After opening during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, East Memphis’ Magnolia & May has brought back lunch. 

On the first day of Summer, we begin our food tour of Summer Avenue — “one long, rolling unofficial international market” — with the roughly 2-mile section on the west end where you’ll find several of the street’s best-kept secrets.

Cynthia Daniels brings the Memphis Vegan Festival to the Pipkin Building on Saturday and the Juneteenth Shop Black Festival to the same place on Sunday. 

As a preview for Saturday’s Le Bon Appetit fundraiser for Le Bonheur, an all-star group of chefs participated in a “Chopped”-themed cooking competition.

Antigua Mexican Bar & Grill has opened in the former East Memphis location of Pancho’s, and everything is different, from the menu to the interior.

After a series of virtual events in 2020, Le Bon Appetit brings local chefs and out-of-town chefs back, in-person, for a walk-around tasting. 

Craft beer and hot wings make beautiful music — and up to 240 different flavor combinations — together on Beale Street. 

Bain Barbecue & Bakery fully lives up to its name later this week, as a converted propane tank smoker named Peggy is on-site and turning out Texas brisket plus more.

Elwood’s owner Tim Bednarski fulfills a reader request with the jerk shrimp recipe he says is the one they made back when he was at Bahama Breeze.

For example, there are grit cakes, filled with your choice of shrimp, salmon croquettes, chicken, pork or vegetables.

The Memphis Mushroom Festival concluded Sunday and included observational forays, workshops covering sustainable agriculture and tips on how to use psychedelics as medicine. 

Deni and Patrick Reilly will open Cocozza in Harbor Town this fall, and June 5 is your last chance to grab weekend brunch at The Majestic Grille.

Rotolo’s Craft & Crust in East Memphis offers Chicago deep-dish pizza. And it’s good. 

“We only serve spicy,” said Flame MaLaTang manager William Weng of the new pop-up in the Viet Hoa Food Market at 40 N. Cleveland St.

Some favorites missing from last fall’s smaller festival — gyros, lamb chops — are back, alongside 28,000 cookies, music, dancing and more. 

“The best bartender in Memphis” is now slinging drinks Downtown. 

After receiving a $15,000 grant from EDGE, Kaye’s Pints & Scoops has opened at 2089 Winchester Road in Whitehaven, where the owners craft ice creams made with locally sourced ingredients.

The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest concludes at Liberty Park as winners are announced, and hope sizzles for a return to Tom Lee Park in 2023.

A graduate of Penn State’s Ice Cream Short Course and a former student of a “gelato master” at a French pastry school in Chicago, Hugh Balthrop takes great pride in the art of gelato-making.

A new world champion of barbecue is waiting in the wings. And, more accurately, also in the hogs, the sauce and the “anything but.” It all starts today at 5 p.m. 

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Nick Barbian had a choice: Move back to Austin or make his mark in Memphis.

A former dancer and muffin maker is now delivering bagels, from plain to poppy seed, to the eastern part of Shelby County.

“We’re not out to get the little guy. We all used to be the little guy,” said John Currence, owner of Big Bad Breakfast, the restaurant he announced last month would open in Mulan’s space. 

Idahoan mashed potatoes are back in Memphis, but don’t expect them in your mailbox this time around. 

“I only live about a mile from here,” said one opening day customer. “I could walk. In fact, I probably should walk.”