BOOM Jackson: Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Gifts for Her and Him, pp 80-81 // COFO: Secret No More, p 16 Chefs Get It On All Over Town, pp 55-61 // Sneaky Knight, p 85

FREE // winter 2010

2011

Power Couples Jackson

Local Menu Guide, starts p 37

Strong, Outspoken, United

FONDREN: STILL CRAZY (AND FABULOUS) pp 29 - 31

pp 65 - 75

Eastover Love Nest pp 63 - 64

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Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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“I love Fondren because of the lifestyle it offers. We are a blended community all striving to make Fondren better. It is community, home, family, friends and local. We keep it real.”

–Langston Moore

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Dynamic Duos

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Dueling Spaces

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JXN: HAPS IN THE CITY

“The Help” comes to Fondren, bringing beehives and old Chevys.

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Blog West

Curnis Upkins III wants to test your knowledge about west Jackson.

His west Jackson.

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Within These Walls

The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame is like red meat to sports fanatics. Who, us?

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The Auditorium went bust, but the space is alive and kicking with all sorts of par-tays.

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Progress: Jacktown

What’s on the horizon for the city?

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IN THE FLOW: Are you a locavore?

Follow your pocketbook and find out.

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FAB FONDREN

Fondren’s name may be new, but its vibe is classic main street.

With a twist or two.

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SECRET JXN: Under Fire

MENU GUIDE

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Young people gathered inside this little Lynch Street building to change our state.

DO-GOODERS: OUR ANGELS

Faith the size of a mustard seed allows individuals with special needs to make great art. Not to mention gifts.

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Team Youth

Alfred Daniel’s T.E.A.M. champions high achievers on and off the field.

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Birthday Gifts

These young women are using their passion to great iEffect.

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BIZ: Sell This, Baby.

Fondren pioneer Ron Chane sits still long enough to talk shop and women’s clothing.

Hey, good lookin’! Whatcha cookin’?! A little bit of everything. A foodie’s guide for where to eat. (Paid advertising section.)

DINING: RESIDENT TOURIST

Some couples look good together; others look damn good together and make a difference.

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BOOM FASHION SHOW, REDUX

The first “See Yourself” runway show took Fondren by storm, and raised money for Dress for Success.

(BOOM promotional section)

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GIFT GUIDE

What to buy him or her. Or you, for that matter.

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ARTS

Howlin’ Wolf

Malaco Records has been a Jackson mainstay since 1970.

“Wolf” Stephenson made sure of it.

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AJC

Adam Jerrell Collier wants to push even more musical envelopes.

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More Than Just Java

Sneaky Beans owner Byron Knight saw a musical need and filled it.

Tom Ramsey, the Picky Eater, the Adventurer and the Wife tackle some of Jackson’s finest soul food.

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Monthly guides to where to be seen and what to do over the next quarter.

Trust us.

My Local List

Restaurant expert Grady Griffin is your man.

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Jesse and Nick’s Ultimate Food Adventure

Chefs Jesse Houston and Nicholas Wallace take a Fondren food tour and tell all about it.

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LIFESTYLES: At Home with the Waughs David and Jane Waugh take us inside their really groovy Zen den, er, home.

Three Months to Live

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The Adventurer, Arthur Jones, roasts his Jackson. Literally.

Photos above by Christina Cannon; below by Frank Ezelle.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Associate Editor Natalie A. Collier Art Director Kristin Brenemen Editorial Writers

Charlotte Blom // Bryan Flynn // Carl Gibson Jesse Houston // Garrad Lee // Lance Lomax Adam Lynch // Anita Modak-Truran Lacey McLaughlin // Langston Moore Ronni Mott // Casey Purvis // Tom Ramsey Ward Schaefer // Nicholas Wallace Jackie Warren-Tatum

Listings Editor // Latasha Willis Cartoonist // Chris Zuga Interns

Katie Bonds // LeeAnna Callon // Jesse Crow Julia Hulitt // Holly Perkins // Briana Robinson

Photography Cover // Christina Cannon Photographers

William Patrick Butler // Christina Cannon Natalie A. Collier // Briana Robinson Amile Wilson

Graphic Design Lydia Chadwick // Shawn Palmer Interns // Holly Harlan // Michael Brouphy Sales Kimberly Griffin // Ashley Jackson Adam Perry

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A good business plan and prime placehe end of Thanksgiving festivities jumpstarts a holiday season that lasts ment all depend on relationships—among until spring. That’s perfect for now- customers and clients. And, of course, we quarterly BOOM and, therefore, it can’t ignore the most important relationships in this equation: those with should work well for you, dear our friends, family members, reader. We have plenty to partners and significant othshare with you. ers. We find ourselves wantThe holiday season reing to share and give things minds us of all the things that that delight to the people we are important in life: people, care about, whether a meal relationships and growth. or the perfect sweater.

Without a doubt, there (And we mustn’t ignore are rewards in business and the imperative, occasional tangible success. Take the gift to ourselves.)

Fondren business district.

Because it’s the holiday BOOM’s neighborhood is season, as you flip through abuzz with life these days. the pages of this quarter’s The neighborhood’s dwellBOOM, you’ll not only find ers leave their houses full of Natalie A. Collier the features you’ve come to character and have a plethora Associate Editor, expect from us, but you’ll of locally owned businesses in BOOM Jackson also find gift ideas throughwhich to shop and fraternize. out the magazine.

From retailers to gallerAs you prepare to celebrate Christmas ies, specialty stores to the hardware store, restaurants to coffee shops—and don’t forget the or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the winter solstice, supermarket—Fondren is a world unto itself. New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s, King’s or PresiIt thrives not only because of its residents but dent’s Day, don’t forget that what makes any because of those in the world beyond it in the holiday special is relationships you’ve formed greater Jackson community. Fondren’s suc- with people. Let them know you appreciate cess is a model for other Jackson communi- them. You can never do that too much. ties looking to create niches of their own.

Little of this matters, however, without people and relationships. It’s people that make businesses in Fondren and the rest of the Jackson metropolitan area work.

TARJI SMEDLEY

boomjackson.com

Editor in Chief Donna Ladd

People Appreciation

Marketing // Shannon Barbour

contributors

Bookkeeper // Montroe Headd Marketing Interns Xavia McGrigg // Nikki Williams Publisher Todd Stauffer CONTACT US Letters to the Editor: editor@boomjackson.com Queries: natalie@boomjackson.com Ad Sales: ads@boomjackson.com Boom Jackson P.O. Box 5067, Jackson, MS 39296 p 601.362.6121 f 601.510.9019 Would you like copies of BOOM Jackson for recruiting, welcome packets, or other corporate, institutional or educational uses? Call Adam Perry at 601.362.6121 x18.

BOOM Jackson is a publication of Jackson Free Press, Inc. BOOM Jackson focuses on the urban experience in Jackson , Miss., emphasizing entrepreneurship, economic growth and city life. © 2010-2011 Jackson Free Press Inc.

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Winter 2010

Christina Cannon

Christina Cannon is a Jackson native. Her studio, Photography by Christina, and gallery, One Blu Wall, are in Fondren Corner. In her spare time, she lingers downtown where she is a new resident.

Jesse Crow

Editorial intern Jesse Crow, a Pensacola, Fla., native, is a junior at Millsaps College. She enjoys playing with puppies, summer camp and going on long drives in her station wagon named Herman.

William Patrick Butler

William Patrick Butler was born and reared in Jackson.

He studied photography at the Memphis College of Art and is a graduate of Holmes Community College. He has long shot for the Jackson Free Press.

On the cover: David and Jane Sanders-Waugh and their dog Baxter in their Eastover love nest. For outfit information for the Waughs, see p. 65. Photo by Christina Cannon. boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

surf west, young man p 12 // sports haven p 13 // secret cofo p 16 do-gooders start p 18 // biz starts p 23 // progress p. 26

Help Me, Fondren

by Natalie A. Collier photos by Frank Ezelle

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n September, Hollywood came to Fondren.

The neighborhood took a step back in time. The strip of State Street small businesses from Mitchell Avenue to what, in modern times, is Butterfly Yoga, became even more endearing, thanks to set magic.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

Movie makers did most of the filming for “The Help,” based on Jackson native Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel, in Greenwood.

But Fondren business owners responded positively when producers asked to change the facades of buildings for the verisimilitude in

filming that Greenwood could not offer.

Before and after filming, Jacksonians and others from the metro area came to BOOM’s ’hood to take pictures to capture the 2010 days when everything looked more like 1960. The film is scheduled for an August 2011 release.

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JXN // pride

Blogging West

// by Julia Hulitt

CASEY HOLLOWAY

W

Blogger Curnis Upkins III is changing Jacksonians’ perception of west Jackson one hit at a time.

est Jackson is getting a new reputation thanks, in part, to west Jackson resident and Jim Hill High School graduate Curnis Upkins III, 28, and his blog, westjackson. wordpress.com.

The blog is as much for west Jackson’s inhabitants as it is for folks looking to learn more or perhaps move to the area, as it highlights the area’s positive happenings.

The idea came about after Kimberly Hilliard, Upkins’ supervisor at the Jackson State University Center for Based Development, where he works as the program manager for the Lynch Street Initiative, asked him what more he could do for Jackson communities.

The University of Southern Mississippi graduate recalls telling her: “‘West Jackson ... gets a bad rap. Anytime something goes down, people say it happens in west Jackson.’

“Some things might happen here, but part of that is because of the geography. West Jackson is a huge part of Jackson, and I wanted to get some good news (out about it.)”

With a small budget, Upkins figured the best thing to do was to start an online project. Not only could he show positivity, but he

realized he could give information about the area’s history. In fact, he does that weekly with his “Westerday Trivia” feature.

Upkins launched the site in summer 2010 and advertised it by announcing it at the Friday Forums at Koinonia. With a little help from the communications department at Jackson State, he placed an ad for the blog on the front page of the school’s newspaper, The Blue and White Flash.

The first day the ad ran, the blog received 431 hits. To generate even more buzz, he created social-network accounts directing people to “West Jackson.”

“The Twitter and Facebook accounts are made to get the word out about new blogging entries, but I also use it to let people know of the small things that are too short to write a whole story about,” he says.

“People specifically look for the west Jackson blog,” he says, referencing blog stats. “The word’s starting to get out about it.

Hopefully, people are taking these stories and changing their perceptions of West Jackson.

That’s the whole purpose of it.”

Follow West Jackson Twitter feed at @westjxn.

West Jackson Trivia “Mad Men” Sushi place still not open Yelling “Get a Job!” Earmarks Jobs Voters under 50 “Kings of Torts” Bristol Palin Tort reform Blue Dogs Cyberstalking Day Runners Highway 51 Tearing down Investigative reporting Sanity Josh Hailey’s departure

Winter 2010

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This prominent west Jackson street is named for a man who was once a slave but grew up to become a representative in the Mississippi Legislature. He eventually became the first African American speaker of the Mississippi House. What is the name of this street?

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Located in west Jackson and completed in 2009, this facility was one of the first LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified buildings in the capital city.

3 RAINCHURCH

BUST

“True Blood” Babalu Supporting Dress for Success Payday loans Wall Street Voters over 50 “Fall of the House of Zeus” Lisbeth Salander Insurance reform Copy cats Real names Moleskines Highway 80 Rebuilding “If it bleeds, it leads” Fear Escudes’ arrival

This international airline started its first passenger flight in 1929 with Hawkins Field as the final stop.

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This west Jackson school was originally built in 1907 and reconstructed in 1929 as an Art Deco-style school building. Hint: It is one of Jackson’s star-rated schools.

ANSWERS: 1. JOHN ROY LYNCH STREET 2. JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING BUILDING 3. DELTA AIR LINES 4. GEORGE ELEMENTARY

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BOOM

boomjackson.com

Courtesy of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame

Lest We Forget

Museum goers discover little-known and oftenforgotten facts about the state’s significance in the athletic world at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

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thletes or their family members donated all the memorabilia in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, including items from past Minor League baseball teams. Quick: How many Mississippians remember the Jackson Mets or the Jackson Generals?

The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame thrives on the passion of its employees and Mississippians’ generosity. Through donations only, the museum is able to preserve the state’s rich athletic past.

Even without public funds or a large budget, the museum has drawn national recognition. In 2007, ESPN Sports Travel section rated the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame eighth in its list of top 10 baseball museums.

Hall of Fame Executive Director Michael Rubenstein says some of the other Mississippi greats that sports lovers often overlook are at the museum, too.

Without hesitation, Rubenstein names Charlie Conerly

Random Sports Hall

// by Bryan Flynn

of Fame

of Ole Miss and Ray Guy of USM as examples.

Conerly was a standout player at Ole Miss before playing for the New York Giants in the NFL. In the pros, Conerly took the field in the “Greatest Game Ever Played” between the Giants and Colts in the 1958 NFL Championship game.

Ray Guy was one of the few kickers whose foot could be considered a weapon. While at the University of Southern Mississippi, and later with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, Guy was widely regarded as the greatest punter in football .

Beyond the memorabilia are the Hall of Fame’s interactive exhibits. Rubenstein points out that the Participatory Room is a favorite with kids.

In the Participatory Room, you can kick a football or soccer ball, hit a golf ball and throw a pitch. Sensors in the screen read the force and trajectory, and determine the outcome of how well you performed.

Another favorite among kids is the Broadcast Experience, which allows users to see, read and listen to calls of famous events in Mississippi sports history.

The exhibit also, Rubenstein points out, has educational aspects: It teaches kids to read while they watch and hear the event they have selected.

From Mississippi native Robin Roberts (who has gone on to journalistic fame at ESPN and ABC’s “Good Morning America”) narrating the introductory video until the last final exhibit, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame is a wondrous place to visit.

See www.msfame.com for more information.

Facts

• Anyone can nominate an athlete for the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

(A 16-year-old nominated a recent inductee.) Go to msfame.com to make the Dec. 12, 2010, deadline.

• Ole Miss Rebel standout and New York Giants player Charlie Conerly was the original Marlboro man.

•The 1993 Legislature approved $1,000,000 in bonds to finance construction. Coca-Cola Bottling Company committed $1,030,000 to the project.

The 1994 Legislature added another $2,500,000 in bonds, bringing the total obligated amount to $4,500,000.

•The museum has not received any tax money for its operation since it opened July 4, 1996; it raises 100 percent of its operating budget each year.

The Power of Zero

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t’s common to hear that government or non-profits should run themselves “like a business.” But in this economy, many businesses are faced with a new reality: declining revenues and a lot fewer resources than they used to have at their disposal.

Nancy Lublin, the CEO of national nonprofit Do Something and the founder of the remarkable Dress for Success, is now telling businesses to run it more like a non-profit, or a smart one, anyway. Her recent book, “Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business” (Portfolio/Penguin, 2010, $25.95), is a study in changing the mindsets of companies that used to have a lot of fat to chew on and employees to spare. You can be successful, she says, when you learn to do more with less,

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

rather than less with more.

For instance, motivating and keeping staff: Make them believe in the business by producing a high-quality product with a BIG purpose. “People want to work on a product or service that they love and respect,” Lublin writes. Create a stimulating work environment with fewer closed doors and secrecy. Involve the staff in helping weather storms.

Guard your brand closely. Have written guidelines for every staff member. Don’t have partnerships with questionable people or groups: Walk away even if you lose money. You might lose more in the long run.

Every company or nonprofit must be “the first, the only, faster, better or cheaper” than your competition.

Which are you?

Be lean and mean. Motivate people to work harder and more. Hire for passion, and work hard to keep people who dig being busy and who are there as much for your mission as for themselves.

Tell your company’s story often, and use social media to spread it.

Make your business cool. People will give you about anything you want if you make them feel cooler for doing so.

— Donna Ladd 13

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Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Courtesy Curnis Upkins III

JXN // secret jackson

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n many ways, the old Council of Federated Organizations complex, located at 1011, 1013 and 1017 John Roy Lynch Street, was a shelter in the middle of an angry storm. Once the home base of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, it was a place where a mixture of northerners and southerners, many of them very young and all remarkably courageous, planned strategy, entertained each other and hid from the Mississippians on the other side of the door who wanted to kill them for trying to force integration on the state.

COFO was formed in 1962 as a way to unite the major civil-rights organizations in the state: the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. COFO’s purpose was to encourage cooperation, as opposed to competition, between the groups.

The activists within COFO were key to the Freedom Summer of 1964, recruiting students from schools across the country to participate in voter-registration drives in the South—young people willing to risk their lives to expose the horrors of Jim Crow laws in the South.

Every day, someone would write the civil-rights “crimes” the activists had committed the day before on the chalkboard and update the board throughout the day.

“What this building represents is a period in time when four different civilrights organizations, and a lot of local people and local organizations came together. Even though they were competing for resources, even though they 16

Winter 2010

Shelter in a Storm

by Jesse Crow

had different goals and objectives, they still came together under this banner of COFO to work together for a common goal,” says Jackson State University political science professor Michelle Deardorff. “That’s a vision of how a democracy can work we don’t see manifested very often. ...”

“I think COFO shows us that there is another way we can do it and that way may be more productive.”

As time passed and the Movement drew to an official close, a run-down, seemingly abandoned tan building with a commemorative sign was all that was left of the once-vibrant COFO complex.

“To be honest, the plans were to knock down the buildings because they looked so bad,” says Program Manager Curnis Upkins. “But then a group of civilrights activists stood up and said ‘no.’ They kept them from getting knocked down.”

Civil-rights veterans Jan Hillegas, Jimmie Travis and Owen Brooks were early proponents of saving the building.

In 2000, Jackson State received a grant through the Department of Archives and History to stabilize the complex, bringing it a new roof and a fresh coat of paint.

In 2009, the Small Business Administration awarded a grand to renovate the building.

The Hamer Institute, housed at JSU in honor of Mississippi civil-rights hero Fannie Lou Hamer, is administering another grant from the SBA to transform the building into an educational center.

“An educational center is a little different than a museum,” Upkins says. “We want it to be more of a dialogue center as well, where people can have civil-rights-re

lated conversation. It doesn’t have to be dialogue about past civil-rights efforts. There’s always going to be some sort of civil-rights effort as long as we have civil rights.”

Another hope for the building is for part of it to be a student-run business, although that process has been slow going.

“We have a wonderful College of Business over here, and they have an entrepreneurship department. We would love for the students to get some handson entrepreneurship experience while they’re in school,” Upkins says.

The building now is being used on an ad-hoc basis, mainly for community meetings and for classes learning about this period of time in history. Once the educational center is open, the building will have regular hours. Deardorff hopes this will be within the next academic year.

Renovating the COFO complex is also the first step to turning Lynch Street into a civil-rights corridor.

A steering committee, comprised of community members and Jackson State faculty and staff involved with the COFO renovations, will meet soon to construct the vision for the civil-rights corridor, Deardorff says.

The vision is currently flexible, so that it can change based on what is wanted by and would best suit the community.

“The rest of our efforts may not be like the educational-center type of space, but it will be a learning place,” Upkins explains.

“Whether we do something commercial, where we do attract some kind of restaurant down here, we still want people to be able to go in there and learn something while they eat. We want hints of civil rights all along that corridor.” ¢ boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Do-Gooders COURTESY KIT BARKSDALE

The Seeds of Faith

Cindy Chew, Mustard Seed gift-shop assistant, and her daughter Logan, a Seedster herself, celebrated Logan’s 26th birthday in September with their Seedster family.

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he activity center is bright with tables in the center for recreation; the corner lunch area by the windows is large and has couches, a TV and a place for morning devotionals. Benny, a fisherman who loves baseball, immediately greets me the day I visit and gives me a hug. Others busily attend to their ceramics projects. Webb, who sings in the choir at his church, is working on ornaments for his mother; Michelle, an Elvis fan, likes to paint angels.

Erin works at McAlister’s Deli three days a week doing food preparation and wrapping cookies. And Charlie? He’s a volunteer firefighter.

Blair is reluctant to talk to me at first, but before I leave the room, he brings me his leathery brown sketchbook filled with watercolors and drawings that rival any college art student’s.

The group, ranging in age from 21 to 66, is so much more than the disability that brought them here.

The Mustard Seed in Brandon is a group home with a staff of 15 that provides for “the spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual needs of adults with developmental disabilities.”

The program allows them to be part of a thriving and active community where residents and participants lead meaningful and purposeful lives. They are family here.

Leading the organization is Executive Director Kit Barksdale who has been on staff since 2007. Barksdale previously held the same title at

// by ShaWanda Jacome the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi. She is a third-generation Jackson native who graduated from Murrah High School and the University of Mississippi, where she obtained her specialist degree in arts education.

A group of parents and guardians of adults with disabilities started The Mustard Seed, a non-profit organization, in 1981. They thought local options for places to care for their mentally challenged loved ones were not adequate.

“They searched and searched for a piece of land. In fact, someone said they would give us a piece of land in Jackson that had a house,” Barksdale says. The particular neighborhood was less than thrilled about having a group home in their midst, however.

The group kept looking until they found their current property and opened their first group home in 1986: “It was way out in the country. There wasn’t anybody to say they didn’t want us to be here. … That was 24 years ago.”

Sitting on nearly eight acres, the campus consists of two group homes, a swimming pool, a 5,000-square-foot multi-purpose activity center, a ceramics studio and workshop. Fourteen clients reside in the group home—seven men and seven women. An additional 27 come for day activities Monday through Friday.

The Mustard Seed, which does not receive any state or federal funds, creates a family environment for its clients.

“We have parents that come in and live here. … So it’s like it is at my house or your house. You wake up, and you’re with the family. You have breakfast and fix your lunch for the day; you go off to work; you do your work; and at the end of the day, you come back. You have your chores (and) have your dinner (together),” Barksdale says.

The Seedsters’ “job” is painting ceramics. The ceramics program not only keeps their minds active; it builds their self-confidence as their styles and techniques progress and grow through every-day practice. “It’s a good place for them to shine,” Workshop Manager Sam Clark says.

The clients also participate in the Bells of Faith. The bell choir, led by director Debbie Burnham and accompanist Jennifer Clark, practices weekly and plays Christmas classics, religious music and even a little Elvis Presley.

Barksdale believes the Mustard Seed works because it is faith-based, the clients participate in creative activities and because of the strength of people who donate their time energies and money to the organization.

“We could not make it without our volunteers,” she says.

The Mustard Seed maintains a wish list of items needed for the home. Items on the current list include: a digital picture frame, wheelbarrow, colored butcher paper (any color), folding stadium chairs with carrying bags, 12-quart stock pot, serving utensils, blackout blinds for the activity center, rolling office chairs, a vacuum cleaner and white linens (towels, single sheets and mattress covers). Check the website for regular updates to the list: www.mustardseedinc.org.

To buy this ceramic piece and choose from others, visit mustardseedinc. org/giftshop or call 601.992.3556.

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Winter 2010

Join the Mustard Seed (1085 Luckney Road, Brandon, 601.992.3556) for its Christmas Open House Saturday, Dec. 4. The event includes a bake sale, and the Bells of Faith will perform. The event is free to public.

