February 20, 2026 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Clarksdale, Mississippi is known for blues music and Delta history. It is also home to one of the most beloved barbecue restaurants in the state. Abe’s BBQ has been serving smoked meat for generations, drawing locals and travelers who come looking for Mississippi barbecue done right. Our American Stories regular contributor, Jesse Edwards, shares the story of how a small Delta joint became part of Mississippi lore.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue here on our American stories. We're a
bit spoiled in this country when it comes to food,
especially barbecue.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Here's Jesse Abes Barbecue and Clarksdale, Mississippi. He's one of
those places that instantly takes you back to a time
and place that stays original in some of the best
ways possible. Pulled pork to Molly's Cried Chicken, an unforgettable,
(00:38):
subtle barbecue sauce. It all started here in nineteen twenty four,
founded by Abraham Davis.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I was hoping you'd have a question. That's what I'll
try to feel that I'm not as good as my dad.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Or this is Pat Davis, Abraham's grandson and the current
owner of Abes Barbecue.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And my grandfather was in immigrant from Lebanon, came over
around nineteen hundred. He was uh fourteen years old, and
he came with his two younger siblings. That was it
in the bottom of a freighter, I guess, or with
the cows and the goats, and in the bottom he
would go upstairs and get food, break down to his
younger brother sister. Then he's somehow got to North Mississippi.
(01:24):
I know, I don't know how that happened. As he
got a little bit older, he started peddling to the
uh farm workers on horsebike. He'd take 'em linen and socks, dresses,
just different things with that. I'll I've heard this from
my grandmother and my father. In nineteen twenty four he
(01:44):
started what name's barbecue was Delta Inn. But it was
actually just a a barbecue shack of one room deal
on Fourth Street and Florida. That was the intersection sometimes
in them, I guess it was in the forties. That
was the main drag that he was on. They moved
(02:05):
it to where we are now. The main drag came
so like a bypass, so he moved from the Fourth
Street location to this location here, and they built this building.
This is the second building on this lot. It was
built in nineteen fifty nine, so we've been in this
building since nineteen fifty nine, on this lot since the
(02:25):
mid forties, and what I've heard.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Located at the intersection of Highways forty nine and sixty one,
this is one of several places in the state of
Mississippi believed by many to be Robert Johnson's legendary crossroads,
which brings in tourists by the bus load.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
People from all over the world. I mean, it is
amazing to see the folks that do come through.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Clarksdale isn't just a tourist attraction. It's a real place,
and so is Abess Barbecue. Pat Davis was raised in
this restaurant. When his dad was in charge.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean, he would leave me here with two guys
by I guess it would have been in the early seventies.
I was eleven twelve years old and we doll they'd run.
They took care of me like you know uncles, and
we'd run the place by ourselves. This was in the
afternoon when dad would go home take a break. He
would work in the morning and come back in the evening.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It's not uncommon to see a customer loading up on
a case of Abess Barbecue sauce. They sell it at
the counter and you can buy it online at Abes
Barbecue dot com. It makes for some of the best
pulled pork sandwiches you've ever had.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We cooked with pecan wood. Try to use pecan all
the time, you know, like a hickory tree, and it's
hard to get hickory here. We do have a lot
of pecans. We have kind of orchards, so it's easier
to get pecan wood. And I think that the difference.
I mean, you could cook barbecue your house over a smoke,
or I can cook it in a miles over smoke,
or that's basically the same, you know, but the barber
(04:00):
sauces where it's different. I think our sauces on a
tangy side. It's not sweet. I mean, people just tend
to gravitate towards it. They like it well most most doing.
I have people that don't like. Had a guy come
in a couple of months ago from Memphis and he's
never been through here, ate it. So I didn't like it,
didn't like it at all. So I didn't even I
(04:21):
just didn't charge him. So he left promised. He came
back with them like ten days he said. Man, I
don't know what it is. It hit me, he said.
