Jackson Jambalaya

If you have ever been to the restroom in the Mayflower (having to walk through the kitchen, it will certainly diminish your appetite. I hope they retain the gentleman who always wears the Cowboys gear.

Be nice.

Walter Payton ran those steps when he was in school.

Why did Elvies and Hunter Evans announce that they were purchasing the restaurant yesterday?

The Elvies group posted on social media that they were buying the Mayflower. Then today the post and Instagram account was deleted.

I honestly thought the "Mayflower" had been closed for about three years. (But I left Jackson in 1995).

Walking through the kitchen to the restroom was part of the Mayflower experience.

It was not half as bad as seeing 20 dudes pissing in the Rez at "The Dock" at any given time ... day or night.

The misery loving keyboard courage naysayers never fail to disappoint. For the sake of your mental well being, give it a rest. Try to find some good in your life. If not, keep quiet. If you'd been listening, your grandmother probably said" If you can't say something nice then don't say anything." A novel approach could be to think before you speak. Consider.. Never mind. Those folks are happiest when they are unhappy and trying, largely unsuccessfully, to infect the rest of the world. The Mayflower served great food with atmosphere unlike any other restaurant I've visited. The waitresses were truly classic. I hope the next version continues the tradition.

Oh goodness! This is the second state-treasure named Jerry to retire. Jerry Lake announced his retirement back a few months ago but then he's still doing commercials (Valentine's Day for example).

So...THIS Jerry might be pulling our leg too.

Well said 8:22. I kinda feel for those people.

Jerry and I graduated from Provine together and I kept wondering how he could keep up rigors of running the Mayflower. Whoever buys it, it will never be the same. Enjoy your retirement Jerry, you earned it.

"walk thru the kitchen to hit the restroom?" Where have you been for ten years?! Jerry Kontouras stopped that long ago... You simply walked down the sidewalk outside, as
Larry the dilligent private security guard walked with you to the door, then up those 23 steps. (he helps you find a parking place too)
But thanks to Kane Ditto and a few investors, another valuable part of Jackson will be preserved. Yes, and fresh new restrooms will be easy to reach; I hear the wall where those 7 bar stools are will disappear, then access to 'his and hers' plus a full bar, maybe a few more 4Tops also! This is welcome news for our dwindling CBD, and hopefully, all you 'naysayers' will shut up, try the redfish or the fried oysters, and revel in seeing some of Jackson's oldest residents.... I certainly do!
Management by Hunter Evans of Elvies in Belhaven; I hear he trained under Louis LaRose for 2-3 years, Just don't change too much, like PRIMOS did...

Hunter and Cane, If you are reading this, PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE MENU!!!! We like our broiled fish, fried seafood, greek salads, and plate lunches just the way they are.

I hope they DO change the menu, or at a minimum, the execution of the menu. All the fish dishes taste exactly alike. Not bad, just alike. Fedfish could be snapper. Snapper could be flounder. Everyone has "comeback", which to me is Thousand Island without the pickle relish. Don't get me wrong, I love the Mayflower. It's an institution, with thousands of loving fans. It's just not a great seafood restaurant. I love the ambiance and the "vibe", but the fish not so much. I'm delighted that The Mayflower won't be closing, and that my wife will no longer be terrified to go to the bathroom. Just improve the food.

Thanks, Mr. Jerry, for all the years. Love the Mayflower. Have a wonderful retirement.

Food and service were terrible there the two times I went....

There are people all over the world who at one time or more enjoyed the good food at the Mayflower, some of them famous, some of them obscure, but all of them would agree that something precious will be missed. Even so, what does not change is the will to change. The new guys know what special vibe uplifted the Mayflower. They cannot recreate it; they can, however, create a new special vibe that contains respect for the old one. I believe it can be done.

God bless you, Jerry. You are, as the Brits would say, a massive lad.

End of an era! My dad and Jerry grew up on Arbor Vista together. Had my first raw oysters at the Mayflower back when the brothers (Jerry's dad and uncle I believe) still ran it. The one brother would cuss in Greek from the register to the kitchen to shuck them. And yes, the trip to the bathroom went through the kitchen (and over the pallets the cooks stood on) back then. MSDH shut that practice down a long while ago.


I wonder if he sold the Comeback Dressing recipe too?


Happy Retirement Jerry!! Thank you and the Kountouris family for the many, many happy memories.

