Since I’m super excited about the iconic restaurant-bar Uncle Henry’s reopening on Moon Lake near Clarksdale, Mississippi – hopefully before July 4th – here’s some more info about it.
In addition to being its general manager, Whitney Myers, 35, is the creative force behind the renovated restaurant, says owner Donald Knapp.
“We just started discussing Uncle Henry’s one day,” Myers says. “And how we thought a daytime attraction would bring the lake to life. There’s so many more people out here year round than there used to be. He thought the lake needed something. One day, he called and said, ‘I bought Uncle Henry’s.’ I’m sure I said, ‘Oh, shit.’”
The old building, which was the Moon Lake Club around the ’20s and ‘30s and supposedly was the “Moon Lake Casino” in Tennessee Williams plays, needed a lot of work. It had been closed since 2012.
“He asked me to be involved in it. I didn’t really know what my title was going to be at the beginning. There was so much construction. It’s just now coming to life. I can actually see a restaurant now instead of a construction project.”
Myers came up with the idea of the concrete walkway and the pavilion in front, as well as moving the bar to a separate room instead of where it used to be. “These folks were trying to put the bar in a hidden location in the bar room. I had to tell them, ‘Hey, it’s visual. They need to see the bar when they walk in.’ It’s just stuff like that.”
The walkway goes all the way from the front door to the boat dock, Myers says. Sixty red Knock Out rose bushes line the walkway. “I planted wildflowers in there, black-eyed susans. Once those flowers come up it’s going to be phenomenal.”
Hydrangeas and evergreen trees are planted around the 20-by-30-foot pavilion, which is painted “a smooth gray with ‘music stand’ darker gray.”
Live music will be featured in the pavilion. “I’m going to do some local bands. I like classic rock. I think we’ll just do a variety. Probably rock and roll. Feel-good music. Probably not any blues. I’m going to leave that to Clarksdale.”
The magnolias are still on the grounds. “We wanted to keep the magnolias for the fact of the South.”
But they trimmed them “so you’d be able to see the building. We were so engulfed in trees. You couldn’t see the building from the road. You would not be able to see a sunset from Uncle Henry’s unless we did a lot of tree work. We just trimmed the magnolias up to the roof of the building just to be able to see.”
Myers had a personal reason for clearing out a good viewing space of the lake. “My dad, he loved to be on the water. He loved the sunsets. Sunsets are really important to me. It brings back a good feeling.”
As for the inside, Myers says they’re still waiting for 110 chairs to be delivered. But, she says, “The iron tables that were in Uncle Henry’s dining room, which is now the bar, I sanded and painted. I kept the original table from Uncle Henry’s.”
Myers also kept other pieces from the old Uncle Henry’s. “The bar room, in a way, favors old Uncle Henry’s dining room. I think that’s pretty cool. The two swinging doors coming out of the kitchen, old school restaurant-style doors, I wanted to keep those. I still have the ‘employees only’ sign on the one going into the kitchen. I have the old Uncle Henry’s specials chalkboard.”
The fare at Uncle Henry’s will be “Southern style Creole,” Myers says. “I’ve got a little menu in my head. But it’s salmon, tuna, double bone-in pork chop, filet, ribeye, ahi tuna. I was born on the Gulf Coast. So, I am a seafood lover.”
Her father, the late Jesse Myers, would be happy for her, Myers says. “My dad loved to cook. He’s probably thrilled for the opportunity I have now. He opened a restaurant before he moved away from Clarksdale. He was a great cook. He’s probably pretty pumped for me.”
She won’t be the chef, Myers says. “I can do the cooking, but I can’t run the front and the back. As of right now, I’m still looking for a chef. I do have somebody in mind. They’re coming to look this weekend.”
Myers was a general manager at the old Madidi restaurant that was co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman in Clarksdale. “I think I’ve worked at every restaurant around here. My first restaurant job was Airport Grocery in Cleveland [Mississippi]. And it didn’t take long to know that I liked that kind of business.”
But Uncle Henry’s was one restaurant where she never worked.
She also never met previous owners George Wright and his mother, Sara, whose father was Henry Trevino, who owned “Uncle Henry’s” long before she bought it. “The only thing I know about George is what people tell me. I love him already.”
Upstairs, which included bed-and-breakfast bedrooms when the Wrights owned it, will be renovated in phase two, Myers says. Gambling was featured at the place way back in the day. “‘Roulette,’ ‘Blackjack’ are still on the doors. Bamboo tables with glass tops. I’m supposing they didn’t take anything. Probably looks like they left it. Six wicker chairs. A big, wooden table.”
What about the ghost stories? Has Myers seen any ghosts? “I have not. But I also am not going to tell you that I’ve been up there by myself at night, either. I’m not sure I’m going to go upstairs at night at any point.”
A woman who used to work at Uncle Henry’s told Myers about someone telling her about seeing a ghost at the restaurant. “But I wouldn’t let her tell me. So, the ghost stories are all out there, for sure.”
Uncle Henry’s is at 5860 Moon Lake Road in Dundee, Mississippi.
