Sunday, June 10, 2012.
Back To The Beach. Shaggy's. In The Rain.
As much as it rained yesterday, today it's coming down even with more insistence. But Mary Ann has another book signing, this one at Barnes & Noble in Gulfport. I may as well go with her, because then we can have another rare meal on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, about which people are always asking me but I have little recent data.
As happened yesterday, MA was dejected by not selling hundreds of copies. But it rained hard the entire time she was there. And ten books from a first-time, self-published author isn't so bad in two hours.
Late lunch at Shaggy's, a small local chain of seafood houses, most of them on the beach. This kind of place has great appeal for Mary Ann, even though with the teeming precipitation we would not be dining outside, as she prefers.
Shaggy's in Biloxi is right on the beach, where white-capped surf was rolling in. It was raining so hard that water blew through the cracks in the windows next to our table. No big problem. Shaggy's architects didn't put a lot of emphasis on finish work. The floors are made of undressed sheets of utilitarian plywood. You see the underside of the roof through the exposed beams. Another Camille or Katrina will blow this structure away without leaving a trace. They'll just build another one. That's probably cheaper than insurance on a permanent structure. (Whatever that means in this spot).
Shaggy's is not my kind of restaurant. A little too casual for my tastes, and music much too loud. But I found myself warming up to it. The waitress was a kicky girl who had the nuts and bolts of service down, and made the rest of our brief relationship jokey and fun.
We started with bacon-cheese fries. Not my idea. Already too much bacon and cheese in the world. But the sticks did go well with a glass of Woodchuck, an interesting blend of beer and cider, available on tap at Shaggy's. I started with a half-dozen grilled oysters, topped with cheese, bacon, jalapeno slices, and little shards of tortilla chips like what you salvage from the bottom of a bag. This, however, was delicious as it was original. The crackly quality of the chiplets added a great textural contrast. They shuck raw oysters here, too, so the bivalves were even good.
My entree was blackened redfish with a beurre blanc and asparagus. The latter were much overcooked but edible. The fish was beyond reproach, fresh in texture and flavor, well seasoned.
Mary Ann must have been on a cheese jag, because she ate chicken quesadillas--the kind with flour tortillas on both the top and bottom, with a lot of melted cheddar. She wasn't moved much by that, but this was to be expected. (If only she'd take my advice, like so many happy eaters do! But what do I know, really.)
The rain stopped long enough for us to get to the car and head home. By the time we passed in front of Wolfe's, my ears had stopped ringing from the music at Shaggy's. Last night, Tom Wolfe told me he did some consulting on the kitchen at Shaggy's. If he gets the credit for the food we had there, he did a better job at Shaggy's than he did in his own place.
Shaggy's. Biloxi: 1763 Beach Blvd. 228-432-5005.
