We are bringing India Hicks to Oceans Springs! A collection of well crafted gifts and accesories all designed by India, inspired by her Britsh herritage, island life, and madcat daydreams will be featured on July 20th from 11am-4pm at The Roost, don't miss out on this fun event and snag an awesome India Hicks piece while you can!
Cooking Classes at The Mary C Culinary Cafe.
Class Locations: All Cafe classes are taught in the Mary C Culinary Arts Cafe located in The Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center, 1600 Government Street, Ocean Springs, MS.
There’s a new cooking class coming to the Mary C., but it is not for the faint of heart. It’s a from scratch class that will teach you new skills and recipes. When you walk in, the ovens are turned on, grab a knife and help prep, make the stock, learn how to make the perfect roux, and by the end of the class, sit down and enjoy a three-course meal that you helped create.
Also look for guest chef speakers, field trips to local farms, and talks by experts on subjects as varied as how to start a compost pile, to the nuances of a fine single barrel scotch.
Sounds good, but you can’t make the 5:30 p.m. start time? We understand not everyone wants to get their hands dirty, so if you just want an overview, and a great meal, show up at 6:30 p.m. You’ll still have a great time, and come away with a few new ideas.
Prices for each class vary according to the menu. If we’re using Dale Steven’s heritage breed, free range pork, it’s going to cost you a little more. If we take you back in time and make shrimp boat spaghetti (an old Biloxi favorite), you won’t blink an eye at the price.
Classes sponsored by Deep South Culinary Adventures with local food writer and photographer Julian Brunt,and foodies Kimberly Wilson and Lesley Fenton. Be prepared to have a good time.
Wines paired by Jonathan Maisano
Menus
June 8th
Cucumber Salad and Homemade Red Wine vinaigrette
Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes with Spicy Hollandaise Sauce
Classic Creme Brulee
June 15th
BLT salad made with Benton’s Bacon (the best bacon in the world) and homemade ranch dressing
Mahi mahi En papillote (Mahi mahi roasted in parchment with julienne onions, bell peppers and fingerling potatoes)
Classic 1960s Watergate salad (pineapple, pistachio pudding, marshmallows, pecans and whipped cream)
June 22nd
Classic Italian tomato, basil and mozzarella bruschetta
Fresh made tomato sauce paired (contrasted) with a long cooked ragu, lots of Parmigiano-Reggiano and pasta finished in the sauce
Seasonal (probably blueberry) cobbler
June 29th
Kick ass deviled eggs
Sous vide fried chicken (the tenderest you have ever had) with pan gravy and sweet potato biscuits
Hummingbird cup cakes (pecans, banana, pineapple, cinnamon and nutmeg)
Guest Chef: Julian Brunt with Kim Wilson or Leslie Fenton
Day/Date: Thursday, June 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th
Time: 5:30p.m.-9:00p.m.
Price: $45.00
If you would like to include the Wines Pairing by Jonathan Maisano the additional fee is $10.00
The festival is a celebration of spring and the arts with more than 100 artists, crafters and plant booths. The event is an outdoor festival set amongst the historic live oaks in downtown Ocean Springs. Partnering with the local arts community the festival emphasis community arts and nature.
Flowers, vegetables and herbs will be offered by vendors around the old L&N Depot parking lot while guest speakers will address plant topics and cooking demonstrations nearby under the shade of two tents.
"The Herb & Garden Festival brings the spring's finest plants and herbs, lectures and cooking demonstrations, as well as music and great food, to downtown Ocean Springs," said Margaret Miller, executive director of Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce-Main Street-Tourism Bureau.
More than four dozen garden, herb and yard vendors will fill the lot around the old L&N Depot at the corner of Washington Avenue and Robinson Street.
OCEAN SPRINGS
The new boutique hotel in downtown Ocean Springs will have an oyster-shell façade at the entrance as a nod to the city’s history, culture and seafood.
Workers and family of the investors are in the middle of a four-day project to adhere sanitized oyster shells to the walls around the entry to the hotel with a thin mortar, like someone would use to lay tiles.
“It’s like our rocks,” said Dennis Frulla with Round2 Remodeling, which is working on the project. “People who live in Colorado have stone on their houses. We have these oyster shells and they’re cool, indigenous.”
Joe and Jessica Cloyd — part-owners of the mixed-use building on Porter Avenue that will house the boutique hotel, The Roost — have tried this type of shell mosaic around a fireplace in their East Beach home, and Frulla has used the technique for a kitchen backsplash.
The cement-block wall was painted with a moisture barrier and the crew placed the shells like a rough tile.
