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INTERVIEWS

André Jeffries -
Prince's Hot Chicken Shack

E. W. Mayo -
Mayo's Fried Pies & Mahalia Jackson's Chicken

David Swett -
Swett's

Hap Townes -
Hap Townes Restaurant

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Interviews conducted by John Egerton, Mary Beth Lasseter, and Joe York. 

This project sponsored by TABASCO.

E.W. Mayo

Mayo's Fried Pies and Mahalia Jackson's Chicken
2618 Buchanen St.
Nashville, TN 37208
(615) 742-1899

Well I’ve been in the restaurant business for many, many years. This restaurant here--this is developed--now this is a carry-out on the good works of, really, Mayo Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia Jackson is--was known as being the world’s greatest lyric singer. So I--the--the--an organization had this company and Minnie Pearl and Mahalia Jackson were in a restaurant business at one time, but they went down. They went into bankruptcy and lost out. I did not want to see Miss Mahalia Jackson go down, so I went out to--to keep it alive. And that was about the year of 1971.

– E. W. Mayo

At 88 years old, E. W. Mayo has been working in the restaurant business for over forty years. He built Mayo's Fried Pies and Mahalia Jackson's Chicken as a culinary tribute to his favorite singer, and he's been serving chicken livers and fried pies six days a week ever since. His headquarters on Buchanen Street in North Nashville boasts a large kitchen, but customer space is limited to a small foyer. Guests must lean over the counter and shout through the glass window to place an order, and payment must be thrust with enough momentum that it can slide about a foot along the counter to reach the register. On a busy day the line spills through the doorway, so that customers can read the outside banner advertising outlet opportunities (not franchises) for qualified buyers. The menu boasts a variety of foods, and best among the bunch is the wide selection of fried delights—chicken livers, gizzards, tripe—but sweetest of all is the fried pie. Customers may choose between sweet potato, peach, or apple varieties, and the sugary goodness only costs $1.10 plus tax. After just one bite most folks give a second thought about that outlet opportunity advertised on the outside banner.

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What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

Subject: E. W. Mayo, Restaurant Owner
Date: March 15, 2006
Location: Mr. Mayo's restaurant--Nashville, TN
Interviewer: Mary Beth Lasseter

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Mary Beth Lasseter: All right; this is Mary Beth Lasseter and I am here interviewing Mr. E. W. Mayo today at his restaurant in Nashville. Mr. Mayo, could you give us your name for the record?

E. W. Mayo: My name? My name is Elzy W Mayo, E-l-z-y--W Mayo, but I use EW as the initial name.

And how old are you Mr. Mayo?

Presently I’m 88 years old. [Laughs]

And do you work every day?

Every day--every day from Monday through Saturday. [Laughs]

Tell me about your restaurant.

Well I’ve been in the restaurant business for many, many years. This restaurant here--this is developed--now this is a carry-out on the good works of, really, Mayo Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia Jackson is--was known as being the world’s greatest lyric singer. So I--the--the--an organization had this company and Minnie Pearl and Mahalia Jackson were in a restaurant business at one time, but they went down. They went into bankruptcy and lost out. I did not want to see Miss Mahalia Jackson go down, so I went out to--to keep it alive. And that was about the year of 1971.

So what happened--I contacted the company that was in Memphis, the--the Mahalia Jackson Chicken Corporation in Memphis, Tennessee. And was--the gentleman that had the corporation along with Mr. John J. Hooker, a lawyer here--was named Judge Ben--Benjamin Hooks. He was formerly one time the President--the Secretary for the NAACP and I think he was then at the time that he had this organization. But it went down under them; after going down, as I say, I started out renting the situation and the man that rented to me after a one-month deal on the damn property he said if he could have got in touch with me one month earlier this would have saved the system with it.

So evidently that might have--must have been true because today--and that was more than 15 years ago that--that was happening--today we still got the Mahalia Jackson--. Of course it’s combined with my name, Mayo-Mahalia Jackson Chicken--we have it alive and we’re doing a very good business with it.

Is this the original location for the restaurant?

No; it was located where the Wendy’s is over here on 28th and Jefferson [in Nashville]. I sold that property to Wendy’s and they--they--they bought it from me because--because the business--building was dilapidated that was in that. It was beginning to depreciate so bad, so I wasn’t able to buy the adjacent lot and extend it out and build or rebuild it. So the chicken place that’s down there, they wanted it, so I sold it to them. Then I purchased--well I had a business, another business, a little small business going on Clay Street here in Nashville, so I stayed in that for a little while. And then this place come up for sale down here and I--and I bought this one and--and extended it and built it to what it is now and then I put the headquarters in there.

The--the headquarters--when I say the headquarters, the headquarters--it being in here was because we have----I have built back what I call an outlet--not a franchise--but an outlet has been well approved to put--to operate with it, so that outlet is--is a part of this business here, built in a little spot. So we hope hopefully one day to expand that in several places.

So you are willing to let people run the restaurant under its name in different locations?

In different locations and they can--well first, those outlets are worked out to be sold to them instead of buying a franchise--I didn’t want a franchise, because this one had gone down under a franchise--the Mahalia Jackson Chicken and it was a little trouble behind that franchise, so I didn’t want to be connected with that anymore. So I’ve clarified that by putting mine an [as]outlet instead of a franchise; that’s why I use the outlet--that’s what it’s all about.

Well how does somebody go about--?

Huh?

How would somebody open an outlet?

