Name: Elwood’s Shack – Memphis, TN
Address: 4523 Summer Ave, Memphis, TN, 38122, US
Telephone: (901) 761-9898

Memphis has James Beard winners, hundred-year-old BBQ dynasties, and restaurants with valet parking. It also has a red shack in the corner of a Lowe’s parking lot on Summer Avenue with a smoker plumbed straight through the roof. The shack is where you should eat.

Side view of the red Elwood's Shack building with a metal roof, rooftop smoker vents, and diners at picnic tables along Summer Avenue in Memphis — The view from the street. Note the smoker plumbing on the roof; that’s where the magic happens.

Elwood’s Shack opened in 2013 when Tim Bednarski, a Houston guy with three decades in corporate restaurants, decided he’d rather run a shack. Before that he spent years on the competition circuit with a BBQ team called Pigs ‘N Space, and the team sign still hangs over the drink station inside. Memphis magazine called Elwood’s “the little restaurant that could.” The locals just call it lunch, and on a busy Saturday as many as 800 of them stream through.

The Menu Makes No Sense, and That’s the Point

Brisket, pulled pork, and ribs come off the smoker, which is what you’d expect. Then the menu keeps going: steelhead trout tacos, scratch-made pizzas, po-boys, a full country breakfast starting at 7am, and an entire hot dog section titled “Doggy Style,” because subtlety is not on the menu. The big chalkboard inside covers smokehouse plates, salads, subs, and burgers, and that’s maybe half of what the kitchen actually does.

One board, four cuisines, no apologies.

What We Ate

Foil-lined basket of sliced smoked sausage with a pickle spear and two dipping sauces at Elwood's Shack — Smoked sausage, dusted with rub, with BBQ and mustard sauces for dipping.

We went with the smoked sausage, dusted in rub and served in a foil basket with BBQ and mustard sauces, plus the BBQ nachos: a pizza box full of chips buried under pulled pork, cheese sauce, BBQ sauce, and a snowfall of dry rub. Yes, a pizza box. The shack does not stand on ceremony. A cup of coleslaw rode along to make us feel responsible about our choices.

BBQ nachos in a pizza box at Elwood's Shack, tortilla chips loaded with pulled pork, cheese sauce, BBQ sauce, and dry rub — BBQ nachos, served in a pizza box because the shack does not stand on ceremony.

The Scene

Seating is picnic tables on the grass outside and a tiny dining room inside with deer mounts on the wall, a TV over the corner, and tabletops painted like a lava lamp exploded. Every table is different. At noon on a weekday the line runs to the door, with contractors, office workers, and families all waiting on the same smoker. Nobody looks like they’re in a hurry to be anywhere else.

Packed dining room at Elwood's Shack with deer mounts on the wall, a lunch line at the counter, and a Pigs N Space BBQ sign over the drink station — The lunch crowd on a Thursday. The Pigs ‘N Space sign is from owner Tim Bednarski’s old competition BBQ team.

Don’t let the parking lot fool you. This shack outcooks half the restaurants in Memphis, and it does it with a smoker on the roof and saltines on the side. Go hungry, order the nachos, and thank me later.