For the first time at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, pitmasters this year will cook on an open-flame in a live-fire competition. 

Ghost River Brewery & Taproom opened on Beale Street in 2021. The company will focus on its newly-expanded South Main location.

It’s all openings this week with TacoNGanas, Bloom Bakery & Cafe, Playa Bowls and Brain Food Memphis.

The upcoming expansion marks a major milestone for a business that, according to the company’s website, began quite literally with a sack of oysters and the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A New Uptown bar will open in an existing event space.

Baker’s son Austin Baker said his father told him, “we are all stewards. Everything we own, someone’s owned before us, and someone will own it when we’re gone. It’s up to us to pay it forward while we’re here.” 

The location in Southaven will remain open, they said.

Ice cream and more on its American Way, Rotolo’s Lakeland grand opening and Roll With It in Whitehaven.

The Silly Goose Lounge’s co-owner won’t be giving away the secret recipes and days-long methods to their pizzas or cocktails, but he promises, “There’s a lot of work behind when you order a drink.”

Several new businesses and rebrands are emerging along the Stage Road corridor west of Bartlett City Hall, bringing a mix of restaurants and entertainment to the area.

Strawberry-picking season started at the third-generation family farm Jones Orchard last week, attracting families and chefs alike.

Aw, shucks. Wintzell’s Oyster House is opening its first Memphis location at a former Hooters site.

If there’s one thing happening this weekend, it’s food. You can go to two different food festivals on both Saturday and Sunday. 

Not only is the famed barbecue restaurant reopening Friday, April 17, but Big Bill himself is now managing the day-to-day kitchen operations.

Stix Express Downtown will close Friday, April 24. Meanwhile, two coffee locations have made progress toward opening. 

On Leap Day 2008, Kat Gordon opened a small cupcake shop in East Memphis’ Sanderlin Centre. Over the past 18 years, she has grown and restructured her beloved bakery in some unexpected ways.

Memphis native Teddy Jasper Sr. and his son plan to re-open the space this summer.

With the nearby courthouse and law offices circling the DeSoto County square in Hernando, The Docket seemed like a valid name for a new restaurant, even though the owners have a medical background.

Big Bad Breakfast is taking over a former restaurant space.

An indoor farmers market is becoming a small farm-to-fork restaurant. 

Smackers has leaned into a celebrity-endorsement strategy that includes Rick Ross, NeNe Leakes and Megan Thee Stallion — but that only works if the food delivers.

Dutch Bros Coffee is joining several other coffee outlets along U.S. 64 in Lakeland, while the business is also spreading into Bartlett. 

More gyros are coming to Collierville, and a second Memphis Raising Cane’s is planning its grand opening party. 

At the international expo for coffee purveyors, Memphis’ Cxffeeblack plans to pose a question: What would happen to the coffee industry if farmers were paid each time their beans were sold?

With Cajun delicacies from crawfish to shrimp, the second-annual Bayou Bash is slated for Saturday in Bartlett with hopes for better weather than the rainy first year.