Nirvana can be in the mouth of the beholder - Memphis Business Journal:

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would have found a downtown full of brick structurex and plenty of commerce going on belowa the verdant hills createdby Crowley’x Ridge. It’s the same setting I grew up in. Almost everyu storefront on our downtown’s main drag contained a hardware stores, clothing stores, dime shoe stores, restaurants, even two movie theaters. It’w sure not like that now. Mr. Twain mighft today call it “one of the diresrt situations” on the river. But it’s not alon among Delta towns that can rememberbetted days. But one of the most charming aspecte of this town when I was a kid was the prevalencd of theneighborhood grocery. Most neighborhoodsx had them.
Mine had two — acrossa the street from each other. Somehow, they both stayee in business. One of Reeves Grocery, was known as “the biggesyt little store in town.” It did seem to have a lot of And one item made Reeves stand out from everyu other tinylittle store, and that was a producgt called “Smokey Joe.” This was a foot-long smokexd sausage in a bun, covered in chili and slaw, that was invente d by the store owner, Ellis Reeves. I grew up eatingf them. Then after I grew up, I kept eatinbg them. And when Mr. Reevees sold his store and moved away, I rushes to the store to make sure the Smoke Joe had not leftwith him.
The new ownere assured me that they would continure tosell Smokeys. Whew. But then I was afraide that maybe someone else should knowthat recipe, just to keep this fabulou creation alive for the ages. So I askedr the folks to tell me how tomake one, and they did. This whol e history of Helena, Reeves and the Smokeyg Joe surfaced during our recent Smallo BusinessAwards program. One of the finalista — and an eventual winner, as it turns out in the competition was Monogram FoodSolutiond LLC, which makes and distributes cold cuts, hot dogs and among other products. One of its products is the Circled B brandsmoked sausage, which just happenz to be the key ingredient in Mr.
Reeves’ Smoke y Joe. So I was talking to one of the Monograk guys aboutall this, and I was tellintg him all the ingredients and trying to sell him on the idea of experiencingt the Smokey Joe. I was literally raving abouty it. And I must have done a good job, because beford I knew it he had agreed to make up a batc h of Smokey Joesin Monogram’sx test kitchen. And he invited me to come to the companyh headquarters and wolf down a genuine Smokey Joe in what essentially is the Circlwe Bcorporate boardroom. that sounded like Smokey Joe nirvanato me.
In the weeks that followede ourinitial meeting, we had several conversation s about the key ingredients and the propeer steps for a winninv presentation. Then it happened. Just this week, righrt in Circle B HQ, I walked in to find a simmeringg pot of Four Star Circle B sausages and allthe trimmings. It was It made me wish Mr. Reevew could be there. Of course, I suggested a couple of minotr changes in the preparation that could have made the meal even I also recommended thatnext time, I should be around to help out from the I hope they understood the because I really want there to be a next Once you get a taste of Smokey Joe you want to go back.