Those expansion plans appear to have stalled.Ī deal in the works in 2014 to expand the Sweetie Pie’s franchise to other cities never panned out. Louis American in 2013, “One of the things that we are battling is if we are going to be able to hold onto the restaurant because of the veteran’s hospital. If they prepare for me to go someplace else, I’m prepared to be a good citizen and move on and make room if that happens.” The VA had eyed the adjacent historic Palladium building as well. That location appeared to be under threat for years, as the adjacent John Cochran Veterans Administration Medical Center eyed expansion for parking. The success of both locations led Montgomery to open a restaurant, banquet hall, and cooking school in the city’s Grand Center arts district in 2012. The location in The Grove opened in 2006. Sweetie Pie’s was founded by Robbie Montgomery and her son Tim Norman in 1996 in the north St. Each time, customers were surprised by locked doors, inquiries went unanswered, and then the restaurant would re-open. “I like downtown, so I’m going to try to stay downtown.Over the years, the Sweetie Pie’s location on Manchester had closed for extended periods seemingly without notice, leading to speculation that the restaurant had closed. “The city has been really helpful and they said they’re going to help me find another building,” Norman said. The wheels that were turning for celebrations for the new restaurant have been put into neutral, Norman said. And they rejected the suggestion of a generator to power the unit, because of the noise, Norman said. He said managers of the building said he could not run a power cord to the large portable smoker parked in front of the restaurant and which, he said, can smoke 700 slabs of ribs at a time. Norman said the 20 people he has hired, who were waiting in the dining area, ready prepare for the evening meal, had not been told yet that they were no long employed. A call to the mayor was not immediately returned. I don’t think they were expecting the crowd.”Īttempts to reach someone with the Estes Group and the owner of the property, Capital Tower LLC of Beverly Hills, Calif., were not immediately successful. He said that Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the city would be trying to find a more-suitable place, perhaps in the Farish Street Historic District.īut in the past 24 hours, the managers “did a complete 180 on us. Norman said that “we were open for about 20 minutes” Friday morning before the building managers told them to shut down. The capacity of the ground-floor restaurant is about 80, but he said that customers were blocking the exterior doors and access to the elevators. Norman said that the business had all of the permits in hand from the city and state needed to open the business, but that the landlord decided to shut down operations.Ĭharles Crenchaw takes a break in July 2018 from moving kitchen appliances into what was to be “Sweetie Pie’s.”FILE PHOTO/ Jack Weatherly/MBJ ![]() The manager of the property, the Estes Group, shut down the business because the throng that showed up on Thursday disrupted the comings and goings of other tenants in the 12-story skyscraper, which includes two other restaurants, Basil’s and Keifer’s. He was breaking the news to the curious well-wishers. Tim Norman, an officer in the company and one of the stars of the show, was busy greeting cruising motorists on Congress Street at the intersection with Amite in downtown Jackson mid-afternoon Friday. It had a five-year run as a reality show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Louis, expanded to Houston, flirted with Memphis and, thus far, has been jilted in Jackson after a two-year courtship. The soul-food eatery opened to a throng of people on Thursday. That is the story thus far in the saga of Sweetie Pie’s restaurant in Jackson.
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