For decades, Mark Gary made his living flying 150 miles an hour at 10 feet off the ground spreading and spraying whatever farmers needed. But in 1990, he added another career – restaurant owner and fry cook. He and his late partner, Joe Evans, opened up Hometown Restaurant in Inverness on Grand Avenue – now Little Milton Avenue. The ag pilot took to the two-feet-on-the-ground industry and helped bring life back to the Delta hamlet.
“A friend of mine wanted to be in the restaurant business so we opened up a restaurant,” Gary explained of the restaurant’s invention. “We just wanted a place to eat and hang out. We didn’t have that in Inverness. It’s a gathering place and something to do for the town.”
Before it became Hometown, the building housed a furniture store and an office and upstairs was rental rooms.
“We built the restaurant and put the kitchen where the office was, then added an outside screened-in porch with a dining room. We can seat 200,” Gary said.
The menu was created based on what other restaurants in the Delta were serving at the time and Hometown hasn’t strayed from that winning combination of deliciousness.
“Steaks, hamburgers, shrimp and stuff like that. We were a copycat of that and we’re still doing it,” he said. “A lot of these places have closed and its generating business for us. There’s no money in it but it’s fun for us. You try to keep the prices down to keep folks coming out.”
Fighting the supply chain and inflation, Gary keeps the doors open and the stove and deep fryer on.
“Originally, Joe Evans did all the steak cooking and I did all the deep fat frying,” he said.
Now Gary shares the kitchen duties with Will Paxton to keep customers happy and they have a staff of seven to eight each day. They’re open six days a week (except Sunday).
“We open at 5 in the afternoon and close around 9. We feed them as long as they’ll eat,” he said. “We’re noted for our steak. We do a pretty good steak.”
Hometown Restaurant does sell beer and has a brown bag license so customers can bring in their own alcohol. And strangely enough, Inverness’ Steed McGee Package Store is right next door for hungry customers who want to add to their Hometown experience.
He notes that labor is hard to find these days and the profit margin is getting more and more thinly sliced but he enjoys the customers – from all over.
“We’ve had a lot of people from other countries. They come to the B.B. King Museum in Indianola and we are on a directory over there and they come over. Most of them can’t speak good English but we figure out how to feed them. It’s been pretty interesting. The people are wonderful. I love all the people who come to Hometown.”
The much-loved hangout does have a reputation. You may enter as a stranger but you leave with plenty of friends and always satisfied.
“It’s been pretty interesting meeting different people. It’s just an ol’ hometown restaurant. Laid back and everybody knows everybody. If you didn’t know ’em, you’ll know ’em when you get ready to leave. We have a friendly atmosphere.”
Gary still flies as a fill-in cropduster at his old job. He came down with a severe case of COVID that helped him make a few changes in his life.
“I got sick with COVID about two years ago and was in pretty bad shape and didn’t know if I was going to make it,” Gary explained. “I figured out I better make arrangements and get something done before it did happen. I sold out last year to my pilot (David Montague.) I kept one airplane and I fly for him. I just help when they get behind. They give me all the wired up stuff. It eliminates the chance of them getting killed so they trying to kill me because I’ve already lived my life (laughing). But other than that, I’m still clicking.”
Even though he enjoys and loves the business, he claims it as his hobby these days and discourages anyone from getting into the industry.
“Spread the word. Don’t get in the business. Save yourself a lot of heartache and money,” he said, laughing. “We’re pretty simple here. No big deal, nothing fancy. Come as you are and we’d love to meet yah.”
