GREENVILLE, Miss – July 9, 2018 – Main Street Greenville will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the grand opening of Mitchell’s Tire and Service Center, LLC on July 9, 2018 at 10:00 am.  The event will take place in front of the business entrance at 821 Washington Avenue in downtown Greenville, Mississippi. 
 
After purchasing a small engine service center from Bobby Jenkins in July 2000, the Mitchell family relocated the business to 821 Washington Avenue, and appropriately named it “Mitchell’s Small Engine Supply”.  Over the past eighteen (18) years, Mitchell Small Engine Supply has serviced the small engine repair and maintenance needs of the Delta, and has met and established a diverse customer base over this time period.  Now, looking to expand their services within the region, owners Shelly and Bobby Mitchell, Jr. are proudly announcing the opening of Mitchell’s Tire and Service Center.  Mitchell’s Tire and Service Center will be able to service all of your tire needs, including tire replacement, alignment, flats, brakes, struts, shocks, cv axels, oil changes, radiator flushes, a/c services and more.      
 
“The commitment to provide the very best in sales, parts and service to our customers is what Mitchell’s is all about.  We see the growth and revitalization of downtown Greenville, and we want to be a part of that!  Providing another service to the people in downtown Greenville is a step forward in helping with the revitalization efforts”, stated Bobby Mitchell, Jr. 
 
For more information, please contact Shelly and Bobby Mitchell, Jr. at 662-378-8132. 

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GREATER GREENVILLE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, INC. RECEIVES
MISSISSIPPI ARTS COMMISSION GRANT
 
            (Greenville, Miss) – The Greater Greenville Development Foundation, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “GGDF”) has been awarded a $4,500.00 grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission (hereinafter referred to as “MAC”).  This grant is a portion of the nearly $1.4 million in grants the MAC will award in 2018-2019 and will be used to support the 2018 Delta Hot Tamale Festival.  The grants are made possible by continued funding from the Mississippi State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts (hereinafter referred to as “NEA”). 
 
            “MAC supports arts activities in nearly every corner of the state through grants to arts organizations, schools, communities and units of governments,” said Malcolm White, executive director of MAC.  “The projects and programming these organizations produce with MAC funds helps enrich our state’s communities.  This funding helps organizations provide arts experiences and educational opportunities to people who may not otherwise have access to the arts.”
 
            GGDF is a non-profit organization which is committed to the renewal efforts of downtown Greenville.  As such, the net proceeds from this Festival, as well as other Main Street Greenville events, directly benefits this mission.  Specifically, with the proceeds from last year’s events, Main Street Greenville was able to provide facade improvement grants to downtown business owners, implement landscape improvements within the central business district, provide technical assistance to numerous existing and potential businesses, as well as develop preliminary plans and administer a capital campaign for the development of a new community green space and pavilion, which will also be the future home of the Greenville Farmers’ Market.  
 
            The MAC, a state agency, serves the residents of the state by providing grants that support programs to enhance communities; assist artists and arts organizations; promote the arts in education and celebrate Mississippi’s cultural heritage.  Established in 1968, MAC is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the NEA, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson and other private sources.  The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education. 
 
            For information from the Mississippi Arts Commission, contact Anna Ehrgott, Communications Director, 601-359-6546 or aehrgott@arts.ms.gov. 
 
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​Relocation of Restaurant Scheduled for June 14, 2018 at 10:00 am in Greenville, MS

