Author: Simone Wilson

What do Luciano Pavarotti, balsamic vinegar, and Ferrari sports cars have in common? They all originated in Modena, a city in northern Italy located between Milan and Bologna. Modena is also the home of Michele Doto. He came to the United States 14 years ago because he got married to “a beautiful American woman.” He came to the Memphis area more recently as a victim of Hurricane Katrina. Three months ago, he opened Pasta Italia Authentic Italian Cuisine and Gourmet Market in Collierville.

Although Doto is new to the area, he isn’t new to the restaurant business. He’s worked in restaurants in France, Spain, Switzerland, and England. Miami was his first home in the U.S., but when he and his wife felt that it was time to start a family, they moved closer to her relatives in Biloxi. After first working in area restaurants, Doto was hired by a New Orleans-based food company to develop their Italian-food line, which segued into Doto opening his own business.

“It just seemed natural,” Doto says. “I was responsible for importing all the Italian gourmet foods, and I knew where to get them, so when I had the chance to open a gourmet grocery in Biloxi five years ago, I didn’t hesitate.”

At his restaurant in Collierville, Doto uses those same authentic Italian ingredients to prepare the foods of his home country: rosette pasta, lemon- and olive oil-marinated seafood salad, antipasto misto with marinated and roasted vegetables, prosciutto di Parma, sopressata, and other delicacies. With only 11 tables, the restaurant is just the right size to become a favorite neighborhood spot.

The “Gourmet Market” part of Doto’s business isn’t really a market per se but more a service to those customers who’d like to take a taste of Italy home.

Pasta Italia is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Tuesdays through Saturdays 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Pasta Italia, 101 N. Center Street,

Collierville (861-0255)

Memphis Pizza Cafe is moving across the state line with a new location opening in Southaven next month. Mississippi fans of this Memphis institution don’t have to fear any changes, though. Memphis Pizza Cafe in Southaven will serve the same great pies as its Tennessee counterparts. Cafe, Cajun Chicken,Vegetable Supreme, Ultimate Cheese, and BBQ Chicken are just a few of the Pizza Cafe standards that come by the slice or in the round.

Another Memphis Pizza Cafe is scheduled to open in Collierville in September.

Memphis Pizza Cafe, 5627 Getwell, Southaven (662-536-1364)

Joining the Memphis Pizza Cafe in Southaven is Crescent City. The popular franchise serves good ol’ New Orleans fare: po’ boys in at least a dozen variations, muffulettas, gumbo, crawfish étouffée, red beans and rice, jambalaya, and the like. (And don’t forget the fabulous beignets.)

The Southaven restaurant, scheduled to open this month, is the third location in the Memphis area and will be followed by a fourth location on Germantown Parkway, also this month. But it doesn’t stop there. In the works is yet another Crescent City, on Beale Street, scheduled for the fall.

Crescent City, 6585 Town Center

Crossing, Southaven (662-536-4013)

2362 N. Germantown Parkway

(213-9077)

Frank Grisanti Restaurant was declared smoke-free last week.

Owner Frank Grisanti, along with his son Larkin, the general manager of the restaurant, have committed to providing a healthy environment for their employees and customers.

Frank Grisanti Restaurant, 1022 S. Shady Grove (761-2245)

If your little Sally bypasses SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon for the Food Network’s Rachael Ray, she should feel right at home at the Young Chefs Academy, a cooking school in Cordova for kids ages 5 to 14.

Young Chefs Academy is a Texas-based franchise founded in 2003 by Julie Burleson and Suzy Vinson, two moms who “love cooking, love children, and love a good time in the kitchen.” There are now about 100 schools nationwide, including three in Tennessee.

The Cordova academy opened four months ago and is owned by Bill Canterbury, who used to work as a professional baker for Pillsbury.

“Today, children really don’t learn any of the basic housekeeping skills because the schools don’t offer home-economics classes anymore,” Canterbury says. “We’re just providing an outlet for kids who like to cook, and it’s great to see how much they enjoy it.”

During the academy’s classes, instructors bewitch the children, showing them how to prepare tiramisu, seven-layer dip, potato salad, and homemade pasta. A favorite among the kids is chocolate mousse. “It tastes like chocolate ice cream,” raves first-grader Shelby Dorris.

