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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Nothing’s Half-Baked at Ranequa Bean’s 350 Baked

Growing up, Ranequa Bean didn’t eat her vegetables. But she did eat her sweets.

So it’s no surprise she is now the owner of 350 Baked, which features her homemade cakes, cookies, brownies, and cobblers. Her goods are available online and in four locations, including High Point Grocery and Cordelia’s Market.

But getting back to those childhood eating habits. “I was definitely a picky eater,” says Bean. “Any type of vegetable you put in front of me, I wouldn’t eat. Only meat and cheese. I didn’t like ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise. I didn’t start eating a lot of things until I went to culinary school.”

Her mother was a good cook, but Bean’s “love for cooking” came from her aunt, Shapell Gates, who was a “Southern cooker.”

Bean’s first baking effort was a cake she made for her stepfather when she was in high school. “It was embarrassing. It was so bad … awful.

“The lines ‘Happy Birthday’ started at the top left of the cake and ended at the bottom right of the cake. I had some little flowers on it. He was so happy. He said, ‘This is the best cake ever.’”

The cake might have looked bad, but Bean says, “The taste was definitely there.”

A dog lover, Bean originally wanted to be a veterinarian. “I did animal science for two years. But it was in an animal physiology class where we had to artificially inseminate cows when I said, ‘No, mom. I can’t do this.’ I’d smell like cow poop all day.” She had a revelation: “I like dogs. I don’t like cows.”

It was “love at first sight” when Bean discovered the culinary arts program at The Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville. She earned her associate’s degree in baking and pastry, but her bachelor’s degree in culinary management made the biggest impression. “They taught me how to open a business.”

She also learned to love vegetables after she tried grilled asparagus for the first time in culinary school. “It was something about the taste from the grill … the oil and salt. The grilled flavor brings the vegetables alive.”

Bean worked at several businesses, including the Radisson Hotel Nashville Airport, where she was sous-chef. Her first food-related job in Memphis was sous-chef at Baptist Memorial Hospital.

In her spare time, she sold pre-ordered slices of her caramel, strawberry lemonade, banana pudding, and other cakes at Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market.

Bean chose the name 350 Baked because 350 degrees is the temperature of the ovens her desserts are baked in.

Last February, Bean quit her job as culinary director at Remington College – Memphis Campus. “350 Baked was getting a lot of recognition. I was getting more money from it than Remington.”

Also, she says, “I had reached my breaking point of working for anybody other than myself.”

More people were seeing photos of her cakes on Facebook and Instagram. “My goal in 350 Baked is to be a household brand.”

She also had another goal. “My goal was to be in three locations by the end of this year. I did it in three weeks. And I told my husband, ‘God is so real.’”

Bean now offers a regular list of cakes, cookies, and cobblers, as well as rotating specials. Her cakes and other baked goods are available on her website, 350baked.online, or via her Facebook and Instagram. She also sets up at the Downtown Memphis Farmers Market.

“Moistness” is what makes her cakes different from other people’s, Bean says. She credits culinary school for teaching her how to get the right texture and flavor profiles. She also has “secret ingredients,” which set her cakes apart. Her slogan is: “Without us, it’s just cake.”

Bean doesn’t want a brick-and-mortar location. “My business plan is to get a big ice cream truck, but with cakes.” She wants her truck to make “the sound like the ice cream truck makes,” but be more unique.

So, when people hear it, they’ll say, “There’s 350 Baked.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Local Farmers Impacted by COVID-19

COVID-19 is radically changing how local restaurants operate, and, in tow, local farmers are facing mounting challenges as well.

“To be completely frank, it’s run us ragged,” says Scott Lisenby, who operates Bluff City Fungi.

“Our day-to-day operations have changed dramatically almost overnight. We’re running on a skeleton crew, and we’re working at 110 percent to keep up with the almost daily changes,” he says.

Fungus among us: Bluff City Fungi

Local restaurants are reporting dramatic losses in sales, which has had an inevitable impact on the farmers from whom they source their food.

For example, Ed Cabigao, one of the owners of Zaka Bowl, Interim, and South of Beale, has experienced this phenomenon at each of those restaurants — which all source food from local farmers.

“Interim experienced an 80 percent drop in sales instantly,” Cabigao says. “S.O.B. experienced a 30 percent drop in sales initially, and it has now dropped to around 50 percent. Zaka Bowl experienced a 50 percent drop in sales and has held at that.

