Giardina's

314 Howard St., Greenwood, MS - (662) 455-4227

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Posted By Michael Stern on 7/25/2009 2:05:00 PM

Wallet alert! Giardina's (pronounced with a hard G) is significantly more expensive than most Roadfood restaurants; and it is, in its unique way, more formal. Service is polished. Tables are outfitted with thick white cloths and snazzy Viking cutlery. The wine collection – stored in state-of-the-art Viking wine cellars – is impressive. Entrees can top $30 and a full meal, with good wine, can hit triple digits.

Why do we recommend it here at Roadfood.com? For all its high-class trappings, the dining experience is downhome Delta. When you enter, Mary Rose Graham, a second-generation Giardina, will escort you to a private dining compartment just like Prohibition days. Much of the kitchen's repertoire is upscale cotton country fare, including hefty steaks and elegant pompano, hot tamales, and a bevy of dishes that reflect the powerful influence of Italian immigrants on Greenwood's cuisine. These include garlicky salads and a marvelous appetizer called Camille's bread, which our waiter described as "like a muffuletta but without the meat" – a hot loaf stuffed with olives, sardines, and cheese.

Giardina's in fact has humble roots. It opened in 1936 as a fish market. Gradually it became popular among cotton growers, known for those private booths where bootleg booze could be drunk in secrecy. As King Cotton lost its economic hegemony late in the 20th century, Giardina's fortunes waned along with those of Greenwood, the South's Cotton Capital, and eventually, it closed its doors. But then the Viking Range Corporation came to town in 1989 and the presence of the stove maker turned everything around. The Mississippi Heritage Trust awards Viking has won for rehabilitation of local properties include the transformation of the historic Irving Hotel from a ratty embarrassment to a stylish boutique hotel called The Alluvian. For us, the Alluvian's greatest attraction, beyond its feather beds and 300 thread count sheets, is the fact that it is the new home of Giardina's, a Mississippi Delta legend.

Scorecard

Overall: Excellent - Worth a Detour

Porterhouse Steak	Hot Tamales
Pompano	Giardina's Salad
Iceberg Lettuce Salad

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"One of the nicest cuts of meat in the South: a porterhouse at Giardina's. Optional side dishes include potatoes, pasta, and a not-to-be-missed item called Camille's Bread, a rugged length of loaf with a vivid Italian accent."
Michael Stern

"Like Greenwood's other top-notch eccentric eatery, Lusco's, Giardina's features broiled whole pompano on its menu. If you like fresh fish, it's deliriously good."
Michael Stern

"Giardina's offers several different oyster options including a fine Oysters Bienville."
Cliff Strutz

"Throughout the Mississippi Delta, at restaurants high and low, hot tamales are a preferred way to start any meal."
Michael Stern

"In Mississippi's less politically correct days, the item sold as Giardina's salad would have been listed on the menu as wop salad for its Italian flavors."
Michael Stern

"Iceberg lettuce is the only leaf that would stay crisp and crunchy under this heavy mantle of blue cheese dressing."
Michael Stern

"Dining at Giardina's is in curtained booths -- a holdover from the days patrons needed privacy to drink bootleg hooch."
Michael Stern