Local business excited for new Arts & Entertainment Center

As the sun comes up to shine light on another day of construction for the new Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center, one local business is thankful for it being built right across the street from their business.

“Everybody that’s been here has been here for years. Leo, our cook, is in his 50’s, and he’s worked for Ms. Jean since he was a teenager. It’s just consistency and the family feel of everything. We’re a family.” -Jamie Johnson, Owner of Jean’s Restaurant

Johnson is the current owner of Jean’s Restaurant, which was passed down from his mother, who bought the restaurant from Ms. Jean herself. Being over 40 years old, the restaurant looks forward to the new flock of customers the Arts & Entertainment Center will bring.

“We serve a lot of things like club sandwiches and burgers and stuff, and you can get that homemade a lot of places. But there’s some of the food that we serve every day that maybe when you were a kid your mom made or your grandparents might have made that you don’t get to eat all of the time because you’re thawing something out of the freezer that was in a box or something like that.” -Johnson

“The same people just come here day after day, and I’ve been waiting on them day- after- day” -Sandra Baker, waitress

Sandra Baker has been a waitress here for 30 years and thinks the visitors of the Center will create a larger customer base.

“I think it’s going to be good because this is going to be a beautiful museum. You can already tell it is, and I just think when people find out it’s here then everybody’s going to start coming and we’re going to get the business, you know?” -Baker

The thing that Jean’s Restaurant is excited about the most? Giving those from out of town an experience only felt in a place like this.

“I just want everybody to feel at home, and most people that come here I think they do.” -Baker