Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken

Gus's is located at 310 S. Front Street in Memphis, TN, 38103. The telephone number is 901-527-4877. If you are on I-40 East take exit 1 right when you come over the Mississippi River Bridge. You will take a right on Front Street. Depending on traffic and traffic lights it will take approximately 3-5 minutes to get there once you exit. It will be on your left. It is between Pontotoc and Vance. If you go past Vance you have gone too far. If you are on I-40 West you also need to take exit 1 and merge onto Riverside Drive going South. You will be on Riverside Drive for 2 to 5 minutes depending on traffic. Take a left at Beale Street (go past Wagner) and turn right on S. Front Street. You will be on Beale Street for a very short amount of time before seeing S. Front Street. When you turn right on S. Front Street go past Linden and Pontotoc and you will see Gus's on the left.

Gus's is in a rather sketchy area of town. There is not a lot of business going on in the neighborhood. The only people in the area are probably there to eat at Gus's. You should be able to find free parking on the side of the street. When we ate there on a Tuesday night they had a security guard outside to watch vehicles. That should tell you something. Be careful but do not let that deter you from eating there.

The first time we tried eating at Gus's was on a Saturday night. We got there around 6 PM or 7 PM and the place was packed. It was going to be a 30 minute wait or more. When we went on Tuesday night we got there right at 6 PM and got right in. The place was well less than half full. When we left on Tuesday night around 7 PM there were less than 10 people in the place not counting us. The decor is very old (that may be an understatement). The place looks like it was built in the early 1900s. It may have been. Most of the signs on the wall are related to Memphis in some way. For TV watchers, there are three TV's (one was on ESPN, one was on CNN, and the other was on CNBC).

We had a party of four. While we all enjoyed our food, one of the members of our party stated that he had a little higher expectations after seeing the place featured on Food Network. Another member stated that it was a 4 out of 5. The final two members both really enjoyed the food. We ordered a 12 piece family meal. It came with baked beans, slaw, and bread. There was nothing special about the beans, slaw, and bread. I am not a lover of fried chicken but I really enjoyed this chicken. We also got sides of ranch to dip the chicken in and this made it even better. Three of us ordered water and one person ordered tea. There were no special comments made about the tea. Our party of four is not known for having little stomachs and this was more than enough food. I am convinced that they may have given us more than 12 pieces but I may be wrong.

As has already been mentioned, we ordered a 12 piece family meal that came with beans, slaw, and bread. This cost right at $25.00. Three of us ordered water and the other ordered tea. Water is free and tea was around $1.50. The ranch dressing is supposedly 50 cents per packet but I do not think they charged us (unfortunately they took away my itemized receipt before I could grab it). The cost of our meal including sales tax was $28.13. Including tip the total was $32.00.

I would definitely recommend eating at Gus's. Even if you do not like fried chicken you need to eat there once just to experience the atmosphere. Keep in mind that it is in a sketchy area and that there is not a lot of seating. Catch a play at The Orpheum and head over to Gus's.