The Holly Springs City Cafe: Gone but not forgotten

    I was thinking about the Holly Springs City Cafe the other day. It’s said we don’t appreciate things until we don’t have them any more, and that’s certainly true of the City Cafe.
    I’m not sure how old I was when I first remember going to the City Cafe. I would guess 9 or 10. Cokes were served in 6.5 oz. bottles along with a glass of ice. I was always a little frustrated by the small bottle size, but at the same time the Coke from the smaller bottles seemed to taste better. They used to say they put the same amount of syrup in the 6.5- and 10-ounce bottles.
    The City Cafe was owned and operated by Juanita Jones. She either inherited it or owned it jointly with her late husband, who I think might have been named Ed. He was quite a bit older than her, which says something since I don’t remember her being that young. I don’t remember him ever saying anything. He just said at the cash register and took money. I think Mr. Jones died around 1975.
    There aren’t many restaurants that offer fresh vegetables, but the City Cafe did most days. They would buy them from local growers who would drop them off or perhaps off the back of the many pickup trucks that used to park across from the Post Office. I haven’t seen a pickup with produce for sale in quite a while; not sure what happened to the fresh vegetable supply.
    Most of the pies that were offered for dessert were homemade, or restaurant-made anyway. The late attorney John Kennedy would always ask when the pie was made and it was always “Made fresh this morning.” This really wasn’t true as sometimes the pie was a day or two old; it took some detective work and careful interrogation to ferret out which pies were truly just made. I don’t like coconut, but I remember liking Juanita Jones’ coconut pie.
    My junior year in high school I arranged my class schedule so that I could leave school at noon and work at my dad’s office. A few people have engaged in a campaign of lies and innuendos against me by suggesting that perhaps I didn’t expend too much effort on the job. Don’t believe them!
    I do remember that my work day almost always began with lunch at the City Cafe, sitting at the back table with Dad, John Kennedy, Ralph Avent, Hamlet Yarbrough and his cotton buying partner Mr. Allen, along with a host of others who joined in on an irregular basis.

• Keeping up with the conversation was a bit like trying to follow a game of Ping Pong. Somebody might mention almost hitting a deer on the way to work; another might mention they heard Thus-And-So got in a wreck; etc., etc. with the subject changing every minute. One day Ralph Avent declared “I could have killed two this morning” to everyone’s puzzlement. You see, at the start of the conversation somebody had mentioned almost hitting a deer; the conversation had moved on, but Ralph hadn’t.
• Ralph had the same order every day: “I’ll have what Sidney got.” One day my dad ordered and Ralph turned to him and said, “Sidney, you know I don’t like turnip greens!”
• Mrs. Jones was slightly hard of hearing and would repeat everything you said, changing only the pronoun. If you said, “I’d like the pork chop and mashed potatoes,” she would start writing the ticket while saying in a fairly loud voice, “You’d like the pork chop and mashed potatoes.” One day my brother Lanier found a worm in his squash – a hazard when using fresh vegetables – and very quietly pointed out to Mrs. Jones that there was a worm in his squash. Mrs. Jones responded: THERE’S A WORM IN YOUR SQUASH! So much for being discreet.
• The City Cafe always had French fries that were nice and crunchy and done. They had a great hamburger and a really good club sandwich, which cost $3.50 with fries included. One day my dad lavishly complimented Mrs. Jones on her fine sandwich by telling her that he had paid $6 for a club sandwich at the Cincinnati airport the day before and it wasn’t nearly as good as her club sandwich; he spent quite a bit of verbiage in telling her how fine her sandwich was. The next day the price of the club sandwich was increased from $3.50 to $6.
• If someone got a dessert that was particularly good, a friend might ask for a taste. My dad never did that. On the other hand, if someone declared that something tasted awful, Dad usually said, “Lemme see.”
• One day the conversation made me think of a joke I had read in a men’s magazine. It was a clean joke, mind you, so I threw it into the fray. John Kennedy, sitting at the other end of the long table turned and said in a loud voice, “So, you read Hustler, too!" My 15- or 16-year-old face got pretty red after that.