Shelby has been going to the Young Chefs Academy once a week, and her mom, Shannon, is surprised at how much she’s learned in a short time. “Vanilla used to be the name of her favorite ice cream, but now she knows that it is an ingredient used for flavoring, and she even points out the bottle on the shelf,” Shannon says.

Andrea Barrach, whose 6-year-old daughter Emily is a regular, tells a similar story. “It’s just amazing all the things she’s learned here, and it’s not just preparing a dish,” Barrach says. “The other day, they made pasta from scratch and that definitely left an impression on Emily. She thought pasta came out of a bag or a box. When she actually made pasta herself, she told everybody about it.”

The academy has two fully equipped kitchens so the children can be divided into age-appropriate groups of no more than 15 chefs-to-be. Every class is 90 minutes, and the kids usually prepare two recipes with the help of a head cook and an assistant. They also learn about kitchen hygiene and safety. (The older kids use safety knives, and the younger ones use scissors.) In addition, most children have a folder for their recipes, and each recipe page has a space on the back to rate the recipe and make notes about what was good, what was not so good, and what they would change, if they want to make the dish again at home.

Before cooking can begin, the kids and the chefs read the recipe together to make sure they have all the ingredients and understand the directions. For instance, the tiramisu recipe calls for ladyfingers, so a quick survey is done: Does everybody know what ladyfingers are? No? The chefs then take the time to explain the ingredients and preparation. Another example: Most of the kids know the cocoa powder they use to make chocolate milk, but the cocoa powder they’ll sprinkle on top of the tiramisu is different. It’s unprocessed Dutch cocoa powder and it’s bitter, not sweet. During class, the children have a chance to see, smell, taste, touch, explore, and ask questions about food and experience what they can cook with a bunch of different ingredients.

“When the kids read the recipe and see the ingredients they sometimes turn up their noses because the recipe might call for things they don’t like — onions, for example,” Canterbury says. “But at the end, when they get to try the finished dish, the onion might have disappeared in, let’s say, a pasta sauce. So then they’re amazed that something that has onion in it can taste so good or they forgot all about the onion.”

The academy’s team, as well as the parents, encourage the children to take at least one bite of everything they’ve cooked.

“That’s our rule,” says Shannon Dorris. “Shelby has to take one bite. If she doesn’t like it, that’s fine, she can wash it down with some lemonade. But sometimes she might find that it’s not that bad after all.”

Barrach agrees. “Emily is definitely more open to try new things, here and at home.”

If you happen to be in Germantown during your lunch break, check out Chateau Country Caterers. Scott Pierce, who was lured to Memphis by his fiancée Dianne Levy, opened this take-out and catering spot four weeks ago.

The menu changes daily and features heart-healthy fusion cuisine such as chilled avocado soup with fruit salsa, roasted squash, spinach and mushroom pizza, and spinach salad with hard-boiled egg, bacon, and shallot vinaigrette.

Pierce started cooking health-conscious dishes during his tenure as a private chef for the DuPont family in Delaware. And while he loves this type of cuisine, he’s also got a soft spot for breads, pastries, and desserts — especially chocolate. Before entering the Culinary Institute of America in 1980, Pierce worked at Krechmar’s Bakery in Pennsylvania, a from-scratch bake shop, and was a pastry chef for Reader’s Digest in the early 1990s.

Chateau Country Caterers is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to6 p.m. and Saturday by appointment.

Chateau Country Caterers, 2075 Exeter (737-8182)

Chris Wicher, former sommelier and general manager of Equestria Restaurant & Lounge, is bringing the Boston-based premium ice-cream parlor Emack & Bolio‘s to town.

It sounds like a perfect fit for Memphis. Not only does Emack & Bolio’s offer 90-plus ice-cream flavors (Cookie Monster, Cosmic Crunch, Chocolate Moose, Trippin’ on Espresso, among them), home-made hot fudge, micro-brewed sodas, fresh-squeezed juices, and smoothies, it also has a cool rock-and-roll pedigree.

Emack & Bolio’s came about 30 something years ago as a byproduct of the Boston blue laws. Back then, nightclubs were required to close at midnight, which unfortunately brought all the fun and good music to a halt. Some hippie lawyers, who worked for the homeless as well as rock-and-rollers, came up with a solution. They rented a basement, bought a commercial ice-cream maker, and invited their friends over to play post-midnight sets. The improvised ice-cream parlor was a hit with the rockers and was subsequently named after two of the lawyers’ homeless clients — Emack and Bolio.

