M!SO is open for lunch and dinner Monday - Saturday nights

When Grant Nooe was looking for a career path, he first followed his passion for music. Deciding that a culinary route would be more lucrative, he chose the restaurant business. But don’t let his drive for a career fool you: Chef Nooe’s latest project is all about creativity and community.

Asian-inspired M!SO has opened for dinner on Duling Avenue next to Fischer Galleries in Fondren. In the 2,000 square-foot noodle bar-style restaurant, diners will find counter-casual service, a full bar managed by John Swanson (formerly with The Library) and a six burner wok. Saki tastings are planned and so is Thursday Night Jazz in the Alley, no surprise coming from Nooe, a musician himself.

The team at M!SO will create a variety of dishes that satisfy most every palette. “If you’re with five people, chances are, two won’t want sushi,” the Chef says of his menu’s diversity. No problem there: the restaurant boasts over 1,000 ways to create your own noodles, soups and stir fry. The “build your favorite stir fry wok bar” gives a choice of noodles or soup with fresh veggies finished with one of M!SO’s unique sauces or chef-made broths. Choose vegetable only, tofu, beef, chicken or shrimp. Add to that appetizers like miso soup, edamame, lettuce wraps, spring rolls and firecracker shrimp. On the lighter side, find salads of the peanut ramen, sesame soba and seaweed variety or hibachi salmon or tuna. And yes, sushi: Nooe’s maki rolls come as California, veggie, shrimp tempura, avocado and yellow tail among others.

M!SO’s soba, lo mein and egg noodles will be fresh noodles, perfect for the wok bar. “This is an educated community and many folks here know how to cook,” Nooe says. “I think the wok bar will be well received.” Proteins will be cooked in back to avoid any cross contamination and finished off with sauce over fresh pasta. M!SO will use gluten free soy sauce, local honey and extracted sugar cane. Yes, there’s a sugar cane extractor at the bar that will be used to provide sweetness for everything from cocktails to mother sauces like the restaurant’s sweet and sour.

Many parts of M!SO will evolve, like the patio’s musical offerings and the “quick and fresh” cooler in the front door, perfect for an on-the-go lunch time guest. Nooe says they’ll stock that with noodle salads to make it fast to get in and get out. They’ll even bottle even their own energy drink made from fresh sugar cane, CO2 and other 100% natural ingredients.

There’s another difference you’ll notice at M!SO: at lunch, guests order at the counter from an electronic menu board and take a number, seating themselves. The Chef stresses he wants to help people get in and out as fast as they want to. Nights offer full service where Nooe encourages you to open a bar tab and try a specialty cocktail created by Swanson. M!SO will also cater to the budget-minded diner. He reasons “In this day and time, everyone is watching their pocket book.” Entree prices sit comfortably below $15.

A benchmark of M!SO’s operating procedures, all employees will be tipped – from the servers to dishwashers to cooks. “For the restaurant community, it’s a different approach,” Nooe says. “It’s a small restaurant and a team effort. I want everyone to have a sense of ownership.” He explains he’ll pay more than the industry standard $2.15 per hour wage. “If I come in and treat my employees with respect and give them an opportunity to make a living and provide for their family, they’ll be happier about providing a service. We’re here to give the community a good product with a great attitude. That will come across to our guests.” Nooe adds “If I’m successful, I promise others here will be, too.”

The team at M!SO is asking for the opportunity to become one of your favorite dining spots. “Being small, we can change,” the Chef says. “We can correct things or add things and tweak them quickly.” The longtime restaurateur tells us his boss has always been the community. “That being said, I need the community to give me the chance.” Nooe’s personal mobile phone number will be on the door. “You can call at 3am if there is an issue and I’ll address it.” And he’s open to new ideas. “People may say ‘I was in L.A. last week and I had this’ and I’m like ‘Cool, I’ll research it and try it!’ That’s one thing: I’m not scared, I’ll jump in.”

A Murrah High School graduate whose culinary projects have included Brick Oven Cafe, Pan Asia, Fresh Market Cafe, 400 East Capitol and his ever-popular Grant’s Kitchen, Nooe is reflective as he enters this new venture. “I love what I do, and it’s far beyond making money,” he says. “It’s been a long, hard journey. There were times when employees were paid before I was.” At 51, he says, he probably could been okay staying at (Grant’s Kitchen.) But he misses the creative side. “And what a great community Fondren is to be creative in. This is the epitome of creative.”

