Antique Mall and Crown Restaurant

When you think of gourmet food, do you think of fine wines and exotic cheeses or do you think of Mississippi Mud pies and Catfish Pate? Well, think again. Just off Highway 448, five miles north of Indianola Mississippi, (birthplace of B.B. King and Craig Claiborne) lies a metal building, on the edge of cotton and soybean fields, with a unique secret hidden inside. You would never expect that inside is housed an English country restaurant, a mail-order gourmet food operation, an antiques dealership, and cooks whipping up batches of smoked catfish pâte.

Since 1976, Evelyn and Tony Roughton have been serving customers out of a plain metal building on the edge of a cotton field called The Crown Restaurant at The Antique Mall. Despite its homely appearance, people still seek this place out for the Roughton's fine antiques and their own special brand of cooking....Delta style. Here, their feature dish is one of the Delta's newest agricultural products -- catfish, a permanent item on their menu since 1982. The success of their restaurant's main attraction is what spawned their prosperous mail-order business.

"We found that Mississippi has a reputation for good homemade food," said Evelyn. Now, Indianola's Antique Mall and Crown Restaurant is busy shipping their down-home delicacies all over the world.

One of the most successful uses the couple gets out of their farm-raised catfish is in their Smoked Catfish Pate. "We got the idea from an English friend who makes a smoked salmon pate. We went to smokeries in England, Scotland, and Ireland and copied their designs for our smoker," she says. The reward for their idea was winning the best hors d'oeuvre award at the Fancy Food Show in 1993. After the success of their pate, the Roughton's expanded to selling vacuum-packaged smoked catfish fillets. Now, they have a whole line of mixes that allows you to make their famous pies and batter breads. "We wanted something that tasted homemade and that didn't have a lot of preservatives in it," says Evelyn. Formulas were developed with help from food scientists at the Mississippi State University. Today, their Crown Loaf (bread), Delta Fudge Pie, Plantation Pie (with coconut and chocolate chips), Magnolia Macaroon Pie, and many more taste-tempting flavors are as easy to make as one, two, three.

The newest addition to their mail-order selection is Catfish with Capers. This lightly smoky mousse with its tangy tartness, flecked with bits of smoked catfish and cream cheese and butter is every bit as creamy-rich as the original Catfish Pate.

Try some of Mississippi's finest cuisine. It's as easy to order as a pizza! For more information or to order write or call: