Airport Grocery

Airport Grocery is owned by Jonathan Vance, who touts hot tamales as a staple of a Delta soul food diet. Vance’s grandfather was friends with the late Joe Pope and bought the tamale recipe from him and so carries on the tradition of the “Pope method.” The beef hot tamales wrapped in corn husks are tied with string in bundles of three and have a subtle afterburn - the ingredient for good tamale eatin’. The original location for many years was on Highway 8 and Airport Grocery moved into the current building in 2008. It is an enormous rustic building whose wood came from a circa 1870 home and is decorated similar to an old barn full of vintage memorabilia. Up above, hundreds of t-shirts hang from the beams. It is hard to ignore the smell of their hickory smoked barbecue pork and beef when wandering amongst the red checkered tablecloths, lounge area and pool tables. The brain senses that it is time for a down home picnic. Airport Grocery has a full menu of entrée choices like pasta, kabobs, steak and seafood. The hamburgers have long been a popular menu item but there are many other kinds of sandwiches and salads from which to choose like a crawfish po boy or Pig salad, fresh greens topped with smoke pulled pork.


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