The Mayflower Cafe, now Jackson's oldest surviving restaurant was established in 1935 and has continued service uninterrupted until this day as a family-owned restaurant. In the '30 and 40s it was a popular meeting place nestled right in between the then prominent King Edward and the Heidelberg Hotels. It served 24 hours a day and catered to a very diverse clientele. This business went through a few lean years a decade or so ago, but has now experienced quite a revival. Today it is not unusual to have a short wait for one's table or booth which adds to the anticipation. Though the hours of operation are different, the restaurant is still favored by a quite varied clientele including politicians, writers, musicians, business and professional people of all types, blue collar--you name it, it's there for all to enjoy and cherish.

Mayflower Cafe

Mark Millet’s Limited Edition Print promises to be his best and most popular... .... The “Mayflower” project started as a commission painting and ended as a tribute to Willie Morris.  No Longer Available SOLD OUT Artist Proofs were signed by three generations of Mayflower Owners.   1-601-856-5901 Image size: 18 in. x 24 in. Edition limited to 25 Artist Proofs & 250 prints.   Mr. & Mrs. Willie Morris standing outside the Mayflower Cafe.... Full image above.

My affection for the Mayflower Cafe goes back to my childhood days when my family would have this wonderful restuant prepare our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of fried oysterloaf. The Mayflower has continued to be very prominent in my life's experience. Through the years, my father and mother, brothers, and sister- - and now wife and daughters-- have made this establishment our destination for some of the finest sustenance in the form of fresh fish that one can find, Perhaps equally as important is its role as a venue of great fellowship in a gathering of friends. In a desire to have some tangible evidence of this place of reminiscence, we commissioned Mark Millet to do an oil rendering of this subject. Mark was preparing to paint a few more people into the scene when my friend and one of Mississippi's most beloved writers Willie Morris died. It dawned on me that that night that Willie, Joanne and David Rae should definitely be a part of this scenery. Willie had a great fondness for this restaurant and I suspect that his reasons were not entirely dissimilar to mine. Since I had photographed Willie on a number of special occasions, I felt like I had just the right material from which Mark could work to depict the likeness of this extraordinary author and family. By Willie's friend BILL MORRIS.   Artist Mark Millet