“The Pass” offers an upscale coffee house/bistro environment, something Clarksdale has never seen. “I’ve always wanted to do this for Clarksdale, but I didn’t feel like they could handle it for a long time. I just didn’t think it was ready,” said Meri Tenhet, Clarksdale native and daytime chef. “But there came a time about five years ago when I thought, it can support this now. There are enough hip, young people coming back home who were used to that sort of thing.” Yazoo Pass offers anything from pastries and biscuits and great coffee in the morning, to soups, sandwiches, a salad bar, and frozen yogurt during lunch. At night, the lights dim and the restaurant turns into a fancier dinner spot. There isn’t one fryer in the building. “It is a great change of scenery from the grittiness of the blues scene,” Tenhet said. “We try really hard to offer that same kind of food, but in a healthier way.”
Hayden Hall at Oxbow Pantry says Deltans need to eat outside their comfort zones. Photo by Alex Edwards.
Stone Pony Stone Pony Pizza offers a fun place for people to enjoy really good pizza as well as a nice bar. “It feeds a couple of different audiences, which is neat because we didn’t have that downtown. There was nothing to fit that niche,” Stolle said.
Dutch Oven The Dutch Oven was created in an old passenger train depot near the blues museum by members of a Mennonite community who moved to the Delta in the 1960s. The daily specials, written on a blackboard behind the counter, are what make lunch a big draw here. Fresh-faced young women wearing prayer caps and long print dresses serve up casseroles, poppy seed chicken, white chili soup and more. The towering cakes and large slices of pie are a meal in themselves. Yazoo Pass offers an upscale coffee house/bistro environment.
The Anchors It’s not like there weren’t restaurants here before. Clarksdale is rich in food history. “We’ve had Abe’s since 1924. That’s a draw. Rest Haven is a draw. Ramon’s. Another draw. But you still need a variety of places,” said Bubba O’Keefe, 57, a longtime advocate for Clarksdale revitalization who has created lofts for rent above the restaurant.
The Present Residents still shake their heads in wonder at the food options in Clarksdale today. Things have changed dramatically since Luckett’s seemingly impractical decision to open Madidi. “Now I pull out on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Someone takes my spot as I pull out. Just lined with cars. People
Photo by Jared burleson
would have laughed at you if you said you were going to have that 10 years ago. There was no belief,” Stolle said. “Now it all seems kind of normal. The thinking has just changed. People don’t consider it crazy anymore.” O’Keefe had watched in horror as downtown shriveled over the decades, growing darker with each newly vacant storefront. But now he sees something entirely different. “You can’t create interest with a whole downtown that is totally dark. No lights are on. No cars. No activity. You flip the lights on, you bring the people in. Now. Now you got a show.”
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