“Interim was the first concept where we closed the dining room because of sales, and also because it’s pretty clear that the pandemic should be taken very seriously,” he says. “We are right next to a retirement home and a pediatrician’s office, so that helped strengthen our decision.”

The effects of restaurant closures like these have been felt throughout the local farming community.

“Since farming takes months and months of planning ahead, we have tens of thousands of dollars worth of product coming up and no one to sell it to,” Lisenby explains.

“The majority of our business is direct to restaurants and wholesalers, and, understandably so, almost every single one of those streams of income has dried up overnight,” he adds.

“The nature of the restaurant business relies on a constant flow of sales every single day, and when a sharp, unprecedented decrease happens so swiftly, and coupled with the fact that there has been no direction or leadership in terms of when we can expect the pandemic to pass, it forces us as business owners to make very difficult decisions,” says Cabigao.

Though they’re considered essential businesses, farmers markets are having to make tough decisions, too. It was recently announced that the opening of this year’s Memphis Farmers Market (MFM), originally scheduled for April 4th, would be delayed and projected to open on May 9th instead.

“We feel it is our responsibility to do our part to flatten the curve and help stop the transmission of this virus through our city,” says Robert Marcy, executive director of MFM.

“Please know that we made this decision with the entire MFM community in mind, as the health of our vendors, customers, volunteers, and staff is most important, and whatever measures we need to take to ensure their health and safety are the proper ones,” he adds.

Sandy Watson, market director of the Cooper-Young Farmers Market, is also adapting rapidly to changing circumstances.

“This situation can’t help but have a lasting impact — the community has been forced to cook at home more now that restaurants are closed,” says Watson, recognizing that the need to access fresh food is more important than ever.

“Will that continue after this is over? Will restaurants be able to recover from this? Some will not,” Watson says.

It’s not too late to support your local farmers, and many have transitioned to online sales and home delivery.

Lisenby offers his own advice: “Please shop local. Please. Your farmers are adapting to better serve you right now, many will deliver or ship right to your door, many are still working farmers markets with ramped up safety protocols.

“Reach out to your favorite local farms and see what your options are for supporting them,” Lisenby suggests.

Find out more about your options from local farmers markets at memphisfarmersmarket.org and cycfarmersmarket.org, or order from Bluff City Fungi at bluffcityfungi.com.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis Farmers Market Names New Director

The Memphis Farmers Market (MFM) has named a new executive director. Robert Marcy, a longtime MFM volunteer and board member, replaces Rebecca Dull.

Marcy has a long and varied career, which involves working in the neurosurgery department at Baptist and interior design.

Marcy began volunteering at the market, adjacent to the train station Downtown, about nine years ago, he says. His volunteering led him to be asked to serve on the board and then he was named as vendor chair.

Marcy says that in that role he’s been “boots on the ground.”

“You really need to be in every market interacting with the vendors,” he says. “And after six years [as chair], it’s just become my family.”

Marcy’s time on the board had just run out when Dull resigned. Since Marcy trained Dull, he felt equipped to take on the new job.

He scrolls and scrolls (and scrolls) through a list on his phone with all his ideas for the market.

They include:

• A pet check, which replaces the pet sitting service and has already been implemented. This involves a tether system that keeps dogs away from each other.

• a customer frequent shopper card

• a vendor mentoring program

• social media training for vendors

• meal kits

• off-site education

• community garden

• cookbook

• an expansion of the Heart of the Market program, which helps vendors in need.

Marcy says the job has energized him. He leaps out of bed in the morning ready to start work implementing his ideas.

“Local food is the reason why we’re here,” he says. “This is a community gathering place. We want to bring people down here and use it like that. You’re not going to get this experience at a national grocery chain.” 

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Farmers Market News and more

Memphis Farmers Market will launch a Wednesday afternoon market, 4-7 p.m., at Court Square downtown, starting Wednesday, June 28th.

It will be called MFM² and will run through September 27th.

• The famers market at the Memphis Botanic Garden is taking a “planning year,” which means no market this year. They’re looking for a better site for the market and hope to revamp their vendor list.

* Now done with its renovations, Tsunami will begin hosting Pau Hana Time, a happy hour Monday through Friday, 5-7 p.m. “Pau hana” is Hawaiian and means to “done working.” It’s a nod to chef/owner Ben Smith’s time in Hawaii and, in keeping with the theme, Smith will offer new dishes with a Hawaiian inspiration.

