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Paul:

So if I mention the names Rashanna Newsome and Ebony Jones, does that ring any bells? What about Manship and Aplos? All right, now we're cooking. The pair, who came alongside Chef Alex Eaton and Steven O'Neill, at those Jackson staples... well, the ladies have broken away, with Chef Eaton's blessing, to take over catering and lunch counter service at Logan Farms in Maywood Mart. And they've got big plans. As Chef Rashanna says, they're going to take it through the roof.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call this podcast Soul Sessions and it's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine. Now here's my conversation with Chef Rashanna Newsome and Ebony Jones.

Ebony:

Yeah, Logan Farm Honey Glazed Hams and Market Cafe.

Paul:

That's the kicker, the Market Cafe there at the end. I don't think a lot of people realize that Logan Farms does like a blue plate, like a meat and three kind of deal.

Ebony:

Yes, we do. So the main focus, of course, is that big title everyone knows us for, which is the honey glazed hams. Not to be mistaken with honeybaked ham. No. We have people trying to come in with their coupons and I'm like, "That's the wrong store." But ours are better. So with the Market Cafe, they offer, like you said, a meat and... you can choose a meat and two or a meat and three. There are always some lunch specials, and then they have sandwiches that are amazing.

Paul:

I have to catch you on something. You keep saying, "They have, they have." But you have. We have, right?

Ebony:

It's we. You're right. I've got to get used to that! I was at Manship for five years.

Paul:

That's where people know both of you from, is Manship.

Ebony:

Before Manship I was at Table 100. So if they didn't know me from Manship, it was people who I took care of at Table 100. And I was there five years as well.

Rashanna:

I started Manship. I opened Manship in 2013. And I was the sous chef there. And I left Manship in 2018 and went to Aplos, which was a sister restaurant. I was the executive chef there. I stayed there for about a year and a half, and I left and came back to Manship in 2020. And I just pretty much been with the company for eight years. Over eight years.

Paul:

It'll come as a surprise to some people that you would leave Manship and Aplos to come to Logan Farms at Maywood Mart. But I think you're going to take a product which is arguably fantastic and make it even better.

Rashanna:

Our main focus right now is to try to offer more things for people to pick up and take home, because we stop serving blue plates at 2:00 and we have people to come in after that still wants the food. So one of our main focus is to have this nice display where people can come in and grab food that they didn't get a chance to have the day before.

Paul:

It'll be a surprise to some people too that Logan Farms has new ownership. Davis Roberts, whose family is active here in the Jackson restaurant business. And then there's Neil Wise and Travis Sledge.

Ebony:

And it's a learning curve for a lot of the regulars because the thing that I find really amazing is the consistency of guests that come here. We're open Monday through Friday from 10:30... well, we open the doors at 10:00 but we serve hot lunches starting at 10:30. So 10:30 until 6:00. And when I tell you I'm already learning orders just because they come so often. And I'm not talking about once every two weeks. It's literally three to four times, minimum. That's true support, especially for a local restaurant.

And also everyone's so friendly and have been super welcoming to us. They're excited to see ladies here because they were like, "We need that woman's touch." Whether it is for the design, whether it's for the friendliness. Who knows? But everyone has been awesome in welcoming us.

Paul:

What can we expect on the menu? I know in the past it's been things like country fried steak and mashed potatoes and vegetables. So a lot of the same? Are you going to bring some new dishes in, chef?

Rashanna:

We're definitely bringing some new dishes in. And also some of the sandwiches, we're kind of revamping the sandwiches. Since I've been in here I've noticed that a lot of the blue plates and a lot of the sides, people really do love them. So we went through the menu and tried to eliminate some of the stuff we wanted to get rid of. And out of the whole menu, from seeing how much the customers love it, we were only able to eliminate maybe about three or four things. Instead of just completely taking stuff off, I'll just introduce new things. Maybe like once a week I may offer something extra on the blue plate special. And hopefully once we get done with the remodeling we'll start opening up on Saturday mornings and serving brunch items, like a limited brunch menu.

Paul:

Yeah, that'd be great because Jackson loves a brunch spot, right?

Rashanna:

Right.

Ebony:

Yes.

Paul:

What was the decision to move from Manship and Aplos over to Logan Farms? What was the tipping point for you?

Rashanna:

Well, for me it was this place does a lot of catering. They do more business with catering than in the restaurant itself. And me, I specialize in catering. And when I came back to Manship in 2020 I signed up to take back over to catering department. And I just happened to fall in love with it. And I pretty much decided that catering is my calling. I pretty much want to take the catering that we do here and expand the menu and pretty much do catering out the roof every day. But at the same time, of course I'm still going to focus on the restaurant itself and making things better. But I also want to make sure the catering is on point here and bring my special touches to the catering department here that I learned from doing catering at Manship.

Paul:

Ebony, what about you? What made you make the move over to Logan Farms?

Ebony:

When it was offered to us, to me, it was something different. It was challenging, for one because I'm willing to take something different on. Neil and Travis, they both are like, "We're taking over the turkey and ham part of the business." But they were like, "We really know nothing about the front of house. We know nothing about the restaurant or the catering, but we need people that do." So of course everyone probably is already familiar with Chef Alex Eaton. And he pretty much connected us with them. He was like, "If it's anybody that I know that I would recommend, I would say Ebony and Rashanna." So they took a chance on us. So we look forward to proving Alex right because we'll have to deal with him if we don't.

Paul:

Yeah, that's definitely an important point to consider. Chef Alex actually gave you his blessing.

Ebony:

Oh yeah, absolutely. Manship was like his baby, too. But again, we've been there for many years and we kind of were at a glass ceiling. And not necessarily saying we were bored, but it became kind of the same thing. So this was a great challenge for us. It was a good opportunity given. And Alex pushing us to be like, "Hey, just an idea. I'm throwing it out there, and they'll reach out to you." So he put that little bug in our ear.

Paul:

I always ask this question. I think it helps us to get a sense of who we're having a conversation with here. And that's to know from each of you, what makes Jackson so special?

Rashanna:

Growing up, I didn't go to a lot of restaurants. And when I left and went to culinary school, I stayed in Chicago for about three years. And I came back, and that's when my eyes started opening to actual restaurants. I never imagined actually working in a restaurant, but when I came back and started working at Manship, that's when I started to notice the restaurant industry growing. Every few months a new restaurant would pop up, and I would start seeing these articles about them. And then I started seeing articles about them outside of the news in Jackson.

It was no longer local. It was starting to become nationwide. And that made me very proud to work in a restaurant. At one point I did have a mind frame to switch careers because I got burned out. But then I got introduced to new opportunities, so that made me want to continue to grow in this business. This all I can see myself doing. I just want to work in the restaurant industry and continue to put Jackson, Mississippi on the spot.

Ebony:

For me, it's just fun. It's the people. I am from Rankin County but went to Jackson State. And I have always pretty much ended up back in Jackson every single time, no matter how I'd be like, "Okay." And it's honestly the people. And of course, like everything anytime it's a city, it'll be some negatives, but it's so many more positives that outweigh it. So if we all just come together and look at it as this is ann opportunity. What can I do to help make it better? That's kind of like what I think of.

Paul:

That's my conversation with Chef Rashanna Newsome and Ebony Jones, new general managers and chefs at Logan Farms in Maywood Mart here in Jackson. The pair say they're going to keep us up to date on social media with daily specials and new menu items. We'll put links to that in the show notes.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Rickey Thigpen.

You can learn more about us at visitjackson.com. It's the website that's updated every single day. I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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