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DOE'S EAT PLACE
Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans.
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Charles
Signa
Dad used to go over to Lake Village [Arkansas] about two, three times a week, and in the summer time they would grow a big garden…And then daddy would go back over there when the things started [coming in]…and pick big bushels of eggplant and onion, and fresh tomatoes and squash. And he’d bring them back to Greenville and give them to his customers.
– Charles Signa
When Charles Signa was born in 1947, his family still lived in the building that houses Doe’s Eat Place. Mamie and Doe Signa and their three children slept, ate, and entertained friends in what is now the side dining room. Eventually, the restaurant grew popular enough that the Signa family remade their living room into a restaurant dining room, and the business grew. Charles went to college but before graduating, he returned home to his father, to the family restaurant. Doe introduced him to the subtleties of the broiler and taught him the secret to those famous hot tamales. Charles has been in the kitchen ever since. In 2001 Charles opened another Doe’s location in Oxford, Mississippi. There, Charles and his two sons, Charles Jr. and Paul, carried on the Signa reputation for incredible steaks and tamales, until they closed their doors in the fall of 2007. Charles still lives in Oxford, but he returns to Greenville regularly to help his brother, Doe Jr., operate their father’s namesake restaurant in its original location.
• • • Listen to this 3-minute audio clip of Charles Signa sharing memories of his father, Doe Signa. [Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]
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What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
SUBJECT: Charles Signa, owner
DATE: July 20, 2005
LOCATION: Doe’s Eat Place-Oxford, MS
INTERVIEWER: Amy Evans
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Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 and I'm in Oxford, Mississippi at Doe's Eat Place with Charles Signa, and we're here to talk about Doe's Restaurant here in Oxford and also the original Doe’s in Greenville. Mr. Signa, would you mind stating your name and your birth date for the record please?
Charles
Signa: Charles Signa. I was born June the 26, 1947.
All right; and you're the older brother of Doe. And you have another brother and a sister?
Doe, Junior. Well an older brother, Carmel, and we have an older sister, Martha.
I wonder if first you could tell me a little bit about your father and kind of just tell me what kind of person he was and his character and personality, so that we can kind of fit that into what we know and learn about the restaurant?
Yeah; I'll be--I'll be glad to do that. Well he was a--first of all, he was a hard worker. He was--he--Momma died real early in life and so dad kind of had to be the momma and daddy. And so he did a great job on you know just raising the four children and he worked hard. He--we had--he would always make sure we had everything that we needed and you know school wise and--and all that. But he worked all the time; at--at night, he worked seven nights a week. We were open seven nights a week during that--that particular time that we were growing up--all the children were growing up. And--and he just provided for us, just like no other person could do you know and he--he was just a great guy. He took us fishing all the time and just did a lot of things with us and--but he didn't really--he--he went somewhere like sports events and you know stuff--but a lot of it was at night, and he was--you know hey, he had to cook and he couldn’t get to all of them, but he was--he was just a great guy and, you know, he just took care of us.
And it sounds like he was pretty outgoing and interacted with the customers.
Oh, he was; everybody loved him. I mean I didn't know anybody that didn't--didn't like daddy. They always wanted to see him when they--that was kind--they wanted to see him when they came to the restaurant and that's kind of the way it is now; they want to see Doe or--if I'm there, myself, and then now we--the third generation has come along, which is you know our sons, you know and my two sons work here with me. And so--but yeah, it--it--being the family restaurant that it is, you know it--I don't know if anybody could you know cook that wasn't in the family where you know our regular customers wouldn't say like what are they doing here, you know. [Laughs]
And what are your son's names? I know you have a Charles--
Charles, Junior and my--Paul--Paul is my youngest one.
Okay; and does that happen very often where one or all of y'all go to Greenville?