The first Emack and Bolio’s in the Memphis/Mid-South area is scheduled to open by the end of this month and will be open seven days a week.

Emack & Bolio’s, 1105 N. Houston Levee

If you want to hone your cooking skills during the summer, you can choose from several classes that will turn you into a creative home chef in no time.

Williams-Sonoma in Germantown offers recipes and techniques for a summer meal featuring peak-of-the-season produce. Learn to make dishes such as heirloom-tomato salad, lemon garlic herbed chicken, and plum-almond tart. There’s also a class on grilling, with dishes from around the globe such as Moorish pork kabobs and creamy polenta and grilled vegetables. The “Cool Desserts” class covers refreshing frozen desserts for the whole family: brown-sugar peaches with ice cream, chocolate-cherry ice-cream sandwiches, and the like. All classes are three hours and cost between $30 and $40. Call the store for dates and times and to register.

Williams-Sonoma, 7615 West Farmington (737-9990)

More classes at Mantia’s: Owner Alyce Mantia will lead “Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain” (July 20th), “Sunny Southern France” (August 10th), and “Tuscan Weekday Gourmet” (August 16th). The “Mediterranean Cocktail” (August 23rd) class will be taught by Meditrina executive chef Demitri Phillips, who will show you how to make a variety of appetizers for a pan-Mediterranean buffet that will impress your friends and be gentle on your pocket-book.

All classes are $35 per person and begin at 6 p.m. Call 762-8560 to register and for more information.

Mantia’s, 4856 Poplar (762-8560)

Where were you 27 years ago? Not yet born, about to graduate from college, about to get married, have your first child, first house, first meal at Benihana? Yes, it’s been 27 years since Benihana opened its doors in East Memphis, and, since then, generations of Memphians have eaten at this popular restaurant.

But now it’s time for a change. Last week, the restaurant chain unveiled “The Next Benihana.” While the restaurant’s pagoda-like exterior remains the same, the inside of Benihana has undergone an extreme makeover.

The first impression of the new interior is that Benihana has gone Starbucks, which is really no surprise since the design firm WD Partners was consulted. WD’s clients include Abercrombie & Fitch, PF Chang’s China Bistro, Marble Slab, and, of course, Starbucks.

Blond wood, bamboo green, stained glass, and stainless steel are dominant, which gives individual cooking/dining stations an almost outdoorsy feel. The former waiting area and karaoke stage have been transformed into a modern bar and lounge with slate floors, wood, and stainless-steel accents. The sushi bar is in the lounge, and there’s now an expanded sushi menu with express lunch and early-bird dinner specials.

Another change: no more karaoke. The food, the hibachi, the knife-juggling, and the shrimp-tossing are as you remember them.

Benihana is open daily for lunch and dinner.

Benihana, 912 Ridge Lake (683-7390)

For a rare treat, pay a visit to Wally Joe restaurant this weekend.

Wally Joe has gotten its hands on Yukon River King salmon, some of the finest and fattiest salmon in the world.

Yukon River salmon has been absent in the U.S. market for pretty much the past 30 years, when all of the harvest went to the Japanese market. Three years ago, however, the Yukon River King became available in the United States. Of the five species of Pacific salmon, Kings are the largest, with some weighing as much as 100 pounds and with fat reserves that can reach up to 34 percent, making it the richest-tasting salmon available. The season for this salmon is barely two weeks long, and this year it ends on July 10th.

Wally Joe prepares the King Salmon tartare with apple-wood smoked bacon, crispy potatoes, and cucumber tomato sauce or simply grilled with lemon and olive oil and served with Yukon Gold potatoes, asparagus, and truffle corn jus.

Wally Joe, 5040 Sanderlin (818-0821)

The Avenue Carriage Crossing goes to the Rocky Mountains with the newest addition to the shopping center’s dining choices: Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill.

This is the second Memphis-area Firebirds Grill for the Colorado-based franchise. Firebirds has set out to offer diners the flavors of the American West, where the “wood fire of the cattle ranch meets the bold flavor of the Desert Southwest.”

