Girl Meets City: Oxford, Mississippi
My first Girl Meets City posts were well scheduled, collaborative, and planned events. This one will be a little different. It all starts with being offered an amazing deal on Ole Miss tickets, a boy (Anthony: who is also a friend & fellow photog/videographer) telling me how much he loved Ole Miss & Oxford, a college town that virtually shuts down on game days, a lot of rain on the way home, and a slightly haphazard trek across North Mississippi and Alabama on our way home. So come along with me- and feel free to checkout my playlist for this trip while you read:
With all that said, Girl Meets City: Oxford will be slightly different. We would leave Macon to make the 6 hour drive early early one Saturday morning. Friday would have been better, yes, however previous obligations kept me in Macon the evening before. (Previous obligation being a badass Macon Pops concert!! I’m not complaining.) So with the early morning sunrise I set out with my companion for this piece to head out the farthest west I’ve even been.
Yes, friends, I admit it: I had never been west of Tuscaloosa, Alabama until this trip. The shame of it would haunt me throughout when even Tupelo natives were shocked by this fact. However, that will come up later.
For those of you who don’t know, once you cross the Alabama-Mississippi state line the roads instantly change. The romantic in me likes to think they bear a resemblance to the red clay of the South. The reality is, Mississippi apparently opted out of some kind of federal funding for their roads- according to my travel companion’s Google search. ( I didn’t read this myself so you’ll have to count on anecdotal evidence of some kind.)
We would roll into Oxford about an hour or so before kickoff- just enough time to figure out where we needed to park and get to The Grove. I’d always heard The Grove was incredible, something that every SEC football fan, no- EVERY- football fan should experience. And of course we covered it on The Southern Weekend. But I still wasn’t prepared for how overwhelmed I would be.
Once there I started getting messages from friends: ” Betty is going to be singing! Please record!”
Betty is Betty Cantrell, current Miss America, and a Middle Georgia native. I found out she would be singing God Bless America at the game, as did multiple friends:
I love how Macon and Mercer University connections seem to follow me everywhere! Every single trip I take, no matter where I go, I hear either an Allman Brothers song or Otis Redding. Just a few moments earlier we would run across a gentleman playing Allman Brothers in a tailgate tent.
Another Macon connection? Finding an ADPi sister and her Phi Mu friend- both sororities were founded in Macon at Wesleyan College.
And I do always love to see fashionable men:
The game… the game was incredible.
The game itself was a hard-fought fight up until the end in overtime- I screamed my heart out but it just wasn’t enough. Arkansas came away with the win, but I got to see the real winners: the class act Ole Miss fans who handled it with grace.
As a result of driving 6 hours in one day to a game that went into overtime, I was not able to personally check out The Square. BUT thanks to my Alpha Delta Pi sisters, one who I met while in line for the restroom at the game and one at home, I can tell y’all where I wanted to go.
The first boutique I was told about is Frock Fashions, located on 201 North Lamar Boulevard. They carry a number of brands that I’m familiar with, like Rock & Republic, Miss Me, BB Dakota and more.
Formals week is here!! Come get a sparkly dress to shine on your special night ✨ A photo posted by Frock Fashions (@frockfashions) on
Also… I want that sofa!!!
My travelling companion for this trip, thankfully, is also very familiar with Oxford. One place Anthony said is a must visit in Oxford is City Grocery. Opened in 1992, City Grocery is the flagship of Chef John Currence’s dynasty. ” Sixteen years later, Currence and company have seen a slew of openings under their instruction and retain ownership of two exceptionally successful ventures in Oxford; including, Bouré (an up-scale, full service family concept), City Grocery Catering Company-a full service catering endeavor and Big Bad Breakfast, an ingredient-driven breakfast concept and smokehouse set to open in May of 2008,” according to their website.
Basically, make sure you stop in City Grocery- or any of their sister spots- when in Oxford for a true Southern experience.
After the game we headed over to Tupelo, about 30- 45 minutes from Oxford. Again, my friend had been here many times and highly recommended the La Quinta Inn. Now y’all know I love to keep my dollars as local as possible, but the people here were amazing. Check in was quick and efficient – AND they free upgraded us to the King Size Suite. #Winning #SoMuchWinning – Kind of made me regret only staying for one evening.
But, no time to rest! I was starving- even after a hot dog and tamales at the football game. (Y’all- tamales at the football game. TAMALES and FOOTBALL.) The lovely folks at My Tupelo told me on Instagram that I should go to either the Blue Canoe or Kermit’s Outlaw Kitchen. I decided on both: dinner at KOK and drinks after at Blue Canoe.
