Good Eats in Bay St. Louis

Mmmm...Bread.  The Mockingbird Cafe in Old Town (the Arts District) Bay St. Louis is known all around these parts for its "Serious Bread," Mockingburgers and their desserts.  My current frame of reference is the bread because we had quite a bit of it during our trip. 

 

 

Local art and photographs are for sale and displayed on the walls.  I loved the decorative bottle candles below.

 

 

We stopped by the cafe and our friend, Nate, struck up a conversation with the owner, Allen Jensen, whom he's talked to before.  They have a a lot to talk about because Mr. Jensen is a retired oceanographer and Nate is a physicist and topographer, working with weather-related projects at Stennis Space Center.  He let us go back into the kitchen and see how things were made - Mr. Jensen not Nate.  :)  (Notice below the tiles on the wall behind him - it's a pizza oven that the previous owner installed but they don't use it.  It's so pretty.)

 

We saw the sourdough mix that was sitting and waiting to rise - he let us smell it.   We spotted the racks of cranberry oatmeal scones, a couple of which he shared with us! 

As you can tell below, it was made like a drop biscuit, rather than cut into a triangular shape.  The scone's consistency wasn't like a regular scone either, almost a cross between shortbread and a biscuit.  This was a little lighter, more cakey in texture.  So different from the norm, but still YUM!  He also brought out a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies that was divine - just oozing brown sugar goodness.

Mr. Jensen shared his bread-making process - and skills - with us.  He usually makes bread on Thursdays and Fridays, which can be up to 300 pounds of dough.  Normally it is all from scratch.  Only very rarely does he use a pre-made starter mix for his bread. 

Below is the oven he uses right now.  Next door to it on the left is a huge brick oven that needs a $2000 renovation, so as soon as they can swing it, they'll be able to bake bread more often than just two days a week.  The Vulcan keeps the place way too hot.  Before he bought the Mockingbird, Mr. Jensen used church kitchens and just about any other place that would let him bake his bread!

There is some major machinery in his kitchen - the heavy-duty mixer (on the left) below made the drive from South Dakota.

 

What was really impressive was the fact that Mr. Jensen apprentices with bread makers and chefs from all over the United States, perfecting his recipes and techniques.  It shows.  We bought a loaf of rosemary garlic sourdough that was some of the most flavorful bread ever!

"It's not just bread, it's serious bread," Vivian shared with us, which is, of course, where they got the brand name.  Pretty clever!  He and his wife, Vivian, attend the Ocean Springs Fresh Market and sell a lot of bread there on Saturdays.  

They were so nice to us and we really appreciate their time in showing us around.  (Later that evening, we cooked dinner at home and toasted our rosemary garlic bread with Parmesan cheese and added some Basil pesto.  Holy cow.)



Even though we'd stuffed our faces with some serious bread, we needed some real food for lunch, so we decided to backtrack to a little cafe called "Buttercup," just right around the corner.  It was a charming yellow shotgun house and it's just too bad that the weather was foggy and cold!  It would be great to sit outside and enjoy a Gulf breeze.

Inside, The Buttercup is bright, cheery and decorated for Mardi Gras.  It doesn't have the old-house, folksy ambiance of Mockingbird, but everyone was friendly and talkative and the servers were attentive. 

I ordered the seared white tuna salad and it was delicious!  It came with the house tomato vinaigrette dressing which I honestly couldn't tell had any flavor at all.  It cannot be blamed on the restaurant because I was still on antibiotics from being sick and it definitely affected my taste in a major way.  :(

QB had the Turkey & Cheese Melt and Nate had the portabello veggie sandwich.  Their sandwiches came with Bay Fries, which were roasted new potato wedges with rosemary.  They were happy with their sandwiches.  

We went back a couple of days later, the morning of our departure, to try their breakfast.  I have to say, unfortunately, there are no pictures of the omelets but trust me when I say they were delicious.  They ran out of the Crawfish Etoufee we had been eying, though I had the veggie omelet and it was really tasty.  It was well-seasoned, had good veggies in the middle and you can't go wrong when it oozes a little extra cheddar cheese.  This time, I got the Bay Potatoes with my meal.  The rosemary-roasted potatoes were a hit with my palate.  Compliment that with delicious, strong Community Coffee and you've got my vote!

 Above is my favorite birthday acquisition!  Thanks Mom & Dad Lee!