Big Apple Inn Farish Street
Home of the Pig Ear Sandwich, Smokes & Tamales
509 N. Farish Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39202
- Phone: (601) 354-9371
- Price Range: $
![Big Apple Inn tamales and smokes](https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=180&q=80&w=320&s=6333b466fee9bbd7a7c7ce9d2625ffd7 320w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=304&q=80&w=540&s=030a1bd96e64f93fc44407c3ddfaa8f3 540w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=432&q=80&w=768&s=c6dfffd6c5958d78ef39bd188b50a6ed 768w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&q=80&w=1024&s=96db02dc221b6ac16d60bf8a4887e861 1024w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=675&q=80&w=1200&s=9a0bd2b1da7e141430d7b091e676f1f0 1200w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=810&q=80&w=1440&s=50c50165fe302e0d6d28cda280b56a2d 1440w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/Big-Apple-Inn-tamales-and-smokes.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1080&q=80&w=1920&s=8ba6927aec025f38145a2a1c08947e04 1920w)
Big Apple Inn Farish Street
509 N. Farish Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39202
- Phone: (601) 354-9371
- Price Range: Price-$
Big Apple Inn Farish Street509 N. Farish Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39202
Fame Built on Smokes & Ears: Big Apple Inn
Sizzle sets the stage, right inside the door of the Big Apple Inn on Farish Street in Jackson. Red smoked sausage and a big pan of pig ears, steaming and fragrant on the grill, are ready to be folded into the sandwiches that’ve made this historic hole-in-the-wall famous: smokes and ears.
A slider bun plus mustard, slaw and homemade hot sauce, a quick wrap, and they’re on their way in tiny brown bags clutched by hungry devotees.
History and hot food are as potent a combo as the smokes and ears here at one of Jackson’s oldest eateries. Owner Geno Lee is the fourth generation owner of this enterprise that was started by his great-grandfather Juan Mora on this very same street.
![A man stands outside a shop with a sign that reads "Big Apple Inn"](https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=2ea4bcffa76309f0e706ac5dfc5aa1b5 320w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=271a49a5051833ff0ec62a3934e9d14a 540w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=cf4992a89dbfe23fb88d6358b1acecaa 768w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=183acca1e05f91b997613cbbeaa49260 1024w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=eb80b6890a4d282db60984df83447268 1200w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1440&s=cae29055390b60feca693540134ea337 1440w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/BigApple-Geno.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1920&s=2800d12556f3e7bd3fcc3619f075058e 1920w)
Arriving from Mexico in the mid-1930s, Mora worked for the railroad until a fall from the viaduct called for a new way to make money. He put his mother’s recipe to work, making hand-rolled hot tamales to sell at the corner of Farish and Hamilton. An open fire in a barrel drum kept the stacked tamales warm for passers-by. Farish Street, the hub of African-American business in its heyday, delivered plenty.
“Everybody called him ‘Big John’ because he stood about 5-foot-2, and he was about 5-foot-2 wide,” Geno’s smile widens in a fond laugh, “like a big circle.”
The first storefront came in 1939. Big John and his son came up with the money to purchase a nearby grocery from its retiring owner, and the Big Apple Inn was born. Tamales and sandwiches soon edged out the grocery side of the business.
![](https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=b0b0a1f3e93cb26d40382ea42c25b894 320w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=d82f98769d8c56748f076fd60ae6baed 540w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=b67c95b178b49fe1e48ba62f9c390b81 768w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=d73b32dad5e048c00d32a4b91414498b 1024w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=9397ed668f8c7742d0e01006b8acdccc 1200w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1440&s=9802aa560b4bc7cb5dc8519f9fa93282 1440w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1920&s=5ab98c4a9e2bf7df06fcee1c25cde385 1920w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=2560&s=d1a43581f24a188b6d227d48ca34553b 2560w, https://visit-jackson.imgix.net/images/grill.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=3840&s=00453336dda05ebbdec91f7a5f765de1 3840w)
Their unique way with smoked sausage sandwiches remains a hit to this day. “Sausage starts off in ground form. And they stuff it inside the casing,” Geno says. “Once my great-grandfather bought it, he would put it back into ground form again.” Kind of like a big circle.
Then one morning, their meat packer’s offer of a free box of pig ears, otherwise destined for discard, proved fateful. Big John figured out that pressure cooking tenderized the ears. Then, they went into the slider bun with slaw and sauce – and into Big Apple Inn history.
Big Apple Inn’s 509 North Farish Street spot, their home since 1952, claims more than culinary culture.
Bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson once lived in an apartment upstairs, Geno says. “He wasn’t real famous then,” but between sleeping all day and playing juke joints all night, Big Apple Inn kept him fed.
After apartments were converted to offices, civil rights activist Medgar Evers rented one. It was so small, many meetings had to be held downstairs in the Big Apple Inn. Freedom Riders met there when they came to town. “In fact, my mother was a Freedom Rider before she married my dad,” Geno says of Mary Harrison (later Lee).
Geno’s uncle ran the Big Apple Inn until the late 1980s. Then, Geno and his father, Gene, quit their jobs — Geno, in insurance and investments, and his father, a school principal — to run it.
A second location opened at 4487 North State Street in 2004 (it was meant to be temporary, Geno says) and continues to do well. In March 2017, he opened a third in Metrocenter Mall, where he got his own first job at a clothing store 30 years ago.
He loves the stories. Others eat them up, too. “People love nostalgia, especially foodies,” he says. Still, food’s the No. 1 draw.
“Name me two or three places you can go get a smoked sausage like this or a pig ear sandwich. There’s nowhere else.
“If you want a smoke or an ear, you’ve gotta come here.”
A note on the menu board says “Don’t forget the tamales,” and I don’t, picking up a half-dozen wrapped tight in foil. It takes me back, full circle, to that start.
Cuisines
Details
- Soul
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Amenities
- Wheelchair Accessible
- Black-owned
- Takeout
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