The community story that inspired Be. The. Change….

You can find The B.T.C. Grocery right on Water Valley’s Main Street. And from the outsider perspective, this grocery/restaurant/vintage shop, which stands for Be the Change and that’s been serving the community since 2010, is geographically and culturally one of the centers of town. Killer food, open minds, no pretension. According to their website and awesome cookbook that I happily own (which they say is the only cookbook you can find at both Cracker Barrel and Anthropologie):

“The B.T.C. was the daydream of Alexe van Beuren, a Viriginian transplant to the small town of Water Valley, Mississippi. Inspired by the possibilities of the historic brick building her husband, Kagan Coughlin, had bought and single-handedly rescued, Alexe decided to combine her love of food, story, and place into a store like no other. A place where women in church hats and men off of trucks would mingle and where there’s a playhouse just for children.”

Incidentally, The B.T.C. Grocery featured strongly in a New York Times article about Water Valley

I’ve eaten there a couple of times - once with new friends Dixie, Robbie, and Beth and once with my folks. But the first time I ever set foot inside The B.T.C. was en route to our wedding back in 2017. Aaron and I stopped, drawn in by the watermelons out front. We walked in and I immediately set eyes on (and bought) an antique cross-stitch reading “May the Lord Bless You and Keep You.” We are not religious folk too much, but this seemed like a good omen, and now it’s a lovely memory.