Ceramic ornaments painted by Seedsters hang in Washington, D.C., on the Mississippi state tree along the Pathway of Peace leading to the National Christmas Tree. Ceramics are sold in the Mustard Seed gift shop located on the campus, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Money from the sale of the ceramics goes directly back to the program.

boomjackson.com

Natalie A. Collier

T.E.A.M. Academics

by Bryan Flynn

Former athlete Alfred Daniel values athleticism and academia.

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lfred Daniel and his T.E.A.M. (The Educational Athletic Makeover) want to put the “student” back into studentathlete. He envisions a program all of Mississippi can get behind.

As a standout football player at Vicksburg High School, Daniel, now 36, went on to play with Mississippi football legend Steve McNair at Alcorn State University and knows what it’s like to be a star athlete. More importantly, Daniel knows what it takes to succeed in the classroom.

Making athletes into classroom stars, in Daniel’s eyes, means making sure they are on course to graduate from high school and qualify for college. Daniel wants to revolutionize the athletic culture all over Mississippi with T.E.A.M.

Being an athlete is not the only way to get out of downtrodden neighborhoods, Daniel says.

He advocates letting young people know that they can achieve in life with their mind in order to change their paths in life.

“Kids are visual. If they see another kid be-

I

t’s chilly the first Monday of the month when members of the Jackson Arts Collective sit around a table at The Commons for their monthly meeting.

As they plan, the conversation is interrupted, here and there, as a group member or two digresses to talk about their own projects. They all have something going on.

Every creative genre is represented. Visual and performance artists, musicians, vocalists, dancers, writers and poets, this group is a place creatives go to just breathe. But it’s not all

// by Natalie A. Collier

artsy-fartsy and fun. They work.

Under the auspices of the Greater Jackson Arts Council, The Collective works to connect Jacksonians to the city’s art scene. “We just want to help connect the dots,” Collective board member daniel johnson says.

“We want to connect artists to resources and to the people.”

The group reviews the grant applications for the Greater Jackson Arts Council, and member and photographer Roy Adkins is on the Arts Council board.

The Collective sponsors events like Mississippi Improv

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

achievements, Daniel believes, will inspire them to achieve in the classroom.

Daniel already has the support of wellknown Mississippians. NFL Hall of Famers like Willie Brown, Jackie Slater, Lem Barney, Archie Manning and Robert Brazile (who should be in the Hall of Fame) are all “team T.E.A.M.”

With education as the cause, these men were quick to step up and help with charitable events and fund raising.

In June 2011, T.E.A.M. will host its first football camp. The organization’s website (teammakeover.com), currently under construction, will allow the organization to keep in touch with young athletes throughout the year, beyond the summer. And student-athletes will be able to upload their academic progress to be eligible to attend the camp the next year.

Daniel wants to set up other incentives for athletes who achieve academically in all Mississippi high school divisions from 1A to 6A. These incentives will allow athletes who follow the program and show they are on course for college eligibility to participate. And for those youth who decide not to attend college, Daniel wants to teach them they can still succeed and be productive citizens in their communities.

“Everyone—educators and businessmen— know that when your expectations are high, so are your standards,” Daniel says.

For more, e-mail info@teammakeover.com.

Charles A. Smith

The Dot Connectors

ing promoted for their academic work and not just their athletic accomplishments, it makes them want to achieve in the classroom as well,” Daniel says.

T.E.A.M.’s strategy is to set up academic coaches in high schools to hold athletes accountable for their class work. Coaches need to be strong in core subjects—English/grammar, mathematics, sciences—to help athletes succeed where they are weak. While the academic coaches, whose initial funding comes from a golf tournament Daniel hosted July 2010, help students in high school, other programs help younger kids.

T.E.A.M. collaborates with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which encourages preschool reading and prepares children for kindergarten. But that isn’t enough for Daniel.

“Dropout rates are too high in Mississippi,” Daniel explains. “In order to succeed as a state, we need to turn high school from dropout factories to graduation factories.”

In lower grades, he’s looking to set up a mentoring program to keep kids on track until they start high school where the academic coaches take over. T.E.A.M. also wants athletic coaches to buy into the program and help make sure kids are on track to graduate, ready and able to enroll in college. Daniel also plans to set up an “Educational Award” that recognizes athletes for their work in the classroom as well as in sports. Recognizing athletes for their academic

Alliance Summer Sunday Series, Contra Dance (line folk dancing), the annual fais do-do (a Cajun music and dance festival) and Fall Showcase.

“We try to know what’s going on in the arts scene around Jackson, and we have just about everyone represented in the group. We really want to have a sense of community among all kinds of artists in Jackson,” johnson says. If you’re an artist, join them the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m.

Visit The Collective’s website at jxncollective.org or e-mail

The Collective is a liaison between the arts community and the city at large. Pictured from left: Tony Davenport, Austin Richardson, daniel johnson and Jamie Weems. daniel johnson at om_peace2you@hotmail.com or call johnson at 601.497.7454.

19

Briana Robinson

Do-Gooders // hand up

Effecting Change

by Briana Robinson

F

Tony Davenport

or her 19th birthday this year, all Treshika Melvin wanted was to give back to the Jackson community with her friends. She called everyone she knew, telling them to be sure not to plan anything for her birthday, June 28.

Initially, Melvin hadn’t anticipated it being a large occasion. But after talking with one of her closest friends, Eboni Harris, the pair united and decided to make Melvin’s birthday a big deal.

“The goal,” Melvin says, “is to make young people more involved in giving back to their communities in service and volunteering as well as to have an appreciation for their communities and the environment.”

That is, in fact, the reason behind the name, iEffect. Each individual, Melvin and Harris believe, can make a difference.

The young women did lots of planning for the iEffect Jackson event. The pair spent hours looking through phone books for organizations in need of volunteers and calling their friends to convince them that the event would be worth their time. The biggest response, not surprisingly, came after the duo created an iEffect Facebook page and stated social networking.

“After thinking about it, I realized that I couldn’t just do this for one day,” Melvin says.

“One day is nice. You make a difference for a day, and it may impact people for some weeks, but to have a complete effect would be to make it continuous thing.”

By the day of the June 28 event, about 25 people had committed to volunteering their time. Volunteers gathered first at Smith Park downtown to pick up badges and get directions

to their particular sites. Volunteers and passersby were welcome to bring donations, clothes, food and recyclable items to the park.

Volunteers worked at Community Animal Rescue & Adoption, Gateway Rescue Mission, Bethlehem Center, the Hope House and Stewpot Community Services.

Melvin, a junior psychology major/peacestudies minor at Millsaps College, says her school’s community-service efforts influenced her when organizing the project.

Last school year, she participated in the Wellspring program during which students offer several hours of their week to community service. But this wasn’t her first foray into community service. Since being employed with the Mississippi Youth Justice Project as a community and youth intern, she has been active in creating a voice for Jackson’s youth, and is an organizer of the Youth Media Project, housed at the Jackson Free Press.

Both Melvin and Harris wanted to show the public the positive capabilities of young people through iEffect. Today’s youth, they’re proving, have a beautiful future.

“Getting young people to understand that they have an impact on our community and an impact on our life is important,” Melvin says.

“It’s showing the world that young people—that we—matter, and we will do positive things, and we will make a difference.”

Melvin was shocked by what she found when she got to the park. “We didn’t realize that Smith Park was home literally to a lot of the homeless population of Jackson,” Melvin says. “(Eboni and I) actually stayed at Smith Park in-

Hands On

Kenya Hudson

I

f I could get my hands on any building in Jackson, it would have to be the old Sun-n-

20

Winter 2010

College students Eboni Harris (left) and Treshika Melvin founded iEffect. stead of going elsewhere to volunteer and actually got to know the people of the park.”

Now the iEffect has taken a different path.

Instead of focusing solely on encouraging young people to volunteer, the girls have assumed the task of aiding the homeless people of the city by first making connections with them.

With aspirations of making the iEffect an official non-profit organization at some point, Melvin and Harris are seeking sponsors to help them along this path.

Harris, a University of Southern Mississippi junior, was thinking big from the start. “When (Treshika) first told me (about the idea), I was automatically thinking big. We could be on Oprah; we can do this worldwide!”

iEffect’s Twitter account is @The_iEffect, and their Facebook page is under “iEffect.” You can also find more information at dosomething. org/project/ieffect. Or contact the budding organization directly at the_ieffect@yahoo.com.

by Chris Myers, architect

Sand Motel downtown. With the Farish Street development coming soon and a list of other projects happening in the city’s center, the need for quality hotel space is growing. The 1960sera beach style of the building would provide the perfect inspiration for a boutique motel

similar to existing motels in cities like Dallas and Austin. The renovated tiki lounge could once again serve as a meeting place for the state’s decision makers and a prime hangout for Jackson’s downtown dwellers. Not to mention, the sign is a landmark in itself.

boomjackson.com

Just In Time For The

NEW YEA R!

Donate Blood! Call 1-888-90-BLOOD

or visit www.msblood.com for more information

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

21

22

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

BIZ

Chane Town

Holly Harlan

space and gave himself six months to succeed or fail. Six months later to the day, he expanded. And six months after that, he moved his screenprinting shop into another location across the street. Chane now owns Swell-ONatalie a. Collier

F

or a guy who started selling T-shirts out of the back of his truck, Ron Chane, known by his last name only, has come a long way. After receiving $150 for a high-school graduation gift in 1988, Chane decided to try and double his money. He printed two dozen T-shirts and hit the road on the BMX (that’s bicycle motorcrossing) circuit.

He hawked the T-shirts out of his truck and on the bleachers at the shows, but he admits: “They were so hideous. You had to love me and feel sorry for me to buy them, but I was willing to play both of those cards.”

Chane continued to sell T-shirts throughout his time at Hinds Community College, the University of Central Florida and the University of Southern Mississippi. After graduating with a degree in marketing in 1993 from Southern Miss, Chane went to New York City with hopes of becoming a designer.

“I guess, more or less, I went up there to get scared straight—into reality … and it backfired on me.” Instead, he says, “I got terribly, terribly inspired.”

Soon, Chane moved to Pensacola Beach, Fla., and did a lot of couch surfing and living out of his car while traveling across the country selling his shirts.

“I got a real master’s degree in reality,” he says. But he also decided he wanted to open his own store. “I just knew with the creativity I had, whether it was good or not, that it was enough to make me crazy if I went to work for somebody else,” he says.

In 1998, Chane happened to stop in Jackson on his way back to Pensacola and learned that retail space was available in Fondren. He opened his first store, Studio Chane, in that

Entrepreneur and clothing retailer Chane runs three businesses in Jackson and three more in New York, London and Boston.

Phonic, Soma/Wilai and Studio Chane Screenprinting in Fondren Corner and has three other stores in New York, London and Boston.

“People ask me all the time, ‘What’s your key to success?’ Well, I’m like, ‘Stupidity. …

[A] really smart guy would have quit a long time ago,” Chane says, laughing.

Marley’s Advice

M

arley Le Allen is a savvy business woman. She previously owned Osaka on Lakeland Drive and now runs Fondren Nails in the basement of the Fondren Corner building, based almost entirely on referrals from happy clients.

Our advice: Do what Marley says and what she does when you set out on your own. She knows what’s up.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

// by Katie Bonds

Now 40 and approaching his 13th anniversary of owning a storefront, Chane has faced major challenges along the way. He has gone through everything from break-ins to almost losing everything when he first decided to open Soma. He admits: “It’s hard to be out of the box in an area such as Jackson.”

But he’s never wanted to leave. When he first opened his Fondren stores, he says, he was “the freakiest, most alternative thing here.” But now he’s not the only one.

“It’s a good insulation to have like-minded weird people,” he says.

Chane prides himself on his success with being “anti-fashion” while not being unfashionable. “Some people’s whole definition of themselves is by what they wear,” he explains. “And sometimes it’s more attractive to see what a person stands for or how they’ll let themselves be humbled or goofy by what’s on their T-shirts.”

About women’s fashion, Chane says: “I still, to this day, don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” But one of his goals has always been to be different, and it’s not just anywhere that women can buy clothes “a straight, poor, white guy picked out,” he says.

Chane says he could have opted long ago to be more like other retailers, making him more successful, but he was never willing to do that. “Sometimes,” he says, “you just have to stick to your guns, knowing that one day your guns are going to be bigger than anybody else’s guns.”

No matter how many changes his stores go through, Chane says: “We’ll always be here. It just depends on what form.”

// by Donna Ladd å Don’t spend money until you pay your bills. Pay yourself at the end of the month, not before. ç If you have to work seven days a week at first, do it—until you don’t have to, anyway. é Customer service is No. 1. If they have good food, but bad service, they won’t come back. è Do what you say. Be honest.

ê No matter what happens in your personal life, be happy on the job. ë Sacrifice and take care of your customers and staff. í Your regulars are gold: Their loyalty will send you business. ì Know your product, or you can’t sell it. Repeat. î Have back-up financing. ï Take care of yourself.

23

BIZ // real estate

F

tley,

Flexibility is key, as Peters Real Estate knows. The group recently converted the former Auditorium Restaurant to Duling Hall, a medium-sized venue space available for rent.

S

outhern cuisine and soul music go together like greens and cornbread, so The Auditorium restaurant owners thought they had formed the perfect union when they opened a restaurant/music venue in the Old Duling School in Fondren in February 2009.

They offered toe-tappinggrab-you-in-the-heart music as well as delicious dinner entrees like Redfish “Jimmy” that rested in sizzling, roasted buttered pecans. Turns out, the union wasn’t so perfect after all.

“(The Auditorium) had a little bit of an identity crisis,” Sam Peters of Peters Real Estate says.

Was it a restaurant with music or a music hall that served food?

Peters says the identity crisis, the state of the economy and the fact that, statistically, more than 50 percent of new restau-

Biz2Biz:

Good to Motley

“P

eople thought it was a jewelry store,” Alma M. Motley says of Dream Beads, her shop tucked between Tangle Salon and the Fondren Art Gallery at 605 Duling Ave. 24

Winter 2010

rants fail within the first three years of opening their doors, likely all contributed to the restaurant’s closing on July 4th weekend of this year.

When The Auditorium’s lease went into default, Peters says Fondren Place Development Co. LLC took the property back with an obvious question to answer: Let the space go dark, or find a way to repurpose it?

They chose the latter, and now Fondren has Duling Hall, an events venue that accommodates between 250 and 350 patrons for weddings, corporate functions, private parties, meetings and concerts (and BOOM’s sold-out November fashion show).

“The niche (was) not being served for ... medium-sized receptions,” Peters says.

Venues like the Mississippi Museum of Art, The South, River

“Then he told me, ‘First of all, I can’t see your sign.’”

The “he” is restaurateur Jeff Good. “My $375 sign. He couldn’t see it,” Motley says.

Good, who was stopping by the bead shop to visit, not only suggested changing her sign but moving the work tables from the back to the

Hills Club, Jackson Country Club and others support much larger events. To fill the void, FPDC recruited top-notch caterers—VIP Grand Events, Walker’s Drive-In, Mangia Bene Catering, Catering

by Debbie and Latham & Roberts Restaurant Group.

The caterers have no ownership, but use its large, fullservice kitchen as they’re hired out. So far, it’s all working.

Customers had already booked some 25 to 30 dates for the holiday season by late September.

“It was always kind of my plan—my dream—to come in and work with my dad,” Peters says.

To book Duling Hall, call Peters Real Estate at 601.362.8440 or visit www.dulinghall.com.

Pricing ranges from $350 for weekday lunches to $750 for week nights and $1,500 for weekends.

Catering is priced separately.

store’s more visible front.

“He said it would help for people to see me in here working,” Motley says.

You can find out information about upcoming classes in Motley’s window, too. And maybe you’ll even find Jeff Good making a necklace and earring set. —Natalie A. Collier boomjackson.com

Natalie A. Collier

Jaro Vacek

File Photo

A.

William Patrick Butler

No More Dueling Banjos

On the Corner illing voids and repurposing isn’t new to Peters Real Estate.

About 10 years ago, the Fondren Corner Building on State Street was in foreclosure. A Florida bank hired Peters Real Estate to sell it. But when Peters Real Estate’s owner and founder Mike Peters looked for a buyer, he “came up with the crazy idea of buying it and renovating it himself,” his son, Sam, says.

The real-estate guy turned business developer had observed the success of mixed-use properties in Birmingham and Atlanta and thought the trend could be duplicated in Jackson. He began renovating Fondren Corner in 2000.

During the renovation, Peters recalled another project he had seen: Bass Lofts in Atlanta. It was an old high school converted into residential units.

But there were legal obstacles.

Jackson Public Schools was willing to donate the Old Duling School property for a percent ownership in the project rather than sell it. The law prohibited this type transaction, however. But after the Legislature changed this law, construction began on Fondren Place in 2008. The project included renovating the Old Duling School and building Fondren West, on the corner of State Street and Duling Street.

Today, Fondren Place contains Bank Plus, Fischer Art Galleries, Joan Hawkins Interior Designs, The Ramey Agency, CDFL Architects and the repurposed Duling Hall. The buildings have become essential parts of Fondren’s thriving neighborhood.

—Jackie Warren Tatum

by Jackie Warren Tatum

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

25

BIZ // development Courtesy watkins development llc

Of Bodegas and Delays

// by Adam Lynch

Developer David Watkins’ vision for Whitney Place would mean a new look for Fondren.

J

ackson development is moving into the winter at an even pace after the explosion of ribbon-cuttings downtown this summer. Jackson developer David Watkins opened the Standard Life Building with new residential offerings, turning the area into a more vigorous landscape fit for the beautiful Union Station on Capitol Street.

The Farish Street Entertainment District is a tad delayed. Watkins Development LLC said the first block of businesses is slated to open in February, including new settings for restaurants like Jackson favorites Cool Al’s and Big Apple Inn. Joining them next spring are new entertainment venues such as Red Rooster, Hamp’s Juke Joint, B.B. King’s Blues Club and Beethoven’s.

Farish Street could also be the location of the newest incarnation of Jackson’s most famous defunct nightclub, the Subway Lounge, next year.

New York In Jackson

Soon-to-be business owner Gwin Wyatt said the downtown area desperately needs a place like Bodega, opening in the Standard Life.

“We plan to open the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day,” Wyatt said. “We’ll sell salads, soups and po-boy sandwiches, and breakfasts: Belgian waffles, eggs, grits, sausage and biscuits. ... [T]he other side of the store is a grocery, like a New York-style corner grocery. In New York, they call them bodegas; hence, our name.”

In case you’re a Standard Life or Kind Edward resident, yes, they will also carry toilet paper.

Reworking Fondren

David Watkins isn’t stopping downtown.

Watkins’ proposed Whitney Place development could start construction in Fondren in late 2011. Watkins says he wanted to create a vibrant multi-use development that will match Fondren’s funky style. The development, 26

Winter 2010

the city’s Traffic Management Center providing crime-detection and emergency-service responses to potential problem situations.

West Jackson’s Turn?

named after his late daughter-in-law Whitney Luckett Watkins, is causing controversy, though. It proposes to replace a row of local businesses—now called “The Help” strip— with eight acres of retail, apartments, a hotel, and green space for concerts and festivals between Mitchell Avenue and Hartsfield Street.

Back at Baptist

Baptist Health Systems spokesman Robby Channell said the hospital will break ground on its new medical office building on the corner of North State and Manship streets in January. Landmark Healthcare Facilities LLC will own and lease the building, a five-story, 130,000-square-foot development with office space for physicians and medical-based companies, and retail and restaurant space on the ground floor. Baptist is planning an attached parking garage with a sky bridge connecting it to the medical center. Channell expects the project to be complete in mid-2012.

Fortification Street

Fortification Street revitalization will begin early next year after a 10-year wait. “We’re downsizing from a four-lane (road) to three lanes in some areas, and we had to acquire some easements for construction,” Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said.

Mark G. Bailey, senior engineering manager for project designer Neel-Schaffer, said the city will increase sidewalk size to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act standards, and enlarge and move water and sewer lines. The city will continue street milling and paving from Jefferson Street to the railroad bridge near Farish Street, replacing cable traffic signals with lights using a wireless motorvehicle detection system. Intersections will also feature a video-surveillance connection to

Jackson State University is promoting a federal program that helps owners with lowinterest loans for restoration. The area around JSU features high-end homes built during Jim Crow by upper-class whites who never dreamt that blacks would live on the same street.

Those homes should be selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars but, because they are in west Jackson, they average just $10,000.

Kimberly Hilliard, director of JSU’s Center for University-Based Development, said the university’s WESToration Initiative will enable new and existing homeowners in west Jackson to apply for mortgages to cover renovation costs. A current owner could ramp up a home’s value, or a new buyer could grab a potential mansion for $10,000 and then invest up to 110 percent of the home’s cost in renovations.

80 Proof

Mayor Johnson proposed a zoning change and improved code enforcement for the Highway 80 corridor to promote new development in west Jackson. Johnson, working with the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District, wants to create a new district called the Highway 80 Mixed-Use District, which would restrict construction of new industrial developments from commercial or residential areas. Johnson said the new district would not eliminate existing industrialstyle businesses from the district, but reserve portions of it for uses other than industrial.

Arena Rock

Supporters of a proposed downtown arena for Jackson are trying to raise $80,000 by Dec. 31 to fund a feasibility study for the project. On Nov. 16, a committee of area business leaders launched its campaign in earnest with a $51,000 head start. If financed, the study by a stadium consulting and design firm would conclude in mid-March. Committee members believe Jackson could support a 15,000-seat entertainment arena. Public financial support, in the form of a sales-tax increase, bonds or some other measure, would almost certainly be necessary to build the facility, but supporters are waiting on the study to assess options.

Get regular business news at jfpdaily.com. boomjackson.com

YOU MIGHT BE A LOCAVORE

IF …

Is it important to you to keep an authentic, vibrant local economy going?

No!

D

id you know that $45 of every $100 spent with a local business remains in the community, while only $13 of $100 spent at a chain store stays and recirculates? If you did, then you might be a “locavore”—someone with a voracious appetite to eat, drink, shop and do business locally.

Locally-owned businesses lend a city uniqueness, character and a personal element that make that town inviting for visitors and residents alike.

As this issue’s Fondren-focused stories attest, local

Do your favorite restaurants give you a buzzer that lights up when your table is ready?

business owners and managers are often the same leaders who give back to the community with gusto: “power couples,” non-profit board members, donors and others who don’t just create jobs but solve problems and move us forward.

How can you help? Live La Vida Local! Take the quiz to see how you’re doing so far, and, if you’re so inspired, decide to “Think Local First” throughout the holidays and new year by investing more of your dollars with businesses investing in your community.

Do you often buy produce and tires in the same place, same trip?

You got your hair cut at Walmart, didn’t you?

Yes!

Not a locavore.

Is your bank or credit union locally owned?

Does it at least have a Manning in its commercials?

