Porches, which has another location in Wesson, Miss., will serve hearty, Southern dishes with a full bar, and will open to the public on February 2. “I think it’s a Godsend that we have Porches coming,” said co-owner Ricky Salyer. “Our goal is to make Brookhaven Country Club great again.”
Chris McSweyn, the owner of Porches of Wesson (Miss.), will open the restaurant’s second location at the Brookhaven (Miss.) Country Club on February 2, the Brookhaven, Miss., Daily Leader reported.
Porches of Brookhaven Country Club will serve the same hearty, Southern dishes presented to diners in Wesson, the Daily Leader reported.
“We’re going to try to make (the country club) as similar as we can to Porches in Wesson,” McSweyn said. “We want to still have the homestyle feel of Porches. There is no way you will get the exact same feel without the house, but we’re shooting to make it feel like home.”
Though it’s at the country club, the restaurant will be open to the public. McSweyn has been cooking and running his restaurant in Wesson for 22 years, and felt now was as good a time as any to branch out, the Daily Leader reported.
“The right opportunity came up,” McSweyn said. “We were approached by the group of new country club owners on being the full time restaurant, and we couldn’t pass it up. I told them I would be more than happy to come down.”
Ricky Salyer, one of the new owners of the Brookhaven Country Club, shared in McSweyn’s excitement over the new Porches location, the Daily Leader reported.
“In general, Brookhaven Country Club has been a family-oriented place,” he said. “Over the last several years—not because of any one person—the club’s gone down. A group of us in town got together and decided we wanted to revive it, and get it back to where it was. To do that, it takes a big investment of time and money, but we feel like we can do it. We want to make the tennis courts, the golf course and the swimming pool a place where a family wants to come.”
A huge part of the upgrades included the restaurant, Salyer said. “I’ve used this word a lot, but I think it’s a Godsend that we have Porches coming,” he said. “He and his family have done a great job and I think it’s a Godsend for them to be coming here, and literally taking over everything to do with food and dining. Our goal is to make Brookhaven Country Club great again.”
McSweyn and his family, who help run Porches of Wesson, had been looking to expand their business to Brookhaven for the last two years, the Daily Leader reported.
“We’ve been looking for the right spot,” he said. “We’ve looked at several places and houses, but there just was not enough parking at many of them. The country club has been a part of Brookhaven for I can’t tell you how many years. It’s unique, we’re unique, and so we just basically go together.”
The new Porches location will allow McSweyn to offer service to larger parties, like wedding receptions or rehearsal dinners. “We still want to provide the homestyle feel to the restaurant, but on a larger scale,” he said.
McSweyn has been hard at work on renovations to create a similar ambiance to that in Wesson. “We have been doing work to the kitchen,” he said. “There is stuff here, I just need to get more tables, chairs and do some decorating.”
He plans to add similar latticework throughout the club to resemble a porch, along with similar decorations to that in the Wesson restaurant, the Daily Leader reported.
“The food will for sure be the same, even if the decorations are not,” McSweyn said. “It will still be the same friendly smiles you always see, but we’re just going in a little different direction.”
A new addition to the Porches menu will be the bar. “We will be serving wine, mixed drinks,” McSweyn said. “All alcohol will be served.”
Porches of Brookhaven Country Club will be open for lunch and dinner Thursday through Saturday, and brunch and lunch on Sundays, beginning in February, the Daily Leader reported.
“People need to have a place where they absolutely know the personnel will take care of them, and we’re going to do everything possible to make sure of that,” Salyer said.
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