Community Grocery

Community Grocery Set to Open in Woodville This Summer

A new restaurant project aims to offer fresh local dishes, served with a side of community spirit

James Fox-Smith

When it opens on the Courthouse Square this summer, Community Grocery will be the first new restaurant in Woodville, Mississippi, in awhile. This is good, because with all due respect to Fatty’s Cracklin’s, the Back Porch diner at the Texaco, and Sonic, dining options in Woodville have been sparse lately.

According to Whitney Seal, who with her friend and business partner, Katie McCurley, owns the buildings that will house Community Grocery, the project grew out of a conversation at a Wilkinson County Christian Academy football game. “We got deep into conversation about our love for our community and how much potential it has, if only someone would take a chance on it,” Seal said. “After months of these conversations, we realized that someone is us. Another concern for us is how our town struggles to be unified. So, we want to open a place that provides an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome and relationships are fostered.”

Seal and McCurley are renovating two historic buildings at the south end of the Courthouse Square: an 1840, National Historic Register-listed building that started life as a saddle shop but is usually remembered as the home of Sarphie’s Jewelry; and the 1909 building next door, which has served variously as a boarding house and a wholesale grocery over the years. The restaurant will occupy the ground floor of the Sarphie Building, with kitchen facilities and an adjoining retail space next door. Upstairs will be a bed and breakfast, fittingly named The Saddle House in honor of the site’s original establishment.

Seal explained that with both the restaurant and the retail store, Community Grocery is aiming to fill a void in the local dining scene with seasonal soups and salads, sandwiches made using house-roasted meats, daily entrées, and a range of healthy, fresh-made grab-and-go meals. The menu, which is still in development, offers a cane syrup-brined turkey breast sandwich made on multi-grain bread with pepper jelly and brie; seasonal soups ranging from gumbo to gazpacho; and entrée specials like chicken & dumplings; or pork roast with sweet potatoes, mustard greens, and cornbread. There’ll also be a daily box lunch made using meats, cheeses, crackers, and pickled vegetables that Seal described as “somewhat like a grown-up lunchable.” She explained that the menu has been planned to make maximum use of Wilkinson County produce—from collard greens to venison sausage—and noted that the retail side will provide shelf space to local farmers and food producers alongside the grab-and-go produce, to make Community Grocery accessible, and beneficial to the widest possible cross-section of locals. “We hope to provide our community with something that it’s lacking, and that it will encourage others to follow suit,” Seal said. “It will take all of us coming together to help Woodville reach its full potential. We have complete faith in our community that this can happen.”

Seal anticipates that Community Grocery will be open for lunch by early summer. Plans for Thursday–Saturday evening dinner and a Sunday brunch are in the works. communitygroceryms.com