Ever wonder why they ship tomatoes from Mexico if they’re going to taste so bad?

Can you dig that Farmer’s Market downtown?

Can you name a locally-owned store that sells shirts?

Keep it up... you’re a semi-vore!

Not a locavore.

Do you have an I Heart JXN T-shirt?

Do you have at least 3 plastic swipe dealies on your key-ring?

Got stock in Rainbow, yet?

Feeling guilty?

Are you sure it was printed locally by Chane Studios?

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

Are you Ron Chane?

You’re a locavore!

27

Have the coolest office in Jackson?

Then, Nominate local offices for BOOM’s Coolest Office Contest by sending photos and an e-mail explaining why it’s a cool place to work to editor@boomjackson.com

by December 31, 2010.

BOOM will choose finalists and send a team of judges in January to pick a winner.

Winner will be featured in March 2011 BOOM and win a catered staff lunch.

So go ahead, brag.

28

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Becoming Fondren: Hip District Reborn, For the First Time

by Ward Schaefer photos by Amile Wilson

I

t’s a Thursday night, and Fondren is buzzing. People are strolling along North State Street; wine and beer flow at restaurants and art galleries; music wafts from eight different corners; a row of merchants sell jewelry and artwork from tables in Fondren Corner. The crowd is young and old; black, white and brown; there are couples pushing strollers and gaggles of teenagers.

Everywhere, they are smiling. Money changes hands. Commerce begets conversation, begets community.

It wasn’t always this way. The place we now know as Fondren suffered in the 1980s and 1990s as white flight and crime—and the perception of crime—chipped away at property values across the city. Some businesses held on, but the shopping district bordered by Duling Avenue, State Street and Old Canton Road was nothing like the bustling center it’s become.

What To Call It?

An old theory of language says you can’t really know something unless you have a word for it: The name makes the concept possible. The idea of Fondren dates back only 15 years or so, when a group of residents were seeking to rebrand the section of Jackson between West Street and U.S. Interstate 55, Woodrow Wilson Avenue and Northside Drive. There were a handful of other named residential neighborhoods in the area—Cherokee Heights and Woodland Hills, along with Broadmoor to the north.

But the area previously known as Asylum Heights wasn’t on the mental map.

That changed with the Fondren Renaissance Foundation. The foundation itself grew out of a regular Tuesday-morning meeting in the mid-1990s. Chip Bowman, Wirt Yerger and Henry Cody invited area residents to Bow-

man’s Woodland Hills home to discuss their neighborhood’s revitalization. Gradually, they rallied a core group of residents that, in 1996, became the first board of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation.

Don Potts, a founding member of the foundation, remembers lobbying for the “Fondren” moniker as a nod to the area’s history.

The Fondren family was the first to settle in the area, and the local post office still bears the family’s name. Potts, who is also a founding member of the Rainbow Cooperative Grocery, began touting the Fondren name in his realestate business.

Deep Pockets

The newly formed Fondren Renaissance Foundation’s first task was to hire an executive director. The board hosted a cocktail party see page 30 ¥

Fondren Corner

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

29

Becoming Fondren, from page 29 to raise money to pay the director’s salary. Not every neighborhood can afford to hire someone to work on economic development and community improvement full-time. This was one of Fondren’s inherent advantages: While it had lost some population and business during its decline, it still had a solid core of wealthy residents who could afford to invest in its redevelopment.

“If you’ve got money, you can hire somebody, and they can take the ball and run with it—make stuff start happening,” Potts says.

After a period of relative instability, the foundation hired Camp Best as its third executive director in 1999. Best served in that position until 2007 and oversaw many significant moments in Fondren’s turnaround: the purchase and renovation of The Cedars in 2000; the renovation and opening of Fondren Corner in 2004; and the introduction of free, public events like Fondren Unwrapped and Arts, Eats & Beats.

Fondren’s renaissance also benefitted from an early show of support from a key stakeholder, St. Dominic’s Hospital. Beginning in 1997, the hospital pledged $1 million to the Fondren Renaissance Foundation over a period of 10 years. Best credits St. Dominic’s and Board President Sister Dorothea Sondgeroth for recognizing the value of investing in the neighborhood around her hospital.

St. Dominic’s has since renewed its financial commitment to FRF and also sponsors the foundation’s $250,000, five-year Phoenix Initiative, which provides small grants for home repairs to Fondren homeowners living west of State Street. “People really need to give them a huge amount of the credit,” says Fondren Corner developer Mike Peters.

“I think it was a great vision for them to realize the health of our campus and facility is just as good as the health around it.”

Peters himself made a watershed investment in Fondren when his company, Peters Real Estate, purchased the future Fondren

McDade’s Market

Cups, an Espresso Café

Corner building in 2003. The former headquarters of the state Fish and Game Commission, the building had fallen into disuse and the structure’s Miami-based owner was having trouble paying it off. Peters picked up the building at a foreclosure sale.

While Peters declines to discuss the specifics of the purchase, he acknowledges that price made the deal possible. “That helped us buy this,” he says. “If the numbers had been too high, we probably wouldn’t have done it.”

Taking inspiration from similar mixed-use buildings in Midtown Atlanta, Peters redeveloped Fondren Corner, with restaurant, retail and gallery space on the bottom floor, apartments on the top floors, and offices and art studios in between.

When Fondren Corner opened in 2004, it served as a signal to other developers and to the metro area as a whole that change was afoot in the area formerly known for its asylum.

Peters followed Fondren Corner up with another demonstration of his faith in Fondren: the renovation of the former Duling Elementary School. That project took four years, in part because of the difficulty in obtaining legislative approval to redevelop the state-owned property.

“Things were already started, but we’ve obviously made some big investments that made people see what Fondren could really do,” Peters says.

‘A Little Vibe’

Peters wasn’t acting on a whim; he saw signs that Fondren was ripe for a rebirth. Chief among those was the strength of Fondren’s communities. The established residents were organized, as the Fondren Renaissance Foun30

Winter 2010

dation demonstrated. The city of Jackson had recognized the area’s potential and moved the police department’s Precinct 4 headquarters to a house on North State Street, from its previous location near Parham Bridges Park.

A younger, artistically inclined set was also moving into Jackson, part of a demographic trend that has seen 20- and 30-somethings seeking a more urban lifestyle for the past decade or more.

“You could just feel a little vibe going on in the neighborhood,” Peters says. “Housing was affordable. They started the trend of it being a cool place to be.”

Fondren also had a major edge over other Jackson communities in its stable base of local businesses. The compact commercial district centered around State Street, Old Canton Road and Fondren Place has boasted a hardware store, post office, pharmacy, dry cleaner, tailor, shoe repair shop, grocery store and locksmith for years. With that business core, Fondren already had the makings of a self-sufficient town center.

“You know, it’s funny—every time you hear of a new development in the suburbs, they want to call themselves a ‘town center,’” Peters says. “We’ve already got it.”

Jackson’s Melting Pot

If Fondren’s greatest asset is its strong community, the most remarkable aspect of that community is its diversity. The area’s businesses bring together a wide range of ages, income levels, races and cultures—from the older, predominantly white clientele of Brent’s Drugs, to the wealthier patrons of boutiques and art galleries, to the hippies and New Age types freboomjackson.com

Rainbow Natural Grocery

quenting Rainbow, to the African American professional crowds at (now-closed) Schimmel’s Restaurant.

Many business owners have consciously embraced this riot of diversity, as restaurateurs Jeff Good and Dan Blumenthal did when they named Sal & Mookie’s Ice Cream and Pizza Joint after the white and black main characters from Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing.”

Making diversity a part of Fondren’s image took conscious, deliberate efforts like that, though. Camp Best says defining Fondren as a diverse neighborhood was partly a matter of intentions and values.

“The neighborhood was ready to try to bring back and cherish and honor what a real neighborhood or community always was to them,” Best says, but with a major change in its attitudes toward racial integration. “What we wanted to do was rebirth Fondren in a diverse way. There was going to be a rebirth, but the rebirth had to be a little different.”

It was also a matter of specific actions,

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

like setting the neighborhood’s border at Mill Street rather than State Street, thus including more black residents, more renters and a broader range of income levels.

Constructing a community in Fondren— and uniting the area’s commercial and residential sections—took work, too. The Fondren Renaissance Foundation settled on art and music events as a key to establishing this reimagined community. Free outdoor events, especially those offering food and music, can bring disparate groups like little else, and FRF used its privately raised funds to subsidize ArtMix and other public happenings. It was important to charge forward with these events, even if they were poorly attended or felt slightly forced, because visibility was the best way to create a shared sense of Fondren’s identity.

As Fondren builds on its early success, that desire for visible demonstrations of community persists. In September, FRF broke ground on improvements for Fondren Park, sometimes known as Cherokee Heights Park, along Northview Drive. Using a federal Housing and Urban Development grant, the foundation is installing a covered pavilion, walking track and playground equipment. FRF Associate Director Mary Jo McAnally sees the park as a demonstration of the foundation’s commitment to broaden the area’s rebirth.

With a vibrant central business area wellestablished, FRF is now turning its attention, in a more concerted way, to the western and northern sections of Fondren. That means promoting greater homeownership west of State Street and business development in the commercial district around State and Meadowbrook Road, McAnally says.

Fondren has gone from a district that is rebuilding its core to one tending to its edges.

The Broadmeadow Neighborhood Association, which includes residents between Meadowbrook Road and Northside Drive, serves an area with a cohesive identity that predates Fondren’s. Still, in a sign of Fondren’s cachet, the association’s website describes Broadmeadow as the “top of Fondren.” Not bad for a community made up only 15 years ago. ¢

Duling School

31

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ss

JOY

just

art

You dream it and we’ll create it!

661 Duling Ave. • 601.362.6675 Trish Hammons, ABOC w w w. c u s t o m o p t i c a l . n e t

ST. LUKE’S

METHODIST CHURCH

LOVING, LEARNING, LIVING in the Heart of Historic Fondren

Sunday School at 9am Worship at 10:15am

www.justjoyart.com

The Reverend Ricky James, Pastor

622 Duling Ave, Ste 205 in Jackson 601.368.9568 joy@justjoyart.com

621 Duling Ave. Jackson, MS 39216 601-362-6381 | stlukesjackson.org

Stay Red Carpet Ready 304 Mitchell Ave in Jackson | 601-366-4000 32

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Henry Torrence clothing

Free Pickup & Delivery 601.366.1453

PFire & Water Damage Restoration PClimate Controlled Storage P10 Locations to Serve You

0).+ Lamborghini 310 Mitchell Ave Jackson, MS 601.366.6403

Contact: 646.922.8463

henry@henrytorrence.com

circa.

urban artisan living

Now Open in Fondren homestead - body - garden - wear - vibe - taste

Stop in & shop for the holidays!

Blackberry Farm’s culinary delights available.

2771 Old Canton Road Jackson, MS in Historic Fondren, Mon-Sat 10-6 www.circaliving.com | 601.362.8484 Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

33

34

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

natural grocery OS N O GM

NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP

NO REFINED SUGAR

ITES NO NITR NO PESTICIDES

NO ANIM AL TESTIN G

NO HERBICIDES

• Deli/Bakery • Pet Care NO ANIM AL GROW TH H O R M ONES • Health & Beauty • Eco Home/Bulk • Herbs & Supplements • Fresh Organic Produce

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

35

When we opened our Fondren store in 2004, we knew the neighborhood had high expectations.

Our goal is simple: provide low prices everyday, along with the choice meats, fresh produce, and specialty items that Jackson residents associate with McDade’s Market.

Today, we’re extremely proud of our second store (and the two stores we’ve added since!) and we feel blessed by the opportunity to serve the Fondren community. Thanks to our customers – all over Jackson – for shopping local with us!

*UHJ DQG .DWK\ 0F'DGH

36

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

2010

Winter

Jackson Menu Guide

In This Issue: Aladdin Campbell’s Bakery Cerami’s Chimneyville Smokehouse Cool Al’s Cups Eslava’s Grille Fratesi’s Froghead Grill Haute Pig Hickory Pit

M44 M52 M38 M50 M53 M51 M53 M44 M39 M45 M46

High Noon Café Ichiban Ivy & Divine Last Call Mellow Mushroom MiMi’s Family & Friends Mugshots Nagoya Nandy’s Candy Ole Tavern Poets II

M47 M45 M51 M51 M40 M46 M41 M52 M53 M47 M48

Primos Café Que Será Será Stamp’s Stix The Irish Frog Time Out Underground 119 Vintage Wine Market Walker’s Drive-In & Local 463 Wingstop Wired Espresso Café

M42 M48 M52 M49 M39 M52 M49 M52 M43 M50 M53

Menu Guide (pages 37 - 53) is a paid advertising section.

Jackson Menu Guide

M37

Steak • Seafood • Pasta

Happy Hour

5-6 Half Off Cocktails & Beer Appetizers, Zuppa & Insalata Bruschetta - Diced tomatoes and basil with a slice of buffalo mozzarella on toasted bread.

Calamari - Slices of calamari fried and served with marinara sauce Antipasto - Provolone cheese, Italian meats, and variety of vegetables on a bed of lettuce surrounding a cup of creamy Italian dressing.

New Orleans BBQ Shrimp - Eight fresh gulf shrimp in a worchershire and butter sauce.

Cerami’s Stuffed Mushrooms - Four large mushrooms stuffed with our tasty melt-in yourmouth filling ~ topped with our chefs basil cream sauce.

Fried Mozzerella - Italian mozzerella cheese breaded in italian breadcrumbs and fried golden brown served with side of marinara Salad Wagon - Crisp mixed greens, fresh gorgonzola cheese, marinated onions, olive salad and creamy Italian or Italian Vinaigrette dressing.

Caesar Salad - Romaine mixed greens tossed in parmesan cheese and homemade Caesar dressing. Add Chicken or Shrimp Soup of the Day - Chef ’s Choice Soup and Salad - Cup of soup of the day and salad wagon

Early Bird Specials

$9.95 Tues - Thurs 5:30 - 6:30

Tortellini Alfredo - Spinach tortellini covered with creamy alfredo sauce.

Linguini with Garlic and butter Angel Hair and Pesto Add variety to your dish: Four Shrimp, Link of Italian Sausage, Chicken or Meatballs Substitute pasta for seasonal veggies

Carne & Pollo

(meat & poultry) AJ’s Spaghetti & Meatballs - Classic Spaghetti pasta with Cerami’s homemade meatballs 8 oz Filet with Pasta and Vegetables - Classic filet cooked to order with seasonal vegetables.

Veal Parmigiano - Breaded veal topped with mozzarella and Cerami’s tomato sauce over linguini pasta Veal Picatta - Breaded veal with a lemon & garlic butter sauce with capers and mushrooms with a side of angel hair pasta Chicken Parmigiano - Breaded chicken topped with mozzarella and Cerami’s tomato sauce over linguini pasta Chicken Picatta - Breaded chicken with a lemon & garlic butter sauce with capers and mushrooms with a side of angel hair pasta Chicken Alfredo - Breaded chicken on the side of linguini pasta and our creamy alfredo sauce.

Pastas

Pesce (seafood)

Baked Lasagna - Heavenly layers of pasta, beef, cheeses and spices.

Pasta Primavera - Sauteed seasonal vegetables served over linguini pasta Eggplant Parmigiano - Fresh breaded Eggplant served with Linguini pasta, topped with Cerami’s tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Cannelloni Florentine - Cheese, beef, and spinach stuffed in two homemade pasta crepes topped with alfredo sauce. One of our specialties!!!

Manicotti - Two homemade pasta crepes stuffed with blend of cheeses and spices topped with Cerami’s tomato meat sauce.

Linguini with Clam Sauce - Lots of open shell clams on top of linguini topped with a butter clam sauce and parmesan cheese. That’s Amore!!!

Shrimp Scampi - Succulent fresh shrimp sautéed in a garlic butter sauce served over linguini pasta Shrimp or Calamari Diablo - Fresh Shrimp or calamari with a spicy tomato sauce on linguini pasta.

Shrimp Cerami - Fresh shrimp sautéed in white wine cream sauce topped with capers, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms on top of angel hair pasta.

Cajun Pasta - Blackened tilapia & crawfish in a

cajun cream sauce on top of angel hair pasta.

Desserts

Tiramisu - Layers of imported mascarpone cheese and lady finger trifle delicately soaked in espresso with a hint of liqueur.

Italian Canoli - Italian pastry shell stuffed with sweet cheese filling and miniature chocolate chips Spumoni - Three Flavors of creamy ice cream: Cherry, Pistachio, and Chocolate Crème Brulee Cheesecake - Creamy vanilla custard cheesecake topped with a delicious caramel crust topping.

Italian Cream Cake - Homemade - moist cream cake with pecans and coconut. Finished with a decadent airy icing mixed with more pecans.

Serenity’s Chocolate, Vanilla or Strawberry Ice Cream

Lunch Hours:

Dinner Hours:

Fri. & Sun. 11am-2pm

Tues. - Sat. 5pm-9pm

SUNDAY BRUNCH 11am-2pm

We also accommodate... Corporate meetings...Birthdays...Rehearsal dinners...Catering, and much more. *Menu Subject to Change.

www.ceramis.net 5417 Lakeland Drive ~ 601-919-2829 ~ Flowood, MS 39232 M38

Winter 2010

jxnmenus.com

“

”

Steaks, Seafood and Irish Favorites!

PUB GRUB

blarney chips cheese sticks chips & dip loaded steak fries

free 6.95 4.50 8.00

turkey club chicken sandwich pubwich chicken, bacon, &

FROM THE POND w/ salad & bread

chicken tenders

7.95

fried green tomatoes 8.95

beefy nachos 7.95 hot wings 8.95/14.95 fried pickles 5.25 corn fritters 1.95 zesty shrimp 7.50 irish boxty 5.95

OUTTA THE CROCK

8.75 8.50 9.95 swiss 8.50

fish n chips panko shrimp shrimp n grits teriyaki salmon fire grilled shrimp

10.95 13.75 12.95 13.95 14.25

OFF THE GRILL

w/ salad, bread & side

smothered chicken 11.75 celtic chicken 12.95 BBQ chicken & corn salad 12.50 I.F. sirloin 13.95 dublin ribeye 22.95

w/ salad & bread

irish stew shepherd’s pie chicken pot pie

7.95 7.95 8.25

FRESH SALADS chicken & walnut steak fajita chicken ceasar

8.95 9.75 9.95

SANDWICHES

21.50 19.95 11.50

BURGERS:

Famous FrogHead Bread Chili Cheese Fries Sausage Queso Dip Homemade Cheese Sticks Boneless Wings Chicken Quesadilla Crawfish Quesadilla Chicken Nachos Fried Mushrooms Fried Pickles Cajun Popcorn Steak Nacho Quesadilla Soup of the Day

Hamburger in Paradise Jalapeno Mama Bacon Mushroom Swiss Burger Hurricane Burger Chili Cheese Burger Texas Hold ‘Em The Crabby Patty

SALADS: Bayou Salad Cajun Shrimp Caesar Chef Salad Black N’Bleu “Already Famous” Chicken Salad

WRAPS & SANDWICHES: Pacific Wrap Chicken Club Wrap Steak Wrap Chicken Caesar Wrap Santa Fe Wrap Ty’s Southwestern Wrap The Bullfrog Spectacular Chicken Sandwich The Firebelly Chicken Salad Sandwich

8.95 8.25 8.95

bread pudding cheesecake choc. monstrosity

6.95 4.95 9.50

Restaurant Hours: M-Th 11a-2p, 5p-9p F & Sat 11a-2p, 5p-10p | Sun 11a-3p - LIVE MUS I C E VE RY WE E K E N D -

507 Springridge Road in Clinton, MS

601-488-4185 | www.theirishfrog.com Jackson Menu Guide

PLATTER & ENTREES: Grilled Shish Kabobs Chicken Tender Platter Chicken On A Stick Country Fried Steak Catfish Platter Shrimp Platter Crab Cakes

TADPOLE MENU: Chicken Tenders Grilled Cheese Corn Dog Popcorn Shrimp Cheese Quesadilla

DESSERTS: Bread Pudding Mini Sundae Bourbon Pecan Pie Brownie Sensation

DESSERTS

w/ fries & pickle

reuben blarney burger o’patty melt

flaming yawn strip n shrimp bangers & mash

APPETIZERS:

SOUPS & STUFF: PO’ BOYS: Philly French Dip Froggy Cheese Steak Shrimp/Crawish Po’ Boy The Po’ Boy Classic Sausage Po’ Boy

Soup & Salad Red Beans ‘N Rice Seafood Gumbo Froghead Chili

121 Clinton Center Drive in Clinton Hours: Sun-Th 11a-9p, F-Sat 11a-10p 601-924-0725 | thefrogheadgrill.com M39

Mellow your world. Call us to cater.

Flowood, MS (601) 992-7499 Dogwood Festival Market Ask us about our GLUTEN FREE pizza!

For or our FULL menu & online ordering: www.MellowMushroom.com Twitter: MellowJACKSON - Facebook: Facebook.com/MellowJackson *V *Vegetarian Menu Items

Munchies $3.99 $5.99 $7.50 $6.50 $6.50 $7.35 $8.99 $8.50

Tortilla Soup* Bruschetta* Spinach & Artichoke Dip* Meatballs Hummus* Pretzels* Stuffed Portobello* Oven Roasted Wings

Calzones (Bigger IS better.)

Cheese* Steak & Cheese Chicken & Cheese House* - Stuffed w/ spinach,

$7.65 $10.75 $10.75 $10.50

Salads

M40

Winter 2010

Small 10” ~ Medium 14” ~ Large 16” Why are we nicknamed “THE CADILLAC OF PIZZAS”?

Size matters: Our medium is the same size as other’s “large”. Details matter: We ONLY use the healthiest ingredients in our dough - NO preservatives or refined sugars. Our red sauce contains only vine ripened, steam peeled tomatoes (not chemically peeled like most) and no added citric acid...because heartburn is a drag.

