Jackson Jambalaya

And once site of the favorite Mexican restaurant of my youth, El Sombrero. Vaya con Dios.

Which Idiot recently was unfortunate enough to have owned this property, and what are the idiotic plans for the future of this property. I have a suggestion, talk the state into building another prison there. There never seems to be a shortage of people needing to go prison in the Jackson area.

Kokomo's (sp?)

I miss Tony Roma’s. Best ribs in town at the time.

Some great college rush parties there

It was not El Sombrero, it was El Palacio’s.

Started out in 1971 as Mr. Kokomo. In 1975 became El Palacio, a great Mexican restaurant. Later became Tony Roma, a great ribs and BBQ restaurant. Then became Steam Room Grill, awesome seafood. The building housed some of the best restaurants in Central Mississippi. Then became a car lot as the neighborhood gave way to migration to the suburbs. I did not know it had been torn down. I also did not know it was such a terrible building. Because no one wants to invest money in Jackson, It could have only been used for a niche or destination business.

This would be a nice trend for Jackson to level all abandoned buildings. It will never happen, but one can dream.

Will the last business owner to leave Jackson please turn out the lights.

Fond memories of the place when it was a Mexican restaurant and then, years later, when it became the Steam Room

"Demolished" is Jackson's alternate name.

@6:57 you have a very impressive and expansive vocabulary and point of view.

Nobody will build back....NOOooooooo Baaady!

PS: Steam Room is a fricken horrible name for a restaurant or any other place of business. As horrible as that now-defunct place in Ridgeland named La Roaches - Now located in Coldwater.

It wasn't El Palacio's either. It was El Palacio. When will Southerners learn that not all restaurants, stores, etc. end with apostrophe S?

It's similarly not Sonic's, Walmart's, Kroger's, Burger King's, etc.

This was Kokomo's...

I clearly remember eating there with my dad and grandad in the very early 70's. This was the first time I had a ribeye steak with hinds 57 sauce. Still my favorite.

I see people earlier in the comments mentioned Kokomo's as well. Good memory !

Jackson was such a nice place to grow up in the 70's and 80's.

q. what do you call demolishing the Steam Room?

a. a good start.

"It wasn't El Palacio's either. It was El Palacio. When will Southerners learn that not all restaurants, stores, etc. end with apostrophe S?" August 3, 2024 at 4:27 PM

Actually, at one point, third-rate MBA programs taught students that "savvy" marketers took the names of things everybody had heard of (generally, words which conveyed positive associations), then added an apostrophe and an 's', to yield the names of their new businesses.

That's how we got Walk-on's and Raising Cane's.

Ex president Ulysses S. Grant had the right idea, and it worked for a little over 100 years. Burn the whole place down. Rename it Chimneyville and move on.

Steam Room! It was always loaded with plenty of bar flies!

Loved it.

I was friends with the owner of the Steam Room. His name was Cannon Clegg and he was born in Baton Rouge at the end of 1959. His father was the Sports Information Director at LSU. Hence the name. He stumbled into the restaurant business. He had been developing commercial real estate in Baton Rouge and did a full build out for a new restaurant opening and the restaurant owner capitulated right before they were to take occupancy. So, he had this brand new facility with full kitchen dining bar etc. and no one to use it. Decided to give it a go and it was successful enough to expand to Jackson. Passed away from a heart attack I believe way too young. Good man.

"Walmart's, Kroger's, Burger King's, etc"

I've never heard anybody but youse yanks say Kroger's or Wal Mart's. And even more egregious and unforgivable is a yank's insistence on misplacing the apostrophe in y'all.

PS: Greyhound's still runs north.

I never understood Cannon Motor’s justification for opening a used car lot there. I would glance over there headed up 55 and notice 3 or 4 cars for sale.

9:26- Thanks for sharing. I don’t think I ever ate there. I could not afford it at the time. But I always enjoyed getting blasted there and chatting up the unhappy married women that wanted to chart on their husbands!

Seriously though, always had a good time and can’t believe that was so long ago!

Kokomo's... with that corner booth that had curtains you could actually close!

"Madison has two Krogers." That's perfectly fine. And that's how it used to be written, until computers, programmed by illiterates, started attempting to force people to pluralize with an apostrophe, in addition to an 's'.

Computers TAUGHT certain malleable minds to write it wrong.

I was just a kid at the time, but I can still vividly recall the red plastic water pitchers at El Palacio. They had raised Aztec/Incan designs on them and appeared to be carved out of stone. My parents sure loved those 'ritas.

Also, didn't some of the booths have curtains?