This episode of ‘Talk With History’ delves into the rich history of the Arcade Restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee. Hosts Scott and Jen explore how Spiros Zapatos, a Greek immigrant, founded the diner in 1919 and how it evolved into a cultural cornerstone over the next century. The restaurant has served everyone from World War II soldiers to Elvis Presley and survived through pivotal moments like the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Current owner Jeff Zapatos shares insights into how his family kept the restaurant running through various challenges and its key role in Memphis history. The Arcade continues to attract visitors, not just for its historical significance but also for its delicious food, embodying the enduring American dream.
00:00 The Immigrant’s Dream: Spiros Zapatos’ Journey
00:27 The Birth of the Arcade Restaurant
02:00 Elvis Presley and the Arcade Connection
02:39 The American Dream and Memphis History
05:08 The Arcade’s Role in World War II
21:29 The Civil Rights Era and the Arcade
24:28 The Arcade’s Resilience and Revival
26:13 Hollywood Comes to the Arcade
28:45 Visiting the Arcade Today
📍 Google Maps to the Arcade Restaurant
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Transcript
The Immigrant’s Dream: Speros Zepatos’ Journey
Scott: [00:00:00] Imagine a young man. Barely 18, standing on the deck of a ship in 1909. He’s leaving Greece with nothing but a name, Spiros Zapatos in a calling. He can’t quite explain. He doesn’t know it yet, but he is about to build a cornerstone of American culture.
The Birth of the Arcade Restaurant
Scott: In 1919, he opened a modest wooden cafe in Memphis, Tennessee, and over the next 120 years, that single city block would witness the entire arc of the American century.
It is where soldiers were fed on their way to the front lines of World War ii. It’s where a young nervous Elvis Presley tucked into a back booth to hide from the screens of fans. It’s the place that kept its doors open for 50 years straight until one tragic afternoon in 1968 when the world stopped just a few hundred yards away at the Lorraine Motel, [00:01:00] and the arcade finally had to find its key.
We sat down with Jeff, the fourth generation of the Zapatos family, to talk about the arcade restaurant from Greek immigrant dreams to Hollywood film sets. This isn’t just a story about a diner, it’s a story about a family that refused to leave when the city grew quiet, and an American dream that is still being served up on a hot plate today.
Welcome to Talk With History. I’m your host Scott here with my wife and historian Jen.
Jenn: Hello.
Scott: On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.
All right, Jen, so this one was our second foray. Into a little bit more documentary style type video.
Jenn: Mm-hmm. [00:02:00]
Elvis Presley and the Arcade Connection
Scott: Now, if you came for the Elvis topic and some Memphis history, you’re definitely gonna get that. But this one we did a little bit different. We did a little bit more interview style, which is very almost semi traditional documentary.
We’re sitting down talking with the main subject and everything like that. But we got a hold of the owner of the arcade restaurant here in Memphis, Tennessee. And if you Google Elvis’s favorite restaurant, this is the one that tops up, that hit, hits the top Google hit.
Jenn: Mm-hmm.
Scott: And so we got connected with this family.
I can’t, you’re gonna have to remind me how we got connected with the owner to come make this video.
Jenn: So this, it’s twofold, right?
The American Dream and Memphis History
Jenn: We’re really focusing on walk with history, talk with history this year on the American Dream Story America two 50. And I opened up that with the.
Birthday of Elvis Presley because we live here in Memphis, and Elvis’s birthday is January 8th, 1935. His birthday celebration happens every year at Graceland. [00:03:00] Usually the weather is horrible. It’s either snow or it’s rain and it’s freezing. But this year was really nice. It was like 60 degrees and great weather, and so I decided since it’s free.
I decided to drop the kids off to school early and go and, and, and experience this Elvis’ 91st birthday, which was amazing.
Scott: Yeah. So, so you went to Graceland
Jenn: and I got free cake. Yeah. And got to see the grave and I met a fan. I met a walk with History fan there. She recognized me. We started talking and she said she’s gonna go over to the arcade restaurant to have a sandwich.
