I love taking short trips to southern cities.
A few years back I turned a work trip into a vacation in Florence, Ala. (Go, y’all, Go!). In 2018 I made a tourist out of myself in Fairhope, Ala. Then, just last week, I checked out Laurel, Miss., a little town four hours southwest of Jacksonville, Ala.
If you know Laurel it’s probably because of Home Town, the popular HGTV show filmed there. It chronicles Ben and Erin Napier as they work to rehab the city one house at a time. I’d been meaning to visit Laurel for a while when I spotted a little notification that said the town would soon have a big block party there. I called my favorite friend, grabbed my son, and drove down.
What we found was a city that seems to be in a sweet spot. Trendy shops, well-designed murals and a food truck give the town an air of currency, but the city is still small enough to be an authentic representation of the one viewers see on their TVs. If you want to go and see the city as you have come to know it on the show, go now. It is a trove of southern charm.
Tidbits:
The homes: Just outside of town are several tree-covered city streets crowded by big, old pretty craftsman homes. They make it clear why a show like Home Town works in a city like Laurel. (Tip: If you’re planning a trip to Laurel and you want to “stay like a local” follow this link.)
Downtown: The city is small, consisting of just a few short streets that seem to jut out like sunbeams from a center point. There you’ll find a few local eateries and charming stores, including Scotsman Co. and Laurel Mercantile Co. Be sure to check them out. You might even schedule a crafting session at HAND+MADE BY Clairmont & Co., a downtown shop that lets you make your own wares. Also see Lott Furniture Co. where you can find Ben and Erin’s furniture line. Want to know more? Check out this link about downtown Laurel: https://downtownlaurel.com/
Progress in Laurel: Home Town has brought a lot of attention to Laurel, but revitalization there began before the show came to town. Erin said at the town block party that the person featured the season three finale, Judi Holifield, initiated downtown progress a decade ago through Laurel Main Street.
Seeing stars: The people on the show actually live and work in Laurel. Don’t be surprised if you see them out and about. We did. They were each friendly and open. Seeing them was not unlike running into members of the little town I live in four hours away.
Monday in Laurel
We had not checked the itinerary for the block party when we wandered into downtown, tumbling out of our car by a lovely-looking bakery named Sweet Somethings (which also has a bed and breakfast). It was 9 a.m. on a Monday and we arrived hungry, but the bakery’s storefront appeared shut down. We shook the door handle expectantly, but alas it was closed for the day (Tip: The art Gallery and most shops in Laurel are closed on Mondays). We continued on, corralling my three year-old as we made our way down quiet city streets.
My stomach was about to growl when my friend, Michaela, spotted the city welcome center, which is located inside a stately old bank with a revolving door. We approached, but it too was closed – a sign on the door said it would open at 10 a.m. We meandered to a nearby street corner and wondered what we would do. We were still wondering seconds later when my son slipped away and walked back up to the revolving door. We followed to retrieve him and this time a young man in a bow tie emerged from it and welcomed us in early.
Inside we met locals and spotted someone from the show. We didn’t expect the second face we saw in town to be one we recognized from TV, but we ran into several people who had appeared on Home Town while we were in Laurel. They were easy to talk to, open to chatting about the show and gave good advice about what we were so urgently looking for: food! (Tip: consider checking out The 5,000, a food truck, and Shug’s, a cookie dough and candy bar shop.)
We wound up eating breakfast at Lee’s Coffee and Tea, which was described by someone somewhere as being like Luke’s in Gilmore Girls’ Stars Hollow. That’s pretty spot on. The food is good, the coffee is hot and the staff is there to work. Lee’s, as the locals call it, has a cozy atmosphere, an expansive menu for a coffee shop, and food that feels as real as the stuff that comes out of your grandma’s kitchen, even if the menu feels more Central Perk than Cracker Barrel. (Tip: try the crustless quiche.)
We were walking toward Lee’s, passing a classically styled diner named Pearl’s Kitchen when we heard someone talking loudly to a restaurant worker near the entry. “I’m sorry, Pearl,” the man said, opening his arms wide and tilting his head just a little. What he was sorry for, I still don’t know. But what got my attention was the name. I’m still not sure I heard it right, but if I did it means that the person the diner is named after is also the operator. That is cute, and it’s quintessentially hometown-like. We didn’t eat at Pearl’s, but we did observe lettering on the window that notes that they serve black eyed peas and cornbread, which is enough to make me want to invite family in for a sit down.
