Photo courtesy of The Mayflower Café team
The Mayflower Cafe
The story of the Mayflower Café in Jackson, Mississippi is an iconic one of Southern striving and survival. As the restaurant enters its ninetieth year in business, it is now experiencing a rebirth of sorts, under new ownership.
The Mayflower began as a hamburger stand, started by a pair of Greek immigrants and friends from the deeply-Orthodox island of Patmos, just in time for the Great Depression. Even during those difficult times, Kountouris and Gouras were able to help the café not only survive, but thrive, by providing consistently fresh, delicious meals at a fair price, as well as excellent customer service.
As the restaurant expanded to focus on seafood, calling itself “Mississippi’s Original Seafood House,” French cooks were brought in from New Orleans. But in time, the cooking was left to family members, many of whom developed the time-honored recipes that were heavy on fresh Gulf seafood. Kountouris developed a special seafood sauce using butter, Worcestershire, lemon juice, and seasonings designed to enhance the flavor of the fish without masking it.
In its heyday, the Mayflower Café enjoyed a prominent place at the heart of downtown Jackson, with its bustling business and commerce scene. Folks who worked downtown ate lunch there, and in the evenings, families made their way downtown to eat at the restaurant. Later, as businesses closed up shop and moved to the outlying bedroom communities, it was nostalgia that brought folks back to the Mayflower. It became an intergenerational place to dine, and the experience was like no other in town.
Photo courtesy of The Mayflower Café team
Like many Jacksonians, George Kountouris’s son, Jerry, holds precious memories of hanging out at the restaurant with his family, such as watching the Jackson Christmas parade from the Mayflower’s large front windows. In 1990, he left his twenty-year career as a pharmacist to take over the Mayflower for his father.
For years, Jerry held court at front of house, greeting guests and barking orders to staff. People came for the redfish and stayed for the experience. The fifties diner décor hadn’t changed in decades. There was a familiarity about the place that was comforting, if not downright alluring. Nothing seemed to deter people from the suburbs from finding their way to the Mayflower—not even the infamous restrooms, which required a trip outside and around the side of the building, up a steep set of stairs, to a darkly lit hallway. It’s just the way it was.
When Jerry announced in late 2022 that he was ready to retire and close the Mayflower Café, there was a collective wave of disappointment felt by those who had developed a relationship with the restaurant over the years. That’s when Hunter Evans came into the picture.
Evans, a Jackson native with New Orleans roots, owns the wildly successful Belhaven Town Center restaurant Elvie’s with his business partner, Cody McCain. Evans is a James Beard Award finalist, recognized across the region for imbuing his dishes with the stories of the South—treating food as something beyond nourishment, but part of history.
Photo courtesy of The Mayflower Café team.
A dish at the Mayflower Café
Evans was originally approached about The Mayflower in January 2023. “Our second child was due in October and Elvie’s was booming, so I couldn’t fathom a second restaurant and second child at the same time," he said.
He was approached again at the end of 2023 by former Jackson mayor J. Kane Ditto, who was interested in saving the restaurant as a vital part of downtown Jackson. This time, Evans was ready to listen. “Cody and I met with him, and in April of this year, we purchased the restaurant and started renovating it.”
During the process, Evans began to realize what an important role the Mayflower played in the community. “My parents weren’t from Jackson, and it wasn’t a place they took us when we were growing up. I had eaten there a few times, but it was just not a significant part of my life.”
The renovation was no small undertaking; Evans hired Kirk Carraway of the Brandon-based Carraway Construction to handle the project. “And yes, the bathrooms were addressed in the renovation. I am amazed how people did that before.” They are now located downstairs, near the back of the dining room.
After just three months of renovations, the Mayflower Cafe re-opened in late July to a full house. “One of the things we hear often—and we love to hear it—is that the inside looks classic, original, and true, although it’s much brighter and cleaner,” said Evans. Then there are the high ceilings. Many years ago, when the restaurant first got central air, the ceilings were lowered so there would be less space to cool. “We took the ceilings up to the original height.”
A Jacksonian myself, I grew up eating at the Mayflower Café, making the trek to downtown Jackson for special occasions, and later, as a favorite place for early dinner before attending the theater or symphony in Jackson’s Thalia Mara Hall. Excited about the “new” version of an old classic, my husband and I made dinner reservations on a rainy Tuesday evening. One of the first things I noticed upon arriving was a large seafood display in the front window. “They used to fill the boxes up front with crushed ice and display the catch of the day for people to see as they walked by,” explained Evans. “When we got here, it was filled with garbage. We cleaned it out and put it back to its original use, displaying the beautiful fish we receive four times a week.”
Despite the inclement weather, the restaurant was full, and we saw many familiar faces. One of those was Lindsay Crawford, our server for the evening. Crawford has worked at the Mayflower Café since the Jerry Kountouris days. “It still looks the same, with the booths on the side and tables down the middle. But it’s better in every way. Everyone raves about the food.”
At Evan’s recommendation, we started our meal with the broiled oysters, swimming in his version of George Kountouris’s decadent seafood sauce. “Every time an order of those oysters comes out the kitchen window I want to eat them,” he said.
An order of frog legs found their way to our table as well—a nod to the live frogs that were once on display in the front of the restaurant in the past. “Now I source them from south Louisiana,” said Evans. They were meaty and succulent, delicately breaded and fried. They tasted (no surprise) like chicken.
Photo courtesy of The Mayflower Café team.
The Mayflower Café interior
One of the biggest changes at the Mayflower Café is the new bar program; the previous owners never had a liquor license, and invited guests to BYOB. Now a fully stocked bar is built into the front corner of the restaurant, and bar manager Sydney Roberts has created an array of sophisticated craft cocktails. We each had one with our appetizers. My husband chose Mike’s Old Fashioned—a classic made with Old Forester bourbon, smoked cinnamon demerara, and tobacco and orange bitters. I went with the “Let Me Be Clear,” made with Wonderbird gin (distilled in Oxford) mixed with Luxardo bitter bianco, blanc vermouth, and a sprig of rosemary.
For dinner we ordered what the Mayflower has always been most famous for—fresh seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. I went with the redfish, served with the same delicious sauce as the broiled oysters. A perfectly roasted loaded potato was served on the side, chock full of butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese, and chives. But before our entrée was served, we had the Mayflower salad, with a classic Greek comeback sauce for dressing.
For the uninitiated, comeback sauce is indigenous to the central Mississippi area. The sauce was brought over by the Greeks who settled here, including those who founded the Mayflower Café. It’s like a souped-up Thousand Island, hitting on the spicy side, and is delicious on everything from salads to French fries, seafood, and crackers.
When I spoke with Evans earlier in the day, he mentioned that because of the Greek heritage of the restaurant, he and his team took a “deep dive” into Greek vineyards and uncovered a lot of interesting, beautiful wines. “We are excited about bringing them to the state.”
The new menu at the Mayflower Café is a simple one, yet full of surprises. A daily blue-plate lunch is served with the Mayflower salad and two sides. “Tuesday we serve feta-brined fried chicken,” Evans said. “We use so much feta cheese here, and we had all that brine, so I experimented with soaking the chicken overnight in the feta brine and it takes it to a whole new level.”
There are also several salad and sandwich selections, including a fried oyster wedge salad, and a blackened redfish sandwich. While steak is offered on the dinner menu, Evans says seafood is still the star of the show at the Mayflower Café.