• The Hard Rock Cafe is bringing back its World Burger Tour for National Burger Month.

Among the burgers on the menu:

Tango Salsa Burger (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – shake it up with andouille sausage, Certified Angus Beef®, salsa criolla, garlic aioli, Monterey jack cheese, fresh arugula and a fried egg to top off the burger

Olé Burger (Barcelona, Spain) – a fury of red peppered Romesco sauce, roasted vegetables, with goat cheese crumbles and arugula, dancing on a Certified Angus Beef® and between a toasted bun

And and and …

Tennessee BBQ Burger (Tennessee, United States) – like a good country ballad, this Certified Angus Beef® burger brings happy tears with BBQ dry rubbed premium beef topped with pickle slices, Memphis slaw, pulled pork, pig sauce, crispy onions and cheddar

The burgers will be offered through June 25th.

Ruth’s Chris is hosting a five-course wine dinner with the historic Chateau Montelena Winery.

The dinner will feature the rare 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and the 210 Napa Valley Petite Sirah.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Ana Gonzalez takes the Farmers Market Challenge.

Have you ever stood in front of a crazy-looking vegetable and thought: What the heck is that? Well, good news. Chefs do it too. That’s what happened the other day, when Ana Gonzalez and I stopped by Memphis Farmers Market.

“They’re called muscadines,” a helpful vendor explained. “They’re like red grapes, but the skin’s a little tougher, and they’ve got one to four hard seeds inside.”

As a proud Colombian, Gonzalez can be forgiven for not knowing about muscadines, which are native to the American South. At five foot six she’s a fireball, and she has the endearing habit of calling her friends “baby.” She also happens to be the executive chef at Bleu in the Westin, where she specializes in small, shareable plates packed with bold, fresh flavors.

John Klyce Minervini

muscadines

Oh, and she’s not afraid of muscadines. After learning about them, she snags two pints.

“You can’t take a chef to the farmers market,” Gonzalez jokes. “It’s like porn for us! We wanna buy everything.”

Gonzalez has agreed to take the Flyer’s Farmers Market Challenge. That’s where we take a chef to the farmers market and make lunch. Fortunately, she’s got help: today she’s brought along her two sons, Brian (age 11) and Deven (age 5).

“They behave pretty good,” Gonzalez asserts.

“We’re decent,” Deven amends.

It’s a hot day, so we fortify ourselves with some home-made popsicles from Mama D’s. Gonzalez chooses mango, but her kids prefer cookies and cream. Then it’s time to hit the stalls.

Over the course of an hour, our market basket gradually fills with heirloom tomatoes from Plowboys Produce, herbed goat cheese from Bonnie Blue Farm, duck prosciutto from Porcellino’s, arugula from Whitton Farms, and shiitake mushrooms from Dickey Farms. We’re just about to head for the car when, all of a sudden, the brassy boom of an operatic baritone cuts the air.

“Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja, Stets lustig heisa hop-sa-sa!”

If Santa Claus had arrived with a sleigh of presents, I don’t think the crowd would have been more surprised. Upon closer inspection, the songful stranger reveals himself to be from Opera Memphis, the performance a part of Opera Memphis’ 30 Days of Opera. Gonzalez and her kids have never been to the opera before, but now they say they’re considering it.

“I like the way it sounds,” Deven sings, with an operatic vibrato.

At home in Southaven, we are greeted with a glass of white wine by Gonzalez’ husband, Brian Barrow. The two met at culinary school — Johnson & Wales University in Miami — but their cooking styles couldn’t be more different. Barrow is a classicist, favoring continental dishes with elaborate preparations. By contrast, Gonzalez is more modern, whipping up light, fresh flavors from around the globe.

John Klyce Minervini

Ana Gonzalez, chef at Bleu in the Westin, is a modernist, whipping up fresh flavors from around the globe.

How does a classicist from Los Angeles end up with a modernist from Colombia? Gonzalez says it all started one day in Advanced Pastry class.

She remembers, “It was right after Thanksgiving, and everybody was working over break. And Brian got the professor to move [our quiz] back by a day. I leaned over to my friend and said, ‘I’m gonna marry that man.'”

For lunch, we’re having … everything. Today’s menu includes grilled pork chops and salmon and steak. And peach sangria, and roasted veggies, and a watermelon salad. I assume that Gonzalez and her husband are showing off for the newspaper reporter, but Barrow sets me straight.

