The Gulf Coast Hotspot

On beautiful days like these days, we just ride. Sometimes we go left from The Cool Water Ranch, and sometimes right. Left is Baton Rouge, and if we are feeling jaunty, Lafayette. Right is the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, and if we want to go crazy, Alabama. So far we have not been that crazy.

We have more often than not, settled on Mississippi because the white sands (despite the black water) make us happy. If only there was any decent food over there. We used to go to Bay St. Louis to The Thorny Oyster, the relocated home of Jeff and Amy Hansel, close contenders for my all-time favorite restaurateurs. I am still heartbroken by the closure of Oxlot 9 three years later, so we have on occasion made the trek to BSL to enjoy Jeff’s food.

And that was about the only thing worth having there until it turned south as well. The Sycamore House, which we have enjoyed in the past, seems never to be open. Field's is reputed to be good but we’ve not been there, and we are done with Trapani’s.

We ventured east and found nothing noteworthy besides the Beau Rivage restaurants, which are too far for us to walk. That was another era, and a very good one. Farther east we stopped in at Ocean Springs, a place we have been many times, but not a lot in the past five years. On our first return visit, I was shocked at the growth. And delighted, though I doubt the old-timers would agree. Ocean Springs is now a tourist mecca.

And why not? It’s adorable. In the old days, we went to Aunt Jenny’s Catfish House, which is left at the entrance light rather than right where everything else is. Aunt Jenny’s is an old-time institution in an old house (that is a little musty) with a view of the bayous behind the main drag. Aunt Jenny’s is a fry house (fish and chicken) with good southern sides like fried okra. We have always enjoyed it.

Another institution that is wildly popular is on the main highway just before the big entrance light. Hartz’s Chicken Buffet looks like a place Tom wouldn’t be caught dead. It’s filled with regular folks and it is all-you-can-eat. He used to call places like this a boo-fay, but as a fan of such operations, I have clarified that the term should apply to places where the food isn’t good, just plentiful. There are some excellent buffets, like $100 plus hotel holiday meals, and every day at Fogo de Chão.

I automatically assumed Hartz was a boo-fay until I asked some longtime residents, who all gushed at the mention of the place. We went through the drive-thru, which offers plates of chicken and sides. I was astonished at the perfection of this fried chicken. No wonder the parking lot is always full. It was hot, golden brown, greaseless, and just everything a bite of fried chicken should be. The accompanying fried okra and butter beans were pretty ordinary boo-fay items, but this chicken!...

Hartz used to be the beginning of the eating in Oceans Springs, but Empanola has an outpost here that you come to before Hartz. I was happy to swing in there on a previous trip to see what all the fuss was about. This is one of several locations, and I hadn’t been to any in the city. Empanola is a doppelganger for a place in Los Angeles that I have enjoyed but that one is better. Both have trademarks of perfectly formed hand pies that are embossed.

This first visit to Ocean Springs was just a quick trip to scope it out. The Empanola hand pies were the only thing we ate. We had the Crawfish Etouffe, Mexicana, and Spinach and Artichoke. None of these were outstanding, so I’m assuming that everyone shares my passion for a handheld pastry crust filled with stuff. I would get some again when I pass just because I love a pastry crust filled with stuff.

On a later visit, we tried a place that seems a phenomenon there called The Lady May. It’s one of the newcomers, which is not really new but newer than Aunt Jenny’s and Trilby’s. The Lady May is located in an old theater, with a large enough patio area. There isn’t a lot of seating inside.

The food here features the food of the two owner’s grandmas. One grandma is from Mississippi, so the food is Southern, but it is also New Orleans Sicilian Italian, inspired by the other grandma as well. But this ain’t their grandma’s food. It is trendy and modern.

There is a lot on this menu and a lot I wanted to get. Since it was morning, part of this order would be breakfast, but we came for the burger that ML had pointed out to me in pics. And in walking by tables, I decided we needed the flatbread I saw on a table. They also have homemade pies here, something we lament a dearth of around town. It’s a recurring topic on The Food Show. Unfortunately that day the pie choices didn't tempt.

The classic American breakfast came with a biscuit and grits, as well as a side of bacon. Grits of late are too rich for me. I love grits the old-fashioned way, good quality cooked simply and in need of only copious amounts of butter to melt into the heated cereal and salt. It seems impossible to find these now. What has replaced them is an overly-complicated version of coarse stone-ground grits thickened with cream instead of water, and enriched by cheese.

I am always highly suspicious of grits in places like The Lady May, expecting them to be ultra-rich. And these were, but I have to say they were the most delicious grits I have had in a while. They were indeed stone ground and coarse, slightly peppery and cheesy… but superb.

The same is true of the biscuit, which was studded with bacon and very buttery. The eggs were cooked exactly as I requested, and the bacon, while not the thick smoky variety, was fine with all the other richness to be had here.

The flatbread we noticed on a table that made me need one was smoked chicken, but I got the Crawfish May, which was loaded with crawfish and goat cheese with a sauce, arugula, purple onion, and tomato. This was very good but the next time I would get the chicken flatbread. The crust on this was very thin and this was a fine specimen of a flatbread but maybe it didn’t move me because I didn’t really want to eat a flatbread.

