Latest / Out of Bounds with Bo Bounds / Chef Derek Emerson Dishes on Masa Mesa & Little Effie 🌮🍸

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Chef Derek Emerson Dishes on Masa Mesa & Little Effie 🌮🍸 · Out of Bounds with Bo Bounds

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're excited to have a special guest here, Derek Emerson,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Chef Restaurant Tour. And I don't know how he does it,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: but most everybody listening has been able to dine at
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: lunch or dinner at one of Derek Emerson's restaurants, or
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: you've been to a party, corporate wedding or otherwise. He's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: cooked from everybody, from the governor to big weddings, and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: so we're excited to have him in studio.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Derek, good morning, welcome, how you doing.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me? Yeah? Good that halfway through my day.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy. So how did you growing up? Did
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: you did you have a grandparent or a parent that
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: loved to cook or did this just happen for you organically?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Well, so my grandparents both really did cook. Well. My
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: one grandmother was from England, so she made stuff like
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: roasted vega lamb, things like that. My other grandmother was
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: from Meridian, is and so she made like you know
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: we do Sunday Sunday brunch or that were Sunday lunch
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: at her house was like seven vegetables and three meats. Sure,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: and kind of being in the old school way, she'd
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: packaged it all up and you know, leftovers all week.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: So that was kind of their routine. Every week Sunday
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: would always be huge and then the rest of the
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: week my grandparents would be leftovers. His grandfather would come
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: out for lunch or whatever, have leftovers and then go
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: back to work. Yeah, so it was this kind of
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: so and then then kind of family vacation started, kind
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: of gauging around the hottest restaurants at the time and
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: where was this. This is so my grandparents from Meridian
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: and my dad, they always enjoyed, uh, fine dining restaurants.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: So what was your first memory of a fine dining restaurant?
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Probably La test in New York when I was about thirteen. Nice.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: So that's so my the deal was my grandfather would
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: buy the food and my dad would buy the wine,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: which my grandfather probably ended up better most of the time.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: But so we'd go. So, you know, we'd moved from
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: like places like the Grill Room, the Bonton, New Orleans,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: all these places that you know, commanders a bunch. So
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: my parents, my family from Mississippi always enjoyed fine food
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: and so and I was always allowed you to order
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: what you want. Yeah, but whatever you order you're gonna eat. Absolutely, So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I was real cute sometimes in ordering down
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: the right side of the page by the prices and
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: some things I didn't like so much, and some things
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: I did. But it kind of put me out there
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: to see a lot of different things. Yeah, so it
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: was kind of so.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I mean you, yeah, you were in really nice restaurants
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: at a young age.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Pretty yeah, I'm traveling in New York and New Orleans
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: and other places and do all kind of stuff.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Pretty cool.
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  Speaker 3: It was.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Did you know early that this was going to be
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the path?
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: No, okay, I tried college for a semester and didn't
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: make it that semester, so I figured I'd better find
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: out something to do. At the time, I was working
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: at Subway on Northside Drive, which is still there, when
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: it was like nineteen eighty nine. I guess, okay, you
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: used to be up untill like two in the morning,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: and uh so it was kind of started just doing that.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: And from there I went before for a guy named
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: John L. John L's yes, a long time.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Ago boy that was hot for a minute.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: And it was kind of crazy, and then and uh
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: brick Oven and then Bravo and then went to Atlanta
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: for a few years.
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  Speaker 2: I love the brick Oven too.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Man brick Oven in nineteen ninety four on County Line Road.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: That was big, livin.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was cool and it was like
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the first one was kind and then Bravo opened up
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: right after that. Yeah. And then I went to Atlanta
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: for about five years, okay, and then came back and
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: opened Shimbals in ninety nine.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize you went to Atlanta.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I left Jackson in ninety ninety four, okaynet four
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: ninety nine.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, and then you come back and you're
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: part of the Shimmels team.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: I've opened Shimmeles when I was there for the first
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: year and decided to get off that boat. Yeah, before
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: it sank. And then uh, and then the opportunity came
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: to buy Walkers, and.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: But you totally changed the game in that area when
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: when you bought Walkers, it.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Was you know, I kind of made a deal that
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: probably shouldn't have made it at the time, but I
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: was young, and you know, they're hungry, and I was like, sure,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I'll work all the time. And uh, you know, we
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: if we made a deal that if if we missed
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: a payment we lost, we had to give it back basically,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: so we just uh, my wife and I Jennifer girlfriend.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: At the time, we had a car title loans for
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: like five grand My grandmother gave us a thousand bucks
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: and we started with six thousand dollars and went.