“Oh no,” he admonishes, “we do this every Saturday. This is just lunch.”

Lunch, indeed. While I sip wine and snap photos, the family gets to work. After 15 years of marriage, Gonzalez and Barrow function like a well-oiled machine, wordlessly, seeming to read one another’s thoughts. While she whisks the sauce, he’s outside on the grill. Even little Deven gets in on the action, trimming green beans and peeling a turnip.

“My kids are like me,” Gonzalez confesses. “They’re always working.”

John Klyce Minervini

watermelon salad

At last it’s time to eat. The meats are succulent and well-spiced, but by far the best thing on the table is the watermelon salad: an artful arrangement that includes arugula and baby kale, heirloom tomatoes, herbed goat cheese, and duck prosciutto.

True, you can buy most of these ingredients at the grocery store. But getting them fresh from the farmers market makes a difference. The flavors are electric; they are followed by little exclamation marks. Drizzle this salad with a lemon zest vinaigrette, and you’ll never look at watermelon the same way again.

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Intermission Impossible Theater

Opera, Opera Everywhere…

Opera Memphis General Director Ned Canty hates to say no to anybody. But September’s now-annual 30 Days of Opera event has grown to near capacity since it launched four years ago. And every year there are more fall festivals and events to choose from. He can’t take live opera to all of them, can he?

“What we really need to figure out before next year is a way to get more access to more singers,” Canty says of an event that was originally conceived as a profile-raising campaign involving one location-specific opera event per day for an entire month. Now, most days in September, the company does at least two, and often three, off-site performances.

Opera, Opera Everywhere…

A different kind of Meow Mix.

This week’s 30 Days performance schedule includes a Friday-night concert at the Levitt Shell. “That’s a show where we know the audience is proportionately least likely to have attended an opera,” says Canty, who’s always eager to get his singers in front of fresh eyes and ears. “So what we have is an open-minded audience that enjoys a lot of different types of musical experiences but are not necessarily coming to our events.” He sees it as an opportunity to preview Opera Memphis’ upcoming season, share some of opera’s greatest hits, sing some show tunes (maybe), and engage in some derring-do. This year, Canty is pairing individual singers with Memphis street-style dancers from New Ballet Ensemble. The duos will then square off against one another in an opera-enhanced version of a jookin’ dance battle.

Opera, Opera Everywhere… (4)

Opera + Jookin= It’s On 

“The concert at the Shell really kicks off our season in a way that’s ecstatic and kind of, ‘hell yeah,'” Canty says. “We will end with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ which is just a lot of fun for all of us.”

Opera, Opera Everywhere… (2)

Kid stuff

The concert is free, but those interested in adding dinner and drinks to the evening may want to consider paying $25 to attend ArtsMemphis’ Shell Out for the Arts pre-concert event, which includes a meal by the Brushmark and chef Abby Jestis and beverages courtesy of Buster’s Liquors.

Opera, Opera Everywhere… (3)

Singing for sweet potatoes

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Jennifer Chandler takes the Farmers Market Challenge.

It was bound to happen. One of these days, the Farmers Market Challenge was going to get rained on. Fortunately, Jennifer Chandler has a good sense of humor.

“You should have been here earlier,” she quips. “It was like a wet T-shirt contest.”

In 1993, at the tender age of 23, Chandler gave up a career in international finance to attend one of the world’s top culinary schools, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. A whiz with a rolling pin, she graduated at the top of her class.

Since then, she’s written four cookbooks and appeared on Food Network’s Dinner Impossible. She runs a successful food consulting business, writes a recipe column for The Commercial Appeal, and produces a weekly radio segment for WKNO-FM. She’s as busy as anyone in Memphis, but somehow, she still finds time to cook healthy suppers for her family.

“That’s sacred time,” she explains. “It’s the one time every day when we can spend 30 minutes together without distractions.”

When I arrive at Memphis Farmers Market, Chandler is already there. She’s been signing copies of her latest book, The Southern Pantry Cookbook. Outside, the rain is really coming down, and she admits to being a little wet. But that doesn’t dampen her spirits; she makes a beeline for the asparagus at Ly Vu Produce.

“I was snooping around earlier to see who has the best ones,” Chandler explains.

