(Photo: Len Stanga)
- The Delta restaurant is named for Taylor Bowen-Ricketts’ grandparents who could cook like nobody’s business.
Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, Taylor Bowen-Ricketts loved her trips to Hammond, Louisiana to visit her grandparents on her mother’s side. Their names were Fan and Johnny, and Taylor recalls they could cook like nobody’s business.
“I always told them they should open a restaurant, but they didn’t listen to me.”
Taylor’s passion was art, and when she graduated from Jackson Prep, she had a full scholarship to Savannah School of Art and Design in Georgia.
“When it came down to it, I felt it was too far from home. My friends were all going to Ole Miss, so I did the same. It was a fork in the road, but I don’t regret it.”
While in college studying painting, Taylor got a job at The Harvest Cafe in Oxford.
“I worked at Rainbow Whole Foods Coop in Jackson while I was in high school. The lady who opened The Harvest Cafe started the High Noon Cafe at Rainbow. Later I got a job at The Hoka in Oxford. All those places had a strong emphasis on whole foods with scratch ingredients. I liked that kind of creative and eclectic atmosphere, and the people were great.”
Working in restaurants became more of a lifestyle than a job for Taylor, who then helped a friend open Bottletree Bakery in Oxford. She went on to work at City Grocery when it opened, and her husband opened Proud Larry’s with a business partner.
“I then opened Yocona River Inn in Oxford before I graduated from college.”
While in college, Taylor stayed the course and she earned a degree in fine art. She got married and sold her part of Yocona River Inn to her business partner. She then opened The Jubilee in Oxford, which served tapas made with whole foods.
“I also had a gourmet-to-go place on The Square.”
Taylor sold her part of The Jubilee to her business partner, closed the gourmet-to-close spot, and moved to Maine with her husband and first-born child.
“We came back a few years later, and I had my second baby in Oxford. I had not worked in the restaurant business for six years at that time, but I began to do some catering.”
Then Taylor’s friend, Martha Foose called.
“Martha was the executive director of Viking Cooking School in Greenwood at the time. She said Fred Carl (Viking’s founder and CEO) needed new management at his restaurant, Delta Fresh Market.”
Taylor and her husband went to Greenwood to meet with Carl, and soon they were business partners. Deciding the restaurant was a little too much for the area, they relocated downtown, and Taylor ran Delta Bistro until she dissolved the partnership with Carl in 2015.
In 2016, Fan and Johnny’s opened in downtown Greenwood.
“I named it after my grandparents. I never stopped painting, and sometimes a Fan and Johnny’s storefront would show up in my art.”
Fan and Johnny’s artisanal restaurant has a core menu that includes the restaurant’s staples.
“I wish I could make it smaller, but we sell them all.”
Everything is made from scratch.
“I work with a ridiculous amount of inventory – the kitchen looks like a grocery store.”
Taylor also creates daily specials that usually include a soup, an entree, and perhaps a sandwich, pizza, burrito, or wrap.
“There is really no rhyme or reason for what I do. I have a little form I fill in and that’s how I come up with the specials.”
The only thing served in the restaurant that isn’t made there is tamales.
“A local lady makes them and it’s such a unique Delta item.”
Fan and Johnny’s is open for lunch on Monday and Tuesday, and for lunch and dinner on Wednesday through Friday.
“I also do a lot of catering for dinner parties, rehearsal dinners, and other special occasions.”
And Tyler is still painting.
“I did much of the art that hangs in the restaurant, and I sell it from here.”
Visit Fan and Johnny’s online and then enjoy it in-person at 117 Main Street in Greenwood.
Susan Marquez
