In the Fall of 2018 Greenville native and writer, Julia Reed, called me from New Orleans. She had run into the producers of the hit Netflix food and travel show “Somebody Feed Phil”. They were interested in shooting an episode in the Delta and she was helping them location scout. In 2019 they did come and film at numerous locations around the Delta, ultimately ending up at Doe’s Eat Place. Joining host Phil Rosenthal at the table for the show were three of our Greenville legends, all gone now; Hank Burdine, Julia Reed and Florence Signa.
Many magical things have happened at Doe’s since it opened in 1941: Business deals, marriage proposals, reunions, toasts to love and prosperity and friendship. That night Phil Rosenthal broke bread on camera with three of the greatest believers in the Delta, and because of it, something unexpected and magical would happen years later.
In October of 2020, the Delta episode of “Somebody Feed Phil” premiered on Netflix to a worldwide audience.
In January of 2023 I got a call from a vice president of Viking River Cruises in Basal, Switzerland. He told me they had decided to make Greenville a stop for their ship, Viking Mississippi. They of course wanted help in setting up tours of the area, but they also needed something a little more unusual: a Mississippi Delta Party for their 386 passengers. And to make things even more challenging, they would start docking in Greenville less than a month after that phone call.
But there was more. This was not a one-off party.
After the first event, two days later the ship would return with a different set of passengers ready for another event. And then every other Friday and Sunday for six months. What they wanted was the best presentation of our home for their passengers: our food, drink, historical presentations, live music, art and culture. In all there would be twenty-four events total over the next 6 months.
“I know this is incredibly short notice, but do you think Greenville can pull this off?”
To throw a big party requires big party throwers. It requires people you can count on when the fun and excitement wear off to come through. It requires people who will dedicate themselves to the grind of the twentieth event with the same enthusiasm they did with the first event. As Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
My first call was to Steve Azar. Our next two calls were to Hank Burdine and Chef David Crews. They were in, and we built a team from there.
The event we pitched was a five-course meal of the foods the Delta is known for, enjoyed as the passengers were entertained by live blues, a humorous crash course on Delta history, and then a concert performed by Mississippi’s Music and Culture Ambassador, Steve Azar. The team at Viking bought into our vision and that first show ended with a standing ovation from the passengers.
Two months later we found out Greenville was being consistently ranked by the passengers as Viking’s number one stop on the Mississippi River. By November of 2023 the Viking team told us Greenville was the highest passenger ranked stop of any of their river tours on planet earth, and they were ready to enter a multi-year contract.
We are now into year four of producing events for Viking and are awaiting the announcement of a second Viking ship for cruises on the Lower Mississippi. On days the ship arrives in our port, roughly sixty people locally pick-up part-time work. When multiple ships are coming many of these part-time jobs will become full time.
At some point in that first year, I asked one of the Viking executives what had made them choose Greenville to host this “deep dive” into Mississippi Delta culture. His answer was the people and the stories.
His window into our people and stories was that October 2020 episode of “Somebody Feed Phil”. From that on camera conversation between Phil, Hank, Julia and Florence, a new industry is growing in Greenville and the Mississippi Delta with a significant economic impact.
Wesley Smith is the Executive Director of the Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.