See the menu here

Want a lot of “bang for your buck?” Everett Kendrick of Venture Car Wash says he’s knows where a little goes a long way. Kendrick is the general manager of Venture’s sixth location and their first in Jackson. The flagship store popped up in Ridgeland over a decade ago and now also calls Meadowbrook Road home.

Venture Car Wash offers three tiers of service at $5, $10 and $15. All washes include free vacuums. “This is state-of-the-art,” Kendrick says of the brand new machines just installed over the weekend. “We’ve learned over the years some of the ways we’ve needed to improve and, of course, the technology has improved.” He explains that, with 25,000 such operations across the United States, Venture has been rated in the top 50 for the last four years.

Pettey Hardin built his car wash business all around Jackson, but never within the city limits. Kendrick says it was, in essence, the people of Fondren, who convinced them of a need. “Before I was in management, I ran the Ridgeland wash,” he says. “At least three times a week, someone from the Fondren area would come in and they were always wanting us to move closer.” Kendrick says the company eyed the historic district, but with no real estate large enough for their operation, they looked north. “We found this spot where the Hancock Fabric had been and the other stores that were here were leaving anyway.”

Venture Car Wash has already discovered what other businesses are finding out: North Fondren is on the way up. “It’s a hot, active corner,” Kendrick says. “People seem to really support the businesses in this area.” And for good reason: “there’s a different caliber of folks here. We hope we are a different caliber, too.”

With a dedicated and loyal customer base, Venture aims to show that same dedication to the community. “We’re constantly learning,” the 43 year-old Kendrick says. “Mr. P gives us the tools to learn and do our jobs well.” And, Kendrick says, they are paid to pay attention. “We walk through the wash with, at least, every 5^th car. We wash hundreds of cars a day but it’s mandatory that the lot looks like it does now. Not a scrap of paper on the ground, no loud music and no bee-bopping around. We’re not like the stereotypical car wash. We are consummate professionals.”

Venture Car Wash is fully staffed 7 days a week and even the rain won’t stop them. He explains “Unless it’s just storming, we don’t close. Come on in, even if you just want to run a vacuum.” It’s also a good time for a tour. Kendrick invites the curious to stop by. “I’ll personally give you a behind-the-scenes look at what we do,” he says. “This concept – there are others out there – but I like to think we do it better.”

Learn more at VentureCarWash.com.

Hammons

Custom Optical has served the eyeglass needs of Fondren for over 20 years. This week, the shop has branched out to a neighboring community with a second location. Trish Hammons, a certified optician who has owned Custom Optical since 2006, now has Custom Optical Flowood at 5310 Highway 25.

Opened just this week, Hammons had simply responded to an optician closing in Dogwood. “I called, because I wanted to maybe buy their equipment or some of their stock,” she says. “Dr. Kevin Clark was simplifying and wanted someone to take over his dispensary and alleviate stress. I told him I would try. It fell in my lap like Fondren did.”

The Flowood location, alongside Dr. Clark, gives Hammons hope that, with a doctor next door, she will be fed prescriptions all day. Once she has that location up and running, she plans to return full time to Fondren. “My heart is in Fondren,” she says. “I’m not selling Fondren and not leaving Fondren. No one is taking over at the Woodland Hills location. My idea is to put someone here so I return to the original store full time.”

Hammons has been in optical business since 1976 at Royal Optical on Capitol Street downtown. Working in wholesale for the first part of her career, she was in charge of final inspections before product left the door. “When I got in retail, my passion was to diagnose inaccuracies,” she says. “I love problem solving and figuring what works for patients.”

Drilling and custom work will still be completed in Fondren. Hammons says she has more state-of-the-art equipment here. And, there’s a larger selection in Fondren. “If I don’t have the product here, I send them to Fondren,” she says. “As a matter of fact, a guy came in to Flowood this week and I sent him to Susan and he found what he wanted.”

Susan is Susan Johnson who has been with Custom Optical since 1993, working under previous owner Ralph Shows. She runs the store and, Hammons says, keeps things in line. “Customers know Susan, appreciate her and feel confident with her there,” she says. Johnson and Chip Tackett, a lab tech who recently transplanted here from Maryland, will handle Fondren while Hammons rotates between locations.

Tuesdays and Thursdays will likely be Hammons’ days in Fondren after the first six weeks. While she is nervous about having a second spot, she is confident she has made the right decision. “I never dreamed of expanding,” she explains. “But with this, I said ‘I need to try.’ I’ve been praying about it and things are falling in place. It’s a God thing and, maybe, my next step forward. I’m taking it a day at a time.”