Now I had heard of the arcade. Scott had taken me to the Lorraine Motel for a birthday a couple years ago to shop in the gift shop, and we went over to the arcade and had a, a shake and I knew it was a historic restaurant in Memphis. I just didn’t know all of the history, so I was like, okay, have fun.
Well, while she was over there, she talked to the owner and she told, told the owner what we do, and the owner was very interested in telling. His family’s story.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: And so she got in touch [00:04:00] with me and said, here’s his card, here’s his information. He wants to hear from you. So I called him and he immediately responded.
We hit it off. He said, come this weekend, I’ll reserve the Elvis booth for you. I’ll give you tons of time. Let’s do a whole interview. And his story of the arcade restaurant. It’s more than just an Elvis story. It’s a family immigration story. It’s a family coming to America and really living the American dream in a town there really does define the history of America.
Memphis, Tennessee is this crossroads of American history. I always say that here’s the oldest cafe in this town. It survived because of the history of the city and. It’s been owned by th this whole generation of Greek immigrant family here. So it really does, it encompasses all of the themes of walk with history.
Scott: Yeah. And it was a, we’re summarizing it now. We’ll talk about the history and the, the major events that it lived through, but it was a cool [00:05:00] microcosm of. Really America in the 20th century.
Jenn: Mm-hmm.
Scott: Right. Came over his great-grandfather.
Jenn: Mm-hmm.
The Arcade’s Role in World War II
Scott: Um, Spiro Sotos came straight over from Greece, came through Ellis Island, right. 1909. Yes. So just a couple years after Ellis Island first opened. And , planted roots down here in Memphis. And we’ll talk about how that came about. But Jeff did a fantastic job of kind of walking us through that history.
And pointing out kind of the, it’s almost like a, like a George Bailey type moment, right? This restaurant was just there for certain events that happened in our American history, and you may not have seen it, you may not have heard it, but it played a huge role, and we’re gonna talk about what it did and how it survived through.
The thirties and World War II and its pivotal role in, in getting soldiers off to war in World War ii and then Martin Luther King and how the city was, had grown to this [00:06:00] like bustling metropolis and then it crashed and how it survived and how it’s reviving now. And so it was really fascinating and, and again, a little bit of, we always talk about a little bit of behind the scenes for me.
For us, this was our first go at. Really sitting down and doing a sit down documentary style. So I’m packing up all my, bags and I’m taking the, the good cameras and doing all this stuff and loading up the car. So it was a whole production. And drove down. It’s downtown Memphis, right?
Not, it’s like a couple blocks from Beale Street. It’s right, right around the corner,
Jenn: several blocks from Beale Street right across from the train station, which is very what’s the word I’m looking for? Very apropos.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: For why it has survived. Yeah. And for why, why Its location is pretty perfect. And you wouldn’t think of it today ’cause trains aren’t as vital to transportation in America as they were in the turn of the century and all during the war and all during just the fifties and the baby booming area, era.
But yeah, it was what I really [00:07:00] appreciated too, Scott, is his. Demeanor for just welcoming the story. Yeah, welcoming the storytellers. He was very, he gave us such access and it was really great. He wants. His family’s history, his family story, the story of Memphis. He wants more people to know.
Scott: Yeah. And, and we, we probably interviewed him for probably almost an hour, hour and a half straight.
Mm-hmm. Right. We got about an hour of, of recording, which is a lot for, for video. And was he able to put together, it’s about 20 minutes. If you’re curious, obviously it’ll be linked in the show notes, but let’s walk through the story of the arcade restaurant, which we’re pitching to the public as Right.
This is Elvis’s favorite restaurant. He would go there all the time, but there’s so much more.
Jenn: Yeah, so Elvis will get your foot in the door and then you’ll stay because of the great history and the great food. So. Young immigrant zapatos,
Scott: Spiros Sapas,
Jenn: Spiro Zapatos, very Greek name, right? He [00:08:00] comes through Ellis Island and very much in the beginning.
When you’re coming to a new country, you’re looking for your countrymen because you wanna build community with people that you know and understand, especially if you’re gonna learn a new language. You want that protection as you branch out to become an American. And so he finds these Greek.