Well… it ended up being more like drinks at both.
So, KOK is quite the place. You walk in and there’s a few tables up front as well as a bar area- I typically prefer to sit at the bar and watch everything but the hostess recommended we sit upstairs. Upstairs has a larger seating area than downstairs, as well as a large bar. Their sister restaurant is the Neon Pig, an old-school butcher shop with specialized in-house cured meats. Neon Pig is also currently nominated for the ” Best Burger in the Nation” from ThrillList.com.
And the food- good GOD the food! However, I’m getting ahead of myself. We started off with a “Harvest Shot” each: pumpkin moonshine, fireball, and apple cider. Then I would follow it up with a very strong bourbon Sweet tea. He ordered a native Mississippi beer.
I have to be honest here, the bourbon Sweet tea was a little strong for me- so I had to pass it off to him. Otherwise, walking would have been a problem for me.
Next came the food. In a moment of wiseness, we decided to share the charcuterie board and their burger. (Remember: we had also eaten at the game.) That charcuterie board was a thing of beauty: neon pig pork belly, garlic & dill sausage, sequatchie cove shake rag blue cheese, stone hollow goat cheese, pickled vegetables, and estes honey comb. Good. God.
And then there was the Butcher Burger: Neon Pig ground brisket, Benton’s bacon, quick pickles, grilled onions, St. Bethany fresh tomatoes, greens, ketchup, yellow mustard, and parmesan fries.
I have to confess: I’m usually a boring burger person. Meaning, I order a burger with American cheese and ketchup. That’s it. Unless seriously persuaded otherwise. I didn’t even think to question these people, and ordered it as was.
Thank. God. Because this was like a whole lot of heaven. In a burger.
And then for whatever reason I thought it was a wise idea to get dessert. See- this is when planning ahead and splitting meals is a good bet. Because the dessert was amazing and incredible and everything I needed for it to be, even if it did mean practically having to roll myself out of the restaurant.
See what I mean? I should have gone straight to the hotel room from there but no- no, I’m a glutton for punishment. And as chatty as I am, my friend can be even more so. So we moseyed on to The Blue Canoe where I would hit my wall, stop drinking, and observe some Tupleo natives in rare form. The minute one of them made a joke about Florida football I was awake and laughing. This is something I love about the South: even before these guys knew I was writing an article, they wanted to share things about Tupelo with my friend and I because they knew we weren’t from there. Even if they did make fun for me for having now traveled the farthest west I’d ever been in my life (thank you, again, Anthony for throwing me under the bus).
From there I dragged my tired behind back to the hotel room to crash. The original plan was to head back to Oxford in the morning, and the ambitious plan was to drive to the other side of the state to Clarksville, but then we did the math once we woke up and realized that would need to be tabled for another trip. But we did take another long route home.
Following a portion of the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway we could see that the fall colors were already in effect here. Theoretically, one can take this parkway all the way to Nashville- but we were not that adventurous. We were heading for one of the homes of Southern music: Muscle Shoals.
We drove past FAME Studios, heading into what is technically Sheffield, Alabama to stop for some authentic Alabama barbecue at Brooks Barbecue, looped into Florence, and back through Muscle Shoals to stop in wonder at The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.
In that span of time I learned that Alabama barbecue is cooked differently- and honestly has this amazingly clean taste that I left me hungry for more. That Florence has an adorable downtown and I want to go back for a whole Girl Meets City: Florence at some point. And completely geeked out at standing in the same spot as the likes of Etta James, The Staple Singer, The Rolling Stones, Duane Allman and more.
So from there, it was a long drive back home. Back home to Macon from Oxford, from Tupelo, through Muscle Shoals and Birmingham along the highway. As many miles of the South, as much Southern culture as we through in just over 24 hours time… there’s still so much of it left to explore. It’s these trips which also remind me how connected we all are. There’s always a piece of Macon that finds it’s way into my trips. And there’s always a piece of each place that follows me back home. I can’t wait to see where my wandering heart leads me to next.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
Cover photo: The Lyceum, from Travel Press Media Room, was the first building constructed on the Ole Miss campus
To learn more about the places highlighted here, take a look at their websites:
Frock Fashions, Oxford, Mississippi
City Grocery, Oxford, Mississippi
LaQuinta Inn, Tupelo, Mississippi
Kermit’s Outlaw Kitchen, Tupelo, Mississippi
The Blue Canoe, Tupelo, Mississippi
FAME Studios, Muscle Shoals, Alabama
