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ORAL HISTORY
Charles Signa, Owner
Doe's Eat Place
When Charles Signa was born in 1947, his family still lived in the building that houses Doe’s Eat Place. Mamie and Doe Signa and their three children slept, ate, and entertained friends in what is now the side dining room. Eventually, the restaurant grew popular enough that the Signa family remade their living room into a restaurant dining room, and the business grew. Charles went to college but before graduating, he returned home to his father, to the family restaurant. Doe introduced him to the subtleties of the broiler and taught him the secret to those famous hot tamales. Charles has been in the kitchen ever since. In 2001 Charles opened another Doe’s location in Oxford, Mississippi. There, Charles and his two sons, Charles Jr. and Paul, carried on the Signa reputation for incredible steaks and tamales, until they closed their doors in the fall of 2007. Charles still lives in Oxford, but he returns to Greenville regularly to help his brother, Doe Jr., operate their father’s namesake restaurant in its original location.
