What don’t you tell us who you are and what your business is.
“We are Slice of Soul Pizza Lounge and we sell pizza, wings, salads and desserts. My name is Howard Bell. I am Anthony Latiker.”
Okay so pizza and wings, Slice of Soul, got it. Tell us about what all do you do here at the venue.
“On different nights of the week we do Monday night we do a spoken word. Tuesday night is family night with a special on our 14 inch pizzas. Wednesday we do Karaoke. Thursday live band and Saturday a DJ.”
What made you want to locate in the Medical District.
“This is an up and coming district. A great area close to Midtown. We didn’t want to be downtown with no parking and so congested. This was wide open, and centrally located and there are other restaurants. We feel like we made the right choice. The people here have been awesome. The collaborative, hospitals…more than helpful with getting us off the ground.”
What made you get into the restaurant business? Why pizza? Slice of Soul..where does the brain child come from?
“Both of us had careers but both came into a place in our life where we wanted to do something for ourselves. I wanted to do some sort of juice bar in the Whitehaven area and he came home one weekend and we collaborated on the back patio and came up with the idea of a pizza lounge and we entertained it from that it just took off from there. I mean people were doing pizza but I don’t think there were any African-American owned pizza place in Memphis. We were also doing the entertainment portion of it as well. I mean if you look at the place it is full of local artist doing great work. We have a lounge area you can come and just chill, free wifi, so it is actually on the concept of a Subway, Starbucks, pizza lounge because we encompass all those things.”
How has MMDC and Slice of Soul partnered and how that has impacted your business.
“They definitely a great group of people. Vonesha Mitchell has definitely been a instrumental person in getting us you know connected virtually or in person with other people in the Madison Heights area. Even just a person we can go to and ask question on things that are going on in the District, whats happening next. Any information she can give us she will. We just did a collaboration with MMDC and it was that we gave hygiene bags out, blood pressure checks, a food drive, and we also had a concert and Cluckfest. The grant money was provided by the collaborative. Which was great because without them adding that financial support I don’t think that it would have come off as great as it did. When we first opened we wanted to do it but during that time in January it was a snow storm and then clear up and then an ice storm and then it would clear up. This time was nice out and people came out. We love working with the people over there, it is a great partnership.”
Do you all have any Weekly Specials?
“Tuesday 3 topping 14-inch pizza for $10. We do a $20 14 inch with 5 wings added. We do a $5 dollar Friday on one topping. We also do a Memphis 10 combo with a one topping pizza and three wings of your choice. We try to give you a variety of what we have.”
Slice of Soul is located in Madison Heights at 1299 Madison Ave. They are open Monday - Thursday 11AM to 10PM, Friday 11AM to 12AM, Saturday 3PM to 12AM and closed on Sundays. To learn more visit their Facebook, Instagram, or website.