Starkville Update

Lucky's returns as addition to Rick's Cafe

by Zach Prichard
October 25, 2005

Come next semester, Rick's Cafe will be getting lucky. After a short stint on Main Street, Lucky's is moving in with the music venue.

"It just seemed like the right thing to do," Seth Onan, owner of Lucky's, said. "Rick and I were competing with each other when we shouldn't have."

"It started out as a joke," Cafe owner Rick Welch said. "We were beating up on each other. Rick's was getting the Friday and Saturday crowd and Lucky's was getting the Wednesday and Thursday crowd."

Though the two bar owners were competing, they said their rivalry was friendly.

"Rick and I have been friends since I got into the business a couple of years ago, so it just made sense to form an alliance," Onan said.

Those who have driven past Rick's recently may have noticed that big changes are in store.

"We're actually adding two new bars," Welch said. "Outside where all the main construction is visible will be the new outside bar called Tiki. That, of course, will be seasonal."

"Upstairs, above Rick's, will be our new location for Lucky's," Onan said.

Don't expect the exact same Lucky's that was on Main Street. Onan said that the d�cor and overall feel will change.

"Lucky's is going to be a blues/piano/lounge bar," he said. "We want it to be very comfortable: low lighting, very 'loungy.' We're actually adding a bunch of really comfortable couches."

In their efforts to make Lucky's even more upscale than before, Onan will add a women's only lounge next to the restrooms.

Onan said the crowd will likely change as well.

"We're going for a more laid-back atmosphere, so we'll probably attract an older crowd," he said. "We're going to try to get some of the professors and such to come. We also want to be able to offer a place to businesses and professionals in town to be able to come after a hard day's work and get a drink and some food."

Speaking of food, Onan and Welch said they'll have a single menu for Rick's, Lucky's and Tiki.

"We're still working on the menu at this point," Onan said, "but we're going to try to have some specials on the weekend to draw in the older crowd. We'll hopefully have some good seafood and steak, maybe even some pasta."

Even though they're focusing on new clientele, Lucky's will still be very student friendly.

"We had two or three student art shows when Lucky's was on Main Street," Onan said. "I enjoyed every one of them. It was a nice laid-back crowd, and I'd definitely be open to doing something like that again."

"What's so great about the addition of the new bars is the versatility," Welch said. "We can now have several things going on at once. If a campus group or someone else wants to have a private party, we can do that at Lucky's if I have bands booked, or vice versa if Lucky's has someone booked."

Aside from the addition of Lucky's and Tiki, Rick's Cafe is expected to undergo other transformations.

"We'll be making some changes to Rick's," Welch said. "Some of them we've already incorporated."

Welch said that most of the changes to Rick's will be for the comfort of the audience and the bands that visit.

"We're adding 20 more tons of air," he said. "We're tearing out the old bathrooms and redoing those. We're also adding some things for our bands like band showers and a washer and dryer. They usually don't have access to those on the road, so we want to make it a little more comfortable for them."

Other changes include repaving the parking lot and adding a new facade to the front of the building, which is currently being constructed.

"I think we're going to surprise a lot of people," Onan said. "It's going to be very eye-opening."

"It'll be well worth the wait," Welch said. "I really appreciate everyone's patience with the construction. We knew it was going to be nice, but recently we realized it's going to be nicer than we first imagined.

GourMae's Grocery in Starkville to Specialize in Fine Foods

by Kelly Daniels
October 25, 2005

Along with its new restaurants and bars, the Cotton District will soon see another business open, GourMae's Grocery on Maxwell Street.

The modestly sized shop will be a first for Starkville, focusing on gourmet foods not available in major grocery stores.

Owner Tony Thompson has been renovating the inside of the former tanning salon, which was also once a Catholic sanctuary. Under the vaulted ceiling, divided by stained wooden beams, Thompson rubbed his foot over the floor to reveal hardwood that had lain under both carpet and tile for many years.

"We didn't know what we were going to find when we stripped it," Thompson said.

Thompson said that the building has required more labor than he predicted when he began renting the building from owner Dan Camp.

"We had to tear down 10 rooms," Thompson said.

With the white powdery layer over the floor and the paint job one-third of the way finished, it was hard to imagine the building as a special foods store.

Thompson calls it the old sanctuary. When the store opens Nov. 1, he will sell his products out of his office behind the recently opened Middle Eastern restaurant Shaherazad's, also on Maxwell.

Behind the office's antique living room arrangement lay stacks of some products he will sell.

"I get most of these from Atlanta and New York," he said. Business partner Barbara Rhoades accompanies him to food shows and discusses certain products to order.

Among them are triple cream cheeses, which cannot be found anywhere else in Starkville. On display so far are whole vanilla beans, honey jelly and a lemon honey that sweetens any hot tea while also giving it a kick. On top of the shelves are brown weaved baskets that will hold gifts that Thompson said he expects to be wrapping.

Items that hadn't yet arrived were hot tea, fine olive oil and grape seed oil.

Thompson said that he has recently considered selling organic products.

"I've gotten several people asking me if I will have organic shelves," he said. "It's something I've just recently been introduced to, so I'll have to see."

"This is a very fun job," Rhoades said. "I enjoy it because I love food." Her daughter, Amy Rose, attended the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park in New York and now works in wine selection.

"This is post-retirement fun," Rhoades said.

"There aren't very many places where this happens," said Thompson, referring to the concentration of quality in his products. He said the store is for people entertaining with parties and dinners and also for those who live in the Cotton District.

Camp said that a neighborhood grocery is the way to go for any student who wants to save money on gas.

"The prices are a little more expensive than other local groceries, but shopping there still is economically safer than driving to a grocery store," Camp said. "I want students to not have to crank their cars until they drive home, and this town could use the ambiance of high quality food items," he added.

"I think Starkville is ready for a specialty foods store," Thompson said.