Eat Lunch, Dinner, and Brunch At HM Dessert Lounge (Closed)

Eat Lunch, Dinner, and Brunch At HM Dessert Lounge (Closed)

Ed. Note: Have you tried the delectable dishes at HM Dessert Lounge on Madison? Stacey has, and she's figured out all the info on this restaurant, if they have more than dessert, and perhaps discovered the next awesome Memphis brunch location.


HM Dessert Lounge’s name is a little misleading. While they specialize in desserts, and have plenty of them to choose from, they also have full lunch, brunch and dinner menus.

The HM stands for Haute Monde, which Google translate tells me is French for “High World,” but I believe is more loosely translated as “High Society.”

Some of you may remember Haute Monde from Beale Street (also at one time called Dorothy Mae's). Chef/Owner Fran Mosley had a place near the Ernest Withers Museum and made a name for herself making savory cupcakes in addition to her arsenal of sweets. In November of 2015, Chef Fran moved to Madison Avenue and shortened the name to HM.

I stopped in for lunch last week with a friend and we basically left all of our self-control at the door. 

Inside, the lounge is very posh. The decor was obviously well thought out and includes lots of fancy touches and original artwork.

The lunch menu is primarily chicken and waffles in different forms—you can get wings and waffles, tenders and waffles, chicken and waffle sliders, and even chicken and waffle nachos. There’s also a chicken salad, two soups, and lots of sides (collard greens, cabbage, yams, mac n cheese, etc.).

You can customize both your chicken and your waffles. Chicken flavors include Southern fried, smothered, spicy peach glazed, jerk, double fried honey hot, Sriracha mango, spicy, and sweet & tangy.

Waffle varieties include traditional pancake, blueberry, sweet potato, honey butter biscuit, garlic biscuit, maple bacon, caramel pecan maple bacon, chocolate, cornbread and cornbread dressing.

Wow, right?

We ordered a salad, some Beale Street soup, chicken and waffle nachos, and some loaded mac n cheese. We knew it was probably too much, but our sweet waitress had faith in us and encouraged us to go for it.

The salad came out first and it was beautiful—spinach and arugula, tomato, cheese, garlic croutons, banana peppers, fried chicken dipped in the HM specialty sauce and garlic biscuit waffles on the side. It was plenty big enough to have been my entire lunch. But we split it and were ready for more.

Next up was the Beale Street soup—shrimp, sausage, collards, and tomatoes in a savory broth. Also very tasty. It reminded me a bit of gumbo, but my friend said it had too much oregano to be in the gumbo family. Fair enough. (Technically I think gumbo has to have okra to be legit.)

Then the nachos and the mac n cheese came out. I directed the waitress to put the nachos in front of me, as I had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. I wasn’t sure how they were going to look, but was quite pleased with the presentation. The toppings were piled high on a waffle cut into triangles. There was more fried chicken in the specialty sauce, thick cut bacon, nacho cheese, olives, scallions and sour cream.

Oh, and jalapenos. The waitress made sure to verify that I, I mean we, wanted those. The spicy peppers were the perfect pairing with the sweet chicken, crispy bacon, and warm waffles. So, so, so good. I, of course, now want to try them with all of the different chicken and waffle flavors. (Ok, maybe not chocolate.)

My friend, who I “forgot” is anti-sour cream, kept his focus on the mac'n'cheese, which was loaded with bacon, onions and peppers. I had a couple of bites, but really only had eyes for the nachos.

Our waitress was impressed that we managed to eat everything, and was so sweet and friendly, that we somehow ended up ordering TWO desserts! There was discussion of getting them to go, but she encouraged us to have at least a couple of bites there just so we could see how pretty they were on a plate.

(Pretty sure she could have convinced us of just about anything.)

My friend immediately went for the butter roll and the waitress sold me on the Tropical Trifecta, which was a pineapple and lime cake with a piece of key lime pie cheesecake inside.

I know, right?

And then she told us each dessert comes with a complimentary scoop of ice cream. It’s not really possible to turn free ice cream down.

(I am not at all surprised by how tight my pants feel as I write this!)

We each took one or two bites of our own desserts and a bite of the other’s, and then we had to throw in the towel and ask for to go boxes. I really expected our check to be like $1000 since we went a little crazy, but in total it was $37 (plus tip), which I considered a great deal.

Go There:

HM Dessert Lounge
1586 Madison Ave.
(901) 290-2099

http://thehmlounge.com

@FashionablySweetLounge

Open Tue - Thurs 11a -8p; Fri - Sat 11a - 10p; Sun 11a-4p


About The Author

Stacey Greenberg is a freelance writer who lives in Cooper Young with her two teenaged sons. She’s a contributor to Thrillist.com, Edible Memphis, I Love Memphis, and Memphis Travel. She’s also the author of the award winning blog, Dining with Monkeys (diningwithmonkeys.com). A lifelong Memphian, she loves the fact that she’s never met a stranger here.

 

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