A small upside to the tragedy and travails of the past year is that for a few more weeks, you can eat food as simple as a cheeseburger in the lap of luxury.

Restaurateurs face a hiring crisis, yet restaurants continue to open and reopen around town. Also, Downtown gets a grocery store, everyone loves cheese dip, and Rajun Cajun returns this weekend.

Bryant’s Breakfast is back, the biscuits are hot, the bacon is crisp and the lines are long. It’s like it never closed.

Last year, Aaron Branch managed a valet service. The pandemic inspired his switch to a food cart, serving smash burgers, hot dogs and smoked sausage, sometimes on Beale and sometimes from a Mapco within sight of FedExForum.

The Kraft Heinz Co. is partnering with The LEE Initiative and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice on the grant program.

A new cheese dip has launched in this cheese-dip-lovin’ city. Andrew Arbogast has taken his dad’s recipe and brought us Arbo’s.

Cash Saver and High Point Grocery owner Rick James is opening a small independent grocery in South Main.

With enhanced unemployment benefits and better-paying distribution jobs, restaurateurs don’t know when they’ll be fully staffed. Worse, they’re still uncertain when they’ll be back to 100% capacity.

Later this year, the new amphitheater will host concerts, weddings, birthday celebrations, family reunions, church functions and other events.

We’re opening up, literally. New restaurants are opening this week, old places — including Bryant’s — are reopening, and we have new locations, moves, and ticketed events coming.

A plate lunch with plenty of protein and vegetable options is available for $10 at Broadway Pizza for weekday lunch.

A recap of the week that was, plus a little talk about what’s safe to eat and where you draw the line, particularly when it comes to leftover Easter eggs.

Curries can be a simple and tasty weeknight dinner, but you need to know a shortcut or two first.

Joes’ Fried Chicken, Joes on Highland — whatever you wanted to call it — is closed for now but will open again as soon as the owners find a new place.

Before the pandemic, the Memphis Farmers Market brought out as many as 2,000 visitors on a Saturday in peak season. This year, 61 vendors have signed up to sell goods in the pavilion.

Andalusia opens, adding Moroccan cuisine to the line-up of good food available on Sanderlin in East Memphis.

Dining at Ecco, a secret about Slim Chickens, Memphis in May Barbecue is back, and The Majestic Grille is opening this week.

Deni and Patrick Reilly, the husband and wife team that own The Majestic Grille, are back on Friday and they have the restaurant shined and ready to welcome guests.

For $4, you can get a torta that’s roughly the size of a regular barbecue sandwich at a small taqueria on the edge of Bartlett.

The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is back after sitting out 2020. 

Slim Chickens opens Monday in Collierville. This is the second franchise in the Memphis area, and Davis, Hull & Rowden have plans for more.

Though Ecco sits off the beaten path, it’s a treasure tucked away in Evergreen. The food is good as ever and there’s plenty of outdoor seating with more coming.

For its fifth birthday, MemPops offers a $2 birthday special in its three brick-and-mortar locations this weekend.

Bari will leave its home of 19 years in May and move to a former yoga studio on Cooper, where it will have room to expand outdoor seating and parking.