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Interviews by Amy Evans.
This project was produced in conjunction with the Smithsonian's
traveling exhibit "Key Ingredients"
and
is sponsored by the
Mississippi Humanities Council,
the
Yoknapatawpha Arts Council,
the Southern Foodways Alliance, and
the Lafayette County City of
Oxford Public Library
Isaiah's Busy Bee Cafe : Annie Isaiah
Oxford, MS
1971-late 1990s
"[My mother-in-law, Mrs. Georgia Isaiah] used to work for the chancellor [at the University of Mississippi]. And she decided she wanted to go into her own business of... a restaurant. And so she decided to open a restaurant of her own and call it Busy Bee. She had a little bee that she always put her change in, and so she decided to name it after the little bee." -- Annie Isaiah
Born in Oxford, Georgia Isaiah spent thirty years cooking for two chancellors at the University of Mississippi. When she finally retired, she still had the urge to feed her friends and neighbors and opened her own cafe, Isaiah's Busy Bee, on Christmas Eve 1971. For the next twenty or so years, she plucked vegetables from her garden, fried chicken, and baked pound cakes to the delight of the greater Oxford community. Mrs. Isaiah is gone and so is her cafe, but memories of this woman and her glorious food still swim in many hearts and stomachs around this small college town.
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
this link. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Subject: Annie Isaiah, daughter-in-law of original owner
Date: August 5, 2004 @ 5:00pm
Location: Annie Isaiah's home -- Oxford, MS
Interviewer: Amy Evans
Amy Evans: This is Thursday, August fifth, two thousand and four. And this is Amy Evans at the home of Mrs. Annie Isaiah in Oxford, Mississippi. And we are here to talk about her mother-in-law's [Mrs. Georgia Isaiah's] restaurant, Isaiah's Busy Bee Cafe.
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Okay. And could you just kind of take us back as far as you can and what you know about how she decided to start a cafe?
Annie Isaiah: Uh, I think, uh, she -- well, used to work for the Chancellor [at the University of Mississippi]. One of the chancellors. I'm not sure which one right off the hand. [ Angela Holloway. "Busy Bee Marks 20th Anniversary," The Southern Register. Summer 1992, p. 12. In this article that is an interview with Mrs. Georgia Isaiah, it is noted that from 1953 to 1982 she worked for two University of Mississippi chancellors, J. D. Williams and Porter Fortune.] And she decided she wanted to go into her own business of -- make -- you know, of -- a restaurant. And so she decided to open a restaurant of her own and call it Busy Bee. She had a little bee that she always put her change in, and so she decided to name it after the little bee.
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And so Mrs. Isaiah worked at the University... do you know when she retired? What year that was?
I sure don't.
[D]o you know what year she opened the cafe?
No, ma'am. [ Ibid. The article notes that Mrs. Georgia Isaiah worked at the University of Mississippi until 1982, and that she opened the Busy Bee on Christmas Eve 1971.]
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Do you have any idea what kind of food she served when -- or cooked when she was a t the University?
She said their favorite thing was tomato soup -- homemade tomato soup and sandwiches, so [starting to laugh] I'm not really sure what was they -- what she really cooked at the University.
Was she born in Oxford?
[Y]es.
Okay. And the cafe was -- can you describe where it was physically over where the Kroger is now.
Over where the new, uh, Krogers is now on University Avenue.
And what did the place look like?
It just looked like a little a little country cafe. And it was small. It seated at least -- I'd say about ten to fifteen peoples. And, uh -- and most -- sometimes she was kind of busy. [Short pause] She was open Monday through Thursday. Some Fridays. But she really did enjoy it though. She really --
Did she cook three meals a day or just one or two?
Uh, she only did supper at night. Um-hmm.
Okay. And what kind of things did she serve for supper?
[Laughs] Uh, she always had plenty of home [cooked] vegetables. She would do a meat and two vegetables. Consis -- uh, pork chops, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, um, mashed potatoes -- homemade mashed potatoes. And especially -- was that -- uh, peppermint iced tea. It was really good.
People have been telling me that she only served one set supper a day. Is that right?
Correct. Uh-huh.
Was there a regular day for a certain thing? Like fried chicken every Wednesday or pork chops every Tuesday?
[Y]eah. I'm not sure which day it is, but seemed like to me her special would be like maybe meatloaf on maybe Monday. And maybe Tuesday was pork chops. Thursdays was, uh, chicken. And, uh, Wednesday -- I'm not sure right off hand now. But you always got a -- a meat and probably two vegetables and a salad and dessert.
Um-hmm. I've heard about her pound cake.
Yeah. It's really --
Is she famous for that?
Yes. A pound cake, uh, a lemon sponge cake [short pause] and had sweet potato pie. I think that's it.
So would she just spend all day over there cooking and preparing for supper?
She'd starts -- when she gets up in the morning, she started preparing. And I had a full-time job [of] my own, so I didn't get there -- I didn't do any of the cooking, now. So but she does all the cooking and, when I get there at least three-thirty, she's open about I'd say five, and everything is ready for the customers.
And what if she ran out that day? Just people were out of luck, huh?
