Table Talk: Downtown Dining Week returns with a twist
Good Fortune Co. will participate in Downtown Dining Week this year. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
Mary Cashiola
Mary Cashiola has been a Memphis journalist for nearly two decades, beginning her career covering city government and local neighborhoods at the Memphis Flyer before being hired by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton’s administration.
Before joining The Daily Memphian, she was the managing editor of the Memphis Business Journal, which was named one of the top 10 Best Designed Newspapers in the world by the Society of News Design while she was there.
She also has a background in advertising, with a focus on higher education and the hospitality industry.
Welcome to Table Talk, where The Daily Memphian writers and editors send the latest food news — along with a dash of this and that — directly to your inbox every Wednesday.
During past Downtown Dining Weeks, the cost of a meal has remained roughly the same: $20.08 during 2008, $20.09 for 2009, $20.10 for 2010, and so on and so on until 2020.
That year, participating restaurants in the Downtown Memphis Commission-sponsored event were given free rein to do their own thing, but by the time the pandemic was over, Downtown Dining Week’s pricing formula was back.
This year, the week, which runs Monday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 10, is going to be a little different, even without a global pandemic. Instead of doing a fixed-price menu, each of the 50 or so participating restaurants will feature a spotlight dish, meal or drink.
“Some of the restaurants wanted to mix it up, and we wanted to give them an opportunity to do that,” said Chandell Ryan, Downtown Memphis Commission president and CEO, of the change.
It’s the first year that South Main’s Good Fortune Co. is participating, and the restructuring is a key reason why. Good Fortune co-owner Arturo Leighton said the pricing in the past made it difficult for them to do something that made sense for their brand.
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