Bay St. Louis is a tempting, easy summer day trip, just about an hour from New Orleans, and the local dining options are much better thanks to the Thorny Oyster.
My most recent visit came at the end of a somewhat longer road trip to Ocean Springs, a trip specifically designed to include dinner at what is now considered the crown jewel of fine dining on the Gulf Coast: Vestige, the tasting menu restaurant that beautifully blends local ingredients and Japanese influences into a cuisine all its own.
The beautiful day that followed called for a more leisurely drive on Highway 90, which runs along the Gulf, and a stop in Bay St. Louis.
Located in the boutique waterfront Pearl Hotel, Thorny Oyster is an upscale seafood restaurant on a strip of much more casual dining options. It was opened by the same family that once operated Ox Lot 9, the restaurant in downtown Covington’s Southern Hotel (that space was converted into the hotel’s on-site restaurant, the Gloriette).
Inside, it feels cool, airy and open, and between all the marble and the cluster lights above, even the design evoked the image of an oyster. We were treated to oysters and more, with a seafood tower that proved to be a decadent summer feast to share at the bar.
Serving towers in two sizes ($49 for half and $95 for whole), Thorny Oyster was the full oyster option and it proved to be a decadent summer feast to share at the bar.
Order one, and soon you’ll be peeling the shells off hot, buttery, herb- and pepper-sprinkled red king prawns (the tower’s highlight), picking apart the legs of snow crab, then sampling the cold dishes: raw oysters, tuna dip, lobster salad, and crab claws.
This is an expensive dish, but it comes with a Portuguese vino verde called Twin Vines ($25), the cheapest bottle on the wine list and a perfect complement to it, perhaps to balance it out a bit.
Dinner at Vestige alone was worth the trip to Ocean Springs; the temptation of that tower may lead me back to Bay St. Louis to check out the water one more time before the summer is over.
