To build a vertical village, you might as well start with food on the ground floor. Folks have to eat, and at Crosstown Concourse, where they also live, go to school, work and play, choices about where to dine continue to expand.

Downtown Dining Week ushers in its 10th year Monday with more than 50 restaurants, about triple the number it started with back in 2008. But all those extra choices will cost you: This year a three-course dinner is $20.18, up 10 cents from $20.08 when it started.

Vintage901 guests will be journeying to Kenton for the organization’s first outing outside of the Memphis-area on Saturday, Nov. 3.

It’s a boy meets boy story that started almost three decades ago and most of you know it by now. Two Italian kids, different schools, different families, but on Sundays, they were the same, gathered around the Sunday table with parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and the all-important grandmother.

Business partners Chad Foreman and Kirk Cotham, the creative minds behind Pyro’s Fire Fresh Pizza, The Levee Coffee and Creamery, and Wolf River Brisket, have had a very busy year.

Rebecca Hartman almost threw her golden ticket away because she didn’t know what it was, then almost gave it away when she found out. But in the end, she kept it and on Thursday afternoon created a chocolate known as The Hartman at Phillip Ashley Chocolates in Cooper-Young.

Visitation for Jack Dyson is Friday, Oct. 12, 4-7 p.m. at Bethel AME Church, 2011 Alcy Road. The funeral will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at Brown Baptist Church, 7200 Swinnea Road in Southaven, and burial is 1:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, at Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park East, 2440 Whitten Road.

Jack Dyson was an iconic figure at Memphis’ most iconic restaurant, a 48-year veteran of the Rendezvous, the waiter to big shots and celebrities who took it all in stride.

Neighboring restaurants McEwen’s and Curry N Jerk on Monroe are both closed after an electrical fire.

Soon a tiny strip mall in East Memphis will offer all the basics: Garibaldi’s Pizza is opening next to Gibson’s Donuts on Mt. Moriah.

After a couple of weeks of serving a limited menu to invited guests, Ronnie Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant opens its big mahogany doors and its full menu to the public Friday, Sept. 28.

David Parks, a popular longtime bartender, has gone to work at Restaurant Iris. He’s joined the team that includes bar manager Larin Culp and Jacob Leonard, bartender at The Second Line.

Cooper-Young is getting a new restaurant and it’s one Memphians have been waiting on so long they might’ve forgotten about it: Elwood’s Shells will open at 916 Cooper in the former Jasmine Thai & Vegetarian Restaurant by the end of the year.

Two new Grisanti restaurants are days away from opening. Ronnie Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant at Regalia is scheduled to open Sept. 28 and David Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant in Collierville is ready—but waiting on the cable company.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years, but Halloween marks the 10th anniversary of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, the restaurant that started the five-restaurant empire for Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman. To celebrate, they’re throwing a big party with some mighty fine culinary company from Memphis and around the country.

LYFE Kitchen at Chisca on Main Street Downtown has closed permanently, and Memphis-based Carlisle Corp. has sold the healthful dining brand to franchisee L3 Hospitality Group in Chicago.

The opening of Porch & Parlor in the former Bar Louie spot in Overton Square has been pushed back a bit, from late 2018 to early 2019.

In 1948, Sam Bomarito was back from the war, settled back in his hometown and had about $3,000 to put in a business. His cousin, Pete Romeo from Chicago, had about the same. They teamed up and opened Pete & Sam’s, but Pete wasn’t long for a sleepy river town.