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January 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt BY VICKY DLUGOKECKI When Rod Allan and I volunteered to be edito- rial co-leads on this Gulf Coast issue of (mt) , I mentioned doing an eating tour of the Gulf Coast. My work with Gulf Coast shipyards brings me down to the area on a regular basis, and I?m always on the lookout for a great meal. Rod mentioned an article he had recently read in Coastal Living entitled ?America?s Favorite Seafood Dives,? which described itself as an ?annual guide to the top eateries where food is fried, broiled, grilled or otherwise slapped on butcher paper for your nger-licking, crab-cracking, French fry-munching pleasure.? Scheduled for a whirlwind, three-day infor- mation gathering tour of Friction Stir Welding users and suppliers, starting with Bollinger Shipyard in Lockport, and ending at Austal in Mobile, I armed myself and my travel companions?Lisa Hepinstall of Hepinstall Consulting Group and Jim Dydo of Gatekey Engineering? with the list of winners in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and we were on our way. Flying into New Orleans, our rst stop was at the Acme Oyster House in Metairie, which was only a few miles from our airport hotel location. As the name suggests, the restaurant is the suburban ?cousin? to the French Quarter Acme Oyster House that many of us know and love. You can read the history of the Acme Oyster House on their menu. The Acme Café was founded in 1910, and located next to the old Cosmopolitan Hotel. A fire in 1924 destroyed the building, and the café was re-established at its present location in the French Quarter, and renamed the Acme Oyster House. Beginning in the late 1990?s, additional restaurants were opened in Covington, Metairie, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as in Destin, Florida. None of us were really fans of raw oysters, but as we were in an oyster house, we gured we needed to at least try something from the menu with oysters as an ingredi- ent. Oyster Rockefeller soup t that category. Basically a cream of spinach soup, it was topped with a fried oys- ter. I could have gone for at least a couple more (okay, maybe a dozen more) of the fried oysters. As crawsh were in season, I opted for the seafood etoufee with fried crawsh tails, which didn?t disappoint. My travel com- panions decided to be healthy and ordered the grilled sh of the day, which they said was a good choice. If you decided not to be healthy, there were plenty of fried oyster, shrimp, and catsh platters and po-boys on the menu, along with the standard New Orleans favor- ites ? gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice. So, Great Eats In search of the best seafood dives on the Gulf Coast The Metairie, þÿ LLouisiana location is one of several in the Acme þÿ OOyster House family of restaurants. (travel )54_C3_BDept_SNAME_Jan12_P4.indd 5412/22/11 3:45 PM