I can see what she means. The spears are bright green and plump, with a slight purplish cast to the tips. The fresh mint looks good too; we pick up a bunch. Moving deeper into the market, Chandler selects goat cheese from Bonnie Blue Farm, butter lettuce from Bennett-Burks Farm, and strawberries from Jones Orchard.

Of course, it wouldn’t be lunch without a bouquet of fresh flowers, so Chandler rounds out our market basket with a sheaf of poppies, peonies, and Bells of Ireland from Whitton Farms. She does it almost without thinking, and I must admit, I am charmed.

Back at Chandler’s home — red brick, white columns — she takes out the butter lettuce and holds it up to the light. I notice that she is inspecting it very closely.

“A lot of times,” she explains, “when you buy lettuce at the farmers market, you’ll find little creatures in there. Which is good! It means they’re not using pesticides. But still, you don’t wanna eat those guys.”

I’ll say. To get the critters out, Chandler recommends turning organic lettuce heads upside-down in a salad spinner and refrigerating them for four to five hours.

While I blanch the asparagus, Chandler prepares some red fish from Paradise Seafood. We’re thinking salad — but we’ve both got big days ahead of us, so we’ve decided to pair it with a little protein. When the skillet is good and hot, Chandler adds the fish fillets, and they start to sizzle.

“When you’ve got a good sear, the fish will let go of the pan,” observes Chandler. “If you’re trying to flip it, but it’s not coming up — stop! That’s means it’s not ready yet.”

The delicious smells wafting from the pan act like a dinner bell. Before long, they summon Chandler’s husband, Paul, and their two daughters, Sarah and Hannah. I wonder aloud if they always eat this well. I’m thinking, no way. Right?

“Actually,” admits Hannah, “we kinda do.”

Well I’ll be darned. We sit down to lunch and say grace.

John Klyce Minervini

The fish is everything I want it to be — warm and flaky with a well-seasoned crust. But the salad is the real show-stopper. In it, the ingredients play together like an experienced jazz combo. One minute, strawberries step to the front of the stage, while mint and goat cheese keep up a lively dialogue in the background. The next minute, it’s asparagus’ turn.

The whole thing is brought to a crescendo by the vinaigrette, from an original recipe by Chandler. Made with strawberry preserves from Jones Orchard, it echoes the fresh flavors in the salad while sweetening them — just enough, not too much. It’s the perfect lunch, the kind that fills you up without making you feel heavy.

So what’s the trick to a good salad? The answer, says Chandler, is actually quite simple: quality ingredients in the proper proportions. That’s the kind of radical simplicity you learn at Le Cordon Bleu — and a lot else, besides.

“My mother happened to be visiting when we learned to cook Lapin a la Moutarde [rabbit with mustard sauce],” Chandler recalls. “So they walk in carrying the bunny. And before we could learn to cook the bunny, we had to learn how to skin the bunny.”

“Mother was horrified,” she adds, with a wicked grin.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Chef Mike Patrick takes the Farmers Market Challenge

Going to the Memphis Farmers Market with Mike Patrick is a bit like walking around with the mayor. Everybody knows him, and we end up stopping every few feet to talk feed with pig farmers and chanterelles with mushroom hunters. And, you know, kiss babies.

“I’ve been coming here since day one,” admits Patrick. “I used to have a piece of ribbon from the ribbon cutting on my refrigerator.”

Patrick is the owner and chef at Rizzo’s Diner, which will open at its new location on South Main in the next week or so. Today he’s taking the Flyer‘s Farmers Market Challenge, where I team up with a local chef, we go shopping at the farmers market. Then we make something delicious with what we buy.

John Klyce Minervini

Michael Patrick

Patrick is a good-natured guy and built like a house. This is a good thing, because today the temperature is 49 degrees, and the wind is howling. Here and there, shoppers in heavy overcoats pick through the last of the year’s harvest, while at one end of the market, a valiant guitarist plucks out the chords to the Beatles’ “Eight Days a Week.” Searching through a crate of winter apples, Patrick sings along.

“Ooh, I need your love, babe,” he croons, “guess you know it’s true.”

Patrick’s road to the kitchen has been an interesting one. He says it all started at age 15 when he got kicked out of high school for fighting. Never one to sit and sulk, he went out and found a job as a dishwasher, simultaneously enrolling in a culinary arts class at a vocational school.

“What made up my mind was the teacher,” he confesses. “She was 32 and super hot.”

From there, he went on to work with chefs Mac Edwards and Erling Jensen, before opening Rizzo’s in late 2011. At the time, he described his menu as “comfort food, uncommonly comfortable,” and it wasn’t long before people started taking notice. To cite just one example, Food Network’s Guy Fieri, for his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, stopped by in 2012 for a taste of Patrick’s Chorizo Meatloaf with Green Tomato Gravy ($18).

“You get a completely blindside shot from that green tomato gravy,” raved Fieri, through a mouthful of meatloaf. “That green tomato gravy is nuts.”

To warm us up on this chilly Saturday, Patrick is planning to make a grilled bratwurst sandwich with green tomato chutney. I’m all for it. We get the brats from Lazy Dog Farms and the tomatoes from Jones Orchard — then round out our shopping bag with a loaf of ciabatta from Cucina Bread, barbecue pickles from Old Apple Hill Brine, and some herbed goat cheese from Bonnie Blue Farm. Then, it’s time for lunch.

Patrick lives in a cozy, one-bedroom apartment in a converted hotel on North Main. It’s a grand old building with crown molding and a marble lobby, but the best part is definitely the view. When we head up to the roof to grill the brats, it’s all there: City Hall, the M Bridge, and the Pyramid.

“I like to come up here in the summer and watch the fireworks,” says Patrick, while the brats sizzle on the grate. “I’ll grill up some steaks and make margaritas.”

Back in Patrick’s kitchen, we start slicing the tomatoes. And if you’ve never seen the inside of a green heirloom tomato, let me recommend it to you. They’re like little works of art in there — little paintings by William Turner, grading in color from pale green to peach to gold to pink.

We sauté the tomatoes with apples and pears, then add a mixture of vinegar, sugar, and pickle juice. While the chutney reduces, we slice the pickles, goat cheese, and some kale. Then it’s go time.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are moments in life when the planets align, the clouds open up, and the sandwich gods smile down on us. This was one of those moments. The green tomato chutney was sweet and tart, beautifully cutting against the heartiness of the brats. And the goat cheese added just the right note of herbed creaminess to the blend.

To make a sandwich that good, you have to believe in what you’re doing. You have to mean it. Fortunately, that’s not a problem for Patrick. As we finish our sandwiches, scraping the leftover goat cheese off our plates, he confesses that for him, cooking isn’t just a job — it’s a calling.

“I’m not gonna be a doctor,” he says. “I’m not gonna find a cure for cancer. But I can cook. And by being able to serve somebody a dish that came from my heart, I’m doing my part to make Memphis a little better.”
Editor’s note: The print version of the story had the opening date as Saturday, December 20th. Unforeseen delays have pushed the opening for another week or so. 

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Harbor Town Dog Show Eats, and more

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Sunday’s Harbor Town Dog Show is open to all dogs. Any pooch, no matter how questionable his pedigree, can compete for the top prize in such categories as “Least Obedient” and “Best Tail Wagging.”

What does this have to do with food? The event is a fund-raiser for the Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby Country, and $20 gets you and your dog entry into its VIP area, where there will be a spread with food from Miss Cordelia’s, Paulette’s, Tug’s, and the Terrace. One Smart Pet Food will be donating treats for the dogs.

The event is from noon to 4 p.m.

Tickets for the VIP room can be purchased here.

The Memphis Farmers Market annual Barnyard Ball at the Central Station Pavilion is Saturday, from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be plenty of food from area restaurants plus beer and wine, but I’ve got my eye on that cake walk.

Get your tickets here.

But wait, there’s more …

[jump]

The Spellbound Halloween party, Halloween night, at the Madison Hotel will feature a Candy Corn Cocktail. It’s Kahlua, Licor 43, butterscotch schnapps, half & half, and OJ.

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Nuff said.

Nearby at Felicia Suzanne’s, also on Halloween, is the Zombies, Tacos, & Tunes. There will be $2 tacos, spooky cocktails, plus a costume contest, which is open to dogs.

On Saturday, starting at 1 p.m., Slider Inn will host Paws for a Cause, another event benefiting the Humane Society.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis Farmers Market Announces Winter Market

Memphis-Farmers-Market.gif

The Memphis Farmers Market is expanding its season with a six-week winter market, running from November 8th until December 13th. The market will be open on Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The regular season ends on October 25th. The market will take off a week for its Barnyard Bash, an annual fund-raising event on November 1st.