GREENVILLE, Miss – June 14, 2018 – Main Street Greenville will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to
commemorate the grand opening of the Cajun Shotgun House & BBQ restaurant on June 14th at 10:00
am. The event will take place in front of the restaurant entrance at 1831 S. MLK in Greenville, Miss.
In 2013, Wayne and Lucy Miller purchased the Shotgun House and BBQ from long-time owner, John
Dobbins. At this time the Miller’s changed the name to the Cajun Shotgun House and BBQ. “The name
was very fitting since Wayne and I both came to Greenville from Louisiana”, said owner, Lucy Miller.
Lucy has always dreamed of owning her own place, specifically a bakery. With the purchase of this
established restaurant, Lucy decided this would be a great time to put her own personal touch on the
business by adding additional items to the menu, including baked goods. The Cajun Shotgun House and
BBQ now offers a variety of items including hamburgers, pulled pork, seafood, and a diverse pallet of
dessert items. In addition, the Cajun Shotgun House and BBQ now offers catering services for all types
of events.
Lucy Miller further stated, “we were hesitant about leaving the downtown location simply because
everyone knew where we were, but we had no choice…we were completely out of room. The new
location has allowed us to expand our kitchen and dining area, as well as increase our staff to
accommodate the additional business”. To celebrate the relocation, a free tasting of customer favorites
such as pulled pork sliders, ribs, baked beans, cole slaw, brownies, pork skins, tea and water will be
served.
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Arts & Culture
Celebrate the South's Fifty great things Southerners should see, do, cook, read, and drink—at least once

April/May 2017

Juleps at the derby, check. Quail hunting in the Red Hills, check.Tailgating at the Grove, check. But beyond these quintessential experiences, a world of under-the-radar adventures awaits.

N° 40: Stop by a Small-Town Festival
by Antony Hare

From Crisfield, Maryland’s Hard Crab Derby to Helen, Georgia’s lederhosen-heavy Oktoberfest, small-town festivals in the South are idiosyncratic ecosystems, each with its own rituals and customs. Take the Delta Hot Tamale Festival in Greenville, Mississippi. There, cornmeal-in-corn-husk dough packets are just part of the funky fun. Winners of the Miss Hot Tamale contest wear gowns made of corn shucks. Celebrity chefs compete in a cook-off. Roy Blount, Jr., cracks you up with his prelunch blessing. And the Hot Tamale Parade rolls through downtown, with blues musicians, Hot Tamale royalty, and children in tow.


Click here to see the list in it's entirety.

Jay Jones, Special Contributor
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GREENVILLE, Miss. --

In the Mississippi Delta, that swath of bottomland along the mightiest of rivers, it's best not to ask folks how the tamale -- a humble food with deep roots in Latin America -- made its way to, of all places, Mississippi.
Sure, you can ask. But your head will soon be swimming with countless theories.
Were the packets of spicy meat and cornmeal wrapped in corn husks consumed on the battlefield by Confederate soldiers? Or, did they not appear until the early 20th century, when Mexican migrants came to pick cotton?
One thing is for certain: They had grown hugely popular by the time legendary bluesman Robert Johnson sang about them in 1935.
Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got 'em for sale
She got two for a nickel, got four for a dime
Nowadays, a dozen will cost you $10, but they continue to be sought after in towns along the river from Tunica to Natchez. No visit is complete without indulging in a food that, in these parts, is as beloved as biscuits and gravy.

Aaron Harmon (left) and his father, Willie, run Hot Tamale Heaven, a restaurant and manufacturing facility in Greenville, Mississippi. They make about 20,000 tamales each day. 
Jay Jones
In Greenville, the self-proclaimed Hot Tamale Capital (there's a Delta Hot Tamale Festival this year on Oct. 21), tamales can be ordered not only in restaurants, but also from street vendors and roadside stands. The team at Hot Tamale Heaven (1640 U.S. 82, Greenville, 662-378-2240) makes 20,000 of them a day.
Willie Harmon began making tamales for his neighbors in the mid-1980s. The first day, he made $6.50.

"I was so happy, you'd have thought I made a thousand dollars," he said.Willie now oversees the factory while son Aaron manages their restaurant. (A second location is under construction.) They serve them in the traditional husks, as well as battered and deep-fried.

Workers at Hot Tamale Heaven in Greenville prepare tamales for sale, trimming the corn husks and tying them together in batches of six.
Jay Jones
Downtown, on the corner of Washington and Theobald, Perry Gibson's been selling tamales for 35 years from a stainless-steel cart labeled Perry's Original Sho-Nuff Hot Tamales. He has a passionate recipe for success.