They just out of luck! [Laughs]
[F]rom everybody who talks about that place still, it -- you know, it sounds like she had nothing but regulars.
Exactly. Exactly. Um, Charles and his, uh, wife was regulars. I'm -- I'm not sure of Charles's last name. I can't remember. He was at the University.
Charles [Reagan] Wilson?
Yes. Charles Wilson [director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi] and his wife was regulars. Uh, Bill Ferris [former director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi] was a regular. Um [short pause] the, uh, DeBords was a regular and, um, she had several more regulars. I'm not sure of their names at the moment, but I can remember their faces -- they was regular customers. If they wasn't there Monday, they sure would be there one day of that week... And sometime -- some was there every day.
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I've heard that... your mother-in-law... was a big churchgoer and would take time off from the cafe to tend to people at church who -- who were sick. Members of the church.
Yes, she would. Mm-hmm. She was, uh, a like a secretary in the church -- she was a, like you said, if there were any sick members in the church or whatever, she would go and see after them. And she was in an organization called, uh, you know, the Eastern Star and all. And she would have her meetings. She would go to that. And then, if they were out of town or wherever, she would -- had to close up for a little while and go do that.
Church came first.
Yes. Yeah.
Which church did she attend?
[I]t's called Christ Temple. Here in Oxford... On Jackson Avenue.
And do I remember correctly also that she lived next door to the cafe?
She did. She lived next door to her cafe. So she didn't have anything to do but just walk out her front door for a few steps and over to her cafe.
So would you say, um, maybe that when she retired from the university, she just wanted to be around folks again and keep cooking and have the cafe she --
Exactly. Have the cafe and -- and still be able to, you know, do some of her things where she wouldn't just really go down [in health] really easy.
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What year did the cafe close?
You know, I guess it's been closed now about -- I would say four to five years now.
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Well, can you tell me a little bit about her personality, and what kind of woman she was?
Uh, she had a wonderful personality. She would -- never met a stranger. And she was -- loved to talk, now... And, um she just had all -- good conversation about from when she was growing up until the point of time now, when she was working at the university -- all the different people she'd seen there. And then especially all the ones that came into the restaurant. But she had a wonderful personality. And loved peoples.
[W]hat did it look like inside the cafe? Was it decorated at all?
[S]he used to have a -- she had a -- a map of the city of Oxford on the wall. And I think it was -- it was red inside, and she had, um, some little brown tables with little cushioned brown chairs. And she had a china cabinet in there, with little whatnots in it. And -- but like I said, it was a little small place that -- just felt like home in there, though. So [it] felt like you was at your mama's kitchen table.
That's what it sounds like. Was the place itself just a dining room, and she cooked at her house? Or was there a different kitchen?
Well, no. There was a dining area. There was a kitchen area too. So, uh because she would cook some of her food at home and cook some of the food in there because she had a warmer -- after she got it all prepared -- to keep it warmer.
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Did she ever have, um, people who she would take meals to or people who came late that she would let in after hours?
Oh, yeah. If you was running late, if we had -- if we had more food, we would -- she would open the door, and let you come on in and get something. Or you want to get it -- carry it to go, she would make way for that too.
Do you remember what the prices were like?
I think it was five seventy-five the last -- well, before we closed I think it ended up being six dollars, though. But it used to be, like I say, a reasonable price for, like I say, a meat and two vegetables, salad and dessert and your bread and -- and a tea.
Do you know where she learned to cook?
She said that she was an only child, and she was always in the kitchen with her grandmother. And so she learned to cook from her grandmother. And by that, she, uh, learned a lot because I -- I couldn't do all that cooking she did! And she --
[Laughs] Did she use recipes?
Sometimes she did. But you know, you put a little pinch of this and a little pinch of that, so you never know how much it was or whatever.
Did she teach you any of her recipes before the cafe... closed?
Oh, no. [Short laugh] No.
No?
No, we was always too busy to do that.
Are there things that y'all try to recreate now [when you cook] that she served?
Well, I'd -- I'd love to have that sponge cake recipe that she had but -- I tried looking through the cookbook, but I don't know if someone picked it up or what, but I cannot find it. But it was a really good lemon sponge cake.
Did she ever do special event catering or anything like that?
[N]ow when she -- for her church, they had like some kind of convention here or something... she would like cook and feed the pastor and some of the delegates. I remember her doing it one day at her house.
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And so what happened when she closed the store [cafe]? Was it just because of her health that she closed? Or because of the development of that area?
Well, it was because of her health, and her husband had got really bad then. Somebody had to be there with him at all times.
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So they stayed in that house until --
Right next door, um-hmm.
Okay. And the cafe just kind of stayed empty?
Yeah. Kind of stayed empty. I wish I could have picked it up and moved it somewhere out this way! [Laughs]
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Do you have some fond memories or specific memories of things that happened in the cafe while you were there?
I just think it was a wonderful joy of her just being able to, uh, feed so many peoples. And so many people enjoying her meals. That's what I think the joy and the -- the exciting thing I see, you know -- remember from it. Because, like I said, I couldn't have cooked for that many peoples.
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