That translates into wood-grilled salmon, Aspen sirloin (a center-cut, aged Black Angus sirloin lightly seasoned and fired over a wood-burning grill), a slow-cooked rotisserie pork loin that’s been marinated for 48 hours with honey, sage, rosemary, and juniper berries, and surf-and-turf combinations including filet, sirloin, baby-back ribs, lobster, shrimp, and salmon.

The look is reminiscent of a Colorado ski lodge — an open-air kitchen, exposed wood beams, and a stone fireplace in the bar and on the patio.

Firebirds is open Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Happy-hour bar bites and drink specials are available Monday through Friday from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the bar and on the patio.

Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill, 4600 Merchants Circle, Suite 101 (850-1603)

Try to keep up: Scott Lenhart has left his position as chef de cuisine at Dish. In his place, you’ll find Scott McQueen, who has worked at Karen Blockman Carrier’s Automatic Slim’s for the past five years. Dish’s front-of-the-house team, Chris Garcia and Audra Evans, will slowly take over the general managing duties from David Nestler, who, in turn, will take charge of Jimmy Ishii‘s latest venue EP – Delta Kitchen and Bar at the site of the former Elvis Presley’s Memphis restaurant at 126 Beale.

Closed since 2003, Elvis Presley’s Memphis, which was operated by Elvis Presley Enterprises, was a popular gathering spot for tourists and Elvis fans. The menu offered Elvis favorites such as the classic peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich and a “Love Me Tender” chicken dish. The décor was a chic update of the eclectic-eccentric mix at Graceland.

But for the new EP, that update is getting a total makeover. The über-dimensional chandelier in the main room is probably going. The billiards room on the mezzanine level? No more. Nestler envisions the now-empty and very-’70s space as a semi-private lounge. On the mezzanine: a very private dining room for Lisa Marie, Priscilla, and their guests. The wine cellar will stay and serve as another private dining area. The upstairs patio will be revived for outdoor dining.

Overall, the restaurant will have a more uniform look with brighter, lighter colors and more daylight — no more plantation shutters that keep people from seeing in and out.

“Even during the years when the restaurant was open, it always looked like it was boarded up,” says Joe Hemingway, Ishii’s publicist. “We want people to be able to see what’s going on inside.”

And the eats? The menu will feature Southern comfort food with a twist.

“If you ask me to describe the food, think Stella, Felicia Suzanne’s, or McEwen’s, but with a different price point,” Nestler says. “We’ll definitely be a casual dining place, but we’re also trying to get away from being just a tourist attraction.”

Nestler wants EP to be a regular destination for Memphians too. Musically, EP is in the hands of David Porter, who helped write some of the biggest hits at Stax. His first task is to build a house band with a repertoire that reaches beyond blues.

But there is more to the building than the 200-seat restaurant, and it will be developed slowly: an Elvis Presley merchandise boutique, two art galleries, and a recording studio in space that has previously been unused.

EP is set to open before the year’s end.

Dawgie Style is a new hot-dog restaurant downtown that will have you wagging your tail, says owner Calvin Reid.

If the wordplay above has you cringing, you better believe that that’s just the beginning. Reid had orginally planned to name his new venture Dawgs Wit Style, but changed his mind after recognizing the marketing potential of Dawgie Style. (Seriously, who wouldn’t want a T-shirt that reads, “I tried it Dawgie Style”?)

Reid came to Memphis by way of Michigan, having picked up his interest in the restaurant industry from his dad, who is a chef. He has a lot of plans for Dawgie Style, which is scheduled to open next month. He will be serving up gourmet hot-dogs on freshly baked buns, deli sandwiches, and a variety of other dishes, such as his signature chicken quesadilla. He won’t have any fried foods on the menu, and breakfast will be served each day at 7 a.m. He has also designed a mascot named “Mr. Dawgie Style” and applied for a beer license.

“This isn’t going to be your typical hot-dog place,” says Reid. “I like to think of it as a cozy neighborhood hangout.”

Dawgie Style, 150 Madison (527-7700)

Thomas Blanche, of Tupelo, Mississippi, opened his first coffee shop, Uptown Coffee, in Oxford in the summer of 2002. He followed that with High Point Coffee at the corner of Poplar and Perkins in Memphis, a coffee-roasting and distribution center in Tupelo, and another High Point Coffee that opened a few weeks ago at the corner of Union and Belvedere. He doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.

“Location is crucial, and good locations aren’t easy to find. But our goal for the near future is to open at least two more coffee shops in Memphis and north Mississippi,” says Blanche.

