Restaurant brings strangers together in Mississippi - cool idea -

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MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) — Over the course of a steaming-hot Southern lunch, served family-style on a giant lazy Susan, restaurant owner Andre Davis has watched people go from perfect strangers to lifelong friends.

His restaurant, The Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi, consists of just four tables. Large and circular, they seat upward of 15 people. In the center of each is a lazy Susan dotted with heaping platters of food, spinning back and forth as customers pile up their plates.

On any given day, anyone could be sitting around the table. Davis’ customer base ranges from European tourists to locals. The tables have hosted water treatment plant workers, church groups and once, according to Davis, British actor Hugh Bonneville.

“We’ve had people sitting together that had nothing in common but the table they were sitting at,” Davis said. For restaurant goers, the rotating tables provide a unique opportunity to meet new people, hear different perspectives and bond over a shared enjoyment of classic Southern food and the restaurant’s famed fried eggplant.

“We’ve met doctors, lawyers, teachers,” said Wayne Dyson, a regular customer. “And find out that most people are all good people.”

Dyson and his wife have met countless people from all over the country in the 40 years they have been frequenting the restaurant. Over lunch earlier this month, the couple quickly bonded with a group of strangers, laughing like they had known each other for years.

Justin Monistere and his family stopped for lunch to celebrate his sister’s graduation from nursing school. By the time he left, he was referring to the Dysons as “mom” and “pop.”

“Today in time we don’t talk as people. It’s either through a message or phone,” he said, adding this is the first meal he has had since he was a kid where no one pulled out a cellphone. “I think that’s a great thing that they’re doing here.”