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My earliest memory [of being at the Crystal Grill] was when I was… probably about six or seven years old. [M]y dad brought be back in the kitchen and…he stacked two…Co-Cola cases on top of each other, and I stood on top of ‘em and, uh, I had a little butcher knife, and he had me whackin’ on some--some ground beef back there, which I thought I was really a big deal, you know.
–Johnny Ballas

Food has been served on this corner of Carrolton Avenue and Lamar Street for almost a century. The place began as a little diner called the Elite Cafe and evolved into the Crystal Grill under the ownership of Jim Liollio. His brother-in-law, Mike Ballas, who was raised in Greece and came to Mississippi in the 1940s, soon became a partner and eventually took over and shaped the Crystal Grill into what it is today: a two-hundred seat restaurant with the biggest menu around. Mr. Ballas and his son Johnny Ballas pride themselves on serving the best food at the best prices, and it is certain that everyone can eat happy here. One thing they are known for, though, is their “mile high pie”--chocolate or coconut with honest to gosh meringue. Over the past few decades not a lot has changed other than the restaurant’s size (notice the original tile floors in the photograph at left). Some of the waitresses have been there for forty years, and locals have brought their children and their children’s children through the same front doors for Sunday dinner for decades. Sunday dinner is an experience in itself and a great way to get some local color. You can choose a dinner prayer from their custom “Four Faiths” menu and nosh on a yeast roll, the recipe for which came from a home economics teacher at Greenwood High School.

Edited Transcript

What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. Download the FULL TRANSCRIPT in PDF form (112K) by clicking this link. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Subject: Johnny Ballas, owner (son of Mike Ballas)
Date: June 18, 2003
Location: Mr. Ballas' Residence - Greenwood, MS
Interviewer: Amy Evans

Amy Evans: Okay, it is Wednesday, June eighteenth, two thousand three. And I'm at the home of Mr. Johnny Ballas, son of Mike Ballas of the Crystal Grill and--if you wouldn't mind saying your whole name and your age for me, Mr. Ballas. For the record.

Johnny Ballas: My name is John Mike Ballas, uh, I kind of go by the nickname Johnny. Known by "John." And, uh, I've been in the restaurant business since I was a child. And--was more or less groomed to take over my dad's position at the Crystal Grill. And I graduated from college in, uh, seventy-four. Uh, I came back into the business and, uh, began my career in the restaurant business. Uh, shortly thereafter, we had an opportunity to, uh, run another restaurant and we actually worked for, um, a doctor in town called Milton Person. Dr. Person owned the Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn restaurant. And, uh, we, uh, called my sister and my brother-in-law, who were at the time in Florida, and they were working for some cousins of ours in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. And we approached them with this idea of, uh--they were moving back to Greenwood and going into business with me in the, uh, in this Holiday Inn restaurant. So they moved back, and then in seventy-five we, uh, took over the Holiday Inn restaurant--out on Highway 82. Which is, of course, no longer there. And, uh, it--it was sold and then it was torn down. But, uh, we worked there for two years. And when our lease ran out, uh, the, uh--basically the business was bought out by a family from Iowa. And they, uh, ceased to employ us, and my dad, out of the goodness of his heart, took us--took us back into the family business and, uh--and bought--basically bought my uncle, Jim Leolio, out and, uh, he retired to--to Memphis. And Yianni [brother-in-law] and Elaine [sister] and myself more or less came into the business then in--in nineteen--oh, think it was about nineteen seventy-seven. And we stayed there until they parted in, uh--I'm--I'm having trouble remembering the exact date but it's--it's sometime in the eighties--they decided to go out and do their own venture, and they opened the, uh, restaurant called Yianni's. And, uh, they continued to run it until about two years ago when they sold out, and they retired to Greece. And--I stayed at the Crystal with dad, and continue to run the Crystal Grill--as it is. And, uh, that's kinda--kinda my story on how--how I came to, you know--to stay at the Crystal and be in the business.