One of the main reasons we went to The Lady May was the burger and fries that ML had shown me in an IG pic of the tall burger with a mound of shoestring fries. When I found out they were not cutting potatoes in the back I didn't need to eat them.

I got a mustard burger, called a Mississippi Slug, and it was aptly described. The predominant flavor of the entire thing was yellow mustard, and it oozed from the sides. I have no idea what prompted me to order this burger. Maybe because I have been known to use mustard as a dipper for burgers? This was a hand-formed patty with a pile of melted cheddar, but I had to scrape off the excess mustard to be able to eat it. The next time I will order one of the others, though none of them as described enticed me. One had bacon jam, one BBQ Ranch, and one garlic aioli. None just classic. I guess the one offering mustard was the closest to that. It was a great burger in every other way. 

I had been trying to see what Kilwins is about every time we go to Ocean Springs, but we can never get close to it. But we did see a little place called Pop Brothers, serving popsicles of every imaginable variety. We stopped there for a minute and got a strawberry popsicle, one called Nutter Butter, and I asked about one like a polar bar from my youth, a chocolate-dipped vanilla ice cream bar. The communication broke down here and I got a vanilla popsicle dipped in chocolate. The chocolate was very good, but inside was a weird vanilla ice. I’m sure I would have loved this had I not been expecting a creamy inside, but that’s on me. 

Tom loved his strawberry popsicle, and then I tried the Nutter Butter one, which was frozen around an actual Nutter Butter. 

Too weird for me. But this is a cute place with an astonishing amount of choices for popsicles. They are well-made and of high-quality ingredients. I just have to be more careful before ordering next time.

On the last trip to Ocean Springs, we finally made it to Trilby’s, a place we had been to 30 years ago for my brother’s wedding reception when it was called Germaine’s. Trilby’s is the original name, but it has gone through a few owners posting other names, and now it has returned to Trilby’s after a renovation. The renovation is lovely, though this too is musty and a floor replacement is an emergency.

We went for lunch and sat in a glass-enclosed dining room, with the sun pouring it. It was almost as good as outdoor dining on a beautiful day. The menu at lunch is very appealing. A lot of great choices, and a lot of crab. What’s not to love about that?

The appetizer section had so many choices we could have eaten nothing but these. Tough choices: crab claws, crabmeat au gratin, crab cakes, or fried green tomatoes with crabmeat. People who don’t love crab as I do could still find a few things like bacon and goat cheese stuffed figs, calamari, and yellowfin tuna.

We got crabcakes and a pot pie from the entree section to split as appetizers. The crab cakes were smallish but adequate, pan-seared with less lump crab and more crab shreds in a stuffing like our stuffed crab. I love stuffed crab and don't even mind it pan-seared, though I  maintain the best use of this mixture is in a crab shell or a shrimp cavity and then fried. A crab cake suggests an elevated crab dish. This was an elevated crab dish without lump crab, and it was very tasty with a nice remoulade. Can’t complain about anything here but the name.

We both loved the pot pie. It came backed in a ramekin with the puff pastry crust completely covering the dish and sealing in the contents. Inside was a creamy thick bechamel with soft braised white chicken pieces intermingled with pieces of fresh carrot and peas, as well as the requisite pearl onions. Pot pie is inherently wonderful to me, as this certainly was.

We ordered a burger and a fish sandwich from the sandwich part of the menu. They are cutting their fries in-house, which is an impressive task. Few restaurants do it these days, and extra points from us immediately to all who do. They also had housecut chips.

The Trilby’s cheeseburger is a weird one. Topped with a Mornay sauce and mac’n’cheese, it is piled high on a bun. I’m a purist so I ordered the 1203 burger, which is a classic burger with no cheese. I asked for some cheddar to top it. 

And for Tom, I ordered a grilled fish sandwich. Somehow our wires got crossed and what came to the table was a fried fish sandwich. The fish was so small that frying really dried it out. I was afraid Tom might choke on this fish so I sent it back. 

We split the burger, which turned out to be one of those perfect-formed patties I am seeing everywhere, even in surprising places. That’s not to say it wasn’t good. It was a perfectly fine burger, just nothing special. The chips were slightly overdone, but not inedible. Overdone housecut chips are common. These were fine to eat, just a bit disappointing. They were a tad greasy and the spice level was good. Next time I would get the fries.

There will be a next time for us at Trilby’s. It is old-fashioned Southern food with an interesting menu I look forward to working through.

We left Trilby’s to try for Kilwin’s again. There was a spot in front. I ran in for a quick look and an ice cream. After a quick look, I didn’t really want an ice cream. That was the least of the offerings here. This is an old-fashioned emporium of treats like fudge made in front of you on a marble slab, but also chocolates in a case and various other treats. It’s the kind of place you see in mass tourist places. Just the sight of Kilwin’s made me sympathetic to the complaints of long-time residents of Ocean Springs.

We still haven’t tried the food at Maison De Lu, a new place I’m told has outstanding food. And we haven’t been back in a while to the pastry shop called French Kiss. The Phoenician is a longtime local favorite. The Porterhouse is now a boutique hotel called The Roost. One of our Northshore breakfast places now has an outpost there, and Nola chef Eric Cook has picked out a place for expansion.

Ocean Springs is hot. Get there before you can’t get in.