Front St. Deli Slated to Reopen by November
“The Tandem Restaurant Partners – Tony and Stephanie Westmoreland in collaboration with Ryan Marsh – are the new owners of Front St. Deli, the iconic eatery at 77 South Front and Union, which was featured in the 1993 Tom Cruise film, The Firm.”
“Hopefully, in three months we’ll get her back open if not sooner,” Westmoreland says. Tandem Restaurant Partners operates several Memphis restaurants including Carolina Watershed, Side Car Cafe, and Ben Yay’s. “You’ll see us partnering with other restaurateurs to open up new concepts.”
Marsh, Westmoreland adds, will be involved with “what we do as a whole and getting this [Front St. Deli] up and going for us”. Marsh, 31, the newest member of Tandem Partners, moved from Pennsylvania to Memphis when he was 14. He previously was operations manager for MOXY Memphis Downtown hotel across from Court Square.
Why did he want to get involved with Front St. Deli? “It’s the oldest deli in Memphis – over 45 years old,” he says. And, he adds, “I’m a big fan of Memphis, a big believer in Downtown and the history we have down here.” It’s important for him to help bring the Front St. Deli project to life and “bring it back to its former glories.”
– Ryan Marsh via Facebook
Tom Cruise plays Harvard educated tax lawyer Mitch McDeere in the movie, which was filmed in Memphis. All the sandwiches were named after Cruise movies. “These sandwiches will remain. Tony and I put our heads together,” Marsh says. “Number one, I want to keep the Deli as close to what it was before. And Tony had a great idea to include some hot food, too. And we want to start bringing in gourmet hot dogs.”
Michael Donahue of Memphis Flyer
