King’s Grocery and Deli

This is your usual 38 107 corner store. The mark up on some of the snacks are ridiculous

When I decided to do a review of King’s Grocery and Deli, my intention was to write about Hunt Brothers Pizza. This brand of pizza is sold in many convenient stores in America, including many in Memphis’ Vollintine-​Evergreen neighborhood such as King’s. However, in doing my research, I discovered that it serves East African food. That really piqued my interest because I’ve been on a quest to try all of Memphis’ African restaurants. My journey has me to places such as Whitehaven’s Africa Restaurant that serves West African dishes to Raleigh’s Somali-​centric Salaama Restaurant and Market. Although I enjoyed all those places (except for one), I longed for an African Restaurant close to home. Actually, there was one that used to be close by but it recently closed. I don’t know the reasons for its demise, but if poor customer service was a factor, I’m not surprised. I didn’t have good experiences in either of my visits there, and I’m guessing others might not have had any. But Genery’s loss could be King’s gain.
King’s has actually been around for several years. When it opened, the grocery/​deli was run by African-​Americans (aka American-​born blacks) who served soul food. If they were still running the place, I’m sure my friend and fellow V & E resident Craig of the brilliant blog Memphis Que would have reviewed it. In addition to the obvious, Craig’s niche is soul food that goes hand-​in-​hand with barbecue. Although I technically don’t specialize in any one cuisine, as webmaster of one of Memphis’ two black-​owned food blogs that I know of, (Tiffany Tastes being the other), I decided to take it upon myself to highlight restaurants of the Motherland. That said, I couldn’t resist a restaurant that I see every morning when I jog.
It took awhile to find time to make an «official» visit (as opposed to my typical «beer runs» and cravings for deli meat), but last Wednesday (August 8, 2012) was the day that I stopped by. The kitchen for Ethiopian food is normally open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., but because my visit was during Ramadan, the kitchen wasn’t open during my initial visit at 11:30 a.m. The deli’s cashier told me that the cook wouldn’t open until 12:00 p.m. (and closes at 9:00 p.m.) Upon learning this, I went home and waited 45 minutes before returning at 12:15 p.m. From past experiences, I’ve learned that Africans don’t abide by a strict schedule, so I wasn’t surprised that the cook wasn’t there on the second visit. After hanging out at the Flying Saucer for a couple of hours, I went there again. Fortunately, the third time was the charm.
The «restaurant» portion of King’s consists of a small dining area in back of the store with the kitchen behind it. To place an order, one must go to a window in the wall separating the kitchen and dining area. Because King’s lacks printed menus, the cook has to recite everything that’s being served that day. I personally don’t like that, because it doesn’t give me a chance to carefully review everything prior to ordering. Therefore, I impulsively chose the fish and rice plate with a side salad because I haven’t had an East African seafood dish. After I placed my order, I asked the cook if the food was Somali (I was told this by the cashier). The cook answered «Ethiopian» and said that it was the same as Somali cuisine. Not that I’m an expert, but saying that all East African cuisine is the same is like saying Memphis and Kansas City barbecue are interchangeable. Like with barbecue, there are subtle differences in East African cuisine. Still, I avoided debating him by nodding my head and took a seat at a table. After about ten minutes, my order was ready. The «fish» component of the meal was two tender catfish steaks, which I thought was strictly within the domain of Southern United States cuisine. Ground beef topped the rice, which made it easier to eat with a fork. Everything (minus the salad) was seasoned with what I believe was Ethiopian Berebere, which is a combination of pepper and other spices. It was very spicy and judging from the taste of it, it seemed that chili pepper was a part of it. Fortunately, the side salad, drenched in cucumber-​flavored vinaigrette, provided a cool balance to the fish and rice. In all, everything was wonderful and well worth the wait.
The meal itself was huge. For ten dollars, I got enough food for two people so it stands to reason that I didn’t I eat everything at the deli. After knocking out half of it, I packed up the rest and took it home.
To read the entire review, go to