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.

Nate Oliva, best known as the chef de cuisine at Erling Jensen’s, is the new chef at Bounty. (Courtesy Nate Oliva)

Bounty on Broad is a solid restaurant that has had some ups and downs since COVID. Chef Russell Casey, who headed up the gluten-free kitchen for about six years after the departure of chef Jackson Kramer, left in late 2021 and is now the executive chef at Restaurant Iris.

And for the past two weeks or so, Nate Oliva, best known as the chef de cuisine at Erling Jensen’s about 10 years ago, is the chef at Bounty.

Oliva, who has also worked at Local, at Uchi in Austin, and the short-lived Ink in Cooper-Young, left the restaurant business for several years, but recently returned with the Half-Cocked food truck, which pulls on his Uchi experience with Japanese food such as chicken karaage and donburi.

(A quick note, as Uchi was mentioned earlier this week in Christin Yates’ story about Loaf opening in the café space at Brooks Museum: Uchi is highly respected Japanese restaurant that started in Austin, has opened in four other cities and also inspired Uchiko and the coming-soon Uchiba, both in Austin.) 

Oliva told me that right now he’s concentrating fully on Bounty, but he hasn’t abandoned the food truck. He has partners there, and it will return to the street when the weather improves in the spring. Meanwhile, we get to see what he does at Bounty, and I’m curious and interested as I’ve always liked the restaurant and am ready to see what’s next.

Chef Josh Steiner, former chef/owner of Strano, is opening a new bakery Downtown. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Here’s more news about a local chef: Josh Steiner, former chef/owner of Strano, is opening a new bakery Downtown, but until it’s ready (and, of course, it’s running behind schedule because that’s how everything goes now), he’s baking out of the former Iris Etc. kitchen at 62 S. Cooper St. You can order bagels, specialty cream cheeses and baguettes for Thursday through Saturday pickup at Hive, named for Steiner’s beekeeping passion; you can also get home or office delivery.

I tried some bagels last week, along with the bacon-cheddar cream cheese, and you can call me a fan. But I’m excited about trying a baguette this week as I always thought Steiner did a great job with his bread at Strano. Click here to see his menu (which is growing quickly) and to place your order. 

Memphis-based Wiseacre Brewing Company now sells products in 18 states. (Courtesy Wiseacre Brewing Company)

Big shout out to Wiseacre: The local brewery has expanded distribution to Arizona with three popular beers — Tiny Bomb Pilsner, Ananda IPA and Got to Get Up to Get Down Coffee Milk Stout — and seasonal releases. The expansion puts Wiseacre in 18 states, and, since I last told you about Tiny Bomb’s popularity, it’s gone from the seventh best-selling pilsner in the country to the fourth. It’s the Memphis water!

Speaking of beer, here’s a reminder that MoSH’s Science of Beer will be held at the Memphis Museum of Science & History on Friday, Jan. 13. VIP tickets are sold out, but there are a few general admission tickets left and you can snatch up the last ones by clicking here. More than two dozen local breweries and distributors will be pouring several beers each and about a dozen restaurants, such as Elwood’s, Gus’s, Leonard’s, SOB and more, will serve food. Tickets are $50. 

The Daily Memphian will hold its Friday reader lunch at Dim Sum King, at 5266 Summer Ave., on Jan. 20. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian file)

So, our Friday reader lunch at Dim Sum King on Jan. 20: Yes, it’s sold out — but that doesn’t mean you can’t come.

Our situation here is different from every other lunch we’ve hosted, as the price for us is per table of 10. So we stopped ticket sales at 70 — a big but manageable lunch — but there are four more people who have let me know they’d like to join us.

If you’d like to, as well, send me an email at jbiggs@dailymemphian.com, and when we have 10 more total, I’ll secure another table and email you back with a link to purchase a ticket.

You can read the menu and a little bit more about the lunch by clicking here. The total cost for this lunch is $25, which includes tax and tip, and you can bring your own wine. Bring your own wine glass, too. 

We all love French fries, but not all fries are created equal, and Chris Herrington and I are happy to give our opinion on what’s at the top of the list and what’s at the bottom on this week’s Sound Bites. After you listen, share your thoughts and your favorite places to get good fries. Have you shared this before? That’s fine. Chances are we’ll ask you to do it again another day because good fries are important.

The family shawarma platter comes with two sandwiches and fries for $17.99 at Queen of Sheba Imperial Restaurant in Cordova. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian file)

Queen of Sheba, the Yemeni restaurant that is a Summer Avenue favorite, has opened a larger location in Cordova; with more space comes an expanded menu. After spotting a shawarma family platter at my first visit, I returned for a $10 Deal. It’s two sandwiches and fries for $17.99, so you need to take a companion to make this work, but it comes in under $10 per person, so it’s legit. 

Oysters Harlan is named for Harlan Fields, who owned the old Four Flames restaurant. (Supermimicry/Getty Images Signature)

And in the hunt for old recipes, I went way back and fulfilled a request for Oysters Harlan from the long-closed Four Flames restaurant in last week’s Recipe Exchange. You keep asking, and I’ll keep looking. 

Finally, at the end of last week’s Table Talk, I shared one of writer Neil Gaiman’s New Year’s wishes. Robin Joyce, who owns the positively delightful By the Brewery restaurant across the street from The Daily Memphian offices on Tennessee Street, told me that Gaiman delivered the commencement speech for her daughter’s graduating class at the University of the Arts in 2012. For others of you who told me you enjoyed reading Gaiman’s wish, here’s a link to that speech. 

Have yourself a nice week ahead.

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