    The City Cafe had a fine breakfast as well and different time slots would draw a different crowd. There was always a big crowd for breakfast, a smaller crowd mid-morning, then a big lunch crowd for about 90 minutes, and then a small crowd around 3 p.m. This was before the day of coffee places on every corner, but the City Cafe had Starbucks beat. And their iced tea was always perfect.
    Perhaps I’ll think of some more stories later on, but I sure do miss that place!

The power of friendship: In four days, Stella review becomes my most read blog post of all time

    People who love Oxford love good restaurants. My favorable review of Oxford’s newest restaurant, Stella, was published Wednesday morning. By midnight Saturday it had been directly accessed 7,160 times, making it the most read blog post I’ve ever written over the course of almost 10 years.
    I’m able to see how many people view my blog and I couldn’t figure out how or why so many people were reading the Stella review. Then I visited restaurant owner Johnny Kirk’s Facebook page and saw where he had not only posted it, but that it had been shared more than 40 times. It pays to have friends!
    Coming in second, with 7,102 direct page views, is a post I wrote several years ago about PSAT National Merit estimated cutoff scores. There is intense national interest in this, so I got a lot of hits from Google.
    My third most-read blog post of all time tells about Wild Bill Schneller thumbing nose, starting fight at 1938 Arkansas game. I wrote this post a number of years ago about the father of a friend, and each year before the Arkansas game it starts to get hits on its own. I made a point of posting it on Facebook this year, as did several others. It has 4,826 lifetime hits, but more than 3,000 of those are in the past month, again due to the fact that a number of young Bill Schneller's friends shared the blog post.
    Some of these “hits” may be from web “bots,” of course. On the other hand, quite a number of people access my blog directly. I still get one or two visits a day from people who click on the link on the late Tom Freeland’s old blog, NMissCommentor.com. At one time I got 15 or 20 visits a day from Tom’s blog.
    To put all of this in perspective, I sometimes write blog posts that get fewer than 100 direct hits (sometimes I don't post them on Facebook). But the hit numbers are really all over the place, from a few hundred to just over a thousand. Only a few posts have gotten over 2,000 direct page views.
    It’s interesting to see the power of social media. But it’s also interesting to see the power of friendship and the desire of people to share good news. Friendship is powerful stuff!

Oxford Grillhouse has great steaks, but next time I'm going to try the Mr. Phat's Chinese menu

    I visited the Oxford Grillhouse the other night with my daughter Lucy. It was the first time I've visited since it opened on the Square.
    I give them a solid B, and the steak a solid A-plus. Others might not grade the steak so high, for reasons I'll explain in a moment. But I thought the steak was outstanding.
    I didn't order from the Chinese menu that the Grillhouse has on Thursday nights. They have arranged for Mr. Phat -- formerly of Two Stick and before that Ruby's Chinese Restaurant -- to prepare a few of his specialties on Thursday nights. Ruby's was one of my favorite Chinese restaurnts ever -- the other was in Cayce, South Carolina -- and I can't wait to make a Chinese night of it.
    Now for a couple of negatives, some of which can be cured with wiser ordering.
    First quibble: the Grillhouse has joined Boure' in using stemless wine glasses. These are nothing more than water tumblers, and I don't care for them. Fortunately I was able to get a stemmed glass for my second order. So if you prefer a stemmed wine glass, ask for it.
    Second quibble: I ordered the wedge salad, and was surprised that it had what appeared to be a good bit of French salad dressing. I pulled the menu up after I came home and found that the wedge salad comes with "a touch of sweet balsamic drizzle." I didn't get a touch; it was a slathering, and pretty much ruined the salad. In the end it was my partially my fault for not studying the menu more carefully. A wedge salad should have nothing but blue cheese (or preferably, Roquefort) dressing.
    My steak was outstanding and cooked a nice medium-rare. It was well seasoned, and might be a little too seasoned for some, but perfect for me. I always get a little Worcestershire Sauce for my steak, but mine really didn't need anything else. It had a good bit of coarse salt, which for me is a bonus; I love salt. But if something is salty enough for me that means it is too salty for most people. So salt-haters might request that they use an easy hand with the salt.
    Lucy ordered the Redfish Stuffed with Crawfish & Asparagus, served over risotto. The fish was outstanding, but Lucy hated the risotto. I took a taste and hated it, too. I realize some may say "hate" is a strong word, but the risotto remained uneaten.
    For dessert Lucy and I shared a molten lava cake with ice cream. We enjoyed it.
    Although I've mentioned a few things I didn't like, I'm looking forward to going back. Oxford Grillhouse does an amazing job with steaks, but next time I'm going to try the Chinese menu.

