Welcome back to Table Talk, where Daily Memphian writers and editors send the latest food news (along with a dash of this and that) directly to your inbox every Wednesday.

This week’s Table Talk is brought to you by stream-of-consciousness and perhaps the distractedness of a parent two days away from delivering their first child to college. 

On the episode of the “Sound Bites” podcast I recorded this week with regular contributor Joshua Carlucci, we talked about a couple of exciting new additions to the Memphis food scene: the Cordova Sichuan restaurant Petals of a Peony, which he’d written about, and the University District craft butcher shop Buster’s Butcher, which I’d written about. More on both in a little bit.

Buster's Butcher Shop has bone-in ribeye. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

But we ended the podcast talking about the bánh mì, the French-influenced Vietnamese masterpiece that just might be the world’s greatest type of sandwich. I think so. Josh thinks so. Our late beloved colleague Jennifer Biggs thought so, too. 

Josh wrote about the bánh mì dac biet, essentially the classic version made with multiple pork cold cuts and pâté, at Cordova’s Pho 4ever in our $10 Deal column last week.

I’d had it as well when visiting for a Germantown Parkway food guide earlier in the summer and thought it perhaps the best I’ve come across in Memphis. I had not had a bánh mì at Pho So 8 in Hickory Hill, which I know has fans. When Josh mentioned he’d been there, I tried to get him to adjudicate a Pho So 8 versus Pho 4ever bánh mì battle on the spot. Food fight!

Alas, Josh didn’t get the bánh mì at Pho So 8.

“Food Fight” was a recurring column I did a few years ago, which was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and never made it out of that extended hiatus. Maybe it’s time to bring it back. I always liked the idea because it’s founded on the notion of telling the reader that one thing is better than another, and that’s how we all talk about food.

At Pho So 8, the banh mi features charred pork piled on excellent bread with a generous handful of fresh herbs and slightly sweet and tangy pickled vegetables. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian file)

One of my “Food Fights” was a bánh mì bout between Pho Saigon in the University District and the cold-cut version at Le Delights Bánh Mì & Pho in Cordova, which features many other varieties. Pho Saigon won that contest. I revisited it this week, with the restaurant under different ownership now. I also made a first visit to Pho So 8, whose bánh mì is exclusively charred pork rather than the cold-cut mix of the classic French-Vietnamese version. Pho Saigon’s version now has some roasted pork along with its pate and cold pork but was still lighter and more complex — a clear winner. 

Pho Saigon versus Pho 4ever? The six-week-or-so time gap is too much to be sure. But, I think maybe the latter. 

This bánh mì detour inspired a couple of other thoughts related to the pod’s two prior topics.

One of those is what we have in abundance on the local food scene and what’s more scarce.

We’ve got it so good when it comes to Vietnamese dining. A lot of my favorite memories of eating with Jennifer Biggs were at Vietnamese restaurants on Cleveland Street in Midtown. The bò kho (spicy beef stew) at Vietnam Restaurant — with its spice profile of lemongrass, star anise and cinnamon — was a mutual favorite dish.

Chicken with ginger and beef with lemongrass are two of the $7.99 lunch specials at Pho Saigon. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian file)

She loved the egg rolls and tofu dishes at Tuyen’s Asian Bistro, for good reason, and we both missed the bánh xèo — a crepe-like dish with pork and shrimp — at Phuong Long after that long-time staple closed. I’ve since had an even better version at Pho 4ever, out beyond Germantown Parkway, where you can also drop into the Green Bamboo Noodle House.

Sichuan cuisine (sometimes spelled Szechuan or Szechwan, but AP style prefers Sichuan), a particularly spicy sub-genre of broader Chinese cooking, had been a little more difficult to come by. You can find it, including an extensive Sichuan menu, at Mulan Asian Bistro.

But Petals of a Peony, from the restaurant group that also owns Flame Ramen, might be the first fully Sichuan restaurant in town, fully authentic and focused on only that cuisine. If not, it’s immediately the most significant. 

I haven’t loved Flame Ramen on two visits but was knocked out by Petals of a Peony in one, where I had the cumin lamb, which Josh highlights, and the eggplant with fish sauce. Josh explored the menu a little more deeply, and I’m anxious to follow suit. 