“It’s like baking; it takes several stages,” said Jessica Cloyd, who worked on the project Wednesday. She said they get the thinned-out mortar to look like sand, scoop as much as needed into the shell and place it on the wall.
The mortar squeezes back out around the shells, giving the project extra texture, she said.
“It’s a very forgiving process,” she said, “if you want to move them around before they dry.”
Once on there, the shells are as permanent as tile, Frulla said.
Joe Cloyd, who said the six-room hotel could be open by late April, said they are covering about 500 square feet of wall with the shells that were sanitized in 55-gallon drums of hydrogen peroxide. The shells came from Crystal Seas Oysters in Pass Christian.
The hotel is the middle part of a $1 million project on Porter Avenue. Other investors in the multi-use project that will have a restaurant and offices are Adam Dial and Ted and Roxanne Condrey, who own The Inn on Washington Avenue.
Karen Nelson: 228-896-2310,
Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/jackson-county/article137531718.html#storylink=cpy
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW THE OYSTER WALL WAS CONSTRUCTED: CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO
More info about the improvements included in the Sunherald's Article below...
Porter Avenue
It’s growing, Ocean Springs leaders and business owners say, and a street redesign and the water-line update — put off four years ago — are now badly needed.
And it looks like that’s going to happen.
Aldermen are now on board pledging $50,000 for the city’s part of a $1.2 million project that will include paving, adding an 8-inch water line and putting in subsurface drainage.
Drainage and street improvements are never a sexy topic. People usually stop reading right there, but such improvements would connect downtown to a lively area of the city that is poised to bloom. Growth has already started.
The 28 parking spaces will serve businesses already along the west end of Porter. Better drainage will stop a popular coffee shop, The Greenhouse on Porter, from flooding during heavy rains, and a continuous sidewalk from the Biloxi Bay Bridge to downtown will keep runners from having to move into the street to complete charity runs.
Tri Hard Sports is moving to 430 Porter Ave.
Manager Duncan Perkins said it’s the way to go for them, partly because it’s closer to the beach and bridge.
“We’re excited,” Perkins said. “We think that’s the real growth zone for Ocean Springs.”
Tri Hard has been on Government Street near Washington Avenue for more than two years. It has built a following Perkins said will follow the triathlon-oriented shop to Porter Avenue. For businesses, he said, downtown is “grown out and the prices are skyrocketing.”
We’re excited. We think that’s the real growth zone for Ocean Springs. It’s happening.
Duncan Perkins, Tri Hard Sports manager
Developer Fred Moran built a strip mall next door to the old Classy Cat beauty salon building. And just up the street at Martin Avenue, a historic building that has been many businesses is being transformed into a multi-use complex.
Joe Cloyd, one of the investors working on the development, said city leaders told the investment group about the infrastructure project.
“We were so encouraged by the investment the city is willing to make in that area, we decided to increase the scope of our development to include six high-end hotel suites and a catering operation,” he said.
Cloyd said it also will have suites for offices and a space for Eat Drink Love Catering and Gourmet Grab-and-Go.
The working title for the 9,000-square-foot mixed-use development is The Porter House with a total investment of up to $1 million.
The street funding is expected to go like this: $50,000 from the city, $50,000 pledged by Jackson County Supervisor Troy Ross and a $150,000 grant from the state Bond Commission that state Rep. Hank Zuber has arranged for.
All that money will go to match about $950,000 in federal funds.
The project was set up four years ago but stopped.
The Porter House multi-use complex: 900,000 square feet, 6 high-end hotel suites, investment of $1 million.
“It’s all designed,” Mayor Connie Moran said. “All we have to do is update it a little bit and put it out for bids. Four years ago, we had acquired the right-of-way, moved the utilities and gas lines and the aldermen decided at the last minute not to go out for bids.”
At the time, aldermen balked at paying the city’s portion of the match. In recent weeks, Alderman Matt McDonnell praised Cloyd’s multi-use project, calling it a major development for the city, and others last week voted to move ahead to pursue the street improvements.
Jessie Zenor of The Greenhouse urged friends on a public Facebook page to support the project. The city still has to go through public hearings before good things can come for what some are fondly calling the Lower West Side.
“As you know there is a huge drainage problem,” Zenor posted. “The Greenhouse floods every time there is a good rain. The sidewalk ends at Val’s, and picks back up at the (U.S.) 90 overpass. And with all of the new development on Porter Avenue, there is a lack of parking for all businesses. There are more businesses moving in, and this problem is only going to grow more apparent. Lets get this project underway and help this end of town develop. The benefits will be huge!”
Karen Nelson: 228-896-2310, @NelsonNews_atSH
Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/jackson-county/article98193322.html#storylink=cpy
