Table Talk
Table Talk: Patio season, please!
As warmer days make another attempt to dominate the calendar, it’s time to focus on patio season.
Ellen Chamberlain
Ellen Chamberlain is a global citizen who is happy to call Memphis her forever home. The Michigan native has worked in media for nearly 25 years as a radio broadcaster, journalist and ghostwriter. As The Daily Memphian’s food and restaurant writer, she gives readers inside perspectives of their favorite restaurants and the people behind them, suggestions for the best bites around town and the latest food news from in and around Shelby County.
There are 206 articles by Ellen Chamberlain :
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March 2026
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The To-Do List Welcome spring with beer, kites, fairies and all the colors of the rainbow
In this week’s To-Do List, there’s a comedy show at DKDC, a final goodbye from Journey at FedExForum and a mash-up of goth culture and cumbia music at Growlers.
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Food NewsFrom Pine Hill to Lamar Avenue and beyond, Hillboyz builds a Memphis success story
A Memphis-founded brand has global dreams. And it all started in Pine Hill, South Memphis.
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Food NewsMemphis chef is cooking up community
At a local library, Chef Jasmen Richmond is using the kitchen to dish out more than just recipes by building literacy, business skills and confidence for children.
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Food News Memphis Made closing taproom
In August 2025, The Daily Memphian reported that Memphis Made was for sale after the company filed for bankruptcy.
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EducationRemington ‘cafe’ class gives culinary students a taste of the real world
Remington teaches courses in the basics — knife skills, butchery, classic cooking techniques and plating — before students take a course that everyone simply calls “cafe.”
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Table TalkTable Talk: Festival season kicks off with a cocktail
What seems to set this event apart from others in the same vein is the craft component to the offerings. There isn’t any single brand or spirit featured.
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Food News Hot wing festival introduces World Wing Cup
The inaugural winners of the Wing World Cup will get a trophy, bragging rights and $25,000.
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The To-Do List Trolley Night is back, and a garden party at the Dixon is gonna be golden
In this week’s To-Do List, a Ghanaian artist makes life-sized movie poster art, an author chases ghosts at Elmwood and Soul & Spirits has a street-food fest.
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BusinessCrawfish season’s near its boiling point. Here’s where to buy them.
It’s mudbug season, and trucks such as Crawfish Cabin and Memphis Crawfish Co. are crawling in the season’s biggest, better crustaceans.
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Food News Barbecue? There’s an app for that
Users will be able to customize orders for pickup or for delivery.
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April 2026
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Food NewsNo joke, Piccadilly’s newest to-go location opens April 1
A post-pandemic shift in Piccadilly’s customer behavior led the company to downsize from a larger restaurant on Mount Moriah Road to a drive-thru location on Riverdale Road.
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Table TalkTable Talk: New app sounds off on restaurant noise
They say we first “eat” with our eyes. Next comes smell. But a new app is helping restaurant-goers with another one of the five senses: hearing.
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Food NewsBlack lemonade? Why activated charcoal is showing up on area menus
Stirred into lemonade and other drinks, activated charcoal is a current wellness trend. But its actual effects are more nuanced than many people assume.
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The To-Do List Easter egg hunts, a pierogi class and thrift shopping to benefit WKNO
In this week’s To-Do List, the ’80s are back at Bar Keough, the women of Memphis jazz are at Crosstown Arts and Blue Suede Vintage has retro finds for all sizes.
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Food News Kaye’s Pints & Scoops to open new scoop shop
The Scoop by Kaye’s Pints & Scoops doesn’t officially open until May, but the company is doing a pop-up Saturday, April 4.
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FoodAt Mempops, spring heats up demand
“From the middle of April through the Fourth of July, things get kind of crazy,” owner Chris Taylor said. “We’re really busy.”
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Food News Cxffeeblack heads to World of Coffee expo
At the international expo for coffee purveyors, Memphis’ Cxffeeblack plans to pose a question: What would happen to the coffee industry if farmers were paid each time their beans were sold?
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Table TalkTable Talk: At Harbor House, soul food helps heal the mind, body
Despite being loved by foodies the world over, soul food also has a reputation for being salt-laden, artery-clogging, butter-soaked cuisine. But a Memphis-born chef wants to prove that’s not all soul food has to be.
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The To-Do List Dress like Selena, party with Trekkies and get a tattoo at Graceland
In this week’s To-Do List, the Stax Music Academy takes over Handy Park, Ballet Memphis performs a Shakespeare classic and Novel’s new club lets you walk and read at the same time.
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Spirit of MemphisCity Hall Cheesecake’s mission rests on sweet treats and second chances
City Hall Cheesecake owner Kim Daly used to be frustrated that ex-offenders weren’t given second chances. Then she decided she could do something about it by buying a bakery.
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BusinessSocial media and a salmon club: How Smackers made a name for itself
Smackers has leaned into a celebrity-endorsement strategy that includes Rick Ross, NeNe Leakes and Megan Thee Stallion — but that only works if the food delivers.
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FoodFront of house: Alexander Babb of SOB East and Amelia Gene’s
Alexander Babb initially went to bartending school due to a loophole in an informal contract with his father.
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Food NewsFrom market to menu: The Farm Table opening Downtown
An indoor farmers market is becoming a small farm-to-fork restaurant.
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Table TalkTable Talk: Joys of spring include fresh new menus
’Tis the season to flip a menu.
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