$13.75 - $20.99 - $25.99

House Special

Pepperoni, Sausage, Ground Beef, Onions, Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Black Olives, Tomatoes, Ham, Bacon & Extra Cheese

$13.25 - $20.50 - $25.50

Hey Dude

Ranch Base, Chicken, Bacon, Jalapenos, Cheddar & Buffalo Sauce Swirl

$13.25 - $20.50 - $25.50

Gourmet White*

vine-ripened tomatoes, mushrooms & mozzarella cheese Italian Stallion - Mozzarella, $10.75 Sausage Links, Ricotta, Roasted Red Peppers, Caramelized Onions & Spinach

Tossed Greek* Chef* Field Green* Caesar* Spinach The Brutus

Pizza

$3.99 ‘lil $6.25 reg $5.75 ‘lil $7.99 reg $5.75 ‘lil $7.99 reg $5.75 ‘lil $7.99 reg $5.75 ‘lil $7.99 reg $5.75 ‘lil $7.99 reg $9.50

Olive Oil & Garlic with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Provolone, Mozzarella, Feta, VineRipened Tomatoes & Onions

$13.25 - $20.50 - $25.50

Kosmic Karma*

Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach, Feta, Fresh Tomatoes & Pesto

Magical Mystery Tour*

$13.25 - $20.50 - $25.50

Pesto, Spinach, Feta Cheese, Jalapenos, Button & Portobello Mushrooms

Philosopher’s Pie

$13.75 - $20.99 - $25.99

Steak, Portobello Mushrooms, Artichoke Hearts, Kalamata Olives, Provolone, Feta & Mozzarella Cheeses on an Olive Oil & Garlic Base

Hoagies $5.95 half - $8.99 whole Capri* - Avocado* - Portobello & Cheese* - Tofu* - Tempeh* Irv’s Sausage & Peppers - Steak & Cheese Chicken & Cheese - Jerk Chicken - Old Skool Jerk Chicken Meatball - Chicken Parmesan - Mushroom Club All prices are subject to change. Please see website for current pricing.

jxnmenus.com

DRINK SPE CIALS

Grill & Bar ONO PUPAS Hawaiian for Great Appetizers Most of these delicious munchies are large enough to share …

CHA-CHA-CHIPS ‘n SALSA … 4.79 CHIPS ‘n ROTEL … 5.29 TEE’S CHEESE WEDGES … 6.99 SPENCER’S NACHOS … 6.99 SOUTHWEST EGGROLLS … 7.99 BUFFALO JACKS WANGS. … 7.59 CHUCK’S CLUCKS … 7.29 DAVIS’S DILL PICKLE CHIPS … 6.59 QUESADILLA ROLLS … 7.59 KATIE’S KICKIN’ CHICKEN BASKET … 7.59 O’ ONION TREE O’ ONION TREE … 5.79 BLANKENSHROOMS … 6.59 THE MOMBO COMBO … 9.79 AWARD-WINNING

MUGSHOTS GOURMET BURGERS A full half pound of choice ground round, grilled medium-well and served on a toasted sourdough bun with brew city’s very own beer battered fries MIDDLEBERGER … 8.29 PATO … 8.59 SAVELL … 8.59 add chili for .50

McDONALD … 8.59 STU’S MAGIC MUSHROOM … 8.59 GAMBLE … 8.59 WALKER … 8.59 TREVOR’S 1,000 ISLAND BURGER … 8.59 ANTHONY’S PEANUT BUTTER BURGER … 8.59 REISS … 8.59 BIG ROB’S 3 CHEESE BURGER … 8.59 COWART … 8.59 POWER … 7.99 PATTY … 7.99

SANDWICHES Served on toasted sourdough and served with brew city’s beer battered fries BOND … 7.79 PICOU … 7.79 BANCHERO … 7.99 COLIN’S CHICKEN CEASAR … 7.99 CAITLINS’ CAJUN CHICKEN … 7.99 CALLIE’S MAHI SANDWICH … 8.99 SCHMITTYS’ SHRIMP SANDWICH … 8.59 THE BEEFEATER … 7.99 THE BRISCOE INFERNO … 7.99 BIG BABY BLAINE’S COUNTRY FRIED STEAK SANDWICH … 7.99 … add sauteed mushrooms for .50 TUCKER’S PULLED PORK SANDWICH … 7.99 ... add a slice of cheddar cheese for .50 B.L.T.C. … 6.99 NANA’S CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH … 7.99 HOWARD’S “HILL BILLY” PHILLY … 7.79 THE HICKS … 7.79

SIGNATURE SALADS Choice of Ranch, Honey Mustard, Blue Cheese, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Thousand Island, Sesame Ginger, Caesar or Fat Free Ranch BUFFALO BLUE … 8.49 ‘CRANE SISTERS’ CRISPY CHICKEN … 8.49 GRILLED CHICKEN CAESAR … 7.99 CHICKEN SALAD SALAD … 7.99 BIG WILLIE’S PHILLY CHEESESTEAK SALAD … 7.99 RAJUN “HESTER” CAJUN … 7.99 sub fried shrimp for 1.49 CAESAR SIDE SALAD … 3.29 HOUSE DINNER SALAD … 3.29

JU LIKADA PASTA RAJUN CAJUN PASTA … 8.99 PARMESAN CHICKEN ALFREDO … 8.99 BULL’S PHILLY PASTA … 8.99

FOR THE MINI MUGS (12 and under please) KAYLA’S CHICKEN BASKET … 4.59 EMMA’S GRILLED CHEESE … 4.59 BISHOP’S BURGER … 4.59 HAILEY P’S EGG SANDWICH … 4.59

SIDES & MORE SIDES Beer battered French fries, onions rings, and grilled or steamed fresh veggies … 1.95 Mabel’s mashed potatoes … 2.25 Load ‘em up for .50

4245 Lakeland Drive in Flowood, MS 39232 | 601-932-4031 More info. on our award-winning gourmet burgers & sandwiches at www.mugshotsgrillandbar.com Jackson Menu Guide

M41

M42

Winter 2010

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Jackson Menu Guide

M43

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MEDITERRANEAN GRILL

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2.95 5.49 3.75 4.49 4.49 4.49 4.49 7.59 7.59 8.59

Add meat on your salad for 3.00 Add feta on your salad for 1.00

Appetizers

$ODGGLQ¡V 6SHFLDO 14.69 +XPPXV 'LS

3.95 %DED *DQXM 'LS 4.50 0XVDEDKD

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6KULPS 3ODWH 11.69 7LODSLD 3ODWH 10.69 0HDW *UDSH /HDYHV 3ODWH 9.69

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Appetizers

Bruschetta .....................11.95 Spicy Cheese Fritters ........8.95 Grilled Mushrooms with Garlic Bread ..............................7.95 Spinach & Artichoke Dip ...8.95 Meatball & Olive Salad ......7.95 Garlic Loaf & Red Sauce ....3.95 Tortellini in Chicken or Tomato Broth ...............................5.95 Angel Hair Soup in Tomato or Chicken Broth .................. 4.95 Antipasto .......................12.95 Fried Ravioli ....................7.95

3.99 4.99 4.99 4.99 5.49 5.49 5.49 3.75 3.99 5.49

Entrees

1.95 2.00 1.95 1.65 1.65 1.65

Spaghetti with Meatballs ..................Sm 10.95/ Lg 12.95 Spaghetti with Sausage ..................Sm 11.95/ Lg 14.95 Ravioli ........Sm 10.95/Lg 17.95 Beef Lasagna ..................12.95 Rigatoni Supreme ...........14.95 Vegetable Lasagna ..........11.95 Veggie Pasta ...................12.95 Seafood Lasagna .............16.95 Ricotta Stuffed Shells .....18.95 Cannelloni ..................... 14.95 Chicken Parmesan ...........12.95 Eggplant Parmesan ......... 11.95 Fettuccine Alfredo ..........11.95 Shrimp Alfredo ...............15.95 Chicken Alfredo ..............14.95

Visit our Website

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served with salad, hummus, rice and white or whole wheat pita bread

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9.69 &KLFNHQ 7HFND 11.69 &KLFNHQ .DEDE 10.69 6KLVK .DEDE 11.69 /XOD .DEDE 10.69 &RPELQDWLRQ .DEDE 13.69 *\UR 3ODWH 10.69 /DPE &KRSV 14.69 )ULHG .LEE\

9.69 +XPPXV ZLWK /DPE 10.69

Shrimp Scampi ...............15.95 Shrimp Marinara .............15.95 Veal Parmesan ................ 17.95 Veal Scaloppine .............. 17.95 Grilled Chicken & Angel Hair ..................................... 13.95 Grilled Chicken & Eggplant ..................................... 14.95 Tortellini Soup ............... 13.95 Fratesi’s Choice 8oz Filet..25.95 Fratesi’s Choice 14oz Ribeye ......................................25.95

Desserts

Tiramisu ..........................7.95 Canoli ..............................6.95 Blackberry Cobbler & Icecream ........................................5.95 That’s Amore Chocolate Cake ........................................6.95

A True Taste of Italy

Named one e pi Magazin of the Best Italian Rest aurants in Mississippi by Mississip

$INE IN OR 4AKE /UT 7E ALSO $ELIVER 6XQ 7KXUV DP SP )UL DQG 6DW DP SP

910 Lake Harbour Dr. Ridgeland | 601-956-2929 Open Monday thru Saturday 5 pm - until M44

Winter 2010

jxnmenus.com

(a very high-class pig stand)

BBQ Plates

(All plates are served with your choice of two of our delicious sides: garden salad, slaw, potato salad, American fries, baked beans or Brunswick stew, cool months only, and Texas toast)

BBQ pork shoulder (smoked with hickory wood for 12 hours, then pulled and lightly chopped) BBQ beef brisket (smoked with hickory wood for 12 hours, then pulled and lightly chopped) St. Louis style ribs (slow smoked with hickory wood and hand rubbed with our dry rub or served wet when basted with our mild bbq sauce) Half slab Whole slab (enough for two people and served with your choice of four of our sides) Half smoked chicken (served dry or wet when basted with our mild bbq sauce) Queenie’s half chicken (smoked and hand rubbed with our dry rub) BBQ chicken (pulled off the bone of our smoked chicken and lightly chopped) Combination plate (served with 1/2 chicken of your choice and 1/2 slab of ribs, wet or dry and four sides of your choice; enough for two) Special Sandwich Platter Choice of smoked chicken, pork, beef, ham, turkey or hamburger and two of our sides

Salads

CHEF Salad, mixed greens, tomato, egg, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, and your choice of ham and turkey, smoked chicken, pork, or beef w/ your choice of dressing (ranch, comeback, blue cheese, honey mustard, raspberry vinegarette, or oil & vinegar) Small CHEF

Po-Boys

Po-Boy Choice of pork, beef, chicken, ham, or turkey and one of our sides* (Dressed with lettuce, tomato and mayo) Club Po-Boy Smoked ham and turkey grilled with melted cheddar and swiss cheese and choice of one of our sides (dressed with lettuce, tomato and our special comeback dressing) Sausage Po-Boy Smoked pork susage dressed with grilled onions, bell peppers and mustard, and one of our sides*

Here’s the Beef Po-Boy Smoked beef brisket, sliced thin, piled high and topped with melted swiss cheese and caramelized onions, then dressed with lettuce, tomato, and sweet mustard; includes choice of one of our sides Add your choice of cheese to any Po-Boy

Sandwiches

(All sandwiches may be served on a regular bun, wheat bun, rye bread or Texas toast) Your choice of cheese, American, Swiss or cheddar may be added to any sandwich

Smoked chicken (pulled and lightly chopped then topped with slaw relish) Smoked pork shoulder (pulled and lightly chopped then topped with slaw relish) Smoked beef brisket (pulled and lightly chopped then topped with slaw relish) Smoked ham (grilled and served with lettuce, tomato &mayo) Smoked turkey breast (grilled and served with lettuce, tomato and mayo) Loaded hamburger (served with lettuce, tomato, pickles, grilled onions, mayo and mustard) Loaded double hamburger (served w/ lettuce, tomato, pickles, grilled onions, mayo and mustard)

SOUP & SALAD Miso Soup 2 Clear Soup 2 Seafood Tofu Soup (for two) 7 Squid Salad 5 House Salad 5 Seaweed Salad 5

LUNCH SPECIALS Soup or Salad Sushi Lunch 8.95 - 3pc sushi, fresh daily Sashimi Lunch 8.95 - 3pc, raw fish Sushi Roll 8.95 - Choose two rolls

COMBINATION LUNCH

Any 2 - chicken, steak, shrimp, scallops 14 Ichiban Lunch - chicken, shrimp, steak 16

HIBACHI LUNCH Soup, Fried Rice & Veggies Vegetable 9 Chicken 10 Steak, Shrimp, Tuna or Salmon 11 Scallop 12

Grilled cheese (your choice of cheeses) GINNY PIG, our signature sandwich (smoked ham grilled with Swiss and cheddar cheeses and served on grilled garlic toast with lettuce, tomato and our special comeback dressing) The ultimate club sandwich, (smoked ham and turkey grilled with swiss and cheddar cheeses on garlic toast and served with lettuce, tomato and our special comeback dressing)

Dessert

(All of our desserts are prepared right here in our kitchen)

Our famous Hershey Bar pie Lemon pie

Pecan pie Heated and served a la mode Coconut cake

Carrot cake Heated and served a la mode

* Spicy Mango Shrimp 7 - shrimp, mango & crunchy Alaskan Roll 5 - fresh salmon, avocado, cucumber * Crab Family 10 - spicy crabmeat * Dancing Roll 11 - shrimp tempura, cream cheese, avocado, soy paper wrap, crabmeat on top, eel sauce * Mississippi Roll 12 - spicy crab, avocado, cucumber, shrimp, crunchy wrapped with soy paper & special sauce * Lobster Roll 14 - lobster tempura, cucumber, lettuce, avocado inside with crazy sauce

HIBACHI DINNER Soup, Salad, Fried Rice & Veggies Chicken 17 Shrimp or Fish (salmon/tuna) 21 Steak 22 Filet Mignon or Scallop 23 Create Your Own Combo 25 choose 2 Per Plate Lobster Dinner (2 Tails) 31 Filet and Lobster (1 Tail) 32 Seafood Lover 33 Ichiban Dinner (for two) 50

SUSHI

* Cooked Roll * Crunchy Crab 5 - crab & crunchy * Spicy Crab Roll 5 * Spicy Shrimp Roll 5 * Salmon Skin Roll 5 - salmon skin, cucumber inside * Snow Crab Roll 5

NEW! Ichiban Roll 11 - tuna, crab, salmon, red snapper, avocado, masago, fried like a tempura, special chef sauce Crazy Tuna 12 - shrimp tempura inside, pepper tuna on top with wasabi mayo NEW! Tuna Lover 12 - spicy tuna, avocado inside fresh tuna on top with spicy sauce NEW! New York Roll 12 - spicy salmon, yellowtail, tuna, crunch and avocado inside, wrapped with soy paper NEW! Sushi Sandwich 12 - spicy tuna, avocado, eel, snow crab sandwiched in between seaweed & rice Out of Control Roll 12 - spicy salmon, cucumber inside, spicy tuna and avocado on top with chef special sauce NEW! Spicy Girl 12 - spicy yellowtail, cream cheese, avocado, fried w/ spicy crab and scallop on top Tokyo Roll 13 - crab ,tuna, yellow tail, salmon, white fish and 3 types of tobiko, soy wrapped, with chef special sauce

TERIYAKI

Soup, Salad & Rice Vegetable Teriyaki 12 Chicken Teriyaki 13 Shrimp Teriyaki 15 Beef Teriyaki 15 Salmon Teriyaki 16 Scallop Teriyaki 17 Filet Mignon Teriyaki 21

Eating raw/undercooked meat, poultry, seafood, shellfish or egg increases risk of food-borne illness.

1856 Main St. • Madison 601.853.8538

Jackson Menu Guide

153 Ridge Way, Flowood | 601-919-0097

www.ichibangrill.com

M45

Family and Friends (601)366-6111

Jackson’s Best BBQ JFP’s Best of Jackson

2003 • 2006 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010

Sandwiches

Extra Fixins

BBQ Chicken (chopped w/ slaw relish) Garlic Bread ............................. .85 ..................................................... 4.95 Brunswick Stew w/ homemade BBQ Pork (chopped w/ slaw relish) cornbread: 1/2 pint - 4.95, pint - 8.25, ..................................................... 4.95 1/2 gallon - 26.40, gallon - 49.50 BBQ Beef (chopped w/ slaw relish) Assorted Potato Chips ........... .95 ..................................................... 5.25 Onion Rings ............................ 3.55 Smoked Ham (lettuce, tomato & mayo) Fries (fresh cut taters) ................. 3.25 ..................................................... 5.75 Regular or Sweet Potato with cheese ................................ 6.95 Small Garden Salad .............. 3.85 Smoked Turkey (lettuce, tomato & mayo) (Come Back, Ranch, or Raspberry ..................................................... 5.75 Vinaigrette) with cheese ................................ 6.95 Chef Salad ............................. 10.75 Hamburger ............................. 4.35 (topped with cheddar and swiss (lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, cheese, boiled egg, smoked chicken or pickles & onion) with cheese ....... 5.50 smoked ham & turkey, with a choice Double Hamburger ............... 5.45 of Come Back, Ranch or Raspberry with cheese ................................. 7.25 Vinaigrette) Po-Boys your choice of Pork, Chicken, Beef, Ham or Turkey (lettuce, tomato, mayo & Ruffles) ........................... 9.50 with cheese ............................... 10.75

Tater Salad, Cole Slaw, Baked Beans, BBQ Sauce: single - 2.25, 1/2 pint - 2.95, pint - 4.59, 1/2 gallon - 16.80, gallon - 29.95

Grilled Cheese ........................ 3.75 extra cheese ................................ 1.25

Homemade Pies

Special Sandwich Platter ...... 8.55 (BBQ Chicken, Pork, Beef, Ham, Hamburger, or Turkey Sandwiches.

Choice of two fixins: garden salad, slaw, tater salad, home fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings or baked beans)

BBQ Plates Choice of 2 of our delicious fixins: garden salad, slaw, tater salad, home fries or baked beans and Texas toast!

BBQ Pork (chopped) ............. 11.75 BBQ Beef (chopped) .............. 12.25

Lemon or Pecan ..................... 4.35 Hershey Bar ............................ 4.95 Carrot Cake ............................. 4.50 Coconut Cake .......................... 4.95

2 Egg Breakfast - $4.50, $6.50 Full Quiche of the Day - $7.50 Cheese Grits - $2.50 Cp, $3.50 Fresh Fruit Plate - $6.50 Danish - $1.00 Biscuit & Butter - $1.75

Coffee & Drinks Drip - $1.75, $1 Refill French Press - $2 Sm, $3 Lrg Hot Tea Press - $1.75

Cuban Black Bean - $3, $4.50 Bowl

Salads

Dressings - Blue Cheese, Lemon Vinaigrette, Come Back, White Remoulade, Mediterranean Feta, Raspberry Vinaigrette or Ranch Club Salad - $7.25 Cobb Salad - $8.75 Fruit Salad w/ Grilled Cheese - $7.75 Honey Stung Chicken Salad - $6.75 Mimi’s Tuna Salad Plate - $6.75

Sandwiches

Desserts

Ask About Our Catering!

Salad Sampler Chicken, Tuna, Pimiento & Blue Cheese Egg Salad - $7.75 Salad of the Day Avocado w/ Chicken or Tuna Salad - $7.75

Served with Potato Chips (Side of Mimi’s Hot Sweet Garlicky Pickles for .50)

Serves 10 Adults .................. 44.95 (2lb. pork or beef or 2 whole chickens; 2 pints beans, 2 pints slaw & 6 slices of Texas toast or 10 buns)

We sell BBQ Pork, Beef, Ribs, Chicken, Ham & Turkey by the pound.

Milk - $1.50 Orange or Tomato Juice - $1.50 Soft Drink, Tea, Bottled Water - $1.25

Soups

Party Packs

1/2 Party Pack ....................... 23.75

Bacon, Ham or Sausage Biscuit - $2.50 Meat, Egg & Cheese Biscuit - $3.50, or Croissant - $5.50 Breakfast Panini - $5.50 Toasted Croissant - $3.00

Seattle’s Best Whole Bean Columbian

Ham/Turkey & Swiss Croissant $6.75 The Sammich on Wheat - $8.25 The Pressed Cubano on French - $7.75 Tuna or Chicken Salad on French $6.50

We also sell Whole Pies!

Pork Ribs (wet or dry) Rib Party Pack (serves 4) ....... 52.15 1/2 slab ..................................... 14.95 (2 slabs ribs, 1 pint beans, 1 pint slaw, 1 whole slab ................................ 25.95 pint potato salad, 4 slices of Texas toast) BBQ Chicken (1/2 cluck) .......... 11.95 Combination (1/2 cluck, 1/2 slab) . .................................................. 22.75

Breakfast

Bread Pudding, Brandy Sauce - $2.50 Lemon Chess or Pecan Pie - $2.50

Blue Cheese Egg Salad - $6.25 Gran Jenny’s Pimento Cheese - $6.25 Red Beans and Rice (Sausage) - $7.34 Entree of the Day - Price Varies

Cobbler of the Day - $2.50

Located in the Historic Fondren District 3139 No r t h S t a t e S t r e e t Cor ner N St ate/ H a r t field Tue s - F r i 7a m - 2: 3 0 p m S a t - S u n 7: 3 0 a m - 2 p m

w w w. m i m isfa m ilya nd fr iends.com M46

Winter 2010

jxnmenus.com

T Prize winning author, Eudora Welty, lived just around the corner until she was age 16. She frequented the store often and wrote a short story about it.

The store was converted into a restaurant/bar in 1973.

In 2008, under new ownership with some renovations, it was renamed “Ole Tavern On George Street”.

We have captured the essence of the South’s unique culinary flair and good ole fashioned home cooking inspired by the local fares of Jackson and New Orleans.

Cuisine ranges from Fried Green Tomatoes and Pimento Cheese Fritters to Seared Tuna Sandwich, Portabella Burger, and King George Burger to Gumbo, Red Beans & Rice, Fried Catfish and Country Fried Steak.

Our night life includes: Tues.-Open Mic, Wed.-Karaoke, Thurs.-Ladies Night with D.J., Fri./Sat.- a variety of live music from locals and bands around the country,

416 George Street Jackson, MS 39202 601-960-2700 www.oletavern.com myspace/oletavern (Call 601-960-2705 for Catering and Private Parties)

Restaurant: Mon.-Fri., 11a.m.-10p.m.

Sat., 4p.m.-10p.m.

Happy Hours: Mon.-Sat., 4p.m.-7p.m.

Bar Hours: Mon.-Fri., 11a.m.-2a.m.

Sat.,-4p.m.-2a.m.

Jackson Menu Guide

M47

Que Sera Sera Red Beans & Rice Three Time Grand Prize Champion!

Stop by between 11am & 4pm M - F to check out our expanded lunch menu!

Appetizers

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Burgers

with fries. Sweet potato fries $.75 extra. House salad for $1.

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Entrees

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Salads

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Desserts Sandwiches

with fries. Sweet potato fries $.75 extra. House salad for $1.

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1855 Lakeland Drive in Jackson 601-364-9411 | POETS2.NET

Follow us on Facebook!

M48

Winter 2010

Que Sera Gumbo Four Time Grand Prize Winner!