Communities in New York and Chicago, and as he’s traveling to Chicago to be a part of these Greek communities, to get his foot in the door to start his American dream, he ends up in Memphis. Now, the great thing about the arcade restaurant, it’s right across the street from the. The essential train station of Memphis and Memphis is a crossroads for the trains going north and south and east and west in America.
And if you’re stopping, as most trains do to get on and off the different trains that you’re heading on and you’re hungry for lunch. This is before train stations had places to eat in them. Right across the street was a cafe. And so he’s young, he’s getting, he’s [00:09:00] getting off of the train and he becomes a part of the Greek community there in Memphis, Tennessee.
And he starts working in the restaurant industry and it’s where he learns how to become a cook and cook and do these things that after World War I happens. And he joins the war effort. It’s that cooking experience that really gets him his prime job. He becomes head chef of the biggest Navy ship during World War I.
And we talked about this. We know this from being in the Navy. Being a cook allows you a lot of access. Yeah. Because you’re going to be feeding everybody, everyone needs to eat.
Scott: Yeah. You, you get known by the senior officers on the ship.
Jenn: Because you’re serving them and you’re sitting with them and they’re having long days, and they see this cook who’s taking their time to really make good food for them.
And they say, tell me about yourself. Tell me about you. Because as a officer, you’re really trying to, you wanna know your people. You wanna know your man. You wanna take a [00:10:00] break from all of the all the, the war. And you wanna really get to know your people. And so a cook. You really, I know like the admirals and the high dignitaries are gonna be talking with the cooks.
And because Mr. Zapatos was so great at cooking, he really made a name for himself on this big ship. And so I. He also seemed like a person to me who is really great at making connection.
Scott: Yeah, that that, that’s a good point, and I’m glad you called that out because we’ll talk about some of what he does within the community a little bit later, but that just seemed to be part and parcel of what he did.
Jenn: Yeah. He’s not just feeding a person’s hunger. He’s feeding their soul like he’s having these conversations. He’s part of this American dream. He believes in America, I think of coming over to America from Greece. And then fighting for that co your new country. Right. Willing to fight and die for your new country.
So he’s feeding people souls, he believes in this dream and what a high ranking official doesn’t wanna hear [00:11:00]that.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: So after the war, he comes back to Memphis again. He’s at this crossroads and so he buys that restaurant right across the street from the.
Train station, which was the Paris Cafe at the time. He buys it. It’s a wooden building. He buys the whole building.
Scott: Yeah, it’s cool. They have an old Paris Cafe receipt.
Jenn: Yes.
Scott: Kind of like in behind glass. In the back hallway is pretty neat.
Jenn: And he names it the arcade. Which arcade? I think it’s, I don’t think it’s that arcade.
It’s just arcade, which at the time, arcade meant gathering place. We think of it today as. A video game area ’cause of the eighties, but it really means a ga, a place where people gather and community happens. Now again, he’s made these great connections during World War I and he’s, people are stopping along the trains and you think of veterans are stopping and they’re like, oh, we know Sabados owns that restaurant across from the train station.
Well then World War II happens and people are going into the war. And if you know anything about World War ii, we’ve talked about Dick Winters. How are they [00:12:00] traveling to their forts? How are they traveling to the shores of New York to be shipped over to Europe? How are they traveling to California to be shipped to the Pacific?
On trains.
Scott: Well, and if you think about it too, I want, I want our podcast listeners to picture the United States, right? And then picture where Tennessee is in that bottom left corner of Tennessee, you’re really pretty close to the center of the country, right? You’re right on the Mississippi right there.
So. It’s a prime hub and we, we’ve talked about it before on this podcast with the railroads and the civil War and all this stuff like this is a prime location was Memphis and the railroads that went north and south and east and west coming through here. And so it’s the same thing for the, for the war effort.
Everybody leaving come from this area of the United States is gonna be traveling through one of these major thoroughfares. And Memphis was a huge thoroughfare, A central point at the time.
Jenn: Exactly. This is before they’re, they’re putting lots of men onto planes and flying them. They would just be done with [00:13:00] bootcamp and they’d put ’em all on trains.
