Mammy's Cupboard

Mammy's Cupboard (founded 1940) is a roadside restaurant built in the shape of a mammy archetype,[1] located on US Highway 61 south of Natchez, Mississippi. The woman's skirt holds a dining room and a gift shop.[2] The skirt is made out of bricks, and the earrings are horseshoes.[3] She is holding a serving tray while smiling.[4] Mammy's Cupboard has been through several renovations; the exterior has been repaired and the interior refurbished.[5] The restaurant currently serves various lunches and desserts.[2]

History

The restaurant's founder was originally a tour guide of Natchez's nearby antebellum mansions and she believed tourists would also be interested in this type of restaurant.[1] Also a mammy character had been portrayed in the very popular 1939 film Gone with the Wind, about the same time plans for the restaurant were being made.[1] During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s the Mammy's skin was repainted a lighter shade.[1] The current owner said of the Mammy, "There is honor in everything you do and for those who have young people. You have a crying child. Who are they going to run to? Nine times out of ten, they are going to run to the mammy. ... I want people to look at her and see that."[6]

The author of Crossings: A White Man's Journey Into Black America described the restaurant as "a massive statue—twenty-eight feet [8.5 m] high—of a black woman dressed like Aunt Jemima, wearing a red scarf, a white blouse, and a red hoopskirt that actually houses a restaurant",[7] while the authors of Frommer's USA said that if you want to visit the restaurant, "you need to check your political correctness at the door".[8] The restaurant's homemade pie was covered in the book American Pie[9] and the newspaper The Press Democrat for National Pie Day.[10]

External links

• Restaurant website