APPETIZERS FRESH BOILED SHRIMP ............... $15.50 FRIED GREEN TOMATOES ............ $8.50 FRIED GREEN TOMATOES WITH SHRIMP ..........................................................$12.50 FRIED GREEN TOMATOES with LUMP CRAB ................................................$15.50 FRIED CRAWFISH TAILS ................... $9.50 CAJUN POPCORN SHRIMP ............$9.00 CATFISH FINGERS ...........................$8.75 BREADED ARTICHOKE HEARTS......$8.50 FRIED MUSHROOMS .......................$7.95 BEAN & 3 CHEESE NACHOS ............$6.95 3 CHEESE NACHOS .........................$5.75 FRIED DILL PICKLES .......................$6.50 SLOPPY FRIES .................................$5.75 FRESH-CUT FRENCH FRIES ..........$4.75

GRILLED HICKORY CHICKEN...........$9.50 RED BEANS & RICE WITH ANDOUILLE .........................................................$7.95 (3 Time Grand Prize Champion) EXTRAS: ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE ......................$1.50 JALAPENO PEPPERS .......................$1.00 2 CHEESES ..........................................$1.00 CHOPPED TOMATOES .......................$1.00 CHOPPED ONIONS ...............................$.85 PIZZAS The Original Cajun Pizza COMBINATION .............................. $11.50 ACADIAN ......................................... $9.50 ITALIAN ........................................... $9.50

SUPER SALADS SHRIMP REMOULADE SALAD ......$12.50 GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD ............$10.50 LARGE HOUSE SALAD ....................$5.95

PO BOYS With fresh cut fries. Cheese $1 extra.

CATFISH ............................................. $8.75 OYSTER ..............................................$9.25 CRAWFISH .........................................$8.95 SHRIMP ..............................................$8.95 ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE ....................$8.50 SLOPPY ROAST BEEF (with Gravy)... $8.75 FRENCH DIP (with Au Jus) ............. $8.75 ROAST BEEF (with Horse Radish Sauce) ............................................................$8.75 GRILLED “CURE 81” HAM & CHEESE ............................................................$8.50

FROM THE GRILL Served with Salad & Garlic Pasta CHARBROILED RIBEYE (U.S.D.A.) ...$24.50 BAYOU RIBEYE (Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms)...................................$26.50 HONEY GLAZED PORK CHOPS ...... $17.50 (1 CHOP ONLY) ........................$12.50 GRILLED REDFISH (FRESH) .........$21.00 GRILLED SALMON (FRESH) ..........$19.50 GRILLED FISH TOPPINGS: SEAFOOD CREAM SAUCE .............$4.50 CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE ................... $4.50 ASK ABOUT CHALKBOARD SPECIALS

ON A BUN Dressed with Fresh Cut Fries GRILLED CHICKEN (with Bacon & Swiss Cheese) ................................................$8.75 THE WORKS BURGER ( Bacon, Cheddar & Mozzarella) .............................................$8.95 MUSHROOM & SWISS BURGER ...... $8.95 CHEESE BURGER (with Cheddar & Mozzarella)..........................................$8.50 BURGER BURGER .............................. $8.25 EXTRAS: SAUTEED MUSHROOMS ............... $1.95 SAUTEED ONIONS .......................... $1.95

PASTAS Served with Salad SEAFOOD PASTA (NATIONAL AWARD)....... ..........................................................$16.95 SHRIMP ALFREDO ......................... $13.50 SHRIMP CREOLE PASTA .............. $13.50 CRAWFISH & LINGUINE ................ $13.50 CHICKEN ALFREDO ....................... $12.50 SHRIMP & LINGUINE(GOLDMETAL) ........... .......................................................... $12.95 GARLIC PASTA ............................... $9.50

BRUNCH SAT. & SUN. 8:00 AM TO 4:00 PM Includes Braubant Potatoes & Muffin EGGS BENEDICT ........................... $13.00 (with Artichokes add $1.00) SEAFOOD OMELETTE ...................$14.50 CREOLE OMELETTE .....................$12.50 CRAWFISH OMELETTE .................$12.50 ITALIAN OMELETTE .....................$12.50 HAM & 3 CHEESE OMELETTE ......$11.50 BLEU EGG SARDOU ....................$16.95 CRAWFISH BENEDICT ................ $13.95

DUGGAN’S SEAFOOD GUMBO

4 GRAND PRIZE CHAMPIONSHIPS *advanced orders requested BOWL .................................................. $6.95 CUP ..................................................... $5.75 QUART ..............................................$24.50

CAJUN SPECIALTIES Salad $1.95 extra CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE ................ $10.95 SHRIMP ETOUFFEE .....................$10.95 SHRIMP CREOLE (SPICY)..............$10.95 CHOPPED SIRLOIN ..........................$9.50 (with Onions, Mushrooms & Gravy)

CHILDREN’S PLATES (for 12 and under) SHRIMP, CHICKEN OR RED BEANS........ ............................................................$4.95 GRILLED CHEESE (ON A BUN) .......... $3.95

2801 N State St. • Fondren • 601-981-2520 • QueSeraMS.com M-Th 11am –10 pm • F 11am – 11pm • Sat 10am – 11pm • Sun 10am – 9pm jxnmenus.com

Opens at 4pm Wednesday-Friday and 6pm on Saturday Entertainment starts at 8pm Wednesday-Thursday and 9pm Friday-Saturday Home of the blues, jazz, bluegrass music, and something or ’nother.

119 South President Street in Jackson, Mississippi | 601.352.2322

TASTE WHAT WE’RE KNOWN FOR or something a little spicy Try our signature dishes BRUSCHETTA

Roma tomatoes, spring onions, basil, garlic, balsamic vinaigrette and French bread with mozzarella cheese

CAESAR SALAD

Crisp romaine hearts with garlic, croutons and parmesan.

Add grilled chicken or shrimp

SEAFOOD GUMBO

Made fresh with a rich, dark roux & homemade shrimp stock, served hot over rice

PORTOBELLO FRIES

Lightly breaded and sliced portobello mushrooms served with a Creole dressing

SOFTSHELL 119

A softshell crab sauteed in our house seasoning and brown butter served on a slice of toasted French bread, topped with a poached egg and served with choron sauce

FRIED CRAWFISH TAILS

Seasoned crawfish tail deep fried and served with a Creole dipping sauce

SAUTÉED CRAB FINGERS

Sautéed in brown butter and blackening seasoning, served with French bread

UNDERGROUND WINGS

Four whole wings tossed in a citrus honey garlic sauce or poblano chili barbecue.

With ranch or blue cheese

BEEF EMPANADAS

Spicy beef with black beans and pepperjack cheese rolled in pastry dough and deep fried, served with malted cheese and salsa verde

CRAB QUESADILLA

SMOKED TUNA DIP

Made to order smoked sashimi tuna. A hint of spice served with toasted French bread

CRAB DIP

Backfin crabmeat topped with parmesan cheese, served warm with toasted French bread

NEW ORLEANS-STYLE BARBECUED SHRIMP

Shell-on large Gulf shrimp braised in homemade Creole barbecue sauce.

Served hot with French bread for dipping

ORANGE GARLIC SHRIMP

Large Gulf shrimp sautéed in an orange marmalade and minced garlic glaze, served with grilled baguette

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES Thick-sliced fried green tomatoes, topped with hollandaise sauce. Add lump crabmeat

FISH TACO MARKET PRICE

Flash fried in beer batter, served in a tortilla with hoisin aioli slaw & horseradish, guacamole and Pico de Gallo

THREE CHEESE AND CRAB STUFFED PORK LOIN

Seasoned roasted pork loin roulade filled with ricotta, parmesan and romano cheeses and sliced thin, topped with jumbo lump crab and rosemary beurre blanc

JUMBO LUMP CRABCAKE

Maryland-style jumbo lump crab cake sautéed and served with a roasted red pepper aioli

FILET OF BEEF ON GRILLED FLATBREAD

Jumbo lump crabmeat with red & yellow bell peppers and pepper Jack cheese, served with a red pepper aioli

Beef filet marinated and grilled, served on grilled flatbread and topped with sun-dried tomato chutney

SEARED SASHIMI-STYLE TUNA

LOLLIPOP LAMB CHOPS

Spice-rubbed tuna steak lightly seared, sliced thin with sweet sesame dressing

Three lamb “lollipops” panseared with rosemary and garlic, served with a mint yogurt sauce for dipping

Thoroughly cooking beef, eggs, lamb, pork, poultry or shellfish reduces risk of foodborne illness.

People with certain health conditions may be at higher risk if food is consumed raw/undercooked.

Jackson Menu Guide

M49

(601) 969-6400 (601) 605-0504 (601) 969-0606 952 N. State Street 398 Hwy 51 North 1430 Ellis Ave. Jackson, MS 39202 Ridgeland, MS Jackson, MS 39204 Order online - www.wingstop.com

COMBO MEALS

Wing Combo Meals are sauced and tossed and served up with Specialty Dip, Fries, and Beverage.

REGULAR WINGS 10 PIECE (1 flavor).............$8.99 BONELESS STRIPS 3 PIECE (1 flavor)...............$6.99 5 PIECE (1 flavor)...............$8.99

INDIVIDUAL WINGS

REGULAR & BONELESS WINGS 10 PIECE (up to 2 flavors) .....................................................$6.59 20 PIECE (up to 2 flavors) ....................................................$12.99 35 PIECE (up to 3 flavors) ....................................................$21.99 50 PIECE (up to 4 flavors) ...................................................$29.99 75 PIECE (up to 4 flavors) ..................................................$44.99 100 PIECE (up to 4 flavors) ................................................. .$59.49 BONELESS STRIPS 4 PIECE (1 flavor)..............$4.99 7 PIECE (2 flavors)............$7.99 16 PIECE (2 flavors).......$18.59 24 PIECE (3 flavors).....$26.59 32 PIECE (3 flavors)......$33.59 WING FLAVORS

ATOMIC, CAJUN, ORIGINAL HOT, MILD, TERIYAKI, HICKORY SMOKED BBQ, LEMON PEPER, GARLIC PARMESAN, HAWAIIAN Sauced and Tossed in your favorite flavor!

ICE COLD BEVERAGES ICED TEA/SODA 20 oz. $1.69 32 oz. $1.99 BEER Domestic $2.75 Import $3.00

FAMILY PACKS

Complete meals for large orders. Packs the perfect size to feed family, small gatherings and large parties.

REGULAR WINGS 35 PIECE (Up to 3 flavors) ......... ......................................................$25.99 Includes: 35 Wings, Large Fresh Cut Seasoned Fries, 2 Regular Specialty Dips, 1 Order Crisp

M50

Winter 2010

Veggie Sticks. Serves 3-5 50 PIECE (Up to 4 flavors) ......... ......................................................$37.99 Includes: 50 Wings, Large Fresh Cut Seasoned Fries, Large Side, 4 Regular Specialty Dips, 2 Orders Crisp Veggie Sticks.

Serves 4-6.

BONELESS STRIPS 16 PIECE (Up to 3 flavors) ......................................................$23.99 Includes: 16 Strips, Large Fresh Cut Seasoned Fries, Large Sides, 3 Regular Specialty Dips, 1 Order Crisp Veggie Sticks.

Serves 3-5.

24 PIECE (Up to 3 flavors) ......................................................$33.99 Includes: 24 Strips, Large Fresh Cut Seasoned Fries, Large Side, 4 Regular Specialty Dips, 2 Order Crisp Veggie Sticks.

Serves 4-6.

HOMEMADE SIDES

FRESH CUT SEASONED FRIES Regular.........................................$1.59 Large............................................$2.59 CREAMY COLE SLAW Regular.........................................$1.79 Pound...........................................$3.29 HOT CHEESE SAUCE.............$1.59 POTATO SALAD Regular.........................................$1.79 Pound...........................................$3.29 CRISP VEGGIE STICKS Celery & Carrots...................$0.89 BOURBON BAKED BEANS Regular.........................................$1.79 Large............................................$3.29 SPECIALTY DIPS Creamy Ranch, Chunky Bleu Cheese or Honey Mustard.

Great for wings (fries too).

Single Serving.........................$0.59 Large............................................$3.29 DINNER ROLLS Each..............................................$0.35 Half Dozen.................................$1.79

jxnmenus.com

Kitchen Open Late ‘Til 2 a.m. - Seven Days a Week

Your house for all Boxing, UFC and WWE Events Starting Lineup (Starters) Shrimp & Pork Egg Rolls 7.99 Cajun Spinach and Crawfish Dip 7.99 Last Call Quesadilla 5.99 Chili Cheese Fries 7.99 Beef Battered Onion Rings 5.99 Jalapeno Poppers 7.99

Kick-off (Signature Wings) Bone-In Wings - 7 for $6.99, 20 for 15.99, 50 for $34.99 Boneless Wings - 10 for $6.99, 25 for $14.99, 50 for $27.99 Signature Sauces - Fire, Hot, Mild, BBQ, Frank’s Chili Lime, Asian, All-Star, Bourbon

Touchdown (Burgers & Po-Boys) Mean Burger $6.99 Jalapeño Burger $7.99 Catfish Po-boy $7.99 Blackened Catfish Po-boy $7.99 Philly-Style Steak $8.99 Turkey Burger $7.49 Chili Burger $7.99 Shrimp Po-boy $7.99 Hot Roast Beef Po-boy $7.99 Club Po-boy $7.99

MVP (Panini Sandwiches) Roasted Chicken Panini $7.99 Roast Beef Panini $7.99 Club Panini $7.99 Meatball Panini $7.99

Wildcard (Salads) Garden Salad $5.99 (add-ons avail.)

Chef Salad $7.99 Blackened Catfish Salad $8.99 Taco Salad $7.99

Hall of Fame (Specialties & Platters) Nachos 8.99 Sampler Platter 11.99 Catfish Platter 9.79 Chicken Tender Platter 7.99

* Above is just a sample of our full menu. Prices, specials, menu selection and hours subject to change.

www.lastcallsportsgrill.com 1428 Old Square Rd in Jackson 601.713.2700

Jackson Menu Guide

M51

j a panese sushi b a r & h i b ac h i g r i l l

&OOD

Appetizers Crabmeat Tempura Almond Shrimp Soft Shell Crab Vegetable Tempura Shrimp Tempura Chicken Tempura

4.95 6.25 8.95 4.95 5.95 5.95

Grilled Yakitori Nigima BBQ Salmon Baked Seafood Shrimp Shumai Oshitashi Sashimi Appetizer

4.95 5.95 5.95 6.95 4.95 3.95 9.95

Soup Miso Soup Red Miso Soup Clear Soup

1.00 3.25 3.25

Noodles Tempura Udon Beef Udon Nabeyaki Udon Seafood Nabeyaki Udon Yakisoba

10.95 10.95 10.95 11.95 8.95

Lunch Specials Chicken Teriyaki Grilled Fish Sushi Lunch Special Chirashi Lunch Special Tempura Beef Teriyaki Shrimp Teriyaki

8.95 8.95 9.95 10.95 8.95 9.95 8.95

SALAD House Salad Oriental Salad

2.50 3.00

M-Th 11a-2:30p/5p-10p, F 11a-2:30p/5p-10:30p, Sat 12p-3p/5p-10:30p, Sun 12p-3p/5p-10p

6351 I-55 North | 601-977-8881 Winter 2010

Cheers!

Kir Royale The Perfect Party Cocktail

- 3/4 oz Créme de Cassis - Top off with Dry Sparkling Wine - Garnish with an Orange Peel or Twist of Lemon if desired

Please Drink Responsibly.

Sushi & Sashimi Dinner Sashimi Dinner 22.95 Chirash 19.95 Vegetarian Special 10.25 Chicken Teriyaki 14.95 Salmon Teriyaki/Grilled Fish 15.95 Seafood Tempura Dinner 15.95 Shrimp Tempura Dinner 15.95 Sushi/Tempura Comb0 16.95 Sashimi/Tempura Combo 17.95 Tempura/Chicken Teriyaki 14.95

M52

Nachos Burgers Soups Salads Hot wings Pasta and much more

3PECIALS

1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Ste. 1010 Ridgeland MS 39157 | 601.605.9199

next to Fresh Market at The Renaissance at Colony Park

Happy Hour

4-7 everyday .50 off bottle beer 2 for 1 all liquor drinks

10pm-midnight 2 for 1 everything except pichers and bottles of wine

Serving Jackson Since 1986 Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

6270 Old Canton Rd, Jackson

601-978-1839

w w w.t i m e o u tc a f e . c o m

Jackson

1801 Dalton Street (601) 352-4555 Fax: (601) 352-4510

Byram

5752 Terry Road (601) 376-0081 Fax: (601) 373-7349

jxnmenus.com

Eslava’s Grille Seafood, Steaks and Pasta

Ch ocolate Co vered St rawb erries For Every Occasion

Made Fresh Daily

Danilo Eslava Caceres Executive Chef/GM

2481 Lakeland Dr Flowood, MS 39232

601-932-4070 tel 601-933-1077 fax

4654 McWillie Dr. Jackson, MS Open Mon-Sat, 10AM - 9PM

AWARD-WINNING BURGER MENU Made with beef or turkey on wheat or white. Dressed w/ ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, lemon pepper & lettuce, tomato & onion.

- COOL AL’S CLASSIC - CHILI CHEESE BURGER - DELUXE BURGER - JALAPENO BURGER - ONION BURGER - COOL AL’S CLASSIC DOUBLE - COOL DELL’S - JALAPENO ONION BURGER - SINBAD’S BBQ BACON - MONEY NETTE’S MUSHROOM - VEGGIE BURGERS + Order of our fresh-cut fries or our sweet potato fries!

OPEN LATE

Fri & Sat: 10AM - Midnight Sun: 11AM - 5PM NOW SERVING BEER!

FREE WiFi Jackson Menu Guide

Celebrating 30 years of Sweet Success 1220 E Northside Dr Ste 380, 601-362-9553 M-Sat, 10am-6pm | www.nandyscandy.com

Looking for

Restaurants Coffee Shops Free WiFi Parks Day Spas Churches jackpedia.com

For up-to-date

Music Listings jfpmusic.com

Got an iPhone? jfp.ms/iphone

M53

n Baker

lumbia an & Co

y/Deli

Mexic

Serving Tortas • Tacos • Antojitos Burritos • Bebidas • Quesadillas Empanadas... And MORE!

LUNCH SPECIAL

$7.75 + Tax

3 Tacos & a Fountain Drink 1290 E County Line Rd (next to Northpark Mall) Ridgeland, MS 39157 | 601-983-1253 Hours: Open 9AM - 9PM Everyday

Locations in Ridgeland, Jackson, and Madison

www.beaglebagelcafe.com

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Jackson’s Most Authentic Mexican Cuisine

Book Congress Street for your next party!

120 N Congress St. in Jackson, MS

(601) 968-0857

M54

Winter 2010

Fuego To Go: 601-592-1000 Open 11am Until 7 Days a Week FIRECLUBJACKSON.COM

jxnmenus.com

BITES //

resident tourist

Story and photos by

Tom Ramsey

Lipitor Daydreams & Fried Food Fantasies

Above: Kitty Cook Ramsey - Special Diet Top Right: Arthur Jones - The Adventurer. Bottom Right: Ken Hodges - The Picky Eater

F

or our latest installment of the Resident Tourist, we didn’t have to wait for the shooting of a corrupt Nazi to round up “the usual suspects”; they were just a speed dial away. This go-round we had the “Picky Eater,” the “Special Diet,” the “Vegetarian’s Spouse,” the “Omnivore,” the “New Guy” and the “Adventurer” all ready to sample some of the best Jackson has to offer.

Since the “Big Guy” had recently switched to a medical fasting program, we excused him from the lineup and wished him well. This tour of delights to the lands west of State Street would have to soldier on without him.

With limited time for our gastronomical safari, we carefully picked three establishments that exemplify distinct elements of Mississippi soul food: Lumpkin’s BBQ, Bully’s

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

Soul Food and Ellis Seafood.

First stop, Lumpkin’s (182 Raymond Road, 601.373.7707). My wife, Kitty, and I are no strangers to this place, so we figured it was a good place to “break in” our crew to the pleasures of west Jackson soul food.

Lumpkin’s is the kind of place where everything is freshly prepared, macaroni is a vegetable, and the only thing served from a can is the root beer.

If they only served brisket, that would be just fine. The restaurant would be full every day, and I would still write stories about how good it was. But they do so much more.

On the buffet, you will find boiled okra, cabbage, greens, mac-n-cheese, dressing, lima beans, corn bread, baked chicken, fried chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder, rib tips,

fried catfish and brisket. I’m sure I left some things off, but I got tired from typing that list.

Lumpkin’s barbecue sauce has a distinct flavor that I’ve never had at any other barbeque joint. The traditional tomato/mustard/ vinegar trinity is there, but lingering in the background are hints of African and Caribbean spices you would expect in jerk sauce, so they come as a complete and pleasant surprise in barbecue sauce. I could put this stuff on tofu and be happy.

Our Special Diet suspect breezed through the line and had no trouble finding plenty to eat. At a place like Lumpkin’s, you don’t have to worry about mystery ingredients that might be lurking in a sauce or other preparation. Everything is pretty much in the category of “what you see is what you get.”

55

BITES // resident tourist

Lumpkins bounty (left) and buffet.

“Major Strasser has been shot.

Round up the usual suspects.”

–Capt. Louis Renault (“Casablanca”)

Our Picky Eater also had no trouble navigating the offerings. And our Vegetarian’s Spouse thought he had died and gone to a meaty, meaty heaven. As far as the Omnivore, the New Guy and me, we did just fine, too. Our only problem was remembering that we had one more place to hit after this one. Lumpkin’s is not a place where people go to pace themselves, unless that pace is a four-minute mile.

The ribs are succulent, the brisket a religious experience, and the chicken is so crispy I couldn’t resist tearing off a big flap of skin and fashioning it into a makeshift taco shell and filling it with mac-n-cheese. After the bones piled up and the napkins reached a level of landfill-choking humongousness, we called a timeout and reminded each other that there was still more food across town.

We waddled out to our respective cars, bid farewell to Special Diet and headed over to Bully’s (3118 Livingston Road, 601.362.0484).

56

Winter 2010

By the time Picky Eater and I arrived at Bully’s, our pals were waiting at a table, perusing the slip-covered menus, looking for at least one light option. They were out of luck. Under the unflinching gaze of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., one cannot fathom ordering a fruit medley or side salad with low-fat dressing here.

If you ever wondered if Bully’s uses fresh ingredients, you don’t have to look far to get an answer. In the little hallway off the back of the small dining room, we spotted a table filled with fresh turnips and turnip greens and a paring knife that were probably left there just as the lunch rush started.

The kitchen at Bully’s is a small affair, packed with people. At the helm is Tyrone Bully, the second-generation owner/cook/manager and traffic cop in the kitchen. The quality and sheer volume of food they produce from a kitchen about the size of a small bedroom is testament to a staff that has learned to work together and take direction well.

We sat at a six-top table and picked out two entrées, two sides and three desserts.

We were eating “light.” Our big, red, cafeteria plates came out of the kitchen quickly. One held a pair of smothered oxtails, fried green tomatoes, mac-n-cheese, cornbread and turnip greens. The other barely contained a fried pork chop, blackberry cobbler and banana pudding. At first, we just kind of sat there staring into the cholesterol abyss, but the aroma soon tempted us to double up on the Lipitor and just dig in.

