Miles Tamboli opened a restaurant just four months before COVID closed his dining room. With a degree in public health, he knows enough to know he’s not reopening it just yet.

New outdoor seating off South Main beside Puck Food Hall will be for dining, working or just gathering to enjoy a little distanced socializing and music.

Global Café opened in 2018 to give immigrant food entrepreneurs a place to cook. Two of us split empanadas and Juan’s tacos, and it was more than we could finish.

A Summer Avenue taco truck scene has bloomed through the summer, with at least eight regular trucks around the wider neighborhood and several others that seem to pop up more infrequently. If you live near Summer or Macon avenues between Highland and White Station, there’s a good chance you can walk to a taco truck. 

“It’s likely that all restaurants will be held to the same requirements as it relates to safety measures and how you operate,” said Dr. Bruce Randolph, Shelby County Health Department health officer.

Hazel’s Lucky Dice Delicatessen, Karen Carrier’s restaurant named after her mother, opened Monday in her Cooper-Young corral. 

Southall Café is open and serving breakfast and lunch in the heart of East Memphis; the chicken sandwich is top-notch.

County health department officials visited 13 sites that have received complaints for failing to follow distancing or masking or other rules; five were closed after failing to heed warnings. 

A few limited-service restaurants have reopened under a new TABC rule, but most remain closed two months after they were shut down by the Health Department.

East Memphis will get two new restaurants this week as SOBEast and Southall Café both open on Tuesday; Curfew will delay its opening until next week.

Chef Kelly English continues to serve Catalan cuisine at Restaurant Iris for the month of September, but other Iris items are on the combined menu at The Second Line.

Molly’s La Casita has been around for almost half a century, but COVID has hit it just as hard as newer restaurants. On the bright side, "it could be worse."

Basma and Tony Lucchesi will take over the space occupied by Raffe’s Deli, which was opened and owned by her parents for many years.

He previously opened a Chick-fil-A franchise in Jackson, Tennessee.

Longtime restaurant loses its lease and must vacate its center-city location this month.

Jim Neely is 83, the last of his generation of local barbecue legends. He never really intended to be in the restaurant business, but he succeeds in whatever he does.

901 Day will still go on Tuesday, but there won’t be a large public event. Some local restaurants are celebrating with $9.01 menu items; on Thursday, your choice is Irish and Scotch whiskey or Spanish food and wine.

Before moving to its larger Broad Avenue location in January 2019, Lucky Cat was previously located on Cooper Street.

Ed and Brittany Cabigao permanently closed two restaurants because of COVID, but they’re expanding SOB with SOBEast, coming to the former Interim space in a few weeks.

FedEx chief Frederick W. Smith and Indigo Ag CEO and director David Perry will discuss Memphis and innovation during the Food Is Health Forum presented by Crusonia on the Delta.

Yeah, you read that right. You can eat a meal for $10 at Las Tortugas, and if you’re sharing, you can even have guacamole.

Walhburgers will be in Memphis after all: Wahlburgers Wild, a new concept, is coming to Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.

Veteran restaurateur Karen Carrier has a new place opening in a couple of weeks. She’s going to her roots, opening a Jewish deli and naming it after her mother.

Three upcoming television shows feature Memphians, two this week and a Netflix series with Melissa Cookston coming up in September; Feed the Front Lines continues; and we even have upcoming events.