The Big Apple Inn

In May, April Patton, a former local educator, joined into the family business when she opened a brightly painted take-out shop in the Westview neighborhood near Cascade Heights. Like the original Big Apple Inn—a legendary restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi, that her grandfather ran for years—the house specialties are known by nicknames: “ears” (pig ears simmered to tenderness in a pressure cooker; thinly sliced; sandwiched into a small brown roll with hot sauce, slaw, and yellow mustard; and then heated on a flat grill) and “smokes” (a variation made with crumbled hot smoked sausage). Patton also fashions large, moist tamales, but it’s the sandwiches we find ourselves most craving.