Jackson: A City With Soul (Food)

Jackson, Mississippi, is known as the City with Soul, and you’ll find no better example of that passion than Bully’s Restaurant, where owners Greta and Tyrone Bully serve up mountains of crunchy fried chicken, fall-off-the-bone ribs and ham-studded collards in a location Tyrone built with his father 35 years ago. Celebrated by the Food Network as well as the locals and visitors who fill the unassuming brick building each day, Bully’s is all about soul—and Jackson soul food.

Here, Greta Bully shares her thoughts on soul food, what makes Bully’s unique and why this traditional fare is particularly special in Jackson restaurants.

How do you define soul food?

Go for the fried chicken and stay for the homemade trimmings at this authentic soul food spot.

It’s the food we grew up with—the tradition of food, and the stories that go with it. But it’s also the food you come back to, because it feeds your soul.

I grew up on a farm, and we ate good food, but when I got a car, the first thing I did was go to Wendy’s. I went there sometimes three times a day. Then one day you realize all you want is that old-fashioned food. Smothered liver and onions. Fried catfish. Field peas. Rice and gravy. That’s soul food, and that’s what we serve at Bully’s.

Why is soul food best at Bully’s?

Bully's Restaurant has been in Jackson since 1982, perfecting great soul food for the mind, body and soul with the burning desire to please our customers with amazing, great-tasting food and down-home Southern hospitality. One of my favorite sayings is that Bully's is a place where two different families meet for the first time, and then we're one big family.

What soul food standards should we not miss at Bully’s?

We’re famous for our meatloaf and ribs, but people also love the neck bones, oxtails and dressing. But people love everything we serve, and I think it’s because we’ve kept things authentic.

We cook the corn in a black [cast iron] skillet. All the vegetables are fresh. Nothing comes from a can. We clean and chop the collards, boil the eggs for the potato salad, and peel those sweet potatoes. We make the cornbread fresh, too.

Why is it that locals and visitors have such a perpetual craving for Jackson soul food?

Soul food used to be what you ate at home, but now it’s considered a fine way of eating. People are busy, so they don’t have time to cook the things their mothers and grandmothers did, so they come to us to make it. We take that seriously. Our customers deserve the best we can do for them, so we don’t take any shortcuts. My husband makes great cooking look easy, but cooking great soul food is a lot of work.

How did the idea for Bully’s Restaurant come about?

A rare look at Bully’s dining room when it isn’t packed with patrons craving soul food. Photo credit: Mary Beth Lasseter, courtesy of southernfoodways.org

It was Tyrone’s father’s idea. He came up with the idea of a snack shop to feed the workers at nearby plants. But after Bully’s opened, he saw how hard they worked and thought they deserved a better lunch than cold cuts, so he started serving hot food. Now that’s all we serve.

Where do Bully’s recipes come from?

Miss Pearl, who lived nearby, was our first cook, and a lot of the recipes we still use are hers. There are a lot of great cooks, both in Jackson and [throughout] Mississippi, which is why the food is so good. But getting the recipes can be hard.

We had a baker who made the best red velvet cake, but she just wouldn’t tell me how to cook it. One Sunday, when we were closed, I spent the whole day baking red velvet cakes. I finally made one that I wanted her to taste. She took a bite and said, ‘Greta, I knew if you really wanted to figure it out, you would.’ She wanted me to have that recipe, but she wanted me to have to work for it!

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