72
miles to Clarksdale
Morgan Freeman and Bill Luckett bring fine dining and juke-joint
blues to the heart of the Delta.
BY tim sampson
memphis magazine - june 2001
I have to admit something rather sily.
I'm one of those people who likes to spot and meet celebrities.
Not because I'm starstruck or in awe of them or anything like
that (Elizabeth Taylor excluded, of course). There's just
something strange about seeing someone in person whom I've
seen for years on the screen; it makes me want to know the
person behind the persona. And I must say I haven't had much
luck.
The last "star" encounter
was at a party at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. The crowd
was shoulder-to-shoulder and someone bumped into me and spilled
my drink. When I realized that it was Geraldo Rivera, I decided
to get out of the place as fast as possible and go take a
shower.
So years ago, when editor of this prestigious
magazine, I assigned someone to write a profile of Morgan
Freeman, a native Memphian and one of my favorite actors,
and I felt sure that I would meet him. I wanted to sit down
and chat with him because I knew from other people that he
was a very down-to-earth, lovable guy who would rather talk
about his horses than pontificate about being a "movie
star." Well, it never happened.
More recently, when beginning this
story, I was sure again that we would meet. Never happened.
But I feel certain it will, because Freeman and Clarksdale,
Mississippi, attorney Bill Luckett (who also practices in
Memphis) have opened a restaurant in Clarksdale -- Madidi,
named after a Bolivian nature park -- that fits perfectly
into the world of colors and textures and characters that
make this gem of the Delta. And I feel sure I'll be going
back.
Although the meeting never took place,
I am, however on the telephone with Morgan Freeman and Bill
Luckett, and even thought it's a little past noon, Freeman
sounds a bit sleepy. It seems he had quite a late and exciting
night the evening before. He was honored by the Mississippi
legislature, which passed a resolution commending his wide
body of work, not just in film but in his local philanthropic
efforts since moving back to Mississippi in the early 1990s.
In his typically modest way of talking about himself, Freeman
says, "Oh, yes, was exciting, a very exciting day."
Luckett steps in and explains it a little further: "Morgan
got the longest standing ovation ever offered anyone in the
Mississippi House of Representatives, and it was 100 percent
attendance. Everyone was in this very elegant place and Morgan
was presented with a resolution honoring him and citing his
many accomplishments and basically thanking him for making
Mississippi his home. The whole house stoop up at least three
or four times in what was really about a 10-minute presentation,
and they clapped for eight minutes after that. It was a tribute
of the highest proportions."
And while Morgan Freeman is indeed a man of many accomplishments,
Madidi should be considered right up there with the rest of
them. While Clarksdale has long been an international tourist
destination for blues aficionados (it's the coolest thing
to the "real" home of the blues, touting the Crossroads,
where legend has it bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul
to the devil to become a great musician), others around the
world are talking about Madidi. The restaurant and other area
attractions were featured in the March 26, 2001, issue of
New York magazineas one of the best 52 weekend getaways in
America. Food & Wine magazine gave it a thumbs-up in its
February 2001 issue. Many daily newspapers have given it high
praise. Ande there's more national press on the way.
Housed in a turn-of-the-century red brick building downtown-a
former bank Luckett remodeled-Madidi's exterior is nice but
understated, with a small sign and tiny gaslights at the doorway.
Once inside, however, you're in a world unto itself-a world
where the food and atmosphere are just about perfect, but,
as important, a world where love seems to flow even more so
than the wine.
Luckett met Freeman back in the mid-1990s, while doing some
legal work for him and his wife Myrna when they were building
a house on Freeman's nearby family farm. Freeman, Myrna, Bill,
and Bill's wife Francine became friends and began going out
to dinner, both in the area and in Memphis, but the fine-dining
choices were limited close to home. Luckett had been toying
with the idea of opening a restaurant, and during one of Morgan's
short respites from his breathlessly busy acting career, the
two began talking about a restaurant partnership. They began
talking in the spring of 2000, and in November, Madidi
became a reality. And an instant hit. And no wonder.