While we were still in Lee’s we ran into an artist and her mom. The artist was younger; Her mom stopped us to say hello and slid her daughter’s card across the table in our direction. We were glad she did because later in the day we ran into them on the street and learned as much as we needed to know about Laurel, Home Town and how Erin got her start (Being a woman, I’m a little more interested in Erin’s entrepreneurship than Ben’s woodwork).
Several other artists were out on city streets painting en plein air, which is to say they were painting outdoors. A couple of the artists mentioned in passing that they had been on the show. One displayed the underpainting of a city streetscape and she told us while chatting that she’d seen Ben’s blue truck passing by earlier in the day. Later that day, or maybe the next, I spotted a video of his ride around town. It was on Instagram, and it made me think: It’s a funny thing when the real world and the virtual world come together like that, as much like Back to the Future as any of us could hope to experience.
Our next stop was at Laurel Mercantile Co., a shop the couple owns with friends (including Mallorie, who we met earlier in the day). The shop is a perfectly curated example of Erin’s style as it appears on the show. It includes vintage-styled pennants, bold florals and posters popping with hand-printed lettering. There you can find sturdy flannel shirts for men, and delicate glass bowls for kitchen tables. I favored the roughly $5 prints near the register. They feature beautiful prints in interesting color palettes that harken back to the past. I will tell you, though, my favorite items weren’t for sale. They were a tiny Melissa and Doug grocery cart for kids and a hefty, hand-made 18-wheeler. My son first dipped down to handle the truck and I tried to tell him it wasn’t for play, but a store clerk invited him to use it. He spent the rest of our visit zooming the truck and pushing the cart. It was such a thoughtful – and helpful – addition to the store.
We also visited Scotsman Co. General Store, an old-fashioned store with a cinder block storefront. Notably, it is attached with a large bank of windows to the wood shop Ben uses on the show. There was a lot to appreciate here if you like simple things (and I do). Most notably to me, there was a cooler full of fancy, old-fashioned sodas and a small refrigerator with live worms in paper containers (for fishing). I really appreciated the hand lettering and the humor on the signs. “Measure once, cuss twice,” one reads. Special for me was taking a moment to show my son the wood shop. His late grandfather built homes and cabinets for a living and introduced my husband to those trades too. These days my husband “drives a desk,” as he likes to say, but he did build cabinetry and stair railing for our home and woodworking is a meaningful tradition to our family.
By the time we wrapped up our shopping excursions it was time to eat. We found an interesting menu at the curbside version of Cosmic Cafe, a local restaurant. At the owner’s recommendation, I tried red fish tacos and fries. The tacos were spicy and fresh and amazing, and I’m not sure I’ve had crispier fries. If you go to Laurel, go there.
We ate our food in the city’s Art Park. There sparkly green turf covers the ground, the arms of some old live oaks provide shade, yellow lawn chairs offer seating and the dirt has been pushed up beneath turf it to form a small hill for children to slide down. It’s the perfect spot for a picnic, to play or to rest.
After this came the main event – the city block party. As dusk fell people began to fill a blocked off city street with rows of folding chairs they brought from home. Ahead of of them was a giant screen anchored by small stage. The crowd of roughly 1,000 – many of whom seemed local – was settling in to watch the season three finale of the show on HGTV. There would be no pre-screening for this crowd. They were tuning in at the same time as the rest of America. In a short ceremony before the show, the mayor, a representative from Ole Miss (the University of Mississippi) and the Governor took the stage, but the highlight for the crowd was an appearance by Ben, Erin and Judi Holifield and her son, who were featured in the finale.
About halfway through the show a few sprinkles of rain began to fall. People with young children (me) were the first to go. When the sprinkles turned to drops the crowd thinned again, but not everybody left. Men and women across the audience simply reached down, popped open their umbrellas and looked head, strait faced. They, the remnants we’ll call them, weren’t there to support HGTV stars or Home Town. They were there to support Ben and Erin and their own hometown.
