Memphis Eats: Calvary Waffle Shop

So I'll start out the blogging with my latest little "discovery".  And by discovery I mean my discovering something that has been in Memphis since 1928.  So I'm a little slow on the discovery.  Anyway, I had heard about the Calvary Waffle Shop from friends, and it sounded interesting and delicious so I drug along some of my co-residents (and friends!) on my little adventure down to the Calvary Episcopal Church.

The Calvary Waffle Shop is only open during the Lenten season.  Anyone is invited to come and enjoy and yummy southern treat of a lunch each weekday during Lent from 11:00 to 1:30.  They also accept take out orders!  When you go in to the basement of the church, you walk in to the Waffle Shop which is in the church's large cafeteria.  You are seated family style, so it is great chance to chat with anyone from an older couple who has been coming to eat at the Waffle Shop for years or a couple of Memphis business men in suits.  That in itself makes it worth going just for the experience.

Anyway, the food is delicious.  Each day they have an entree and dessert special.  Friday's special was fish pudding which was kind of like fish casserole and came with cornbread, rice, and hash brown potatoes.  It was delicious:

The menu also features certain staples that are available every day.  You check off what you want form the menu at your seat and turn it in to the servers.

I had the waffles with chicken hash.  When you see chicken hash, it is not what you would picture, it is more like pot roast but with chicken.  I'll show you my picture of my meal and then we'll talk about what I'll do next time because I totally messed it up!

So I got this deliciousness quickly delivered to my table by one of the sweet older ladies who volunteer as servers.  It looked like people from different Episcopal churches in the area rotate through to work the Waffle Shop.  Our "waitress" was so sweet and took time to explain the menu to us, and explained how the daily entree and dessert specials work.  So back to my mistake...I got my waffle and chicken hash and did what i would normally do with waffles and put on some butter and syrup.  I enjoyed my meal- it was delicious.  The waffle was yummy and the chicken hash was tender and delicious.  But, as I was finishing up an older gentleman to my left sat down and ordered his chicken hash and waffles.  When his arrived, he opened up the waffle and poured the chicken hash directly on to the waffle.  Now we're talking.  No syrup, who needs syrup when you can cover your waffle in chicken gravy deliciousness.  So, that was my mistake that I will fix when I go back...this week!  Hey, I am running out of time because it ends Good Friday until next year!  The waffle recipe is a secret that only the most senior members in the church know.  They stand at the waffle table at the front of the rooms and make up those waffles all lunch long:

One of the other staples on the menu is the peppermint ice cream!  You can add chocolate sauce for 50 cents.  Just go on ahead and add the chocolate sauce.  You'll thank me later.  It was so good.  I will definitely share next time because it is a pretty big scoop and the chocolate sauce is rich, but wowza.   The man who checked us out said that they took the peppermint ice cream off the menu "a while back" (when this has been going on since 1928, I'm not sure how long a while back is), but so many people were asking for it that they added it back to the menu.  Thank goodness.

The Calvary Waffle Shop is in the basement of Calvary Episcopal Church at 102 N. Second Street in downtown Memphis.  It is open during the Lenten season Monday through Friday from 11-1:30.  There is a pay parking lot at the church that charges $6 to park.  We were able to get a meter spot about a block away.  They take cash or credit cards.  I highly recommend getting over there in the next few weeks while there's still time!