Oxford Eagle Feature: Forty years later former student tips Mistilis waitress, with interest

   I bought a year's subscription to the Oxford Eagle last Friday. I had been buying it off and on from the rack, and I had an electronic subscription, but the fact is more times than not I wasn't reading.
    Monday my first copy arrived in my driveway with the story about a student who was a regular customer at Mistilis Restaurant on College Hill Road back in the early 1970s. He wasn't a big tipper. He just didn't have much money back then, and at the time a lot of students just didn't tip. It's the type of story that I wish everyone could read about Oxford and Ole Miss.
    Apparently, after graduation the student learned of the ways of the world and the propriety of leaving a tip, and he often thought of the waitress who frequently served him and his friends. He didn't know her name and asked the Oxford Eagle for help in tracking her down. The Eagle contacted Jo Dale Mistilis, who was able to do so.
    And so, after 40 years, the waitress received her tips, with interest, in the form of a $500 check.
    I'm afraid copyright law doesn't allow me to reproduce any more of the story than I have above. It's a fairly long piece and worth reading, but to do so you'll need to stop by the Eagle and buy a copy for 50 cents or pay $5 for a month's subscription to the electronic edition, unless you are already a subscriber.

Snackbar offers a beer and a half-dozen oysters for ten bucks

    I rarely eat oysters these days. They're just too expensive.
    Back when I turned 18 and could belly up to the New Orleans oyster bar for a beer and a dozen, my recollection is that a dozen oysters could be had for $3.50 or $4. Today the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans and most similar places sell a half-dozen for around $8.50 and a dozen for $13-14. In restaurants they often for $3 each, or an astronomical $36 per dozen.
    Today oysters have names. The waiter will inform the patrons that they have the sumpin-sumpin oyster, the this-n-that oyster, and the King Dan oyster. I belong in the "motor oil's motor oil" camp. Just sell me an oyster.
    I just found out about a great little Happy Hour deal that Oxford's Snackbar is offering: Half-a-dozen Gulf oysters plus a beer (or drink or wine) for ten bucks, every day from 4-6 p.m. Not sure if the beer is limited to one of Snackbar's $3.50 domestics or includes the $5 imports as well. I just don't see drinking mixed drinks or wine with oysters, but to each his own.
    So if you put a pencil to it, Snackbar's Happy Hour deal beats out the New Orleans prices by a couple of bucks. And it does so with the added cost of transporting the oysters 350 miles. Not too shabby in my book.

