Mississippi's coast shines in the new MICHELIN guide to the American South

"This is the beginning": new Gulfport restaurant, Siren Social Club, one of MICHELIN's Southern recommendations

It's their first regional selection since they created the North American guide in 2005 -- since then, they've included guides for Florida, Texas and Atlanta, but none for the South generally. 

Chef Austin Sumrall used to tell people that sort of thing wasn't ever going to happen. 

"MICHELIN will never be in Mississippi," he told MPB. "And that is words that last week I was very happy to have to eat."

When MICHELIN announced its inclusions earlier this month, 10 Mississippi restaurants made the list -- though none earned stars, two received the Bib Gourmand distinction and eight others were featured as recommended restaurants. 

"We knew there was good food: I mean, everybody did," said Sumrall about MICHELIN highlighting the South. "I like to joke that there's Southern restaurants in the North, but there's no Northern restaurants in the South."

Sumrall talked about being on the recommended restaurants list at his newest spot, Siren Social Club -- both that and his first restaurant, White Pillars, were featured.

Siren Social Club is tucked away in the Hotel Vela in Gulfport, while White Pillars is in Biloxi. 

Opened in 2024, Siren Social Club relatively new to the coastal dining scene, with its intimate atmosphere and menu featuring European dishes, as well as handcrafted cocktails. 

Sumrall is not new to the area, though. A Mississippi native, he started cooking in Oxford in 2008, later working at restaurants in Alabama and Louisiana. 

He was a James Beard nominee as a semifinalist for Best Chef South and was crowned “King of American Seafood” in 2021 at the Great American Seafood Cookoff in New Orleans. 

With Siren Social Club, he wanted to narrow his focus and try something different from White Pillars, which features a variety menu and seasonal dishes. For him, the MICHELIN recognition is proof that the hard work has been worth it.

"That's sort of unusual that they typically do more mature restaurants because you don't want to put something on there that maybe goes out of business," he said. "So we're really excited -- and I think it's worthy."

And, it's all the more reason to keep working and looking for what's next.

"This isn't a culmination, this isn't the end: this is the beginning," Sumrall said. "I think it reinvigorated us to push even harder."

Biloxi restaurant, White Pillars, earns MICHELIN regional recognition while keeping it local 

It's a good chance to look back, too, though.

When Sumrall opened White Pillars in 2017, he knew he was in a good spot.

"We had that restaurant sandwiched between one of the most nutrient-rich bodies of water in the world and some of the most luscious farmland that there is," he told MPB. 

It's why, even with the international recognition of being in the MICHELIN guide, he's keeping it local.

White Pillar's menu falls under the "nouveau Southern" category, which Sumrall explains as globally inspired cuisine with locally-sourced products.

"It's farm to table," he said. "We use a lot of different farmers and most of our products that we use come from very close to the restaurant."

And those products get used in a variety of ways, often in seasonal dishes. 

"If I get a tomato that was plucked off the vine and brought to me that day rather than one that's been shipped across the country, one of those is going to taste better," Sumralll explained. 

"That makes my job easier, but also, I know the guy that grew that tomato and he's my friend, so why not give him the money?"

And, that ethos extends beyond the menu into the restaurant itself. 

"Our tables were made in Mississippi, we use local artists that hang on the walls, our pottery that we plate our dishes on -- all made here in Biloxi," he said. 

All in all, it gives both the restaurant and the menu what Sumrall describes as sort of an eclectic vibe -- and it really exemplifies their vision. 

"If you want your community to support you, why not do everything you can to support them too?" 

"We believed in the region": Ocean Spring's Vestige is one of MICHELIN's recommended restaurants

The last stop on the coastal Mississippi's MICHELIN tour is Ocean Springs. 

For Alex Perry, chef and co-owner of Vestige, being on the new MICHELIN guide has been, in a word, surreal.

"When you open a restaurant in a city like Ocean Springs, you kind of sort of assume you're going to be under the radar for a lot of the bigger, worldly, gourmand guides," he said. "Because who winds up here?"

Perry himself is originally from Ocean Springs, but ended up going to culinary school in Orlando and then working for a restaurant in Mobile for eight years. The return to Ocean Springs wasn't really on purpose.

"It just kinda happened," he said. "We were looking for a spot. This one became available." 

He says it's been the right place for him and co-owner (and his wife) Kumi Omori to run their restaurant, which received a James Beard nomination in 2024. 

He calls their menu a love letter between the South and Japan -- which means their dishes aren't necessarily staple Southern classics.

"We have a decidedly Japanese flavor base, and we tend to prepare things very simply in individual components," he explained. "We don't pre-flavor a ton, we don't use a ton of reductions -- mainly more dashi foundations, certainly seasonal."

"When we first opened, we were à la carte: we were very, a little more rustic, casual, Southern," Perry said. "And we've slowly been kind of metamorphosizing into the current restaurant, which is not gonna be everybody's cup of tea."

"But it's very nice that it's the guide's cup of tea. And it just makes you feel like all the hard work, all the risks that we took: somebody out there was like, I see you." 

And it's not just MICHELIN that's given them a thumbs up -- their guests have been a receptive audience. 

"We just believed in our product, and we believed in the people that came to the restaurant," Perry said. "We believed in the region."

The MICHELIN feature has been affirmation that they're moving in the right direction, but Perry says they'd like to keep moving.

"If we're being perfectly honest, we'd like to push for a star," he said when asked about their vision for the near future. "So, hitting the ground running, kind of trying to figure out where we need to improve."

But he says they plan to enjoy the holidays, first.