By Bob Arnold
Porches, a landmark Wesson restaurant for more than a quarter of a century, is gone now, but the man who started it as a project as part of his culinary studies at Co-Lin, has come full cycle, returning to the college where he is preserving its recipes through the varied food service options it provides for its students, faculty and staff and the wider community, introducing new people to them and continuing to please folk who still remember their unique dining experiences at the old Victorian house on Highway 51 that housed eatery.
Chris McSweyn, who now works for Co-Lin and is executive chef for the college’s Aladdin Campus Dining service, talked to the Wesson Lions Club last month about Porches, how it came to be and its ongoing legacy.
Growing up in Pearl, Mississippi, McSweyn said he had two passions -- cooking and sports.
"I grew up in a cooking family, and I loved preparing dishes for meals at home," McSweyn recalls. "When I left the kitchen, I went to the golf course or to the soccer field. Between school, playing golf and soccer at Pearl High School and cooking at home, I also squeezed in a job at the Pearl Donut Factory, where I made the donuts and other pastries."
After graduating from high school and heading for Wesson to play for the Co-Lin golf team, he enrolled in the college’s culinary classes taught by Kay Woodrick at the time.
When his parents -- Al and Cele McSweyn -- visited their son in Wesson, they decided to join him there, purchasing a house that had a large kitchen and enough space to feed a lot of people if that was your inclination. "Mom and Dad were looking to get out of the Jackson area," McSweyn recalls. "Dad had retired after a career at Bell South and working in accounting and as a computer software specialist. Mom had worked for years at Carter's Jewelry in Jackson."
When McSweyn needed to intern at a restaurant to satisfy requirements of the Co-Lin culinary program, he and his parents created Porches in the house they had acquired. "I got a job, but not enough working hours at the Inez Hotel restaurant in Brookhaven,” he recalls. “So dad suggested I start my own restaurant in the house to meet the course requirements, and Co-Lin agreed."
McSweyn and his mom and dad brought their love of cooking and Chris's Co-Lin studies to what they anticipated would be a four-month project, but they had no real restaurant experience outside of Chris's work at the Pearl Donut Factory. McSweyn and his parents learned the business operating a small eatery that served small plates and daily specials featuring southern cooking with an imaginative flare.
Just before they were about to wrap up Chris’ school project, a Jackson Clarion-Ledger food columnist, who had heard about the small Wesson restaurant, visited it, liked what he tasted there, and wrote a column about the experience.
"Business boomed," McSweyn recounts. "We were generating 40 to 50 customers for our daily lunches, and traffic tripled. My parents and I said to each other: "Let's make it go.'"
Over 25 1/2 years, Porches became known nationally, consistently ranked by travel and tourist guides among Mississippi's top ten restaurants, and drawing customers from throughout the South, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and as far away as Florida.
COVID-19 forced Porches to start serving its meals on a takeout only basis, and McSweyn decided to shut it down so his parents could finally enjoy the retirement they had anticipated in the old Wesson house they bought in the 1990s.
McSweyn took his Porches' menu to Le Soul in Hazlehurst in 2020 and 2021 and then accepted the job with Co-Lin's food service. At Co-Lin, he continues to cook the dishes he perfected at Porches and served at Le Soul. He even calls the catering service he operates at the college “Porches.”