The breading on the pork chop was perfect. Crisp, not greasy and salty with just a hint of black pepper. It fused with the meat and didn’t abandon the chop, even as it was cut into by four diners who thought they were full before. The oxtails melted in my mouth, a cooking feat that can only be accomplished by skill and patience. There is no shortcut way to properly braise oxtails. You just have to season them well to start with, and let the low and slow heat do its thing. Tyrone obviously has no issues with patience.

The rest of the meal proved just as masterful—the crunch of the cornmeal on the fried green tomatoes, the depth of flavor in the greens and the creaminess of the mac-ncheese. By the time we dug into the desserts, we had long passed sustenance and were falling head first into gluttony. But the food was too good to stop. Finally, the New Guy spoke up and pointed out the obvious: Unless we stopped, we would be forced to nap for the rest of the afternoon.

I don’t know what the rest of the crew did, but I did nap. I napped until dinner time.

For the last stop on the Soul Food Express, I was joined by the Adventurer. Setting the tone for dinner, he had me reach into a grocery bag on the console of his pick-up truck and taste a Cow Horn Pepper from his garden that we needed to deliver before our trip to Ellis Seafood (1041 Ellis Ave., 601.353.6956). More than any cup of stout coffee could ever do, the kick of the pepper knocked away all the sleepy-time cobwebs and brought me storming into the present—the here and now.

We safely delivered the peppers to a waiting cook who was making a pot of chili and made our way to the fish house on Woodrow Wilson and Ellis.

When you walk in the door, you know you are in for a treat. Everything on the menu is fried.

The whole place smells like a fresh hushpuppy, and there’s not a whiff of fishiness in the air. boomjackson.com

Owner Lam Phi Ho greeted us at the door puzzled by our camera and intentions. Since this was our first time at Ellis, we listened as some of the regulars placed their orders and just followed their lead. We initially ordered popcorn shrimp, pan trout and an oyster poboy, but after our ticket went to the back, the Adventurer spotted pork egg rolls and had to supplement our feast.

The staff called out our order number, and the Adventurer and I looked around the dining room and picked a spot with plenty of room for our bounty. We popped open the white Styrofoam “to go” boxes, doused some of the golden goodness with hot sauce and paused only long enough to snap a few pictures.

The regulars didn’t steer us wrong. The food was fresh, well seasoned and fried to a precise golden brown. There were no little burned bits that are generally a sign that the kitchen staff gave up caring a long time ago.

This food was done right and done quickly.

The “salads” were an afterthought and little more than a nest of iceberg, but the dressing was refreshingly light and bright, and made a great contrast to the richness of all the fried food. The oysters were crisp on the outside, but still wet and briny on the inside without the least hint of overcooked graininess.

I was most curious about the pan trout. It obviously wasn’t trout, and it certainly wasn’t cooked in a pan. The Adventurer and I agreed that it was a freshwater fish and that it tasted more like bass than anything else, but the shape was wrong, and freshwater bass isn’t commercially available.

Thanks to the interwebs and the Facebooks, I got an answer from Anne Scott Barrett. She informed me that “pan trout” is a generic name for any number of small freshwater fish caught in streams and rivers across the South. I want to believe her, but I’ll reserve judgment until I hear it from John T. Edge or Nathalie Dupree.

Like always, I wish I had time to eat at more places, but in this fast-paced world of hard deadlines, I was just able to scratch the surface of the great soul-food joints in Jackson. Stay tuned: Who knows what I might find out in the city next?

Tom Ramsey is the founder and co-owner of Ivy & Devine Culinary Group where he gets to dress up as a private chef, cooking instructor, caterer and mad scientist. In his spare time, he wears a cape and fights crime. For more information about Tom and all that he does, visit www.tomramsey.com.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

Ellis Seafood

Greens and porkchops at Bully’s

2010 Best of the Best Soul Food Winners: Best Soul Food Two Sisters Kitchen (707 N. Congress St., 601.353.1180); Peaches (327 N. Farish St., 601.354.9267); Mama Hamil’s Southern Cooking & BBQ (480 Magnolia St., Madison, 601.856.4407); Collins Dream Kitchen (1439 Terry Road, 601.353.3845); Lumpkin’s BBQ (182 Raymond Road, 601.373.7707)

Best Lunch Buffet Mama Hamil’s Southern Cooking & BBQ (480 Magnolia St., Madison, 601.856.4407); Two Sisters Kitchen (707 N. Congress St., 601.353.1180); Ichiban Grill & Sushi (359 Ridgeway St., Flowood, 601.919.8879); Country Fisherman (3110 Highway 80 W., 601.944.9933); Lumpkin’s BBQ (182 Raymond Road, 601.373.7707).

Best Local Fried Chicken Two Sisters Kitchen (707 N. Congress St., 601.353.1180); Julep (1305 E. Northside Drive, 601.362.1411); Mama Hamil’s (480 Magnolia St., Madison, 601.856.4407); Primos Cafe (515 Lake Harbour Drive, Ridgeland, 601.898.3400 and 2323 Lakeland Drive, 601.936.3398)

Vote for your 2011 choices at bestofjackson.com until Dec. 15, 2010 57

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Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

BITES // yum

Glorified Foodie

Food Gifts Mississippidistilled Cathead Vodka, $21.69, McDade’s Wine & Spirits

// by LeeAnna Callon

O

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

Natalie A. Collier

n the wall of Grady Griffin’s office at the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, a map of Mississippi dotted with red flags marks the locations of ProStart schools across the state where young people learn about the food-service industry.

Griffin, 39, the director of education for the MHRA, says the map is a reminder to get face to face with students as often as possible.

“Anytime that I am travelling, whether it’s specific to one school or just in our other realm of business travel, if we get near a school, I try to be sure and schedule a visit,” Griffin says. “It’s not so much for face time with the instructors, which is important, but it’s being able to talk for five, 10 or even 30 minutes in front of those students.”

ProStart is a two-year high-school program sponsored by the MHRA established to teach students the fundamentals of food-service safety, production and management. Upon completion, students receive a nationally accredited certificate, which allows them opportunities to access scholarship funds as well as articulation agreements with post-secondary culinary schools across the country.

“It makes a big impact on their lives when they have industry professionals come and tell them why it’s fun and cool and neat and worthwhile to pursue restaurant management or culinary arts as a bona fide career,” Griffin says.

Approximately 800 students statewide are currently enrolled in the program.

Griffin, a Jackson native, is no stranger to the industry, having worked in restaurants since he was a teenager in need of gas money.

Like most, he started at the bottom, scraping dishes at the old Iron Horse Grill as a “glorified bus boy.” After graduating from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, he worked his way through college waiting tables and bartending. From there, he got into management and just stuck with it.

Griffin has been an active part of the MHRA since he joined in 1997. He has served on its board of directors for almost nine years and has held his current position with the association for three years.

With 2,000 member locations throughout the state, the MHRA consists of everything from momand-pop diners to fine-dining establishments and everything in between.

The association also has franchise members across multiple states, hotels, casinos, and also associate members who are the service providers to the hospitality and restaurant industry, like Sysco and U.S. Food Service, as well as beer, wine and liquor representatives, and cleaning and linen-supply companies.

Self-proclaimed foodie Grady Griffin directs the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association’s ProStart program that teaches high school students culinary and food-service skills.

“If it’s hospitality industry-related, they are more than likely a member of our association, because all of the concerns are tied together,” Griffin says. “We’re only as successful as our member restaurants and hoteliers are.”

The association consists of three primary divisions: governmental affairs, member services and education

The MHRA education division has a loose definition, Griffin says. Instead of offering a list of services it asks for feedback from members and tries to create an educational program specific to their needs.

Though an avid hunter and a former golfer, Griffin prefers to spend his free time with his family, particularly his two boys, Will, 4, and Seth, 2 ½.

Food is a passion for Griffin and his wife, Amanda. When they get a free moment, the couple likes to spend time in New Orleans, dining out and trying to get around the state to new members’ operations and test their wares.

“I’m a complete foodie,” Griffin says. “I am unafraid to try anything. I think I have a very adventurous palate.”

Griffin not only loves fine food, but also good wine. After an intense two-day instruction, filled with sniffing, swirling, tasting and identifying, and a written exam, he became a certified sommelier.

“The fine-dining realm is certainly my favorite,” Griffin says. “That’s the cuisines that I enjoy eating and trying out, and if it involves wine, even better.”

Hal & Mal’s Comeback Dressing, $8, Hal & Mal’s Restaurant & Brewery

Mississippi Hot Sauce, $9.50, The Mississippi Gift Company

Mississippi Magnolia Pewter Gift Tin, $47.95, Indianola Pecan House

Edam Cheese, $18, Mississippi State University Cheese Shop

Where2Shop

Hal & Mal’s Restaurant & Brewery, 200 S. Commerce St., 601.948.0888, halandmals. com, Indianola Pecan House, 262 Dogwood Blvd., Flowood, 601.992.9338, 1200 E. County Line Rd., Ridgeland, 601.956.1305, pecanhouse.com; McDade’s Wine & Spirits, 1220 E. Northside Drive, #320, 601.366.5676; The Mississippi Gift Company, 300 Howard St. ,Greenwood, 662.455.6961, themississippigiftcompany. com; MSU Cheese Shop, 925 Stone Blvd., Mississippi State, 662.325.9687, msucheese.com.

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BITES // yum

Jesse and Nick’s Ultimate Fondren Adventure

Story and photos by Jesse Houston with Nicholas Wallace

Chefs Jesse Houston (left) and Nicholas Wallace (right) take a Fondren food tour.

W

e chefs had one task: Find a few places in Fondren to eat and then write about it. It started like this “Hey Jesse, it’s Nick. We’re about to hit up the entire menu at Aladdin. Plus, I got several bottles of wine.”

“I’m gonna need back up. Mind if I bring the gang?” Nick answered.

“Bring ’em on!”

Aladdin Mediterranean Grill (730 Lakeland Drive, 601.366.6033) Along with fellow Parlor Market chefs Craig Noone and Ryan Bell, I (Jesse) arrive at Aladdin early Monday evening where we’re greeted by Nick Wallace, executive chef at the King Edward Hotel, and a buddy, Stephanie Trigleth. Nick had with him several bottles of wine.

We also see a food rep for Parlor Market who apparently frequents Aladdin so often there’s a dish named after him: the Glynn. It isn’t the prettiest dish, but it’s a combination of all the best things Aladdin offers.

We all sat at a large table in the back, and our waitress greeted us with wine glasses.

Stephanie instructed her to bring us a little of everything.

Soon, our table was filled with small plates 60

Winter 2010

of hummus, baba ghanouj, lebna, baskets of pita bread, lamb chops, khibbeh, falafel, dolmas, spinach pie, fried haloumi cheese, tabouli, lula and basket upon basket of fresh pita bread.

We were amazed to find that almost everything was made in house, and it was all good. I loved the khibbeh (loaves of spiced ground beef with pine nuts and bulgur wheat), the lebna (a tangy yogurt dip with mint and sumac) and the lamb lula kabobs the best. The lamb chop was Nick’s favorite dish.

We ate until we couldn’t eat anymore, and then the server brought plates of freshly made baklava. The buttery phyllo dough simply melted in my mouth, with layers of honey and toasty walnuts. This may be Jesse and Nick’s favorite dessert of all time.

After we had a few great laughs at the table, I turned and aid to Nick: “I used to have baba ghanouj as a child.”

The others laughed, saying they were reared on box pizza and moon pies.

Somehow we managed to finish almost everything: the salads, the dips, the entrees, the desserts and, of course, the wine. It’s safe to say we left full and happy.

After dinner, we talked about food and the appreciation of talent we have in Jackson. We also shared stories of other chefs we used to work for, and how far we have come.

Nick and I made plans for our next Fondren food destination the following morning.

Mimi’s Family and Friends (3139 N. State St., 601.366.6111) The next morning, I drove to meet my comrade at Mimi’s, one of my favorite and now Nick’s favorite spots in Fondren, if not all of Jackson. Nick pulled up in his blingedout Impala, and we exchanged an assortment of high fives and hand shakes before leisurely strolling in.

Mimi’s is a cool little place. There are only a few tables, but you are immediately surrounded by the local art for sale. Chef and owner Jim Burwell greeted us, and gave us a seat in the corner.

He handed us a breakfast menu. (He prints his menus each day as the daily offerings change, depending on what great local produce he has or what he’s in the mood to cook).

Jim likes to try new dishes and techniques.

As he sat down to chat, dressed in his smudged apron and a Chane shirt, he gladly told us about it. Jim is proud of the area in which he chose to set up shop, and it shows.

We ordered breakfast. Nick got the tacos (not on the menu and only available to those in the know). With beans, cheese, over-easy eggs and homemade salsa, not to mention a side of Jim’s famous cheese grits, this dish is a must.

I got the breakfast sandwich, which comes with eggs, cheese and a choice of bacon, sausage or ham. Jesse got all three meats, a symphony of swine. We left full and happy.

Brent’s Drugs (655 Duling Ave., 601.366.3427) Brent’s Drugs is a Jackson must. It’s been in Fondren forever, and it’s not going anywhere, thanks to owner and good citizen Brad Reeves.

A simple lunch counter and soda fountain inside an old drugstore, Brent’s makes burgers and sandwiches the way they’ve been made for decades. And although they no longer sell prescription drugs, they do still have amazing ice cream and shakes.

The King Edward Hotel was hosting the first-ever Steel Chef Mississippi competition featuring chef Levi Minyard of Madidi Restaurant in boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

xxxxxx

Clarksdale versus hometown boy Craig Noone, so Levi was in town getting set up for the big day.

We knew we had to take him to Brent’s.

We ordered fountain drinks and bottled Coke and begin checking off almost one of everything on the printed menus: the salad sampler, the egg and olive sandwich, pimento cheese sandwich, ham-and-cheese sandwich, burgers and more.

Nick got a double-grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich, and I ordered the deluxe double cheeseburger served on a kaiser roll.

My burger was monstrous. The ham-andcheese sandwich was just like your mom made after school: almost perfect. All it lacked was some seasoning, but a salt shaker was nearby, and the problem was remedied.

Que Sera Sera (2801 N. State St., 601.981.2520)

Our last Fondren outing was planned for Que Sera Sera, a great place to hang out with friends on the patio.

I’d enjoyed an excellent meal and impeccable service the last time I was at Que Sera Sera, and we were looking forward to trying their award-winning red beans and rice with andouille sausage.

I hate to say it, but this time we got slow and sloppy service. More than one of us had our beverages spilled on the table by our waiter.

We ordered fried appetizers for the table— fried pickles, fried artichoke hearts and fried green tomatoes—and gave our waiter the order for our entrees at the same time. The wait was so long for our appetizers we began to think everything was going to arrive at the table at once.

We devoured our appetizers quickly. The fried green tomatoes were some of the best I’ve had with a nice, crunchy crust.

Most of us ordered the red beans and rice.

When they arrived, big sloppy messes of beans were placed in front of us. We all looked around, not sure what to do. Each plate had hardly any sausage, but had plenty of flavorless toasted French bread on top. The beans and rice were bland. The salt shaker and hot sauce made their way around the table, but no one was happy about it.

It was a mixed bag at best the day we visited, but we made the best of it, laughed and had a great time on the patio on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

61

BITES // spirits // by Lance Lomax A Drink (or Two) Downtown

T

he day I set out on my downtown hotel bar adventure, it had been a long day. I couldn’t help but think how nice it was going to be to wind down and enjoy a tasty beverage.

First stop: Hilton Garden Inn (102 N. Mill St.), better known as the King Edward.

Two big screens greeted my girlfriend and me with a Yankees v. Indians game, as we stepped onto the white tiled floor. A busy bartender steadily poured from the Lazy Magnolia taps behind the marble bar-top. We walked around, admiring the large black-and-white prints lining the sage walls.

We ordered drinks, found a table and looked over the menu.

The offerings looked nice, but the server quickly informed us several items were unavailable. The duck enchilada we wanted was on that list, unfortunately.

As soon as bar supervisor Patrick Hogan found a few minutes, he sat down for a brief chat and talked up his bar.

“It seems to be a bit classier place than most places. There’s no wood grain. Everything is marble tile and glass chandeliers,” Hogan says about what distinguishes the lounge from other hotel bars.

I agreed. For the person interested in networking, the King Edward lounge is the place to be.

Later, we headed a few blocks up Capitol Street to Clarion Hotel The Roberts Walthall (225 E. Capitol St.). The Walthall boasts a vintage elegance. Behind the bar, R.C. “Cotton” Baronich serves as resident mixologist. At 81, Cotton “doesn’t miss a beat,” bar manager Johnny Markham says. “He’s been here over 30 years.”

The menu at the Walthall is small, with only four or five items, 62

Winter 2010

but the bar manager says there are immediate plans to bring back the prime rib buffet for which they were once well known.

The Roberts Walthall offers live music every Thursday and Friday and is the place to be for the person looking to wind down (and to find some of the old Schimmel’s crowd). It’s a throwback in time: Its décor seems like it’s straight out of “The Shining.” And I was a little surprised at the $11 two-beer tab.

For the final stop of the evening, we headed back across to Amite Street and visited the Marriott Downtown (200 E. Amite St.).

Following the red carpet down a small set of stairs, we entered the Bristol Bar and posted up on a couple bar stools. The bartender, Brian Holten, was quick to offer pleasant conversation and first-class service.

The menu is a pleasure. The chicken quesadilla I ordered was paired with mixed greens.

The lounge doesn’t offer live music, but they are happy to play a CD, if you bring one in. The bar is an escape from reality—a place to mingle with travelers, as sojourners account for the majority of the clientele in the Bristol. It’s an excellent alternative to the library for a law student or someone needing to get some reading or studying done at the end of the day.

There was a shocker. My glass of Cabernet cost $14, but that was the only surprise.

Hotel lounges aren’t for the person trying to save a few dollars, but they make for an interesting escape. Visiting a hotel lounge is like going to another state without leaving your city. There are several other hotel bars throughout the city; visit them. More than likely, your venture will be something worth writing about.

boomjackson.com

Love Nest

by Lacey McLaughlin photos by Christina Cannon

J

ane Sanders-Waugh, a self-proclaimed introvert, spends her free time perfecting the expansive garden in the backyard of her home on Eastover Drive in north Jackson. A series of hobbit walls, trees and shrubs create a path to a koi pond and stone patio area with a hammock.

David, Jane’s husband and a self-taught carpenter, recently remodeled the home’s kitchen with the help of his two sons. The kitchen now features blue granite counter tops, a glass mosaic back splash and maple shaker cabinetry. The cottage-style home,

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

tucked away in a wooded enclave, feels like it is far outside the city limits. The home’s large windows accentuate the natural environment with artwork by local artists such as Vidal Blankenstein, David Lambert, Elizabeth Robinson and Bebe Wolf. Without walls, the dining room, living room and kitchen seamlessly flow together.

With Jane’s Zen sensibility and David’s traditional style with tinges of modernity stirred together, the Waugh home makes for a harmonious blend of eclecticism. Just the way they like it.

Clockwise from top: • The Waughs stand in the doorway that leads from the common area to the bedrooms, bathrooms and office. • David and his two craftsmen carpenter sons, John David and Michael, remodeled the kitchen. • Standing in the kitchen, one can look over to the living room, see the dining room table and take one step down into the den. • An entire wall is a magnet chalkboard. On it, Jane writes poems, random thoughts and inspirational quotes. • Jane and David stand in their expansive living area. In the background stands a tree installation by Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild member Bill Rusk.

63

from page 63

Clockwise from top: • The front entrance of the Waugh home is adorned by Jeff Goodwin woodwork of Jet Builds. • Jane’s backyardturned-garden creates a serene landscape the couple can look at through the living room’s panoramic windows. • Even the couple’s covered back porch has unique pieces like the African-inspired bust resting behind a piece of wicker furniture.

64

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Power Couples photos by Christina Cannon styling by Natalie A. Collier

B

ehind some of the strongest forces in Jackson often is an equally powerful partner. BOOM Jackson celebrates the men and women of Jackson who know that the power to turn our city into the best she can be is doubled when a dynamic duo sets their collective energy to the task. This issue, we salute the power couples of our city—and their faith, drive, commitment and fidelity to the city and to each other.

On Jane: Olive green silk jacket, $16; black satin skirt, $8, both from Orange Peel; jewelry and shoes, model’s own.

On David: Brown, wool plaid overcoat, $595; maroon plaid button-down shirt; $295, brown slide-in leather shoes, $255, multiplaid, wool pageboy cap, $115, maroon scarf, $45, cashmere-lined driving gloves, $126, all from Great Scott.

POWER COUPLE:

JANE SANDERS-WAUGH AND DAVID WAUGH

S

itting on her porch in the midst of a green oasis, Jane Sanders-Waugh jokes about her relationship with her husband, David. “Our subtitle should be: the power-struggle couple,” Jane says.

While the couple works as a team, Jane is technically David’s boss at Professional Staffing Group, a recruitment firm in Fondren she co-owns with Elizabeth Robinson.

The couple met through a mutual friend, Jo Hollman, while David was visiting Jackson from New York City, where he lived and worked as a community organizer and pastor in the Hell’s Kitchen community. After the couple married three years ago, Jane hired David as the firm’s recruitment manager when David broke his kneecap in a racquetball accident and couldn’t drive to job interviews. “‘You’re a preacher; you’ve been in the recruiting business for 30 years,’” Jane told him.

Jane, 59, who earned a law degree from Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

Mississippi College, originally started the business to contract legal work for local law firms. Over the years, the business expanded to include contracted work in all areas.

As recruitment director, David finds potential employees from all over the state and country for businesses and hospitals that need temporary or specialized workers. He is also the president of the Fondren Association of Businesses, an organization he helped start to strengthen Fondren’s business community.

He has seen it triple in size in just a year.

“Fondren has historically been a diverse business and residential community, and in many ways its one of the last surviving business and residential communities in Jackson,” David says. “It’s held on and stayed true to its funky nomenclature.”

David, 60, grew up in Burlington, N.C., and developed a passion for sharing his faith and encouraging others. He attended Gordon-

by Lacey McLaughlin Conwell Theology Seminary in Massachusetts and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In Hell’s Kitchen, he worked with residents and the business community to revive the economically depressed area. He says he is applying those past experiences to Fondren.

“Everyone who walked down the streets (in Hell’s Kitchen) knew him,” Jane says.

“Now the same thing is happening in Fondren.

He knows every merchant, and they all know him. Some call him the mayor of Fondren.”

While the couple is slow to talk about themselves, their collective passion for Fondren, its art community and the state as a whole punctuate every other sentence.

“I see Mississippi as a group that has moved past its history and embraced future possibilities in a way that other parts of the country still haven’t done,” David says. “Jane is somebody who has believed in the possibility of me being a part of that future.”

65

ATP[c^ab BX]RT (&&

Call today for your

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Welcome to Townâ&#x20AC;? Package!

For information on these properties and many more, call us at 601-982-8455 or visit us on the web at nixtann.com for a free MLS Search.