How would they open it? Well they--if--really I have it set up with them to buy it. They buy--they pay for a building--one. Now here’s one; I’m going to just give you a little example of what happens. See a franchise which most businesses now, you know they--they’re $200,000 or $300,000. Well mine, in the largest size, we have figured it out can be purchased for $269,000. The large outfit--one big enough to accommodate everything under their cover, and the combination of everything under that cover would--would include them making their own pies, doing all the work right within that place and that’s what it’s all about then. That’s what they would plan for. That’s what we’ve set it up for. And things are looking mighty good in that direction--mighty good.

Well good.

Mighty good; so that’s where we stand right there.

How long have you been in the food business?

Whoa--[Laughs]--well I’ve--it will go back--look here, this pie I’m making now, the recipe of this pie is--is a pie that was produced by my momma. My mother done this pie and then--then again, I learned to do it when I was in high school because I had to go home after school and had to carry food with me and I had the necessary equipment and materials to make pies with. So I would have to make them myself or else I didn’t have nothing to eat at home. [Laughs] That’s what I done--and cooked my own food, so that’s when I learned to do business, the food business, right there when I was in high school. And then because after all that of going to school at that time--then after that, I eventually wanted to begin doing business for myself and--and that--and of course that’s what put me into the stream of--of line of doing what--of renting places, opening up restaurants. I’ve opened up two or three little operations before I come into this, so I’ve been in the food business for many, many years. I’d say back--it will go back 50 or 60 years; that’s right.

Tell me about your pies.

The pies--the pies is--is a recipe of my momma’s.

They’re not regular pies; their fried pies, right?

They--they are turnover fried pies. They’re turnovers and that’s--the turnover is the one that--well now if we. We make them, we cook our fruit, we--we season our fruit to the stage that we want it. We--we make our--we make our crust with--with more than one flour--with soft shortening in it and whip it up and then make a--turn the crust out of that. That’s where we come up with that kind of crust.

What kind of pies do you serve?

Peach, apple, and sweet potato and then again I have even developed that to a sugarless pie, one that the diabetics can eat. So there'll go and we have that kind too and--and we have a great demand for these pies--you’d just be surprised. I have an order for tomorrow for 24 at one time.

Well, what is a typical day like for you at the restaurant? What time do you come in?

Oh, well, I come in about 7:30 or 8 o’clock in the morning. I go home at 6 o’clock in the evening, and that’s it.

How many meals do you think you make in that time?

Meals?

Yeah.

Well I would say quite a few but there’s room for improvement now. [Laughs] And that’s what we’re working on now is the improvement. We--we just kind of are handling it in the perimeters of what we can handle you know--pretty well satisfied at that right now, but we’re looking forward to a better day. But now the reason why that I keep it that way…because I know we’re going to put out the type of food that is--that is good. And I don’t want to be able to put out kind of a bad name of food, so we just have--we’re really close strict on that help situation. We don’t have a lot of help coming in and those that we do have trying to come in we want to give them a good basic training before they’re gainfully employed. That’s where we stand.

Now do you train the people who cook for you?

Do I what now--train them? That’s right.

Are you--

That’s right; that’s--that’s what--the most important thing is they have to have our training--mine or his or either one. Mr. Ledbetter or his--mine, one or the other and that would be--would have to be their trainer for the field.

Who is Mr. Ledbetter?

He is a buddy of mine. He’s been with me for about 11 years in all, and this place is about 11 years old now. That’s what he’s been with me--that long--where he’s out now working on another project indirectly connected with this company here, see. So that’s where we stand. [Laughs]

Did you grow up in Nashville? Are you from here originally?

No, ma’am; no, no--no, no; I’m--I am--well my county seat is Paris, Tennessee. I’m more or less a Parisian but I was born out in the county, in the little county or village of Cottage Grove, and then I grew up there for several years and then finally moved into the city and that’s where I began--I was going to high school and all like that. And then grade school I went in--in the county. I--I was raised on a farm more or less, so that--that’s what the situation was.

What did you do when you got out of high school? What other jobs did you have?

Well now--well now I worked for individuals for a short while and then after that--well I’d say about--well I--I made--well I worked with Atlanta Life--for the longest, about 13 years—Atlanta Life Insurance Company and other than that I’ve been concerned about little businesses and--and eventually little larger businesses and so forth and so on, so I tacked on the businesses from there. And that’s--and I’m still in business today. That’s that. [Laughs]

Tell me--tell me about your fried pies. Tell me how you make them.

How I make them? We put--we cook the peaches--dried peaches--

Dried peaches?

Dried apples or we cook regular sweet potatoes--just regular sweet potatoes--raw sweet potatoes, we cook that and we put our seasoning in it and then we put it in the refrigerator and get it cold. I mean we--we keep it cold in the refrigerator and then it’s--it’s in a--it’s waterless. We don’t have water in it; it’s--it’s damp but--it’s--you can dip it with a spoon and put it in the pie--in the crust and then this crust is--this filling kind of remains humped--humped up. It’s got a--a basic you know--a contact in it like that. And then we put the--we put the--fasten it--pull the dough over and then that--it makes it a half-moon and then we crimp the edges of it to lock that filling in there.

You crimp it with a fork?

Fork--that’s right; crimp it with a fork and then we--we--we’re able to crimp ours where we won't have--out of 50 or 75 pies we won't have not a one of them to bust open.

And you deep fry them?

Deep--deep fry them.

In vegetable oil?

In vegetable oil--that’s right, that’s right.

And you serve them hot?

Serve them warm--whatever--warm, we keep them warm all--all the time and them people love them. [Laughs]

Okay; well it has been wonderful talking to you. Thank you so much.

Well I’m glad you’ve come by and I’m glad to sit down and talk with you about it because one day or another we may be able to come to your state.

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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.