Jackson is the largest city and the capital of the poorest state in the US: Mississippi. Known as The City With Soul, Jackson is steeped in Civil Rights history and home, or at least gateway, to many blues and jazz legends. One entertainment landmark is the historic Alamo Theatre, build in 1949, on North Farish Street (see photo below). The Farish Street District close to Downtown used to be a center for Black businesses and entertainment. Today Downtown Jackson is very run-down, with gigantic potholes and lots of homeless people squatting in unoccupied or dilapidated buildings. At least there is an effort to save some historical buildings in the Farish Street District, including some traditional shotgun houses, but overall Downtown Jackson is definitely not on the list of must-see US capitals. To be fair, there are a couple of notable museums, like the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Furthermore, the King Edward Hotel, built in 1923 and recently renovated, is a prominent building and a nice place to stay overnight. One block from the hotel (now called the Hilton Garden Inn) is also the most unexpected attraction we encountered in Jackson: The Mayflower Cafe.

The Mayflower Cafe opened its doors in 1935 (as a hamburger stand run by two Greek immigrants) and soon after evolved into a Southern-Greek seafood restaurant. We did not know about the history of the place when we walked by on a very hot and humid late afternoon in July. We came from the Capitol, walking through a mostly deserted downtown wasteland looking for a place to have a cold beer and dinner. We were drenched in sweat when we walked in and asked if we could sit at the bar for dinner without changing our clothes. The very friendly waiter said: “Of course, no problem, everyone is sweaty in Mississippi. Enjoy your dinner!” And then we had a fantastic, yet very affordable, seafood dinner. We would come back anytime. A few weeks later I opened the Sunday New York Times and saw that the Mayflower Cafe had made it onto the list of best restaurants in the US in 2025: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/dining/best-restaurants-america.html?searchResultPosition=1

As far as we know, that was the first time we ate in a restaurant that made it on a New York Times best restaurant list, but we will try to have dinner there again next time we are in Jackson. If we still get a table!