Alex Perry and his wife, Kumi Omori, initially planned to open a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, but after two years of location-scouting, they realized the costs would be astronomical.
While regrouping in Perry’s hometown of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a friend showed them a downtown location that they fell in love with: a historic house turned bookstore turned shoe repair with a highly motivated seller. In 2013, they opened Vestige, a restaurant inspired by ingredients from the Gulf Coast. “We’re from here,” says Perry. “We saw a lot of untapped potential in what we could do in this city.” Here, Perry shares his favorite places in Ocean Springs.
Vestige
Ocean Springs has a good history of dining, but it was mostly New Orleans cuisine. We wanted to come at it from a different angle. When we opened, the menu skewed Southern but was more vegetable focused. Kumi is from Japan, so she got me into Japanese flavors, and those started slowly creeping in. In 2020, we went tasting menu only. We had a story we wanted to tell, and with à la carte, we were feeling a lot of limitations. The community has been fantastic to us. We lucked out. This is the most fun we’ve ever had.
Walter Anderson Museum of Art
The museum is a nonnegotiable if you’re in Ocean Springs. So much of Ocean Springs’ identity is the Anderson family. You see it everywhere in the city—murals, color schemes, art. Walk downtown on a Saturday and you’ll definitely see someone with a Walter Anderson-inspired tattoo. Twisted Anchor Tattoo owner Matt Stebly is a great-grandson of Walter Anderson. To see [that lineage] in another form of art is really cool.
Bright-Eyed Brew Company
I’m an avid consumer of coffee, and the best here is Bright-Eyed. It started as a nitro cold brew hand cart at the farmers’ market and evolved into a tiny storefront. The owners, Katherine and Ryan Reaux, are such nice people that just standing next to them, you already feel bad about yourself. They’re super interested in coffee and roasting everything. None of the choco-mocha-half-whip—it’s all about the beans.
Front Beach
I get sunburned, and I’m a night owl, so I prefer the beach at or after sunset. It’s calming and grounding. During the pandemic, I would walk at night to gather my thoughts: What are we doing? Where do we need to go? What do we need to improve? In the spring, we forage and serve wild ingredients like pickleweed and sea purslane. The maritime ecosystem is central to the identity of this place.
“Most Visited Places” is an ongoing digital and print series, underwritten by The Mountain Valley Spring Water.
