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ORAL HISTORY
Mark Azlin
The Bourbon Mall has catered to the citizens of Washington County for decades. It’s been a general store since the 1920s. Mark Azlin bought the place in 1998 and turned it into a restaurant. Surrounded by cotton fields, it is a remote destination. Offering a porterhouses and live Blues in amid pleasantly ramshackle surroundings, The Bourbon Mall is a favorite haunt for many. But it’s the hot tamales the really set the place apart. Mark put hot tamales on the menu as a nod to his Delta roots. As a kid he remembers his father buying hot tamales from Miss Etta, up the road in Leland. But an experiment in the Bourbon Mall’s kitchen led to hot tamales landing in the fryer. Mark claims that The Bourbon Mall put fried tamales on the Delta map. He serves them with a side of ranch dressing for dipping, and the affable bartender will hand you a roll of Tums for dessert.
The Bourbon Mall experienced a fire in October 2009. It has not re-opened, but the fried tamales live on at the Ground Zero Blues Club.