Asked about the competition, especially Starbucks, Blanche offers this view: “Starbucks made the coffee industry what it is today. Before Starbucks, people would’ve never spent three, four, five bucks for a coffee drink, and owning a coffee shop would not have been a very lucrative business. That has definitely changed.”

Blanche’s coffee shops are designed so Starbucks fans feel at home. He intentionally didn’t stray too far from specialty coffee drinks, drive-through windows, and easy-to-access locations. However, Uptown and High Point aren’t just copies of Starbucks. “We can turn on a dime when changes need to be made,” Blanche says. “That’s the advantage of a small, independently owned business.”

Scones, muffins, cookies, and small pastries are made in-house, Blanche takes care of the roasting, and there’s complimentary Internet access as well as closed-caption television in case you’re stuck in that long line of people who can’t start their day without a cup of joe.

Uptown Coffee, 265 N. Lamar, Oxford (662-513-0905); High Point Coffee, 4610 Poplar (761-6800) and

1680 Union (726-6322)

Daniel Taylor, Mike Shelley, and their partners are also wooing the coffee-drinking crowd with a familiar yet distinctively different concept. Bluff City Coffee, scheduled to open this month in the South Main Historic Arts District, is designed to be that neighborhood coffee bar that meets your everyday coffee and community needs.

Bluff City Coffee, which will serve Italian gourmet coffee, has state-of-the-art brewing equipment and free Internet access. The contemporary interior, designed by Archimania, is in contrast to Bluff City’s historic pictures of downtown Memphis.

Asked about Starbucks and its omnipresence, the guys from Bluff City don’t see the big player as a big problem. “Our coffee is definitely going to be different from what you get at Starbucks,” Taylor says. “And we care about South Main. We want to be a neighborhood coffee bar.”

Once Bluff City is off and running, Taylor and Shelley want to start roasting their own coffee and expanding the business by adding more stores.

Bluff City Coffee, 505 S. Main (531-7979), www.bluffcitycoffee.com

Coffee has been the business of Lucia Palazio Heros’ family since the early 1900s. Originally from Nicaragua, Heros, who lives in Memphis, came to the United States as a little girl in the 1970s when her family fled the country. Now, Heros is the only family member left in the U.S. Her parents and two brothers have returned home to tend to the family’s coffee plantation in Nicaragua’s Mombacho Volcano Natural Reserve.

Heros and her siblings recently decided to take charge of the business from start (growing the beans) to finish (selling the coffee) and are now marketing Café Las Flores, their estate-grown specialty coffee — a premium Arabica hand-picked and roasted in small batches to preserve freshness.

The Palazios have made it their mission to provide customers with a product that can be traced back to its source. (Including, for the truly dedicated coffee lover, a trip to the family’s plantation.)

If Nicaragua is too far to go, look for Heros’ next barista-training and coffee-appreciation class in Memphis at www.cafelasflores.com or call 647-4321.

Café Las Flores is available at High Point Grocery, Inside Out LifeGym, Mantia’s, Miss Cordelia’s, and online.

Grill 901, a new restaurant in Collierville, is all about steak and seafood.

“You don’t find many steak and seafood places [in the Memphis area] that don’t belong to a restaurant chain,” says Dino Sawar, one of 901’s owners. He and his family also own and operate four La Hacienda Mexican restaurants in the Memphis area, Soprano’s Italian Restaurant in Southaven, and Fino Villa, another Italian restaurant, which opened in Collierville last fall.

Grill 901’s kitchen is led by chef Spence McMillin. The restaurant offers a casual dining atmosphere, moderate prices, and 16 cuts of meat — rib-eye, porterhouse, hanger, Wellington, and bone-in cowboy rib-eye, to name a few. The menu also features changing seafood options that can be ordered broiled, blackened, or fried as well as a large selection of appetizers.

Grill 901 is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Grill 901, 929 Poplar in Collierville (488-8445)

Good news for two restaurants at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica: Binion’s Steakhouse and Cafe Sonoma have recently been honored with a 2006 Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator magazine.

The award is given to restaurants that show a remarkable commitment to wine. The two Horseshoe restaurants met the Wine Spectator‘s strict standards with wine lists that offer an extensive selection for every budget. In addition, the restaurants will now be featured in the Wine Spectator’s Annual Dining Guide.

