Another Bristol storefront, this one closed, and inside:
C.L. Farley Clothing for Men, Women, and Children
It’s believed this sign dates back to 1918.
Window Men
Blakeley-Mitchell Menswear
Bristol TN, 2022.
One of those fabulous menswear shirts that make downtowns perfect. Of course they’re repping Hart Schaffner Marx.
Yes We Open.
Yes We Open
Yazoo City MS, 2019.
Cocktails at the View
We did Burritt *right*. One of my friends and I went for Cocktails at the View at Burritt on the Mountain in Huntsville; we reserved a private table with an incredible overlook of the city, pre-ordered a charcuterie tray, and had wine served. Perrrrrfect!
Absolutely loving Burritt. I’ve been here a couple of times to enjoy the grounds and the re-enactments
Several buildings to explore, plus gardens and some livestock
and I love a Rosenwald School! They have programs here for children nowadays too.
last year there, I even took a…wait for it…spoon-making class
Okay. It was good. I enjoyed my instructor and classmates. But do I ever want to make another spoon?
No I do not.
They do have lots of other fun classes — including how to make muscadine jelly in late September which will be perfect for the timing of the grapes (closer to the season, I’ll post some great muscadine & scuppernong picking spots).
I’ve made muscadine jelly and in case I have a “canning day” late Sept / early Oct and you want to drop by and make some to bring home, message and let me know. xoxo!
That Menu Board
Big Chief Drive-In
Glencoe AL, 2009.
KDS DAR = 100
The Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the Revolution School (KDS DAR) in Grant, Alabama is celebrating its 100th year.
We went last month and took some pics — the one at the top was from this visit but more below are from that day and other visits
The Pennsylvania log cabin above was built in two (!!) days in 1935.
These vertical logs:
inside:
This Week’s Various
As always, all images unless otherwise noted copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Like to use one elsewhere? Kindly contact me here.
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The Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, Mississippi has music workshops scheduled later this year
Leslie and I had the tasting menu at Nobu in Las Vegas in 2016 and it was faaaabulous
Nobu — restaurant and hotel — are set to open at what’s now Caesar’s in New Orleans (formerly Harrah’s) late this year.
2016
The story of Andrée Keil Moss — Keil’s Antiques in the French Quarter — in the FQ Journal.
As the reigning queen of French Quarter antique dealers, Andrée Keil Moss has witnessed the heyday of the Vieux Carre’s world-renowned antique emporiums. But few can match what she survived on her second buying trip to Europe with her parents in 1956 – sixty-eight years ago.
It was the sinking of the Andrea Doria.
from a visit last year
Anderson’s Alice: Walter Anderson Illustrates Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is available for preorder
from 2023
Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman will be working with Williamston + Atlanta Art Conservation Centers in a $2M restoration of its 125+ miniature structures after consulting with Kohler. The project will take about two years.
Ivan Argote’s 16′ tall pigeon will land on the High Line in NYC; Troy has Nall’s disturbing Violata Pax Dove which was originally commissioned as part of a post-earthquake renovation project for the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its not-so-good side:
and better:
from a visit in 2020
Butch Anthony puts on private tours of his Museum of Wonder in Seale AL
The Kenny & Ziggy’s sandwich with latkes rather than bread, from a 2015 visit
The two scuba divers who were left behind in the Gulf last month wanted to eat at Kenny & Ziggy’s when they made it back to land. From the NYT:
For the next 39 hours, the Makers bobbed in the Gulf of Mexico more than 20 miles offshore. They got stung by jellyfish and pried sucker fish from their legs. They watched search planes fly overhead, each one too far away to see them. Exhausted, they forced themselves to swim to fight off hypothermia. They sang songs and made up goofy games to lift their spirits…
…Mr. Maker, a retired firefighter, in particular became smitten with the “Fiddler on the Roof of Your Mouth,” a triple-deck sandwich with corned beef and pastrami on double-baked rye with Russian dressing and coleslaw.
September 24, a statue of Johnny Cash will join one of Daisy Bates representing Arkansas in the US Capitol. The unveiling will happen in Emancipation Hall.
Judy Pfaff’s Apples and Oranges at the High, from a 2020 visit
At Penta: How the High Museum of Art Transformed to Reflect Its Atlanta Home (the High’s membership is up 60%, now 41000).
One of Robert’s Freelines that I bought from him in 2008
For KCRW, Evan Kleiman’s The brutal history of sugar cane and the sweet taste of Louisiana pralines and Robert King, who sold his pralines after his conviction was overturned and he was freed after serving 31 years in Angola
Texas Highways on the Lanier Theological Library:
Hidden away in a gated, 35-acre estate, this grand,17,000-square-foot library offers over 105,000 volumes and resources, along with a digital library of 900,000 materials, highlighting world religions—primarily Christianity.