Petals of a Peony is in a small strip-mall bay right next to the Yemeni gem Queen of Sheba Imperial Restaurant at Germantown Parkway and Cordova Road, just across from the Cordova International Farmers Market and its adjacent growing food truck scene.

Egg rolls with lettuce and herbs, lotus salad and house special stir fry are served at Tuyen’s Asian Bistro. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian file)

This might suddenly be a “most interesting food intersection in Memphis” contender — and perhaps most unlikely. 

One of the commenters on the Petals of a Peony story called for a Burmese restaurant next. I’ve eaten Burmese food once, in Portland a couple of years ago. I’d welcome it, but I’m not sure it would top my own list. Maybe Portuguese? 

That’s a subject for further research.

Memphis has never been a bagel town. What is, other than New York or Montreal? 

But it’s getting better. Dave’s Bagels, which are New-York-style, are a farmers market staple you can also pick up at the new Buster’s Butcher. The Blanchard’s Patisserie cart’s smaller, crunchier, flavorful bagels are more Montreal-adjacent. The local bagels from the recently launched Hive Bagels have a size more akin to New York but are boiled in honey water, which is more associated with Montreal. Hive has been producing bagels in Midtown but will soon offer them and more in a retail/restaurant space Downtown.

Hive Bagel & Deli boils its bagels in honey water using local honey. (Holly Whitfield/The Daily Memphian file)

The other related topic prompted by the bánh mì talk this week was mulling Memphis sandwiches more broadly, which is another subject for further research that will blessedly never be completed. 

I was asked in my occasional Grizzlies Mailbag column last month for my “best Memphis sandwich” pick. My off-the-top-of-my-head answer then:

“Any of the tortas at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana, the South Philly at Fino’s (though I liked old bread better), the HEELS at South Point Grocery (a kind of “elevated” PB&J), a good bánh mì anywhere but most recently at Le Delights and Pho 4ever, the off-the-menu BBQ shrimp po-boy at Second Line, fried chicken sandwiches at Loaf. More modestly, I recently had a really good BLTA, something I rarely order out, at Cafe Eclectic, my neighborhood spot. That lemony mayo really popped.” 

Some reader suggestions included options from Grey’s Fine Cheeses, Chinese Sub Shop and Libro. 

If the bánh mì isn’t the greatest type of sandwich, maybe the Italian sub is. The South Philly has been my go-to Italian cold-cut Memphis sandwich over the years, but it took a backseat a few years ago to the Spicy Italian Sub from Downtown’s City Block Salumeria.

Hive Bagel & Deli is coming Downtown. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

Well, City Block’s gone, but the Spicy Italian is back with City Block owner Brad McCarley now running the new Buster’s Butcher and adding it to the shop’s grab-and-go rotation. 

Speaking of new small shops with signature sandwiches, the Mad Grocer is now open in the former Curb Market spot at Crosstown Concourse with a sandwich menu that includes the Mempholatta, their take on the New Orleans muffaletta. 

In other food news this week, a longtime barbecue competitor is opening his first restaurant. And a Bartlett chef is taking on a new and very different role. 

Elsewhere, how about some booze news? In September, Downtown’s Old Dominick distillery will release a series of small-batch bourbons, its first fully distilled, aged and bottled here in Memphis. 

The series will come in four varieties, with different flavor profiles and in proofs ranging from 90 to 117. This batch will be available in seven states, including Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, of course, in prices ranging from $34.99 to $69.99.

Monique "Chef Mo" Williams poses for a portrait at her Bartlett restaurant, Biscuits & Jams, Aug. 24. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

Beer with bourbon? Midtown’s Memphis Made Brewing Co. announced they’re increasing their distribution fully across the (seemingly endless) expanse of Tennessee, with their Fireside, Cat Nap and Gonerbrau varieties now available in Kroger stores in Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville and other Tennessee towns, as well as at various smaller retailers and restaurants across the state. 

Memphis Made had previously been available beyond Memphis in West Tennessee and North Mississippi, with this further expansion the by-product of the brewery’s recently opened second facility in the Edge District. 

Thanks for reading. Have a sandwich everyone. We’ll revisit later.

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