Jim Weems, General Manager

Jim Weems, a native Mississippian has been general manager at City Grocery since 1997. In 1985 he moved to Oxford with his wife Debra where after finishing graduate school they reared three children. “Oxford is a great small town and an excellent place to raise a family.”

"Growing up in a family who lived to eat, my father taught me to seek out the family- owned and operated restaurants most of which in Mississippi were Greek-owned. The whole family works, and they make everything from scratch and the menus rarely -if ever changed."

"I’m told my first restaurant meal was at the Crystal Grill in Greenwood. I grew up eating there and Giardina’s and Lusco’s. We would drive to Lillos, Doe’s, Crechale’s , the Mayflower, Primos, and Dennery’s which had the first open kitchen I ever saw. If you were a lucky enough kid to get the right table you could watch through the big plate glass windows and see everything going on, the flames and the knives and the clattering of plates. It was fascinating."

"When we took vacations to the coast and New Orleans, it was Mary Mahoney’s and the white pillars, Tujagues, Galatoire’s , Arnaud’s and Antoine’s.
It has been fun watching Oxford evolve from a small college town of burgers, and pizzas and plate lunches to a true culinary destination. The home of two James Beard award winners!"

"When I was working in this building at Syd & Harry’s in the mid eighties there were two restaurants on the square. Today? Who can keep count? 1997? Good night, that’s a lot of football weekends and graduations and about a ton of shrimp & grits! Here at City Grocery we are constantly working to improve our service and enhance our guests’ dining experience. We try to make it a fun place come to and a fun place to work.  Like those great old family restaurants. "

Jeffrey Ferrell, Chef d'Cuisine

Jeffrey Ferrell has been in the culinary field since 2001 professionally.  He studied Culinary Arts at New England Culinary Institute and worked in many different parts of the country, from Montana to New Orleans, to Chicago then Vermont and most recently Little Rock.  He has worked for mulitiple nationally known chefs, such as, John Besh at Restaurant August in New Orleans, Roland Liccioni at Le Lan in Chicago and Lee Richardson at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock.  In 2007 he took a hiatus from the industry and spent 9 months working at City Farms in Chicago as the purveyor there.  During that time his passion for food production grew and after Chicago he embellished his experience by working at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, Vermont for 10 months as the field manager.  While farming, Jeffrey grew his knowledge of food by understanding the different stages of planting, harvesting, taking orders, filling orders, packing and delivering produce.  Moving back into the culinary world, Jeffrey began teaching at his alma mater in 2008.  After two and  half years of teaching and managing the student garden club, he returned to the South to work in the local food movement by collaborating with farmers to help improve the communication and desires of the restaurants in the Capital Hotel. 

Jeffrey joined City Grocery Restaurant Group in April, 2013 as Chef d’Cuisine at City Grocery.  He now lives in Oxford, MS with his wife and two children.