Bottle Bites 04: Constructive (Summer) Catfish

Each month, a band on the EB calendar will be invited to curate their own Bite Café special to be served on the night of their show. This month, we invited barstool rock legends The Hold Steady to cook up somethin' real nice for y'all. Let Steve Selvidge, The Hold Steady's guitarist, tell you all about his BBQ-inspired Bottle Bite...

Tell us a little about yourself!

I am a musician, born and raised in the musical community in Memphis, TN.  

Tell us why you chose these specific inspirations for your Bottle Bites dish.

I was backstage at a gig in Memphis, and all of us musicians were talking about what local BBQ we loved and why. This led to a discussion of some of the favorite things that our moms made for us. Somewhere on that Venn Diagram we ended up here. 

If you could invite five people—living or dead—to your dream dinner party, who would be on the guest list? What would y'all eat?

Paul Stanley, Anthony Bourdain, Jimmy Page, Georgia O’Keeffe and my dad, Sid Selvidge. So many things. A lot of grilled steak with chimichurri, grilled green onions and tomatoes, really good crusty bread and some amazing wine that’s local to somewhere.

What's your go-to tour meal?

Usually some sort of comforting pasta that I can eat some of before the gig and then finish later. Try and get a salad in as well.  

Try Bite Café's Fried Catfish and Braised Greens for yourself on Friday, August 23, in celebration of The Hold Steady's three-night Chicago takeover!