208 South Lamar Celebrates 125th Anniversary of Oxford, Mississippi’s Oldest Restaurant Location

208 South Lamar Celebrates

125th Anniversary

208 South Lamar Restaurant is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the building during the month of August. The restaurant is the longest running and oldest restaurant establishment in Oxford. The month long celebration began with a wine pairing event hosted by Dr. John Juergens, Oxford’s own internationally known wine expert. Nightly entrée specials for $12.50 and domestic beers for $1.25 are featured for the rest of the month of August.

208 South Lamar became a completed building when the bar area building was added to the free-standing dining room building in the late 1880s. A meat market at that time, the building has been host to food purveyors ever since. In the mid 20s, Mack’s Café hosted the local bus station there with seven arrivals and departures a day. Before the wall was breached during this period, one had to walk outside from the bar in order to enter the dining room. Guy Turnbow, Sr., having played beside Tom Swayze for four seasons with the newly formed Philadelphia Eagles football team, came home and partnered with Mr. Mac from 1936 until 1943 when the café closed for the war.

Grundy Cole reopened the diner after the war. Many locals will remember Grundy’s, where William Faulkner was often seen and “air-conditioned” was prominently displayed on the new neon sign. Hamburger steak and fries were a popular dish for $1.10. Your drink was another dime. The Grundy’s deco diner blue glass tile façade was resurrected in 2010 by current owners, Jerry and Jean Jordan, former professors in the Ole Miss Music Department.

In 1972, Miss Louise Smith bought Grundy’s. Her Smitty’s was beloved by generations of Ole Miss students and locals. Always there, Miss Louise was the most popular hostess in town, taking care of her customers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until 1999. Two short-term restaurants then occupied the space until 2002, when the present 208 South Lamar opened. The Jordan’s acquired 208 in 2009 and made extensive renovations to include two loft apartments in the upstairs space. Having perhaps the most unique façade of any commercial building in Oxford, 208 South Lamar takes pride in continuing the best restaurant traditions of the past one hundred and twenty-five years.