The way your dad tells it, he sounds kinda sup--he sounds like he was kind of surprised that you wanted to work at the Crystal.

I really kind of had, uh, made up my mind coming out of school that--I'd thought a while about what I really wanted to do, and I really enjoy the restaurant business and, uh--and I really thought my dad wanted me to, uh, to move in and take over for him, so. You know he--he wanted a successor and someone to leave the legacy to, and I think he was more or less disappointed that I don't have an heir to, uh, to carry on the tradition. Because, unfortunately, I didn't have a son, I had a daughter. And my daughter is really not in any--any least interested in, uh, in going into the restaurant business. I think she's--well, she's actually a pre-med major and, uh, she's hopefully going to med school--sometime in the near future and, uh, is gonna make a career of that, so. This, uh, the Crystal's history is--is, uh, in doubt as--as far as--well, how long the legacy will go on as far as when I'm--you know, when I retire out of it. It--what--whatever time I, you know, hav--have had enough of the business then, uh, it'll be no more family to come along and, uh, continue the, uh, the business. In the--in the Ballas tradition, anyway. So, uh, I think that's a little disheartening to my dad but, uh, you know--I--I kinda talked to him about it one day, and I said well, dad you really [laughs]--it's not gonna matter because by the time I get out of it, you shouldn't--you will--probably won't be around, so you're not [laughs]--you're not gonna know so, uh--But I said I'll keep it, you know, I'll keep it around as long as long as, uh, I feel healthy enough to, uh, carry it on. But I enjoy it, and it's, uh, you know, it's a real--it's a grind as far as the, uh, the workload and the, uh--and the dealings with the employees. We--we employ over forty-something employees and, uh, if you ask anybody that is in--in any kind of business now, probably, uh, that's the toughest situation is dealing with employees and trying to keep that, uh, part of your business where it, uh, it's not a--it's not a headache to the point where it, uh, makes your life miserable and unfortunately, with the advent of the, uh--when the casinos came in, I think they took a lot of the quality employees out of the mix because of the higher pay scale they were able to, uh, to give them. And I feel like they got the cream of the crop to go over there because of that, and that left us with a--I would think a smaller pool of individuals--of quality individuals to, uh, to put into our business. And that's probably been one of our biggest headaches over the last ten years. And I'm sure my sister [Elaine] would tell you, you know--if you interviewed her--that, uh, that was one of her biggest problems. Uh, employee relations were really, really tough. Uh, that's probably the least pleasurable part of the business. Uh, the people and the interaction and the--the cooking and the food and, uh, that end of the business is--is the pleasurable side of the business. But, uh, staffing and, uh, putting a contin--continuously good product out, uh, for the public is, uh, is a tough part of the business, and it's time consuming and tedious and--it's got to be a labor of love--to be honest.

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What's your earliest memory of the Crystal? Being there?

My earliest memory was when I was, uh, probably about six or seven years old, my dad brought be back in the kitchen and, uh, at that time they--Cokes were bottled in wooden--wooden boxes. And, uh, he stacked two--two boxes of, uh, wooden--wooden--wooden crates of Co-Cola--Co-Cola cases on top of each other, and I stood on top of 'em and, uh, I had a little butcher knife, and he had me whackin' on some--some ground beef back there, which I thought I was really a big deal, you know. And, uh, that's kind of one of the earliest memories I had that my dad, you know, had me back in the kitchen doin' something, you know. And I was, uh, just a little kid, you know. And I had to have the Coke cases to get up high enough to reach the table. But that's one of my earliest memories of being in business. And then, all through my high school and college career I--I basically worked every weekend. I would come home from college or--when, uh--when all my friends were out playing on the weekends in high school, I was--I was--Friday and Saturday night I was at work, uh, helping in the family business, and kinda learning the ins and outs of the restaurant business. So that's when I say--I was kinda groomed to go into it. And enjoyed it, you know. Maybe not as much as a kid as--as I did later on when I got out of school. But as a kid, you'd look--much rather be playing with your buddies or going out with your girlfriends than--than down at the restaurant working 'til ten o'clock at night. So it made for late-night dates, unfortunately. But, uh, I guess it--it gave me--my dad tried to give me a, uh, a good sense of work ethic and what it would take to succeed in the restaurant business, you know. Hard work is you--is the only option. And he kind of drilled that in my head. If you want something, work for it, and you'll--you'll be able to get it.