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  Speaker 2: For it six thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the guy that financed it for us, So
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: it was kind.
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  Speaker 2: Of that's incredible.
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  Speaker 3: They hadn' missed a payroll yet.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Derek Emerson, chef restaurant tour on the Out of Bound Show.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's let's talk about.
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  Speaker 1: Your Yeah, you go through this Walkers thing and then
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you start opening more restaurants.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we looked. We took us ten years to
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: open our second restaurant. Okay, so so we've so we
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: opened Walkers. We signed our deal in eleven, two thousand
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: and one, so about ten years after that we opened
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Local for sixty three outside the city limits right here,
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  Speaker 3: right down the street, right. Yeah, and we were there
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  Speaker 3: for seven years.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: This place was starving for something like that.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: It was and it was there wasn't a ton actually,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: you know, I think Atlantica Grill was in that space
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: before that, that's right, And they just so we went
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: in there and did Local there for seven years, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: then the space where Mint used to be right that
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: was where Local is now moved there.
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  Speaker 2: It's done extraordinarily well.
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  Speaker 3: Great. It's probably the busiest lunch spot I've ever had. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's just killing it.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you don't if you don't get there by
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: eleven thirty, good luck.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: It's so that's that's good. That's gone really well. And
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: then so then we opened Kate in Fondering right after that,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: which we went into where Grant was speaking the brick
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: up and so Grant was in that space with the
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: noodle Miso or whatever it was, and then we took
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: that space over and then we're in. Then we moved
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: it five years after we were there five years and
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: moved to Ridgeland and see if your revolution went out.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Sure, and Kate's done huge, unbelievable.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: It's and it's a bit and you know, and Granted
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: we were left with the beautiful space to work with her.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, probably the prettiest restaurant in Jackson.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that that bar and restaurant is pretty Derek Emerson
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: on the Out of Bounds Show. He's been a restaurant
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: tour in Jackson, Mississippi for over two decades, and he
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: joins us on ESPN one oh five.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: None of the zone. So let's talk, uh Masa Mesa
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: and little ethics.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: So I well, so Masa Messa was born from sacred ground.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: I started smoking meats and messing with out a little bit.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Place is amazing and Pocahontas.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, super fun. Uh So we started doing that and
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I thought that I always liked that space. I like
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: the break, the black rig, I like the building, like
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: the outdoor area. I feel like a lot of people
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: try to do fine dining kind of or upscale dining
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: when you have a big green space for kids to
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: play on. It didn't make a lot of sense to us, right,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: So we did Masa Mesa, which is just ultimately it's
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: not a Mexican restaurant. It's just a burger in taco place.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I like that Masa Mesa burger and taco place. It's
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: in the East Over district. For our listeners, if you
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: haven't been, go it's is Derek just described. It's a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: really cool development. Great right off the interstate. Check it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: out this.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we make all our own quarantine corn for
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: tia as we make hardshell tacos. Now we've added a
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: few things like taco plates for lunch and things like
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: that to make a little bit of streamlined a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: So it's just kind of and it's a fast casual.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: So we tried it with a full bar though, so
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: you can get full service at the bar if that's
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: what you that's what you prefer, sure, or you can
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: see it on order the table or at the counter.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: But it was just, uh, finding great servers nowadays is
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: getting harder, no kidding, And uh, I'm kind of a
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  Speaker 3: stickler for service, So.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, you are. It's you and several others that kind
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: of lead the way around here.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, I feel like and I feel like
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: some of that art is gone or disappearing, I should say.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: People are a lot of people are okay with okay, right,
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  Speaker 3: you're not. I am not. So we tried to we're
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: trying to do, you know, something new for us, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: you know we're learning every day. But it's you know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: super fun but uh but little Effie's.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: And it takes a minute on a new concept, it does.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't you know, even even with all your experience
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  Speaker 1: and all your success.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: And it's and it's a fast casual concept, which we've
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: really never done. So it's definitely we've definitely stubbed our
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: toe a few times, which is okay as long as
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: you learn from it. But I feel like the food's
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: always been pretty dialed. Yeah, and then we did Little
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Fie and Provisions. Uh. Little Effie was really born from Kate,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: which which people called Little Kate when it was in
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Fondering once we moved to the Big k So Fie
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  Speaker 3: was our general manager for twenty three twenty four years
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: at Walker's and my wife's best friend. So we partnered
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: with her. That's cool. Cool, Well, you know, I figure
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  Speaker 3: should keep it in the family. There's always when there
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: you trust. Sure, so she you know, we brought her
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: in and as as an homasha or kind of you know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: fi little Leffi and the little owl is kind of
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: like her spirit animal. And so there's there's owls and
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: everything everywhere and on the menu. But it's some you know,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: it's it's just a fancy cocktail in small plates.
