The Travel Channel show Food Paradise will feature Vicksburg’s own Rusty’s River Front Grill in their newest episode “Chowin’ Down the Mississippi River.” The Episode airs Sunday at 8 p.m., and will feature restaurants that sit alongside the Mississippi River.

“They contacted me out of the blue. Just asked me would I be interested in being on a segment of that show,” owner Rusty Larsen said. “I was a little nervous, but I had a lot of fun. We had a lot of people in here, had a good showing.”

Rusty’s is in its 17th year of business, but this is its very first appearance on T.V.

“It was a real honor,” Larsen said. “I was kind of shocked.”

For the show, they filmed Larsen and his staff preparing certain menu items multiple times so they could get the right shots for the episode. They did all of this during operating hours on a Wednesday, so the staff was catering to the needs of the show’s crew as well as the patrons of their restaurant.

“It was intense,” Larsen said.

The Food Paradise crew told Larsen to invite some friends and family to the restaurant as well.

“We had the sheriff, we had Miss Mississippi, we had the mayor. There was a lot of people,” Larsen said.

From there, the Food Paradise crew randomly chose a few tables to interview and feature on the show, and after getting shots of the hubbub of the kitchen, they sat down for a one-on-one interview with Rusty. They discussed the dishes he prepared that day, along with food along the Mississippi River. Larsen said he thought the episode would come out well.

Food Paradise is in its ninth season, and although it has featured Mississippi restaurants before, this is its first time in Vicksburg. The Travel Channel description for the episode is as follows:

“The best eats along the banks of America’s greatest river are highlighted, from jazz-inspired barbecue and mouthwatering meatloaf to seafood-smothered fried green tomatoes and garden-fresh ratatouille.”