The death of the Wendy's hamburger

    When Wendy's Hamburgers came onto the scene in a big way 30 years ago I was their biggest fan. I don't know whether it was because I loved their hamburgers or because I hated McDonald's.
    You see, when I would go into McDonald's, I would order a hamburger and make a big production of saying, "Please no cheese, please no cheese, please no cheese." "No ketchup! No ketchup! No ketchup!" I would then get my burger and it would be covered with slimy American cheese and a great big splat of ketchup. (Is there a greater afront to our national honor than to have a product so vile named "American" cheese?)
    Wendy's would let me order the hamburger the way I wanted it, with mustard, pickle, and onion -- the way most people at burgers before McDonald's started pouring ketchup on them. I would usually have to ask for extra mustard, because most establishments apply mustard with an eye-dropper, but I could get my burger the way I wanted it.
    Wendy's would still try to sell the cheese, at a 40-cent upcharge. I would always specify that I wanted a hamburger and they would always ask if I wanted cheese on it. I would decline, and would sometimes point out that you can't put cheese on a hamburger. After getting a quizical look, I would explain that I had ordered a hamburger and if you add cheese it becomes a cheeseburger, which I would have ordered had I wanted the cheese. I actually wrote my weekly column for the Daily Mississippian on this subject one week and made the local Wendy's people pretty miserable for a few days as a number of students took up my cause.
    Wendy's has solved this problem. They have taken hamburgers completely off the menu. The last Wendy's I went to didn't offer a single hamburger -- all they had was cheeseburgers.
    If it was good cheese, I might not mind. I love cheddar cheese, even pepper jack. Port of Call in New Orleans tops its steak burgers with shreadded cheddar that isn't quite melted all the way. It tastes great (the long-closed Ruby Red's down the street was even better). But I don't want the Wendy's slimy cheese.
    Wendy's doesn't give me a choice. Oh, they'll take the cheese off if I ask, but accounting for inflation they've raised the price of the sandwich by around 60 cents to cover the cost of the cheese. It's not fair and a rip-off.
    The sign outside of every Wendy's restaurant promises that they sell "Old Fashioned Hamburgers." When one goes in to discover that do not have a single hamburger on the menu, they are engaging in false advertising. They are actually lying to and misleading the public. It's false advertising.
    We are a nation of fat people. For those who actually enjoy a slice of slime on their burger, fine, go ahead and get it. But it ought to be an option, not something restaurants force on people by making them pay for it whether they want it or not. Restaurants shouldn't advertise that they sell hamburgers when they only sell cheeseburgers. I would hope that the government officials who investigate false advertising would at least look into this.
    I'm not going to say I'll never enter a Wendy's again. But I know when I get a hamburger there that I'm being cheated out of 60 or more cents. That puts them way down on my list. Way, way down.

Petra to open in old Palmer's location

    Oxford is getting a new restaurant at the site of the old Palmer's restaurant across from the James Food Center. Or to be more precise, a very old restaurant is reopening its doors on a smaller scale.
    I saw some activity in at the building and stopped to ask if a new restaurant was coming in. Owner Maher Alqasas told me that he was reopening Petra, a Mediterranean restaurant that operated in the building which had been the site of the Oxford Steak Company some years ago. He didn't give me a start date, but it looked to me like it should be in the next two weeks. Like Palmer's, Petra will be B.Y.O.B., which means you can bring in a high quality wine for a fraction of what it would cost at other restaurants.
    Alqasas is doing away with the bar area that Palmer had that seated six patrons. Not sure if this is a good idea, but he said he needs more cooking area. Palmer had two tables, one seating four and one seating six and six more could sit at the bar for a total of 16. Alqasas will have three tables seating 14. I would think that sometimes circumstances might warrant the sharing of tables. If done right it can add to the fun.
    Alqasas also told me he planned to add some outside seating. Just to the left of the entrance is a little square graveled area. Not the most glamorous place to sit, but it would be nice enough if the weather is cooperative. He is going to add a couple of picnic tables, or perhaps one picnic table and two regular tables to this area. My thinking is this should make the difference between having enough business to break even and enough to turn a profit.
    Alqasas is fixing the building up a little bit. He's adding another window air conditioner and repairing or replacing the other one. So it should be nice and cool. He's gotten rid of the charcoal grill -- he said it was just too smokey, although it sure produced some good steaks.
    I'd like to see Oxford get more hole-in-the-wall, Mom-and-Pop type places that only serve a few people at a time. The big fancy places are great, but I like the dumpy places with great food where I can bring my own wine and have a great meal for half the price of what I would pay elsewhere. There was nothing fancy about Palmer's, but at each place setting he had a high quality wine glass. I hope Alqasas follows suit; I'll eat off paper plates and be happy, but I want a top-quality glass for my wine.
    Jinny's not a big fan of Mediterranean food, but hopefully there will be something on the menu she likes. Because I'm looking forward to Oxford's newest restaurant opening its doors.