Kate Kimberlin / The Daily Mississippian
Oxford has joined the ranks of cities such as Atlanta, Austin, Nashville, Chicago and Los Angeles as worthy of a Wildsam Field Guide, a small paperback insider-y guidebook that takes readers through all of the best that Oxford has to offer, whether it be food, shops or even people.
While several restaurants were highlighted in the guide, City Grocery received its own special feature as the “go-to gathering spot for writers, musicians and their similarly minded ilk since its opening in 1992.”
“We have been around as long if not longer than any other restaurant in Oxford,” City Grocery’s general manager Jennifer Nelson said. “It speaks to what we have been able to do with longevity.”
Oxford wasn’t always recognized on a national level, but in recent years, it’s become a darling, being featured in ESPN Game Day and the New Yorker, which featured Square Books. As the city and the University of Mississippi continue to change and gain popularity, businesses such as City Grocery have been challenged to adjust as well.
“We have grown with Oxford and become that established place to come to in Oxford. There are no gimmicks, just great food and great service,” Nelson said.
This guide not only focuses on some of the most popular places in Oxford
but also spotlights some of its overlooked aspects. Erin Austen Abbott, a contributing writer for the guide, said the director of the local farmer’s market thanked her for featuring them.
“She was like, ‘I am so touched that you acknowledged us because we don’t get that kind of recognition often,’” Abbott said.
Abbott helped Wildsam decide which places and people to feature and get the local perspective of Oxford. She lived in Oxford as a child and has been living in Oxford for the past 18 years after moving back in 2005.
“I was hired by Wildsam to be kind of the eyes in the field,” Abbott said.
Local residents and university students know and love Oxford, but how did it get on the radar of Wildsam? According to Abbott, the author Hannah Hayes and the Wildsam founder Taylor Bruce both share a love for Oxford, and Oxford was their immediate choice to launch their new Tiny Town Series.
“They could probably do a second book with all the information I provided because this tiny little place has so much to offer,” Abbott said.
While this guide is a celebration of Oxford and the good that lives here, it also has aspects that give a more honest and deeper look at this town. Southern Studies professor W. Ralph Eubanks wrote an essay titled “A Place Like Home,” which deals with the complexities of returning back to Oxford.
“I am someone who has got my feet in both places,” Eubanks said. By being here I get to have some connection with the person I once was. I go back to DC and I am the person I have become.”
Eubanks’ perspective from being a student at the University of Mississippi in the ‘70s to being a visiting professor at the university has given him a full view of how Oxford has changed.
“When I came here in 1974, if you had told me there was going to be a guide to Oxford, Miss., I would have said ‘You got to be kidding.’ It shows the amount of cultural growth that has taken place in Oxford,” he said.
His essay mentions some of the racial tension that occurred near the time he arrived as a student at the university, yet he feels as though he was destined to come back.
“Oxford’s a very complicated place to be as a person of color. It always has been, and it probably always will be,” he said. “There was nowhere that I felt that I shouldn’t be. I didn’t want anyone to tell me where I didn’t belong.”
Although Oxford is known by many, some people may be introduced to Oxford for the first time through this book.
“Now people see Oxford. I think that’s what this book is about,” Eubanks said. “It’s coming into our own as a place, and not just as the setting of Faulkner.”
