Why This Stretch of Poplar Avenue Just Had Its Busiest Year in Two Decades

Drive the three blocks of Poplar between Perkins and Mendenhall and you'll notice the marquee where Carrabba's used to be is gone. So is the Second Line sign that hung on Monroe Avenue for a decade. Clark Tower still throws its long shadow over the sidewalk, same as it has since the Nixon administration, but almost everything at ground level around it has changed hands in the last seven months. That's not a coincidence and it's not a boom. It's a corridor that almost never turns over finally doing exactly that, all at once, for reasons that go back further than most of the people eating dinner there realize.

The Building Kelly English Wanted Since 2009

Restaurant Iris has anchored the Laurelwood Shopping Center at 4550 Poplar Avenue since it relocated there years ago, and for almost as long, chef Kelly English had his eye on the space next door. According to a social media post announcing the move, when Restaurant Iris opened in 2009, Chef Kelly English could not help but keep his eyes peeled on the building next door on the corner of Cooper and Monroe to build the restaurant that really represented the New Orleans that he grew up in, and five years later that restaurant came to fruition as The Second Line. The catch was that "five years later" meant a different address. The Second Line launched on Monroe Avenue in 2014, not next to Iris, and stayed there for over a decade.

That finally changed this year. The Second Line closed its Monroe Avenue location and opened in the Laurelwood Shopping Center, moving in next to Restaurant Iris at 4550 Poplar Avenue, with the final day at the Monroe Avenue address landing on January 1, 2026. The menu hasn't changed much. It's still the more casual offshoot of Chef Kelly English's flagship Restaurant Iris, named after New Orleans' second line parades, with classic Creole favorites divided across a handful of sections. What changed is geography. Seventeen years after English first wanted this exact configuration, it exists.

A National Chain Leaves, a Local Group Moves In Fast

A few blocks down, the same pattern played out on a faster clock. Fuego Vivo, a new restaurant from Tekila Group, opened at 5110 Poplar Avenue at the site of the old Carrabba's Italian Grill, in front of Clark Tower. The restaurant officially opened with a ribbon-cutting on Monday, February 9.

This is Tekila Restaurant Group's fifth concept, and the first that isn't built around a single cuisine. Controller Ricardo Rivera describes it as different from the group's other restaurants, which fall under categories like Tex-Mex, steakhouse, or modern Mexican. Fuego Vivo's plates include hamachi, carpaccio, and risotto, pulling from all over the world, Asian and South American influences included. Management set the ribbon-cutting for February 9 and planned to bring a patio online by late March, with the restaurant expected to seat roughly 230 guests. The lead chefs, per the restaurant's own reservation listing, are Pablo Blanche and Alex Guerrero, and the kitchen draws on techniques the group describes as ranging from Argentina to Asia while keeping a Mexican throughline.

A third address on this same stretch is still a construction site, but it tells the same story from a different angle. Gill Properties and Horn Ventures announced plans to redevelop the former Houston's property at 4990 and 5000 Poplar Avenue into a mixed-use destination that will include a 6,300-square-foot, 170-seat restaurant called The Tradition. The concept comes from Moises and Maggie Hernandez and Darrell and Betsy Horn, the same team behind Briza's. Demolition is already underway. Timelines differ slightly depending on the source: Action News 5 puts the estimated opening in late 2027, while WhatNow's coverage puts it at early 2028. Either way, this is not a fast turnover. It's a $25 million rebuild of a national chain's old footprint into something locally owned, and it will take years to land.

Here's the same stretch in one view:

The Tower Next Door Is For Sale. The Sidewalk in Front of It Isn't.

Clark Tower, the 34-story building that Fuego Vivo now sits in front of, has defined this part of Poplar since it went up in the early 1970s. The 34-story high-rise office building is located at 5100 Poplar Avenue and was completed in 1972. This summer it went on the market. Commercial real estate firm CBRE began marketing the 653,214-square-foot office tower as an investment sale opportunity in July 2026, despite rising occupancy and ongoing investment, with the asking price not disclosed. Current tenants include Mercer Capital, Neon Canvas, Avison Young, and Capital Financial Group, among others, and the building is about 71% occupied. Zoom out and the broader submarket tells a similar story: CBRE reported a direct vacancy rate in the mid-teens for the East Memphis office submarket as of mid-2026, with leasing activity still cautious.

None of that has slowed down what's happening at street level. While the tower itself sorts out its next chapter, the storefronts in its shadow got claimed within months of coming open. That's the actual news here for anyone who eats on this stretch regularly: office space on Poplar has room to spare, but a kitchen space here does not sit empty long.

What's Actually Playing Next Door This Month

If you've eaten at one of the new spots, there's a good chance you've also driven past Memphis Botanic Garden's marquee on Cherry Road advertising this year's Live at the Garden lineup, and the timing this month is tight. Deep Purple with Kansas played Radians Amphitheater on August 6, and John Legend brings "Songs & Stories" to the same stage on August 14, just four days out from today. The series runs on Memphis Botanic Garden's grounds at 750 Cherry Road, and it isn't done for the summer. Alabama is scheduled to play September 3, and Kool & the Gang and Patti LaBelle close out the season together on September 18.

Patrons are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, and coolers, with food trucks and bars on site and BYOB permitted, including beer, wine, and hard alcohol. It's a low-key way to spend a Thursday or Friday night that doesn't require driving downtown, and if you've never been, this is as easy a season as any to start.

How to Use This Stretch Right Now

A few practical notes if you're planning a week around this corridor. Second Line's kitchen is settling into its new address, and as of this writing reservations are currently not available, so plan on walking in. Fuego Vivo takes reservations on OpenTable, and guests report Fridays, Saturdays, and holiday nights run busy with longer waits, while early week or early-dinner visits tend to be more relaxed. If The Tradition is on your radar, treat it as a 2027 plan, not a fall one. And if you're building a night around Live at the Garden, the amphitheater does most of the work itself once the sun goes down and the lawn fills in. The August 14 show is close enough that if you want to go, this is the week to lock it in.

What ties all of this together isn't that East Memphis got a handful of new restaurants this year. It's that a stretch of Poplar known for staying exactly the same for years handed over three addresses within seven months, two chain restaurants closed to make room for locally rooted operators, and a seventeen-year-old idea from a Memphis chef finally found its building. That's a different kind of story than "new restaurant opens." It's a corridor finally catching up to what the people running it have wanted for a long time.

If you're already living on this side of town, none of this changes your address. But if you've been wondering why Poplar near Clark Tower feels different this year, now you know exactly why, right down to the square footage.

For more on what makes this part of the city work day to day, Amy Woods keeps an eye on East Memphis alongside the rest of the Memphis area, and you can browse more neighborhood notes on the East Memphis page anytime.