My Trips Across the (RP) Tracks

I recently starting writing about some of the restaurants I have visited since we arrived in Memphis, especially places that have been on shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Man v. Food, etc.

Spots like the Triple-X Diner, Uncle Lou’s and Gus’s Fried Chicken had been featured on TV, so I felt they were worthy of making it into The Life of JWo.

I’ve also written about places like the Bulldog’s Grill in Wauconda, Illinois, after falling in love with their burgers and often wrote about wherever we happened to have dinner while on vacations (see Travel Logs).

But recently a coworker called me out as to why I haven’t written about a place he loves, RP Tracks, which it just so happens I’ve been to FOUR times already.

That’s right, four times and I’ve only be in Memphis a little over 40 days, with 28 of those being at workdays. That means I’ve been to this restaurant once every 7 workdays.

Tammy nurses from Big Moe from a trip to Mixteca.

Don’t get me wrong, RP Tracks is good, very good in fact. But so was Mixteca and I don’t think we went there 4 times in a month. OK, that part’s not true. We went there a lot during Tammy’s “margarita phase,” which has been dormant since we’ve moved to Memphis.

RP Tracks is a block away from the University of Memphis and, according to their website, is “home of the world famous BBQ tofu.”

I didn’t find out about that part until I went to their site, which is prolly a good thing since I’m not a fan of tofu. But after eating there four times already I can’t really hold it against them.

I had been at my new job all of three days the first time I went to RP Tracks. I didn’t really know my coworkers yet, but everyone was talking about how much they loved the burgers, so of course that’s what I ordered. Talk about peer pressure!!

I got the Steakhouse Burger which is topped with grilled onions, mushrooms and smoky gouda cheese. I opted out of the waffle fries (75¢ extra) and went with standard steak fries.

The half-pound burger was covered with the onions, mushrooms and cheese and was very tender and juicy. The use what I call “nice” buns, which just means they aren’t what I get when I’m grilling at home.

Unfortunately no picture exists of my first taste of RP Tracks, mainly because I didn’t want to be “the dorky new guy who takes pictures of his food to post online,” at least not at that point anyway.

I didn’t really even look at the rest of the menu the first time I went, but have checked it out in the three other times we have gone. They have the standard bar food fare, as well as something for the “hippie” college kids. (RP Tracks Menu)

The sandal wearing crowd can enjoy BBQ or buffalo tofu, hummus, Alpha Beta Pita, which is actually pretty clever, a veggie burger and even something called the Tree Hugger.

Apparently RP Tracks is a Project Green Fork certified which is really a good thing for the environment and helps explain the “hippie” items.

The only time I ventured outside of the burger portion of the menu was when I ordered the buffalo chicken tender sandwich, which I enjoyed, but didn’t even attempt to pick it up because it was covered in Frank’s Red Hot sauce.

But the reason we keep going back to RP Tracks is because one of my coworkers REALLY loves their burgers. He said he had been away from Tracks for over a year and now he can’t get enough of it. Maybe I shouldn’t have let him read my copy of The Heroin Diaries.

The RP Burger with cheddar, hold the roughage.

The RP Tracks burgers got 4.5 out of 5 stars from the Best Memphis Burger site, which ranks it as one of the best in the Bluff City city.

While I haven’t been to enough places in or around Memphis area to make such a claim, the fact that I keep ordering burgers from there (had the RP Burger twice now) tells me that RP Tracks knows what they are doing with it comes to burgers.

I have a feeling that if my coworker has any say in the matter then I we will be back there very soon.