66

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

On Anna: Turquoise dress, $32, Repeat Street; red suede over-theknee boots, Shoe Bar at Pieces, $75; jacket, model’s own.

On Walter: Grey wool pants, $12; grey wool sweater, $18, denim jacket, $24, all from Repeat Street.

POWER COUPLE:

ANNA KLINE AND WALTER BIGGINS

A

nna and Walter are renaissance people in a renaissance marriage. She’s white; he’s black. They write, blog (quietbubble.wordpress.com and gritsandsoul.com), travel and immerse themselves in all things Mississippi. They are also connectors for cultural overlaps and have a collective desire to help re-shape how people think about the South.

The duo, both 34, got together in 2007 at the Crossroads Film Society when she was its director, and he led a children’s workshop related to making films.

They’re both Jackson transplants. She moved here from Memphis to do licensing at Malaco Records, and he came from Dallas to be a Millsaps College man, where he earned an English degree in 1999.

Anna currently works with the Mississippi Development Authority’s Film and Tourism office. Aside from that, she is a musician, songwriter, performer, photographer and filmmaker (“Memphis Mississippi,” 2007). Her husband, Walter, is a conceptual editor at University Press of Mississippi and has sat on the Governor’s Awards in the Arts Committee.

The couple says they are each other’s creative safety zones. And it’s a good thing, Anna says, because they “have their hands in a lot of cultural pies in Mississippi,” while living in Fondren and being creative in various genres.

— Jackie Warren Tatum

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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On Julia: Purple tiered sweater dress, $59, Material Girls; boots, model’s own.

On Jamie: Camel corduroy jacket, $27, striped button-down shirt, $12; vintage lion print tie, $8, Repeat Street; jeans and boots, model’s own.

POWER COUPLE:

JAMIE AND JULIA WEEMS

C

ontent listening to the coos of their 2-month-old son, musical matches Julia and Jamie Weems—who married two years ago and are an integral part of Jackson’s music scene—may have added another musician to the family.

On maternity leave from her job as a social worker at St. Dominic’s inpatient psychiatric unit, Julia keeps busy with baby and bands. A guitar player in two all-female bands, the Hot Tamales and Irish-focused St. Brigid, 68

Winter 2010

Julia, who had never performed publicly prior to joining the bands, thanks her husband for her involvement.

“Jamie inspired and encouraged me to develop that side, to develop my creative output,” Julia says.

A full-time musician, Jamie plays the mandolin and guitar and is a member of Horse Trailer, Johnny Bertram and the Golden Bicycles, and Strange Pilgrims, who all perform his original music.

by Charlotte Blom Jamie is treasurer of the Jackson Arts Collective and puts together a monthly contra dance at The Commons with the aid of federal funding. Additionally, for the second year in a row, he has organized a fais do-do, bringing in Cajun music-playing bands from Lafayette, La. “We’re both really committed to and excited about making Jackson the kind of community we want to live in. There are a lot of things going on here we really enjoy, as well as the things we can make happen,” Julia says. boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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POWER COUPLE:

DEREK AND JENNIFER EMERSON

D

erek Emerson knew right away that Jennifer was the one when they met while working at Schimmel’s in 1999.

Even before they married July 24, 2004, they bought Walker’s Drive-In Sept. 11, 2001, with a $5,000 loan against her car.

Fire devastated Walker’s Feb. 19, 2005, but the couple, thanks to insurance and generosity of business and community neighbors who held a fundraiser at The Cedars, was able to pay employees until they re-opened the restaurant.

Derek, 40, is the award-winning chef; Jennifer, 38, is the be-everywhere-businesswoman with a catering and serving background and an English degree from Belhaven Univeristy.

Employees work with them, not for them, the couple says. They foster respect and do things the “Walker’s way”; that is, everybody does everything they can to help each other.

In summer 2010, the Emersons opened Local 463, a restaurant in Madison, with business partner David Blumenthal.

by Jackie Warren Tatum Derek’s mother died when he was young; he grew up in Beverly Hills, Calif., where his father worked as a photographer for Michael Jackson for 10 years.

At 17, he returned to Meridian to live with his paternal grandparents and finish high school.

Jennifer, who’s from Brandon, says she doesn’t take life too seriously. She does, however, take motherhood seriously. Together, the couple is rearing their four children in Eastover.

On Jennifer: Blue and black print convertible tunic, $165, circa.; black leggings, $22, Posh Boutique, black wool hat, $78, circa.; necklace, model’s own.

On Derek: Navy blue travel blazer, $1,250; plaid button down, $295; brown glen plaid wool flannel trousers, $175, all from Great Scott; watch, model’s own.

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POWER COUPLE:

MICHELLE AND JODY OWENS

T

he first time I met Jody Owens and his wife, Michelle, was along the sandy shore of Negril, Jamaica, at the Winfred L. Wiser Conference sponsored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Michelle is a board-certified OB/GYN specializing in maternal fetal medicine. In fact, she is the only woman in the entire state of Mississippi with this specialty.

“We both really wanted to help people,” Michelle says. “Jody and I have found ways to do so utilizing our individual strengths and talents.”

Michelle is an assistant professor and the interim chair of UMMC’s Department of OB/GYN. Not only does she head an academic department, but she also maintains a clinical practice that focuses on high-risk pregnancies. Michelle serves on the Women’s Fund Board of Directors and a legislative task force addressing teen pregnancy.

Jody is a well-respected associate at Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

& Cannada, where I first got to know him. When he is not representing corporate clients, he serves as a special prosecutor for the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office handling complex criminal matters. Since graduating from Howard University Law School, Jody has coached the National Mock Trial team at Mississippi College of Law, for which he received the Barrister Award. He is also co-chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Mississippi Volunteers Lawyers Project.

Michelle and Jody are professional powerhouses and perfect partners. “My father went to University of Mississippi right after desegregation. He instilled in me the value of hard work and the importance of family,” Jody says of his father, Jody Sr. The couple, expecting their first child Christmas Eve, look forward to passing along their commitment to service, family and faith to the next generation of Owenses.

— Anita Modak-Truran

On Michelle: Black convertible dress, $150, black shawl with fur accent, $125, both Sami Lott Designs; black platform pumps, $90, Shoe Bar at Pieces; jewelry, model’s own.

On Jody: Relaxed purple blazer, $895; purple and white striped shirt, $245; dark-rinse skinny-leg jeans, $245; plaid tie, $85, all from Henry Torrence; shoes and watch, model’s own.

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POWER COUPLE:

CRAIG AND MICHELE ESCUDE

C

raig Escude and Michele Weigel Escude, ages 43 and 44, respectively, butted heads when they met in an immunology lab at Louisiana State University.

He was flaming the loop wrong in a lab experiment, she says. Even so, love sizzled.

After 20 years of marriage, Michele calls her husband, Craig, “a big ole Teddy bear.”

The couple draws strength and validate each other, they say. He plans, and she handles details. “When I let her do her thing, it works,” he says.

And “her thing” now—after being a full-time mom to teenagers Corinn and Gabriel—is birthing “a new baby” in Fondren: circa. Urban Artisan Living. With her extensive retail background—at four Feet First stores, where she was merchandise assistant at the New Orleans uptown store and the Metairie location—Michele is ready to bring circa.’s uniqueness into the Fondren neighborhood.

The store, which opened Oct. 27, 2010, is her coming out, so to speak. It extends the patina of their home and lives to others through handmade furniture, art, apparel and accessories, most with a story.

Craig, by day a physician at the Mississippi State Hospital and Hudspeth Regional Center, is a musician, wood worker and stained-glass artist. He’s also an exhibiting member and the former vice president of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi.

On Michele: Gray wool sweater dress, $14, Orange Peel; necklace, $22, suede tan wedges, $32, both from Lipstick Lounge; lime green wristlet, $70, circa.

On Craig: Black zipper-front cardigan, $395; red chambray button down shirt, $155, black and white plaid pants, $195, belt, $110; brown suede driving moccasins, $215, all from Great Scott.

— Jackie Warren Tatum

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

73

POWER COUPLE:

EDDIE OUTLAW AND JUSTIN MCPHERSON

W

hile living in downtown Memphis, Eddie Outlaw and Justin McPherson walked everywhere.

Justin, 30, went straight into cosmetology school out of high school and didn’t have a hard time adjusting to the move back to Eddie’s home state of Mississippi. Four years ago, the couple opened William Wallace Salon in Fondren. “We wanted a place that was small and intimate, more personable. A place where everybody felt comfortable to be who they are,” Eddie says.

Eddie and Justin, who have resided in the full-to-capacity revived King Edward Hotel for the past year, thank the Jackson community for making them feel welcome.

“The community is so great; we’ve been extremely blessed being accepted into the Jackson community. It’s the people,” Justin says.

Eddie, 39, volunteered as a “step and fetch” in OUToberfest 2010, organized by Unity Mississippi.

“I am proud to say we live in a city where we can work as an open couple—everybody knows the deal. Especially after all the bullying issues and Spirit Day. I think it says a lot for Jackson, you know a small-town city in the South …” Eddie says. “We don’t have to live in fear and shame.”

—Charlotte Blom

On Eddie (standing): Cognac suede blazer, $995, blue paisley print button down, $150, dark-washed, distressed jeans, $178, all from The Rogue.

On Justin: Blue print button down, $150, distressed jeans, $167, both from The Rogue.

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Where2Shop: circa., 2771 Old Canton Road, 601.362.8484; Georgio’s, 4500 I-55 N. #107, 601.982.3787; Great Scott, 4400 Old Canton Road, #101, 601.984.3500; Henry Torrence, Suite 205B, 646.922.8463; Lipstick Lounge, 304 Mitchell Ave., 601.366.4000; Maison Weiss, 4500 I-55 N. #109, 601.981.4621; Material Girls, 182 Promenade Blvd., Flowood, 601.992.4533; Orange Peel, 3026 N. State St., 601.364.9977; Posh Boutique, 4312 N. State St., 601.364.2244; Repeat Street, 626 Ridgewood Road, 601.605.9393; The Rogue & Good Co., 4450 I-55 N #A, 601.362.6383; Sami Lott Designs and Gallery, 1800 N. State St. 601.212.7707; The Shoe Bar at Pieces, 425 Mitchell Ave., 601.939.5203

On Betty: Suit by Maison Weiss, no longer available.

On Leslie: Suit by Georgio’s, price upon request.

POWER COUPLE:

LESLIE MCLEMORE AND BETTY MALLETT

D

r. Leslie McLemore asked Betty Mallett to dance at a Black Caucus convention in Washington, D.C., nearly 20 years ago. She declined his offer, doubting her dancing skills, but he sat and talked with her anyway. After a 10-year courtship, the couple married.

In Leslie’s hometown of Walls, Miss., he was a student leader, organizing his first successful boycott as a high-school senior. That was just the beginning of his civil-rights work, which exploded at Rust College where he helped start an NAACP chapter. He later volunteered with the Student Nonviolent Organizing Committee (SNCC) and participated in voter registration and boycotts.

A former 10-year City Council member and interim mayor of Jackson, Leslie fills many roles at Jackson State University. Among them, he is founding chair of the political science department, director of the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy, and at press time, he is the university’s interim president.

“All of the roles I have afford me the opportunity to help people, and that’s the most exciting aspect of what I do. Service is important, and I think more of us should engage in some form of it,” Leslie says.

Betty cites Barbara Walters and Diahann Carroll as two of her long-time role models. She graduated from the University of Southern Missisissippi with a journalism degree. But after covering trials for several years, she decided to attended law school at the University of Mississippi. Active in community organizations, Betty is an attorney with a private practice in Jackson.

— Charlotte Blom

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

75

We have everything you need for your Holiday Celebrations!

Always Drink Responsibly

Free Gift Wrapping • Gift Certificates Friendly Knowledgeable Staff Glasses To Loan • Case Discounts and a Quick Chilling Service available at

(Next door to McDade’s Market Extra) Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. • Maywood Mart Shopping Center 1220 E. Northside Dr. • 601-366-5676 • www.mcdadeswineandspirits.com

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BOOM Promotion

Fashion for Success Photos by David Johnston

O

n Nov. 12, 2010, BOOM Jackson partnered with Dress for Success Metro Jackson to host a benefit fashion show and after-party. Guests filled Duling Hall to see the latest fashions from Jackson’s premier local boutiques modeled by an eclectic mix of iconic and fresh faces. After the runway show, guests enjoyed fare from local caterers and

“fashionritas” served by celebrity waiters. Then DJ Phingaprint set the mood for a raucous party, with the lime-green runway turned into a dance floor. When the music stopped and celebrity servers had served all the “fashionritas,” guests left with swag bags heavy with goodies, including a limited-edition BOOM Fashion Show tank top or T-shirt.

Suit, Posh Boutique; shoes, Shoe Bar

Dress, Treehouse Boutique

Suit, Great Scott

Jacket, Orange Peel; jeans, Incense; shoes, Lipstick Lounge

Romper, Material Girls; boots, Shoe Bar

Dress, Charmz; shoes, Red August

Dress, Repeat Street

BOOM tank, High Voltage; all earrings, Jamie Nash

Wrap, Pink Lamborghini; shoes, Lipstick Lounge

Outfit, jewelry and shoes, CoatTails

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

77

BOOM Promotion

Outfit, jewelry and shoes, CoatTails

Corporate Sponsors:

Barbour International Cox and Evans Enterprises, LLC Star Grocery

Hair and Makeup:

S.Moak Salon William Wallace Salon Razor Sharp

Host Committee:

Jill Conner Browne Amanda Barbour Carol Burger Tonja Murphy

Outfit, The Rogue; shoes, Red August

Dress, Fashion Post; shoes, Red August

Outfit, Blithe & Vine

Suit, The Rogue

Dress and wrap, Sami Lott Designs

Julie Skipper Kelly Shannon

Courthouse Fitness Dillards Ella’s Jewels Fondren Nails Great Scott Haute Couture Jewelry Designs High Cotton Jackson Jewelers Jenny McNeil Photography Lia Sophia Jewelry Maison Weiss Miss. Craft Center Miss. Museum of Art MS Fitness Pro

Posh Boutique Scott Albert Johnson Shoe Bar at Pieces Stella & Dot Jewelry

Professional Staffing Group MS Fitness Pro Sephora S.Moak Salon

Adam Carson Bryan Grove Michael Lewis David Waugh

Swag Bag Goodies Provided By:

Models:

Shannon Barbour Natalie A. Collier

Celebrity Servers:

Jill Conner Browne Monique Davis Jeff Good Julie Skipper

Silent Auction Items Donated By:

Jill Conner Browne Belk Blues Candy Christina Cannon Photography

Dress, circa.

Outfit, Migi’s Boutique; shoes, Red August

Circa.

CoatTails Dress for Success Metro Jackson N.U.T.S. High Voltage Graphx & Apparel Jackson Convention Center

Dress, Bargain Boutique; vest, Lipstick Lounge; shoes, Shoe Bar

Jesse Crow Valley Gordon Nikki Martin Sandy Middleton JoAnne Prichard Morris Chanelle Renee Wendy Shenefelt Alexis Washington Jane Waugh

Dress, All About U

Outfit, Wilai; clutch, Red August

Show organizers/stylists:

Special thanks:

Duling Hall Duane Smith Knol Aust

Catering

See page 79

Outfit, Great Scott; mail carrier bag, Tangle Hair See all runway looks and store info at boomfashionshow.com.

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Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

catering by debbie

A Duling Hall Preferred Caterer Full-service catering with a combined level of experience that spans over 40 years in the catering field. We will fit all your formal, informal, business or personal catering needs.

Weddings - Business Luncheons Receptions - Corporate Events For more information or to book an event or for a menu consultation, call Debbie Rankin at 601-937-0630 Visit us on the web at www.cateringbydebbieinc.com

For all your special events and catering needs.

Book your private party today.

s (Oh Yeah: We still make a mean milkshake.)

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Gifts for Him & Her

by ShaWanda Jacome

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6 1, TOCCA CANDLE, $62, CoatTails 2. VERSACE SUNGLASSES, $245, The Sunglass Shop 3. ROLEX LADIES PRESIDENT (18k yellow gold and diamond), $29,050, Stein Jewelry Company 4. ROLEX OYSTER DATEJUST (steel, 18k gold and diamond), $15,950, Stein Jewelry Company 5. TOMS WOMEN’S GLITTER, $54, Libby Story & Company 6. LEXUS RX HYBRID 11 (FWD or AWD), base MSRP $43,235, Herrin-Gear Lexus 7. JAY STRONGWATER MIRANDA HEART LOCKET, $125, Persnickety 8. INITIALS THANK YOU NOTES, $12.50, Bridgette’s 9. FRINGE CANDLE, $14, Mosaic 10. LADIES ANDY WARHOL PERFUME, $160-230, Maison Weiss 11. RUFFLED ECHO TOUCH GLOVES, $35, Treehouse Boutique 12. ANN O’BRIEN STUDIOS HANDCRAFTED STERLING SILVER WIRE NECKLACE, $195, Mississippi Craft Center

Where2Shop

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Blues Candy by Elizabeth Robinson, 2906 N. State St. #330, 601.212.6635; Bridgette’s Monograms & Gifts, 2725 N. State St., 601.362.9947; Coat Tails, 111 W. Jackson St., Ridgeland, 601.853.1313, www.coattailsllc.com; Deville Camera and Video, 5058 Interstate I-55 N, 601.956.9283, www. devillecameraandvideo.com; Edwin Watts Golf, 820 E. County Line Road, Suite C, Ridgeland, 601.956.8784, www.edwinwattsgolf.com; Fondren Guitars

by Patrick Harkins, 607 Fondren Place, 601.362.0313, www.fondrenguitars.com; Herrin-Gear Lexus, 1685 High St., 601.985.3333 or 601.354.4099, www. lexus.com; Kinkade’s Fine Clothing, Olde Towne Square, 126 W. Jackson St., Suite 2B, Ridgeland, 601.898.0513, www.kinkadesfc.com; Libby Story & Company, 120 W Jackson St., Ridgeland, 601.717.3300, www.libbystory.com; Maison Weiss, 4500 Interstate 55, Suite 109, Highland Village, 601.981.4621; Mississippi Braves Official Store, Trustmark Park, 1 Braves Way, Pearl, 601.664.7633, www.msbraves.milbstore.com; Mississippi Crafts Center, 950 Rice Road, Ridgeland, 601.856.7546, www.mscrafts.org; Mosaic, 2906 N. State St., Suite 102, 601.713.2595; Persnickety, 2078 Main St., Madison, 601.853.9595; Stein Jewelry Company, 1896 Main St., Suite E, Madison, 601.605.8648; Studio Chane, 2906 N. State St., Suite 103, 601362.3547; The Sunglass Shop, 1250 Metrocenter Mall #101, 601.352.4990; Tangle, 603 Duling Ave., Suite 607, 601.987.0123; Treehouse Boutique, 3008 N. State St., 601.982.3433 80

Winter 2010

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13. Santorelli cufflinks, $125, Kinkade’s Fine Clothing 14. ‘I Heart Jackson’ t-shirt, $20, Studio Chane 15. ‘Who Dat’ necklace, $30-$40, Blues Candy by Elizabeth Robinson 16. Mississippi Braves 2010 autographed team ball, $14, Mississippi Braves Official Store 17. Adams Tight Lies Men’s 1014 Plus set, $499.99, Edwin Watts Golf 18. Men’s leather satchel bag, $175, Tangle Salon 19. Danelectro 12-String electric guitar, $399.99, Fondren Guitars 20. Olympus PEN E-PL1 (with standard lens), $599, Deville Camera and Video 21. Carthusia Numero Uno men’s fragrance, $85-$120, Kinkade’s Fine Clothing 22. Carthusia Uomo men’s fragrance, $85-$120, Kinkade’s Fine Clothing 23. Men’s suit, starting at $295; Silk ties, $65-$95; Silk pocket squares, $29.95-$69.95, Shirts, $79.95-$150, Kinkade’s Fine Clothing

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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Our expertise is understanding yours.

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MELODIES // soul

Sticking With It

neyville was able to secure a distribution deal with Atlantic in 1970, which put out records for the studio until 1974, when the Malaco Records label was born.

The first release, Jacksonian Dorothy Moore’s Grammy-nominated “Misty Blue,” became another big hit. “Jackson picked up on it first,” Stephenson says.

By 1979, Malaco was a fully independent record label, distributing and selling its records.

But it was during this time that the recording industry began to change.

“During the late 1970s, the big rock acts began selling millions of records on initial release and as a result, the artists who could not match this success—mainly southern R&B acts—were released from label deals,” Stephenson says.

At the same time, Stax was in its last days, and Malaco hired the label’s former promotion manager Dave Clark, who immediately hired former Columbia recording artist Z.Z. Hill, whose “Down Home Blues” became one of Malaco’s all-time biggest hits. “Again—right place, right time,” Stephenson says.

Stephenson says Hill’s hit “put us in a good position to continue on.”

On top of the monetary aspects, many artists dropped from other labels began looking to Malaco for a home. By the mid-1980s, legends such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Blue Bland and a host of others were recording at Malaco.

“I just couldn’t believe we were recording these guys,” Stephenson says.

As the 1980s progressed, Malaco moved into a new arena: selling gospel compilations with short advertising spots.

Malaco had been putting out gospel records since 1975, and upon buying failing California label Savoy Records in 1986, their gospel catalog doubled. Because Malaco owned most of the masters and copyrights in their gospel

NATALIE A. COLLIER

T

he story of Malaco Records is one of fate, adaptation and perseverance. Label owners and co-founders Gerald “Wolf” Stephenson and Tommy Couch Sr. met while in pharmacy school at Ole Miss in the early 1960s.

“It was fate that I would join the same fraternity and be in the same program in school as Tommy,” Stephenson says. “If it wasn’t for him, I would have never been in the record business.”

At Ole Miss, Couch was already booking bands and upon graduating, he moved to Jackson for work. Along with Mitch Malouf, Couch began to book bands in the city. Eventually, they decided to open a recording studio and, as fate would have it, Stephenson found himself in Jackson working at a pharmacy. By 1967, the three opened the studio “on a shoestring—working on a part-time basis,” Stephenson says. “At first, we would record anything and anybody.”

Neither of them knew at the time that Malaco would go on to garner national and international acclaim as purveyors of American soul music.

The studio’s break came in 1970, when New Orleans producer Wendell Quezergue brought a group of artists to record at the studio because of the difficulty of breaking into the recording scene in New Orleans.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” Stephenson says.

Out of these sessions came two of the studio’s biggest hits: “Groove Me” by King Floyd and “Mr. Big Stuff” by Jean Knight. Stephenson, Malouf and Couch shopped the records around to labels across the country, including Atlantic and the legendary Stax label in Memphis.

Every label, however, turned them down.

So they put the records out themselves on Chimneyville Records, the early incarnation of Malaco. With the two hits to their credit, Chim-

// by Garrad Lee

Gerald “Wolf” Stephenson has served as one of the pioneers on the Mississippi music scene through his work with Malaco Records. catalog, profit level was high.

