“This really wasn’t the plan,” owner Amanda Martelli joked. “I always wanted my own sports restaurant, and I never thought that (my husband) would do this for me. But here we are.”

This year’s Grand Champion is the first rib team to win Memphis in May’s World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in more than 20 years.

For more than a year now, the Kinfolk pop-up at Downtown’s Comeback Coffee, with its big cathead biscuits, has been a popular option in a city hungry for weekend breakfast and brunch options. But that’s about to change. 

Phillip Ashley Rix has a deal with an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers for his first cookbook, and he wants it to be the “quintessential book on chocolate.”

Despite the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest’s smaller scale, Tom Lee Park was active Tuesday afternoon with contestants building booths and hauling in grills and smokers.

Related story:

MIM Guide: Barbecue fest brings smoke back to the water

Could it be that middle-of-the-country cousins — Cincinnati chili and Memphis barbecue spaghetti — are, respectively, the most overrated and most underrated dishes of American regional cuisine?

Sometimes you want a pulled pork sandwich, sometimes you don’t. Here are some of the best non-barbecue dishes at the area’s barbecue restaurants.

The youngest son of “Big John” Grisanti just purchased the building at 148 North Main St., which was most recently home to P.O. Press Public House & Provisions. 

Ed and Brittany Cabigao started with SOB on South Main Street in 2009; by July, they will own seven restaurants. 

At Belle Meade Social’s soft opening last week, they were serving six appetizers, six salads, three sandwiches, seven entrees, three pizzas and 10 sides from their menu. And at least one of those dishes was described as “beautiful.” 

Siblings who grew up in the restaurant industry open Los Jimadores along the Stage Road corridor in Bartlett.

The area’s restaurant association wrote an open letter Wednesday to the city and county mayors about crime in a “cry for help,” according to the group’s president. 

More big things are happening for Tamra Patterson, from a new Food Network appearance to a new restaurant in, of all places, Rhode Island.

Memphis restaurateurs Jennifer and Karl Carpenter are bringing their popular Middle Tennessee concept to the Bluff City after a successful 12-year run in Nashville.

Three more restaurants are moving into Silo Square in DeSoto County, including one that also will host music events.

The wine festival will have plenty of food, drink (of course) and experiences because, as one of the organizers says, “a class just doesn’t sound as fun as what we do.”

Chef Eli Townsend, formerly of Sage restaurant, is back Downtown, this time running Dos Hermanos Kitchen in the Cossitt Library. And getting there has been an adventure.

What began as a side hustle for Andrew Banker has transformed into a way to help people in extreme poverty — while offering a quality cup of coffee. 

The dinners, which are being held quarterly, bring chefs to Memphis to provide their own answer to the question: What does this season, right here, taste like? 

Much of the previous Bluefin menu will transfer over to Momoya. But there will also be a number of other kinds of dishes now offered at Momoya, as well. 

It’s going to be a big year for Buster’s: In addition to the new butcher shop, the Hammonds are opening a second, larger liquor store at Ridgeway Trace in November.

World Central Kitchen and local volunteers are delivering meals to folks in need in Covington and Wynne, Arkansas.

We’ll have one more breakfast/brunch option next month when the second location of The Liquor Store opens at Williamsburg Village.

Tommy’s Burgers has opened in the old CK’s at Park Avenue and Mt. Moriah Road with an extensive, diner-like menu with a Mexican twist. 

The Lopez Grill project is part of what officials hope will be a revitalization of the historic downtown Bartlett Station area.