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Table Talk: The Four Way owners and Gibson’s Donuts patrons get surprises
 
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Gibson’s Donuts owner Don DeWeese hands out letters on Wednesday, April 21, letting customers  know their donuts are being paid for by The Kindness Revolution. In return, the organization asked customers to perform an act of kindness for someone that same day. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian)
 

Gibson’s Donuts owner Don DeWeese hands out letters on Wednesday, April 21, letting customers  know their donuts are being paid for by The Kindness Revolution. In return, the organization asked customers to perform an act of kindness for someone that same day. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian)

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

Jennifer Biggs, The Daily Memphian’s food editor and Table Talk emcee, is on vacation this week, overseeing the finishing touches to the kitchen renovation she’s been telling us about in recent weeks. She’s seeing the light at the end of that long, dark tunnel known as the home improvement project, and judging by the lovely pictures she sent, it was time and money well spent.

If you want to catch up with Jennifer this week, tune in to WYXR 97.1 FM, from 11 a.m. to noon Thursday, April 29, when she’ll join The Daily Memphian’s CEO Eric Barnes to make a case for supporting the nonprofit community radio station launched last summer in Crosstown Concourse.

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Jennifer hosts the station’s “Sound Bites” program on Thursdays, and Eric anchors “The Sidebar.” This Thursday, while they entertain you, they’ll also ask you for money. WYXR, a Crosstown collaboration with The Daily Memphian and the University of Memphis, is in the midst of its inaugural Spring Pledge Drive.

At Gibson’s Donuts last week, they were asking for no money as they handed out doughnuts during a 45-minute event organized by The Kindness Revolution. Among the customers Jennifer Biggs met there was Kevin Woods, who, before he arrived at Gibson’s, had just performed an act of kindness himself at a grocery store. When the customer in front of him came up short at the register, he supplied the difference.

Jennifer said she noticed a theme among the patrons at Gibson’s. “While karma wasn’t as instant for everyone as it was for Woods, a lot of folks who came through the line were already intent on being kind,” she wrote.

Patrice Bates Thompson, owner of the Four Way in Soulsville, will receive a grant of $40,000 from American Express and the National Trust for the Preservation of Historic Places. (Daily Memphian file)

Another Memphis dining landmark got a kind gift this week. The owner of The Four Way in Soulsville learned Tuesday, April 27, that she would receive a grant of $40,000 from American Express and the National Trust for the Preservation of Historic Places. Patrice Bates Thompson got the news while she was appearing on a segment of NBC’s “Today” show that focused on how historically significant restaurants are making it through the pandemic.

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Thompson was speechless for a moment when the show’s hosts revealed the gift, covering her face with her hand, then saying an emotional “Thank you.” But soon after her TV appearance, she remembered a leaking sink and a troublesome steam table in The Four Way’s kitchen. Her daughter asked her how long the $40,000 would last. “With what I need, probably not long,” Thompson said. 

The Charleston cheddar grits at Sugar Grits. (Peggy Burch/Daily Memphian)

Fans of “My Cousin Vinny” will remember Joe Pesci’s famous “Magic Grits” monologue that begins with: “How do you cook your grits? You like ’em regular, creamy or al dente?” We visited Downtown’s new Sugar Grits last week, and based on the excellent Charleston Cheddar Grits we tried there, the answer at this restaurant is creamy.

Also on the Downtown front, Derk Meitzler and partners leased the Paramount building at South Front Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with plans to open three restaurants on the site. One of those places, the Backlot, opened this month. Meitzler talked to Jennifer Biggs about it on a recent podcast.

This week, the Arlington Planning Commission said a unanimous “yes” to the plan for a new Taco Bell site at 5228 Airline Road, which would replace the current Taco Bell in a convenience store at Interstate 40 and Airline.

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In what must have been sweet news for restaurateurs, the Centers for Disease Control announced on April 27 that vaccinated people should feel free to dine on restaurant patios without masks now.

The “Shell Yeah! Tasty Compositions” concerts at Levitt Shell also will count on the public’s desire to not only hear music with their friends outdoors, but also to dine with their “pod.” As Chris Herrington noted, picnic baskets will be included with one of the concert ticket options:Restaurateur Kelly English (Iris/Second Line/Fino’s) will oversee a rotating cast of Memphis chefs that will include Bala Tounkara (of Whitehaven’s Bala’s Bistro), Jimmy Gentry (Paradox Catering), Eli Townsend (Townsend Food Services) and several Cooper-Young neighborhood standouts: Karen Carrier (Beauty Shop), Ben Smith (Tsunami), Ryan Trimm (Sweetgrass) and Jason Severs (Bari). Philip Ashley Rix (Philip Ashley Chocolates) and Nuha Abuduhair (17 Berkshire) will provide sweets.”

And check out the conversation on our Facebook page, Table Talk, where your fellow food citizens are talking about how to get a food truck to an event on short notice, and where to get the best sausage gravy and biscuits.

Have a good week.

 
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