Understand Kane Ditto bought the real estate and Hunter Evans will be managing the restaurant & staff. Talk of opening a bar upstairs at some point but City of Jackson has a moratorium at the moment that will not issue any new permits for bars to open in the downtown Capitol Street area. Plan is to close for 6-8 weeks for renovations & much needed improvements.

I was a page for the senator from my home district in the late 60's. One one of our last days in session a group of us ran from the Capitol to the Mayflower for lunch. By the time we arrived it was packed but we found a table. I ordered a dozen fried shrimp (they've always been great!) and waited...and...waited. We were just short of being late returning the senate if I would have stayed so I dropped a dozen hot fried shrimp into the pocket of a new jacket that was purchased for me and ran back to the Capitol. Munched on fried shrimp all afternoon. Mother had to throw the jacket out however I never forgot the taste of those shrimp and still order them every chance I get. Great food and memories. Thanks and enjoy your retirement.

If interested, here's the website and where you can sign up for the newsletter regarding progress on the improvements to the Mayflower. Hopefully be re-opened in 3-4 months. Website https://www.themayflowercafe.com/

Mayflower newsletter update link. www.themayflowercafe.com/

I just hope the new owners will invest a little bit in hiring a homeless person to fish out a better set of discarded gar from the rocks at the spillway, and install one of them fancy newfangled Chinese squat toilets to upgrade the facilities. Always push for excellence, I say! It's not like there's 4 inches of brown and yellow grease on the walls. Well, wait...

Does anyone know if Parlor Market closed permanently?

My last memory of the Mayflower, came just before our move to Oregon. In a 'Flight Destination Exurb' outside Jackson, I was perched on the red velvet settee out by the Receptionist, waiting to see one of the city's design consultants - a sage and incorruptible Tulane man, who generally bled red marker all over my own architects' drawings - but, in so doing, provided plenty of FREE guidance for my guys (who'd gone to podunk cow colleges, and thought that "Traditional" meant nail-on shutters and fiberglass shingles). Guidance like his, you can take to the bank - which I did - in other cities and other states.

But out from the Conference Room, came a big developer known for dirt-cheap builds/rock-bottom-rents. His group was with another city designer - some clueless product of "State". At the same moment, the Tulane man was rounding a corner, and the Dirt-cheap-build Group were looking VERY sheepish, because they'd just blabbed they, and the "State" guy, were all headed to the Mayflower - minus the Tulane man, whom they'd apparently conspired to keep out of the outing.

"Like I care. But did you see their FACES?"

I mentioned this to others, during later meetings in other places, that day, and heard that The Mayflower is where the scumbaggy element have been doing their sub-rosa deals since the days when "The Nice People" lunched at the 'Sun & Sand'.

Oh.

And I'd been using Mama Hamil's and Haute Pig for that sort of thing - sending pretty assistants to buy lunch for the manhood-challened menfolk who needed buttering-up. REVERSE-SNOBBERY EATERIES, be they 'Seafood' or 'Home Cookin'' make me nervous. And the food makes me ill. (plus, greasy cooking smoke sticks to my jewelry, which is never as good, once it's been cleaned - and one stray drop of rancid deep fryer grease, can forever ruin a silk brocatelle dress: it's basically MOTOR OIL, by that point)

Mais chacun a son gout...

Don’t touch the baked potatoes! Best in town. But the comeback? Stop watering it down and for God’s sake put it back in ketchup bottles where it belongs. Everybody knows that!

@ 3:07 - Everybody has the recipe for Comeback Dressing or Kumback Sauce which originated at The Rotisserie.

All other Greek restaurants and a few others duplicated the recipe.

The deceased grandfathers and great grandfathers (and grandmothers) of the current Greek generation would be mortified to learn that Greek restaurants (will) exist no more in Jackson.

8:00 What year was that at Provine?

9:29AM... the bathroom location "down the sidewalk and up those 23 steps" was the location of the Wagon Wheel, a bar with live music back in the 1960's that catered to young drinking age clientele. My older brother came close to getting his a$$ beat there a time or two.....I always wanted to go but was not old enough to get in....

Chere 1:42,

Apparently you just read the book about Truman Capote and his "swans," and were inspired to recount a scene in which you imitate Babe Paley, who is stuck in Jackson and encounters some of the local fauna. The unsuspecting Mayflower Cafe is dragged into the story and is blithely found guilty by association. I feel like reporting you to the Oregon Attorney General for interstate slander.