Yeah. And then get them to where they need to go. And so, because of the relationships that Zapatos had made in World War I, they knew this stop in Memphis. They knew he owned the restaurant across the street. So he was giving war, war. He was given. World War II rations to feed the soldiers during World War II traveling out to where they needed to go.
Scott: Yeah. They, they specifically reached out to him and said, Hey, we want to give you these rations and we need you to feed the men as they’re coming through Memphis.
Jenn: And so again, here’s a man who is great at making connection and communication so. All of these young soldiers and the superiors, he’s making those connections with everybody.
So the restaurant gets well known for all this. He gets well known for all of this. He gets well known in, in. Doing this kind of communication and helping with that effort of just alleviating that part of the story. And so when World War II’s over and all these immigrants are influxing into [00:14:00] America because of war torn countries mm-hmm.
He’s part of this group and it’s a big organization that helps with that. What’s the word I’m looking for? Transition.
Scott: Yeah,
Jenn: transition from immigrant to American. He’s a part of that group that helps with that. And all the way up to the president of the United States. President Eisenhower.
Scott: Yeah. There’s, there’s a cool picture of Spear Hepato with, so he, he became part of route called ah, HEPA, A-H-E-P-A, and I forget what it stands for off the top of my head.
Essentially, but it, it did what you were talking about and it had, it had been founded before World War ii, but he became a part of it and he helped start a bunch of branches in the greater Memphis area. And so here he is again, a central figure within the community helping.
Immigrants as they’re coming in after World War ii, and there’s a cool picture of him and some of ah, HEPA leaders with President e Eisenhower and it’s 1953. Mm-hmm. And I found other pictures of ah, HEA leaders during the war meeting with FDR, not him, but other, so [00:15:00] this is a big organization and it actually, it’s still going on today.
It’s, it’s, it’s still alive and well today.
Jenn: Well, it helps immigrants facilitate. Into becoming American and how to, how to find their foot in the door, in the restaurant industry or in any kind of technology industry. Like how to start in any kind of work Yeah. Area and to acclimate into the country.
That’s what he was big into doing because he had done it. Now we talk about the 1950s. Memphis is growing. Think of baby boomers, people coming back. It’s a big city and you get a young. Man who has recorded this song that has changed the whole face of American music. And he’s from Memphis and he loves food.
If you know anything about Elvis Presley, he loves good, wholesome home cooked southern food, and that’s what the Arcade restaurant does. And so it’s one of his favorite restaurants in the city now, even before he becomes famous.
Scott: And, and it makes sense because [00:16:00] this, so the, the arcade. And, and we’ll mention more on this a little bit later, but it, it was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week from basically, essentially when it started.
For 50 plus years, and we’ll talk about, the first time that it actually had to shut its doors. So this was like a hot, this is a hot spot downtown Memphis, like everybody was going through here and it was just, they had some really cool pictures that had, they had printed and put up on the wall in the, in the restaurant from 1948.
And it, it’s just like this hustling, bustling 1948. It has that old cars driving around. Mm-hmm. It has the men with their hats and they’re all dressed up and the women walking around. And it looks like just, just this bustling metropolis. And it’s, it’s almost like, like really? That was Memphis.
Jenn: Yeah. I mean, and Jeff said it like it, it rivaled Chicago.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: So think about Chicago and New York and what’s great, it’s open 24 7 because. Trains are going 24 7. Yep. And it’s the restaurant right across from the train station. So they’re there [00:17:00] to feed people anytime, any day. And then people who live in Memphis would know that they can go eat there anytime any day.
Scott: Including Elvis.
Jenn: Including Elvis. So he loved the restaurant, he loved the food. And think he’s there before he becomes famous. He’s there after he becomes famous. So there is a booth there that’s associated with Elvis Presley and that. Is after he becomes famous. Before he became famous, he probably ate everywhere in the restaurant after he becomes famous.
He likes this back booth that faces a mirror that he can see the front door and he, his face doesn’t face the front door. All you see is the back of his head, but he can see the front door because he’s starting to recognize his impact on the public. And when people start to hear he’s at a certain place.
People start coming in to see him, and now we’ve talked about Elvis before. This is the reason why he moves to Graceland, is because so many people were coming to his house and he felt bad, right? He always feels bad about the impact he’s making on other people who are [00:18:00] just trying to have a sandwich or just trying to eat.
And so when he starts to see. His stardom is creating a problem at the restaurant. He can get up and walk right out the back door. It’s right beside the back door. He can just grab whatever he’s eating or and just walk out the back door and go. And so that’s why it’s the Elvis booth. And now you can reserve it.
It has some Elvis memorabilia there. It has his signature there. You can sit where Elvis sat, that’s where I sat. And you can eat one of his favorite things to order, which is the peanut butter and banana sandwich.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: Fried. I ate it. You can see my reaction on Instagram.
Scott: It’s so funny because she a so I, I tried it and I actually hate the rest of it after she tried it.
Because. She said, did you like it? I was like, yeah, I’ve had peanut butter and banana before. And Jen looked at you, looked at me like I was, I had horns growing outta my head, and I was like, peanut butter and banana is a pretty common snack, right? And so if you’re listening to this, please shoot us an email and let us know if you’ve ever just like put.
Peanut butter on a plate, and scooped your, the banana [00:19:00] in the peanut butter. ’cause that, for me, growing up, that was a pretty common snack. And so it tasted exactly like that. So I could see why, why Elvis ate it. I think the one that we had, they actually put bacon on it as well.
Jenn: Mm-hmm. And, for me it was, it’s just, it’s not sweeten. I, I love something sweeter, cutting the peanut butter. That’s why I like peanut butter and jelly. I like peanut butter and honey, the banana just wasn’t sweet enough for me. And then the bacon was very salty, so I could see how it could be a good protein snack.
Scott is shy. He’s saying he eats it all the time because most people who are working out are going to eat that all the time because of the protein and the quick carb load it’s gonna give you before you work out. And that’s even what Jeff had brought up. Elvis liked it. ’cause you’re getting hit with all, like your protein, your fiber, your fruit.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: All in one bite.
Scott: It’s filling you up. It’s, it’s a very filling snack.
Jenn: And so, and I think Elvis had grown up on them, especially when his mother didn’t have a lot of means she could always make a peanut butter and banana sandwich and so it was just a staple of his life. Now Jeff makes a point to say it’s not the only thing [00:20:00] he ordered.
He would come in and eat everything on the menu because it’s good southern food.
Scott: And, and I like what Jeff said. And he, he bring brings up a good point ’cause we went there because Elvis ate there. Other people won’t go there because Elvis ate there. Elvis didn’t go there because Elvis ate there. Elvis went there because he liked good food.
Jenn: Yeah.
Scott: And so I thought that was a great point because people, we get, we get certain locations so associated with famous figures. Sometimes we have to realize before that famous figure became famous and was associated with that spot, it was just a good spot and that that’s what the arcade was.
Jenn: Yes, and it’s super neat.
If you’re an Elvis fan, you definitely wanna go and visit there because it is Memphis’s oldest cafe. It also was Elvis’s favorite place to eat. And he loved the good
Scott: food. And, and inside the, the restaurant, it still has that fifties hop, hop vibe. So it, it’s, it’s a fun vibe just to go into and see.
Mm-hmm. And even just looking around, you can see well, and we’ll talk about the other famous movies and actors and actresses that have been there, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that [00:21:00] beyond Elvis.
Jenn: So this is the fifties. Elvis gets very famous, 56, 58. And then from then on he’s gonna just, his stardom just rises and he will eat there continuously.
And that’s why the booth is known. For him now because he’s watching the impact he’s making. But it’s in the sixties that the arcade restaurant really undergoes a lot of historic ups and downs. And if you know it, we’ve, if you’re a fan of the channel, we’ve talked a lot about Martin Luther King.
The Civil Rights Era and the Arcade
Jenn: We do a lot with racial justice, and the Lorraine Motel is diagonal from the arcade restaurant with an earshot, like you could see it from the arcade restaurant and. At the time in the 1960s, the Lorraine Motel is a. Green Book Hotel. It’s an African American hotel or a black hotel, a hotel that caters to the black community.
