On Saturday I joined 100-plus folks in a banquet room at a Holiday Inn, where we spent the day learning how to be a certified Memphis in May barbecue judge.

Downtown Dining Week ushers in its 10th year Monday with more than 50 restaurants, about triple the number it started with back in 2008. But all those extra choices will cost you: This year a three-course dinner is $20.18, up 10 cents from $20.08 when it started.

This is a big week for some Memphis cooks as they head south for the 7th Annual World Food Championships in Orange Beach, Alabama. Several will make the trip, included two first-place winners from last year.

Sakura has been serving big fat sushi rolls for about 30 years, and we all love 'em. From the crunchies on top of Pickwick to the Big Mac extravagance of the Joyce roll, we can’t stay away. I’m there about once a week and I know that many of you are too, because we say hello.

Belle Tavern owner/bartender Chris Ferri has a nice list of cocktails at the ready, but when I walked in last week and saw cherries marinating, bottles of syrups on one counter, a nice collection of bitters on another and a wall full of spirits, I was moved to request an on-the-spot cocktail.

Vintage901 guests will be journeying to Kenton for the organization’s first outing outside of the Memphis-area on Saturday, Nov. 3.

It’s a boy meets boy story that started almost three decades ago and most of you know it by now. Two Italian kids, different schools, different families, but on Sundays, they were the same, gathered around the Sunday table with parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and the all-important grandmother.

Open Flame Bar and Grill opened last month in the former Rock ‘n Dough at Poplar and Highland, but don’t get too excited about the first part just yet. The bar is still there but so far the only alcohol sold is beer.

Global Cafe is one of the newest restaurants in Crosstown Concourse and it's different from any other place in Memphis.

Memphis Made Brewing is one of six breweries in Memphis and so happens to be the one in Cooper-Young, just across the street from where the ninth Cooper-Young Beerfest will be held Oct. 20.

Today’s consumers have higher expectations. They not only want a great product, but they are willing to buy from or boycott companies based on corporate values.

The Memphis episode of Food Network’s “Big Food Truck Tip” aired Wednesday night and viewers found out which of the three featured food trucks received a $10,000 surprise in the tip jar.