Tackett and Johnson

Tackett Joins Custom Optical Family
“He has good rapport, he’s outgoing and knows his optics.” This is how Trish Hammons describes Gulfport native Chip Tackett who has been hired to join the staff of Custom Optical.

A military brat who has lived in all of the 48 continental United States, Tackett says he had been wanting to make the move back home for some time. I was at a point, thinking about the next ten years, and wondered if I wanted to keep with the hustle and bustle of the D.C. Area,” the 34 year-old tells us. “Under the weight and stress of daily life there, I was at a personal turning point and I’d always had in my mind and heart to come back to Mississippi and be closer to family.”

When we asked about his return, he says it’s been wonderful. “Especially in Jackson, the people are special to me,” he says. “They are able to throw down, have fun, cut loose and enjoy each other. There’s a strong sense of community.” He says Jackson personifies Mississippi’s hospitality state moniker. (People here are) friendly as any I’ve met. It’s true coming to visit and even truer living here.”

Tackett chose optics as a trade and says that field has worked out well for him. “Eye wear improves lives and looks,” he explains. “Glasses, more than ever, are a fashion statement for regular people. They create a statement and establish personality through looks. I’m able to help people and to help them create a fashionable persona.”

At Custom Optical, his first duty will be to ensure customer confidence. “That’s the challenge,” he says. “Trish and Susan have brought the service customers have come to expect it.” He recounts his first days. “I’d answer the phone and people were put off hearing my voice. My challenge is to keep Trish’s service going, the quality of the work strong, and to be a good member of the community.”

Hammons is sure of Tackett’s abilities: “He knows how prescriptions are read and how glasses are made. In knowing the end product, you know outcome. That comes with time and talent. I’m confident in Chip and his ability to serve our clients.”

Custom Optical Fondren and Custom Optical Flowood are open 9am-5:30pm, Monday through Friday. Saturdays are by appointment at both locations. Hammons says she sees future potential and a need for opening 10am – 2pm in Fondren on Saturdays.

Rendering: Dale Partners | Story: Belhaven University

Belhaven University officials will break ground Friday, April 26 at 1:30 p.m. to celebrate the addition of a new international center. The Dr. Billy Kim International Center will be an 18,000 square foot facility located in the center of campus and is projected to cost $4 million.

“We currently have two dozen countries represented in our student body, and with this center named for Dr. Billy Kim, we expect that number to grow.  It is important for us to bring the world to Mississippi, so they can learn with us, and for us to learn from them.  Every student’s education is enriched when they build friendships with students from other regions of the world.”

Dr. Kim will be speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, which is at the Entergy Pavilion. He is a broadcaster, pastor and influential speaker as well as an international Christian statesman who has advised former presidents of South Korea. Dr. Kim built an international media network at Far East Broadcasting Company-Korea where he serves as Chairman of the Board and he became the first Asian to serve as the president of the 40 million-member Baptist World Alliance.

Dr. Roger Parrott, President of Belhaven University, said, “In the modern history of the Church, there have been few leaders who have had as much influence as Dr. Billy Kim.  Although not as well known in the United States, the ministry of Dr. Kim in Asia has been of the scope and significance of leaders like Billy Graham, Bill Bright, and Rick Warren. Belhaven is overwhelmed to be the only university in America that will have a building named in honor of the global impact of Dr. Kim.”

The international center will be built to highlight the importance of global perspectives in higher education and to celebrate the relationship the University has with South Korea. This two-story facility will be like a home away from home for international students and a hub of activity for all students.

The lower level’s core function will include diverse study, gathering, and learning spaces. An electronic international display center will connect students to the latest in television news from around the globe. This level will also include a learning center for both the International Studies and English as a Second Language majors. A “double” kitchen will allow students to prepare special meals from their home countries. The upper level will be a dynamic conference facility that can allow variations of theatre style seating for 300.

Hairstylist Denise Hewitt has opened a new business on Mitchell Avenue in Fondren. Pritzy Katz Salon and Kids Conisgnment Shop specializes in like-new clothing for infants to juniors. Prices begin at $2 and shoppers can find brands like Mud Pie and Ralph Lauren. Some of these outfits normally retail for $30, and when we visited, we found pieces priced at $10.

The shop will sort through and keep only resalable items. Items that don’t fit that criteria go to Matt’s House in Midtown, a shelter for women and children. Consigners get 40% of the sale

Hewitt, a veteran hair stylist who once had a salon in Byram, told us about Pritzy Katz…

How did you start?
When my now 13 year old daughter was younger, I thought of bringing her outgrown clothing in to my salon to sell. I brought a piece or two in at a time, then clients who had grandchildren asked me to consign their stuff. Before you know it, I was looking for a place to open a shop.

