Entry No. 47 — the Memphis file — filed under: barbecue
Cozy Corner BBQ
Cozy Corner's calling card is the whole smoked Cornish game hen, $12.25 as a dinner plate, which is not a thing the rest of Memphis barbecue bothers to make. Around it sits the rest of the board: a bologna sandwich at $4.55, a two-bone rib at $7.99, a pulled rib tip sandwich at $7.25, all sandwiches built with slaw and sauce unless you say otherwise. Sauce comes in five heat steps running from dry all the way up to what the menu calls Super Hot (VERY Spicy), and the escalation is not a bluff. Co-founder Desiree Robinson still frames the place as "the best BBQ that Memphis has to offer," and BusinessWeek, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Saveur and Southern Living have all filed dispatches agreeing. Finish with banana pudding or peach cobbler, $3.65 either way.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Memphis — never the same twice
The story
Raymond and Desiree Robinson met at Manassas High School, married, and moved to Denver when Raymond took a job at Martin Marietta. He was the cook of the marriage - Desiree has said she stepped back because he enjoyed it so much - and their Denver friends ate so well on weekends that the Robinsons opened a restaurant there called Ray's Barbecue. They came home because both were only children and neither wanted someone else looking after their parents. In 1977 they opened the Cozy Corner at North Parkway and Manassas with one pit and a short menu. Desiree took a job at BellSouth and worked weekends; the teenage kids, Ray Jr. and Val, came straight from school to the restaurant.
Raymond died suddenly in 2001, after 43 years of marriage. Desiree went full time, took over the pit, and later pushed the closing time from 5pm out to 9pm. In 2020 the American Royal inducted her into the Barbecue Hall of Fame - the first African-American woman to go in. Four generations of Robinsons work the place now; her back office was converted into a nursery so people could bring their babies to work, and most of the staff are family or friends.
The building nearly ended it. A fire during lunch service on January 8th, 2015 took the fire department about thirty minutes to put out and left damage bad enough that the whole place had to be brought up to code. From March 2015 grandson Bobby Bradley served a shortened menu out of Encore Cafe across the street, and Cozy Corner did not get back into 735 N Parkway until October 2016. Seating roughly doubled, from about 50 to 96, and the indoor smoker that used to sit behind the counter is gone - same pits, moved outdoors. What survived intact is the board: whole smoked Cornish hen, bologna, rib tips, ribs, and five sauce steps from Dry to Super Hot.
What it's like
It is a counter operation in a small building on North Parkway, and the room is brighter and roomier than its reputation suggests since the 2016 rebuild. You order at the counter, say your heat level out loud, and wait. The hen is the reason to come and it arrives whole - expect to work at it with your hands. The sauce escalation is not a bluff: Super Hot is labelled VERY Spicy on the menu and means it, and Dry is a legitimate order rather than a cop-out. The 8pm close is real, so this is dinner, not a late plan, and popular cuts thin out toward the end of the day. Sunday and Monday it is dark, which happens to be two of the nights most people plan around.
The move: Get there before 7pm on a Thursday, order one hen and one bologna sandwich to split so you cover both the famous thing and the cheap thing, take the sauce one notch hotter than you think, and split a peach cobbler. It closes at 8pm, so this is dinner rather than a late plan — the drinking happens somewhere else afterward.
📍 Before you go Phone (901) 527-9158. Open Tuesday through Saturday 11am-8pm, closed Sunday and Monday — the two most common date nights are exactly when it isn't open. It's a small counter-service room, not a sit-and-linger spot, and the 8pm close is real. Online ordering runs through Toast; call-in orders and catering are handled directly. Popular cuts sell out late in the day, so call ahead if the hen is the whole point of the trip.
- 📍 Memphis
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 735 N Parkway, Memphis, TN 38105
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Earnestine & Hazel's — Cozy Corner shuts at 8pm and Earnestine & Hazel's is a couple of miles south on South Main, which solves the question of where the evening goes after the ribs.
- Woodruff-Fontaine House — The Victorian Village house on Adams is about a mile from North Parkway, so a lunchtime hen and an afternoon of 1870s interiors fit into one loop.
- Alcenia's — The other great family-run counter in the same part of town, downtown on North Main, and a useful fallback on the two days a week Cozy Corner is closed.
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Good to know
When is it open?
Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 8pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. The 8pm close is real and the kitchen winds down before it, so aim to be ordering by 7pm. Phone (901) 527-9158.
Will the Cornish hen still be there when I arrive?
Not guaranteed. Popular cuts sell out late in the day and the hen is the signature. Call ahead if the hen is the whole reason for the trip, or put the order in through Toast and collect it.
What does it cost?
Cornish hen dinner plate $12.25, meats-only $11.25; bologna sandwich $4.55 or $5.74 as a plate; two-bone rib plate $7.99, six-bone $17.99, slab for two with four sides $28.50; pulled rib tip sandwich $7.25. Sides run $1.30-$3.55 and desserts are $3.65, except caramel cake at $4.15.
How hot is Super Hot?
There are five steps on the menu: Dry (No Sauce), Mild (Not Spicy), Medium (Moderately Spicy), Hot (Spicy) and Super Hot (VERY Spicy). Move one step up from your instinct, not three. Sandwiches arrive with slaw and sauce unless you say otherwise.
Can you sit down, or is it takeout?
You can sit. The 2016 rebuild took seating from roughly 50 to about 96, though ordering is still at the counter and the room turns over rather than encouraging a long stay.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site
last checked: 2026-08-26