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’s hard to believe that it was a year ago, and also hard to believe that it wasn’t 10 years ago, that our lives were changed by the pandemic. It hit all of us. Some of us were told to work from home, some were told we didn’t have jobs.

The latter was mostly the case in the restaurant business, where folks were sent home after the dining rooms were closed. A few people remained here and there to help with takeout and delivery, but mostly, we had a whole industry out of work, as close to overnight as you typically get.

Here’s my look at the last year in Memphis restaurants, from the day the restaurants closed until now, when they’re hopeful that the combination of vaccines and warmer weather mean more people will return to some of their favorite places.

And click here to read about what it’s been like for Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris, The Second Line and Fino’s. He was operating three successful restaurants at the beginning of March 2020 and by mid-month the dining rooms were closed and most of his employees were sent home. This is his story, but it was the same all around town.

One of the restaurants I worried about was Bari. It’s a treasure that I hoped would get through COVID, but when it was at times reduced to a capacity of only six tables, the worry was real. But great news: Not only did Jason and Rebecca Severs manage to squeak by, they’ve also found a larger and better property just a couple of blocks south on the same street. Their last day in Overton Square is May 15 and they hope for a June reopening.

And more in the good news department: The Majestic Grille reopens April 2 after more than a year. Deni and Patrick Reilly and their staff have the beautiful big building gleaming and ready to go — and they’ll host Easter brunch their first weekend!

During COVID, the Reillys ran the popup Cocozza American Italian, a nice little red-sauce place inspired by Deni’s New Jersey roots. It closed last weekend, but at least one of the dishes will have a home on the Majestic menu, which will be a little smaller than pre-COVID but essentially the same.

Elle Perry tells us about a collaboration between Beale Street Brewing and Memphis Slim House, which puts beer in your belly and money toward an amphitheater at Soulsville’s Slim House.

Want to see what an 11-pound lobster looks like? There’s a photo of Table Talker Jim Baymiller posing with one a few years ago. He and a buddy managed to polish it off for lunch in Boston, and he shared the photo after Melanie Leger Blakney put up photos on Table Talk of the lobsters she got at Cordova Farmers Market last weekend.

I’ve never cooked one, though I guess this is a rite of passage that is past time for me to cross. If COVID has done nothing else, it’s made me realize the things I haven’t done. While I didn’t realize cooking a lobster was on my list, it turns out it is.

Parish Grocery’s last day on Overton Park is March 27. It will reopen in Cooper-Young, in the building most recently occupied by Elwood’s Shells, sometime in April. And former St. Jude executive chef Miles McMath has opened The Parish, a seafood restaurant, in Hernando. Here’s the info on that.

Finally, there are two Sound Bite podcasts since our last newsletter. Kelly English and I talk about the past year in this one, and Chris Herrington and I talk about some of the food we enjoyed during Memphis Black Restaurant Week. And that leads us to a subject that we love too much to avoid: Fried catfish. Have a listen to this week’s Sound Bites to catch up on goat curry, oxtails and hear about Chris being catfish rich (apologies to “Barbecue Rich” comedian Charlie Vergos.)

Have a great week. No recipes to share from me because my kitchen is under construction and I’m living on protein drinks and cold cuts for a while; I hope you’re eating better than I am.