Welcome back to Table Talk, where The Daily Memphian’s food and dining editor Jennifer Biggs sends the latest food news (along with a dash of this and that) to your inbox every Wednesday.

It was the week the potatoes came. Tons of them, dehydrated and in small packages, were delivered to Memphis households by Idahoan, a clever marketing campaign (it had to be) designed as a thank-you to the good folks of the River City for consuming more Idahoan instant potatoes than anyone else in the country.

Whatever. We had fun figuring out what to do with the powdery potatoes and letting friends know on our Facebook and Instagram stories when ours arrived.

You sure haven’t seen my story because yes, I have no potatoes. Of the 300,000 packages sent, somehow mine got lost in the mail. Maybe it’s holing up with my new kitchen cabinet in an unknown location, as it too is missing in transit.

But as soon as it arrives, it’ll be installed and my kitchen will be measured for new countertops. I’m having a hard time deciding what to pick, so I turned to my Table Talk friends on Facebook, who voted in a poll to share their opinion. 

It turns out they like the one I most like (though I’m still not committed), and we had a little fun. In fact, we’re having a lot of fun. Recipes were shared, lots of photos of Super Bowl food posted, from chili on the grill to tomahawk steaks to — no kidding — bacon-wrapped Oreos and Nutter Butter cookies. If you haven’t joined us yet, come on over.

A little brag on this great group of people who are already there: One Table Talk member commented this week that opening Table Talk every day reminds her of the old days when she’d open the Wednesday food section. But I say this is even better, because everyone gets to contribute and participate; I don’t have to do all the work!

This week, Abigail Warren let us know that the space that was most recently Mesquite Chop House in Germantown, but previously home to other restaurants including Equestria, will now be corporate offices for Wolf River Hospitality group. The company owns Pyro’s Fire Fresh Pizza, Levee Coffee and Creamery, Abner’s Famous Chicken Tenders and Wolf River Brisket Co. 

What do the next stories have in common? They’re all examples of the 2020 dance we call the Pivot:

Le Bon Appetit won’t be back in festival form until 2022, but starting later this month, you can take Zoom classes from some pretty high-falutin’ chefs, right in your own kitchen. The series includes LBA founding chef Kelly English and friends of his from around town and the country, including heavy hitters like John Currence of Oxford, Mike Gulotta of New Orleans and Claire Robinson of Food Network. And the classes are $40; not bad. 

Oh glory day. Beauty Shop has reopened for lunch, a welcome addition to the diminished lunch scene in town since COVID caused so many restaurants to cut hours. We ate there on its first day, which was Monday and that was particularly nice — trying to find a different local place to eat Monday lunch was getting harder and harder. Chef/owner Karen Carrier has jockeyed all through COVID and it’s nice she was able to reintroduce us to something as familiar and beloved as Beauty Shop’s lunch. 

COVID hit City Tasting Tours owner, “foodreneur” Cristina McCarter, hard. When restaurants closed last year, she went from tours to sample boxes and then created City Tasting Box. She and business partner Lisa Brown already have two boxes available to order and now there’s a new one, The Majority Box, available through February, which is Black History Month. 

More good news for a small business. Ed Crenshaw and his daughter Miller Cowan started Sugar Avenue in his commercial bakery space early in COVID and this week announced they’ve joined the Goldbelly line-up of specialty and iconic foods from around the country. Other Memphis businesses with products on Goldbelly include the Rendezvous, Central BBQ and Muddy’s Bake Shop. 

Speaking of Muddy’s, click here to listen to this week’s Sound Bites. I talk with Muddy’s owner Kat Gordon and Sisco Larson of Joe’s Wines & Liquor about pairing sweets and spirits. I learned a few things and so will you, and they’re committed to leading us through a tasting of those same two things post-vaccine. 

Finally, if you’d like to score a free box of Muddy’s cupcakes for Valentine’s Day, come to Table Talk and answer our poll about your plans to mark the holiday this year. We’ll randomly pick a winner from those who take the poll.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. Have a happy and safe week and bundle up — thanks, polar vortex. You’re really making it easy on those vaccine volunteers. (OK, it’s not a food story, but a nice read from Jane Roberts.)