“Malaco doubled in size. The run of success from the late ’80s into the ’90s was our heyday,” Stephenson says.

In fact, during this run, Malaco was the biggest Mississippi customer, money-wise, of the United States Postal Service.

More recently, Malaco changed directions once more. “Now we have become a distribution label, rather than a fully independent record label,” Stephenson says.

Just like in the label’s early days, Malaco found itself in the right place at the right time.

Artists who have recordings but no access to major label distribution networks now come to Malaco, which distributes music through Selecto Hits in Memphis, the iTunes store and Ioda, a digital distribution hub. Also, Malaco mails out its massive catalog to more than 250,000 fans four times a year. Certainly, Malaco has found a way to constantly evolve and make its presence felt in the ever-changing music industry.

“What we did right,” Stephenson says, “was grit our teeth and stick with it.”

COURTE

SY CHRIS

MYERS

Merry Christmas, Jackson

I

t’s the third year Jackson-based bands will deck the halls (on wax) for the holidays. Chris Myers and cohort Byron Knight are working on the third Jackson holiday album, “Merry Christmas, Jackson, Vol. 3,” scheduled for a mid-December release.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

The last two years, artists like AJC, Lizzie Wright and Johnny Bertram have sung about silent nights, white Christmases and grandma getting run over by reindeer.

This year, Myers expects even more Jacksonians to get involved.

“Last year, Emily Baker put

the CD together. But she’s moved away—in grad school—so she won’t be in town to help. But there’s still going to be a good showing,” Myers says of the special-release CD. “We’re planning to have a release party at Sneaky Beans. We’ll keep you posted.”

83

MELODIES // cross genre William Patrick Butler

Musical Do-Over

by Carl Gibson

L

ocal singer and energetic hip-hop artist Adam Jerrell Collier, known as AJC, performs intermittently around Jackson with his band, The Envelope Pushers. BOOM learned about future projects and some of the lesser-known quirks about the 25-year-old Brandon High School and Jackson State University graduate turned neo-soul brother and his ensemble.

It’s been a minute since we’ve last seen the Pushers perform. Are you gearing up for anything big?

Yeah, I really want to use the next 13 months to gear up for an album-release party at Hal & Mal’s. I know that’s a long way away, but I want to use the time to really tighten the band up. I’m planning to take the art full circle to a completely new direction. We’ve always been known as a rock band or a jazz band or a hip-hop/funk band, but I’m wanting us to go the route of neo-soul—a more laidback and chill kind of sound. But we’ve got shows (lined up before then) that we’re pretty excited about.

What kind of sound can we expect?

William Patrick Butler

We’ve been working up some different covers. We’re doing our own soulful version

of Sharon Jones’ “Not Gonna Cry,” with a little bit of John Legend in the mix. There’s going to be some reggae on the next album, too. It’s fun to get all the guys together and do our thing, except slowed down and chilled out.

Do you practice regularly? What are your rehearsals like?

Dude! Practices are so much fun. There’s a church called The Greater Tree of Life in south Jackson. They have a little building in the back they let us use for our practices, and it’s like a heatwave in there. You open the door, and you can feel the heat hit you in the face. But sometimes we’ll get so excited about even just the beginning of a song that we end up spending most of the night just playing that part over and over again.

Sounds like fun. But do you manage to actually get any work done?

You know, practices are productive, but it’s also a bonding session with the band.

Even though we spend time cutting up, snapping at each other, talking about each others’ moms and stuff, we always buckle down for several hours at least two or three nights a week and focus on a specific part of the set.

And now that we’re revamping the sound

Be AJC and The Envelope Pushers’ friend on Facebook at facebook.com/AJC and facebook.com/The-Envelope-Pushers-Band.

E

Accessible

Opera Elizabeth Buyan, executive director of the Mississippi Opera, is committed to showing Jacksonians and Mississippians the accessibility of the fine arts through opera.

Winter 2010

entirely, practices are even more important than before.

lizabeth Buyan’s love of the arts runs deep. After graduating from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, the native Jacksonian attended Belmont University in Nashville where she received a bachelor’s of arts in music. She then earned a master’s in voice and vocal performance at Florida State University in 2005. Then luckily for the city of Jackson, Buyan, 32, brought her love of music back home and became the Mississippi Opera’s executive director.

// by Holly Perkins

84

Vocalist and lead singer AJC of the band The Envelope Pushers says the group is changing their musical style and enjoying themselves while doing it.

What got you interested in opera?

was a musician, and she always said, “Don’t ever go into music.”

And, of course, you tell your kid don’t do something, and that’s exactly what they do. Opera has just always interested me because it includes all the art forms: It’s got the orchestra and the acting and singing and visual arts with the costumes and the scenery.

How did you get involved with the Mississippi Opera?

When I moved back to Jackson (in 2005) there was a job opening here at Mississippi Opera, so I applied, interviewed for it, and they hired me.

Growing up as a kid, my mom boomjackson.com

WILLIAM PATRICK BUTLER

More than Just Java // by Langston Moore

Sneaky Beans owner Byron Knight has created another spot for people to hang and just be cool.

S

neaky Beans coffee shop (2915 N. State St.) is not your normal, stuffy, latte-driven coffee shop. Coffee, for the most part, is the secondary force behind this quaint establishment’s success. For owner and lifelong Jacksonian Byron Knight, 30, music makes all the difference.

“When I returned to Jackson from earning my degree at Middle Tennessee State University, I was searching for a job in music production and engineering,” Knight says, explaining the genesis of “The Bean,” as his business is often called. “Mike (Peters) and the boys wanted a music scene in Fondren, and I knew I didn’t want to own a bar. That is when the coffee-shop idea came about. I had to do something.”

That “something” is now one of the hip-

What’s it like being a young woman with the important job of heading the arts organization?

It’s actually quite an honor, to be honest. This organization has been in Mississippi for 66 years, and it’s an honor that our board of directors and that this community has given me the opportunity to be the executive director of such an important piece of our cultural history.

What are some ways you’re working to get Jacksonians involved in fine arts?

We’re just trying to help everyone realize how relevant

pest places to hear local bands and singers like Wooden Finger, Taylor Hildebrand, Furrows and Horse Trailer.

Several factors have helped The Bean succeed, Knight says. “The atmosphere is not in a bar with tons of smoke. Being from Jackson, I know a lot of people, and they come just because they know me. It is the only place in Fondren to hang outside (on the back lot to play music) and still be in the city,” he says, smiling.

Because the venue is a non-bar setting, many bands in the city with young players have found a home.

“Parents are saying, ‘Yeah, sure, you can go to Sneaky Beans.’ They are confident in the atmosphere we have created,” Knight says.

Sneaky Beans’ support of local artists

the Mississippi Opera is to the arts community or community in general. It’s not just some elite 400-year-old art form; it’s really quite accessible. Like I said, with the fact that there is orchestra music in it, and there’s poetry in the song, and the vocal music, and the scenery, and costuming that’s involved, there’s something in it for everyone. It can be quite relevant.

What do you believe is the best part about going to the opera?

I don’t think I could pick just one part.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

does not end with music, though. Patrons can view works by visual artists on the coffee shop walls. “My belief in supporting local artists is that I know it is tough for them to make money.

I don’t charge an enormous hanging fee.” He only charges 15 percent. “Heck,” Knight says, “it makes the place look awesome.”

The shop owner’s degree in music production and engineering prepared him well for dealing with local bands. But what about the operations and coffee side of the business? With no business experience or coffee expertise, Knight called on several people to assist him with managing and growing the business.

On the marketing side of things, Leslee Foukal joined the Sneaky Beans team and began an online and social-marketing campaign, including Twitter and Facebook. “(Leslee) came in and started rocking with social media,” Knight says. “It has really improved business.”

But Knight has made savvy business decisions himself. When students left for the summer, during the coffee shop’s first year in business, he noticed that business slowed down. It was hot, and people were not walking through Fondren, he says. So he held the first Sneaky Fest July 25, 2009. It was an all-day, outdoor party with many of Jackson’s best-known performers taking the patio stage.

The atmosphere at Sneaky Beans is so laid back that it lacks structure, but Knight says sometimes that’s one of the best aspects of his business. Whether it is a taste for local art or a taste for local coffee (beans are bought from Oxford, by the way), find your pleasure at Sneaky Beans.

Sneaky Beans is on Twitter @sneakybeansjxn and Facebook at sneakybeansjxn.

What is your favorite opera?

My favorite opera is probably “La Boheme.”

When you’re not working, what type of music do you listen to?

I think I probably listen to more alternative music—alternative rock and talk radio, most of the time.

What advice would you give to a first-time opera attendee?

I would definitely suggest that you do just a little bit of background on it. We have supertitles that translate the opera for you.

Because a lot of operas are in Italian, German, French or some other foreign language, people think it’s unapproachable. If you do just a tiny bit of research—just know the story line a little bit; we print those and put them on our website— and you go in knowing a little bit of what’s going to happen, the music tells the story for you.

You don’t have to sit there knowing every single word that they’re singing, because with a general gist of the story, you can enjoy the acting, the singing and the orchestra.

Visit Mississippi Opera’s website at msopera.org.

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Events // cheer

3-5

7

Chimneyville Crafts Festival

at Mississippi Trade Mart (1200 Mississippi St.). Craftsmen display and sell their work. $50 preview party, $10 per day; children under 12 free; call 601-856-7546.

Josh Hailey: Jackson Retrospective

5 p.m.-midnight, at Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.). This will be Hailey’s final show in Jackson, showcasing his photographic work done in the past six years.

Free; call 601960-1557.

2

Fondren After 5

5-8 p.m., in Fondren. This monthly event showcases the local shops, galleries and restaurants of the Fondren neighborhood. Free; call 601-981-9606.

2-19

“A Christmas Carol”

at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). New Stage’s holiday tradition continues with this year’s production of the story of Scrooge, directed by Chris Roebuck.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3-4, Dec. 9-11 and Dec. 15-18, and 2 p.m. Dec. 5, Dec 12 and Dec. 19. $18; $15 seniors/ students; $10 kids 12 and under; call 601-948-3533.

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Winter 2010

4 City of Jackson Holiday Parade

Noon, in downtown Jackson. The parade includes floats and a visit from Santa. Free; call 601-960-1084.

Walk of Grace, 8 a.m., at St. James Episcopal Church (3921 Oakridge Drive). Proceeds benefit Grace House, an HIV/AIDS transitional facility. $25, $30; call 601-353-1038.

4-5

Gingerbread Workshop for Families

Lighting of the Bethlehem Tree

5:15 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). In Trustmark Grand Hall. St. Andrew’s Cathedral Choir performs Christmas music, followed by the tree lighting ceremony.

Free, donations welcome; call 601960-1515.

8:30 a.m., at Viking Cooking School (1107 Highland Colony Parkway). Decorate pre-constructed gingerbread houses with candies, gumdrops, peppermints, sprinkles, cookies and more. $59; call 601898-8345.

Best of Jackson ballot due Vote at bestofjackson.com

17-19

9~ 12

“A Christmas Dream”

Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes

at the Mississippi Coliseum (1207 Mississippi St.). Disney characters such as Tinkerbell, Snow White and Ariel come to life in the musical.

Show times vary. $15 and up; call 601-353-0603 or 800-745-3000.

at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Ballet Magnificat! presents its 25th annual production to the music of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker.” Show times are 7 p.m.

Dec. 17, 3 p.m.

Dec. 18 and 2 p.m. Dec. 19. $10-$30; call 601-977-1001.

“The Nutcracker”

The Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet performs their version at the Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center (4908 Ridgewood Road) at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Dec. 4 and 3 p.m. Dec. 5. Attend a tea party at 2 p.m. before each 3 p.m. performance. $18-$25; call 601-853-4508 or 601992-9016. Ballet Mississippi performs their version at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.) at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and 2 p.m. Dec. 5. A tea party will be held before the Dec. 5 performance. $10-$25, $20 tea party; call 800-595-4TIX. .

10

New Year’s Eve Gala

“A Night of Musical Artistry”

7 p.m., at Alamo Theatre (333 N. Farish St.). The Mississippi Jazz Foundation hosts performers including Lalah Hathaway and Michael Burton. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster outlets and BeBop. $35; call 601-594-2314.

7:30 p.m., at Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.).

Enjoy music by The Krackerjacks, dinner, a Champagne toast and breakfast, dancing and party favors.

Proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. $150, $275 set of two; call 601-966-9474.

JACKSON AREA EVENTS UPDATED DAILY AT JFPEVENTS.COM.

POST YOUR OWN EVENTS OR SEND INFO TO EVENTS@BOOMJACKSON.COM

boomjackson.com

COURTESY JOSH HAILEY; FILE PHOTO; MAS CAROL – JOY KATE LAWSON AS TINY TIM AND JAY UNGER AS SCROOGE AT NEW STAGE THEATER; CLIP ART; MS METROPOLITAN BALLET NUTCRACKER RH EA; BETHLEHEM TREE ANGEL; DISNEY ON ICE; LALAH BY JONATHAN MANNION; CLIPART

december

Time to enjoy all the unique and special events that the holidays bring to town.

Events // celebrate

RIVERDANCE PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS; PREMIER BRIDAL SHOW BY MAXIE; SUSANA PHILIPS PHOTO; DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BY DICK DEMARSICO, WORLD TELEGRAM STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER; CLIPART CONDUCTOR PHOTO; URBAN BUSH WOMEN BY AYANO HISA; CIRQUE DREAMS ILLUMINATION PHOTO; ALFRED HITCHCOCK PHOTO BY FRED PALUMBO

january

Happy New Year, 2011! It’s time to look forward while honoring the past.

15

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Parade

7-8

10 a.m., at Freedom Corner (intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Medgar Evers Blvd.). The annual parade features bands, performers and local celebrities. This year’s theme is “Dr. King’s Dream: The Truth Marches On!” Call 601-960-1090.

Riverdance

at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). The Irish dance troupe will perform live. Show times are 8 p.m. Friday, and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday. $27.50-$57.50; call 800-745-3000.

8

Mississippi Blues Marathon and HalfMarathon 7 a.m., in

downtown Jackson. The event includes a full marathon and a half-marathon. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Mississippi Blues Commission. Registration prior to the race is required for all runners. $20-$105 registration fee; call 601-664-5726.

The Premier Bridal Show Weddings & Celebrations

noon, at Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.).

Mississippi’s top wedding professionals will be there. Great door prizes, a New Yorkstyle fashion show, and sampling galore make this show the must-do for today’s brides. $22 in advance, $25 at the door; call 601-957-1050.

&

7:30 p.m., at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Selections by the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra include Claude Debussy’s “Iberia,” Maestro Crafton Beck’s “Old English” and “Letter from the End of the World,” and Prokofiev’s movie score for “Alexander Nevsky” featuring mezzo-soprano Catherine Keen and the Mississippi Chorus. $30 and up; call 601-960-1565.

16

A Touch of Class Bridal Show and Expo

11 a.m., at Mississippi Trade Mart (1200 Mississippi St.). The event sponsored by Mississippi Bridal Show and Expo includes food, entertainment, a fashion show and workshops. Vendor booths are available. $20; call 601-988-1142.

Cirque Dreams Illumination

at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Marvel as 27 world-class artists illuminate objects, balance on wires, leap structures and redefine flight with entertaining variety, comedy and extraordinary occurrences that reinvent everyday life. Special effects ignite urban acrobatics, dazzling choreography and brilliant illusions performed to a stylish original score of jazz, salsa, ballroom, pop and trendy beats from the streets. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. $27.35-$70.95; call 601-981-1847.

Exhibits at the Mississippi Museum of Art End (380 S. Lamar St.).

This is the last day to see “River and Reverie: Paintings of the Mississippi by Rolland Golden” and “Cabbagetown: Photographs by Oraien Catledge.” Museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday from noon5 p.m. $3-$5, children under 5 and museum members free; call 601-960-1515.

14

Susanna Phillips: A Gala Benefit Concert

Bravo III: Images from Around the World

19-20

7:30 p.m., at Wesley Biblical Seminary (787 E. Northside Drive). The Metropolitan Opera soprano performs during the benefit for the Mississippi Opera and the Mississippi Chorus. $40; call 601278-3351 or 601-960-2300.

&

Week of Jan. 24: Best of Jackson week!

Awards announced in JFP Jan. 26 issue, then invite-only party Sunday, Jan. 30.

Location TBA.

17

Urban Bush Women

25 (through Feb. 6) “The 39 Steps”

at the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center (100 University Ave., University) at 8 p.m. A performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. It weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of African Americans and the African Diaspora, and explores the transformation of struggle and suffering into the bittersweet joy of survival. Call 662-915-7411.

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). Written by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted by Peter Parlow, the comedy play is about a man on the run after being accused of murdering a spy.

Show times are 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 25-29 and Feb. 2–5, and 2 p.m. Jan. 30 and Feb. 6. $25, $22 students/ seniors; call 601-948-3533.

JACKSON AREA EVENTS UPDATED DAILY AT JFPEVENTS.COM.

POST YOUR OWN EVENTS OR SEND INFO TO EVENTS@BOOMJACKSON.COM

87

Events // drama

The month of love and giving and gushy stuff.

11

“The Orient Expressed: Japan’s Influence on Western Art, 1854–1918”

at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). The Orient Expressed, the 11th presentation of The Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition Series, explores the cultural phenomenon known as Japonisme, through the presentation of more than 200 works of art from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibit is part of the Donna and Jim Barksdale Galleries for Changing Exhibitions. $3-$5, children under 5 and museum members free; call 601-960-1515.

Bacchus Ball

7 p.m., at the Country Club of Jackson (345 Saint Andrews Drive). Enjoy a creole cocktail buffet, live and silent auctions, and music by 14 Karat Gold.

Seats are limited. Proceeds benefit the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi. $125 seated reservations, $250 unseated reservations; call 601-957-7878 or 877-DFM-CURE.

Black Hearts Ball

~

“Mamma Mia!”

at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Catherine Johnson’s funny tale unfolds on a Greek island. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover her father’s identity brings back three men from her mother’s past.

Shows are at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. $27.35-$70.95; call 601-981-1847.

1726

SOUPer Bowl XIV

11 a.m., at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum (1150 Lakeland Drive), in Sparkman Auditorium.

Buy soup and help The Salvation Army fund its feeding program. Soup can be purchased in a regular bowl or a Gail Pittman bowl for an additional cost. $25; call 601-982-4881.

*

9 p.m., at The Commons at Eudora Welty’s Birthplace (719 N. Congress St.). If your heart is black and you hate pink hearts, join MissiHIPPY for the annual event. Dress in your favorite Gothic costume (Victorian, Edwardian, Steampunk, Ero-Lolli, Raks Gothique, etc.) and enjoy all that is dark and creepy. Win a prize for the best devilish pin-up look. Artists are welcome to sell creepy artwork. $5; visit myspace. com/missihippy.

Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts

“The Three Sisters”

at Belhaven University (1500 Peachtree St.) in the Blackbox Theatre. John Maxwell directs Anton Chekhov’s tragicomedy. An opening night reception follows the Feb. 17 performance. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, Feb. 18 and Feb. 23-25, and 2 p.m. Feb. 19 and Feb. 26.

Complimentary admission for Belhaven faculty/staff/students and immediate families. $10, $5 seniors/students/children; call 601-965-7044.

HeARTS Against AIDS

6 p.m., at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). The benefit includes a huge live and silent auction of Mississippi’s bestknown artists with live entertainment and cuisine catered by dozens of local restaurants. $35, $25 students with ID; call 601-668-6648.

1 p.m., at the Mississippi Arts Commission (Woolfolk Building, 501 N. West St., Suite 1101A). The annual awards program is a celebration of Mississippi artists and arts organizations, sponsored by the Mississippi Arts Commission and Gov. Haley Barbour. Honorees include Gwen Magee and Pinetop Perkins. Free; call 601-359-6031.

Sahara Zoo: A Collection of African Folk Tales

at the Mississippi School For The Blind and Deaf (1252 Eastover Drive).

The puppet show is a production of Puppet Arts Theatre and presented by the Mississippi Puppetry Guild. $6, $5 children; call 601-977-9840.

88

Winter 2010

Dixie National Rodeo and Livestock Show

Tunes, Tutus and Turning Wheels

at Mississippi State Fairgrounds (1207 Mississippi St.). The 46th annual event includes rodeo clowns, bull fighters, barrel racers, bull doggers and ropers competing in various events. Watch for the entertainment lineup announcement. Ticket prices vary, free livestock shows; call 601-961-4000.

Wild Pursuit for the Cure

7 p.m., at Country Club of Jackson (345 Saint Andrews Drive). The black-tie event includes wild game cuisine, a cocktail buffet, live and silent auctions, and music. Proceeds benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Ticket price TBA; call 601-956-7447.

7:30 p.m., at Belhaven University Center for the Arts Concert Hall (835 Riverside Drive). Enjoy an integrated evening of arts showcasing various local artists with and without disabilities: dancers, musicians, choreographers and visual artists. $10 suggested donation, $5 seniors/students; call 601-965-7044.

Jackson area events updated daily at jfpevents.com.

Post your own events or send info to events@boomjackson.com

boomjackson.com

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89

MY LOCAL LIST

9

Nifty Notions

{ Arthur Jones } The very definition of a renaissance man, Arthur

Natalie A. Collier

1. Old House Depot (639 Monroe St., 601.592.6200) – For interesting and unique items for art projects and home repair, there is no better place in the Jackson area to shop.

cooks, cleans, shops and is a Mr. Fix It musician. That doesn’t even take into consideration his day job. Spend a Saturday with Arthur through his local list.

1

2. Ethnic grocers at Bel Air Shopping Center (Highway 80

W.) – Whether it’s baba ghanouj or znood es-sett I’m whipping up, these stores are likely to have the spices and other ingredients I need for the dishes’ authentic flair.

2

3. Pearl River Sandbars – This is a

great place to take your best friend— your dog, of course—for a swim.

4. Montgomery Hardware (2801

Old Canton Road, 601.366.4441) – Whatever I need for my DIY projects, Ace has it.

5. The Greater Belhaven Market (929 High St.) – Fresh eggs and vegetables always make for a pure, delectable delight.

3

6. Agriculture Museum

(1150 Lakeland Drive, 601.713.3365) – Every second Saturday of the month, you can do a little blacksmithing with the Mississippi Forge Council (and me).

7

5

7. Hutto’s Home and Garden Center (1320 Ellis Ave.,

601.937.2277) – Redoing your yard?

You need Hutto’s. Need something to do on a Saturday afternoon? Mill around and create a project.

8. Smoking some ribs while watching football – Every now and then, you need a little red meat and football—an alpha male’s American dream.

4

6

9. Saturday afternoon porch jam – For the best time and an

opportunity to enjoy the fellowship of friends and family, spend some time on the front porch watching passersby and having a jam session.

8, 9

90

Winter 2010

boomjackson.com

Work. Live. Play. Prosper.

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