Melissa Booth Hall

1 month ago | southernfoodways.org | Melissa Booth Hall

Happy, Happy Birthday A probably too-deep dive into the song most likely to accompany your lava cake by Alice LaussadeIllustrations by Iris GottliebAs a server-in-training at Bennigan’s, “a high-energy neighborhood restaurant and tavern” in the Galleria Dallas mall in the 1990s, you must learn every ingredient in every dish on the menu before you can earn your apron.

1 month ago | southernfoodways.org | Melissa Booth Hall

Getting In on the Ground Floor In Charleston, some apartment complexes offer in-building restaurants. In the age of delivery, do residents care? by Hanna RaskinIllustrations by Delphine LeeMarc and Liz Hudacsko don’t just own a restaurant on the ground floor of downtown Charleston’s Meeting Street Lofts, a sprawling residential complex that opened in 2019.

1 month ago | southernfoodways.org | Melissa Booth Hall

Stay Golden I’m always ready for another helping at my favorite chain buffet. by S. Farhan MustafaPhotos by Andrew AlbrightMy first trip to Golden Corral was in my hometown of Greenville, North Carolina, in 1992. The restaurant had just opened and welcomed us in all its new, freshly carpeted glory, its interior the size of a small airplane hangar.

2 months ago | southernfoodways.org | Melissa Booth Hall

A Comeback Story The Mayflower Cafe serves a new Jackson. by Olivia Ware TerenzioPhotos by Eric SheltonNearly every Friday night for the past three decades, Judge Rhesa Barksdale and his wife, Claire, have dined at the Mayflower Cafe, a seafood restaurant in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. Rhesa, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, would take clients there for dinner early in his career, when he practiced law from an office nearby.

2 months ago | southernfoodways.org | Brooks Lamb |Melissa Booth Hall

A Tough Row to Hoe Small and midsized farms face serious challenges. Still, argues a Tennessee farm advocate, they’re worth saving. by Brooks LambPhotos by Kathleen GreesonJess Wilson farms on forty acres in Monteagle, Tennessee. She and her husband, Nate Wilson, have cobbled their land together, buying different parcels at different times. Throughout their farming careers, they have grown a variety of fruits and vegetables. They’ve kept bees and milked goats.