No Oysters For You!

I checked out of the hotel around 10am. I was a little bit miffed that they hit me with an additional resort fee. I had gotten the room through Priceline at a decent price but they did not mention any additional fees that would have to be paid. The fee wasn't too bad at an additional $5 per day, but that represented an increase of 10% over the original cost.

The plan was to hit an early lunch at The Shed in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, about 30 minutes east of Biloxi. This would give me plenty of time to take a leisurely drive back to New Orleans. The Shed is a barbecue place and again was highlighted on Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives. It sounded good but I did have some apprehension about the place not because Guy Fieri did a segment on them but that they had about 3 other stores and were going to open a branch in Austin, Texas. It smelled of franchise. Still I am a sucker for good barbecue and it did sound interesting. The Shed in Ocean Springs is the original restaurant and the story goes that the original building was a shed and that they kept adding to it.

At first I wasn't sure if I was in the right area as the restaurant is located in a trailer park. It is right off the road and there are trees blocking the view but you can easily see the sign for the place. The parking lot is a gravel road but even though I got there before they opened, there were people already waiting to get in.

I walked around the outside of the restaurant as I waited for them to open and you can quickly tell that this is a fun place. They had plenty of tables and chairs for outdoor eating but they also had a small stage for musical acts that play there on the weekends. The fun doesn't stop outside but continues inside the restaurant.

When you enter the place, there are dollar bills stuck to the ceilings of the building. The bills are signed and sometimes they are taped to the ceiling, stapled to the ceiling, and quite often impaled on a plastic fork to the ceiling. Plus people have written on any spare piece of space on the ceiling, walls, and tables.


After doing some research, I decided to try their spare ribs with macaroni salad. I chose the macaroni because it is described on the menu as being a favorite and they ate it on Guy's tv show. I asked the cashier which other side dish that she would recommend and she said the baked beans.

It only took a few minutes to get my food. Sorry to say that the barbecue was only good. I was expecting much more but a lot of the nice smoked meat flavor that I like was absolutely drowned in their sauce. Plus their sauce was very much on the sweet side. This excess sweetness pertained to the baked beans as well. The food was tasty and I would recommend the place, but I wouldn't go out of my way again for just the food. I would give the place 3 out of 4 stars, but 2 1/2 for the food and another 1/2 star of the atmosphere. Sorry about the lack of pictures of the food, it was dark inside and the photos came out quite dark despite the use of a flash. Plus with all of the sauce on the ribs, you really couldn't see much of the meat.

After lunch, the original plan was to hang around the Biloxi area to hit another restaurant called Aunt Jenny's for their fried chicken before heading back west to New Orleans. I was also thinking of hanging out in the area due to the congestion that was happening in New Orleans. The Saints was playing in the NFL season opener and there were lots of festivities, parades, and street closings in the New Orleans area that I would rather avoid. I didn't know about this when I had planned my trip but the coverage on the Saints was all over the newspapers, tv, and radio in the area.

But after doing some sightseeing and walking around some casinos, I got bored and decided to head the New Orleans. My stomach wasn't going to mind missing out on some fried chicken. On the 90 minute drive back to New Orleans I did make a stop at a supermarket just to do some sightseeing. Next to the supermarket was a Chinese restaurant.

The Chinese restaurant was called 5 Happiness and they were offering a lunch buffet for only $6. The place was pretty small and a little worn down. There were about 6 customers eating at the time. I was still pretty full from The Shed and I only wanted to see what a Mississippi egg roll tasted like. It was kind of pricey, $3.50 for 2 egg rolls, but I placed my order anyway. The owner said that for a just a few dollars more I could have the buffet. I declined saying that I was just interested in a snack. She then went to the buffet table and put 3 egg rolls into a box and charged me $2.
I did not eat the egg rolls right away, instead I continued my drive but did stop at a place to get a bottled Barq's root beer. I have never seen Barq's in glass bottles before so I had to try one. I guess it shouldn't be too unusual as Barq's was invented in Biloxi. At that point I did try an egg roll and it was OK. Not very crispy on the outside but plenty of vegetables on the inside.

I got to New Orleans around 5pm and headed over to Crabby Jack's to get a roast duck po boy for dinner. But when I got there, they had closed early so they could watch the New Orleans Saint's home opener. The backup plan was to go to Bozo's for an oyster po boy.

It was kind of early for dinner and the place was not very crowded, plus I suspect that many people were away to watch the football game. I placed my order for the oyster po boy but was told that they didn't have any. Due to the BP oil spill, many oyster beds were still closed and they could not get oysters that met the quality that they demanded. They did try to use oysters from Washington but they said they weren't good enough.

As they explained to me the lack of oysters, the phone rang and they had to tell them that they had no oysters either. The lady then said that they have been getting quite a few calls about oysters lately since it was the beginning of oyster season again but they had to tell their customers no. She then went to the white board and wrote in big red letters, "No Oysters Today". Until recently they had been using frozen oysters that they had stockpiled but that supply was now gone.

I then decided to order a shrimp po boy "dressed" with lettuce, tomatoes, and may. Within 5 minutes they had one ready for me and I took the po boy with me to go. I checked into the hotel and feasted on the shrimp po boy and the rest of the egg rolls for my vegetable. The po boy was very good, but I did have my heart and stomach set for oysters but as I went around New Orleans, oysters were in scarce supply.