Big Apple Inn
Black southern foodways
Jackson, Mississippi
The Big Apple Inn has been a fixture of Jackson, Mississippi’s historic Farish Street since 1939. Known for its pig ear sandwiches, “smokes,” and hot tamales, the small restaurant has remained in the same family for four generations while becoming an enduring part of the city’s culinary, community, and Civil Rights history.
The restaurant’s story begins with Juan “Big John” Mora, a Mexican immigrant from Mexico City who arrived in Jackson in the 1930s and began selling hot tamales from a cart along Farish Street. In 1939, Mora and his son Harold purchased a former grocery store and opened the restaurant that became the Big Apple Inn, named for the popular Big Apple dance. Today, Mora’s great-grandson Geno Lee continues the family business that has gained international popularity with write-ups from the BBC and a visit from Guy Feiri.
Over the decades, the Big Apple Inn developed a menu as distinctive as its history. Along with tamales, it became famous for sandwiches made with pig ears and smoked sausage, known locally as “smokes.” The restaurant’s inexpensive sandwiches and welcoming atmosphere made it a longtime gathering place on Farish Street, once the center of Black business, entertainment, and professional life in Jackson. That location also placed the Big Apple Inn at the center of Mississippi’s Civil Rights Movement. Medgar Evers maintained an NAACP office directly above the restaurant, and when meetings outgrew the small upstairs space, organizers gathered downstairs. Civil Rights activists found food, conversation, and a place to meet within its storied walls.
The Big Apple Inn has remained on Farish Street through dramatic changes to the neighborhood and the city around it. For Geno Lee, continuing the restaurant means carrying forward not only the foods introduced by earlier generations but also their commitment to the surrounding community. More than eighty-five years after Big John Mora opened its doors, the Big Apple Inn remains a family business, neighborhood gathering place, and prominent piece of Jackson history.