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  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful it's a beautiful bar.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: And again, you know, taking over somebody else's space, which
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: is kind of what we've always done. It was you know,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: the bar was already pretty yeah, you know when it
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: was the food hall, and it just you know, I
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: hated to see it go to waste. I kind of
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: just put a wall in between. We broke the food
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: hole into three pieces. Took two of the pieces and said,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: we did Emerson Provisions, which is a little retail store
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: that we sell stuff from barbecues, so salad dressings that
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: we make at the restaurants, red wine, sauce, some steaks, scowdery,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: some gifts, some snacks. You know, it's fun and it's
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: so my daughter and wife really do that. I help
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: with the food, but they go to market and they
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: buy things that they like, and you know, so they
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: really enjoyed that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Derek Emerson Chef Restaurant Tour two of his newest concepts
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: really got three, but two of his newest concepts are
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Little Afis and Masa Mesa in the East Ober district.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And then he's got Emerson Provisions too, and then a
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: lot of this feed they all feed off together, which
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: is cool off each other. As Derek just walked us
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: through uh Sacred Ground out in Pocahontas is awesome and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: there's some overlap in what he just described.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: And I just you know, when I started smoking meat
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: for Sacred Ground, I started.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Really you really fell in love with it.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: I did. And you know, I'd always done like little
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: pieces here and there, but never like offset smoker a
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: thousand gallons. You know today today we did got I
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: think sixteen briskets on and three deep real. So we
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: did four wagu uh domestic wago, and then twelve regular
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: and so it's just doing stuff like that. It's just uh,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: you know, in there for Saturday. So it's you know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: it's it's different every day, right, if his cold outside's
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: gonna be different, it's hot outside, it's gonna be different.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: If the meat's different, it's gonna be different. It's raining,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: it's different when your wood comes in. If it's a
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: little wetter, it's different. So it's not just turning on
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: gas every day. It's going in there and working it
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: and figuring it out. And that's the part that keeps
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: me interested.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: And and you you traveled to Texas with your daughter
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: a few years ago and this kind of took the dot.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we went, we were going to back and
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: forth to Texas, and I started eating barbecue in Texas
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: and I was like, damn, I really like barbecue. And
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: you know, just the the the craftsmanship that they put
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: into like the briskets and things like that, and you know,
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: making the smokers, and it's just it's just a different game.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: And you know a lot of people do pig and
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: a lot of people do pig well, but you know,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: beef is just, uh, it's harder, it takes longer. Yeah,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: you know, anybody can throw a pork butt on I mean,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: you know and cooking and for a few hours, you know,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: and pull it off. But you know, you go sixteen
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: hours on a brisket. It has to be trimmed, so
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: it makes for a long day. But I feel like
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: the art of doing that is uh, for the craft
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: of doing it is super interesting to me.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: So you've you've opened a lot of concepts and restaurants
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: and you've been successful in everything you've done. You and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Derek Emerson on the Out of Bound show, are
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: you gonna hold for a second? Are you always because
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: you're a creative, you're an artist and you're a chef
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: in a business, So are you always thinking about the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: next concept? And it's just natural because you're in this
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: game on a day to day basis.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thinking, you know, One, I think it always can
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: be better, right, so we're always working to make it
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: the best we can. And Two, I think, yeah when
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I come up, and I like to do things that
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: add to the community, not necessarily take from what other
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: people are doing. Sure, and that's why I say Moss
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: is not a Mexican restaurant, because we have enough Mexican restaurant. Yeah,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: you know, So I just want to do something that
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: I enjoy. I like to eat with my hands, So
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: it was just like I should have just called it
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: eat with your fingers, but I like that, you know,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: But it is uh but you know, yeah, I'm I'm
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: we're looking. I mean, and it may be, you know,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: expanding one of the ones that we have. Sure, it's
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: definitely a possibility. But it's just really uh yeah, it's
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: kind of it's always. It's always in the back of
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: my mind, no doubt.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: You can't help it.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: I can't and it's uh and I and I and
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Jennifer's like stop yeah, but you know, luckily she supports
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: me and everything. Barbecue Area team everybody thought I was
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: kind of crazy, just because I never cook barbecue as
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: a crushing it to get paid. I heard it.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: You know, what is what is Derek doing it? Now?
