Gulfport, MS

[SeanMike]

I know there'd been mention of Gulfport in a New Orleans thread, but really, having spent time now in both places, they shouldn't be put near each other. Other than geographically, that is.

I love N'awlins; I'm not a huge fan of Gulfport. It is fairly cheap for booze, though. There's no way to really walk around it, and it's all spread out; it's basically a suburban group of strip malls, run down, clustered along the coast.

Monday night I ended up eating at the Half Shell Oyster House - or, to be precise, the Quarter, a bar attached to it. I won't complain about $3 Abita ambers, and the voodoo shrimp, which had been deep-fried and tossed in their sauce, were fine. The charbroiled oysters were also just "okay" - not on the par of Drago's, but worth $8 for 6 to munch on. The gumbo was disappointing, tasting way too "fishy" for my preference. All the food had to be brought in from next door via the outside doors, which seemed weird to me, but hey - I think Quarter(s?) is more of a bar/club. It's hard to tell from the outside.

After a fairly disastrous morning, I grabbed a quiet lunch at Waffle House. Yum. Just what I needed.

Dinner tonight kept me close to the hotel (the Day's Inn Gulfport, near the airport - cheap, and not as bad as it looks, but still not good) at a place called Steve's Marina. They had what appeared to be three microbrews on top, an Indian Summer, Southern Pecan, and Southern Gold. The first two were very tasty and at $3.25 I wish I didn't have to drive the 1/4 mile back to my hotel. Still, driving is driving.

The Seafood nachos were surprisingly good. Lump crab meat and shrimp in a cheese sauce over generic nacho chips, with jalapenos and some kind of red powder seasoning, I really dug those. The seafood gumbo here was also much better than the previous night's. I got the speckled trout freemason, because, well, I'm a Freemason, and though it's named after the island and not the organization, it had lump crab, shrimp, green onions, garlic and butter with a light hollandaise. I was a bit too full to get into this meal. The trout I had panneed (pannee-ed? errr) as per suggestion of the bartender and was fine, though I was honestly disappointed with the sauce. (Damn me for relying on the name "Freemason"! I would've gotten the fried blue crab fingers but they were out of them.) I'm betting the other variations of the trout were better though they were also out of almonds...

All in all the Steve's place wasn't bad, though it really tries very very hard to be a tourist trap, including the gift shop. Ah well. I got a belly full of local seafood (or so they say) and a few beers, and now I can sit in my crappy hotel room and...uh...drink High Life or something.

Really, don't come to Gulfport.

[mame11]

Sean, I'm sure Gulfport has its issues but it was a great place to go when I was a kid and I believe they have really good beaches, as beaches go in Mississippi. From what I understand the area was hit really hard by Katrina, and now the oil spill... From a foodie perspective, or even a genteel northerner's perspective, it might not be great but it is not cool to say "really, don't come to Gulfport" based on your experience.

In case you are wondering what it's like to be a tourist on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi visit this site

[SeanMike]

I might be letting my frustrations at this overall trip get to me, and you're definitely right on the beaches: the beaches themselves are gorgeous, if you don't mind construction equipment parked over all the place and a steady stream of large ships out near the horizon. (Honestly some like watching big ships. Me, I'm seemingly rather thalassaphobic, and really just don't understand going to the beach for the beach's sake.)

It's clear that this area is still in tatters post-Katrina and the oil spill has hurt it, too. Most of the industry around here seems to be trying to prop itself up with less tourists (this being the first week of school it's extra empty) plus dealing with the maritime industry and military. A lot of it has that feel that, say, route 1 down in Fairfax/Prince William has - the kind of strip mall that builds up around military bases.

So I shall rephrase what I said: as a culinary destination, which this board focuses on, Gulfport is still, unfortunately, rather lacking, it appears. (Though I'm still quite intrigued by the "Indian-Mexican" place that I saw.) This might be a factor of the timing of my compulsory visit. I am regretting not having just driven over to New Orleans instead this afternoon.

If you'd like to come to the beach, though, the beaches themselves are very pretty. If there were more people out, and a bit more infrastructure, I'd love to see what they'd do with historic downtown Gulfport.

[dcandohio]

It's clear that this area is still in tatters post-Katrina and the oil spill has hurt it, too.

The casinos hurt that area, too. Pre-casinos (which pre-dated Katrina) there were some wonderful local restaurants on the Mississippi Coast. We would go every summer for a week. I grew up in New Orleans, and Mississippi was the vacation spot when we didn't have the money or the inclination to go "all the way" to Pensacola.

The casinos killed all the local restaurants. There used to be a place called White House, or something like that, in a huge ante-bellum home. OK, it might have been fake ante-bellum. I was a kid, easily impressed. But every summer we looked so forward to our meal there. I remember lots of crabmeat in sauces.

There was also a little restaurant in a house in Pass Christian that sold a killer sandwich consisting of not much more than lump crabmeat and a cheesy mornay sauce on french bread. We'd stop there on our way to the Holiday Inn in Gulfport (or was it Biloxi?).

Good memories. I am sorry that the area has changed so much.

[SeanMike]

I took US-90 over to Mobile on my way to Panama City yesterday. Biloxi and Ocean Springs looked like they were almost a whole different planet than Gulfport...

[goldenticket]

I took US-90 over to Mobile on my way to Panama City yesterday. Biloxi and Ocean Springs looked like they were almost a whole different planet than Gulfport...

I didn't get to eat in Ocean Springs when I was in the area last December, but did find a museum dedicated to the fascinating local artist Walter Anderson - if you're back through there it's worth a stop (and the price of admission). We had some mighty fine gumbo brought in for lunch in Pacagoula, but I don't recall the name of the restaurant that provided it. (Sweet Tater's maybe, but I'm not sure)

I hear you on the Gulfport dining thing - flew in and stayed near the airport and that area was packed with chains. I do admit to enjoying the very rare (and always on the road) stop at a Cracker Barrel or a Chick-Fil-A, both of which I think were on that strip. But it's much nicer to find a little local gem when you can. Maybe I'll check out Steve's next time I'm down there.

[V.H.]

In Pascagoula, I try to get to Bozo's Grocery (2012 Ingalls Avenue) every time I'm in town. They've got a sandwich counter where you can get po-boys but I can't resist going to the back where the seafood counter is and getting a pound of crawfish boil. It's priced at something like $2.79 a pound but when you buy a pound, you are served a large scoop spicy crawfish that is usually somewhere between 1.5 to 2 pounds of crawfish. I usually split a po-boy with a coworker to go with my "pound" of crawfish. This place is great, with holes in the middle of the tables and large garbage cans underneath for you to drop your shells.

I will admit though that I stay in Mobile so that I have better dinner options.

[johnb]

I will admit though that I stay in Mobile so that I have better dinner options.

We stopped in Mobile yesterday eve on our way to New Orleans.  Made our usual stop at Wintzell's Oyster House (the original location on Dauphine) for some gumbo and oysters (in this case charbroiled)  As good as ever.  Made a quick followup by going over a few blocks to the Blind Mule for some beer and a chili burger -- they got featured recently on one of those Travel Channel top 10 shows.  Anyway, the burger was worth the detour -- great black bean chili, a really good patty, although only a so-so bun.  Great selection of local brews.