Delta Bistro: Homemade...Straight From the Heart

This story about The Delta Bistro was first published in DeSoto Magazine, March 2010. All rights reserved.

Like so many highly regarded Mississippi cooks, Taylor Bowen Ricketts, chef and proprietor of Delta Bistro in Greenwood, is herself "homemade" in the very best sense of the word. Ricketts declares proudly, "A lot of the food I cook is a. Southern, and b. inspired by my family."

Ricketts was born in Oxford and grew up in Jackson, learning culinary traditions at home in her family's kitchen. It wasn't until she went back Oxford for college — for painting, religion, and philosophy — that she discovered a passion for the restaurant business. She began waiting tables, which, Ricketts says, "kind of got me interested and I was good at it." Her next restaurant experience, at a vegetarian restaurant, changed her point of view drastically. with a menu that changed frequently, Ricketts says, "I was able to create with food for the first time." The opportunity to be involved with menu revisions opened new doors for what she calls "an obsession."

She and her husband, Darby, then went on to help establish several landmark restaurants in Oxford, such as Proud Larry's, Yocona River Inn, and City Grocery, where she was working with her husband and chef John Currence. Ricketts explains, "I got to see that from the ground up. It was a good experience in learning how to open a restaurant."

Rickett's culinary experience came to the attention of Viking founder Fred Carl, Jr. He invited her to come to Greenwood to run the Delta Fresh Market, a gourmet food store and lunch spot. After four years, there wasn't a consistent customer base to sustain both the Market and restaurant, so Ricketts and Viking decided to make a few changes. Delta Bistro opened in 2009 in a downtown location around the corner from the Alluvian Hotel.

The restaurant is in a renovated turn-of-the-century cotton grading facility, complete with massive skylights once used to inspect and grade cotton. The airiness, coupled with a brightly painted ceiling, provides a nice contrast to the dark masonry walls. Both Ricketts and her husband are artists, and their work is displayed throughout the space. The renovated restaurant uses some of the original's interior furniture. "Most of the tables and such came from the Delta Fresh Market," Ricketts points out. "We kind of wanted to have a new start when we moved, but we did bring some things with us to the new location...just to know we're still what we always have been...with a new hairdo."

The white partitions, with hanging glass standing int he middle of the restaurant, help maintain a longstanding Greenwood tradition à la Giardina's and Lusco's. Both landmark restaurants have Prohibition-era roots, whose private booths afforded diners the seclusion to indulge in their brown bag beverage of choice. Delta Bistro continues that tradition for a $2 corkage fee for wine, and the partitions give diners a little privacy in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

Perhaps the Bistro's most unusual inclusion is its herb garden, which is about 20 feet by 2 feet. The builders "thought [she] was crazy," when Ricketts asked them to put in a small plot for such a purpose. The garden, however, has been successful, yielding asparagus, a variety of herbs, and tomatoes to supply the kitchen. This supply, in part, allows Ricketts to create the Bistro's menu with completely fresh ingredients. "Everything is made from scratch," she says. "[We] don't limit ourselves with ingredients, we change the menu seasonally, and daily specials change. Four or five menu items are changed one to two times a day. There's lots of variety and options for your palate."

Delta Bistro's menu is a true art piece and one that Ricketts created with thoughtfulness and flair. It mixes Southern nouveau with the ease of home-cooked comfort food. Her family recipes hold court on the menu. They include her grandmother's pimento cheese, lemon pie, and Caesar salad dressing, a vinaigrette "that [her] grandmother always made." Her grandfather had a special Comeback sauce recipe, which she uses on the Comeback Reuben. Ricketts creates dishes from what she knows, saying, It means a lot to me to be able to carry that tradition with me when I come to work every day."

The Delta Bistro is located on 117 Main Street in Greenwood, Mississippi. Visit them online here.