Do you offer additional services?
Yes! We will host Glam Spa Parties. In this area, we don’t have a place to pamper young children. We’ll have cowgirl parties, princess parties and diva parties beginning in June. Party packages start at $200 for nine guests plus the birthday girl. They’ll get a mini mani, mini pedi, cucumber scrub facial and refreshments and party girl gets a special gift from Pritzy Katz. We’ll also host baby showers and pampering parties for adults too. And, as the name says, we are a salon! I will also do hair for all ages here.

What sets you apart?
I’m the only children’s consignment store in this area. I want to offer quality service. My hope is to come as close to new as I can for people in a certain budget. At back to school time, I’m planning a uniform giveaway. We can fix up a nice bag with maybe a couple of pair of shirts and couple of shirts.

Future Plans?
I’d like to grow, maybe have two or three more locations. I’d like to cater to plus sized children, too. I might offer some sort of dietary programs to help overweight children through a client of mine who helps obese adults get healthy.

Why Fondren?
Fondren has always been a hot, funky area. I’m at the stadium during football season, I shop Orange Peel and two of my favorite restaurants are Que Sera Sera and Sal & Mookie’s. This is a high traffic and historic area that gives people the opportunity to walk door to door to shop.

Pritzy Katz is open Tuesday- Friday, 10am to 6pm and Saturdays 9am-4pm. After hours parties are available but may incur an extra fee. Call 601-366-8400 to learn more.

Take the video tour!

Stephen Michael Davis of Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research measures a coffin.

Published in Centerview at UMMC • By Gary Pettus

Mable Daniels’ great-grandmother was a patient in the State Insane Asylum about a century ago when she was laid to rest on the asylum grounds – before her family knew she had died.

“Things were done different back then,” said Daniels, of Forest.

Apparently so; Daniels wonders if her ancestor’s remains could lie in one of the five dozen wooden coffins uncovered over the past few months beneath the former site of the vanished asylum – the campus of the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

As has happened before at UMMC, a construction crew scraped away a decades-old layer of dirt and desertion near a stand of pine trees to reveal 66 unmarked graves, making it virtually impossible to name the people buried there.

But if Epsie (Seals) Devine is among them, Daniels can be sure the remains of her great-grandmother are being treated with respect.

In spite of an extensive campus road construction project delayed in part by the discovery, UMMC is working with several institutions to document, and then rebury, the people lost to their loved ones.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Jim Woodrick, director of the Historic Preservation Division of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Things expand, but memory doesn’t expand with them.”

Archaeologists help us recover it, he said.

“This doesn’t stop progress, but we are also able to accommodate those who died. We learn things about our past. We honor the dead.”

Already, investigators have made an educated guess about the general identity of the deceased, said Nicholas Herrmann, assistant professor of anthropology at Mississippi State University, whose department is removing the remains for testing at MSU.

“I believe the coffins are tied to the asylum,” he said.

That was probably the suspicion from the moment in November when construction workers struck wood buried in the messy gunk of Yazoo clay.

“That’s when the whole thing started,” said Nicole Reese, senior project manager in the Office of Planning and Design. It started because of a project designed to add a new north-south road and campus intersection with Lakeland Drive to improve traffic flow, providing a beltway that bypasses the campus’ heart and eases future development. The roadway cuts through a wooded area and intersects an existing road running parallel to Lakeland.

The remains were found just off the north side of that existing road.

From November and through early March, as crews dug out subsoil to see if it was fit to support a new road, construction equipment exposed a total of 66 coffins. In size, they are fairly uniform – about six feet long but alarmingly narrow, as if each held a pair of stilts instead of a human skeleton.

Many were at least four or five feet deep in the ground.

“A lot of clay and junk was in the soil,” said Ron Horne, director of construction projects, “and has to be replaced.

“We might have built the roadbed on top of the graves if the subsoil had been solid.”

Read more of Gary’s fascinating piece at UMC.edu.

by Kelsey Marx

Have you noticed the handful of well-established Fondren businesses migrating to the west side of the neighborhood over the past three years?  Orange Peel?  Social Agenda?  Silly Billy’s?  Although the area between State and West streets has been known as a predominantly residential zone, Mitchell Avenue has been assuming a more commercial role in Fondren.

