The sign flicks on at precisely 11 a.m., and by 11:03 the line is six-deep at the Lillie’s counter. Soon the 32-seat lunch spot hums with orders and shouts to favorite customers:
“Hey, Mr. Bo!” Timothy Bright shouts from the kitchen as Bo Tolar of Clinton enters.
The phrase echoes as others on the staff join in.
Mr. Bo is a regular.
“It’s just good home cooking,” Tolar said, acknowledging he comes almost every day. “I really like everything here. They have a good variety of food.”
Quietly, owner Tammy Wince said, “We’d be worried if he didn’t show up.”
Three men from a nearby construction crew add their praises. They tried Lillie’s once and now come several times a week. That blend of home-cooked meals with a healthy side of customer devotion is drawing diners to this Clinton restaurant.
Timothy and Tammy opened Lillie’s on Sept. 7, 2013, and hope to move soon into a larger space on U.S. 80 in Clinton. The partners trod a familiar food path in different states, before they met four or five years ago.
“We both love to cook,” Tammy said. “My grandmother taught me how to cook. Tim went to culinary school and he’s been an executive chef for a few years.”
Tammy said her grandmother, Lillie Wilson (the restaurant’s namesake), taught her much of what she knows, including how to make her famous cornbread muffins.
Tim nods, adding, “A hot batch comes out every 14 minutes.”
Tammy talks as she prepares that sought-after cornbread batter. Cornmeal, eggs, buttermilk go in the bowl. As she stirs, she turns and talks to Tim and Gilbert Henderson, who work the kitchen with her. Soon the batter has the look she’s seeking and she pours it into a waiting pan before using a dipper to fill a 12-space muffin tin. Into the oven it goes.
Out front, Devontae Smith and BreAnna Henderson are readying the tables, the condiments and preparing for the lunch rush.
Tammy, a Tchula, Miss., native and Tim, an Iowa native who grew up helping at a Louisiana restaurant owned by his great-uncle and later his parents, have blended their cooking styles.
These days, they start each morning getting their children, Tammy’s daughters Lillie Ann, 5, and Lillie Delores, 15 months, and Tim’s son, Timothy, 12, off to school, open the kitchen with a prayer and turn on the music.
“We pray when we open and we pray when we close. We put God first and it just comes,” Tim said of the restaurant’s success.
“We play all types of music,” Tammy said. “Eagles, B.B. King, gospel on Sunday.”
Pointing to two work areas, Tim said, “She takes one side and I take the other and we start working.”
They use fresh vegetables and focus on serving healthy dishes.
“We don’t use pork in the vegetables. We use a lot of herbs and spices like oregano and thyme,” Tim said. “No sugar. We try to get it as fresh as we can so it is sweet on its own, so it’s natural.”
His excitement grows, and he literally bounces as he talks about a vendor they’ve found who can provide hothouse vegetables this winter.
The menu can change daily depending on vegetables but a few items are constant: fried and baked chicken, the cornbread muffins and, on Wednesdays, the competition between Gilbert and Tim over who makes the most pork chops. Gilbert fries them. Tim grills them. This day, Tim is encouraging customers to order his grilled chops, and he is winning. Gilbert shakes his head.
There’s a nod to Tim’s heritage in the menu, too. Monday includes red beans and rice with andouille and roasted red peppers. He leans forward, “I use Camellia red beans, the dry beans.”
The two prepare dishes people have ordered for their homes as well as fare for the lunch crowd. Tammy laughs as Tim describes one customer who brought her own dishes for them to use in preparing her Thanksgiving feast.
“She wants her company to think she did it.”
The take-out casseroles are ready, and prep time is over. Tammy has filled the banana pudding cups, Gilbert has just finished pulling the day’s first batch of fried chicken from the vat, customers are beginning to line up outside and it’s time to fill some plates with food.
Morris Hammond of Ridgeland, who stopped to pick up a casserole he’d ordered earlier, watches the pre-opening churn with the familiarity of a regular customer.
“I attend Mount Helm Missionary Baptist Church and both Bible classes come here to eat. Everything is good. She makes it all from scratch,” he said. “I’m into cooking also, but when someone can cook like this, why warm your stove up?”
Others must agree. Hammond leaves, and the line is growing.
STORY Cynthia Wall
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis