Oxford, Mississippi: A First Walk Around the Square
Oxford, Mississippi is one of the South’s most beloved college towns, centered around the historic courthouse square in Lafayette County.
I went to LSU.
Which means I spent plenty of fall Saturdays on the road chasing college football across the South. Tuscaloosa. Auburn. Starkville. And of course Baton Rouge.
But somehow, in all those years, I never made it to Oxford.
That felt like a strange omission once I finally arrived.
Oxford is one of those places Southerners talk about with a certain tone. Half reverence, half mischief. If you mention the town long enough, someone inevitably brings up stories about the Manning family. The Ballad of Archie Who. Cooper’s antics. Eli’s somewhat quieter presence. Late nights. Early mornings. And the kind of college town lore that grows with every retelling.
But until recently, it was all secondhand to me.
The opportunity finally came when I drove up from Atlanta to interview Dr. Matthew Campbell about his new workbook, Our Primal 5. Matt lives in Oxford. After a five-hour drive west through Georgia and Alabama into Mississippi, I finally rolled into Lafayette County.
The first stop was the town square.
The Courthouse in the Middle of Time
Oxford’s square centers around the Lafayette County Courthouse, a stately white building that rises above the surrounding brick storefronts like a quiet anchor.
Mounted on the courthouse wall is a bronze plaque with a passage from William Faulkner, who lived and wrote just a few miles away at Rowan Oak. In Requiem for a Nun, Faulkner described the courthouse as, “the center, the focus, the hub… guardian of the aspirations and the hopes.” Standing in the square, looking up at the white courthouse framed by old brick buildings and tall trees, it’s easy to see what he meant.
When I first saw it, I didn’t think of A Time to Kill, even though plenty of people do. Matt later mentioned that although John Grisham once lived in Oxford, A Time to Kill was set in the fictional town of Clanton and filmed in Canton and Jackson, Mississippi.
What popped into my mind instead was something completely different.
The courthouse looked like the clock tower from Back to the Future.
You half expect Doc Brown to appear with a cable and lightning rod while Marty McFly skids around the corner in a DeLorean.
But the truth is even better.
Because the square doesn’t feel like a movie set.
It feels real.
Bookstores. Corner shops. Ice cream counters. Storefronts with hand-painted signs. Locals strolling through the square.
It feels like stepping into another era.
Maybe the 1950s or 1960s.
A slower rhythm. Simpler times.
A quieter kind of town.
Dinner at City Grocery
Matt and I had dinner that night at City Grocery in Oxford, the flagship restaurant opened by James Beard Award–winning chef John Currence.
The restaurant sits just off the square and feels exactly like you want a Southern restaurant to feel.
Exposed brick.
Warm lighting.
Servers in pressed shirts and ties who clearly take pride in the room they work in.
They were attentive but never hovering. The kind of hospitality that lets you settle in rather than rush through a meal.
Our server suggested we start with cocktails and catch up.
That sounded exactly right.
Matt ordered a tequila and soda. I went with a rye Manhattan.
Fresh cornbread arrived with butter shortly after. I waved it away at first because I’m trying to watch my figure these days.
One drink in, that discipline softened considerably.
For dinner we opted for fish.
Matt ordered pan roasted salmon with garlic and ginger couscous, asparagus, and black garlic molasses.
I had a pan-fried red snapper topped with lump crab, skillet-fried corn, sautéed spinach, and a lemon beurre monté. By that point the conversation had taken over the evening.
And time, as it tends to do in good restaurants, started to move quickly.
We talked about Clemson in the early 1990s when Matt was president of our fraternity.
We talked about the present.
And we talked about the future.
Which, in many ways, is what the Our Primal 5 conversation is all about.
Awareness.
When the server came around with coffee and dessert menus, I politely declined caffeine out of respect for the “Primal 5 - Sleep” philosophy even though I’d already blown it with two Manhattans.
Matt laughed.
I asked if he still had a sweet tooth.
He did.
So we compromised on Consumption.
One slice of double chocolate cake.
Shared.
The Oliver Hotel
After dinner I walked back to my hotel.
Another Primal 5 recommendation, Movement.
The Oliver Hotel in Oxford is a boutique property just a few blocks from the courthouse.
That location might be the best part of the place. From the hotel you can walk the square, grab coffee in the morning, or wander through Oxford without ever getting in the car.
The Oliver also has a rooftop patio and speakeasy called Nightbird.
But the drive, and a long night the evening before, finally caught up with me.
I went straight to bed.
But before turning in, I noticed something that’s becoming rare in modern hotels.
The room was generously sized.
A full soaking bathtub.
A large bathroom.
A separate standing shower.
A comfortable bed.
A proper desk.
Tasteful decor that felt intentional rather than generic.
And above all, quiet.
Now, I suspect the atmosphere might be slightly different during Ole Miss football weekends.
But on this particular evening, it felt like exactly the kind of place you want after a long drive and a great dinner.
A comfortable room.
A quiet square.
And a town that already felt like it had more stories to tell.
Why Oxford Matters
Oxford isn’t flashy.
It doesn’t try to overwhelm you.
Instead, it pulls you in slowly.
The square.
The restaurants.
The bookstores.
The conversations that stretch across dinner tables.
It feels like a place where the past and present sit comfortably beside each other.
And maybe that’s the real charm of Oxford.
It reminds you that the best Southern towns aren’t built around attractions.
They’re built around traditions.
Walking the square.
Meeting friends for dinner.
Lingering a little longer than planned.
And realizing that sometimes the best places in the South are the ones hiding in plain sight all along.
For travelers looking for the best things to do in Oxford Mississippi, start with the courthouse square, dinner at City Grocery, and a stay at the Oliver Hotel.