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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

For years it has been a dream of Clarksdalians Charles Ledbetter and Tommy “Baby Boy” Strider to operate a local restaurant and blues club. On June 11th, these 2 life long friends will see this dream come true. “We both really believe in Clarksdale and the revitalization that’s going on downtown. It seems like the right time to do it, and we can hardly wait to open the doors,” said Ledbetter. “Besides, we’re both blues lovers, and we love to eat.”

The Depot Restaurant & Blues Club will be located at 200 Blues Alley, currently home to The Boxcar Café. The official change will take place on June 11th. The Depot will be open 7 days a week from 11a.m. until serving lunch and dinner, including a Sunday lunch buffet. The sounds of live blues music will also be ringing out from The Depot. The schedule will be posted on-line regularly and feature many of today’s best Delta blues musicians. “We hope to have our web site www.depotbluesclub.com updated by next week with the musicians and times,” said Strider. “We plan to have a big grand-opening party the weekend of the 15th and hope that folks will come check us out.”

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.