No, not really. Doe is kind of--he's a workaholic. [Laughs] He loves--he loves to--he loves the physical work and he's--you know we've asked him you know several times, you know do you want us to come work for you and this and that, "I'm fine, Charles," you know trying to run the place up here and, "I'm fine," and he loves it. I mean I like to work, but I--I don't like to--the physical work as much as I used to. You know I--I worked of it like it was like this past Saturday and I helped Matt Florence and my son worked for Doe. He cooked. Well Monday I had to go back and I cooked and I--and I told myself and I was going to tell Doe, I says, "How do you do this every night," you know. I mean I did it--we did it--I did it for 30-some years and I just--I did it you know half the time and he did it half the time, you know and I just don't see how --how he does it all the time; so--
Well how--now how long were y'all together over there [in Greenville] before you came up here [to Oxford]?
Probably thirty years at least, you know; he graduated from--I graduated from high school and then went onto college and I never graduated from college so I stopped going to college in '68--1968 and I started working with dad and I've been working ever since. And Doe graduated from college in like '75 or 1976 and he came on, so he's been working from like '75--'76 on to--to right now. So we've been working with each other over thirty years probably.
Yeah;
and when your dad started the restaurant in '41 was it--?
Nineteen--mom and dad started in 1941.
But it was a grocery prior to that, right?
It was my dad's daddy's--my grandfather, my daddy's father that had a grocery store there and then mom and dad start--started it as a restaurant in 1941, and I'm almost sure that it was like in the '20s that they--the grocery store started and it might have been earlier than that and so in 1941 mom and dad took it over, so it was a restaurant.
Do you have any idea what made them decide to do that?
Well yeah; I kind of do. Daddy was working at the Air Base. We had an Air Base in Greenville and that Air Base is where they trained pilots for--well jet--they were jet pilots, they trained like to go fight in the--maybe World War II or whatever it was, and so daddy was working as a civilian in the cafeteria on--on the--at the Air Base and so somebody happened to give him like--for some reason--a tamale recipe, and so daddy and momma doctored the recipe up and they started making tamales with their--daddy's maybe brothers and sisters or sisters and--and then my mother, she had a sister that they would all come and roll and tie the tamales up and they'd—they’d make them by hand and they--they started selling them. And so one day one of daddy's doctor friends said well you're selling these tamales, why don't you get a steak and sell it, you know…Actually I think the doctor friend bought a steak from like the grocery store and--and brought it to daddy and he cooked it for him and--and that's kind of how they started selling steaks. And it was like just a little area--little area where you could probably sat maybe 20 people--25 people and because the other part of the--the--the grocery store was where we lived at one particular time. You know I didn't live there but maybe a month, but I think my brother and sister lived there for a little while longer, like for maybe a year or so--
Is this that the side dining room?
Yeah; that side dining room, right. And so they got to sell the steaks, and they were cooking steaks in this little--it was a little residential oven, those little--that was hooked onto the stove and it probably right now one of my big steaks, it probably would hold maybe one of the big steaks, you know. So for some reason the--they started--they put the spaghetti in like gumbo with--and then with that menu items with--with the steaks and then they started making this salad with this fresh lemon juice so that--that became our house salad.
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[T]here was twelve [children] in [my father’s] family and he--most--I think it was like seven sisters and five brothers or eight and four or something like that, but it was more sisters than there were brothers. And probably seven--six--six of the seven were working in the restaurant at one time or the other. One of them like maybe cooked and one of them were--was cashier and one of them maybe waited on--I don't know if they waited on tables; they might have. And one of them--but at one time or another like most of them worked here except for maybe one--one or two. And then my mother, she had a sister that worked--and a brother that worked there. There was four in her family and one of her sisters, she had--she had two sisters and a--and a brother and one of the sisters and one of the brothers worked there.
Was your father the oldest of those kids?
No, he was like maybe the fourth oldest--the fourth or fifth oldest.
So how do you think it came to him to be more or
less the proprietor of the 
restaurant?
