By Adam Scott Williams
Photograph by Katherine Bish
There’s a new stop to make along Cherokee Street’s Antique Row: the Mississippi Mud House, the renovated incarnation of what was once the Odd Shop, a purveyor of all things old and unexpected. Now it’s the place to meet when perusing the remaining odd shops on the row.
Barista Monty Crowder brokered the franchise deal between Christopher Ruess, who owns Mississippi Mud Coffee Roasting, and the coffeehouse’s owners, Mike and Cyndee Saunchegraw. Now they’re finding their clientele: antiquers, neighbors walking the dog, businessfolks looking for Wi-Fi and a soup-and-sandwich combo ($6.50). Crowder says the coffee biz is about relationships: “The people coming in here own this space.”
And the word from these transient owners? Comfortable. “They actually leave things here because they think they’re at home,” says Keith Saunchegraw, kitchen manager and the owners’ son. He leans against the fireplace in the late-19th-century building. Notes of jazz waft between the two rooms, curling through the brick archway. Ambience has been restored.
2101 Cherokee, 314-776-6599, 6 a.m.–6 p.m. Mon-Fri, 7 a.m.–6 p.m. Sat, 8 a.m.–6 p.m. Sun.