A couple of days ago. I got to get one
more of those things, he said. He came back and
paid for the one he ate. I didn't charge him
for too. It's yeah, it was. It was a pretty
cute story.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Abes also has some incredible tamales. It's a stable here
in Mississippi from generations of Mexican labor.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
They made him and sold them in a little pushbuggies.
That he did tell me that down down the city streets.
And I guess maybe when they went home during the
off season, people missed them. So my grandfather apparently learned
how to make it from someone and he makes We
make them now, well we don't actually make them now.
We have someone make them for us and we cook
them here. We get them here, but we have made
(05:05):
them back in the mid seventies to in about the
middle eighties. But it was a job. And then the
guy that was making them back here with us couldn't
make them anymore. So we just found someone in make them.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Force Mississippi being the clash of cultures that it sometimes is,
the founder of Abes did the right thing.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
A group of young black students were sent but we're
coming to restaurants, and they came to Abes and grandfather
let them in. Most other restaurants did not let him in.
And I think the other Lebanese family at rest Haven
let them in their restaurant. And Dad said there were
the only two restaurants in town that they weren't in
(05:48):
a lawsuit. I think we get along really well in
this town. You know, people may say, you know, it's
a lot of racism. I mean, I'm sure you have
your pockets of trouble, but over all Claustelle has a
really good hearted community, all of them.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I've moved off before, but it's not home. I mean,
as you come back, it's still I can go to Walmart, man.
I I just love to see people. Hey, hey, hey, hey,
you know everybody you know you you know them, or
you know somebody in the family. Winter time it is
it's good because a lot of hunters coming in and
uh family families coming back for Thanksgiving with their families,
(06:27):
you know, to be with their parents or grandparents. So
the holidays are good. Hunting seasons good. We have downtime
when the farmers start getting in the field here in
another week or well, they would like to be there
another week or two. We have a rain for another
week or two. But when the farmers start planning, we
slow down because they're can to cant and then it's slow.
(06:48):
It gets better for us in the summertime because they're
sort of laid back on the farmer depart Then when
they start harvesting, we get slow again, back to that
regular cycle. Hunting season starts back up, the holidays start
paddling on, so we pick back up again. Yeah, business
has been good. I think tourism has been a boom
for this place. If it wasn't for tourism, I think
(07:09):
it'd be a lot different, That's what I'm saying. I mean,
you know, when it first started twenty years ago, I said,
why would people want to come here? You know, But
they started and they haven't stopped, and it's gotten more
and more every year. We have a well we've had
it for lesson seemed like twenty years, a juke joint
festival in April, and they send a group four or
(07:31):
five bands that play at different intervals outside and we
have people outside. Well, a couple of years ago it
was raining. The first group went outside, started raining. They
had to move inside with a room that they came
to was only they had to put their band in.
Was probably fourteen by twenty four and it was in
(07:52):
at the end of the restaurant. Well, they still had
to for some reason, they couldn't modify their amps. They
had to leave everything like it was outside. It was
the loudest packed house I've ever seen in my life.
I mean people were standing up in this room. Everything
was full, just stand up room only, and the band
was so loud. On't how they could eat the people
that you couldn't get away from the noise because it
(08:15):
was just too small for an area. That was unique
when it happened to us, so we don't have that
much happened like that. We had no other plan. There's
no other way to let him play. So we had
four bands playing in here, a full throttle in a
small room.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Visit Abes Barbecue and Clarksdale, Mississippi at the crossroads of
US forty nine and sixty one for our American stories.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I'm Jesse Edwards and great job as always, Jesse, and
you were listening to Pat Davis and he's the grandson
of Abraham who started Abbes Barbecue and it's an institution
in north of Mississippi. Everyone thinks it's the best wealth
actually I do, and everybody argues about what the best
(09:02):
barbecue is, and well in this one. We don't do
a lot of opinions on this show, but I'm right.
And because it's Lebanese, probably I have a little bit
of bias and by the way Lebanese people found their
way up and down the Mississippi River, so too did Jews.
