Remember Miles McMath, who was the executive chef at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital? For the past few years he’s been back in his DeSoto County stomping grounds and has owned and operated Junior’s, a home-cooking restaurant in Hernando.

Now he’s opened a seafood restaurant there that’s been in the works a year or so. The Parish, 427 E. Commerce St., serves fresh Gulf seafood – oysters, shrimp, big fried platters and so on – and takes McMath back to his early days at Timbeaux and the Boiling Point. The restaurant is open 3-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and it’s by wait list only; no reservations and no takeout for the present.

Don’t confuse it with Parish Grocery, which is Jeff Johnson’s restaurant in Memphis that’s presently on Overton Park but getting ready to move to Cooper-Young right away.

“We have our use and occupancy already,” Johnson said. “Our last day will be Saturday on Overton Park and we’ll start moving over on Sunday. I would say we’ll be open the first or second week of April. We’ll probably open up without our beer permit or liquor license because those things take time, but that’s OK.”

The space at 916 Cooper was the longtime home to Jasmine restaurant and then to Elwood’s Shells for a short time. When Elwood’s was there, owner Tim Bednarski erected a large patio out front and that held great appeal to Johnson, who also owns Local Downtown and Local on the Square.

“I’ve been looking for a place with a patio and the room out back will give us room to do some crawfish boils,” he said. “It’ll be casual, laidback, just a po’boy shop that’s fun, nothing fancy.”

Hog & Hominy (look for a summer reopening there) wasn’t the only restaurant closed by a fire last year. One & Only BBQ on Perkins Ext. closed last March after a malfunction in an electric smoker, and it reopened last week.

Alan Katzen and partner Joel Banes opened the first One & Only BBQ on Kirby Parkway in 2011, then opened the location at 567 Perkins Ext. in 2013. Since then they’ve opened locations on Germantown Parkway and in Southaven. Along with all the barbecue standards, One & Only also offers banana pudding made by Katzen’s wife that is a best seller. Take heart: It also has returned.

City Tasting Box, Uncle Murle’s BBQ, Blind Bear, the Hi-Tone, Pop’s Kernel Gourmet Popcorn, Sekisui. These are some local food-based businesses that could possibly add a much-needed $50,000 to their coffers from the 2021 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest.

Voting is almost over, but every vote counts so make your choice by clicking here to vote for one of those, or to take a look to see if your favorite small business is among those that applied. You can vote through March 24, so hop to it.