Tony and I like to eat dinner at the new Jim’s Place bar. It’s a perfect setting for grown-ups: sociable and lively but not too loud, the bartenders know how to mix a mean martini, and you can start your meal with Dimitri’s Charcoaled Jumbo Shrimp. At $11.95, the appetizer is satisfying for two. The shrimp are basted in Grecian lemon-oregano sauce, and once the shrimp are gone, you can swipe up the leftover sauce with the restaurant’s crunchy bread. If you’re fast enough, you can also nab the lingering slice or two of garlic before anyone else at your table.From there, Tony’s order is pretty predictable: a bowl of New Orleans Seafood Gumbo ($5.95) and an appetizer of Souflima ($8.95), an original family recipe that’s a trademark of the Jim’s Place restaurants. I think the gumbo is overcooked and a little mushy (I prefer gumbo where the ingredients stay distinct), but hats off to the Souflima. Pork tenderloin is slowly grilled on a rotisserie, and each tender slice blends the taste of oregano, salt, and cracked pepper. This dish proves the cooking adage that simple is best.

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Souflima is so popular at Jim's Place Restaurant & Bar that it's featured as an appetizer and as an entree, said Costa Taras, co-owner of the restaurant with his son, Bill.

The first time I tried souflima was at a Taste of Collierville. James Taras, Costa's nephew and co-owner of Jim's Place Grille in Collierville, enunciated the name "soo-flee-MAH" when he offered me a slice.

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It's late Thursday afternoon at Jim's Place Restaurant & Bar, and manager Scott Gentleman is doing his math. "I've got an extra six-top and nowhere to put it," he says, pacing the dining room and counting tables.

Six-top is restaurant lingo for a table of six, and Gentleman has become adept at juggling the numbers to accommodate a full house. "It's going to be slamming and jamming in the bar tonight," he says, not at all worried. "We are completely booked for dinner."

Since opening the day after Thanksgiving in the heart of East Memphis, the new Jim's Place Restaurant has reinvented itself with a more convenient location, a New York steakhouse feel, and a spacious bar that is fun and sophisticated. The restaurant's much-loved predecessor, Jim's Place East, had thrived for three decades on Shelby Oaks Drive, but had suffered more recently from the area's changing demographics and its reliance on holiday dinners and special events.

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Jim's Place, sans the east, opened the day after Thanksgiving and has had a steady stream of diners clearly eager to try some of their old favorites in a new spot.

Many squeeze in the bar for after-work drinks; from Wednesday on, it's a popular spot for martinis and mingling. It's got the sizzle, that certain energy that accompanies laughter, chatter and anticipation when

combined with good food, generous cocktails and the familiar faces of friends or old acquaintances.

It's hard to say if the weekend bar patrons are there just for the drinks or if they're whiling away some time before dinner: Last Saturday the wait at 6:30 p.m. was about 1 1/2 hours.

No one seemed to mind, as the diverse crowd -- couples of all ages, large groups and families -- enjoyed the seeing and being seen. And though it remains a place for a fine steak at a reasonable price, there is the calf's liver...

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