Binion’s Steakhouse and Café Sonoma at Horseshoe Casino, Tunica, Mississippi

(1-800-303-7463)

The Whole Hog Café, the Arkansas-based barbecue joint, now has a location in Memphis.

The original restaurant was opened in 1999 by Ron Blasingame, Mike “Sarge” Davis, and Mike Blasingame, members of the Southern Gentlemen’s Culinary Society. They’ve been competing in barbecue cooking contests for 25 years. In 2002, the Southern Gentlemen won first place in the whole-hog category at the Memphis In May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Currently, there are Whole Hogs in Little Rock and Bentonville, Arkansas, Sante Fe, New Mexico, and now Memphis. Brian McCarty, who opened the Memphis location, has the license agreement for Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and plans to establish three to four Whole Hog Cafés in the Memphis area.

Whole Hog Café is open Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Whole Hog Café, Yorkshire Square,

5727 Quince (682-8882)

www.wholehogcafe.com

Capriccio Grill will be hosting a Ruffino-wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14th. Ruffino covers 5,000 acres of some of the finest wine-growing estates in Tuscany and is slowly making its way on lists of the world’s most-loved Italian wines. The three-course menu will emphasize the rich flavors of Italian cuisine that complement the wines. The cost for the dinner is $65 per person plus tax and gratuity.

Capriccio Grill, 149 Union (529-4188)

Guava, the Healthy Gourmet is a locally owned health-food store that opened in Cordova in November 2003 and moved into town at the beginning of this year.

Inside the store is a small coffee and smoothie bar, and customers will find essential items for a health-conscious lifestyle — bulk foods and pantry items but no produce, cheeses, milk, etc. There are also vitamins, nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, and homeopathic options. Puni Nagalapadi, the store’s manager, sees Guava’s mission as educating customers so they can make healthy choices. Guava’s team also tries to offer educational lectures every month. Go to their Web site, www.guavaonline.com, for more information.

Guava is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Guava, the Healthy Gourmet,

2867 Poplar (458-2535)

Bach’s Lunch is opening a third location inside the Forum Business Campus on the corner of Kirby and Poplar. The other locations are in the Morgan Keegan Tower downtown and the Renaissance Center in East Memphis.

Jeffrey Kay started Bach’s Lunch — a bit of wordplay on “boxed lunch” — three years ago while looking for a way, he says, to “work banker’s hours while remaining in the restaurant industry.” The deli, which includes take-out as well onsite dining, provides something besides the usual cafeteria fare. The meat-and-two lunch offers a choice of roasted salmon, grilled chicken, a scoop of pimento cheese, or tuna and egg salad. Other menu items include a goat- cheese and vegetable baguette, a Greek chicken wrap, and the “eggel,” scrambled eggs with cheese and crispy turkey bacon on a freshly baked bagel.

But lunch is not all they do at Bach’s. The three locations serve breakfast, and Bach’s offers all the executive catering needs you can think of: hot breakfast spread, fresh fruit tray, specialty sandwich platter, roasted beef-tenderloin entrée — you name it.

Bach’s Lunch (432-2224 or bachslunch@shareachef.com) at Renaissance Center, 1715 Aaron Brenner, Suite 114; at Morgan Keegan Tower, 50 North Front, Suite 200; and at Forum 1, 6750 Poplar, Suite 101

Speaking of lunch, Encore now offers it. Chef/owner Jose Gutierrez and his crew will serve pretty much all of the favorites that you find on the dinner menu with a few additions and variations, such as a pizza-of-the-day. The sandwich lineup includes the popular Encore burger (ground sirloin with bacon bits and a choice of blue, Gruyère, or aged cheddar cheese on a homemade crusty roll); a tuna burger (seared Ahi with herbs and mayonnaise on a homemade roll); and a Croque Monsieur, the grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich with béchamel sauce and Dijon mustard. (A Croque Madame is the same sandwich served with an egg on top.) Bon appétit!

Lunch is served Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Encore, 150 Peabody Place, Suite 111 (528-1415)

Christopher is a 2-year-old toddler with a grandpa named Jim and an 82-seat white-tablecloth restaurant on Highway 51 in Millington named after him.

“My partners and I first thought about opening a sports bar, but then we somehow decided to do a fine-dining restaurant, and now we all work for a 2-year-old,” says Jim Williams, one of the restaurant’s owners.