Turning from State Street onto Mitchell, you’ll find Perfect Fit Alterations and Silly Billy’s immediately on the right; followed by the Orange Peel, Shoe Bar at Pieces, and Social Agenda about a block away; and finally Fondren Fashion House and Lipstick Lounge about half-way down to West Street.  But whereas loyal customers and people living in the area may more readily distinguish this transition in locale, do shoppers coming to Fondren for the first time know to look for these places?

“Mitchell Avenue becomes the green mile that people sometimes don’t want to travel,” says Rodale Hall, owner of Silly Billy’s consignment clothing store.  And maybe this is true.  With the absence of signage and window space on State Street, people sometimes neglect to visit the treasure troves of consignment and designer goods that can be found in the stores on Mitchell Avenue.

Despite their relatively low profile in comparison with State’s high traffic, owners on Mitchell are positive about their street and all of its potential.  There seems to be a certain “homey” quality to Mitchell Avenue that the rest of Jackson simply cannot offer.  And while the busyness of other shopping areas means high profits for those retail venues, it can also be a big reason people would rather go somewhere else.

“The last time I went to the mall, I went to four stores and not a single store employee spoke to me in my time there.  That wouldn’t happen in our store, or anywhere on Mitchell.  Everyone is highly personable and makes their customers feel special,” says Shoe Bar at Pieces owner Becki Hicks.

Similarly, fashion consultant of Fondren’s Fashion House, J. Bolin, says, “Mitchell is a destination location.  People come here on purpose because they’re looking for a specific shopping experience not offered to them anywhere else.”  And to this point all of Mitchell Avenue store owners and denizens seem to agree:  each store on Mitchell presents its own set of distinctive inventories—from Lipstick Lounge’s “bring the bling” repertoire (as put by owner Yolanda Minniefield), to Silly Billy’s eclectic arrangements of all things vintage and retro—thus making it one of the most diverse shopping areas in Jackson.

Between the wide array of merchandise and services offered by the seven stores on the street, there is sure to be something for everyone. For this reason, the west Fondren area presents a unique atmosphere that Hall and Social Agenda Salon & Boutique’s owner Heather Mixon like to compare to New Orleans’s Magazine Street.  “I see it as a smaller replica of Magazine,” said Mixon, while working on a client’s nails.  “We have a great potential to really capture that feel of a walking, shopping district where people can go and make a day of it.”

As we were talking, Mixon’s customer, Mary Jane Ridgeway, who attended Duling Hall when it was a school, offered another strong point about Mitchell Avenue:  the neighborhood itself.  “It’s fun to be in the neighborhood again,” said Ridgeway.  “I had friends that lived on these streets and I love to see the area being revived.”

It’s not only the surrounding neighborhood that offers these store owners a sense of community, but also the fellowship shared between the stores themselves.  “I’ve always called us ‘The Stores on Mitchell Avenue’,” says Minniefield.  “We all support one another, especially through referrals.  If I don’t have something, then I’ll send my customer to another store [on Mitchell].  Or if I know someone needs an alteration, I’ll just send them to Perfect Fit [Alterations] up the street.”

And it’s this very “street-mindedness” that makes Mitchell Avenue such a valuable location for new businesses.  As the stores on State Street, Duling Avenue and Fondren Place fill up, Mitchell Avenue is becoming the logical outlet for new or expanding businesses.  It’s quite simply, “the place to be,” as put by Bolin.

Orange Peel owner Kristin Tubb also highlighted this valuable point :  “We all like to see how Fondren is growing,” she says. “That’s what I’ve loved about moving to Mitchell—we’re paving the way for Fondren’s expansion.”

By moving to Mitchell Avenue, small businesses are helping to develop Jackson’s most unique retail scene, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?  “Mitchell Avenue has a bright future,” says Michael Olowo-ake, owner of Perfect Fit Alterations, “and I’m happy to contribute to that.”

Facing east, the former Schimmel's Restaurant is on the left and UMMC is visible in the background.

by Tom Fortner, UMMC Public Affairs

The University of Mississippi Medical Center is undertaking three real estate development projects that will have a positive impact on the Fondren neighborhood.

The projects include a health and wellness center, an upscale housing development, and a hotel with conference center.  The projects have a two to three-year time frame for completion.  “Each of these projects, which represent millions of dollars of investment, will be a true benefit for the Medical Center and the communities that surround it,” said Dr. David Powe, chief administrative officer for UMMC.  “We are delighted to do our part in creating a bright future for Fondren.”

