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January 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt Great Eats In search of the best seafood dives on the Gulf Coast if your travel plans are such that you can?t make it into the French Quarter for a stop at the Acme Oyster House, you can always visit one of their other locations. Two other restaurants were considered ?tasty contenders? in the Coastal Living list for Louisiana: Middendorf?s in Akers on the west side of Lake Ponchartrain, and Tracey?s of New Orleans. While I didn?t get to those this time, they are on the list for future Gulf Coast trips as I?ve heard good things about both of them. After a stop in Slidell, Louisiana the next morning for a visit with Friction Stir Link, our team headed to Gulfport, Mississippi for a visit with Taber Extrusions. For lunch we stopped at Rickey?s Bar and Grill in Bay St. Louis. Rickey?s isn?t a place that you just stumble upon. It?s in a strip mall called Zuppardo?s Bay Plaza, and has dark windows, so if you didn?t know about it, you prob- ably wouldn?t go in. I did notice customers walking in on a continual basis, though. As it was on the list, I was able to convince my travel companions that we should try it. Rickey?s original location was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and they re-opened in the shopping center location six months after the storm. Once you step through the door, you?re transported from the dark windowed exterior into a colorfully dec- orated inviting interior. I of course went all out? the Coastal Living piece indicated that the fried seafood mualetta was one of the beloved items on the menu, so that?s what I ordered. e sandwich was substantial enough for both my lunch and dinner, and probably breakfast the next morning, and tasted great. ere were a lot of interesting items on the menu, but as we were only there for lunch, we didn?t get to try all of them. Items that I?d probably go back to try include bbq shrimp, New Orleans style, which I typically love; oysters LeRuth, which is oysters and artichokes in a cream sauce over deep fried portabella mushrooms; and crawkitty, which is fried catsh topped with a crawsh spinach sauce. e menu also had quite a few Italian-style items, which surprised me a bit, but patrons at the other tables were ordering them. Rickey?s was tied for best Mississippi dive with Lil? Rays in Long Beach. And the tasty contender in Mississippi was Huck?s Cove Waterfront Grill and Bar in Gautier (pronounced Go Shay), which we passed on our way to Ingalls Shipbuilding. Based on the picture from the Coastal Living article, Huck?s also is a future destination for me. Our second day ended in Biloxi, and because we were still stuffed from lunch, we chose to keep din- ner light and didn?t pick o the Coastal Living list. But as an aside, anyone who is in Biloxi and wants a treat should go to Mary Mahoney?s Old French House res- taurant. Denitely not a seafood dive, the restaurant serves upscale and elegant meals featuring seafood from the Gulf Coast. I?ve been there quite a few times, and every meal was fantastic. I remember having the fresh sh of the day topped with lump crabmeat, the shrimp and lump crabmeat St. Patrick, and the sisters of the sea au gratin. And if you can?t make it down to the Gulf Coast, they will ship their gumbo anywhere in the United States. It arrives frozen in dry ice. As crawsh were in season, I opted for the seafood etoufee with fried crawsh tails, which didn?t disappoint. þÿ OOur correspondent enjoyed the seafood etoufee with fried crawsh tails at Acme þÿ OOyster House. The Acme þÿ OOyster House?s þÿ OOyster Rockefeller can be served as a regular soup, or as þÿ OOyster Rockefeller Poopa in a French bread bowl (shown here). Rickey?s Bar and þÿ GGrill, in Bay St. þÿ LLouis, Mississippi, is famous for its fried seafood mualetta sandwich. 54_C3_BDept_SNAME_Jan12_P4.indd 5512/22/11 3:45 PM