When the Southern Hotel reopened in downtown Covington after being vacant for 60 years, the hotel restaurant had a peculiar deal. It was indeed on the premises, but wasn’t open for breakfast, and a few days they weren’t open at all. I’d never heard of a hotel with a restaurant that didn’t serve breakfast, or was closed entire days. Huh? But after a few visits to Oxlot 9, it was a favorite of favorites.I loved the place and I really loved the food. It was convenient in addition to its other allurements.
And then only seven years into its run the owners of the place and the owners of the hotel had a disagreement over COVID policy. The last day for Oxlot was a year later, the day Ida came to town.
The Hansells already had a place in Bay St. Louis and were planning a move, but these events expedited it. We would follow them there.
The new place was called Thorny Oyster, and in the beginning it was as great as Oxlot 9. Different dishes, same polish. But the last few visits have been disappointing. I had vowed to let it go, but ML and I had a conversation about the time I found the Hangtown Fry there for brunch.
We were talking about the trip and I said I had actually had a delicious version of the bizarrely-named dish at Thorny Oyster a few years ago. We decided to go in the hopes it might be a special then too. They weren’t even serving brunch, or specials. ML got a salad because she usually does, and this is a seafood-centric menu. We chose the Italiano to split. And I got a brisket tamale.
Oxlot 9 used to have a tamale at brunch that I loved. I don’t remember what was in it, or it might have been a sweet corn tamale, but I loved it. This was unusual in that it was served with a corn husk as a base, and two rolls of masa with nothing in them. A pile of braised and shredded brisket that was stringy with the grain was added on top of this, with pickled vegetables as a topper. The brisket was also runny and juices pooled in the dish. The dish tasted fine, but was too wet.
I remember the Italiano salad at Oxlot and the Thorny Oyster version was never as good. The salad grows in size every time I see it. What we had was large enough for a table to share. It wasn't good enough to want nearly that much.
There were lots of vegetables in it. Pieces of Romaine were tossed with artichokes, cucumbers, tomato, Kalamata olives, onion, and even zucchini.The dressing was oddly creamy, but not great in flavor. There were herbs throughout this mix, large housemade croutons, and a generous amount of grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
.jpg)
None of this was bad, but it certainly wasn't worth the drive, That's not why we went. In the beginning, we drove to Bay St. Louis to eat at Thorny Oyster. Now we eat at Thorny Oyster because we drove to Bay St. Louis. Sometimes I get tired of a menu at a restaurant, and I can’t predict which restaurants will register that feeling. This one certainly has.