Well he's the only one I--that was probably interested in it, you know because one of his brothers was--worked for the Post Office and one of them worked for the power company and one of them worked for U. S. Gypsum Mill and--and then one of them lived in Vicksburg and he--he worked for just different people in Vicksburg, so nobody other than him that--that worked at the restaurant--I mean fooled with the restaurant, and then the one that worked at the power company, my Aunt Florence's husband who is my daddy's brother, at--at night during oyster season he'd open oysters for us. So--but daddy was the only one that was really available or wanted to do that you know.
Well let me ask you this because somebody suggested to me…that maybe for some reason your father got a tamale recipe to cater to that black clientele[?]
No, no, I don't know if it was prevalent in the black community. It--it was prevalent in the community itself, in the--in the Delta, because what I could understand because I've had oh numerous people ask me well how did tamales you know--how did you get tamales in the Delta, and one of the reasons that I've heard is that back in the '20s, '30s, and '40s and '50s--whatever, when they didn't have cotton pickers they would--they would have manual cotton pickers, they would--when it was time to pick cotton, they would get cheap help from Mexico. And they would come in and during the cotton picking time and pick cotton and I think they introduced tamales while they were here at that particular time for however long it took them to pick cotton whether it be two months or a month and a half, or what, and I think that's how the tamales got in the Delta where when they were here they made tamales and then I guess people in the Delta kind of--you know ate them, and they liked them and they got kind of caught on.
Yeah; and well the tradition has stuck with the African American community so much and there aren't a lot of white folks who still make them, so I mean your name comes up a lot, the--the Signa name, because of your Italian heritage and that you're still making tamales in that area.
Well that was our first--the tamale was our first menu item, so that's kind of what we're--other than the big steaks, you know the porterhouses and the t-bones and the--the tamales you know--everybody gets tamales…Yeah, I'll tell you; we have family owned restaurants, we have the Greenville and here--in Oxford, and then we have seven franchises that are active right now and the seven franchises that are active, together will not sell as many tamales to-go as the Doe’s in Greenville will in one--I mean like in one week as the Doe’s in Greenville will in one week. They'll--they--they--if they come in the seven franchises and to here, too, in Oxford, if they--if they eat tamales they go eat them in-house as a--as an appetizer and then they'll get their main meal. But in Greenville, there's something different about the Greenville deal at Doe’s is they just come in--I mean they only come in and get tamales like give me three dozen tamales and three salads, you know and they go home and--and that's their meal, you know.
Well when you sell a franchise, do you sell the tamale recipe?
No, they don't. [Laughs] Well we have--the only--the franchise that--that we have that makes their own tamales is Hot Springs, but they--but we send them the spices. We--we send them spices and they mix their meal up--the spices that we send is a little special--that's our little special ingredient[.]
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Well, let me ask you about how things have changed for--for Greenville, too, because you know when I was talking to your brother he was talking about your father and even you were talking about him getting corn shucks from a friend and the tamale recipe from the Air Base and then you got his meat from the grocery stores and the cans for taking away tamales--
Yeah; he never--he never cut his meat. He never cut steaks--never. And like probably 20--18, 20 years ago we started--Doe and I started cutting steaks. We just got a ban saw like--like we did--like they do at the grocery store and we started cutting our own steaks.
Yeah; just to save on money or do it the way that you knew you wanted it done?
Same--both, but see Greenville has got--it's a unique--it's just unique because--what were you going to ask me?
No, I was just--I was just wanting to bring up how it seemed like, you know all of his suppliers and people he worked with--your father--were so local and it was a real kind of network of friends who provided different things for this business.
You're absolutely right--absolutely right. The--well Kroger's,
even though it's a national you know company we still got--got Greenville,
you know the Kroger's in Greenville, you know. And--and then Stareka they're
still open, Stareka Grocery, they--it's a family owned store-
-grocery
store but it's like a meat market, too and they cut meat for us sometimes.
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Did your father garden of farm at all?
