On a recent Friday, I watched as a plate of chargrilled oysters came out of the Bar Limina kitchen, and a roomful of eyes followed the server as a delicious aroma filled the space. 

Bar Limina hosts oyster happy hour every Friday from 4 p.m. until the restaurant sells out of the bivalves, usually around 7:30 or 8 p.m. The chargrilled oysters, six for $25, are my favorite of the offerings, but the bar also serves fried and raw oysters as well.

Before being added to the grill, the oysters are loaded with butter, garlic, manchego, espelette peppers and shallot and served with a slice of grilled sourdough bread and a lemon wedge. 

When my oysters arrived, even the neighboring table leaned over and asked what I got because they smelled so good.

The buttery, garlic-melted mixture over each chargrilled oyster was the culprit, and it tasted just as good as it smelled.

Since it was oyster happy hour, I also tried the fried oysters, which are $3.50 for each one. My three oysters came out on a layer of smudged black pepper mayo with a slice of country ham, arugula and — my personal favorite surprise — a pickled yellow peach. 

I love country ham, so that was a nice addition. And the pickled yellow peach added a fun flavor and texture I hadn’t had before, which made the dish even tastier.

The recipe for the fried oysters may change in future Fridays, but the chargrilled oyster recipe will stay the same. 

This upcoming Friday, Aug. 28, Bar Limina owner Josh Conley said the fried oysters will still have the country ham and micro arugula but will also be dusted in cornmeal, sit atop a dollop of Steen’s syrup and mayo, and be served with a pickled blackberry.

Chargrilled oysters served at Bar Limina. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

The bar’s raw oysters, served on the half shell, are $2.50 each and paired with tomato mignonette. 

“We get super particular and nerdy on what we’re bringing in,” Conley said about the type of oysters they serve. “We swap up the raw-oyster offering each week but have some that we love, like Matagorda Pearls from Matagorda Bay, Texas, which are my favorite right now.”

Conley said Bar Limina, which is located at 631 Madison Ave., first hosted an oyster happy hour a little more than a month ago, and he “did not properly anticipate the response.”

“I put it out there on socials that we were doing oysters and thought maybe we’d get like a 20% bump in traffic,” he said. “(By) 4:05, we had a full restaurant and nowhere near enough staff to take care of it.”

He said they’ve now found a rhythm for oyster happy hour, and he’s been “getting more creative satisfaction” from happy hour than he thought he would.

Bar Limina serves a espresso-phony Negroni. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

Bar Limina also offers drink specials to pair with the oysters, including a $10 freezer-door martini and a $10 house sparkling wine. 

Conley said they’ve also started pulling in a special oyster wine for happy hour. 

But for me, I got an espresso-phony Negroni — an off-menu nonalcoholic option — that paired nicely with the fried and chargrilled oysters.

This week in food news

I was among the 25% of Memphis Light, Gas and Water customers who lost power for days starting this past Saturday night, but I know some people are still in the dark. Some of those customers without power were restaurants that lost days of business, resulting in about $20,000 in losses.

Jennifer Chandler wrote about one of my favorite dessert places — Bob’s Bakery, which is connected to Tonica’s location Downtown. She knew the owner Shari Haley through her pies, but from almost a decade ago at Wilson Cafe in Wilson, Arkansas. She said the pies Haley, or “the pie lady,” makes are as good as she remembers.

Bob’s Bakery serves key lime pie. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Chandler also gave readers an inside look at a recipe for a farmers market tomato and sweet-corn rice grits. The recipe includes a sauteed mixture of corn and tomatoes served over a bed of creamy rice grits, which can be a side dish or a main course.

This week’s $15 Deal was Bog & Barley’s $15 half-and-half combo, which includes a half corned beef Reuben with a cup of roasted tomato soup or a wedge salad. Chandler said the Reuben sandwich is one of the Irish-fare restaurant’s most popular. 

I wrote about a newer food truck, The Neon Crave, which serves smoothie bowls, ice cream sundaes, banana splits and more. Co-owner Kendra Lawler, a veteran, explained how she made her way from government work to the private sector, with a side hustle in food trucking.

The Neon Crave is a food truck. (Courtesy Kendra Lawler)

Holly Whitfield spoke to JEM Dining chefs Josh Mutchnick and Jamaurin “Vino” Wright about the upscale restaurant’s first three years in the Edge District in The Daily Memphian’s podcast “Sound Bites.” She also spoke to them about the Edgy Tomato Fest, a festival of all things tomatoes in the Edge District that happened last weekend. 

In Food Files this week, I wrote about the third reopening of Newby’s on the Highland Strip, Brookhaven Pub’s newest look, and an Indian restaurant that has brought beloved dishes from a now-closed concept.

Rawgirls closed, based on the padlocked door on the food truck, the deleted social media accounts for both the business and the owner, and Google showing the business as permanently closed. I reached out to the owner several times, and also to the landlord, but could not get an answer.

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