While Christopher’s specializes in steaks, Chef Matt Liggett also knows how to turn out delicious seafood and vegetarian dishes. Christopher’s is open 5 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday, with happy hour Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday brunch is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There’s also patio dining.

Christopher’s, 8800 Highway 51 (872-0405)

It’s time again for the Memphis Italian Festival at Marquette Park. You’ll get all the spaghetti gravy you can stand — or “Sunday gravy” as Italians call their red sauce. And Italians do take their gravy seriously. There are more than 20 rules to be followed by the festival contestants if they’re looking to take home the first-place prize in the gravy category.

For the less competitive, the festival provides three days to satisfy your inner Italian with olive-oil tastings, a grape-stomping contest, a wine race, chef demos, and lots of Italian food.

The festival is Thursday June 1st, through Saturday, June 3rd. Admission is $10. From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday, admission is half-price; from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, admission is free.

www.memphisitalianfestival.com

The work and resources of the late Margi Smith Hemingway, an important figure in Memphis’ culinary world, will find a home at the Margi Smith Hemingway Culinary Arts Reference Center at the Dunklin County Library in Kennett, Missouri, slated to open in 2007.

Hemingway, who passed away late last year, had a long career in public relations with an equally long and varied client list that included The Plaza hotel, Bert Greene, and Panola Hot Sauce, as well as many Memphis-based clients such as Sekisui, Erling Jensen, and Molly’s La Casita.

The new reference center will house Hemingway’s 2,000-piece collection of 19th- and 20th-century cookbooks, reference books, photographs, menus, brochures, press releases for chefs and restaurants from around the world, handwritten recipes, and other culinary items. The collection includes many rare and first-edition works, such as Miss Parloa’s Appledore Cookbook from 1872 and a 1918 edition of a Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School cookbook. There are plans to eventually put the entire collection online, providing access to foodies worldwide. Thank you, Margi!

Contributions to the Margi Smith Hemingway Culinary Arts Reference Center can be made to the Friends of the Library, c/o Stephen Sokoloff, POB 721, Kennett, MO 63857.

If you are on your way downtown to catch a show at The Orpheum or a ballgame but don’t want to miss out on dinner, try Capriccio Grill‘s new sunset menu. Throughout the summer Capriccio Grill, located in The Peabody hotel, will offer a special three-course menu for $35 per person plus tax and gratuity. The first course is soup or salad followed by three entrée choices. For dessert, diners can choose between chocolate bread pudding and an assortment of sorbets. The sunset menu is available every day from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Capriccio Grill, 149 Union (529-4199)

Dominican Republic meets Scotland during a scotch and cigar tasting at The Peabody’s Corner Bar. The tasting features three Bruichladdich scotches and the Davidoff No. 2 cigar from the Classic Series.

The menu for the occasion includes fried ravioli with marinara sauce and calamari fritti with tomato basil sauce.The tasting is on Wednesday, May 31st from 6 to 8 p.m. Cost per person is $60. For reservations, call 529-4128.

There are new chefs for two Memphis restaurants this month. The Madison Hotel’s Grill 83 welcomes Wesley Turnage as its new executive chef, and at Garlands restaurant, Michael Grogan will take over in the kitchen.

Turnage earned his culinary degree from the New England Culinary Institute and has worked at Chez Philippe, the Oxford University Club, and the Tournament Players Club at Southwind. At Grill 83, Turnage has set out to incorporate regional foods in culinary classics, which on the menu translates into Delta grindstone polenta frites, blue-corn-meal-dusted calamari, sugar-cane-skewered grilled salmon, and lobster ‘n’ grits.

Grogan is a Memphis boy who learned the ropes in the kitchen from his mother and grandmother. Working in Memphis kitchens since he was 18 — Boscos, Wally Joe, and Washington Street Bistro, among them — Grogan now feels at home at Garlands, where his food reflects different culinary influences with an emphasis on fresh, organic ingredients. The eclectic menu features grilled Arkansas quail with fennel and citrus salad, scallops with wontons, lamb shank with chanterelle mushrooms and pearl onions, Tile fish with sautéed spinach, and baby artichokes on a blood-orange fish stock.

Grill 83, 83 Madison (333-1224)

Garlands, 712 West Brookhaven Circle (682-5202)