TrueSouth episode 14 review: Lake Village, Arkansas
John T. Edge heads to Lake Village, AR, a microcosm of American history, diversity, and strength, with a side of some darn good food.
By: Bossman Slim
For episode 14, TrueSouth heads to Lake Village, Arkansas, population 2,575. Welcome to the tapestry of our country in one small southern town on an oxbow lake, Lake Chicot, formed by the Mississippi River.
As I watched this episode, it was fascinating to think about Lake Village as an allegory for America. At first glance, it’s a dried-up old cotton town whose better days are long behind it. But looking deeper, you see a complex picture of the history of America - and the south - as well as the issues that face our country in the present day. The challenges, the diversity, local economies rising and falling, and a redneck Asian-American man named “Cowboy” Santa Lee who makes the best dang steaks within 50 miles…at a pizza restaurant. A hollowed-out town as the local cash crop economy dried up. Hardscrabble immigrants who made a path in an unknown place and achieved hard-earned success in the land of opportunity.
Out of many, one.
Part of that fabric is a man who goes by one of the best names we’ve ever heard, a walking contradiction, “Cowboy” Santa Lee. At first glance, you might expect an accent, but not the accent that comes out of ol’ Cowboy. He’s an Asian-American middle-aged man, yet he sounds just like any southern redneck, someone you would call when you get off work to share a sixer and try and get on a few fish in the back pond.
Cowboy Santa Lee’s Fox’s Pizza Den location. You’ll find the full menu of pizza and calzones here…but there’s also a hidden gem: Cowboy’s Steaks (Photo via Yelp)
Cowboy is the owner of Fox’s Pizza Den, a chain restaurant with a location in Lake Village. This isn’t just any Fox’s though, this one has Cowboy’s secret sauce. A 21-day aged prime ribeye with salt and pepper seasoning and a garlic butter sauce. Come to papa. Don’t forget the potatoes though, those fingerlings are there to sop up all the good juice and add the perfect compliment to your thick cut.
Just like the mighty, winding Mississippi, this episode goes from food to discussion of the makeup of Lake Village. Cowboy comes from a family of Chinese immigrants who settled around the area, looking for work and often finding it in the cotton fields, replacing former slaves in the Jim Crow South. The former mayor of Lake Village, Joe Dan Yee, comes from a similar background. Both Cowboy and Joe Dan’s families owned Chinese groceries that sustained the community and provided service to mostly black folks and provided a living for them and their families. Joe Dan recounts how his father told him about the hardships he endured to provide a good life for him and his siblings, all of whom went to college. That’s the American Dream, still alive and well in people like Cowboy and Joe Dan. But that American Dream also has an inverse effect in modern America: it accelerates the decline of these towns as the next generation moves out to San Francisco or New York with the promise of opportunity. Even with the decline, there will still be people like Joe Dan, who wants to use the shell of his family's old grocery store to create a new community center for the local kids. Ain’t that somethin’?
Like Lake Village, the mighty Mississippi is ever-changing, and in many ways their evolutions go hand-in-hand. Once bustling with commerce, both have slowed from their economic peaks. The river looks different than it did 40 years ago, 100 years ago, or even 1,000 years ago. You won’t find Mark Twain’s Mississippi anymore, according to author and journalist Boyce Upholt, because it’s a new river, and you won’t find your grandfather’s Lake Village anymore either. She isn’t the same.
Next, the episode weaves back to a place where you better be on your toes when you walk in thanks to the matriarch holding court at the place she started: Rhoda’s Famous Hot Tamales, Pies, and Soul Food. Rhoda Adams is elderly now, but she still wants to know why you wore that silly shirt and if you’re talking about her over there. Cause if you are she’s got something to tell you. Her good-natured ribbing of customers only adds to the charm of her restaurant, now run by her daughter Dorothy Mitchell. Often, Dorothy can only shake her head and chuckle at what’s coming out of her mother’s mouth. What comes out of the kitchen, though, is what has people coming from around the country. Pecan pies that look like a slice of heaven, ham and eggs you could savor for an hour or two in one of the booths or the famous tamales that Food Network describes as “a soul-food-meets-Italian-family tradition” - a cross-over we all need to try.
Rhoda Adams has been serving up hot tamales, soul food, burgers, pies, and much more for over 60 years (Photo via Arkansas Tourism)
As the episode draws to a close, John T. says: “We spend a lot of time in towns like this one and then we have to leave, because the next story calls. Because the Lake Village story echoes across the south we call home.” That’s true, and this is a show about the South so that makes sense. But it’s much bigger than just the South - this is a story of towns across America.
When I think about the macro issues our country faces today, I think repair and healing starts in towns like Lake Village, Arkansas. Small-town American values, knit together by families who have been there for centuries and families who have been here for two generations. Neighbors who love our country, the values it stands for, their families, and who want to better their communities, who pour their heart and soul into a place, no matter how small.
The heart of America is in places like Lake Village. Those at the top would do well to pay attention to the many towns like it across our country - they could learn a lot from people like Cowboy Lee, Joe Dan Yee, Rhoda Adams, and Dorothy Mitchell.
TrueSouth episodes premiere on SEC Network. New episodes for season six will begin airing this fall.