THE CROWN

Our little restaurant opened in 1976 in the back of our English antique shop. To create the ambience of an English pub or village tearoom, we named it THE CROWN and furnished it with antique tables, chairs and accessories from the shop. We still maintain that same look sixteen ears later.

Opening a Georgian antique shop in the middle ft a cotton field, fully five miles from the nearest town, required plenty of extra effort and opti­mism. We knew we had to do something very special to entice people to come. The reward for our efforts was overwhelming support from the townspeople from the very beginning. In the early days my sister, Wanda, Mother and I did all the cooking and serving. Wanda’s bread is still the crowning glory of every meal, and Mama’s Caramel Pie has not been equaled since she retired. (She can still be prevailed upon to pitch in on busy days.)

We have loved sharing the lives of the many friends we’ve made in the shop and restaurant. THE CROWN has been the setting for birthday parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, bridesmaids’ luncheons, debutante brunches, and hundreds of bridge parties. We have entertained clients from Japan, Spain, Germany, Thailand, Russia and Belgium for the catfish and cotton industries. We’ve served them apple pie, iced tea and catfish every way but fried!

We’ve shared numerous pots of tea with very special friends, and staged coffees, christening parties, class reunions, graduation fetes, formal teas, fashion shows, art exhibits, groomsmen’s brunches, and family dinners with five generations present. We’ve hosted a wedding reception, little girl tea parties, businessmen’s lunches, wedding and baby showers, cock­ tail buffet , and my parents’ Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary party. There have been many cozy afternoons when close friends gathered to celebrate a birthday, a college homecoming, or a trip to Europe. Meals have been shared with families and friends from as close as Jackson, Mississippi, and as far away as London, England. Many times busy young mothers have spent just a few relaxing moments around the Dessert Cart before picking up children from school.

THE CROWN has been hard work at times, but we have received so much pleasure from it. Our customers have become friends we will trea­sure forever: in that simple fact lies the pure joy of this business. Thank you all for making our little restaurant, way out in the country, work so well for so many years!

Evelyn Roughton