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

Remember those dreary winter weekends when there was just nothing to do? Or even that summer when we couldn’t do anything? Well, we’re back to having to make hard decisions because we are in the season of plenty.

We just came through a big Memphis in May, a hugely successful Memphis Greek Festival, a long Memorial Day weekend, and now, Memphis Italian Festival is back after two years lost to COVID.

It runs Thursday evening through Saturday night at Marquette Park, and yours truly will be back this year to judge finals for the first time in several years. Remember that the festival is like Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in that you have to know someone to get in a booth, but there’s plenty to eat and do for everyone, as Jasmine McCraven tells us. 

Not up for an outdoor event? Got you covered. The 2022 Craft Food and Wine Festival is Sunday, June 5, at The Columns at One Commerce Square, and it’s a nice event, one I’m happy to recommend.

You have two options. The general tasting session is 5 to 7 p.m. and includes access to 40 craft food and wine vendors set up around the floor; tickets are $75 for that. If you want a bigger experience, go for the VIP ticket for $160. You get to start at 2 p.m. and stay the whole time (there’s a brief intermission at 4 p.m. to reset for general admission), plus you get access to the VIP lounge, where chef/owner Chip Dunham of Magnolia and May will provide the hors d’oeuvres and Southern Glazers will have a big selection of wine and spirits for you to enjoy.

You’ll get a small tasting board with a notch for your wine glass when you arrive, and you can walk and taste, taste some more, walk some more and even buy the products you want for home. Get your tickets by clicking here and do it fast; use code CFWF10 for save $10. This event, as it always has, benefits the Church Health Center.

And it just keeps coming. Celtic Crossing hosts its monthly whiskey dinner on June 2. These are always great events, and you’ll learn something while you sip and feast. I had no idea that there was whiskey from Spain but found out when I read the menu (and I say that’s iffy, but I promise you DJ Naylor will explain it better than I can). Click here for tickets to taste three whiskeys and to enjoy a Spanish meal prepared by Reny Alfonso. Tickets are $75, and the event starts at 7 p.m. at 903 Cooper St. 

Now this: You can’t keep bogarting the views, Grind City! This brewery already offers some mighty fine scenery of the river from its Uptown perch, and now it’s taking over Beale Street Landing, starting June 2 and running through Halloween.

Riverside Taps, as it will be called, will serve Grind City brews Thursday and Friday 3-8 p.m. and noon-8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. This is a partnership between Grind City and Memphis River Parks Partnership, and there will be as yet unknown food vendors there too.

One more thing coming up, not this weekend but something that’s for a good cause and needs to get on your calendar. The “Til Death Do Us Part” murder mystery dinner at the Mosaic Church, 815 N. McLean Blvd., is June 25 at 6 p.m., and if you want to get in the spirit of things, you need to dress in wedding attire. Bride? Groom? Mother of the bride? Who knows? Maybe even be a wedding crasher. You’ll get fed and watered (beer and wine) and get to be part of the mystery for $40, and the proceeds benefit Merge Memphis, which operates Clare’s House, among other things. 

Now, finally, on to what you missed if you were out of town for the holiday and haven’t caught up. Big news from Patrick and Deni Reilly. The couple is closing down the popular brunch service at The Majestic Grille after this weekend — last brunch June 5 — and will start opening Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner beginning June 13. So if you want brunch at The Majestic, you have Saturday and Sunday left.

But that’s burying the lede because their real big news is that they’re opening Cocozza in Harbor Town in the fall. You might remember it was the red-sauce Italian ghost restaurant the Reillys ran from The Majestic space in the earlier days of COVID. Congratulations to them!

Chris Herrington gave us his take on his favorite farmers markets finds in his Street Food column, and he’s kind of a groupie, it turns out. He also asks for your favorite finds, so share them for the benefit of all. 

Jasmine McCraven went to Shelby Forest on a mushroom forage for the Memphis Mushroom Festival that ran over the weekend, and it sounds as if she learned enough to keep us alive in the woods, should we ever get lost. 

Our $10 Deal is back after taking a brief break for this and that. We went to Bayou Bar & Grill for a $10 lunch but found a nice selection of $10 sandwiches, too. You can subscribe to the $10 Deal newsletter if you want to be sure you see the deals we have for you every week, and if you know of a good $10 Deal, email me and tell me about it. I’ll even take $10ish and do it gladly; prices are up, folks.

Click here to listen to this week’s Sound Bites, where Chris and I talk about the farmers markets, Cocozza and The Majestic Grille, what we cooked for Memorial Day and my obsession with my new ice cream freezer. Expect to hear more about that sweet little appliance in the weeks to come.

And as I tell you from time to time, if you want something of me, all you have to do is ask. Asparagus mousse? I’m happy to provide the recipe from the old Jim’s Place East, and I’ll go one further — you can even have mine! 

Reader Carolyn Keisel asked for it, I printed it, and she wrote such a nice email to thank me. She told me she’s sorry that I don’t enjoy congealed salads (but my mother makes up for it, Carolyn), and wrote: “Jennifer — you are an angel!”

It reminded me of a very old joke I heard just this weekend. Two old men are talking.

One says: “My wife, she’s an angel.”

The other replies: “You’re lucky. Mine’s still alive.”

Enjoy your week. There’s plenty to do, so go do it, but please do it safely; remember, COVID is still here, and I’m not yet 100%. Avoid it if you can.