Farmers Market Cafe

Margaret Brown, the master behind the City Limits Café at the Mississippi Farmers Market in Downtown Jackson, proves that all good food doesn’t come from someone wearing chef’s whites.

She has been cooking great country-style food for 65 years, 12 of those years at City Limits Café, and owner, Ralph Elmore, is proud of what Brown dishes out, Monday through Friday, for breakfast and lunch.

The café is a family-owned business with a comfortable atmosphere: nothing fancy, just emphasis on friendly service and exceptional food.

The menu changes daily, mostly served “buffet,” you pick a meat and two sides style. Expect four types of meat and 11 sides, plus fresh homemade desserts, like banana pudding, pecan pie and chocolate cake. On a recent visit, there was fried chicken, baked chicken, fried pork chops, hamburger steak, rice and gravy, creamed potatoes, turnip greens, mac and cheese, green beans, butter beans, black-eyed peas and cornbread.

I had a chat with Ralph Elmore, and he kept emphasizing the same simple points: good, old-fashioned country food and family-friendly service. This café is the type of place you used to find in every small town before the plague of fast food descended upon us. This food is the same as what your mom or grandmother made for you. I would put a plate of Margaret Brown’s cornbread and peas up against any food, anywhere in the world.