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.

The Memphis Greek Festival is nigh upon us, and I know you’re all excited and ready to do some Greek dancing and take a sanctuary tour.

Ha! Yes, the dancing is fun and you really should take the tour of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church at 578 N. Highland Ave., home of the festival. But you know you’re going for the food, just like I know I’m going for the food.

Beverly Vieron (left) hands out traditional Greek pastries at Memphis Greek Festival May 20, 2022. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

This year I’m particularly eager to get there because I didn’t join the pastry cooks as they prepared the thousands of goodies they bake before each festival, so I haven’t had a bite of kourambiethes in a year, which is much too long. We all have our favorites, and that powdered sugar-covered cookie is mine. They’re good any time, but when the baking is going on, the cookies are warm from the oven and the blizzard of sugar falls on them — oh my. What a treat.

Here’s the line-up for this year, the 64th festival: It’s Friday, May 12, and Saturday, May 13, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily and admission is $3 or three cans of food for the Mid-South Food Bank (children 5 and younger are admitted free of charge).

The Athenian Dance Troupe performs Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at noon and 6 p.m.; there’s live music both days from the Kostas Kastanis Band; and there are church tours at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. both days.

There are also kids’ activities, vendors and, of course, food. You can get a meal in the church hall: Choose from chicken, lamb chops, souvlakia or a vegetarian plate, all with spanakopita, rice, Greek-style green beans and bread.

Or you can hang out under the tent and eat there. You’ll find gyros, pastitsio, moussaka, pizzas and loukoumades, which are little doughnuts. And wine.

More than 4,000 pieces of baklava were made for Memphis Greek Festival 2022. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

If you can’t make the fun but still want the food, the drive-thru on the north side of the church is for you. The same menu that’s available in the church hall is available to go.

As for the pastries, of course they’re everywhere. Eat them there, get them to go, buy them pre-packed, buy only your favorites — many options here.

The only thing is that you can’t park at the church. Park at Life Church, 255 N. Highland Ave., or at Poplar Plaza shopping center, around the southeast corner at Poplar Avenue and Highland Street. Free shuttles will run both days 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

Click here to see the prices and get more information about getting your Opa! on this weekend.

Congratulations to Mary Claire White, owner of Sugar Ghost on Broad Avenue. She opened in 2021 and is opening her second location at 9077 Poplar Ave. in Germantown this summer.

Sugar Ghost, on the east end of the Broad Avenue Arts District, opened in October 2021. (Chris Herrington/The Daily Memphian file)

“There are permits in, so we’re waiting on them, but I’m going to say mid-July,” White said of the new location’s launch. 

White opened Sugar Ghost in a food truck, but she’s not a food truck entrepreneur. COVID-19 pandemic delays continued to push back the opening of her brick-and-mortar on Broad Avenue. She was ready to get to business, so she bought a food truck for a temporary home.

“We use it for storage now,” she said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever do anything with it. I think we’re far more likely to open a third and fourth location before we use the truck again, if we ever do.”

She’s definitely planning to expand further, and I like her take on it: “It’s been successful, and it’s been fun. So why not?”

The Germantown store will be exactly the same as the one on Broad.

Coffee cookie butter vegan ice cream was a surprise hit at Sugar Ghost, here in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone. (Chris Herrington/The Daily Memphian file)

“Same interior, same menu, 100% totally the same,” White said.

And then she told me about something that I suppose she just knew I needed to know: The Prozac milkshake. A whole slice of the Muddy’s Prozac (chocolate cake with chocolate icing) is mixed with soft serve to make a milkshake. Will I try this? Oh, yes. Will I regret it? Most likely. But not as much as I would regret not trying it.

Tickets go on sale at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, for our May 19 Friday lunch at Sufi’s Mediterranean Grill and Bar in Germantown, and this will be dee-licious.

Rabiya and Sardar Fhaha Ali Khan were partners in the Germantown Casablanca restaurant. A few months ago, they bought it all because they wanted to both add a bar and to expand the menu with Persian food. The core Casablanca menu is still available, but there are new dishes, too.

This Friday feast will start with a large mezze platter for the table, so look for hummus, baba ghanoush, labneh (love it) and a few other dips and a salad served with fresh pita bread.

Sufi’s mixed grill is served at Sufi’s Mediterranean Grill and Bar in Germantown. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian)

Our entrée is an abundant mixed grill of chicken kabobs, lamb kabobs, chicken koobideh and beef koobideh, served with rice.

And if you don’t know what all that is, no worries. You’ll like it, and we’ll learn about it, too. Baklava is for dessert, and the bar is open if you want to partake.

Tickets are $25 plus tax and tip for The Daily Memphian subscribers and $30 for non-subscribers. Click here to get yours, and remember, they sell quickly.

How about these guys? Ed and Brittany Cabigao started SOB in 2009 and, come July, they’ll have seven restaurants. Hen House is their latest acquisition, and they changed the menu this week. Click here to read about what they’ve been doing, and congratulations to them. 

Belle Meade Social has opened at Poplar Avenue and Perkins Extended in the former Jim’s Place spot. I went in for a bite last week, and the food and atmosphere were both good and fun. I predict success for this restaurant and bar that co-owner Jules Jordan wants to be a neighborhood hangout.

The bar at Belle Meade Social is roomy and offers a nice selection of signature drinks. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian)

It’s a downer, but a fact: Crime in the city is affecting restaurant owners, too. Some pay big bucks for private security for their parking lots; some have seen nighttime business decline; and everyone wants answers and wants to know what to do. Have a look at these two stories from last week, one about a letter the Memphis Restaurant Association sent to elected officials and another about steps specific restaurateurs are taking to keep customers and employees safe.

And everyone loves Mexican food: Read Joshua Carlucci’s $10 Deal from Garibaldi Taqueria, Michael Waddell’s news about a new Mexican restaurant in Bartlett, and a taco guide we put together in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Have a great week, and remember that Sunday is Mother’s Day. You’ll be sorry if you forget! Here’s a link to Holly Whitfield’s brunch guide again, just in case you’re scrambling. You’re welcome.

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