And that was to trade, to paddle, to make a buck,
and to call this great new place America their homes.
(09:23):
Abes Barbecue the story of a family business, a multi
generational family business. This is our American story.
And we continue here on our American stories. We're a
bit spoiled in this country when it comes to food,
especially barbecue.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Here's Jesse Abes Barbecue and Clarksdale, Mississippi. He's one of
those places that instantly takes you back to a time
and place that stays original in some of the best
ways possible. Pulled pork to Molly's Cried Chicken, an unforgettable,
(00:38):
subtle barbecue sauce. It all started here in nineteen twenty four,
founded by Abraham Davis.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I was hoping you'd have a question. That's what I'll
try to feel that I'm not as good as my dad.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Or this is Pat Davis, Abraham's grandson and the current
owner of Abes Barbecue.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And my grandfather was in immigrant from Lebanon, came over
around nineteen hundred. He was uh fourteen years old, and
he came with his two younger siblings. That was it
in the bottom of a freighter, I guess, or with
the cows and the goats, and in the bottom he
would go upstairs and get food, break down to his
younger brother sister. Then he's somehow got to North Mississippi.
(01:24):
I know, I don't know how that happened. As he
got a little bit older, he started peddling to the
uh farm workers on horsebike. He'd take 'em linen and socks, dresses,
just different things with that. I'll I've heard this from
my grandmother and my father. In nineteen twenty four he
(01:44):
started what name's barbecue was Delta Inn. But it was
actually just a a barbecue shack of one room deal
on Fourth Street and Florida. That was the intersection sometimes
in them, I guess it was in the forties. That
was the main drag that he was on. They moved
(02:05):
it to where we are now. The main drag came
so like a bypass, so he moved from the Fourth
Street location to this location here, and they built this building.
This is the second building on this lot. It was
built in nineteen fifty nine, so we've been in this
building since nineteen fifty nine, on this lot since the
(02:25):
mid forties, and what I've heard.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Located at the intersection of Highways forty nine and sixty one,
this is one of several places in the state of
Mississippi believed by many to be Robert Johnson's legendary crossroads,
which brings in tourists by the bus load.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
People from all over the world. I mean, it is
amazing to see the folks that do come through.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Clarksdale isn't just a tourist attraction. It's a real place,
and so is Abess Barbecue. Pat Davis was raised in
this restaurant. When his dad was in charge.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean, he would leave me here with two guys
by I guess it would have been in the early seventies.
I was eleven twelve years old and we doll they'd run.
They took care of me like you know uncles, and
we'd run the place by ourselves. This was in the
afternoon when dad would go home take a break. He
would work in the morning and come back in the evening.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It's not uncommon to see a customer loading up on
a case of Abess Barbecue sauce. They sell it at
the counter and you can buy it online at Abes
Barbecue dot com. It makes for some of the best
pulled pork sandwiches you've ever had.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We cooked with pecan wood. Try to use pecan all
the time, you know, like a hickory tree, and it's
hard to get hickory here. We do have a lot
of pecans. We have kind of orchards, so it's easier
to get pecan wood. And I think that the difference.
I mean, you could cook barbecue your house over a smoke,
or I can cook it in a miles over smoke,
or that's basically the same, you know, but the barber
(04:00):
sauces where it's different. I think our sauces on a
tangy side. It's not sweet. I mean, people just tend
to gravitate towards it. They like it well most most doing.
I have people that don't like. Had a guy come
in a couple of months ago from Memphis and he's
never been through here, ate it. So I didn't like it,
didn't like it at all. So I didn't even I
(04:21):
just didn't charge him. So he left promised. He came
back with them like ten days he said. Man, I
don't know what it is. It hit me, he said.
A couple of days ago. I got to get one
more of those things, he said. He came back and
paid for the one he ate. I didn't charge him
for too. It's yeah, it was. It was a pretty
cute story.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Abes also has some incredible tamales. It's a stable here
in Mississippi from generations of Mexican labor.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
They made him and sold them in a little pushbuggies.
