#2,390 Crechale’s.

We made a date night trip to Jackson where we bought 4 gorgeous antique fixtures for the Laurel Mercantile: 2 big display cabinets, a wrapping desk, and a huge old tiger oak checkout counter that had a past life in the early 1900s as a desk in a cotton exchange where the bales were weighed and tagged.

Every piece is so finely handcrafted and beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for a better deal. To celebrate, we went to Crechale’s for dinner upon Ben’s daddy’s recommendation as one of the best seafood and steak places in the state. He wasn’t kidding. SUCH A COOL PLACE! 

They have a jukebox with only old jazz music, white cloth napkins, and their famous salad dressing on every table.

We met another Big Ben who eats there all the time:

And we even met Mr. Crechale who gave us chocolate pie on the house for visiting for the first time all the way from Laurel. 

He was so kind and I think that’s a big part of the reason restaurants like his stay open for decades and become the real establishments in the culinary world. The people who eat there are regulars and he knows them very well. What a gem.