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: There's time. I mean y'all sell out all the time.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: That's a good one.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: And you know we we I try. I like to
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: cook fresh every day. So it's just and I think
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: that makes a difference. So it's just, you know, I
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: do a certain amount every day. Some days I'll adjust
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: a little bit up and down depending on the weather
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: and things like that. Again, yeah, if I know it's
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: gona be pouring down rain and probably cut back a little,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: but right now when it's as hot as this, because
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: just you know, it's still pretty steady. But it's you know,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: it's like I said, it's just, uh, it's so different.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It's a passion and it's a journey and you like
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: to be challenged creatively.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: And I like to. Yes, the challenge keeps me interested.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's smart though, I mean he's got Clinton folks
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: over there helping them out.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I mean it's amazing. Then we see
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: tags from everywhere, all different the counties, and you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: we've had people come from other places and it's you know,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: people driving through Detroit, and it's been really good.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Over the last twenty five plus years of you being
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: in the business and you and Jennifer owning restaurants, You've
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: this is kind of cool to say you've had people
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: from all over the world in the country and world
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: done in your restaurants.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was amazing. Like when when when we had
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Walkers and they were Anthony Bourdain was here shooting, uh
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: at the Pigure on a big apple in and uh
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: Cedric Boseman and they were all here for a get
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: on up. So they all ended up at Walkers one night.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: So I had Mick Jagger, Dan le Froyd Bosemankay Taylor,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: and I looked at and I was like, where in
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Jack's Mississippi? Wow, Yeah, that's pretty.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Much Okay, you've met cool people, but was that cool?
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Was that cool for you? That was pretty shocking, you know,
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: especially then when Anthony Anthony board ain't walking because they
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: just saw him downtown shooting and see Infinity's just a
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: table that you would never think you would see in Mississippi?
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Were you So you've cooked for a million people and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: people that you don't know, and then uh celebrities and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: uh political people and all that. Were you nervous when
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: they were in there that night and you were cooking
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: or you past that?
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, I'm not necessarily nervous, but you know,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Staph was wanting to get autographs and I'm like, we don't.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: We're not here. We want them here, we don't want
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: we want them to be normal people. That's right. That
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: was my biggest issue, just Staph wanting to go. You know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: like I said, it's Mick Jagger. It's kind of so he's.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: He's one of the most famous people in the world.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I think that may be the most you may think
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of someone else. That's I think that's got to be
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the most famous person who's been in one of your restaurants.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Very wrecked. Yes, I'd have to say probably the most famous.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I didn't even realize that. That's incredible.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: It was, like I said, just Tuesday night, you know,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: so this is pretty uh, it's pretty neat.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Derek Emerson on the Out of Bounds Show on the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: text line from sun Devil Macy, what a local treasure.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: One of the best interviews I've heard on OOB. We're
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: having a great time. We're spotlighting and highlighting the culinary
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: talent in the city limits of Jackson. Derek's been there
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: for years and he has Little Effis and Masa Mesa
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and Emerson Provisions all in the East Over district in Jackson.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Of course, he had Walkers forever.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: You know. I mean, I will say that in Jackson
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: we have we are real lucky to have a lot
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: of good looking on restaurant, no question. I mean you've
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: got you know, like you've got Alex doing a bunch
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: of cool stuff. You've got Will Pucket. Absolutely, I got
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: a buddy of mine that was my chef at Walker's,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Mike Greenhill, is about to open a restaurant and just said,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: and so you've got you know, and there's just a
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: lot of locally owned, family.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Run retaurants and they're damn good.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: And people support them. Yeah, you know, and it's just
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: you know, and that's you know, people in Jackson like
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: to go out and do things, and they like to
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: be they like to have friends, and you know, they
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: like to hang out. And so it's having a lot
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: of locally owned places is pretty cool. Yeah.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And I mean there's nothing that's been happening since the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: beginning of time breaking bread, having an experience with family
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and friends and a good glass of wine or whatever
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: your beverage of choice is.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: That's what it's all about.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: And it is and it's just, uh, it's just when
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: people spend time together now, right, And a lot of times,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: you know, they actually do put down their phones when
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: they come to eat and somethings like that. But the
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: rest of your days are just you're going, going, going,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: and you know, you know, the phones are so involved
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: in everything. It's just nice to see pople come in
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: and actually have a conversation. Sure, and you know it
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: right away if they enjoyed it or not by the
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: look on their face, that's true. And it's it's it's
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: it's very telling. If the place start coming back full,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: I'm like, what happened? Because I watched for that and
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: this is uh, you know, to be asking what was wrong?