It’s an upscale hotel, so you have people like Nat King Cole staying there, and that’s why Martin Luther King has decided to stay [00:22:00] there when he comes and visits Memphis. More than one occasion, but he’s there in April of 1968 for the sanitation strike that’s happening in Memphis. And again, if you want that backstory, we have all of that on walk with History.
But he’s staying at the Lorraine Motel and that on the night of April 4th, 1968, he’s standing on the balcony at 6:00 PM when he’s shot and killed. Now. Arcade restaurant is diagonal from there. And if you know anything about the impact that that assassination had on the city, there was a lot of turmoil that happens because of that rioting will start to happen.
And because of that the police have businesses close their doors and the arcade restaurant is one of them. But they’ve been open 24 7 since 19. 19.
Scott: Yeah. 50 years.
Jenn: So they’re being asked 50 years later to lock their doors and they can’t find the key.
Scott: I think he said they don’t even have locks on the doors.
I know, but he, he mentioned a name I can’t remember buddy, something or other. [00:23:00] And he said they had to go find buddy so he could put locks on the doors.
Jenn: Yeah. Some famous locksmith in Memphis.
Scott: Yes, because they, they literally had one never closed. So two, of course, if they’ve never closed, they’ve never needed locks.
And so in 19, in April of 1968, just after Martin Luther King was assassinated, it’s the first time the arcade closed
Jenn: and they closed. They respond to what’s happening in the city. They close, and if you know anything about what happens after Martin Luther King’s widow, Retta, Scott King will come and finish the march.
Yep. A lot of the civil rights leaders will come and finish the march, and so they, they’re in downtown Memphis marching and again. Mr. STOs is contacted by the leadership of Memphis saying there’s all these people here and they need to eat. We have no businesses open for them to eat. So what does Mr. STOs do?
He unlocks those doors and he, all of those, protestors, all of those people who are there peacefully protesting after the Martin [00:24:00] Luther King assassination, he feeds them all at the arcade restaurant. Now, unfortunately, what happens Jeff has explained you have 50,000 people living downtown, and after all of this racial turmoil and everything that’s happened in Memphis.
It gets down to a population of 700 people living
Scott: there. Yeah, I, I found some, some pictures, right? So we had like the nine, late 1940 kind of fifties era pictures where, Memphis was hustle and bustle, rivaling Chicago at the time.
The Arcade’s Resilience and Revival
Scott: And then I found a picture in the early 1970s of just building upon building boarded up and closed down.
And it was such a stark difference. And so he, he said that was a time when. He said there was like three businesses that stayed, three businesses, three
Jenn: that stayed three. Three food businesses, right? Three restaurants that stayed open. And the arcade was one of them. And I said, how do you survive going from 50,000 to 700?
How do you stay open? And Jeff made it very clear. It [00:25:00] probably took a big loss.
Scott: Yeah.
Jenn: And they probably operated in the deficit probably for years. And it was, it was really the dream of Mr. Sabados to support the community, to be a pillar of the community, to help Memphis rebuild. He stayed open.
Scott: Yeah. And I think at that time it had been.
Not Spiro Zapatos, but Harry Spiro Zapatos. So his son that had taken over and was running the restaurant at that time, because Jeff mentioned, his grandfather was really the one that, that stuck it out, right? Mm-hmm. He kept it, stuck up and there was a couple other Greek restaurant owners right, that decided to weather the storm and, they, they really stuck around and, and saw it all the way through until.
I’d say really in the eighties when things started slowly started picking up again.
Jenn: So, and Scott had alluded to this. It’s because this revitalization of Memphis started to happen. Memphis really found its place in American history and telling this American [00:26:00] history story. Yeah. That a lot of these movies start to get made here and it becomes very much on the map walking in Memphis, right?
Music starts to get made. People start to go, where did Elvis start? When.
Hollywood Comes to the Arcade
Jenn: John Grisham writes books about Memphis and then movies get filmed here and it’s arcade like Scott says, the motif is still holding onto this 1940s, 1950s look, so you can film a lot of things there that kind of take place in different time periods.
