Jackson Area Businesses Open, Close and Give Awards

Christina Cannon

Jeff Good, co-owner of BRAVO! Italian Restaurant, is incorporating Facebook into the restaurant's marketing mix.

by Ward Schaefer
September 24, 2009

BRAVO! Restaurant in Jackson is asking its patrons for stories of the people who changed their lives. The upscale Italian restaurant is giving away $600 in gift cards for the best story of a life-changing person posted on its Facebook page. The contest is a creative way of launching the restaurant's presence on the social-networking Web site, BRAVO! co-owner Jeff Good told the Jackson Free Press.

"We're dabbling in social media for marketing, but we want to make sure that there's value in it and that it's authentic," Good said. "Because Facebook is about people—their faces and photos and their stories—we came up with this ... to launch the Facebook page as a way to have people tell a story about someone that's important to them."

BRAVO! will award the subject of the winning story a $500 gift card and the writer a $100 card.

"If nothing else, every story that's told will have a large audience that reads the story," Good added.

Two other area restaurants have closed their doors recently: Old Venice Pizza Co. in Northeast Jackson and Beef O'Brady's in Madison. Beef O'Brady's closed last month. A co-owner of the property told WAPT that a new family-oriented restaurant will open soon at the Highland Colony location. At the Old Venice location, a sign on the door promises the opening of Last Call Sports Bar.

In Fondren, artist Richard McKey is opening his Fondren Art Gallery on Duling Street in part of the old Fondren Beverage Emporium space. The gallery, which will feature work by McKey and other local artists, is hosting a grand opening Oct. 1.

In Clinton, 280 employees at the Delphi Corporation wiring plant will have to find new work by the end of the year. A Delphi spokesman told the Associated Press on Sept. 17 that the plant will close by Dec. 31, with layoffs to begin Nov. 16. The plant, which produces cables and wiring for automobiles, is a victim of reduced demand and the recession.

Clinton is also the latest city in the metropolitan area to enact a moratorium on certain types of businesses deemed undesirable. The temporary ban, which the Clinton Board of Aldermen passed on Sept. 1, prohibits new check-cashing businesses, pawn shops, nail salons, tattoo parlors and gold purchasing businesses from opening in the city for next 90 days. Clinton joins Ridgeland, which passed a similar temporary moratorium on Aug. 3, and Flowood, which permanently banned a similar list of businesses on July 7.