By: Lennard James
When you’re in Memphis and looking for exciting food packed with unforgettable flavor, there is one place that is determined to make sure you never look at a turkey leg the same way again: Uncle Red’s Turkey Legs.
Memphis has long been recognized around the world for its food. Barbecue, ribs, hot wings and soul food have helped make the Bluff City a destination for travelers who want authentic Southern flavor. But owners Christopher “FreeSol” Anderson and Tony Westmoreland have taken another familiar Southern favorite and turned up the heat, the seasoning and the creativity.
At Uncle Red’s, they have ignited explosive flavors around flavored and stuffed turkey legs, creating a food experience designed to be talked about long after the last bite.
These are not your average turkey legs.
Forget the ordinary turkey leg you might pick up at a county fair or amusement park. Uncle Red’s has taken the concept to another level with turkey legs that are big, tender, heavily flavored, and prepared to “Fall-Off-Da-Bone.”
The experience begins with family recipes and seasonings, but Anderson and Westmoreland have built on that foundation by creating combinations intended to make every turkey leg an experience of its own.
The portions are serious, too. One turkey leg can be enough food for two people, although after tasting it, sharing might become the hardest part of the meal.
This is the kind of food where somebody at the table takes that first bite, stops talking, looks around and realizes something special just happened.
In Memphis terminology, these turkey legs just might make you want to slap your momma.
That expression captures exactly what Uncle Red’s is trying to accomplish: food so unexpectedly good that customers cannot help but react.
And reaction is a major part of the Uncle Red’s experience.
A giant stuffed turkey leg placed in front of a customer creates immediate curiosity. The aroma gets your attention. The presentation makes you reach for your phone. But it is the flavor that the owners want people remembering.
That reputation is helping make Uncle Red’s the kind of Memphis food destination that visitors can hear about, seek out and add to their list of places they want to experience while visiting the city.
The business is built on more than big portions and bold flavors, however. There is a family story behind the name.
Uncle Red’s Turkey Legs is named in honor of FreeSol’s late uncle, Michael “Red Bone” Anderson. His memory became part of the foundation of the brand, connecting the company’s future with the family’s history.
That legacy is reflected in the recipes and seasonings behind the food.
For FreeSol and Westmoreland, taking family-inspired flavor and building a business around it represents the entrepreneurial spirit that has always existed in Memphis. They saw an opportunity to take something familiar and completely rethink how it could be prepared, presented, and experienced.
Instead of treating the turkey leg as a side attraction, they made it the star of the show.
That decision is helping Uncle Red’s establish its own lane.
Memphis already knows smoked meat. It knows seasoning. It knows slow cooking. Most importantly, Memphis knows flavor. Trying to introduce something new in a city with that kind of culinary heritage means the food has to deliver.
Uncle Red’s isn’t trying to compete by being ordinary.
The owners are setting their own standard.
Their flavored and stuffed turkey legs combine Southern comfort with the over-the-top food experience modern customers love. It is familiar enough to make you comfortable but different enough to make you curious.
And once people experience a turkey leg that is tender, juicy and loaded with flavor, the old fairground version may never look quite the same.
That is how food destinations are created.
People tell their friends. Visitors tell other visitors. Pictures hit social media. Somebody hears about that huge turkey leg in Memphis and decides they have to experience it for themselves.
For a city that attracts travelers from around the world because of its music, history and legendary food, Uncle Red’s has the opportunity to become another stop on the Memphis culinary journey.
You can come to Memphis for Beale Street.
You can come for blues and soul music.
You can come for barbecue.
But before leaving town, you need to talk turkey.
And Uncle Red’s wants to be the place where that conversation happens.
The personality of the company is captured perfectly in its invitation: “Come to the dark meat side.”
It is fun, memorable and unapologetically different, just like the food.
But underneath the personality is serious entrepreneurship. Anderson and Westmoreland have created a concept with a recognizable name, a family story and a signature product capable of standing out in one of America’s great food cities.
They are not simply selling turkey legs. They are working to create an Uncle Red’s experience.
That experience begins when customers see the size of the turkey leg, continues when the meat starts falling from the bone, and becomes complete when those seasonings and stuffed flavors hit.
That’s when the talking usually stops.
Because sometimes food doesn’t need an explanation.
Sometimes you just take another bite.
So, when you’re in Memphis and wondering where to grab some exciting food, remember the name.
Uncle Red’s Turkey Legs.
Memphis’ own home for flavored and stuffed turkey legs.
Big flavor. Big portions. Fall-Off-Da-Bone tenderness.
Christopher “FreeSol” Anderson and Tony Westmoreland have turned up the flavor and created something Memphis can call its own.
And if that first bite makes you want to slap your momma?
Just remember, Uncle Red did that.