That’s why it’s been used in Walk the Line. It’s been used in great balls of fire. So it really revitalized with this movie film industry. And if you watch the video, it’s a long list. Movies that are, that were filmed in the Arcade Restaurant and Oscar winning movies. And it’s just really amazing to hear that.
Plus, you’re gonna get some famous people from the area. Justin Timberlake is from Memphis. He did a whole photo shoot at the arcade restaurant. Sports Illustrated, an entire photo shoot at [00:27:00] the arcade restaurant. So it really is now because of this family, because they’ve weathered the storm. It now, it’s become a lifeline of American history.
It’s vital to American history, and again, if we’re celebrating America two 50 and we’re telling this story of the American Dream. I would think now fourth generation is running this restaurant that Mr. Satos, the original owner, is seeing his American dream come true. So it was really a great place to go and visit again.
If you’re go, if you’re walking in the door because of Elvis, you’re gonna stay. Because of the history and the food, it’s gonna just become a place you always wanna visit in Memphis. It, it really does appeal to civil rights if you’re interested in civil rights and what people did to help support that movement.
The Arcade Restaurant is a part of that. If you’re visiting the Lorraine Motel to, to see the Civil Rights Museum go over to the arcade restaurant and support them, they fed the protesters. If you wanna just be immersed in movie [00:28:00]memorabilia. Yep. Sit where Orlando Bloom sat. Yeah. There sit where Ethan Hawk sat.
Scott: The, the, the counter up front has like clear plexiglass and they have all these pictures of these famous actors that have, that have come through there. And so it’s like Jake Al and. I’m trying to think of all of ’em off the top of my head, but there’s, there’s a ton, right? Watch the video. Yeah. Go, go watch, go watch the video and you’ll see.
But Justin Timberlakes, he has a couple pictures there and there’s musicians that have come through there. I saw a picture of Jack White, Fred Savage, like just a whole range of actors and actresses and famous musicians that have come through here. It’s really cool.
Jenn: It’s really cool. And we were very thankful in.
To have had that access and to be able to tell this story. It really fits in for the themes of Walk With History and the themes of America. We were very fortunate to do that.
Visiting the Arcade Today
Jenn: If you wanna visit the arcade restaurant, it’s at five 40 South Main Street. It’s open seven days a week, 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM There is an Elvis booth. You can reserve it. I don’t know what the specifics are on reserving it, but I would remind our [00:29:00] viewers the busy weeks are always Elvis’s birthday week. Elvis’ death week. Yeah.
Scott: Early January. mid-August.
Jenn: mid-August. And so I would say you probably want to get at least a month out to reserve the booth for that. Other than that, you probably could reserve a day of or a day before. But it’s a great place to sit and eat great food, be immersed in American history, and then just stay for the great atmosphere and and the story that it tells.
Scott: Yeah. And again, thanks to to Jeff and the. His staff there, he’s got staff, that have been working there for 5, 10, 20 years. So it, it really is the family environment that he’s created there. It’s, it’s really, really cool. Sitting in that booth where Elvis once sat, you realize that the arcade is more than just a place to get a great breakfast.
It’s proof of what happens when you stay put through the boom of the twenties and the rations of the forties, the heartbreak of the sixties and the revitalization of today. The [00:30:00] Zapatos family kept the coffee brewing. It’s the ultimate American dream. A 19-year-old immigrant who didn’t just want a job, he wanted to build something that would outlast him.
And here we are, four generations later, still hearing his story. Next time you find yourself in Memphis, walk down South Maine. Head to the corner and find that back door. Slide into a vinyl booth. Order the peanut butter and banana sandwich and take a second to listen. The walls there have been listening for over a hundred years,
and they’ve got plenty of stories left to tell. If you enjoy this trip to Memphis, be sure to check out our documentary video of the arcade on our YouTube channel to see Jeff in the restaurant for yourself. We’ll talk to you next time.
Jenn: Thank you.
Scott: This has been a Walk with History, production Talk with History is created and hosted by me, Scott Bennie episode Researched by Jennifer Bennie. Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk With History is supported by our [00:31:00] community at TheHistoryRoadTrip.com
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Dino Garner, Mark Barrett, Don Kennedy and John Simpson.
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