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PAUL:

There's a new kid in town and if you haven't been to Belhaven Town Center to try out Wing Mouth, just do it. Your taste buds will thank you.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front-row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, Belhaven residents George and Ann Elizabeth Gillespie just opened Wing Mouth at Belhaven Town Center, a simple concept that specializes in wings, tenders and fries. And after years in the restaurant business, George says they're filling a need for more fast, casual options at the town center, a spot that's brimming with activity almost every day of the week.

You know, the little spot that you're in there at Belhaven Town Center was an art gallery at one time. And when somebody said there is a wing place coming in here, the first thing I thought was, where are you going to put a wing place in that little tiny building? You're operating out of just a scant few square feet there, aren't you?

GEORGE:

Yeah. it's funny. I feel, you know, I've been working in kitchens for a long time and I feel like every kitchen that I work in just gets smaller and smaller. And, I didn't think we'd be able to fit a wing place in there either. I actually talked to my brother-in-law who did construction and he had built some restaurants and he was like, yeah, you can definitely do it. And we kind of started doing the layout and we were like, yeah, I guess we can fit it in here. Just barely.

PAUL:

So just to be clear with folks, this is not a sit down restaurant. You don't order and then go find a table inside. You certainly can find a table outside at Belhaven Town Center, but you're more of a takeout kind of operation.

GEORGE:

Yeah, it is. Yeah. I guess the idea is to be a casual option for the whole Belhaven Town Center. And of course you can take it wherever you can take it home with you. Obviously, you can take it in the brewery. You can sit out there on our patio. There's no place to sit within the restaurant, obviously. So it's just fast casual. Take it with you and go wherever you want.

PAUL:

It's my favorite thing to do to grab a beer or two or three…depending, head Fertile Ground, then grab food from your neighbor, Poppy Pie or Elvie’s or Pulito or MayDay or Good Bar. And now Wing Mouth. You're not going away hungry or thirsty at Belhaven Town Center.

GEORGE:

I think that the thing for us that inspired us was that we felt like we just fit in there like a glove. It needed another fast casual option. I love wings and beer. So I was like, let's do a wing place. I think we just comfortably fit in there. We don't sell alcohol because there's alcohol everywhere. We don't sell desserts because there's ice cream right there. And it just, you know, we're just in that perfect little spot.

PAUL:

Very simple menu: wings, chicken tenders and french fries. And I can say from personal experience, they are delicious. And the sauces, to me, well, the sauces kind of make it. Where did you come up with all of these different flavors and combinations?

GEORGE:

It's one of those things that's been a work in progress for a really long time. And it's still something that we're working on. We want to run some special sauces every now and then. It took a lot of work, a lot of trial and error. And, you know, we worked really hard on the ranch on a blue cheese, like getting that right… the Buffalo sauce: it took a lot of different trials with that Buffalo sauce and just mixing and matching different flavors and kind of seeing what other people liked. So it was a process for sure.

PAUL:

Yeah. Because these are not sauces that just come straight out of a bottle and are poured into a cup. These are your original creations.

GEORGE:

They are. Yeah. I've definitely worked at a lot of restaurants and tried a lot of different sauces, made a lot of different sauces. think most of my career has been making sauces. I wanted to do something original. You know, that was important to me. It was important to my wife and Ann Elizabeth too, to like do something original. So, you know, we just really worked hard and, know, took what we've learned in the past and kind of applied our own style to everything.

PAUL:

Yeah. Let's talk about the past for a minute. So it kind of seems like you came from out of nowhere, but you've obviously been in the business for a long time. Give me the highlight reel of your career in the restaurant business.

GEORGE:

I started off at Julep. It was a very popular restaurant back in the day. I started off working there for a summer. I went to Ole Miss. I worked at a restaurant called Lenora's for a summer. It's a really popular restaurant on The Square. I worked at Brent's for a little bit. I worked at Caet when it was in Jackson. I worked at Lou's for about a year and I worked for The Pig & Pint the longest. I worked at The Pig & Pint for eight years and that's what I was doing. I was the pit master there before we opened up our own place.

PAUL:

So I have you to thank for that delicious barbecue that I love a little too much.

GEORGE:

Yeah. Yeah. I guess you can give me some credit for it. Yeah.

PAUL:

And then you and your wife have a, a private chef catering business as well.

GEORGE:

Yes, we started that a few years ago when we got married. We got married during COVID and we were just kind of talking and thinking about what we could do with food. And we just kind of put together like a little private chef business where we were just like coming to people's homes, cook dinners, multi-course meals, typically about 10 to 20 people. That kind of varied a little bit, but yeah, we were doing that pretty consistently about every weekend. It was pretty successful. We had to put it on hold to do this, but we do hope to come back to it and do that. It's a lot of fun. It's different than the restaurant industry or at least different than the side. I've seen it. I'm always in the kitchen. So I don't really interact with the customers that much. And it was really fun, you know, not only cook, but interact with people in their homes and like see how they eat around their friends and family and interact. And, and it was a cool, new experience for me.

PAUL:

Well, now you get to see loads and loads and loads of people interacting and enjoying your food there at Belhaven Town Center. What's been some of the most popular combinations, I guess you'd say from your menu. What do people love to order?

GEORGE:

I think the garlic Parmesan sauce is definitely the most popular. The honey bourbon barbecue is really popular. The Buffalo is really popular. Asian sweet chili. I'd say those are the, those are the big four.

PAUL:

Yeah. What's the secret to those delicious French fries?

GEORGE:

You know, I can't really reveal it. There's a, there's a technique to it. And I don't think most restaurant people kind of know how to do it. You want them to get crispy. There's a, there's a process and there's a seasoning, but I don't want to, I don't want to give away too many secrets.

PAUL:

Fair enough. Fair enough. We'll just have to come there and get an order or two or 10 of those french fries. You've just kicked off at Belhaven Town Center, haven't been in business for too long. Have you established your hours? What can people look forward to as you go through these opening weeks of Wing Mouth?

GEORGE:

Yeah, we did establish our hours. We're open for lunch and dinner. The only day we're closed is Monday and we're not open for Sunday dinner. So we're pretty much open from 11 to 2.30 on Tuesday through Friday. And then we close for the afternoon, open back up 4.30 to roughly around nine o'clock, just whenever people stop coming. And then Saturday we're open from 11 to all day and Sunday we're open from noon to four for lunch. So I guess that's a little complicated and it's, kind of all over the place, but it's on our website.

PAUL:

And you're on Toast Tab, too, so we can order it'll be ready when we get there, pick it up and stay at the town center or take it home to enjoy.

GEORGE:

Yes. And pretty soon we're going to get on Door Dash and Grubhub and all those things, get it delivered to your house.

PAUL:

If you haven't been to Belhaven Town Center lately, you'll want to check out all of the food and drink options, including Wing Mouth. George, thanks for coming on to tell us about this new, exciting restaurant in Jackson.

GEORGE:

Well, thank you so much for having me.

PAUL:

That's George Gillespie of Wing Mouth now open at Belhaven Town Center. George mentioned to us a lunch special: six wings or three tenders, fries and a drink for 15 bucks. I've got the menu, including all those incredible sauce choices and more about BelhavenTown Center in our show notes at visitjackson.com/soulsessions. Our podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen. I'm our managing editor. You want to know more about the great work we're doing to help shine a spotlight on Jackson, Mississippi? Check it out. It's at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf, and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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