The hot pink building on Main Street is not exactly where Yazoo County native and self-proclaimed “foodie” Thomas Johnson thought his love of cooking would lead him. The 66-seat eatery, branded with an old-fashioned sign bearing its owner’s name, however, is the perfect fit. His journey to the increasingly popular and brightly colored downtown has been an evolution of sorts for the former farmer.
“I didn’t really intend on doing something like this 10 years ago,” he said. “I was a farmer, a typical cotton, soybean type farmer.”
An interest in growing tomato plants, about 10,000, led to him selling tomatoes wholesale to area grocery stores. Tom turned his tomato operation into a produce market, which grew into a take-out restaurant and later into Tom’s on Main, the full-service restaurant he now runs seven days a week for lunch and Fridays for dinner.
“So, you can see, I evolved from a farmer to a produce guy to a restaurant (owner), but my hobby has always been cooking, so that was an interest for me,” Tom said from a four-top table inside the brick building that dates to 1905.
His journey from the field, where he farmed about 2,000 acres for 25 years, to the kitchen also was inspired by his love of experimenting with recipes, mostly dishes he learned about from watching food shows on television.
“When I was a young guy, I just would always enjoy cooking. Typically, guys when they cook, grill,” Tom said. “Of course, I always enjoyed grilling, but I enjoy being in the kitchen trying different things. I’m an avid fan of Food Network and all those different food channels.”
Watching celebrity chefs, such as Anthony Bourdain, bring international dishes into the mainstream, and doing some traveling of his own helped Tom curate a unique menu for his restaurant.
“It’s a lot of good, ole Southern comfort-type food mixed in with some unusual items that you’ll not typically expect to find in a Southern restaurant,” he said. “The more you travel, I think, the more you appreciate different styles of food and don’t get stuck in one style. A lot of people don’t get too far from here and they don’t watch the travel channels or the food channels. I think, certainly, that helps broaden your view of the different food that people enjoy.”
Tom’s on Main offers a revolving menu of daily plate lunch offerings — everything from crispy fried chicken and chicken and dumplings to Parmesan chicken, bang-bang shrimp and tamales. Hefty helpings of vegetables are paired with each entrée. Tom’s also offers burgers, salads and specialty sandwiches, including Cubans, Reubens and Chivito, the national sandwich of Uruguay, which features grilled ribeye, ham, bacon, grilled onion, pepper jack cheese and a fried egg served on a sesame bun.
Tom’s on Main regular Griffin Norquist said the Chivito is a hit with locals as well as out-of-towners.
“A lot of people who are coming in here to eat lunch are from out of town,” the Yazoo City native said. “I think it’s word-of-mouth.”
He also attributes the success of Tom’s to its namesake. Having Tom there to serve the guests, he said, is “the key.”
“When the door’s open, I’m here,” Tom said.
The building that houses Tom’s has been everything from a tire shop to a café. For about 30 years, it served the community and visitors as various food establishments. In fact, Griffin’s 95-year-old father has shared memories of dining there when it was Hector’s Restaurant, known for its oyster loaf.
After eight years of running Yazoo Market, Tom changed the name to Tom’s on Main. He moved downtown in 2013 as part of an ongoing renaissance of Yazoo City’s historic Main Street. About 10 years ago, Paul and JoAnn Adams began purchasing the century-old buildings along Main Street and transforming them by painting each a different bright color. Retail shops began to fill the bottom, while the Adamses opened the upstairs as the Main Street Hotel.
Tom’s on Main has become a huge draw to downtown, especially during lunch. While it is clearly a top choice for locals — the local newspaper’s reader’s polls have named Tom’s as having the best sandwich, best plate lunch and best waitress — it also has become a hot spot for tourists.
“We have quite a number of people come in here from European countries. They’re on the blues trail and they’ll tell us they saw that picture,” Tom said, pointing to a poster of downtown that hangs inside his restaurant. “We’re kind of a stop on the blues trail.”
Tom’s cash register, which tracks geographic locations from credit card sales, reports about one-third of his customers as new, which is evidence that his restaurant is attracting tourists regularly.
“I never would have thought that many people would have been in Yazoo City new on a daily basis,” he said.
On Friday nights, the one evening Tom serves food, a wider selection of entrees tops the menu — ribeye steak, veal piccata and rack of lamb to name a few. Sandwiches and burgers are also available. The restaurant is the only business open downtown on Friday evenings, he said, and he almost always has a good crowd.
Tom said it’s a combination of quality food and good service that keeps people coming back.
“We bring a good crowd during the lunch hour,” he said. “A lot of people come down here only to eat.”
And, although Tom never saw himself greeting guests to a restaurant bearing his name, he is quite content with the steady stream of hungry patrons who enter daily.
“I went from a business where you didn’t see people into constant interaction with people. I like that.”
STORY Lauchlin Fields
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis
