The Main Event

Frankie's On Main

Natchez's new restaurant brings an altogether new experience to the city, but feels right at home

James Fox-Smith

It was a Saturday evening during Dry January the first time we visited Frankie’s on Main, but the patrons of Natchez’s newest, most eclectic hbar and restaurant didn’t seem to be taking the popular New Year’s life hack particularly seriously. Inside, a Dionysian spirit of festivity was evident, silver and gold New Year’s Eve balloons floating about. The bar dominating one flank of the circa-1826 Britton & Koontz Bank building glowed like a shrine. A Jazz-age soundtrack evoked the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, and seating areas in the bank lobby-cum-lounge area were occupied by several generations of Natchezians, draped insouciantly upon chaise lounges and settled into armchairs in varying stages of congeniality. It was a crowd that didn’t meet a stranger, and within five minutes we’d run into three or four groups with whom we were acquainted—Frankie’s is that sort of place.

Frankie’s on Main in Natchez is the creation of Chef Frankie Muñoz and his parents, Marty Buchman and Cathy Muñoz-Buchman.

Nicole Kossum

Among these was Natchez chef and culinary consultant Regina Charboneau, who had a hand in developing Frankie’s menu. Another acquaintance was attending to her ninety-three-year-old mother-in-law—a Natchez grande dame dressed to the nines who, with a couple of old fashioneds aboard, was charting an uneven course through the dining room.

After a pleasantly social half-hour spent in small talk, our table was ready. We followed the server past the wood and frosted-glass partition that once delineated the lobby from the teller stations and settled at an intimate four-top with upholstered parlor chairs on one side … and a Rococo love seat on the other. Other diners were settled into equally un-restaurant-y furnishings ranging from wingback armchairs and button-back sofas to an elaborately-carved mahogany church pew. Whimsically-furnished and evocatively-lit, with quirky menu options and a curated selection of wines and craft cocktails, Frankie’s feels as eccentric as it does exclusive, offering something altogether new to Natchez, but also right at home.

Frankie’s on Main is the creation of Frankie Muñoz and his parents, Marty Buchman and Cathy Muñoz-Buchman, all of whom somewhat recently relocated from Atlanta to Natchez—drawn, like many, out of “big city” life to the bluff as a consequence of the cultural reset caused by COVID-19.

Frankie grew up in New Orleans, where his mom was born and raised, and in Atlanta, where he accumulated twenty years of experience working in the city’s fine dining institutions and craft cocktail bars. The Natchez connection is Marty, whose mother was born and raised there. In 2015, Marty and Cathy purchased family property belonging to his late aunt, Celia Mermelstein, a lifelong Natchezian known to everyone as “Doll,” and since have officially made Natchez their second home.

Nicole Kossum

During COVID-19, the couple was spending more time in Natchez, Frankie was seeking out a home for his restaurant concept, and all of them were looking to get out of Atlanta. An answer came to them on the

corner of Main and Commerce streets, where stood the formidable, neoclassical edifice that had been the original headquarters of Britton & Koontz Bank, and in recent years had housed a collection agency. Marty and Cathy made the owner an offer and closed on the building in 2021.

Nicole Kossum

Dramatic outside and in, Frankie’s on Main is a collaboration that reflects its creators’ backgrounds, skills, and experiences. “We wanted Frankie’s to appeal to both ‘old’ Natchez, while also recognizing that Natchez is evolving, that a lot of younger people are coming back to town,” Marty observed. “We wanted to be part of that excitement, too.” Prior to starting the project, he, Cathy, and Frankie visited other restaurants in town, and felt that the local scene lacked comfortable places to gather, have a drink, and linger.

“I wanted Frankie’s to be a place where people could come and hang out and feel at home,” Cathy said. She and Marty took the lead on the restaurant’s interior design, working to preserve the drama of the building’s soaring, pressed-tin ceilings, tall windows, and handsome interior millwork as they incorporated bold colors, artful lighting, and fanciful furnishings and artwork that reflect, as Marty put it, “a lifetime of being interested in things.”

As for the menu, that’s all Frankie. “At first we were just looking to do something simple: a wine bar,” Frankie explained. “But being in restaurants, I’ve learned that you can’t just pick a concept and go with it. I think it has to evolve as the community tells you what it wants.” In Natchez, Frankie sensed a community that was ready for something different, so in the menu, the wine list, and the cocktail selections, he set out to deliver things that the city didn’t already offer.

Nicole Kossum

Drawing on his experience at one of Atlanta’s top cocktail bars, Frankie’s cocktail menu features drinks that incorporate fresh herbs, locally-made syrups of honey and agave, and stylish presentation. The espresso and dark chocolate martini is perfect for a January evening, as are his White Russians, served in vintage milk jugs. There are a range of whiskey-based cocktails, and a jalapeño cucumber martini that’s going to be all the rage once the weather warms up.

For the kitchen’s offerings, Frankie, Cathy, and Marty consulted with chef, cookbook author, and culinary ambassador to the American Queen riverboat company, Regina Charboneau. “The idea is to open with a selection of small plates, and to deliver Southern food done with a worldview,” said Charboneau, a longtime Natchez resident and former proprietor of local restaurants including King’s Tavern and Regina’s Kitchen. “Natchez is small, and you don’t want to compete; you want to enhance what’s going on in the food scene. We wanted to open with a menu that was not a duplicate of anything else going on in town.”

To that end, Frankie’s delivers shareable dishes that are unusual enough to engage adventurous diners, but accessible enough to keep guests coming back for more. Exhibit number one are the Bao Buns—the centuries-old Chinese staple of fluffy, steamed buns made of a white, slightly sweet dough. At Frankie’s, diners can order house-made bao buns filled with their choice of grilled pork belly topped with spicy Korean Gochujang sauce and ginger slaw, peppered beef brisket with horseradish crema, or fried shrimp with house-made hoisin sauce. Another popular choice are the Bacon Wrapped Bites: a choice of artichoke hearts, dates, shrimp, or scallops, wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon and matched with each a different house-made sauce. There is a selection of salad skewers, in which the ingredients of a cucumber and feta, caprese, or wedge salad are deconstructed and reassembled onto a bamboo skewer and delivered with a dipping sauce. Juicy Southern fried frog legs come with spicy buffalo, hoisin, or South American chimichurri sauce. A hearty charcuterie platter laden with peppered smoked duck breast, coppa salami; and brie, boursin, and smoked gouda cheeses makes for satisfying bar-based nibbling. So do either a smoked shrimp or a hot pimento cheese dip served with crostini, or a classic French baguette with butter, sea salt, and fresh radish slices. There is even a Southern-style poutine that updates the French-Canadian rib-sticker by substituting sweet potato fries for the original’s French fries, mozzarella for the cheese curds, then tops the lot with beef brisket, pepper gravy, caramelized onions, and horseradish sauce.

Nicole Kossum

It’s bar food at its best. These shareable small plates are only the opening act, though—the main event drawing from the wood-fired grill custom-built by Grillworks of Michigan—a gleaming, aluminum, pecan-burning beast installed in the rear of Frankie’s dining room for all to see, from which Chef Jamie King turns out the restaurant’s popular Smash Burger, as well as nightly specials such as a huge bone-in ribeye steak, grilled lamb chops, and more. While the plan is to expand the menu as time goes on, Frankie and Cathy noted that the small plate menu had been well-enough received to convince them to take their time. “For me, food that is different and simple does better than more complicated dishes,” noted Frankie. “I see it evolving to be a series of staples, with specials coming in and out.”

With its combination of a spectacular interior, stylish cocktails, and delightfully offbeat menu, it’s not difficult to see why Frankie’s on Main has been busy from the start. Frankie noted that guests with a special occasion to celebrate—a birthday or a bridal shower— often request “The Vault,” a semi-private dining room situated inside the bank’s handsome central vault and accessed through a foot-thick doorway of gleaming steel. Within this inner sanctum, antique chairs surround a table for twelve, providing an intimate—and very secure—way to celebrate in style. As the menu expands, Frankie has plans to make a prix fixe menu option available within the vault. But for now, he, Cathy, and Marty are happy to take their time. Regina Charboneau agreed, adding, “The good news is they’ve been so busy, it’s been hard to offer new things.”

Nicole Kossum