Jackson Free Press

Sophomore Spanish Club, a ‘90s-themed Latin restaurant inside The District at Eastover, will hold its grand opening on Monday, Aug. 26. The new restaurant occupies the former Cantina Laredo, which closed in February. MH Ventures of Jackson, which also operates Fine & Dandy in The District, manages Sophomore Spanish Club, and Jesse Houston, executive chef at Fine & Dandy, will serve as culinary director.

The interior of Sophomore Spanish Club is filled with ’90s-related memorabilia, and the decor and menu item titles are both largely inspired by the show "Saved by the Bell," Marisa Marino, hospitality director of MH Ventures, told the Jackson Free Press.

"‘Saved by the Bell’ was an iconic show that was part of so many people's childhoods, so when you walk in you can expect to see something that's basically a love letter to that part of the ’90s,” Marino says. "As for the menu, chef Jesse Houston has created traditional Latin American dishes he studied in Mexico rather than standard Tex-Mex food, so you can expect a taste unlike anything you've ever had in Jackson."

The restaurant features bright pink lighting and tall Mexican candles that have the faces of prominent actors and television characters from the ’90s on them, such as Jennifer Aniston and Steve Urkel.

While the menu is not fully finalized, it does include items such as frito pie with chile con carte, fresh seasfood and fajitas made on a charcoal grill, along with traditional items such as tamales and enchiladas. Drinks include frozen margaritas that customers can add flavors to, such as prickly pear, and other specialty cocktails, such as the “Cactus Cat,” which is made up of honeysuckle, vodka, prickly pear, lemon, cucumber and orange.

Sophomore Spanish Club is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant’s bar and Cactus Cat Lounge are also open from 10 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. For more information, call 601-203-3333 or find the Sophomore Spanish Club on Facebook.

District Drugs & Mercantile Coming to The District This Fall

Whitney Harris, a Jackson native who formerly worked as a pharmacist at Beemon Drugs, which closed in June 2019, will open her own pharmacy called District Drugs & Mercantile inside The District at Eastover later this fall. Harris will operate the business together with her husband, Matthew Harris, who works as an attorney at the Simmons, Smith, Mercier and Harris law firm in Ridgeland.

"I've been working as a pharmacist in Jackson for nine years and had long wanted to run a pharmacy of my own, so after Beemon closed, I saw it as the opportunity to finally do it," Harris says. "I'm looking to carry on both the traditions and feel of Beemon, which had been open since the 1950s and provided a personable, hometown experience. It was the kind of place where I knew all my patients personally, and they all knew me, and I definitely want to create that same kind of service."

District Drugs & Mercantile will be located inside the BankPlus Building near Cultivation Food Hall in The District. The pharmacy will offer curbside pickup for medications, immunizations, a retail shop and medication therapy management services, which is a service where pharmacists help people better understand their health conditions and the medicines required to manage them, Harris says. District Drugs will also have an app that will let patients refill prescriptions and communicate directly with Harris for questions about different medicines.

For more information, call 601-953-3368.

The Mighty Crab Opens in Jackson

The Mighty Crab (6380 Ridgewood Court Drive), a Cajun-style seafood restaurant in Jackson, had its soft opening on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

Mighty Crab’s menu includes appetizers such as hushpuppies, calamari, steamed oysters and chicken wings, as well as sides like corn on the cob, Cajun fries, steamed rice, sausage, boiled eggs and more.

Customers can also order baskets of fried shrimp, tilapia, catfish, oyster and calamari, or boiled seafood such as shrimp, clams, and green or black mussels. All seafood items come with seasoning options including Cajun, garlic butter, lemon pepper or “juicy special,” which is a combination of all three, and variable levels of spiciness.

The restaurant also offers make-your-own seafood combos that include any two of blue crab, shrimp, snow crab or king crab legs, crawfish, lobster tails, clams, dungeness crab and more, with a side of corn and potatoes.

Mighty Crab also has daily specials featuring half a pound each of several items per day. Monday’s special is one half pound of black mussel, shrimp and snow crab; Tuesday’s is crawfish, shrimp and snow crab; Wednesday and Thursday is shrimp and snow crab; and Friday through Sunday is lobster tail, shrimp and snow crab.

The restaurant is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. For more information, call 601-991-3828, visit mightycrabjackson.com or find the restaurant on Facebook.