Mar-Guy's on Court to offer lunch in downtown Tupelo

TUPELO – Guy and Martha Jenkins are familiar names in the local restaurant and food scene, and they're not through yet.

Soon, the couple plans to open Mar-Guy's on Court, a weekday lunchtime restaurant that will be located in the former Court Street location of Crave, which moved to Main Street.

The restaurant will be open on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event space next door will also be available for meetings and catered events.

The Jenkinses have plenty of restaurant experience. The couple formerly opened Gloster 205, Romie's and Guy's Catering.

Guy Jenkins' has been involved in the restaurant business throughout his life. In a 2008 interview with the Daily Journal, he recalled that his mother started a restaurant in 1944.

"She had a little restaurant called the Leigh Elween Grill," he said. The location was where the Wendy's is on South Gloster Street. "She served mostly hamburgers and plate lunches. It was a big hangout for teenagers. I can remember growing up there. A jukebox downstairs. Curb service."

Jenkins' mother, the late Eloise Jenkins Martin, operated the grill until the early 1950s, when she opened the El Jenkins Motor Court and Country Gardens Restaurant on South Gloster.

"The food was fine dining," Jenkins said. "The Rex Plaza and Country Gardens Restaurant were the only two fine dining restaurants in Tupelo at that time."

Mar-Guy's won't be a fine dining restaurant, but it will have some familiar dishes.

Martha Jenkins said the menu will feature some customer favorites including chicken salad, cheese straws, a petite casserole with petite garden salad, strawberry fields forever entree salad and more. A blue plate also will be offered daily.