Each of the projects will be financed, constructed, owned and managed by private development groups.  UMMC will lease the land to the owners. The groups were selected by UMMC based on a competitive review process that was conducted in late 2012 and recently concluded.

The health and wellness center will be constructed on UMMC-owned property adjacent to the former Schimmel’s restaurant on North State Street.  The center will be a state-of-the-art facility that incorporates a medical model for fitness and will also include retail space.  The center will be open to UMMC employees and students as well as area residents.

The housing complex will be constructed on Lakeland Drive across from the current Lakeland entrance to the Medical Center.  The development will contain as many as 200 high-quality apartments as well as office and retail space.  The location of the hotel and conference center will be determined by a market study.  Powe said UMMC needs overnight accommodations for many visitors to campus as well as conference center facilities that are superior to those currently on campus.

March 18, 2013 • by Jesse Crow

If you’ve ever walked on the sidewalk in front of the Fondren Corner building, chances are you’ve seen a stocky blue heeler, Zero, standing outside the entrance to Swell-O-Phonic. And, chances are Zero is one of the reasons you decide to enter the store.

Once inside, you’re surrounded by walls full of T-shirts. Some poke fun at various Jackson neighborhoods or instill a sense of nostalgia for parts of Jackson’s past, like the Recovery Room or the Green Derby. You’ll also find multiple stacks of shoes, skateboards and a male and female boutique.

Swell-O-Phonic, Slavebird and Soma are the culmination of fifteen years of work for Jackson native Ron Chaney, better known as Chane. Chane has been a Fondren business owner for 15 years—15 longer than he expected.

Chane’s ventures in Fondren began March 17, 1998, when he opened Studio Chane by Cups on Old Canton Road. He had a screenprinting studio in the back of the building and sold skateboards in the front.

“I thought I would last maybe a year,” said Chane.

With determination, local support and luck, a snowball effect began and Chane hasn’t looked back.

Six months after Studio Chane began, Chane opened Studio Boutique where he sold tshirts, skateboards, skate shoes and some clothing. Six months later, in March 1999, the screenprinting studio moved to a different location in Fondren, allowing Studio Boutique to expand.

In November 1999, Chane opened Soma, a women’s clothing store. He opened Dwello, a furniture and home furnishings store, in May 2000 in a loft apartment in the Fondren Corner building.

“At that point we were in five locations in Fondren at one time,” he said.

Now, Chane’s businesses are all located in the Fondren Corner building. Swell-O-Phonic (skateboards, bikes, skate shoes and T-shirts), Slavebird (men’s clothing) and Soma (women’s clothing) are located in the same space on the first floor. Studio Chane screenprinting is on the basement level.

Throughout 15 years of businesses, the influence of skateboarding and skate culture has tied his businesses together—either in products offered or decor of the stores. Before becoming a businessman, Chane was a skateboarder and BMX racer.

“Skate and BMX were my roots before I ever dreamed of the store. It will always be a part of my life,” he said. “There’s a different attitude for skate and skate clothing.”

Having a skate shop also increases the exclusivity of the products carried.

“To get access to some brands, you have to own a skate shop for at least a year. Because of this we have items you can’t find anywhere else in the state in our store,” said Chane.

Chane’s newest store is Slavebird, a men’s boutique. Most of the brands offered are subdivisions of skateboard lines. Slavebird carries shoe brands like Element Emerald and Clark’s and clothing brands like Vans Off the Wall and Alternative Apparel.

“In Slavebird, there’s some influence from New York City, but mainly I wanted to create a store for someone who shops the way I do, who doesn’t want to spend a whole lot of money,” he said.

Chane is taking Soma, his women’s clothing store, in a new direction.

“We’re thickening up the product and getting more experimental. It has a sophisticated edge, a street edge,” he said. “We’re not trying to be a boutique; they’re too many out there and they’re all the same.”

Chane is also releasing 100 new T-shirt designs this year at Swell-O-Phonic. Four designs came from a collaboration with subSIPPI (an exploratory document about Mississippi), and new youth and Jackson series designs are on the shelves.

Chane’s stores have been in Fondren since the beginning and he and Zero have no intentions of leaving the neighborhood.

“The obvious thing we love about Fondren is the individuality. The Swell concept is to not fit in and to always stand out. We also have what we would think of as roots to a culture Fondren in known for,” he said. ”We wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else. Once you’ve had the best you don’t want anything else.”

During the day, Crow works full-time for Chane, which made her the perfect insider to get the scoop. You can find her most days in the basement level of Fondren Corner at Studio Chane.