APRIL/MAY 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 11Illu
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UST A SHORT drive from Elvis Presley’s birthplace in
Tupelo, Mississippi, sits Aunt B’s Soul Food, a small brick
building with a bright yellow awning and a rusted barbecue
cooker out front. The service is cafeteria-style, and the menu
changes daily.
But there’s more at play here than just good food. Tables compete
for space with pairs of guitars and amplifiers, a set of conga drums, a
keyboard, and more indicators of this town’s deep musical roots. Pictures
and albums of famous blues and R & B singers cover the walls. Owner
Thomas Woods tells me that on Sundays, customers often break into
song during lunch. “Go to church, sing a hymn. Come here, sing a
hymn. Sometimes they just come up and start singing.”
Woods was an electrical engineer with a degree from the University of
Southern Mississippi before he turned to food. “I learned [to cook] from
watching my mama, beginning on a potbelly stove.” Relishing the
memory for a moment, he adds, “the prettiest dang piece
of cornbread I ever saw came off a potbelly stove.”
The restaurant serves mostly regulars, but tourists on the Elvis
trail also stop in. “We have a lot of people who just want authentic
Mississippi food.”
I ask why he named the restaurant for his aunt rather than
his mother, Ollie Woods. “Because she was still alive,” he says.
“There’s a thing about giving people their flowers while they’re
living instead of when they’re gone. They can’t enjoy them when
they’re gone.”
Woods, his brother, and his sister all surprised Aunt B, whose
full name is Lula B. Harris, with the news of the restaurant
together. “It was amazing to see an 80-plus-year-old black woman, with
everything she’s been through here in Mississippi and Alabama, get a res-
taurant named after her.” After a few moments, Aunt B turned to Woods
and said, “You better have it right if it’s gonna have my name on it.” He
laughs out loud. “I said, ‘Yes, ma’am!’”Text by Bryan Roof;
photos by Steve KliseDon’t
Call
It a
Burger
Owner Thomas Woods, top, created
his menu from childhood favorites.
“This is the same food that I grew
up on,” he says, “the same way my
mama used to cook it.”ON THE ROAD