There are many intelligent ways to sell king cakes. Standing on a frozen sidewalk in Gulfport while the wind removes your will to live is not one of them. And yet: 28 degrees. Wind like a razor. A line of 125 people who didn’t care. Neither did I.

Our first attempt the week before was a mess. We brought 75 king cakes and found 125 people waiting. The two team members running the event had never done a pop-up and were letting early arrivals grab multiple cakes. By the time someone realized we’d never make it to the end of the line, it was too late. Media reviews were glowing. I was not.

Yesterday we regrouped. We strategized. We brought 200 king cakes. This is crisis management in the restaurant business: fail publicly, stare at the ceiling, then throw more pastry at the problem.

This time, 125 people showed up again – the first couple in line arrived 90 minutes early. A man drove from Fairhope, Alabama. The Gulfport Main Street Association bought king cakes for the first and 100th people in line. We were fully staffed, and I was there as an expensive mascot with a checkbook. Everyone was bundled up, breath visible in the cold, and everyone was happy.

After a quick TV interview inside the construction zone of our soon-to-open restaurant, I met Poem Love.

Poem is the daughter of the owner of the former Triplett Day Drugs, which occupied the corner of 14th and 25th streets in Gulfport for more than 60 years. She grew up in that pharmacy, ran it in its later days, and until I started working on opening a restaurant in that space, I had no idea what that corner meant to the people of Gulfport.

I’ve heard from hundreds of locals: sons and grandsons of businessmen and judges, morning coffee drinkers, lunch patrons. Triplett Day wasn’t just a pharmacy with a lunch counter – it was downtown Gulfport’s social center for more than half a century.

Poem brought scrapbooks she’d kept from those years. A stranger shows up wanting to open a restaurant where her father built his life’s work, and she spread those memories across a table at the White Cap. While we ate oysters, she walked me through 60 years of her family’s history.

One photograph stood out: men in the 1970s gathered at the counter – coffee cups, cigarettes, folded newspapers. You could tell by their posture this was ritual. That photo is what a community café looks like. I’ve been trying to build that for 38 years. Triplett Day had it all along.

And here’s the truth. I’ve owned a restaurant at 3810 Hardy Street in Hattiesburg for 38 years. Thousands of team members. Tens of thousands of guests. First dates, anniversaries, graduations, funeral lunches. And I don’t have a photographic record of any of it.
Sitting across from Poem, I realized how badly I’d failed to document our history. All those faces. All those moments. Gone except in memories.

As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 60 years ago. The second-best time is today.

So here’s my ask: If you took photos at Purple Parrot Café, Crescent City Grill, the old Purple Parrot Grill, or Mahogany Bar, please send them to [email protected]. I want to start a book. It’s 38 years late, but not too late.

Over the years, I’ve met the right people and been in the right places, with a little luck and kismet. Case in point: In December, Paul Jermyn handed me a flash drive with thousands of images of Gulfport and the Gulf Coast. Retired military engineer, serious historian. After hours together, I realized he wasn’t giving me a lesson – he was giving me a history degree.

Yesterday, Paul brought more images and memorabilia. I saw the harbor in the early 20th century, shrimp boats lined up like piano keys, old downtown buildings before hurricanes, a Fourth of July parade in 1957. History preserved by a man who understood someone would need it.

It was going to be a challenge to fill The Downtowner’s walls with images of Gulfport. I needed a thousand. Thanks to Paul, the problem now is deciding which ones to use.

Mid-afternoon, we sat in the White Cap – him with a beer, me with iced tea – and he recounted street names, vanished businesses, families who built this coast. I was enthralled.

The private dining room at The Downtowner will be dedicated to Triplett Day, its walls covered with 60 years of photographs from that corner. We will continue that history, serving breakfast and lunch to the community.

Yesterday morning, it was 28 degrees on the sidewalk, wind cutting through like it had somewhere important to be. I didn’t notice. Too busy thinking about Poem trusting me with her father’s legacy, Paul handing over a lifetime of history, and 125 strangers who didn’t mind the cold.

Yesterday was one of those days.

Onward.

GRILLED TRIPLETAIL WITH LUMP CRAB AND CHIVE BEURRE BLANC

Serves 6

Ingredients:
Fish:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon Creole seasoning
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tripletail filets, 6–7 oz, skin removed
2–3 tablespoon canola oil

Beurre blanc:
2/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup shallots, finely chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped

Crab:
1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
8 oz lump crab meat, shells removed

Instructions:
■ Fish: Combine flour, Creole seasoning, salt and pepper. Coat filets. Heat oil in skillet or griddle over medium-high. Brown filets 2 min per side. Transfer to grill; cook 2 min, rotate 90°, cook 2 more min per side. Keep warm.
■ Beurre blanc: Combine wine, vinegar, lemon juice, shallots in saucepan. Reduce until almost all liquid evaporates. Add cream, reduce by half. Lower heat, whisk in butter cubes gradually. Strain; stir in salt and chives. Keep warm.
■ Crab: Melt butter in skillet over low heat. Add crab; gently turn without breaking.
■ Assemble: Place filets on platter. Top with crab, drizzle with beurre blanc. Serve immediately.

Robert St. John is a restaurateur, author, enthusiastic traveler, and world-class eater from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He has spent four decades in the restaurant industry, written 13 books, and written a syndicated newspaper column for more than 24 years. Read more about Robert at robertstjohn.com.

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