’t say I’ve ever had duck on a grilled cheese sandwich before, but I definitely will again.

Click here to read the complete review.