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Well, what is a regular day in the life of Johnny Ballas at the restaurant these days?

These days it's, uh, up at seven in the morning, uh, down at the restaurant at seven thirty. Uh, we go through preparations for lunch. Uh, I try to do the, uh, butchering and the steak cutting during the morning. And then, uh, before you know it lunch is there. And you're goin' through lunch from basically ten thirty until one thirty to two o'clock sometimes. And then in the afternoon, you have parties that night. You got more prep work to do. If you have a catering job, you've got even more prep work to do. Fortunately, I'm--I'm curbing my, uh, catering schedule down. That's--that used to be a--a real headache for us because we had enough regular in-house business, and the catering just added, you know, another two hundred m--three hundred meals sometime in a day. That usually took a couple of days of prep work and--and then that day it was a full day. You'd start at seven thirty in the morning, and you'd get through at ten thirty at night. And--and it was really a grind and a long day, and it was a lot of runnin' and a lot of goin' and liftin' and probably why I've got a hernia now. But that's, uh, you know I'm trying to slowly wean myself away from catering and, uh, just do the in-house thing. And I'm at that age now where I--I really don't--don't need to be in it that hard--anymore.

Did I hear right that you make the yeast rolls?

Yeah, uh, I don't personally make 'em. We-we, uh--a friend of mine's mother was a home ec teacher and, uh, we hit her up for a roll recipe. And we started making her recipe years and years and years ago. And that's basically the recipe we still use.

What was her name?

Her name was, uh, Ruth Alice Smith. She was home ec teacher at Greenwood High, and her son was one of my best friends growing up. And, uh, that's where we came up on the roll recipe. Uh, a lot of recipes were acquired from different people [coughs]. A lot of them my dad just, uh--our spaghetti sauce recipe--he wrote off to Heinz Company, and they--they sent him a recipe for spaghetti sauce, and that's still the recipe we use. He didn't know how to make spaghetti sauce, so he said, "I'll just write the Heinz Company, and surely they'll send me a recipe." And they did, and that's what we do.

Well, it did sound like your father is a businessman first and a cook later.

Yeah.

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Well, your dad was telling me a little bit about a couple of waitresses you've had there for-- a few decades now.

Yes.

Frances and Rivers, I believe.

Frances and Rivers Coleman, yeah.

Can you tell me a little bit about them?

Rivers has probably been there longer than I have. And, uh, probably upwards of thirty years. And--I would say closer to forty than thirty. And, uh, she's actually been a fixture in the, uh, in the restaurant. And she--she's kinda like, uh, all of us in that she enjoys it and loves it. And, uh, I don't think she would do it--it's not--it's not strictly a financial thing for her now, at this point in her life as much as, uh, enjoying seeing the people and--and being out in the public, you know, and, uh, graduating kids from--from toddler size to having their own families and seeing their kids and grandkids so Rivers has been there long enough now to see-see a lot of passing of generations, so that's--that's kind of a thing that I never expected--that I would be in business long enough to, uh, to see people grow up and have their own families and bring their--their kids in and, uh, it's--it's kind of neat to, uh, see that part of the business that you--you grow to know the families and--and know everybody that--that, uh, that you deal with and--and serve over the years. It's, uh, a real enjoyable part to, uh, to see that happen, you know. [Sniffs] I enjoy that a lot. I enjoy seeing, you know, and talking to everybody and--you know, taking a special interest in their families and their growth and, you know. With--with what they're doing in their lives. And, uh, made a lot of friendships through the restaurant that, uh, that have gone on for years and years. And it's, you know, it's kind of part of the community. It's kind of like, uh, the Crystal is more like a--a little social club because, uh, the people come in there and--dedicated customers and--and a lot of them have been in there all their lives, and it's, uh, it's kind of neat to, uh, to see that evolve over the years.

