Mississippi is known for everything from Southern soul food to fresh Gulf seafood and barbecue. Increasingly, Mississippi chefs are embracing farm-to-table, seasonal ingredients, and creative menu items at their restaurants. Chefs are embracing the recipes passed down by their elders while also taking inspiration from global cuisines to create a bountiful spread of healthful, innovative, and—yes—traditional menus.
Greenwood
Sunlight streams through the hanging glass panels and lands on the bright yellow and chrome 1950s tables that populate Fan & Johnny's. For owner and Chef Taylor Bowen-Ricketts, the restaurant is a love letter to her grandparents, whom she credits with nurturing her love of cooking. Aside from being a James Beard Award-nominated chef, Bowen-Ricketts is also a multidisciplinary artist, and created much of the art that adorns the walls of the restaurant. Bowen-Ricketts changes the artful, Southern menu frequently to take advantage of seasonal produce. The eclectic folk art and paintings by her or her husband are all for sale, but as she remarks, “I keep forgetting to put price tags on them,” confirming Taylor as a true artist with a passion to create something special.
Greenville
To tell the story of the original Doe's Eat Place, we have to go back to the beginning; the famous steakhouse got its start in Greenville. Dominick “Big Doe” Signa began selling hot tamales with his wife, Mamie, in 1941. He’d just taken over the Greenville grocery that his father opened in 1903. “Papa’s Store,” as the Italian-American family called it, operated successfully until the Great Flood of 1927. To stay afloat, Big Doe went into bootlegging. When he sold his still for $300 and a Ford Model T, the store became a juke joint that served chili and buffalo fish to the city’s Black community. The Signa family operated from the front of their home on Nelson Street, a strip that served as a hub for local Black culture. As patrons began seating themselves at the small table in the Signa family’s kitchen in the back, the takeout eatery slowly shifted into a restaurant. Living room furniture was swapped out for more tables. Within a few years, the back became too popular to man without backup. Big Doe employed family, converted the whole ground floor into an “eat place,” and came up with an informal menu (it was never printed).
Doe’s original chili, hot tamales, steaks, and spaghetti are still on offer, along with shrimp, fries, salad, and garlic bread. They serve massive steaks—thick cut and as large as a dinner plate—plus shrimp, and tamales. Come hungry or be prepared to share. Though other Doe's franchises exist, the Greenville location is the original (so much so, in fact, that the James Beard Foundation named it to its list of "America's Classics" in 2007). Though Big Doe retired in 1974 and passed away in 1987, the Signa family remains at the head of the historic spot. His descendants and extended family run the operation, cook steak on the same broiler, and greet customers who enter through the old honky-tonk (now a kitchen). The hot-tamale recipe that started it all remains unchanged.
For a guide to all of the restaurants and culinary offerings in Mississippi, go to visitmississippi.org/flavors.
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