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: They ordered a lot? Are we sure? You know? That's
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: kind of like one of those things that, uh, I
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: just I'm a fanatic about watching place come back, yeah,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: just just because I want to make sure they're empty.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Derek Emerson on ESPN one oh five None, The Zone,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Masa Mesa and Little Effie's and Jackson, among several other
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: concepts in the metro area that have been a tremendous asset,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: uh for Mississippi and the Jackson metro area.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, we got a little time here. You want to
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: talk Saints, sure, Okay.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: So frustrations kicking in. Yeah, So there was was.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: A little bit of a spark at the end of
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the year last year with Tyler Shuck and Kellen Moore
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and so on.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: We'll see.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: But you obviously grew up a Saints fan.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: I didn't. I had season tickets up in Tokovid.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, and so you got to live what
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: you and I. So my my aunt on two restaurants
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in New Orleans, a chapel Ay and Dante by the
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: River when I was growing up, and she had season tickets.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Because back then when you and I were growing up,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: as you know, nobody.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Went to the game.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: So you can brown bangs exactly eighty one eighty forty.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'm going all the time. So you never thought that
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: you would see the run of Peyton Breeze, did you?
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: No? It was it was, you know, it was we
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: were actually we were at the game. When we were
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: at the game where when we beat Brett Farr before
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: we went to the Super Bowl. We're also at the game,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: the Rams game, and so, uh, you know, the note
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: call and probably the quietest I've ever left the Supernome.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Not not a Rams fan jersey anywhere to be seen.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: If they had them on, they took them off. Yeah,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: which is probably smart because they even they knew that
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: was ugly. Did you?
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, you never thought that the Saints would live
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs, go to multiple NFC Championship games and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: then win.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: The Super Bowl now, and I was like, we wanted
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: to go to Miami, Savannah.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: H Do you remember where you were when Tracy Porter
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: picked him off?
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Oh? At the Saints game? Yeah?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Were you watching at your house?
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah? At uh, yes, we were watching the Super Bowl
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: at the house and it was but yeah, man, it
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: was So.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Is Breeze your favorite of all time? Or did you
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: have one, like you know, like Jeff Blake, Rickey Jackson
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: or Patrick Swilling or somebody else.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: Having season tickets and going to the game during the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Drew Brees era would make him. I mean it pretty much.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: You go to a game occasionally before that, but when
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: we had season tickets, were going you know, every least
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: eight games a year. Sure, it was. It's definitely a
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: great time to be a Saints fan. Yeah. A little
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: disappointed nowadays is they keep trading off for our good players.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I know a couple of minutes left with Derek Emerson
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: restaurant tour chef Masa Mesa and Jackson, Mississippi East Over District.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Little Athe's also in the East Over District and Emerson provisions.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: So is that the biggest best game you've ever been to?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Love NFC Championship game beating the Vikings in part.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was pretty impressive. Yeah, I mean, I you
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: could feel the whole of them just shaking it. It
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: was it was, it was loud, it was fun, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: it was it was. It was amazing.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Now they've been losing the last couple of years, we're
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: hoping that they get back rolling. Have you been to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that game in the last couple of years.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: I haven't.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I don't blame you, I get it.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: But I mean, I'll also do barbeque every Sunday night.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: The only restaurant I ever had on Sundays is now
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: I'm ever been up in Sundays and really not up
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: in a Monday. So I was always be able to
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: do stuff, but now I'm like, I got you. Yeah,
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: a little busy. Yeah, well I just you know, I
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: still I still enjoy working a lot in this huh.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: And I enjoy being there, and I enjoy seeing people,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: and I enjoy seeing people enjoy what we're doing.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Hey, thanks for coming in.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: Man, thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Congratulations on all your success you and Jennifer.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, people have been good to us, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: so without the without the people in Jackson supporting us,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: we wouldn't be