Looking for new places to chow down in Bulldog country? If so, you’re in luck. Starkville has an assortment of upcoming and newly opened restaurants. Among the hatchling eateries is LJ’s Coffee and Bakery, located on Highway 12, across from Wal-Mart. For owner Al Komm, opening the business was the logical step to take both professionally and personally.
“Both of my kids go to State, and my wife and I have been coming down to Starkville for football games, and we really liked the area,” Komm said. “We could see it was growing.”
After a few trips to Starkville, Komm decided to end his 30-year tenure in the manufacturing industry and relocate from Jackson, Tenn.
“I found that I didn’t want to continue in that profession,” Komm said.
Komm’s new profession as owner and manager officially began on Sept. 23 when LJ’s opened for business. LJ’s is named for Komm’s wife Leona Jean and has an atmosphere that Komm says is relaxing, study-friendly and inclusive to everyone.
“It’s a place where anyone in Starkville can come to study or have group meetings, or even play a game of chess,” Komm said.
While the atmosphere may give patrons an excuse to hang out, it is the food that must ultimately give them a reason to show up. While LJ’s can satisfy many a coffee connoisseur with its array of mochas, lattZs and frozen blends, it’s not merely a high-octane billabong.
“We have high-end desserts like cheesecakes and snickers pies and we have some breakfast items like doughnuts, muffins and sausage biscuits,” Komm said. “And we have deli sandwiches that we serve all day long.”
While LJ’s menu is mostly sweet and caffeinated, it does take a moment to be health conscious.
“We use skim milk in all our coffees, and we offer some non-sugar-added muffins and pies,” Komm said. “We have some diabetic customers we try to accommodate as well as we can.”
Two former college football players have found excitement after football by opening new restaurants in Starkville.
Curt Crissie and Jay Yates took a lot of hard licks while playing football at Mississippi State University and University of Louisiana-Lafayette respectively. Both of them decided that owning restaurants would develop into a much safer occupation.
Crissie wanted to develop a restaurant that would offer a family-oriented atmosphere. He also noticed that there aren’t very many restaurants that offer Southern cooking around Starkville. When an opportunity came up to buy some property, Crissie saw a perfect opportunity to open the Blackeyed Pea.
“After a real estate opportunity developed, the first thought that came to me was to develop a family oriented restaurant,” Crissie said. “The building was already designed to be a restaurant. I knew we could be unique by offering Southern cooking also.”
Crissie also owns Rosey Baby’s in Starkville and in Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla. Crissie said that Rosey Baby’s is open to any kind of crowd, but he admits that the atmosphere is more geared toward couples and adults. Crissie said that he wanted to provide a place where parents could take their children and relax.
“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say that they want to come to Rosey Baby’s, but haven’t been able to because they couldn’t find a babysitter or their kids wouldn’t like the food,” Crissie said. “Now those people can take their kids to Blackeyed Pea and not worry about it. The food is less expensive, and the atmosphere is perfect for kids to have fun.”
Crissie intends to attract family crowds by having special discounts like “Moms eat for free” nights. Crissie also offers special discounts for Mississippi State students and faculty at the Blackeyed Pea.
Like Crissie, Yates desires to offer Starkville a unique dining experience. Yates, along with partner Frank Jones, decided to build Veranda to give the Starkville community another nice restaurant.
Yates played football at Louisiana-Lafayette before moving to Starkville where his father played football. When he first moved to Starkville, Yates got a job at Harvey’s. After working at Harvey’s for twelve years, Yates desired to open his own restaurant.
“Working at Harvey’s was a great experience,” Yates said. “But like any good manager, I wanted to start my own restaurant and place my personal stamp on it.”
Veranda will open in early January. The menu will have a few mainstays but will change depending on the season and type of crowd. Along with the shifting menu, Veranda offers an outdoor dining area and a high-tech sound system.
“Veranda will be a very unique restaurant,” Yates said. “Our menu will be very eclectic. We know that people will want to eat more steaks in the fall and winter, and want more seafood in the spring and summer. We’ll have an outdoor dining area with its own bar that we can encase or open depending on the weather. We have a great sound system that we can turn up as loud or quiet as we need to.”
Veranda will be located on Locksley Way near College Station and Sherwood Apartments. Yates said he knows that a lot of college students will frequent Veranda.
“It’s going to be a great place for college kids to hang out,” Yates said. “We’ll be open late, and we can party. But we also think that Veranda offers a lot to everyone else also. We’re not going to be one-dimensional. I have friends from around the country that are helping me get this started. This is something I’ve always wanted to do.