The passing of a favorite restaurant is like the death of an old friend. It’s so permanent.
I ate dinner at Clancy’s Cafe in Red Banks, Mississippi, the night it opened. It was on New Year’s Eve 2010. The David House Band from Potts Camp, Mississippi, performed. There was a full menu as well as a seafood buffet.
I’ve been going there ever since for barbecue, blackened catfish, fried catfish, blackened chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches, and pimento cheese. And usually banana pudding with whipped cream and ice cream on top. Or a slice of cake made by Norma Jackson, grandmother of the restaurant’s chef/owner, Tyler Clancy.
Now, “Clancy’s Cafe” is closed. Clancy signed the buyer purchase agreement on March 17th. “The day I signed it was St. Paddy’s Day,” Clancy says. “I’m Irish. Why not?”
Selling the restaurant was bittersweet, Clancy says. “Man, it was tough.” But, he says, “I was tired of working nights. And it was one of those things. I truly enjoyed it. And the whole restaurant part of it. But here, lately, I was almost forcing myself to do it.”
And, he says, “I’m tired of watching the world through a kitchen pass,” he says, adding, “The expediting window.”
But one day he had an epiphany, Clancy says. “I was sitting on the patio at my house with my wife. The kids were playing in the yard. My wife was planning what I should plant in the flower beds. The sun was warm on my face and my heart was full. I knew then that I had been chasing fame for the past 15 years. That is the kind of thing that can motivate a person to work 60 hours a week, while struggling financially. Fame.
“I did not have the desire for that anymore,” says Clancy. “My passion and desire was to chase family. Not fame.”
Blackened catfish was on the menu from the start.
The restaurant had typically been open for lunch and dinner, Wednesdays through Sundays. On January 1st, Clancy began serving breakfast and lunch, but no dinner. Brunch was served, as usual, on Sundays. “That can work in a big city. But when you’re in a small community, there’s just not enough profit to sustain it,” he says.
“To be honest, the breakfast and lunch was kind of a deal where I was trying to be rejuvenated. I was hoping a change in hours, a change in menu, and all those things would just fire off a spark. Renew a flame. But it did not.”
Recalling his early days at Clancy’s Cafe, Clancy says he opened using some recipes from another once-famous, but now-closed, restaurant. “A lady that worked for Starnes [Catfish Place], which is the original catfish house in North Mississippi, shared some recipes. Hushpuppies and the onion salad. And, pretty much, we kind of figured out everything else on our own.”
Their original menu “was stupidly big. We had too much. Three different steaks.” And, he says, “Man, we had frog legs, chicken livers, and we had spaghetti and meatballs.” They were also doing a buffet at night.
Clancy simplified the menu to primarily catfish and barbecue. “You could do variations off of that,” he says. And he served specials, including shrimp and grits, a muffuletta, and “Catfish Ponchetrain,” which was “blackened fish with the Cajun cream sauce.”
He also did a lot of catering. The late Fred Smith, founder of the Federal Express Corporation, was one of his customers. “We catered at his farm. Especially the opening morning of dove season. He loved the way we fried the quail. We marinated it. I don’t think they were marinating it before I started frying quail for them.”
Ibraham Babukr, who owns several businesses in and out of Red Banks, bought the Clancy’s Cafe space. They’re not going to lease it to another restaurant, Babukr says. And they’re going to change the name to something that relates to the history of Red Banks or to Marshall County.
Babukr plans to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner six or seven days a week instead of just being open four days a week. But, he says, they’re going to leave the restaurant “pretty much the same” as it’s been. “We might add some Mediterranean and Mexican food. And upgrade the furniture.”
Asked if he’s going to open another restaurant, Clancy says, ”I’m not doing a restaurant or anything like that.” Never? “I’ll never say that. But not right now, for sure.”
If he ever does, he says, “Obviously, it will be in Marshall County.”
As for cooking, he says,“I wouldn’t mind popping up here and there for local events. I’m not burned out on cooking. And I’d love to help out at different events.” But, he says, “I’m ready to let go of some of the burden of being self-employed.”
His sister was proposed to at Clancy’s Cafe. Both of his and his wife Lacey’s children were born while he was at the restaurant.
But one of his favorite memories was when he posted on Facebook about doing curbside service at Clancy’s Cafe when Covid began. “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he says. But he found out that night. “That parking lot was full.”
And that didn’t stop. “The phone rang off the hook. The parking lot was full. It was locals. And they were there to support us.”
