About Annie D's

Annie D's opened on Feb, 1, 1998 on Hwy 80 in Brandon, Mississippi. Although originally opened as a white tablecloth restaurant with a distinctive New Orleans flair, it has evolved over the years into a high-quality, home-style restaurant which still pays homage to the South Louisiana and Texas roots of its owner. With items such as slow-smoked (17-hours) Texas-style brisket and Tom's original-recipe Crawfish Pie, this unique all-you-can-eat buffet offers variety and quality usually associated with theme and fine dining restaurants, not buffet concepts.

Named for owner Tom Pittman's grandmother, Annie Dallas Lawson, the menu is inspired by memories of visits to her country home outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where there would almost always be a pot of red beans on the stove, a ham on the table, and a freshly baked cake in the window. From peel-and-eat spicy boiled shrimp (you peeled your own from a young age at Grannie's house) and etouffee to simple summer lunches of hot-water-cornbread with fried bacon and garden fresh torn toes, the theme was always the same: fresh food cooked with lots of flavor and personality.

Books like Shadows on the Teche and visits to civil war battlegrounds in the area and the old capital in Baton Rouge, replete with grand stories of the Kingfish, Huey P. Long, and his brother, Earl, gave Tom a sense of heritage and culture. That would later be woven together with an understanding of culinary excellence after reading Dick and Ella Brennan's The Commander's Palace Cookbook. Coupled with his love of and exposure to Texas style Barbeque, cultivated in the kitchens of some of tie finest Barbeque restaurants and caterers in Houston, Tom brings a unique palette of flavors and techniques to what has typically been a low-quality, flavorless market segment.