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October 15, 2024

Riverside Venue Back in Action

Wet Wingz & Thingz at the Blue Levee

By Faith Strong

The Bolivar Bullet

Rosedale has a new place to eat lunch and dinner. Wet Wingz & Thingz at The Blue Levee opened its doors on November 15 at the former Catfish Cabin on the River at the intersection of Highways 8 and Highway 1. The building’s owner, Sean Johnson is happy to be involved in the project. 

Johnson said the lunch menu will be served Wednesday – Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. There will be a Sunday brunch also from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and the kitchen will be open until 5:00 p.m, generally, with special ticketed dinner events on the weekends. 

“I’ve never been in the restaurant business before,” said Johnson. “I’m the director of tourism for Visit Cleveland by day, but I’ve worked in kitchens in college, so for me this is really an exciting experiment.”

The business is a hybrid of sorts with Wet Wingz & Thingz, run by Cassanda Porter offering lunches and general dining, and Johnson helming the kitchen during the ticketed events.

The general menu will include items like burgers, wings, cajun sausage sandwiches and blue plate specials, while the ticketed events will be a little more gourmet, with multi-course offerings from a set menu.

“Plenty of great music will be included at the private events,” said Johnson. 

He also said they sell beer, but they don’t have their liquor license yet. So it’s BYOB for your own alcohol other than beer. Johnson is also very happy with the ambience that they have established in the restaurant. They renovated the inside and the centaur that stands out front is a definite eye catcher and conversation piece.

“We had an artist, Mike McCarthy out of Memphis, come down and do a mural of the Robert Johnson story because the Blue Levee is at one of the possible crossroads for Robert Johnson. The ‘Centaur of the Universe’ created by Water Valley artist, John Steele Davis, just kind of happened,” Johnson said with a laugh.

“The building has been through many iterations over the years, most recently it was the Catfish Cabin,” he said. “But, originally it was called the Blue Levee. We had considered several other names, but the Blue Levee just seemed right.”

Johnson said the building has two units and eventually they’re going to make the other unit into a gift shop for people. “Something touristy-related – Rosedale has a lot of international tourists. I’m just very excited about the venture.”

According to Johnson, the building can comfortably seat and serve up to 90 people, and is a wonderful venue for private events. 

“We’ve had a couple of these already and they’ve been a lot of fun,” he said.

To get more information about the Blue Levee, call Johnson at 662-316-9557.

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