That he did tell me that down down the city streets.
And I guess maybe when they went home during the
off season, people missed them. So my grandfather apparently learned
how to make it from someone and he makes We
make them now, well we don't actually make them now.
We have someone make them for us and we cook
them here. We get them here, but we have made
(05:05):
them back in the mid seventies to in about the
middle eighties. But it was a job. And then the
guy that was making them back here with us couldn't
make them anymore. So we just found someone in make them.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Force Mississippi being the clash of cultures that it sometimes is,
the founder of Abes did the right thing.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
A group of young black students were sent but we're
coming to restaurants, and they came to Abes and grandfather
let them in. Most other restaurants did not let him in.
And I think the other Lebanese family at rest Haven
let them in their restaurant. And Dad said there were
the only two restaurants in town that they weren't in
(05:48):
a lawsuit. I think we get along really well in
this town. You know, people may say, you know, it's
a lot of racism. I mean, I'm sure you have
your pockets of trouble, but over all Claustelle has a
really good hearted community, all of them.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I've moved off before, but it's not home. I mean,
as you come back, it's still I can go to Walmart, man.
I I just love to see people. Hey, hey, hey, hey,
you know everybody you know you you know them, or
you know somebody in the family. Winter time it is
it's good because a lot of hunters coming in and
uh family families coming back for Thanksgiving with their families,
(06:27):
you know, to be with their parents or grandparents. So
the holidays are good. Hunting seasons good. We have downtime
when the farmers start getting in the field here in
another week or well, they would like to be there
another week or two. We have a rain for another
week or two. But when the farmers start planning, we
slow down because they're can to cant and then it's slow.
(06:48):
It gets better for us in the summertime because they're
sort of laid back on the farmer depart Then when
they start harvesting, we get slow again, back to that
regular cycle. Hunting season starts back up, the holidays start
paddling on, so we pick back up again. Yeah, business
has been good. I think tourism has been a boom
for this place. If it wasn't for tourism, I think
(07:09):
it'd be a lot different, That's what I'm saying. I mean,
you know, when it first started twenty years ago, I said,
why would people want to come here? You know, But
they started and they haven't stopped, and it's gotten more
and more every year. We have a well we've had
it for lesson seemed like twenty years, a juke joint
festival in April, and they send a group four or
(07:31):
five bands that play at different intervals outside and we
have people outside. Well, a couple of years ago it
was raining. The first group went outside, started raining. They
had to move inside with a room that they came
to was only they had to put their band in.
Was probably fourteen by twenty four and it was in
(07:52):
at the end of the restaurant. Well, they still had
to for some reason, they couldn't modify their amps. They
had to leave everything like it was outside. It was
the loudest packed house I've ever seen in my life.
I mean people were standing up in this room. Everything
was full, just stand up room only, and the band
was so loud. On't how they could eat the people
that you couldn't get away from the noise because it
(08:15):
was just too small for an area. That was unique
when it happened to us, so we don't have that
much happened like that. We had no other plan. There's
no other way to let him play. So we had
four bands playing in here, a full throttle in a
small room.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Visit Abes Barbecue and Clarksdale, Mississippi at the crossroads of
US forty nine and sixty one for our American stories.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I'm Jesse Edwards and great job as always, Jesse, and
you were listening to Pat Davis and he's the grandson
of Abraham who started Abbes Barbecue and it's an institution
in north of Mississippi. Everyone thinks it's the best wealth
actually I do, and everybody argues about what the best
(09:02):
barbecue is, and well in this one. We don't do
a lot of opinions on this show, but I'm right.
And because it's Lebanese, probably I have a little bit
of bias and by the way Lebanese people found their
way up and down the Mississippi River, so too did Jews.
And that was to trade, to paddle, to make a buck,
and to call this great new place America their homes.
(09:23):
Abes Barbecue the story of a family business, a multi
generational family business. This is our American story.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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