And that speaks a little bit to what we were talking about before we started recording about--kind of an end of an era of these--

Yeah.

--family-owned restaurants. Can you speak to that a little bit?

I really feel like the times have changed in, uh--that, uh, restaurants have gone more specialty, uh, type restaurants and chain oriented restaurants that, uh, I think a lot of the--the friendships and the, uh, the, uh, camaraderie and the--and the closeness that, uh, family owned businesses have with their clientele is--is gonna be lost somewhat to the, uh, corporate side of, uh, the foodservice indust--industry is what I would call it. It's--I don't see how they can have that--that closeness or the family touch that, uh, family restaurants brought in. I think, in a way, a lot of the Jackson [Mississippi] restaurants--there are a lot of Greek families in Jackson that have, uh, passed down over the years their--kind of running out of, uh, the younger generation coming up--a lot of that younger generation has moved on to other fields and not stayed in the restaurant business, such as--my daughter probably won't be in the restaurant business. And, uh, those restaurants, you know, I think will slowly, you know, change--change hands and, uh, I don't think it'll be the same as--as, you know, the original owners passing down to their--to their relatives and their--their children.

What is it, do you think, about Greenwood that, uh, makes it a place that has held on to these family restaurants? Or that the family restaurants have held on to Greenwood?

I think Greenwood started with these--these restaurants that, uh, that just had great--that really had great food. And--and Giardina's, and Lusco's and Crystal have been there since the early thirties. And, uh, the founders--my father and, uh, Mr. Giardina, and, uh, and Miss Lusco, uh, they were great cooks. And they were great at-- they adapted well to, uh, to, uh, the changing of the times and, and uh, being able to, uh, add--you know, add new entrees and--and keep the menus fresh and, uh, that--that kind of thing has, uh--has really evolved into--into the restaurants that we have now, I think. You know, in the old days, their menus were much--much more limited. Uh, the menus have broadened out. I know in--in our--in our business we've tried to, uh--since we're in a small market, we try to have a real diversity in our menu because we feel like our clientele is more or less in--in a small town. They want to have--see diversity in the menu. And that's--that's what we try to give them with a family run business is something that, uh, chain--oriented restaurants are unable to do because, uh, they try to deal with a more limited menu that, uh, their staff can handle. The larger your menu, the more your work load, uh, the bigger your staff has to be, and it, uh, creates problems for, uh, corporate-type restaurant setting that they--they can't deal with because it's, uh, it's too tedious. It takes too much time, too much dedication and too much labor and, you know, I--I think those chain-type restaurants are all about, you know, how much--how much money they can make for the--for the business. And, uh, you know I--I think, you know, the larger your menu the harder it is to--to make a lot of money, but the more you please your--your clientele with your diversity and your--you know, originality and being able to change your menu at will where, you know, I--I don't think your chain restaurants, they--they come up with changes, uh, occasionally but they're--they're very limited in what they can do. And I think that's something that we bring to the table that they're unable to. You know, that we can change on whatever whim we have and, uh, give people something different, something new.

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Well, the Ballases have certainly made their mark on Greenwood.

I--I think so. I think, you know, Dad'll be remembered a long time as--as a hard-working guy that put out a great meal for a great price and, uh, you know, I--I think the people of Greenwood owe him a great big thanks for--for all the years that he's--he's dedicated himself to, uh, doing a great job. And that's kinda--I feel like I'm following in his footsteps and--and basically doing the same thing. And, uh, it's been fun.

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