No, Dad, before he worked at the cafeteria there at the air base, he worked with the Corps of Engineers, and so that’s what he did before that. Now I don’t know what he did before that but that is what him do—did, um-hmm.
Well, I ask you because when I was waiting for you up front I saw him in a picture with a big squash, I guess, but—
Oh, well that, I tell you what happened with that. My daddy used to like to plant things in his back yard, and he’d get what’s called a cucuzzas [or calabash], which is an Italian squash, it’s real long. And he would raise tomatoes, and that was a gourd that you saw like—a big gourd or whatever [in that photograph].
Okay, it was as big as a three-year-old [child].
Yeah, and he’d raise eggplant in this little garden at home, but, daddy had some good friends over at Lake Village [Arkansas, across the Mississippi River from Greenville] that farmed, the Peronis. And he was real good friends with uh-uh, these two Peroni brothers. And the two Peroni brothers who were Italian--were Italian they-they married two sisters—
Okay. [Short laugh]
[A]nd they lived-they’re families lived in the same house out in the country, and one of the brothers--one of the Peroni families lived in half the house and others lived in the other side of the house. They had one of those kinds that went long-ways—and each had about four to five kids. So the two brothers married the two sisters and the four, five kids lived in the same house and they all farmed. Now they’re dead, the older people like daddy, are dead but um, they used to uh, Dad used to go over to Lake Village about two, three times a week, and in the summer time they would grow a big garden. And daddy would bring all the seeds and the plants and they’d grow a big garden. And then daddy would go back over there when the things started-the eggplants and tomatoes and squash and they would get coming up and he would go over and pick big bushels of eggplant and onion, and fresh tomatoes and squash. And he’d bring them back to Greenville and give them to his customers.
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So with your family being so involved, do you see a time when you and your brother might retire?
I want to do it now. [Laughs]
[Laughing]
My brother Doe says he can’t afford to retire, he said you might want to but, yeah, you know, being in the restaurant business, it’s kind of hard to let it go, you know, you know, because you get used to seeing people, talking to people, everybody likes you, you know. Like I was in the coffee shop the other day and this guy came up and said that he was in the restaurant the other day and didn’t see me. Well I was in Greenville, and then this girl came in and said that she was in the restaurant and that “I didn’t see you” you know, and it’s just hard to retire, well not to retire, you know, but just to be away from it.
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Would you [and Doe] ever sell that space [in Greenville] for somebody else to run it?
Well, you see I’ve got to think, say I sell the restaurant in Greenville to you and somebody else, and I got to think are my regular customers going to come because we’re not there anymore, you know?
[W]ould y'all ever consider selling the tamale recipe or have you?
No, no, no, no. Somebody said don't give up the hot tamale recipe whatever you do. [Laughs] Well they know it; the boys know it.
Is there something that comes to mind that I didn't ask you?
No, I'm sure like--you know if--you know you asked me about somebody buying the place in Greenville and I'm sure that--that it could be--somebody if it was the right price, it could be sold, I guess, yeah. But you don't know; hell the sentimental value, I mean you know you don't never know whether you want to sell it even if you could sell it, you know and you know and people, they want--if somebody already had somebody that wanted to buy it they probably would buy it anyhow because it's such an established business and that's what people like. And it's an old building and they like that type of stuff. So I'm not that--so sure whether it will be hard to sell or not. Nobody has really come up to me and I wouldn't know if somebody came up to me what I would you know say--what, give me--I don't know how the rule of thumb is or how you would sell--sell a business like that, you know. It would be worth more than what somebody is willing to pay for it.
Yeah; but I wonder, too, if anybody would interested in just preserving it you know kind of as--?
I know what you're talking about--just like--like the Elvis Presley home or something [Laughs], you know like--
Yeah; because that's a relic of Greenville.
Like Faulkner's home here or something; charge to get in it. [Laughs]
Yeah, there you go. You never know; I mean there is a lot of history packed into that little place.
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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
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