It's time for Matchbook Monday. Some real Jackson history is
posted below. Feel free to add your stories or any information about
them in the comments section as you enjoy these blasts from the past. Readers
can email copies of any old matchbooks to
kingfish1935@gmail.com.
Matchbook Monday will be a little different today. A storied restaurant in Jackson history is The Rotisserie. It was the first restaurant opened by the Dennery family waaaaaaay back in 1930. They opened the restaurant on Capitol Street and then another one at 5 Points a few years later. This post will focuse on The Rotissierie since there is a bit of history associated with it and the Dennery family. It should be known that this restaurant is where that staple of Mississippi cuisine, Comeback Dressing, began.
A reader submitted this matchbook.
Mississippi Memories had some memorabilia on its website.
Here are Clarion-Ledger ads from 1932 and 1930.
There was even a robbery that made the headlines back in 1930:
Rotisserie 2 reopened as the Rotisserie Club.
This 1939 Clarion-Ledger ad gives a glimpse of the Jackson nightlife. It also shows how brave the Gold Coast bootleggers were. Right next to the ad for the Rotisserie and the Heidelberg is the Maple Grove Dance Club - in East Jackson. Unlike its Jackson competition, the Maple Grove Club served booze in true Gold Coast style.
This 1957 ad shows the mad who started the whole Dennery dynasty.
10 comments:
It would be interesting to travel back in time and experience a Jackson with some pride and dignity.
It is terrible that they resorted to racism to keep the city from becoming an 'Empire of Dust' as it were.
Fortunately, those bad old days are long in the past.
When I was growing up in Jackson, Medgar Evers Blvd. was Delta Drive. Now I see that before that it was "Pocahontas Road." Maybe Pocahontas had a little more pizzazz back then.
We didn't eat out a lot, but when the occasion required fine dining we always went to The Rotisserie.
Did The Rotisserie have a rotisserie?
So...Capitol Street ---> Five Points --->Silas Brown ---->Greymont
Is that right?
As I recall,"BeBe Kaye" and her little combo (with BeBe as chanteuse strumming the cocktail drum) entertained there at Five Points. Jacksonians considered the establishment as representative of French cuisine. That was in the days of "Jerry Lane and his orchestra" and the mellifluous sounds of Jules Barlow in other venues. Actually, Jackson didn't have "venues" in those days. We were very un-hip.
Never knew there was a Rotisserie 2 on Capitol. That address would put it just east of The Elite on part of the property that is now Landmark Center. That building has only been there since the 1970s, but for the life of me I can't remember what was there before. I don't remember that we ever went in the Rotisserie, but I remember riding past it anytime we went to the zoo or Westland Plaza. Yes, 1:17, they did have a rotisserie prominently displayed in a front window facing 5 Points and it nearly always had something on it.
Seem like I saw Brenda Lee preform there?
Remember there basket of hard black-bread, too.
half a dozen raw oysters - $.50 Wow
My parents dined at the Rotisserie when they dated (they are 95 and 92 now), and Paul Crechale was the Matre D at the time. Paul moved on to help his son John open Crechales which is still a Jackson icon. They followed Paul, and I grew up eating at Crechales.
The Rotisserie closed a while after it was proven that an employee peed in someone's salad. Really sad what happened.
My Dad actually had a Rotisserie credit card. We may stillhave it somewhere at my Mom's house. He used to Lobby the Legislature and used it to entertain when they came to town every two years which isn't a bad idea now.
I remember the Rotisserie and Denny's by the bridge over the Pearl. Always thought it was two different brothers who were owners. Our family enjoyed both.
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