It's obvious that the attention to detail at Madidi is one
of its secrets. From the carefully chosen collection of regional
and national artwork that hangs on the exposed brick walls
in the main dining room, to the long mahogany and black granite
bar, to the white linen tablecloths, fresh flowers, even the
terra-cotta glazed "bowl" perched on a black granite
counter that serves as the sink in the restroom, every nook
and cranny of the place is executed with an eye for perfection-due
in no small way to Myrna, film set and costume designer who
helped with the interior design.
But atmosphere is not the only thing going for madidi. The
service is impeccable. Call it Southern hospitality, good
manners, or just good business sense, but the staff at Madidi
is a special group of people.
Not the least of which is chef David
Krog. I could have written this entire article, or, say a
book, about Krog, one of the nicest, funniest people I've
ever had the pleasure to meet. Krog is goateed, tattooed,
pierced, sometimes hyper, and generally looking a bit untraditional
for a setting like this. But don't let any of that fool you.
He is such a fine chef that Freeman says,"One of my hopes
is to get David out to California and introduce him as a chef
to a couple of people I know out there so he can get some
idea of how good he is. I don't think he really knows it yet."
Krog is a graduate of the Memphis Culinary
Academy, and had worked his kitchen magic at a couple of Memphis'
finer dining establishments before being lured to Madidi by
Luckett and Freeman. And he knows how to run a kitchen. It's
fairly amazing to see him serve the amount of food he does,
and food of the highest quality, basically with the help of
two people: his sous chef David McNeal and salad and pastry
chef Anden Hamilton.
I promised my editor this wouldn't be a food review, as that
is already a monthly feature in these pages, but I must say
that Krog's French technique cuisine is remarkable, both in
taste and presentation. Just to give you a quick idea, at
one dinner, we started with pan-seared sea scallops with basil-habanero
cream sauce (sweet, sweet scallops; subtly spicy sauce) and
seared black pepper-encrusted yellow fin tuna with leek-smashed
potatoes and cognac cream sauce (all perfect, the tuna like
luscious red velvet). The oven-roasted hybrid bass with caramelized
shallot risotto, creamy black-bean puree, and chive oil was
not available that night, and was substituted with a special
of spice-encrusted grouper on a bed of saffron rice with black-bean
salsa and tomato relish. I was leery of the grouper, because
I've never had it not cooked to death. Silly me. Krog's was
white, sweet, flaky, the best I've ever had. The peppered
veal chop with grilled succotash and black-currant vermouth
demi-glace wasn't too shabby either. Let's just say the food
is worth the hour-and-ten-minute drive through the Delta.
And speaking of flavors of the Delta, as if owning a large,
chic restaurant isn't enough for a busy attorney and an even
busier actor (on his to Poland after our phone conversation
to promote a movie from his new film company, Revelations
entertainment), the pair have added another hot spot to the
town known as "ground zero" to blues enthusiasts.
It's a juke joint just down the street in the area known as
"Blues Alley," next door to the Delta Blues Museum.
Luckett and Freeman, both music fans, have gone to great lengths
to make the place as authentic as possible, down to having
scraps of plywood scattered over orginal hardwood flooring
underneath old tables and chairs in the center of the room.
There are holes in the ceiling, beatup tin light fixtures,
and a long plywood whitewashed bar, which, as their preliminary
advertising says, serves beer, whiskey, and wine.There are
pool tables, shuffleboard, and live music on weekends complete
with a colorful bandstand and a state-of-the-art sound system.
The club's name is appropriately, Ground Zero.
WHY, MANY PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME, would Morgan Freeman move
to Mississippi? it's pretty simple. He loves it. Having lived
most recently on a boat in the Caribbean and prior to that
in an apartment in New York City, he explains,"I was
raised here in the 1940s and '50s, and I left with the intention
of going away as far as I could get and never coming back.
But as I was out traveling around and experiencing other places,
I realized that this country is pretty much the same anywhere
you go in terms of relationships, and they seem to be what
you make of them. So when my father died, someone had to come
back and take care of the farm. We had been visiting a lot
in the springtime when we lived in New York, and it was always
so good to come home. To get away from the crush. It was so
lush and lovely and green. I finally realized that I belong
here. There is something truly magical about it.
Or as Freeman told Food & Wine, "This is where I
let my breath out and relax." And it's a good thing.
He, along with Luckett, has certainly breathed some wonderful,
fresh new air into Clarksdale, Mississippi.
