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Jim's Place East Marks 85-Year Legacy with Expansion:
New Jim's Place Grille Opens in October

MEMPHIS, TENN. (September 19, 2006)…While Jim's Place celebrates 85 years in the Memphis area, its owners have decided the time is right to add another venue to satisfy a city's growing pains and a community's growing appetite. Jim's Place Grille at 3660 Houston Levee Rd. in Collierville is expected to open in mid-to-late October. Also in October: Jim's Place East, at 5560 Shelby Oaks Dr., celebrates its 30^th anniversary in East Memphis.

“My father, Bill, was one of the original owners of Jim's Place when it was in Downtown Memphis,” said Co-owner Dimitri Taras, who will be managing the new Jim's Place Grille along with sons, James and Sam. “Jim's Place was actually named after the very first owner, Jim Katsouthes, who was my Uncle Nick's partner. Uncle Nick started in the restaurant industry from the day he arrived in 1910 from Mainland Greece. He later sent for my Uncle George and my father, Bill, who also came from Mainland Greece, to join the partnership in the 1930s. Later, both my father and mother, Bessie, kept busy running Jim's when it was at 52 S. Second Street. During that time, my brother Costa and I, as young adults, joined in as partners. My father has since passed away but lived to open Jim's Place East in the mid-1970s. Until the past few years, my mother was very active at the East location, which originally was our family's summer home.”

Dimitri's nephew, Bill, as well as brother Costa, and brother-in-law Angelo Liollio will run Jim's Place East. Patrons at the East location can expect the same impeccable fine dining experience for business lunch meetings and evening receptions, rehearsal dinners and celebratory parties, which has been the gold standard over the past 30 years. For more information or to make reservations at Jim's Place East, call 388-7200.

“After an 85-year presence in Memphis and 30 years in East Memphis, we felt it was time to make a move as the city's boundaries kept pushing eastward and the demand was there for an alternative dining experience,” Dimitri said. “Collierville is a thriving area and we will be part of that growth, located inside the new Houston Levee Galleria in a high traffic area not far from anchor store Stein Mart, across the street from Lander's Ford, and about 2 miles from FedEx World Headquarters. We are the perfect destination for power lunches as well as a perfect ending after a day of pampering at nearby Gould's Day Spa and Salon.”

Guests also will breathe easier as the new restaurant will offer a smoke-free environment, according to Dimitri. “We just felt that, in light of the U.S. Surgeon General reports on the health risks of second-hand smoke, we wanted to protect both our employees and our patrons.”

Jim's Grille will sport an eclectic design as evidenced by the gracious styling of Dimitri's wife, Mary Katherine, and the hardware of Jerry Priester Construction. The new restaurant, with its free-flowing layout and an impressive, focal point bar area with plasma screen TVs, promises to draw a diverse clientele. The restaurant will have a seating capacity of 170 and 5600 total square footage.

Loyal Jim's customers and curious newcomers can expect the same sterling reputation emanating from the restaurant's origin 85 years ago, dating back to 1921. Jim's Place East and Jim's Place Grille are both owned by Jim's Place, Inc.

What will be new in Collierville are lots of new and exciting menu items and a unique, decorative style. Guests will have the opportunity to order Greek favorites that previously were only available during the

annual Greek Festival such as flaming saganaki (Kasseri cheese set aflame) plus a Grecian lamb burger on

pita bread. Other new items include charcoal grilled oysters, new salads decked out in walnuts, apples and a tangy, honey mustard plus a Caesar's salad with touches of honey. The traditional Greek salad will be offered regularly.

Add to that list charcoal grilled prime rib sandwiches and vegan dishes such as vegetable kabobs. Besides the new choices, Jim's Grille will keep favorites from the Jim's East menu including spinach and Feta phyllo puffs, crab cakes, liver and onions, souflima (savory Greek pork entrée) and signature steaks. The same menu will be offered for lunch and dinner with specials featured day and night.

Jim's Grille will be open every day except Sunday and with extended hours. The restaurant will open for lunch, Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner will be served Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The restaurant's phone number will be 861.5000 and fax, 853.5006. The new Web site, currently under construction, will be www.jimsplacegrille.com.

The restaurant's interior design theme is timelessness, represented in an understated and non-cluttered fashion, yielding warmth to invite in patrons. Of particular interest is a beautiful and unusual flooring made of porcelain tile, displaying a silver underlay with grays and coppers on top.

When guests approach the entry, they will first be treated to a trip down memory lane. The Collierville restaurant pays homage to Jim's Place of yesteryear with huge 30x38 glass encased photos from 1921, chronicling the history until present day.

Beyond the entry, guests will enjoy a burnt orange cork paper décor inside the bar, which seats around 40. Next, a resin material with burnt orange twigs will serve as the partitions, separating the bar from the dining walls, and half-walls, which will be 2-ft.-high to give a sense of privacy yet with openness, lending itself to a casual setting.

Sepia tones in the back dining space dominate while a large, 8-ft. custom double-door with frosted glass opens into the next dining area. In the first dining room, guests will appreciate the mahogany stained paneling and accompanying adobe colors, brown tones and gunpowder gray used as a backdrop for three paintings by Kurt Meer, a local artist who creates landscape and nature scenes. Meer's paintings serve to capture the wooded retreat feel from Jim's Place East.

Jim's Place Chronology Recap

1921: Jim's Place first opened in the basement of the William Len Hotel on Monroe and Main.
1927: The restaurant moves across from the Peabody Hotel, 154 Union Ave.
Mid-1930s to Mid-1940s: Jim's No. 1 (an additional location) opens at Third and Madison – in the mid-30s and closes around 1946.
Early 1960s: The original restaurant vacates the Union locale when the Downtowner bought the existing edifice and built Downtowner Hotel. Jim's moves to 52 S. Second Street.
Mid-1970s: Jim's on Second St. sells to Erika's and moves to East Memphis – 5560 Shelby Oaks Dr.
October 11, 2006: Jim's Place East celebrates 30 years in East Memphis.
Mid-October 2006: An additional venue is added; Jims Place Grille opens in Collierville.