"A lot of love and good seasonings and good product. You start with a good product, you end with a good product," he observed.About 85 miles to the south, in historic Vicksburg, owner Jewel McCain of Solly's Hot Tamales (1921 Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-636-2020) pointed out a simple truth: There's nothing "fast" about her food. Tamales are exceedingly time-consuming to make.
"I get up here at 4:30 in the morning, get the water boiling and the grease on, seasoning the meat. I get the [corn] shucks in the pot to soften them," she noted.
McCain said she can have as many as 120 dozen tamales made by the time the first customers arrive at 10:30 a.m. Her recipe -- handed down from Henry Solly, who began the small restaurant in 1939 -- is a blend of chiles, cumin, garlic salt, ground beef, oregano and red pepper covered in white cornmeal.
Solly's also serves a tamale burrito ($4.50) and the Fiesta, her spin on nachos. The platter ($6.25 for a small order, $7.75 for a large) includes tamales alongside cheddar cheese, chili, jalapeños and refried beans -- with tortilla chips on the side.
The sprawling Vicksburg National Military Park (nps.gov/vick) is a reminder of the city's pivotal role in the Civil War. Its fall on July 4, 1863, was a bitter pill to swallow. Locals refused to celebrate Independence Day until 1945, when they caught the patriotic fever sweeping the country.

At Fat Mama s in Natchez, people who ve yet to try the local cuisine are encouraged to try a variety of menu items, including tamales, a southern-style sausage, chili and cornbread.
Jay Jones
Downriver in Natchez on a sultry summer's eve, David Gammill's tamales are as hot and steamy as the air. At Fat Mama's Tamales (303 S. Canal St., Natchez, 601-442-4548, fatmamastamales.com), the restaurant his parents started, he grew up doing his homework on a cot wedged between a deep freezer and jumbo-size bags of onions.

"There are a thousand things you could cook that are easier than tamales," he mused.Still, after completing college, he returned to Vicksburg to run the family business.
Gammill urges the uninitiated to build a shareable platter by ordering not only tamales ($10 a dozen), but boudin, a spicy Cajun sausage ($4.25); "Fire and Ice" pickles ($2.50); and his chili ($6.75), which comes with a large side of zesty cornbread.
"There were tamales along the river as long as anyone can remember," he said, making his parents' restaurant, which opened in a small log cabin in 1982, a relative newcomer. It has since moved and expanded.
One of the theories postulated by the Southern Foodways Alliance, part of the University of Mississippi, is that American Indians, whose diet was based on maize, made the first tamales thousands of years ago. But as Jewel McCain pointed out, "It's just basically speculation."
If you goThe Southern Foodways Alliance (southernfoodways.org) has a searchable website that includes oral histories and an interactive map of its Mississippi Tamale Trail, with more than 20 listings.

Jay Jones is a freelance writer in Las Vegas.

Greater Greenville Development Foundation (GGDF) of Greenville, MS has been awarded a $4,100.00 grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC). This grant is a portion of the $1.5 million in grants the Commission will award in 2016-2017 and will be used in support of the Delta Hot Tamale Festival. The grants are made possible by continued funding from the Mississippi State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

“Organizations that support the arts play a pivotal role in growing Mississippi’s creative economy,” said Malcolm White, Executive Director of MAC. “The Mississippi Arts Commission is pleased to support their work, which reinforces the value of the arts for communities and for the economic development of our state.”

GGDF, Inc. is a non-profit organization, organized exclusively for charitable, educational, scientific, and literary purposes. Our mission is to promote events and issues which are relevant to the quality of life for the residents of Greenville, Washington County, the Mississippi Delta, and the State of Mississippi.

The Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, serves the residents of the state by providing grants that support programs to enhance communities; assist artists and arts organizations; promote the arts in education and celebrate Mississippi’s cultural heritage. Established in 1968, the Mississippi Arts Commission is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson and other private sources. The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education.
For information from the Mississippi Arts Commission, contact Melia Dicker, Communications Director, at 601-359-6546 or mdicker@arts.ms.gov

 Bill Johnson/billjohnson@ddtonline.com

Posted: Monday, June 20, 2016 7:16 am

Hot Tamale Heaven is expanding
Mary Alford/malford@ddtonline.com Delta Democrat Times 

GREENVILLE — Hot Tamale Heaven won’t just be a drive-through anymore. The owners are opening a new dine-in restaurant on Mississippi 1.
Although Hot Tamale Heaven is a family business that started more than three decades ago by his father, Aaron Harmon and his wife, Natasha, are leading this new endeavor and are full of excitement.
“We’re growing the business. Greenville is the Hot Tamale Capital of the world, so Hot Tamale Heaven has a vested interest in making sure that hot tamales are represented properly in Greenville. Hence why my wife and I decided to open a second location here in Greenville,” he said.
Harmon said they will be pulling out all the stops in the new location.
“We want to represent properly here in Greenville. We have multiple things we are going to carry on the menu,” Harmon said, noting they will have all things hot tamale as well as other items. “We are going to do more than tamales. We’ve been looking around seeing what’s missing and we want to cover the things that are missing in town. I don’t want to let the cat completely out of the bag just yet.”
He said the additional location will have extended hours, though not set yet, and he expects to hire at least 20 people.
“We want to do all we can to make sure Greenville is moving forward and as we know, Washington Avenue and the downtown area is growing; we have a lot of big plans for this area. We’re expanding the business but we’re not forgetting about home,” he said.
And “home” is a concept Harmon wants residents to associate with their new location at 1427 Mississippi 1 South, where they have recently broken ground.
“I want everyone to give us a shot, we’ve been here a long time. People know and love our product. We love serving them. I want them to come out to our new location and look around. I want them to feel at home there. We’re doing it for them, not just for ourselves and our family, we consider everyone in Greenville to be a part of our extended family, so we want them to come home to their extended home and enjoy themselves,” he said.
Harmon said he hopes to have the Mississippi 1 location up and running by this year’s Delta Hot Tamale Festival, Oct. 13-16. 
“If everything goes as planned we would love, absolutely love, to be open for the tamale fest. …But if not, we’re going to be open as fast as we can,” he said, noting they will have a soft opening at first to make sure the staff is well trained and the food is excellent.
“We don’t want to rush ourselves, we want to make sure everything is covered.”
A local family business
Harmon said Hot Tamale Heaven began about 35 years ago, when his father and mother, Willie and Inez Harmon, decided to delve into the tamale business.
“I was just a young lad of 6- or 7-years-old. My father started this business, my mother and father. My father at the time was working a factory job that he hated. And someone told him that a man could make a decent living making tamales, which he didn’t have any idea of how to do at that time,” Harmon said, noting his father wasn’t deterred. “He contacted a lady that he knew in Arkansas. … She gave him the rudimentary aspects of making tamales.”
From there, Harmon said his father took her process and her recipe and made it his own, adding his own ingredients into the mix.
Once his father came up with a tamale he liked, he had the family try it as well as some of his friends, all of whom loved the new concoction.
“So (my father) decided to sell tamales in the neighborhood and it took off from there. Everybody liked the recipe. They liked the product. And he began to slowly grow it from that point on,” Harmon said, laughing as he noted he and his five siblings were his father’s first laborers.
“We began to help him in business when we got home for school, and on more than one occasional he would get us out of school if he had a big order for tamales and needed some help,” he said.
But, the tamales were too good to just sell to neighbors. Harmon said they started selling tamales on Washington Avenue and what is now Stein Mart Square. He said often his mother would be set up at Stein Mart Square and his father at the old Greenville Mall location.
“And it took off from there. My brothers and sisters and I we were growing up in the business and sometimes (our father) would take us along with him to watch, to see how he did things, how he treated the customers. …We learned the tricks of the trade and we knew the making process, the rolling process and the selling process,” Harmon said.
And those are skills that Harmon and a few of his siblings continue to use in their shop on U.S. 82, where they’ve been since 2007, as well as their processing plant on Main Street.
“My father and brother pretty much run the factory process. He sells to many fine restaurants all over the Delta and beyond,” Harmon said.
And soon, they’ll soon have one more location for folks to enjoy their tasty tamales.
Their hours at the U.S. 82 location are 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday.