Keep voting, show them how we do grit, grind

I hope you plan to join us Wednesday night when we gather at Sweet Grass Next Door for our second party to get folks to vote for Memphis in Southern Living’s “The South’s Tastiest Town” contest. Chef/ owner Ryan Trimm’s food is delicious, and bartender Chris Ferri pours up some of the best drinks in town.

We’ve been flirting with second place, but we haven’t quite made it yet. Here’s the deal: We have until Feb. 28 to vote online at southernliving.com (click on “The South’s Tastiest Town”). Asheville, N.C., has been in the lead from the beginning, and Durham, N.C., is just barely ahead of us in second.

So we have two goals: We need to sprint ahead of Durham now, posthaste. Vote today, and tell everyone you know to vote — honestly, it takes about 30 seconds. Put it on your Facebook page, and ask your friends to share it on their pages. Tweet it. Shout it from the tallest building. This is what we win: 16 million sets of eyes on us when the May issue of Southern Living comes out. The payoff is big, so let’s get to second place this week and make this a contest between Memphis and Asheville.

Then we’ve got the long game. We need to win, and we’ve got time to do that — we’re at halftime now. If you’ve been around here any time at all, you know how that goes. You know that we can be phenomenally good when we’re determined to win. That’s when we show our grit.

Of course, you also know that we can completely fall apart in the second half. It’s the nature of the underdog — we either show what we’re made of, or we just roll over. I know it’s tiring to keep trying harder, but it’s just the way we’re made. When we’re on our game, no one can beat us. If we lose our momentum, we get outplayed.

Don’t be the reason for that. Keep voting. Let’s show Asheville a little something about grit and grind, culinary style.

RESTAURANT NEWS

Taziki’s Mediterranean Café opens at noon Wednesday in the former Pei Wei space at Mendenhall and Sanderlin. The restaurant, which offers fast-casual service, catering and a nice to-go menu, is part of a chain that started in Birmingham. It’s partly Greek food such as gyros, dolmades, hummus and so on, but there’s also a selection of sandwiches, salads and dinners-togo for four such as roast chicken or pork. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Call 901-290-1091 for more information.

THIS AND THAT

Pam Denney, author of “Food Lovers’ Guide to Memphis,” will sign cop-

ies of her book at 6 p.m. Thursday at Booksellers at Laurelwood, 387 Perkins Ext. Stop by and pick up a copy of the book and say hello to Denney, who is a journalism professor at the University of Memphis and an editor at Memphis magazine.

There’s another online voting contest you need to add to your list. Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence are authors of the book “The Southern Vegetarian,” which will be released in May and is based on their blog, chubby vegetarian. blogspot .com. They’re in the running for the Best Recipe Blog award at thekitchn .com, and they’re contenders for the final round right now. Vote for them at thekitchn.com/ best- recipe- blog- thehomies-2013-183570, and do so by Friday so they can advance. Be sure to check out their blog, too. The recipes are delicious, and Burks’ photos are great, too.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Here’s an appropriate recipe for this week. It’s taken from Denney’s book, and she got it from Trimm at Sweet Grass. Enjoy, and come see us after work Wednesday.