TIE DYE TRAVELS

A lot of folks know about Taylor’s Grocery in Mississippi — a rather famous grocery store that’s now a marvelous catfish restaurant. Did you know there’s a Taylor’s just outside of Dumas? Both are locations where groceries were once sold that now house great restaurants.

 

Charles and Dorothy Taylor opened Taylor’s Grocery in 1954. The original shotgun-style country house was pretty small, but it functioned like a traditional country store, a place to buy dry goods and foods, and share a little gossip. In 1961, the Taylors moved the operation a quarter mile closer to town into a larger building. They sold that store in the 1970s and opened up a third spot — and in 1983 the fourth move happened, placing the business where it is now, far from the outskirts of Dumas. “My mother has always made barbecue,” Chuck Taylor said. “You know, when the grocery store sales declined, we branched out and bought equipment and started doing hamburgers and po’boys and the lunch thing, sandwiches and fried, shrimp, oysters … and then it started to grow, so we started taking out grocery shelves, taking out sporting goods and adding tables and chairs for people to eat.” That little spot on the road from Dumas to Monticello started to pick up steam. “We started out with two tables, and lunch just took over,” Chuck said. “We became full of tables — we still sold chips and drinks and stuff like that, knick-knacks.” In fact, Taylor’s cheese dip took on a great deal of notoriety, with people dropping by to pick up dip to take home. The restaurant even developed a big burger called the “Double Bertha,” which folks would try to eat in one setting. But Chuck and his wife, Pam, wanted to do more than giant burgers and cheese dip;

 

They had long had plans for an evening dinner restaurant, which they began in the fall of 2012. Since that time, Taylor’s aged steaks have quickly gained renown, not only for their flavor but for their size.

 

Kansas bone-in rib-eyes and T-bone steaks run 25-28 ounces. There’s also a 31-25 ounce Porterhouse steak for two. Once the day’s supply is gone, they’re out. There are other great dishes, such as the crawfish enchilada plate and two different lush versions of bread pudding, including a chocolate version that often runs out. Many order theirs with their meal so they won’t miss out on the popular dessert. The quality of the food brings visitors from throughout the region and across the state, which is necessary to support an upscale restaurant in a small town, such as Dumas. “We draw from everywhere — Little Rock, Texarkana, Mississippi, Fayetteville,” Chuck said. “We’ve had a Saturday night where everyone in here was from DeWitt or Stuttgart. Pine Bluff, Monticello, you name it. People come, they love it, they say ‘we will be back.’ That one person might tell 10 people, and they come and they go tell 10 people. It’s kind of like a chain letter, word of mouth is the best thing there is.”