Mark Lanier, a renowned trial attorney and founder of The Lanier Law Firm, had the building constructed in 2010 after a visit to Oxford University, where he sketched a composite library design inspired by a collection of libraries he and his eldest son visited, including the famed Bodleian Libraries.
The Mayflower Cafe, 2011
Excited to see how The Mayflower in Jackson turns out — it’s been purchased and the team with Elvie’s is behind the refresh — open since 1935 and in the current location since almost forever, they’re building bathrooms downstairs in an additional space, putting a window to the kitchen in a hallway, and the original Mayflower comeback will remain (along with the bottles on the table). It will hopefully be open a little later this month. More at Garden & Gun.
Thrilled to announce that I’m likely going to be a Bama mom starting Fall 2025!
the lobby at 106 Jefferson in Huntsville — upstairs is the rooftop bar, Baker & Able — this is their lemondrop:
Went antiquing with Anne at Fox Hill in Florence AL
Glad both boys are home from their incredible summers — both boys spent weeks in Israel; Shug was also in Poland for a week and three or so days in Greece, and Shugie was at Temple University for about a week and Syracuse University for a couple of weeks racking up college credits early.
Hope your summer is fab fab fab too. xoxo!
Beach Chairs
Lawn Chairs on Sand Ledge
Bay St Louis MS, 2007.
Goodbye, Scott’s
We’re losing Scott’s Hot Tamales as of August 31 according to my friend Amy C. Evans. Scott’s was a bedrock of the hot tamale scene in the Delta and especially in Greenville, Mississippi. My all-time faves for a very long time.
from a 2005 visit we made, Scott’s tamales also below
From this Mississippi Today article in 2017 on the popularity of hot tamales:
Aaron and Elizabeth Scott were living in Texas when Elizabeth was pregnant and had a craving for hot tamales. Her husband couldn’t keep up with her demand, so he decided to make them himself. When they moved to Greenville, they began to sell their hot tamales from a cart they rolled around downtown. A hot tamale stand was erected on Nelson Street, then later Mississippi Highway 1, where it stands today.
“Our daddy started this business, and we have kept it going all these years,” said Loretta Scott Gilliam. “I think he would be proud.”
Today, several of Aaron and Elizabeth’s children and grandchildren gather every week in the kitchen he built especially for making hot tamales. There, they make about 100 dozen tamales to sell at the stand. And weekly orders come in for shipping across the U.S.
When Hodding Carter wrote for the Smithsonian and going back to his hometown of Greenville for tamales, he included mention of Scott’s in his How Hot Tamales Conquered the American South. BTW if you’re thinking “hmmm…Hodding Carter…” that would be the article’s author’s grandfather who won a Pulitzer and ran the Delta Democrat-Times. Also — ah you know I love all these connections — that Hodding Carter was married to Betty Werlein and those are the New Orleans Werleins with the music company, and part of the Werlein story is that they were either the first or second publishers of Dixie, but it was their music that was played at Jeff Davis’ inauguration. And if you know preservation in New Orleans and I guess predominently FQ history, it’s Betty Werlein Carter’s mother who the Elizebeth T. Werlein award / medal is named after. I can go on a little longer about Betty Carter but I’ll finish here. I know you come here for the history and somehow we got from tamales to Dixie to saving the Quarter and a Pulitzer.
BTW, if you can’t get to Scott’s before they close, they do ship…
Calvin Trillin wrote for The New Yorker in 2013 about Delta tamales and his experience at the annual festival — this year’s will be October 18 and 19 in Greenville, with a ticketed welcome supper on the 17th.
Amy’s art at Biscuit Love in Nashville, 2016
Back to my friend Amy Evans who did tamale fieldwork for the Southern Foodways Alliance and found out about Scott’s closing: she had an exhibit at Houston’s Koelsch Gallery in May:
Amy C. Evans Meals I’ve Loved
“Having spent more than a decade traveling the South, documenting the region’s food culture, many people I first interacted with as strangers eventually became good friends. They were always eager to share their stories and generous in sharing their food, whether a full meal or an impromptu snack, as soon as the business of my visit was over. From Delta hot tamales eaten hot from the pot with Barbara Pope in the Mississippi Delta, milkshakes at the Apalachicola Burger King with Unk and Gloria Quick, or soup beans and cornbread shared as sustenance before clogging with locals at the Carter Family Fold, each shared moment, each bite of food, each generous and kind soul, has made a lasting impression on me and, collectively, they’ve inspired many of these paintings. So, to honor all of my friends with whom I’ve shared moments, and stories, and meals—meals I’ve loved—I share this body of work.”
Although the show isn’t up currently, I’m sure Amy is taking commissions and has existing work available on her site. xoxo!
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